One side of me was surprised by Max’s compassion towards me, while the other was happy that he was finally showing his true colors. My grin softened and I pushed my cheek closer against his hand. I wasn’t really sure how to answer him or if I wanted him to know what had just happened. As trust went, both sides of me agreed that I needed to see a little more of the real Max before I told him more than the obvious.
When I didn’t answer, Max continued, though he sounded as though he was verbalizing internal thoughts rather than talking to me. “Your eyes,” he said, slowly. “They’ve changed. I could have sworn they were a pure and deep blue, but now—there is emerald green in there.”
Astonished by his answer, I scooted forward on the bench top, causing Max to drop his hands from my shoulders and step back. Then, I dropped my feet on the floor and spun around to check my eyes in the mirror. I rested my hands on the cool, white tile on either side of the basin and leaned in closer to the mirror. The fluorescent light glowing brightly above my head made the newly formed green flecks in my irises appear more vibrant. I stared into my eyes, from one blue-green iris to the next and wondered whether this was a physical manifestation of my new vision.
Soon, I was smiling as wide as I had just moments before and I finally began to feel quite content. I was no longer scared of what my other half was thinking or planning or scheming, because I could hear her thoughts, our thoughts, all at once. Although, we now had mutual control over our body and our actions, we could no longer hide the truth, our desires and our fears from each other. Our life was simpler now.
I felt Max move closer behind me and I saw movement in the mirror as his face leaned in beside mine. He seemed careful not to touch me and as I looked from my face to his in the mirror, I was surprised to see how worried and confused his expression still remained.
“It’s okay,” I said quietly, trying to be reassuring. “I’m fine.”
Max frowned at me, looking as though he had some doubts about the truth of my answer, yet he nodded his head and stepped back.
I turned to face him as he moved and looked up into his dark amber eyes as I rested a hand on his chest above his undead heart. “Why are you here, Max,” I said, while both halves of me curiously waited for an answer.
Max’s eyes held mine for a moment and then they dropped to the floor. He took another step back and the back of his legs touched the rim of the bathtub. I stepped with him and refused to let my hand fall from his chest. As if realizing the weakness in his retreat, he shook his head and then raised his eyes back to mine. His compassionate, but tense posture changed and then he seemed to relax artificially into the arrogant side of his personality that I was used to.
He crossed his arms over his chest, forcing my hand off his body and then gave me a flimsy smirk. “If you hadn’t noticed,” he said, somewhat smugly. “You would have been werewolf chow had it not been for me.”
I took a step back from him, annoyed at his haughtiness and then leant against the edge of the basin. I mirrored his crossed arms and raised a doubtful eyebrow at him. “I was doing just fine before you showed up,” I said boldly.
Max tilted his head to the side and his smirk became more natural with honest amusement. “Oh really,” he said sarcastically. “And what were you planning to do with that comb? Brush the werewolf to death?”
I pouted at him and glared. He’d obviously missed the fact that I’d already managed to get a few meaningful blows to the werewolf’s back. So, it was clearly time for me to inform him. “I’ll have you know,” I said, confidently. “That before you arrived, the comb had been a very successful stabbing utensil. So really, I weakened the werewolf for you. It wouldn’t have been that easy for you to kill it had I not.”
Max raised a surprised eyebrow at me and laughed, then took a step forward. I held my head high, refusing to be intimidated and glared into his eyes.
“Sweet little Kitten,” he said condescendingly. “You really underestimate me. You have absolutely no idea how easy it would have been for me to kill him without the help of your tiny, little stab wounds. I am much stronger and more capable than you give me credit for.”
Glaring devilishly, I took a small step forward and stuck my chest out aggressively in protest to his criticism. “Seriously,” I said, letting the obvious doubt I felt slide off my tongue. “I think it’s more the size of your ego and the stench of your arrogance that I failed to give you credit for. And I believe it’s you, dear Mr. Tiennan who has underestimated me. Are you quite sure you know what I’m capable of?”
