Malice reaches the end of the block and spins around again, snarling curse words in his head. He reaches down the bond only to slam into a wall. He can feel her, just beyond it.
After a minute a melodic voice echoes back to him: Aerin.
[I’m safe. Go back to the apartment. I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes.]
Back at the apartment, the thirtieth minute is the longest minute of Malice’s life. He sits on the edge of the couch, eyes trained on the door, fingers tapping on his knee. Like all his protective instincts have turned up to eleven, he can’t stop thinking of a thousand ways in which she could be hurt. Each more outlandish than the last. He keeps telling himself thatif she got into trouble, he would know; the blood-bond would know.
Just as the thirty-first minute is about to strike, the door swings open and Aerin, still clad in her neon clothing, steps inside.
Malice is upon her in an instant, his loss of control bleeding all over them. He places his hands on her shoulders as he evaluates her from head to toe. Then he spins her and does it again. He’s met with only expanses of suntanned skin interrupted by tight clothing. Her hair is in the same messy ponytail. Her skin smells like spiced tea, damp leaves, and salt from her dried sweat. He spins her back to face him once more, his eyes pouring into hers, looking for any sign of harm.
Aerin only looks slightly amused, saying nothing.
“Are you okay?” Malice finally asks, breathless, his heart rate slowing for the first time in thirty minutes.
“I’m fine, just as I told you I’d be,” Aerin says softly. Malice catches the way her hand twitches towards him before it falls back to her side.
As if being snapped back into himself, Malice drops his hands from her skin and takes two large strides back, separating them. It’s then the anger comes.
“Don’t ever do that again, do you understand me?!”
Tucking a stray piece of hair behind her pointed ears, Aerin gives a ghost of a smile. “Sometimes, a girl needs to be alone.” She shrugs and strides away from him, down the hall.
She casts another glance over her shoulder and says, “We’re going outside the walls tonight. Be ready.”
Then, like it’s any other day, Aerin enters her room and shuts the door.
Malice patsdown his body one last time, taking stock of the various knives he’s hidden on it. He isn’t sure why they are leaving the safety of the walls, but this time he will be fully prepared. A part of him is worried Aerin will ask to see Reikan again, to speak with him. He pushes those worries away. If that’s what she wants, she won’t get it.
[If I want to speak to our bonded-mate, I will,]Reikan warns in his mind.
Malice slams a door between them aggressively, his only rebuttal to the Dragon’s threat.
No matter her reasons for going, Malice knows Aerinwillbe going. With or without him. Malice considers, as he prepares himself, those words she spoke to him the night of the ball. That perhaps her quip ‘ready for anything’was less banter and more warning.
When Malice emerges from his room, Aerin is waiting for him.
“Ready?” she asks, slinging a backpack over her shoulder.
“Are you going to be disguising us?” Malice asks, opening the front door for her. They walk side by side to the elevator.
“Until we get outside the walls,” Aerin confirms.
“Don’t make me Ursine again,” Malice grumbles, stabbing the elevator button a bit harder than necessary.
“What would you prefer?” Aerin asks, giving him a smirk. The humor in her eyes tells him he isn’t going to like what she says next. “A Tiger, perhaps?”
Malice bristles at the memory of that Tiger touching her. He shoots her a glare. Aerin laughs as they step into the elevator.It is a beautiful laugh, all natural and breathy. Malice’s anger wanes.
“A Jaguar,” he decides, “You seem partial to those as of late.”
“I do enjoy a Big Cat,” Aerin says with a smile. Like a blanket the change wraps around him. He flexes his fingers, testing the claws. They push forward from his knuckles easily.
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you those things are dangerous?” Aerin’s voice is no longer her voice. She appears as a Rabbit Shifter, small and pale. Malice is so taken aback by the abnormalmeeknessof her appearance that he misses the joke. Aerin tries again, obvious in her attempts to keep up the tentative camaraderie. “Predator and Prey.” Aerin bumps her shoulder into him.
Malice, in this Jaguar body, doesn’t hold back a smile.
“Look at that!” Aerin exclaims, a little excitable herself in the Rabbit form. “I just need to change you into a Cat to get an emotional response out of you.” She giggles before straightening and turning away, redness coloring her cheeks.
