I looked back at the two sleeping men.
He grabbed my chin and brought my attention back to him. “Now you want to ask permission? Did you ask before putting your mouth on what’s mine?”
I opened my mouth and then closed it. He let out a grunt and took a step back, the absence of his warmth causing goosebumps on my skin. Then he turned and walked away.
I glared after him before sitting down against the tree. My guard duty should be done since he was no longer stuck in stone and could take over. I didn’t trust him, though. It was hard to trust someone who wound me up on purpose only to walk away and leave me aching for more.
I desperately needed to have an orgasm. It was as if returning to the castle had set my libido ablaze for some inexplicable reason. If we had our tents, I could easily get off under my covers, but currently, my only option was to duck behind a tree or bush.
That wasn’t happening.
Amari paced along the shore before he sat down on a rock. He had a right to be mad, but he could’ve just said as much and not gone through such great lengths. Speaking of which, the erection he was sporting made my thighs clench together.
I wondered what he was going to do to Val once he woke up. Amari had watched us closely enough to pick up on Val’s subtle touches and had replicated them on my skin.
Nico would pelt them both with nuts if I told him.
As if summoned by my thoughts, movement caught myeye. Nico stood and stretched, his eyes landing on Amari first, then darting around the area, searching for me.
His eyebrows were furrowed in concern almost immediately.
I was just as concerned. Whatever was going on with me, we needed answers. I was doing something in my sleep and couldn’t control myself anymore. What did that mean for Nico, who had slept next to me for years?
Nico walked over to me and sat down. “Why are you way over here?”
I shrugged, trying to appear more casual than I felt. “Amari is an asshole.” I couldn’t quite convey the complicated tangle of frustration, attraction, and wariness I felt toward him.
How could I explain to Nico that Amari had managed to both infuriate me and leave me uncomfortably aroused? Or that beneath my annoyance lurked the unsettling awareness that I might have deserved his cold shoulder after what happened with Val? Some things were better left unsaid, especially when I wasn’t sure what to make of them myself.
Nico turned to look at me more closely, his arm resting on his knee. “You healed him. That’s twice you’ve overridden the curse.”
I looked down at my hands, half expecting them to glow or transform or explain what was happening inside me. “We need to figure out what’s happening to me. How do we even get more information about what I can do? It’s not like there’s a guidebook for... whatever this is.”
The uncertainty was maddening. My whole life, I’d understood my limitations of being a null. I hated the term for demons with no abilities, but now that things were manifesting in unpredictable ways, there had been comfort in my lack of power.
What good was power if I couldn’t control it? Thethought sat heavy on my chest. What danger might I pose to Nico or others if these abilities continued manifesting without warning? I’d spent my entire life defining myself by what I couldn’t do, wearing my null status like comfortable, if slightly embarrassing, pajamas. Now that my identity was unraveling, I didn’t know what would be left when the threads came completely undone.
The worst part was the unpredictability. I couldn’t replicate it on command. Couldn’t study it. Couldn’t even explain what it felt like when it happened. It was like sleepwalking through someone else’s supernatural talent. And that terrified me more than being powerless ever had.
Nico tapped an anxious rhythm on his knee. “We need to be careful.”
His attention shifted abruptly, his gaze hardening as he looked over at Val. Amari was approaching the vampire with deliberate strides, his posture rigid in a way that screamed controlled anger.
The tension in Nico’s jaw tightened, his protective instincts flaring. I could practically feel him calculating whether he needed to intervene in whatever Amari was about to do.
Val sat up and opened his mouth to say something, but Amari was on him before he could, straddling him and taking his mouth in a brutal kiss.
Heat spread through my chest, and I pressed my palm against my sternum, as if I could physically contain whatever this feeling was before it betrayed me further.
Nico groaned, dragging a hand down his face in exasperation. “Are they seriously going to fuck right here in front of us? The last thing I want to do is see or hear those two fucking.”
I bit my lip hard enough to feel the slight sting, the confession of what happened lodged in my throat. MaybeNico’s annoyance would help distract me from the need that was about to boil over. “Val kissed me.”
Nico’s head snapped in my direction so fast I swear I heard his vertebrae crack, his nostrils flaring wide as if he’d caught the scent of something putrid. His eyes narrowed to slits, and the muscle in his jaw jumped violently beneath his skin as he stared at me.
For a heartbeat, he didn’t move or even seem to breathe, just fixed me with an unblinking stare that made me want to crawl out of my skin and find somewhere dark to hide.
“Did you kiss him back?” Nico bit out the words. “Is that why Amari’s marking his territory?”
