“What’s your vice, Selene?” He sniffed up her neck to her ear, so close her body heat seared his flesh. “You’re trembling. What is it that you can’t get enough of?”
She stilled within his arms, serenity seizing her, filling her from the bottom up. Her violet gaze snapped to his and the blush bled from her cheeks. “Helping people,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry, Jason.”
“Sorry for what?”
Selene’s hands landed on his chest. He had a split second to notice the symbols painted on her palms, to wonder what they meant and how long they’d been there, before a shock rocked his body. His muscles seized as a hook seemed to slide between his ribs and dig into his heart. Unable to move anything but his eyes, his gaze locked on hers.
“I didn’t want to have to do it this way. But you leave me no choice.”
12
Selene’s vision blurred, everything vibrating like a plucked chord. The walls melted away, and her spirit left her body, crossing into a dark place of spiderwebs and flashes of light. Pulses of energy flowed along strands that crisscrossed around her. Memories. Jason’s memories. She was inside the core of Jason’s personality, every experience tangled around her like a puzzle begging to be solved.
It was tempting to move toward the warmth coming from the light strands, but that wasn’t why she was here. Oh, she’d do that eventually. Find his anchor the same way Artemis had found hers. But today, she was searching for the source of his vice, a clue to the unfulfilled need that drove his addiction. She turned toward the darkness, the cold. A black tangle at the back of the web, hidden deep within the shadows of his psyche, made her shiver with dread. This was the source, the event that turned a simple, controllable desire for sex into an unmanageable monster that ruled Jason’s life. If he were to overcome his vice, he needed to face this darkness. As she approached, a chill coursed over her skin.
It was true, he might have been able to find this trigger himself given years of therapy. But he didn’t have years. Whether he admitted it or not, he needed her. The faster he faced this darkness, the sooner he could walk fully in the light and the sooner he could free himself from Nickelova’s hold over him.
Gently, she reached out and touched the root of the darkest thread. For a heartbeat, it felt rough between her fingers, like spun asphalt, and then she was inside the memory, standing in a college classroom.
Most of the students were human, but she spotted Jason right away next to the only other shifter Selene sensed in the room. At the front of the lecture hall, a female professor spoke. “Everything we take for granted comes from somewhere. It’s a construct of our chemistry and our environment. What we consider sexual norms are simply those imposed on us by our community.” Her eyes fell on Jason.
“Why is she staring at you like that?” the boy, the other shifter, whispered to Jason.
“None of your business.”
“Is there something going on between you and Ms. Matthews?”
“Is there a reason you’re not minding your own fucking business?” Jason’s eyes darkened as he turned them on his friend.
The friend chuckled. “Dude, she’s hot but she’s twice your age.”
“Still not your business.”
The clock ticked to the hour. “Read chapter twenty for Thursday,” Professor Matthews said. “Jason Flynn, I need to see you about your paper.” She held up a stack of stapled assignments.
“Whatever.” With a sharp look, the shifter next to Jason gathered his things and followed the others out the door.
Jason stood and descended the stairs of the emptying auditorium, Professor Matthews tapping the toe of her red pump as he neared. “I’m afraid your work isn’t up to par,” she said.
“I followed the rubric. Everything you asked for is there.”
“Not everything.”
“Tell me what’s missing. I’ll rewrite it.”
“You know what’s missing.”
He swallowed, hard.
She gestured toward the door as a student entered early for the next class. “Come with me.” She led him out of the lecture hall and across the building to her office. Jason’s shoulders slumped, his expression like a lamb to slaughter.
Professor Matthews closed the door behind him, the lock clicking into place. “Now, show me why I should reread this paper, Jason.”
He dropped his backpack on a leather chair near the window, setting his cell phone on the seat next to it. “This has to stop.”
“I’ll decide when it stops. Do you want me to reread the paper, or will you be taking an F?”
Looking disgusted with himself, Jason snatched the paper from her hands and slapped it down on the desk. He grabbed her by the neck and bent her over until her nose touched the printed sheets.
