My head rolls back into the chair. “Fine! Yes, I like him! God, Dad! Look, it’s nothing. He’s not interested, and I’ll get over it. Besides that, I’m an adult now.” I don’t add that I want him to be interested. Or that I’ve been trying not to think about the words I heard in my sleep, the ones that might be memory, but could so easily be a fever dream.
Love is never wrong.
Dad walks over and kisses my head, like he used to do when I was little. “You’re still my daughter, Kendry.”
I grumble, but he’s right. Mom would probably ask the same questions.
“Oh! I, um.” He cocks his head, and I bend down, pulling the hunting knife from under my pants leg. “I thought you might want this back.”
He takes the knife with a smile, unsheathing it to look at the blade. The light plays over the stag head engraved on the metal, something I realize now holds more meaning than a logo. And then he surprises me by re-sheathing it, and handing it back to me.
“I gave it to you, Kendry. Keep it.”
I take it back with a nod, and secretly, I’m glad.
Dad sighs. “I need to get back. Stay with Axel, please. Grittanus was in our confidence for a very long time. He knows things about us, especially the demis. Things that could still be very dangerous for you.”
He waits for me to nod, kisses my head again, and leaves. But his warning did its job. I can’t stop thinking about Grittanus’ attack. I still don’t know what exactly he wanted from me.
*
I’m curled up staring at the fire when Axel drops back down. He lands almost without a sound, and I marvel at the control it takes him. Or what else he could do with such control.
You have got to get a grip, girl!
“Everything okay?”
Oh god, I’m staring, aren’t I… I blush, and pull my eyes away. “Yeah. Sorry.”
He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t push. Instead, he sits down and stares into the fire with me. “What were you thinking about?”
“Do you remember that day I showed you old town? We climbed up to the roof of the old town hall.”
Axel laughs. “And I flew up on top of the bell tower and started yelling ‘Sanctuary! Sanctuary!’”
“Yes! With your arm flung out to the sky, holding onto the crumbling roof—”
“Until it actually broke, and I almost landed on you.”
We both laugh at the memory. “I miss those times. Playing in the old buildings. Chatting in our clearing. I miss Greenbriar.” I miss you, I want to say.
“Me too,” he whispers, looking away. I can’t read his face. “We should probably get you back. I imagine you’re tired, and hungry.”
I hadn’t realized it, but he’s right. I’m starving, and I am tired. My head’s still spinning from talking with Dad, too. So when he offers me his arm, I’m so shocked that I can only stare at it.
“Kendry?”
I look up into his deep black eyes, hoping for something, but they’re as unreadable as ever.
Shake it off.
I reach out and take his arm.
I’ve never walked arm in arm with a guy before, and Axel’s definitely never offered. His hard stone beneath my hand is the most comforting thing I’ve felt in a long time. This close, I can smell him, stony and solid. He doesn’t say anything when I lean my head against his shoulder.
As we wander out of the castle’s center and into the outer corridors, I begin to notice how late it really is. The sky is dark, heavy with clouds, and combined with the setting sun, it looks as though the mountains are burning. Thunder rumbles in the distance, and the wind is picking up.
“Should be a good storm,” he says, looking to the sky.
“Mm.” I’m too busy sucking in the smell of ozone and falling leaves. Lightning flickers somewhere on the far side of the castle, its image reflected in the growing darkness.
The sun fades behind the mountains, spilling a last bit of molten fire over them, and then it’s gone. Beside me, Axel’s stone becomes flesh, sending a thrill through me. He sighs, and there’s a hint of—enjoyment? Pleasure? Something I can’t quite place. His eyes turn down to me, and I want so much to lose myself in them.
“Come on. The storm will be just as good from your room.”
I let him lead me. Until someone else stops us, short of my room. Another gargoyle. He’s out of breath, as though he’s been running, and wears the same black uniform as every other gargoyle I’ve seen in this place.
“Sir!”
Wait, why is he calling Axel ‘sir’?
“What is it?”
“It’s Grittanus, sir,” he says, gasping. I immediately freeze. “He’s attacking.”
