“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Laughing would do nothing but piss her off more, but her denial was cute as hell. I pushed back from the steering wheel to lean against the center console and made sure she knew she had my full attention. “I’m not going to spell it out for you.”
“Spell what out?”
Now I did laugh. “When you’re ready to admit it, I’ll be here.”
“Admitwhat?” she shouted.
My smile dropped as I stared at her, ensnaring her with a look. I noticed every little reaction; her delicate throat bobbing; the color blooming across her cheeks. She squirmed in her seat as I leaned closer but didn’t pull away. Slowly, I reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and she shivered again. This one had nothing to do with the weather.
She could deny it all she wanted, but I knew she was affected by me. It wasn’t a one-way street. The front of my jeans grew tight as her arousal echoed down the bond to flirt with mine. This was a dangerous game, seeing who would break first. I wanted nothing more than to close the slight distance between us and kiss her until she couldn’t form enough thoughts to deny me any longer.
Instead, I cupped the side of her face, my fingers spanning her jaw, with my thumb resting lightly on her lower lip. My dick jumped as I watched her pupils dilate. She held her breath when I brushed my thumb over the plump skin, and her tongue darted out, nearly touching my finger.
I groaned, “That. You know exactly what I’m talking about.” I pulled away in one motion and smirked at how she swayed after me, not ready to give up my touch. “I’ll see you Thursday for our next appointment.”
I sped out of there the second she was safe inside the dorm. Any longer, and I would have chased her up those stairs and taken that kiss she so willingly offered. My alluring bond consumed my thoughts all the way back to the apartment, the entire time I cooked and ate my dinner, and haunted me as I tried to grade the most recent batch of papers.
So much had changed in a month, and all because of her. I lived my life between one moment and the next until I got to see her again. Two days. Hopefully, some djinn were feeling brave this week, and I could distract myself with hunting them. The gentle knock against my mirror broke me from my plans ofinformative torture, and I reached over to remove the cloth covering the glass. My mother sat prim and proper in the center, her image taking up the whole frame.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Darling,” she replied. “How is it going? Have you consummated the bond?”
I rolled my eyes, but not where she could see. My mother hated it. “I already told you, I’m taking it slow. She still doesn’t know who I really am.”
I felt her annoyance through time and space. It wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. Short of, “I’m on my way home with my obedient bond in tow,” nothing would satisfy her.
“The longer you stay there, the more danger you both will be in. The djinn will grow bolder, son.”
I was counting on it. The childish illusions they planted were hardly a challenge. And truthfully, there was no way around it anyway. I couldn’t think of a way to break the news to Eryn that wouldn’t make her hate me or run.
“We’re handling the djinn,” I told my mother. Did she think we were sitting on our asses all day?
“There’s also a growing list of neglected duties that are festering in your absence.”
I held in my growl of frustration. She wouldn’t move me on her timeline. This was my life. My responsibility.
“Mydutyright now is to my bond. She’s more important than anything else.” I met my mother’s cool gaze and refused to back down. “Sage can handle whatever needs to be done while I’m gone.”
She scoffed, “Your sister is far too irresponsible to handle these matters.”
“Well, she’s all you’ve got. Easing my bond into our world will take time and careful planning. I foresee a significant step back once she learns my identity, no matter how close we growbefore. Our family is massively responsible for the death of her kind as well as the open hunts on her and her family.”
“That ruling was made generations before you or I were even born.” This time I let her see me roll my eyes at her overused argument. “Don’t give me that attitude, Kaiden. You know our family worked hard to reverse that law long before a nightmare was seen as your bond.”
It was true. My grandfather was the first to notice their near-extinct population and recognize what a complete loss of their magick could mean for the rest of us. Times were changing, and humans were becoming more of a threat to supernaturals than the silent war for power between the factions. A healthy population of nightmares could be the turning point if our existence ever became widespread knowledge.
“It doesn’t matter, Mom. We haven’t done nearly enough. Her people are still gone. Her soul and body are still scarred, and that’s on us.”
The argument with my mother made it hard to fall asleep. Three cups of chamomile later, and I was still wide awake. It had only been a few hours since I dropped Eryn off, and I wondered what she was doing right now.
It’s the middle of the night. She’s sleeping you obsessive fuck.
The door to my room burst open and slammed against the wall loud enough to wake me if I wasn’t already up. Ezra stood in the hall, a sphere of white quartz in his palm. It pulsed with a harsh glow that cast shadows over my cousin’s panicked expression.
“Something’s breached the wards on her dorm.”