Max’s smirk turned into a grin and he inched closer filling the space between us. I glared down my nose at him, ignoring the part of me that wanted to run out of the bathroom screaming, and I held my ground. As I watched him, waiting for his reply, I saw his face contort ever so slightly and before I had time to see them change, his canines had lowered to deadly sharp points.
I pulled my lips tight together and clenched my jaw. I refused to let him scare me. “Oooh,” I said feigning fear, as I pushed my face closer to his. “You’re such a big scary vampire, aren’t you? I bet you love making helpless women scream.”
Max’s lips pulled back tight over his fangs in an odd looking smile-snarl and his bright amber eyes glittered at me. “Scream, yes,” he said, his face inches from mine. “But not for the reason you suppose.”
In an instant, his hands dropped from his chest and he grabbed me ferociously around the waist, pulling my body tight against his. I tried to struggle free and then, without so much as a second thought, I raised my right hand and slapped him hard across the face. My glare was fierce as I watched him raise a hand to his cheek and turn his head back to face me. I half expected to hear him laughing at my weak attempt to hurt him, because the last time I’d tried it had been a terrible failure.
Instead, as he turned his face to look at me, I saw crimson droplets of blood spotting his bottom lip and felt quite impressed with myself. I felt the corners of my mouth try to pull into a grin and I forced myself to stay serious. It looked as though Sam had been wrong about whether or not the evil side of me would be happy to use her strength on the bad guys. If anyone could have been exempt from her lethal fighting skills, it would have been Max. But, by the looks of things, it seemed as though that assumption had bitten the dust.
I clenched my jaw fighting the temptation to grin triumphantly and then raised a daring eyebrow. “Didn’t expect that, did you,” I said smugly, letting a little of my grin slip.
Max’s eyes narrowed angrily on mine as he ran a finger over his lip, collecting the blood, and then dipped it into his mouth. A strange feeling came over me as I watched him and I bit my bottom lip trying to ignore it. His remaining hand around my waist began to feel heavy against my skin and the closeness of his body against mine started to boil my blood. I licked my lips involuntarily as he watched me intensely through warm amber eyes.
Breathing deeply, I tried to steady myself and calm my body, but instead all I could seem to inhale was Max. He smelt warm and spicy, beneath the gentle alcoholic tang of his cologne and it seemed to pull me nearer to him. Max’s eyes lost their anger and became heated in another way as they watched me move closer.
Before I had a chance to complain, not that I would have had much strength to in the situation, Max’s lips met mine again for a second time that night. His arms wrapped tightly behind my back and he pulled me close to him, hard along the line of his body. His lips were demanding, but gentle on mine as his tongue stroked deeply inside my mouth, trying to taste every inch of me. My hands found security around his neck and I gave in to the pleasure of the moment. I moaned as he pressed himself harder against me and as his teeth lightly nibbled at my lips.
Still holding me tightly against his body, Max forced me backwards into the edge of the basin and effortlessly propped me up onto the narrow tiled bench top in front of it. He sighed deeply into my mouth as my legs wrapped around his waist and I tried desperately to get him even closer to me. His fin
gertips caressed the bare skin beneath the bottom of my white singlet and he began inching the material higher.
When his fingers reached my ribs, I raised my arms from behind his neck and pulled out of the kiss. Max took the hint and pulled my singlet up and over my head, then threw it on the floor. Without asking his permission, I grabbed the bottom of his black t-shirt and started doing the same. Hurriedly, he grabbed it from my hands, pulled it off and threw it on the werewolf blood-spattered tiles next to mine.
His lips hungrily met mine again and our arms wrapped tightly back around each other. The heat emanating from my skin met the slight coolness of his and my body wanted more. I pulled him closer and harder against me, but it just wasn’t enough. Max’s hands ran over my waist and hips, and then dipped down to grasp the curve of my bum. I ran my hands over his chest and around his back, my fingernails scratching delicately down from his shoulder blades to the top of his low-ridding black jeans. I slipped my fingers just under the material and tickled the sensitive skin below as I ran my hands round the circumference of his pants. As I got closer to the front, he sighed again deeply into my kiss and then pressed into me, making me moan softly in response.
