Stopping, I placed my hands on my hips and looked down at the park against the street. The trees were just shapes of thicker darkness against lighter shadows even though the park was lit.
Zayne touched my arm, and when I looked at him, I saw that he’d shifted into his human form. “What does this mean exactly? Are you going blind?”
I lifted a shoulder again. “I don’t know. Probably? The fact that I’m not completely human throws a wrench in the whole thing, and the disease requires a level of genetic mapping to see what the prognosis could be—I assume you know why that can never happen. But the disease isn’t predictable even in humans. Some by my age are completely blind. Others don’t develop symptoms until they’re in their thirties. Maybe my vision loss will slow down because of the angelic blood in me, or it may stop entirely, but it has been getting worse, so I don’t think my angelic side is doing that much good. I just don’t know. No one can answer that. No one can even answer that for a lot of humans with the disease.”
Zayne was quiet as he listened, so I continued. “When my mom noticed I started walking into things more often and having trouble navigating when it was really bright outside, she and Thierry took me to an eye doctor, and the man took one look at my eyes and referred me to a specialist. A lot of really annoying tests later, the disease was confirmed. It was a shock to say the least.” I laughed. “I mean, come on. I’m a Trueborn. Fighting while having these huge gaps in my vision isn’t exactly easy. So, how did this happen? But it is...what it is.”
“I noticed some things, like the flinching and your steps seeming unsure at night, but I never would’ve guessed it,” he said. “Never.”
“Yeah, I don’t think most people do. You know? Most people only think of the blind and the seeing, and they have no understanding or concept of everything in between. I don’t hide that I have this disease.” I looked over at him. “I’ve just learned to compensate for it, so much so that sometimes even I forget...but then I walk into a door or a wall, and then I’m quickly reminded.”
“And the stars?”
A faint smile tugged at my lips as I recalled what the eye specialist in Morgantown had once asked me. “At my last appointment, about a year ago, my eye doctor asked if I could still see the stars at night. It was weird when he asked, because I had to think about it and I realized I couldn’t answer the question,” I admitted. “I hadn’t looked up at the stars in, like, forever, and it sort of hit me, you know? That one day I would look up and I wouldn’t see a star, and that would be it. I’d never be able to see something so...beautiful and simple again. Up until that moment, I’d taken that for granted. So, every night, I look up to see if I can see the stars.”
Zayne didn’t respond, but I felt his intense gaze on me. I started twisting my hair as I lifted a shoulder, unsure of what else to say. “So, yeah...”
A moment passed. “Can you see the stars now?”
I tipped my head back and lifted my gaze. It was a cloudless night and the sky was like a deep oil slick broken up by tiny dots. “I can see them. They’re faint.” Raising my hand, I pointed to two stars, one on top of the other. “Right there. Two of them.” I closed my right eye and the two tiny blurs of white became one blur of white. “Oh, wait.” I laughed. “There’s only one star there.”
“Yeah,” he murmured, and when I glanced at him, he was staring up in the direction I’d pointed. “There’s a star there.” He looked over at me, and our gazes locked. “Do you see more?”
Feeling a little dizzy and silly, I looked away with great effort. I scanned the sky again. “I see a couple. Why? Are there a lot of stars?”
When he didn’t answer, I peeked at him, and found that once again, he was staring at me, his head cocked slightly, causing a strand of blond hair to graze his cheek.
I kept twisting my hair as nervousness grew like a nest of birds waking up and taking flight. I looked away. “I’m guessing the sky is full of stars?”
“It is, but the only ones that matter are the ones you see.”
My gaze flew to his.
He smiled at me. “You are... You are incredibly strong.”
The comment caught me off guard. “What?”
“You’re standing here talking about losing your vision like it’s nothing. Like it’s no big deal, and it’s huge. You know that.” Reaching over, he placed his hand on mine, startling me. Gently, he untangled my fingers from my hair. “But you’re dealing with that. Living with that. If that’s not the definition of strength, I don’t know what is.”
The nest of birds moved to my chest. “I don’t think it’s strength.”
He pulled my hand away from my hair. “Trin...”
Flushing at the first use of my nickname and realizing I liked it when he called me that, I turned my gaze back to the two stars that were really one. “What I mean is, I don’t think it’s being strong. I can’t change what’s going to happen. Maybe one day there’ll be a cure and it will work for me, but until then, I have to accept this and I can’t dwell on it, because it is scary—it’s scary as Hell to really think that all of this will be gone and I’ll have to learn to live differently with the expectations of who I am and what I am, but I have to deal with it. And I do so by not letting it define me or consume every waking moment of my life. That’s not strength. That doesn’t make me special.” I shrugged. “It just means I’m...doing the best I can.”
Still holding my hand, he squeezed. “Like I said, the definition of strength.”
As if I had no control, I found myself staring into his eyes again, thinking that it was going to suck one day when I couldn’t see the stars, but it was going to be a damn shame when I could no longer see those pale blue wolf eyes.
“I can’t believe you haven’t told me until now.”