Axel’s eyes lock on mine. “Take her to her room. Do not leave her alone under any circumstances. Kendry—”
“Go,” I whisper. He does, at a run, and I turn to my new escort.
“Well, uh…”
“Cullain.”
“Well, Cullain. Shall we?”
We go, and when we reach my door, he opens it for me. It’s dark inside, except for the flash of lightning from my balcony. The storm is really beginning to pick up. Rain spatters hard on the stone, until it’s a blinding sheet of water, the wind spraying it everywhere.
“I’m guessing I ought to close this, before my bed and everything else get wet.”
“No, leave it open.”
I freeze. His voice is suddenly different. Gone is the eager gargoyle who met us in the hall. I turn, and another flash of lightning illuminates his face, lips pulled back in a cocky, self-satisfied smile.
“Your guardian is not very good. I can’t imagine how he became one of the firsts. He surely won’t survive our new world.”
He steps forward, and I step back towards the balcony. I can feel the rain blowing on my back. “What do you want?”
“A world without humans. And without the Conclave. Grittanus wants you. He wasn’t finished with you.”
My foot hits wet rock, and I know I only have a few more steps before I run out of room. God, not again!
“It’s useless to run. By the time that fool Axelrod figures out there is no attack, I’ll be long gone with you.”
My calves bump against stone. No more room. Cullain smiles, closing the gap.
“Drop, Kendry!”
I dive to the floor. Axel plummets past me, his body screaming through the rain to careen into a surprised Cullain. They plow across the floor of my room. Axel’s fist hammers up and down, until Cullain throws him off, and dives after me again. I surprise him with a well-placed kick to the jaw, and plunge my knife into his shoulder. He screams, and screams again when I tear it out. And then Axel is there again, ramming into him. They tumble over the low wall, spinning into the open storm.
Lightning tears through the sky, illuminating their fight in a slow, staccato strobe. Wings tangle, fists raise, bodies clash.
And then the blinding, fleeting light shows nothing. They’re gone.
I fling myself to the ledge, trying to find him, to find some sign that he’s won the fight. Nothing. Only darkness. Lightning stabs the forest in front of me, tearing the sky with electricity so strong I can feel it like a buzz under my skin, and a thunder clap so deafening that it leaves my ears ringing.
Still nothing. But I can’t take my eyes off the night, can’t pull myself out of the rain. He has to be there. He’s not.
And then he is.
Wings beating against the rain and the wind, he’s not so careful with his landing this time. He lands hard on the balcony, making the force of it vibrate through the stone at my feet. Rain pours off him in a million tiny rivers that flow over every crease and bend in his body. He pushes up from his three-point landing stance, and I can see blood mixing with the rain to stream off his face. Cullain’s fist must have cut him. His eyes burn black in the shattering darkness.
I reach out for him. “God, Axel, are you alright?”
His hands close tight on my arms, eyes scanning over every inch of me. “Did h
e touch you? Did he hurt you?”
“I…no, I’m fine. You’re bleeding!” There’re two cuts, actually, and I can see he has a split lip. It’s already swelling.
“Are you sure? You’re positive? You’re not hurt?” His eyes are almost frantic on mine.
“I’m fine!” My fingers brush his split lip as lightning strikes again, throwing his features into sharp contrast. “It’s you I’m worried about, look at thi—”
I don’t finish my sentence. I can’t.
I can’t because his lips are on mine, crushing down. I can taste the rain on him, sweet, and the sharp tang of his blood. His mouth is hungry, flexing against mine, working my jaw open wider, drinking me in. His tongue flickers, teasing, tasting, running along my lip, dancing with my own.
My heart pounds in my ears. Everything around me vanishes but him. I hardly notice the rain that runs down my head and face and body, or the lightening that splits the night. I can’t hear the thunder over the pounding of my heart. I only have room for him, for his touch, his lips, his hands, his body. Fingers slide from my shoulder up to my neck, until they tangle in my hair. His other hand slides to my waist, pulling me tight, until I couldn’t move away if I wanted to. I can’t imagine ever wanting to. My own hands are on his chest, ranging up and down, feeling the hard muscles beneath his shirt, his abs, his shoulders.
