“You do know I could kill you in a heartbeat, right?” Mick seems perplexed by my answer.
“Should have gotten to me a few months ago. I cared about shit like that then. Death is easy. It’s living that sucks.” Withoutanother word, I get up and walk away, leaving him with my empty plate.
My stomach is already starting to hurt, but standing up and walking helps. Now, if I can just find my way back to the dregs or find a dark corner to curl up in. The image of Kage filters into my mind unbidden. I miss my shadow.
BRIAR
Unfortunately for me, getting lost when all I have to do is walk down three flights of stairs is nearly impossible, even for someone as directionally challenged as me. I linger in the stairwell, all the bravado I felt in the tavern long gone. I just want to sleep, ideally behind a locked door, but I have no hope of that, so maybe under a bed or something would be good.
When my eyelids feel too heavy to remain open, I grudgingly take the last few steps across the hall and pry open the door to the dregs. The room is dimmer than it was when I entered earlier, which might be my first clue as to the time of day. Most of the beds have lumps under blankets that seem far too thinto actually keep anyone warm. I chance walking deeper into the room, hoping no one will notice that I don’t belong. The back wall finally comes into view, and I decide the far left corner is my destination. There’s a little alcove similar to the one near the entrance. I just hope someone else hasn’t already claimed that one too. I’ll worry about finding a safer place when I don’t feel the need to hold my eyelids open.
The soft sound of heavy breathing nearly makes me stop in my tracks. I know that sound. I make those sounds when Ziv is touching me. I slam a curtain on all thoughts of him in my head. I wish I could put him behind something heavier, like a steel door, but the truth is, neither male is ever far from my thoughts.
I hold my breath as I walk past the bunk with the occupied couple, making sure not to look down and invade their privacy, but I realize my mistake when a palm wraps around my lower knee, locking me in place.
The female’s sighs of pleasure never cease, nor does the steady sound of flesh against flesh. I’m so caught off guard by the sudden touch, I don’t even resist or try to escape. Instead, I look down and meet the eyes of a male with fiery red hair and brown eyes that would be more at home on the face of a predator.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he demands.
He isn’t even breathing that hard. “I’m about to come.” The female is oblivious to my presence, much like I was hoping he would be.
I finally get the brains to jerk my leg away from him, earning myself some nasty scratches from his nails in the process. “Passing by,” I mutter before stalking over to the corner.
“Hawk?” The female finally seems to be catching on that there’s something else going on other than him fucking her.
I put my back to the wall and slide down until my ass hits the cold hard ground. Unfortunately for me, Hawk still has an uninterrupted view of me and I of him. His yellowish eyes neverstray from my face, not even when he says, “Shut up,” and clasps his hand with my blood under his nails over the female’s mouth to make sure she can’t speak. It doesn’t stop her moans though. If anything, they get louder while he picks up his pace, thrashing against her so hard I’m half expecting the bunk to start moving.
I try like hell to pretend I don’t know he’s staring at me, but it’s impossible. It feels like he’s burning a hole in the side of my face. Eventually, I brace myself for his intrusive stare, then I turn to stare right back into his dead eyes.
The taste of bile creeps up my throat. Looking into his eyes while he’s fucking someone feels far too intimate, even when he’s watching me as if he’s contemplating how to slit my throat. I let my lip curl up in disgust and wait for the moment he’s done with her, because I know he’ll come for me right after.
Today may be a good day to die. At least I’m not starving anymore.
KAGE
“If you kill anyone else, they will put you down,” Ziv snarls after slamming the door to my creature’s room behind him. The walls rattle with his pent-up rage.
“No, they won’t,” I argue without any conviction. Truth is, I’m beyond the point of caring. I’m willing to try anything if it will get me the fuck out of the Ivy so I can go find Briar.
“Yes, they will, and if they don’t, I will.” He stalks toward me, but that dog lost his bite weeks ago when I realized he’s nothing but a puppet for the other gods. He hasn’t done anything to find my creature.
“Now you want to do something?” I question with disdain.
“Fuck you, demon,” he snarls in my face. He’s close enough that all I would have to do is move my face an inch or two, and I could kill him for breathing on me. He must see the thought gleam in my eyes, because he leans back abruptly and grabs my shoulder to shake me. The fact that he’s so willing to touch me, even over clothing, proves I’m not the only one with a death wish.
“Wake the fuck up!” He gives me a final shove, and I stumble backward but catch myself before falling on her bed.
“I’m wide the fuck awake, fallen.”
“Then quit with this suicidal bullshit. Briar needs us.”
“Needs us?” I laugh darkly. “She needed us when you let her get taken by that bitch. For all we know, she’s already dead!” I scream, and my limbs start to dissolve into shadow. It’s like I’m a kid again, having a hard time controlling my ability to stay corporeal.
He’s on me before I can even blink. My head snaps back with the force of his fist, and pain explodes over my nose. All the noise in my head quiets for the first time in weeks, and I actually feel a sense of peace. The next blow hits my cheek. I actually hear the bones crack, and blood pools in my mouth. It’s bliss.
The physical pain gives me something else to feel other than the anguish that never seems to end. “She’s dead.” I don’t mean those words, but there are times when I wish I did. Thinking she’s gone and I would get to see her again someday, even in the netherworld, is better than thinking about what could be happening to her every day while I do nothing.
“Shut the fuck up!” he bellows as he hits me again, this time in my stomach. I double over with the force, blood flying from my mouth, and a breathy laugh escapes me.