“Don’t take it personally. It’s not something I talk a lot about, because I just... I don’t know. I don’t want people treating me different because of it.” I turned to him. “I don’t want you treating me different.”
“I wouldn’t.” He stepped into me, careful of the fact we were still on the ledge. “Okay. That’s not exactly true. I admire the Hell out of you, but I already admired you. So now it’s more.”
I tried to stop smiling, but I couldn’t as I looked down at where he still held my hand. With the moonlight, I could see it.
“What are you going to do if it does get worse?” he asked.
“Maybe I’ll get myself a seeing-eye gargoyle.”
Zayne chuckled. “I can be that for you.”
“Uh, yeah, I feel like you’d grow very bored of that.”
“I don’t think so.” His fingers curled around my chin, bringing my gaze back to his. Air hitched in my throat. “I don’t think...there’s ever a boring second around you.”
“You don’t?” Needing a little space after discussing something so personal, I pulled free and backed up. “Good. I bet you can’t catch me.”
Pivoting around, I took off running on the ledge. I heard him shout my name, but it was lost in the wind as I picked up speed, the wind lifting my hair from my shoulders and sending it streaming behind me. I reached the edge of the ledge at a breakneck speed and there wasn’t a moment of hesitation or fear. I jumped, surrounded by nothing but air, and in those brief seconds, right before I began to fall, I became weightless and I knew that was what flying felt like.
Hitting the ledge of the building across the alley, I tucked and rolled off the rest of the speed, popping back with a wild smile breaking out across my mouth.
Zayne landed a second behind me, fully shifted again, and his wings lifted out and spread wide. The roof was more lit here so I could see the stunned look etched into his features.
Tossing back my head, I laughed as Zayne stormed toward me, fully shifted once more. “You should see your face right now. Oh my God, you actually do look speechless.” I spun away from him. “
Didn’t know that was an actual thing—”
Zayne was on me in a heartbeat.
I squeaked as he caught me, lifting me clear off my feet as he held me to his chest. He pivoted, pressing me back against the cool metal of a maintenance shed. Like the night in the subway, there was no space between us, and I don’t know exactly when I’d curled my legs around his lean waist, but I had and I liked it.
A lot.
“You...” He glared down at me, the tips of his fangs exposed. “You...”
“What?” Clutching his shoulders, I was breathless and it had nothing to do with the jump and everything to do with how close we were.
“You’re maddening,” he said, pressing in, and a deep pulsing throb sent a shiver down my spine.
My eyes widened as I stared up at him. I wasn’t even sure if he was aware of what he was doing. He was furious. That much was clear, but there was something heavier and thicker riding that anger.
“You’re out of your mind.” One hand slid from my waist, over my hip, down to my thigh. His hand clenched, the sharp claws snagging the thin fabric of the leggings.
Okay. He knew what he was doing.
“You’re utterly reckless and completely impulsive,” he continued, and I tipped my head back against the shed, finding it difficult to get air into my lungs. “If you do something like that again...”
“What?” I squeezed his shoulders as his wings lifted and came down, cocooning us. Before, the utter darkness had caused me to panic, but now, it made me bold, like I could do anything in the shelter he created. “What are you going to do?”
“Something.” His words were hot against my neck, causing all my muscles to tense.
My fingers touched the edges of his hair. “You need to give me a little more detail on that,” I told him. “Because I’m a hundred percent going to do that again.”
“I’m going to need to get a leash for you.” He shifted his body and my entire body seem to jerk against the unexpected hardness between his hips.
Oh God.
My heart was pounding as heat pooled. “If you got a leash for me, I’d choke you with it.”
His husky chuckle burned my lips. “You would.”
“Yes,” I told him, agreeing and giving permission for something he hadn’t asked for but I wanted to give him. Something I think he wanted to give me.
He was so still and so quiet and then he said, “The second you kissed me in the training rooms, I knew you were going to be trouble.”
“Is that why you ran from me?”
“I’m not running from you now,” he said. “It seems I’m running after you now.”
Then the barest brush of his lips against mine caused my entire body to arch. My lips parted, giving him access, and I felt the wicked tip of one fang against my lip. I shuddered against Zayne, and he made this deep, throaty groan that was nearly my undoing.
“We shouldn’t...” He trailed off, dragging that sharp fang across my lower lip. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
I couldn’t think of any damn thing we should be doing right now other than this. “Why?”
“Why?” He laughed, low and soft against my lips. “Besides the fact this complicates things?”
“I like complications.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” His forehead rested against mine. “You’ve been through a lot, Trin. You have a lot on your mind, and I’m not—”
A sudden screech ripped through the air, forcing us apart. Zayne lowered me to the roof and spun, tucking his wings so I wasn’t smacked upside the head by one.
I didn’t see them at first, not until the two creatures landed on the roof. They looked like bats—huge, walking bats. Moonlight streamed through their thin, nearly translucent wings.
“Imps,” Zayne sighed.
I unhooked my blades and braced myself. Imps weren’t known for their intelligence, but they made up for the lack of brains with their violent tendencies. “Don’t they normally hang out in caves?”
“Normally. Guess they’re out sightseeing.”