I don’t realize we’re moving until my back hits the wall.
He pulls away a fraction, and I groan, breath coming in great gasps.
“Tell me to stop, tell me to leave, and I will,” he whispers, his breath on my lips.
“Never leave,” I breathe back, and his lips crash down into me again. I’m as desperate for him. Our wet bodies press tighter against each other, until we can’t possibly get any closer, but we still try. I want to climb inside him.
He takes my lower lip in his mouth, pulling and biting at it, his tongue sliding along the edge. It sends shivers down my spine. My fingers tighten on the muscles of his back, willing him closer. His wings wrap around us, sheltering, creating our own space where there’s only the two of us, and nothing else. His mouth moves to my jaw, my neck, licking away the rain, caressing my skin. I can’t keep myself from moaning.
My fingers play with the hem of his soaked shirt, grazing the skin beneath. I want my hands on his body, want to run them over his skin, but a part of me worries he’ll pull away again. But he kisses the base of my neck and shoulder, sucking gently at the skin, and I can’t help it. My hand slides under his shirt to caress the muscles of his back.
The hand on my waist tightens, and he freezes.
“Kendry,” he breathes in my ear. His voice is husky, and it’s half a question, half begging.
I kiss the corner of his mouth lightly, and then again, harder, licking at the blood where it’s split and the rain that still pours down over us. My hand runs up and down his perfect back.
Axel groans, and then his drenched shirt is gone, vanished, and there’s only the warmth of his wet skin under my hand. His fingers dig into my waist as I kiss his collarbone, running my hands up his back, across the base of his wings, under his arms, across the soft, beautiful skin of his chest, up over his shoulders and down the clenched muscles of his arms. And then they run back up to pull his lips down again to mine. His hips press hard against me, pinning my body against the wall as his lips devour me.
And just when things are getting good, he reaches up and pulls my arms away.
He leans his head against mine, our chests heaving, water dripping from his rain-soaked black hair. The rain is finally calming, settling into a drizzle. His wings still surround us, my hands still grasping for him, wanting to touch him, wishing he’d let me. I whimper quietly, needing him to kiss me again, to let go of my arms and go where I know this was going two seconds ago. But he stands there, leaning against me, keeping me against the wall outside my room. His thumb reaches up to trace my lips, and when he kisses me this time, it’s soft, tender.
“I have wanted to do that for so long,” he whispers.
“Axel, please, I…” His strong, muscular arms wrap around me. In that moment, I know there’s nothing in the world I want more than him. And God, I want him badly. I want him on me and over me and inside me.
“Come on, let’s get you out of the rain.”
He lifts me up, cradling me in his arms, and carries me into the room. He tenses as I kiss along his neck and under his jaw. His grip tightens around me, and my heartbeat speeds up as he lowers me to the bed.
But then he draws away.
My mind spins a mile a minute. I didn’t misinterpret the intent behind that kiss. There’s no way I did. I reach up after him, wanting to draw him down with me. “Axel…”
He looks at me, those deep black eyes unfathomable as the ocean. I pull my arm back, instinctually, shocked that he’s already shutting me out.
“Sleep, Kendry. You’ve had a long day.”
And damn him, he’s right. I’m already starting to feel it, as the energy of our kiss bleeds away. I don’t want to sleep. I want him. But I sink back down, trying not to feel hurt by his sudden distance.
And then he reaches out his fingers drawing a line down my cheek. “I’ll be right here.” The mattress dips as he sits down next to me.
I smile, my hand covering his, and let sleep take me over.
I wake up alone.
I touch my lips, wondering if I dreamed it all. Being kissed in the rain, falling asleep in Axel’s arms. I didn’t dream it. I couldn’t have. The taste of rain and blood and him is too strong a memory to have been a dream.
God, don’t let me have dreamt it. Not a kiss that good.