Max’s hands started to climb higher on my body, stroking along the line of my waist and over my ribs. His fingertips lightly touched the material of my sports bra and I gasped as his thumbs caressed the skin beneath. Suddenly, his lips left mine and they kissed and nibbled a line from my jaw down to the nape of my neck. I swayed lightly in his embrace, closing my eyes in pleasure and giving in to the excitement of his lips on my neck. I felt his hands follow the cloth of my bra around to my back and as his hands met the clasp, I felt his teeth gently graze my neck.
Instantly, my eyes shot open and I pushed him away. Max’s eyes looked at me in wide surprise and for a moment, I almost thought I saw a hint of rejection pass through them.
“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head in embarrassment. “I can’t do this.”
Max’s hands dropped from where they were, but landed softly on my hips, creating a reassuring and undemanding weight. I looked into his eyes and was surprised to see that he wasn’t mad. In fact, a small smile lengthened his kiss-swollen lips.
“It’s fine,” he said huskily, as he raised a hand to stroke a rogue piece of hair behind my ear. “I only want you willingly, when you’re ready.”
I smiled half-heartedly at him, feeling a little silly and mad at myself for both letting the situation escalate so far and for stopping right in the middle of things. Either way, both halves of me were proud of Max for taking the situation so well and so calmly. It was a side of him that only one side of me thought existed and that both sides of me were happy to discover was real.
I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a hug, resting my head against the top of his chest. Max didn’t fight my embrace, but held me tightly and placed his head lightly on the top of mine. I found it odd, with my ear pressed firmly against his body, that the absence of a heartbeat should actually help to calm me. For some reason, the silence inside him comforted me and did little more than intrigue me into wondering whether he might be feeling exactly what a quickened heartbeat might betray.
After a while, we both pulled back from each other and I smiled contentedly up at him. A moment of happy silence passed between us and then I began wondering, once again, why and how he’d come to my rescue earlier. A few haunting suspicions began to circle in my mind and my expression turned serious. I bit my bottom lip, fighting with myself, angry that I would suspect him of foul play and annoyed that I was going to ruin the moment. I gathered my courage and decided that I had to know the truth, a vague answer like the one he’d given before, wasn’t enough to sate my suspicions.
“Max,” I said, looking up into his dark amber eyes.
His face had turned anxious as though he sensed the coming question. He forced a closed mouth smile at me and waited for me to continue.
“Why did you really come here tonight,” I asked, quietly.
Max’s smile wilted slightly and his hands slipped from where they had been resting on the outside of my thighs down to the tops of my knees. “I came to see you,” he said, his eyes still staring deep into mine.
Although it was a decent answer, it still didn’t properly explain why he’d come. I frowned, once again angry at myself for wanting to know more. Why I couldn’t just let it go and be happy with the moment as it was, I didn’t know.
“I gathered that,” I said with a small smile. “But, why did you come to see me?”
Max’s smile dropped and his hands left my knees as he took a step back. His eyes left mine and he stared off into the darkness beyond the closed window on our right. “It doesn’t matter now,” he sighed, sounding frustrated.
I pushed myself off the basin’s tiled edge and took a step towards him. I reached out for his hand, but as my fingertips touched his, he jolted his hand away.
“Stop,” he said, anger filling his voice as his bright amber eyes returned to mine. He glared at me, trying hard to hide the honest pain spreading in his eyes. “Why do you think I came here, Kitty,” he said aggressively, “because chances are, you’re right.”
He took a step towards me and I retreated back a step. “You know who I really am and I’ve no doubt you can guess at my intentions so why Kitty, why do you think I was here tonight just in time to save you?”
