She’d made it to the wrought iron fence that surrounded her yard when Nyte suddenly appeared in front of her, looking angry as fuck.
He’s looking quite fuckable, too.
But he also looked…diminished. Just a touch insubstantial, like a shadow struggling to exist amidst too much light. Part of her brain insisted that if she were to reach out, her hand would go right through him.
It wouldn’t have been the strangest thing to happen over the last twelve hours.
Ember grinned at him. “I knew you couldn’t resist me.”
“You are vexatious, witch.”
“I guess we’re a match made in heaven. Or hell.” She stepped closer and reached up to run a finger along his jaw. It didn’t pass through him. “You’re also quite sexy when you’re angry.”
Nostrils flaring, he huffed.
Dropping her hand, she moved around him and resumed walking. She didn’t miss the odd looks she received from the nearby pedestrians. Based on their expressions and how they were looking at her, Ember could only assume they couldn’t see Nyte, and she’d appeared to have been talking to empty air. It didn’t bother her. This was Salem, where the strange was embraced.
She took a sip of her coffee.
At the corner of her eye, she saw Nyte walking beside her, matching his stride to hers. The irritation radiating from him was more palpable than the wisps of shadow it produced.
And not a soul so much as glanced in his direction.
“They can’t see you,” she said.
“I don’t find myself in a mood to be seen, currently.”
“So they could see you if you wanted them to? It’s not just because of our…tether that I can?”
“You can only see me now due to that binding. Otherwise, I can only be seen when I choose to be.”
Ember tapped her fingers against her insulated mug and peeked up at Nyte. His brows were angled down sharply, his eyes narrowed and staring straight ahead, and his mouth twisted in a scowl. Guilt seeped into her.
She didn’t like the fact that he was bound to her against his will, didn’t like that he was forced to suffer her presence.But what else could she do? She couldn’t sit at home for an entire month. She’d lose the house she just bought and risk losing her boutique on top of it.
“You’re…sure the sun doesn’t hurt you?” she asked.
“It is a mild nuisance, nothing more,” he replied tightly.
Ember nodded, hesitating before saying. “I’m sorry you’re stuck with me. It’s not what I would have wanted either. I mean, it’s not that I don’t like you, I do, I really, really do, it’s just, well…”
“Neither of us was given a choice.” His voice was gentler than it had been since he’d first appeared in her room last night.
She glanced at him again. His features had also softened.
Maybe he doesn’t hate me so much, after all.
When they reached the first intersection, Ember stopped. A car with its windows rolled down drove by, music blaring, the bass thumping so powerfully that she felt it in her chest.
Beside her, Nyte waved a hand before his face as though warding off a foul odor. “So, those hideous things are conveyances. Do they all produce such obnoxious sounds and noxious odors when they move?”
“Some of them. You’ve never seen a car before?” she asked as they crossed the street, following the crosswalk.
“No. I’ve been away for a long while, as my dear sprite friend implied.”
“Away where?”
Jaw tight, he muttered an answer.