But the bed next to me is definitely missing one gargoyle. I really hoped he’d be here when I woke up, even if he did pretty much blow me off after giving me hands-down the best kiss of my life.
Movement on the balcony catches my eye, and I have a moment of panic before I realize it’s Axel.
I shift quietly so I can get a better view of him. The sunlight streams in past him, his wings flexing and casting shadows into the room. His shirt hasn’t reappeared, a small fact that makes me happier than it should. But his body, flesh or stone, is magnificent. I can’t stop staring, while replaying last night’s kiss in my mind.
The press of his body against mine. The hunger and need in his kiss, and the way he held me tight enough to bruise.
Why did he stop?
The question bothers me even more this morning than it did last night. He clearly wanted it as much as I did.
“You’re awake.”
I look up and realize I’ve been so lost in thought, I hadn’t noticed Axel move. He’s leaning in the doorway to the balcony now, dark eyes watching me. But he’s wearing a shirt again, and his look isn’t the welcoming one I was hoping for.
I sit up, grimacing at the clothes I never changed out of last night. “Axel—”
“You should get dressed. We need to talk with Herne about the attack last night.”
I stand up and glare at him, crossing my arms to match his. This is not going at all how I thought it would. “Great. Are you planning on telling him what happened after the attack?”
Nothing.
“Kendry, please get changed. You need breakfast, and—”
“Yeah, I would, but unlike you, I can’t create perfect clothing at a thought. These,” I gesture to the clothes I’m wearing, “were the last semi-clean things I had.” I turn around and grab my rucksack, hoping I’m wrong and maybe there’s something half decent in there still.
“Have you looked in the wardrobe?”
I look up from digging through my rucksack, narrowing my eyes. “What is this, some fairytale? Beauty and the Beast?”
He rolls his eyes at me. “Haven’t you learned by now that if it showed up in myth, legend, or fairytale at some point, chances are it has some grain of truth from our world? Hell, even half the religious stuff is true.”
“Only half?”
“
Only half. Humans have a great imagination, and a lot of religion has always been more about control than anything else.”
I shoot him a glare and walk over to the wardrobe, stopping with my hand on the door. “This thing isn’t going to be full of dresses, is it?”
“Just open it.”
I do. And it’s full of regular old comfortable clothes, apparently in my size.
Awesome. At least something is going right this morning. “Thank you. Now you can wait outside while I change.”
“Not a chance. After last night, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
I roll my eyes to myself. Perfect. So he’s going to ignore the freaking awesome kiss we shared last night, avoid talking about it completely, and go back to being distant and over-protective. Fantastic.
Well, two can play that game. Or better yet, I can play my own game.
“Fine. Suit yourself.” I grab the edges of my shirt and pull it up over my head. The fabric is still slightly damp, and stiff. What I really want is a shower, but at this point I’m too pissed at Axel to do anything about it. I’ll insist on one later. But I have to smile when I pull out a drawer and find clean underthings.
God, a clean bra. And panties. I’ve died and gone to, well, upper purgatory, maybe.
I grin and undo the clasp on the pitiful excuse for a bra I’m wearing. This wardrobe is like Christmas. It may be my new best friend.
Axel makes a strangled noise as the bra drops to the floor, and I grin.
“Kendry…”
“You can leave the room, if you’re uncomfortable.”
Silence. And that’s a point to me.
Though I do jump when I glance to the side, and there’s a table with a washbasin that wasn’t there a minute before. Okay, and major points to the wardrobe. I smile and gave myself a quick wipe down before putting on a clean bra.
I unzip my shorts next, dropping them without ceremony. I can hear Axel breathing funny from across the room. Just what I want. But I take a quick deep breath myself, steeling up my courage, before my panties follow.
Axel groans.
Two points to me, Axel zero. And job done.
I finish dressing quickly, pulling on jeans and socks before turning back as a knock sounds at the door. Axel speeds across the room to get it as I close the wardrobe door. I let him get it. I’m too busy smirking at the patch of crumbling stone on the balcony ledge that wasn’t there this morning.
ParaWars Uprising Page 12
