They charmed the human and convinced him to invite them in. Then they bit him.
Something pulls at the back of my throat—not thirst, but its opposite, a clenching I have no name for—and my eyes find Kallista before I’ve decided to look, scanning her beautiful smooth bronze skin for puncture marks. But it’s unmarred, perfect. Her veins thrum full of untouched blood.
I dispatched the disgusting leeches before they could get to her. But the human is… in a bad way. We need to get out of here.
I nod in response, swallowing down the strange forgotten emotion and focusing on the problem at hand.
We need to get the pretty flower out before she gets taken by ferals, and we need to patch up the human so he can’t be used to lure Kallista into a trap.
One quick listen confirms the hunter is still deep in battle outside. He seems to be handling himself, but I’ll be damned if I rest this entire plan on trusting a Guild hunter.
“Daisy, love, invite me in so I can help your friend.” My voice comes out smooth, but her scent—that unique floral note now sharp with the metallic tang of her worry—makes me antsy.
Kallista looks up at me, her eyes widening a fraction before she schools her features and steels her composure.
“Why should I trust you?”
I expected some push back.
Hell, I would have been disappointed without it.
But we don’t have the time.
I open my mouth to explain all the reasons we must leave this place, immediately, but she continues.
“Ever since I met you I’ve been followed, stalked and attacked. So why should I go anywhere with you? Seems to me, I should avoid you at all costs.”
Something unexpected happens then, her words triggering some deep buried human response I had not humored in quite some time. Centuries even.
Annoyance and impatience surface like a tidal wave, overruling common sense and logic.
Interesting.
Then the overwhelming urge to rile her up takes control of my mouth, spreading an insolent grin over my lips, my fangs flashing in response.
“I had warned you to stay away, Daisy love, but from where I’m standing someone seems to enjoy the danger.”
And Kallista scoffs, the flyaway little hairs framing her face blowing with her breath, her violet eyes flashing with anger, making her look wild, untamed and sending an entirely inappropriate signal low in my gut, and my cock awakens with a sharp curiosity.
Interesting. It’s been centuries since that part of my body stirred with anything more than function.
“Don’t Daisy Love me, mister. That shit won’t fly when Casey got hurt by one of your kind. I’m not going anywhere until you fix it. Fixhim.”
As if on cue, her human friend she calls Casey groans in pain, his eyes screwed shut and hand pressing on the wound on his neck. He doesn't appear to be bleeding as his blood scent is not fresh and raw but rather coagulating, but he looks clammy, feverish, his breaths coming in short pants and his scent changing strangely from human to?—
A few of the ferals got past the hunter, Boss. We gotta go.
And we are officially out of time.
“I’ll make you a deal, Kallista. I’ll fix your friend if you invite me in so I can get you out.” I pause, listening to the sound of snarls coming from the stairway and gaining speed. There are five, maybe six of them headed this way. “But I can’t do that here.“We need to get you somewhere safe. To a place where he can be treated.”
Kallista hesitates, her gaze flickering between her friend and Alek. I feel Alek’s mental affirmation before he even moves—a silent signal she clearly sees as a nod.
Does she… trust him more than me? Enough that he was invited in, and I wasn’t?
I want to examine the strange sensation now squeezing my ribcage further, but now is not the time nor the place when the ferals have reached the fifth floor landing.
“You can come in, Stark,” my little flower finally says, and I want to relish the way my name sounds on her lips, make her say it again, as a heated, breathless moan, but…