I wanted to be mad at him. His hostility made me want to be so, but as I looked up into the sadness and loneliness in his eyes, I just couldn’t be. “I don’t know,” I said, firmly and calmly. “Tell me.”
Max shook his head in frustration and stepped away from me towards the window. His body hunched slightly and went tense as though he was preparing himself for something. Then he straightened and turned to face me. He took a powerful step towards me and grabbed my bare upper arm tightly. “Come with me,” he said, furiously, “and I’ll show you.”
He dragged me towards the bathroom door and over to the crumpled body in the hallway. It had now returned back to its human form; fur and claws no longer covering its body. Max let go of my arm and crouched to the floor, then grabbed the dead human’s shoulder and pulled the body back until I could see its face.
I gasped, completely unable to stop myself and I moved away from the body and Max. “It’s the werewolf from this morning,” I said, shocked. “The boy that Sam shot. But how—? Why is he here? Why did he come into the city?”
I looked at Max, unsure if he had any answers, but sure that he knew more than he was letting on.
Max let go of the body and stood up to face me. “They found him this morning,” he said matter-of-factly. “My father’s dogs always patrol the perimeter outside the city walls during the day. They heard a gunshot and found this animal lying on the ground with a bloodied hole healing in his side. When they brought him to my father, he decided that there was a better use for him than caging him and making him one of his own, so he gave him to me.”
I shook my head lightly from side to side as I tried to make sense of what Max was telling me. But, I just couldn’t seem to take my eyes off the poor, naked teenager lying in a broken ball on the floor. Slick, sharp edges of bone protruded horrifyingly out of his gaping wounds, while dark crimson blood congealed tightly around them on his light, tanned skin. His dark auburn hair hung limply from his scalp and I noticed for the first time the cause of death. Besides having his throat torn out and hanging in a messy, fleshy clump from the side of his neck, it was clear to see that Max had broken his spine. A glittering rod of blood spattered bone jutted awkwardly out from the cavernous hole in his neck and pointed angrily into the skin of his chest.
A hot, wet tear slid down my face as I looked from the body to Max in disgust. Rage shot adrenalin into my blood and my throat threatened to close at the thought that this young boy’s death might have somehow been my fault. A part of me had been piecing together the truth of tonight’s events ever since Max came to my rescue and although I had
tried hard to ignore her, I now knew her intuition was right.
I fought back my burning, guilty tears as I focused my attention on Max and tried hard not to let my body shake in shock as I glared at him. “What do you mean your father gave him to you,” I said, my voice violently deep, but steady.
Max stared at me and for an instant I could have sworn I saw the agony of guilt and regret cloud his vision, but it was gone before I could be sure. His posture changed again and he was back to his arrogant and egotistical self. He tilted his head to the side at me as he clasped his hands together in front of him, looking as though he was trying to feign pity. A hateful smile curled his lips up and he forced a laugh in my direction.
“He was supposed to be a means to an end,” he said, pompously dissatisfied. Max unclasped his hands and raised them up, imitating scales. “The life of one helpless puppy,” he said, lifting up his left hand. He grinned at me, clearly pleased with himself as he dropped his left hand and raised his right. “For the trust of one powerful Kitten.”
My bottom lip quivered as I fought back more tears and tried hard to ignore the stiffening pain clamping down hard around my heart and suffocating me. It was not as if I had not seen a betrayal coming or that I’d totally and utterly trusted Max. He was right after all, I did know him and to some extent, a part of me I knew that he’d come to my rescue just to gain more of my trust. But I had not immediately suspected, nor had any part of me wanted to assume, that the innocent werewolf had been an integral part of his plans.
Another burning tear slipped down my face and all I wanted to do was scream. I forced my lips tight together, trying hard not to let my bottom lip or jaw tremble in front of him. I stared daggers into Max’s dark amber eyes and I clenched my hands into fists. “Get out,” I said slowly, through firmly clenched teeth.
Innocently Evil (A Kitty Bloom Novel) Page 16
