Cameron arched a skeptical brow.
Not that Mara blamed her for her doubt. She wasn’t so sure herself. That had been quite an explosive display Duel had given them.
Offering a smile she was certain didn’t reach her eyes, she headed into the cabin to check on Duel.
He was knocking back something she was positive he shouldn’t be drinking.
“Du?”
He froze instantly for a few heartbeats, then drained his goblet.
Her hand shaking, she reached out and touched his shoulder. “Talk to me.”
Snorting, he poured more blood.
She caught his hand to keep him from imbibing any more, then gently took the cup and set it aside. When he started away, she fisted her hand in the billowiness of his sleeve. The size of him overwhelmed her for a moment. It was easy to forget sometimes just what a massive beast he was.
But this close …
He could tear her apart.
Yet he didn’t move. Even though his fury reached out like a tangible force, he stayed completely still in front of her. The only movement was the tic in his whiskered cheek that kept time with his rapid breathing.
“Why are you so angry?”
He growled like a rabid predator. “Why didn’t you fight them?”
“They were children.”
“They were demons.”
“I didn’t realize that until it was too late.”
Pain flickered across his brow. It darkened his eyes back to their natural black state before they flared red again. “You’re just like them. I hate you for it.”
Those words should hurt her. They should cut, but the agony beneath them said that his hatred was directed more at himself than at her. “Them who? Vine?”
A single tear fell down his cheek. So fast and unexpectedly that her jaw dropped.
He swallowed and shrugged it away on his shoulder, then stepped back and cleared his throat. “You should leave.”
Like hell!
“Not until you explain this to me … Duel. Please.”
Devyl started to tear into her. It was what he’d have normally done.
What he wanted to do. And yet he couldn’t bring himself to hurt her. And for that, he hated himself all the more. Damn it to hell and back. And damn him, too. Why had he always been weak where she was concerned?
It was what had brought them to this place and time. What had allowed her to bind them. That one moment when he’d been so furious and bloodthirsty …
He’d looked down into her terrified amber eyes as she stood so bravely and defiantly against him, and lost himself to her completely.
It was why he’d slept with Vine originally. While their coloring was different, their features were not. The two women could be twins but for their hair color, and oft at night, he’d closed his eyes and imagined Vine with hair of silvery white and eyes of amber. That she smelled of feathery roses and spice.
But in the end, Vine had been a cold substitution he’d used, hoping to drive Mara out of his thoughts. Hoping to purge the unholy craving he had for her from his heart.
In spite of it all, he was forever drawn to her. Against all sanity and reason.
