Battlefield
“All right, what’s going on in that beautifully chaotic mind of yours?” asked Reese, observing me out of his peripherals as he drove his truck back to my aunt’s house.
I just shook my head, as if that passed for an answer.
“Just forget about him. At least for the afternoon, anyway. He’s out of sight, so let him be out of mind.” Reese put the truck into park as we rolled up to the front of the house.
“I don’t know what happened back there. I just…lost it,” I murmured, taking notice to the Nissan’s absence as I climbed out.
“Hey, cheer up,” demanded Reese, coming up behind me and ensnaring me into a hug as we headed to the front porch. “You didn’t try strangling a puppy, okay? The guy deserved a lot worse.”
“True.”
“Not to mention,” he chuckled, kissing my neck as I let us inside, “it was kinda sexy seeing you kick ass like that.”
“You don’t say?”
“You were ravishing.”
“More like ravenous,” I muttered.
“Yes, you are.” He couldn’t help but grin, hauling me right back into his embrace. “So, what would you like to do with our few stolen hours? Watch a movie, play a game—”
I pulled him back down to me, cutting off his thought as I crushed my mouth against his.
“…Or we could just pick up where we left off,” he finished breathlessly.
“I like the last option.”
“Me too.” Those infectious dimples never ceased, even as Reese pulled away. “Just for the record, your aunt’s not home, right?”
At last, I smiled. “No, her car’s gone.”
“Okay, just making sure,” he chuckled, kissing me once again.
“What? Are you afraid of her?” I teased.
“Me? No.” He lowered his voice to nothing more than a whisper. “I just don’t want her to see what I’m going to do to you.”
My heart soared at the idea, but reality sent me plummeting back to the ground just as quickly. “Reese, you know we can’t—”
“Can’t we?” His lips teased along my jaw. “Blaine’s already here.”
I shuddered at the thought, but quickly realized what he was really saying. The only thing stopping us from going farther than some watered-downed kissing was my fear that the rune for Lust would ignite, signaling to Blaine where I was. But he was already here. What could be the harm now?
“Sure you can handle it?” I teased.
“The only people who would question that are those who don’t understand just how incredibly sexy I really am.”
“Is that so?” I laughed.
“Yes. That’s why you should be thankful that you can see and appreciate what a catch I really am, all six feet and a hundred and sixty pounds of my glorious slightness.” He couldn’t help but snicker as I shut and locked the front door.
“I must say, you talk an awfully big game,” I remarked grinningly, removing my jacket.
“And I’ve got the performance to match,” he grinned back.
“Oh, really?” I went up and unbuttoned his embroidered black tailcoat, sliding it off his shoulders.
Reese wasted no time, picking me up and carrying me through the kitchen to the upstairs. At the end of the hall, he laid me down on my bed and removed his waistcoat, unbuttoning his dress shirt as well.
He suddenly paused as another one of my dangling posters fell to the floor behind him. Reese turned, taking a better look around the room. “Ah…did you do a little redecorating since my last visit?”
I sat up, seeing Reese gently brush a stray piece of notebook paper away from the bedside. My room was still a total disaster zone from my apparent nightmare-induced tornado.
As if on cue, a lopsided frame toppled on the dresser, taking the remaining photos down like a row of dominos. Reese, with his lightning fast reflexes, managed to catch the frame at the front of the stand before it crashed to the floor. He looked at the image inside and inwardly cringed. It was a picture of my parents.
“You hear from them at all?” he asked, nervous.
I shook my head. “They said they were going for marriage counseling in Phoenix, but from what Blaine inferred, they’re most likely gallivanting around Europe.” I felt sick just thinking about it. And it wasn’t even because Blaine had been spying on them in his quest to hunt me down. It was the fact that he knew more about them than I did. Their own daughter.
I really had been abandoned.
Trying to hide the hot tears creeping into my vision, I climbed off the mattress and started collecting the discarded items scattered across the floor, but froze at the sight of the white apparel box resting on top of my nightstand. With its red silk ribbons, it was indeed the same box Blaine had left before. The corner had a small dent in it, presumably from where I’d thrown it against his house.
Once again, there was a card tucked in the trimming. Since it seemed like fresh paper, I could only assume it was a new note. Part of me felt the temptation to open it, but I muzzled it down. Just having to look at that box made me only want to cry harder. All of this was his fault.
And he thought he could make amends for everything with a gift? Like I could be bought off.
Vibrations coursed up my arm and I immediately snatched up the box, chucking it under my bed before the runes could ignite. If I let them light up, who knows what they’d do? I turned my room to rubble when I was simply sleeping. I’d probably level the whole house if I wasn’t careful.
“Hey.” Reese came up behind me, placing gentle hands on my hips as I stood upright. I still couldn’t bring myself to look at him, not when I had tears blurring my vision. I didn’t want him to see me like this. I was a mess, inside and out. “They’ll come around,” he murmured.
It took me a moment to regain my thoughts, realizing he was talking about my parents. I shook my head, feeling wet streaks stream down my face. Blaine had been right about them from the very beginning. Before my parents discovered what had happened to me, Blaine said that they’d desert me, first chance they got. And they did.