“Do you think they’re looking for me?”
“Well, we’re about to find out.”
One of them screeched and rushed Zayne. The other took flight and landed nimbly in front of me. It was too dark to risk throwing the blades so this fight was going to be hand to...bat wing?
I giggled.
“Do I really want to know why you’re laughing over there?” Zayne asked, catching the imp around its neck.
Grinning, I darted back as the imp took a swing at me. I dipped under the demon’s outstretched arms and sprang up behind it, then spun and slammed the iron blade deep into its back.
It let out a high-pitched shriek before bursting into flames. I turned in time to see the other demon do the same. I started toward him—
Jerked backward, I nearly lost my grip on my daggers as talons snatched me by my shirt. A stuttered heartbeat later, I was lifted off my feet. I shrieked as the imp started to take flight. The material of my shirt began to tear.
Zayne spun to where I dangled several feet off the roof. “Christ.”
Lifting my daggers, I swept them back in wide, high arcs, catching the imp’s hind legs. The wickedly sharp blades cut into the creature’s skin and bone. Wet warmth sprayed into the air. It screamed, a sound that reminded me of an angry baby—if an angry baby was also part-hyena. The thing let go, and I was falling.
Into nothing.
A roar of wind and night air rose up to snatch me. I couldn’t even scream as terror exploded into my gut as I fell.
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God, this was going to hurt. This was going to hurt bad—
Arms caught me around the waist, jerking me up and back into a hard chest. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs, but I knew it was Zayne.
Zayne had caught me.
Air whipped around us as his wings spread out, slowing our fall, and then he landed in a crouch, the impact jarring me to the very core.
“Holy crap,” I whispered as I blinked rapidly. My hair had come free from its bun and was plastered to my face. The handles of my daggers felt like they were embedded into my palms. “Holy crap, I didn’t drop my daggers.”
“Are you okay?” Zayne’s voice was tighter than normal as let go of me, and I quickly spun toward him. “Trinity?”
“Yeah.” Sheathing my daggers, I checked my shoulders. “It didn’t claw me. I think it was trying to carry me off. Thank you.” I looked up at him. “You probably just saved my life there.”
“I think I totally saved your life there.”
“Totally,” I agreed, looking around and realizing we were in the alley near the fire escape. “Are you okay?”
“It got me in the chest.” He looked down, cursing.
My stomach dropped as I reached for him as concern blossomed. “How bad?”
“Not that bad,” Zayne said, stepping back from me. “But we should head back. I’m going to need to clean this up.”
Worried, I quickly agreed and desperately tried to ignore the sudden, arctic blast rolling off Zayne.
29
The thin strip of light from the bathroom door pulled me from my sleep, alerting me to the fact that I had fallen asleep without Zayne.
After we got back to his place, he’d cleaned up in the bathroom and then had announced that he was making it an early night. The lights in the living room had turned off, a clear sign that he wanted his space, and I had stayed in the bedroom, thoroughly confused. Unlike all the nights before, he didn’t come into my room and it had taken an eternity for me to finally fall asleep.
But either he or Peanut was in the bathroom.
Sitting up, I slipped my legs out from underneath the blanket. The cement floor was cool under my feet as I padded quietly toward the bathroom. I placed my hands on the door. “Zayn
e?”
“Sorry,” came the gruff reply, several moments later. “I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to bed.”
The corners of my lips turned down. He sounded...weird, his voice terse and strained, more so than normal. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” he barked.
I bit down on my lip. Was he in pain? He’d been looking pale by the time we’d gotten back, but he’d insisted he was okay, and I’d asked that question about a half dozen times. Knowing I probably shouldn’t, I went ahead and opened the bathroom door.
What I saw was a bloody mess. Zayne was in front of the mirror, shirtless, and he was... He was plucking something out of his chest with...with tweezers? Bloody towels were on the vanity and there was something milky in a mason jar.
“Good God,” I exclaimed.
“Dammit, Trinity,” Zayne growled as he turned away from me, reverting to my full name. “Do you ever listen?”
Not particularly. “I was worried.”
“I’m fine.”
“You do not look fine.” He was a ghastly gray color, and his fingers, slippery with blood, trembled around the silver tweezers. “What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” he grunted, turning back to the mirror.
“It doesn’t look like nothing.” I inched closer to him, grateful that the sight of blood didn’t freak me out, but what he was trying to do to his chest did. “Can I help you?”
“Yes. You can help by going back to bed.” He did a double take. “And is that Elmo’s face on your shorts?”
“Don’t talk smack about my shorts.” They were a gift from Jada—a gag gift, but they were the most comfortable shorts I’d ever owned. “Look, I really don’t need you passing out or dying from trying to do surgery on yourself. So, stop acting like a stupid alpha male and let me help you.”
His back tensed and then he looked over his shoulder at me. “Did you just call me a stupid alpha male?”
“Yes. I did.”
One side of his mouth kicked up as he dipped his head, looking down at himself. Several strands of hair fell forward, shielding his face. “That damn imp got me in the chest.”
Storm and Fury Page 33
