Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
“I’m glad you came to talk to me,” she whispered as tears tangled in her lashes.
“Me, too,” he said.
They stayed like that for a long moment, and when they eased apart, she watched the emotion on her brother’s face get shut down again.
“I thought you were off rotation tonight,” she murmured.
“I’m just training this evening. I’ve got to do something with myself, you know?”
“Yes, I do.”
He nodded and went for the door. Except he paused before he turned the handle.
“Listen, Lyric,” he said, “if anything happens to me, I want you to know something—”
“Wait, happens?” She recoiled. “Like what happens?”
His eyes sought her own. “I want you to know that there is no one else I’d rather have as a sister. And that you’re going to fill Granmahmen’s shoes in this family perfectly. But you’re also going to do it in your own way.”
With that, he slipped out. Before she had a chance to say…
That she loved him, too.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Dev was waiting outside the Commodore, under the glow of its signage, when he got Lyric’s text, and he read the message twice—because he was confused. They were supposed to meet here, so why had she gone to his place? Fucking hell, that apartment building was the last address he wanted her anywhere near.
Racing around the corner, he got into the shadows, closed his eyes, and dematerialized.
Something he was not in the regular habit of doing.
To avoid both his parents, he had shut out the black magic that threaded through his very cellular makeup—but there was a time and a place for the shit. And with his female waiting out in the cold, in an unsecured area? Where slayers had been gunned down a few nights ago? And where he knew there had been at least one inside the building, maybe a minion sent out by his father as a scout to his location?
For that matter, Dev was also worried he’d tipped off his presence when he’d revealed himself to dear old Mummy.
When he re-formed, it was in the alley next to his building, and as he ran out of the lane, he—
There Lyric was, standing on the stoop, huddling in the windbreaker he’d given her the night before, that knit scarf around her neck. Her hair was tied back, and she was wearing blue jeans and those boots of hers that laced up to her ankles. No makeup, no frills, no fancy dress or shoes.
She was… more perfect than anything he’d ever seen before.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he jogged forward. “Hey, you want to head to your place—”
He scented her tears before he saw them shimmer in her eyes, and the next thing he knew, he was pulling her into his arms and ushering her inside, out of the cold.
“I’m sorry.” She sniffled and wiped her face. “I forgot we weren’t supposed to meet here. It’s been a long, long day… my granmah—mother died.”
“Oh, shit. That’s awful—”
“We knew it was time, yet it was a total shock.” She put her hand over her heart. “But yeah, it’s been a hard day.”
“Do you want to go home? Does your family need you?”
“Oh, we spent all day together.” She shook her head. “Can we just stay here? I don’t want… I want to be away from my life for a minute. I just need a break.”
Well, fuck. Guess they were staying. “Ah… sure. Yeah. Let’s take the elevator.”
The good news was that the doors opened as soon as he pushed the up arrow, and then they were inside the car. He hit his floor and immediately pulled her back into his arms.
He’d been planning on talking to her, laying everything out, telling her the whole goddamn truth even though for sure she wouldn’t believe it at first. But with a death that recent? How in the hell was he going to drop more bombs on the female…
As the doors opened and they stepped out, he tried to seem casual as he put his arm around her waist and led her down to his apartment. In reality, he was on high alert to the point of raging paranoia. He felt marginally better after locking them in his place, and reminded himself that he had ways of protecting them both—
“Dev.”
There was such an urgency in her voice that his heart skipped a beat. “What do you need.”
Even though he knew. And maybe it made him perverse, he just really wanted to hear her say the words. Not because he needed the ego boost, but because he wanted to store them away in his memory for when she hated him.
“You,” she said hoarsely. “I need… you tonight. I need to feel alive, and you make me that way because it’s magic when you touch me. Please. I’ve been doing nothing but crying and reminiscing—and I can’t be in the past right now. I can’t… be with my memories right now.”