Page 60 of Zodiac Beasts

I carried her to my couch, figuring the bed would need cleaning before I put her back in it. She looked so secure and comfortable in my cushions. The colors of my home truly complimented her.

I could care for her. I’d not put her in a bad situation at all, really. She was safer with me than she was with the Vampire Leo, wasn’t she?

“Wait here for me.” I whispered, as though she had any other choice. I walked down to the shop, and I grabbed a sundress from our overstock. It wasn’t as beautiful as her Gemini gown, but everything looked good on her. I’d launder the other one while she slept.

I returned to the room, and my doll was still sitting there, obedient and complacent. I didn’t have any undergarments for her, but that only made this outfit more daring. She seemed the type to enjoy that sort of thrill.

I sat beside her, then I slid the robe down her arms. She was dry now, and ready to put on her day wear.

I lifted her arms, so I could thread them through the sleeves of the dress. The way her breasts lifted with the movement caught in my peripheral vision, and I was doing everything to control myself with her, while my head was still so raw and muddled.

She let me dress her, and the soft cotton hugged her body, hiding all the things that no one else was allowed to see.

Maybe it was the lingering post coital endorphins, but I’d stopped thinking about the direness of the situation for a moment, and selfishly allowed myself to enjoy this quiet stillness before the coming storm.

We were both exhausted, broken, and needed rest.

I hugged an arm around her and settled her head in the crux of my shoulder. I gently used my palm to close her eyes, hoping she might be able to get some rest that way.

A novel sat on my end table. A silly fantasy story that got everything about dragons and zombies completely wrong.

“You’re going to be stuck like this for a few more hours. I wish there was something I could do to fix it, but I can’t.” I told her. “So if you’d like, I’ll read to you until you can move again.”

A glint of joy sparked between us. I was already starting to like the way I could feel her.

And that was how I spent the entire morning after my birthday, snuggled on the couch with a woman I could never be in a relationship with, reading her stories of simpler, more magical dimensions.

Chapter 33

I heaved over a waste bin outside Threads of the Magi, while my whole body was overwhelmed by a thousand different feelings. None of them were good. All of them had me fucking seething.

That fucking snake. I was two seconds away from breaking down his door, but I knew I couldn’t get through the ancient wards. He would come out at some point. And I would fucking kill him.

I could barely feel Lila’s life force anymore. Something about those goddamn wards had blocked out our connection in a way I didn’t know was possible. All I was able to tell was that she was alive, but none of her usual bubbly, morning energy or her sentimental warmth, or her soul restoring light was coming through.

I emptied little more than bile from my stomach, the moonlight separation sickness wrecking my constitution to its very core. I’d been a mess all night, and I was starting to think I’d preferred feeling Adrian fucking her over being separated from her.

I pounded on the door to his shop again. My fist had tensed into claws, and the fangs that filled my jaw were not from my vampire side. I didn’t want to get the authorities involved—I wasn’t exactly a model citizen myself—but if I spent another five minutes without knowing she was okay, I would do whatever it took to take that magic barrier down and get her back.

I was about to slam my fist into the glass one more time, when the door flew open, and my knuckles, instead, came in contact with Ceto’s face. His glasses broke on impact, while I had him on the floor, with his arm twisted behind his back faster than even his fucked up eyes could register me.

“Calm down.” He hissed, like he’d not crossed every line.

“Where the fuck is she.” I growled, twisting hard enough to fully dislocate his shoulder. He winced, but refused to make a sound. “I know she’s here. If you fucking hurt her—”

“I’m right here.” Lila’s voice, like birdsong and an angel’s harp, pulled my attention to the door to the backroom. There she was, freshly showered, her hair perfect, a beautiful dress falling over her curves, and her eyes vibrant and alive.

“You’re okay.” In another flash I was squeezing her against my chest, where my heart was still beating out of control. I nuzzled into her hair, taking in her scent, feeding on her natural aura, and letting the restored connection between us cure my every ailment.

Like a scratching record, dragged forcefully backwards, I sniffed her again.

Her scent.

“Of course she’s okay. I promised you she would be, didn’t I.” Ceto scoffed from across the room as he got to his knees. He grabbed his arm and popped the joint back into its socket. “This is why you stick by your mates on a full moon, Lila. Otherwise they become psychotic and paranoid.”

I vaguely heard him talking, but I didn’t have the mental capacity to care. I was much more fixated on the woman in my arms.

The woman who smelled, ever so lightly, of Sage, Rosemary, Tobacco, Apple pie, and… Chocolate.