If my friends saw me for what I was, they’d leave too. So would my aunt. To Raelynd and Blaine, I was nothing more than a plaything. To the world, I was an abomination, something that needed to be put out of its misery. Mr. Reynolds, the man who had been more of a father to me than my actual dad, had sent a thug out to exterminate me. And that was without the knowledge that Blaine had already bitten me.
Reese took hold of my arms, urging me to turn around. When I wouldn’t, he stepped in front of me, forcing me to look him in the eyes. Of all things, the tears had dissolved into bitterness, to anger. My skin vibrated again, but it was from a different rune. Wrath.
If Blaine wanted me to fight back, then fine. He would get exactly what he hoped for. My hit list had just been forged, and Mr. Blaine Ryder had the distinguished honor of top billing.
Reese helped me tidy up my room before taking me back over to the bed. We didn’t say anything as we lay side by side. With my back to him, he pulled me against his body, wrapping his arms around my tiny frame. I shivered at the gentle caress as his thumb stroked up and down the length of my forearm. The touch sent electricity crackling over the skin, leaving little sparks to dance between my flesh and his fingertip.
I couldn’t help but giggle at the tickling sensation, and it seemed to have the desired effect Reese had been hoping for. I sighed, feeling the humming Wrath rune still threatening to ignite suddenly peter out.
“It appears I’ve got the magic touch,” he chuckled, planting a kiss to the back of my neck.
I traced the tattooed sigils running along the length of Reese’s forearm. “It appears you do. And it must be nice, having control of it.” As a Light Mage, all it took was simple concentration to ignite or disarm his runes. Being angry or upset or too happy didn’t risk things blowing up or going haywire. Yet, here I was, the five-foot-three demonic Hulk.
“You’ll learn how to harness your magic,” he assured, rolling me over to face him. “Don’t let him get under your skin. It’s what he wants.”
“He’s already under my skin, and on it.” I leered at the tattoos sullying my arm, at the band on my ring finger. It gleamed in the light with its permanent metallic ink, mocking me as an everlasting reminder that I now ‘belonged’ to the one person I hated most.
Reese took hold of my arm, pulling it up to his lips. “How about you let someone else on it?”
Soft kisses pressed to each of the brands, triggering goose bumps across my skin as the cool electricity stirred with the heat of his breath. His mouth trailed further up my arm, to my shoulder, when I suddenly found him laying over me. All the pain and hurt and self-loathing flitted away, bit by bit, with every kiss.
The world around us dissolved to nothing more than static. Our mouths met one another’s, only to find their way to someplace else. Our shoulders, our necks… I was sure to end up with a hickey, and the thought only excited me more. I’d be branded, all right. By whom I chose.
A sweet, sugary scent prickled at my nose, and Reese’s lips impulsively traveled to the one place I dreaded most. The right side of my neck.
It was too much.
Nausea, revulsion, fear. It all hit me so hard, so fast, I couldn’t control my own instincts. Red filled my vision as my gums ripped apart to accommodate the elongated pearly white incisors. All my instincts could see was a threat. My hands suddenly gripped Reese’s neck, and his pulse thrummed in my ears. I could see the artery throbbing beside his windpipe.
He stiffened at the realization of what he’d done, feeling my body go taut beneath him. Reese shifted his head, despite my firm grip still held around his nape. My jaw suddenly snapped up at him, begging to tear into his neck.
“Shit!” He barely managed to pull free as he scrambled upright, nearly falling off the end of the bed. I hadn’t actually managed to bite him, but his hands still mindlessly grappled at his throat in blind panic.
The terror in his eyes as he beheld me…
Mortification and disgust riddled every inch of my body. I… I was beyond repulsive; I was a monster.
I covered my mouth and lunged for the door, desperate to get as far away from him as possible.
“Kat?” Blaine’s voice whispered to my thoughts, and I screamed, clawing my hands over my ears as if it could somehow drown him out. It only made the rest of the world go quiet, leaving the reverberating echoes of his voice to carry into the corners of my mind.
I heard my name being called again, but it was out loud.
Reese.
I could hear his pleas, the desperation in his words as he tried racing after me down the stairs, begging me to come back.
I couldn’t. I snatched my purse off the floor where I had blindly tossed it, and I darted through the kitchen to the garage. Reese caught up to me, but it was too late. I had already locked the doors behind me after jumping into my car. His palms hit the window, begging me to look at him.
“Stay away from me.” I had practically mouthed the words as I choked on them, but he’d heard them all the same.
His shoulders slumped, his face consumed in hurt, desperation, disbelief. “Don’t do this…”
Blinking away the tears, I floored the car backward, barreling it down the driveway. Reese’s truck was still parked out front, blocking me in, but I didn’t stop. I swerved the steering wheel and drove my hatchback over the lawn until I was in the clear.
“Kat, what happened?” Blaine’s voice demanded inside my head.
My fingers practically pummeled in the buttons as I slammed my hand into the radio. Finding the loudest song possible, I twisted the volume dial up until I couldn’t even hear my own thoughts as I floored it down the street.
What had I done?
What had I done?
What had I done?