"Get off of me," she says, trying to pull away.
"You'll be punished for?—"
I see red, and before I can think I lift my arm, not letting him finish.
I drive the same dagger I used on Brother George straight into his left eye.
"Don't you fucking touch her," I growl as blood sprays across his face and he drops to his knees.
I push on the handle, and he collapses to the ground.
I leave the blade in him this time and grab Zaria's hand.
"Come on."
We burst through the door into the cold night air. We tear off our robes and masks as we walk fast toward the car, tossing them to the ground.
We hop into the car, and I hit the gas, tearing out of the lot and onto the main road. The warehouse disappears in the rearview mirror.
My hands are firm on the steering wheel. The rush from the kill collides with the memory of her mouth, her body pressed into mine.
It's all tangled together, and I don't know which one is making my heart pound harder.
Zaria sits beside me, silent, her hands folded in her lap. She's staring straight ahead, her face pale in the glow of the dashboard lights.
After a few miles, I pull over onto a side road and kill the engine.
The silence is deafening.
I grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turn white.
"Is Brother George..." she starts, her voice low.
"Yeah," I say. "He's dead too."
She exhales slowly, her shoulders sagging like she's been holding her breath this entire time.
I turn to look at her, and the realization hits me again. She made it all possible.
And I don't know if that should terrify me or turn me on, but right now, it's doing both.
"Did you know we'd have to do that?" I ask, my voice low.
"No." She shakes her head, her eyes flicking to mine. "The kiss?"
So it's on her mind too.
She knew exactly what I meant.
"No," she says again, quieter this time. "It's normally not like this, but it was the only way."
I stare at her, my jaw tight. I'm angry, not at her, but at the fact that I felt something. That I let myself feel something.
I'm losing control with her.
I hate that I wanted to keep kissing her even after the cloth was gone, even after the guard moved on.
I hate that I still want to.
