by D. N. Hoxa
He arched a brow slightly but didn’t comment.
“The left side of your waist is wide open,” I continued, expecting him to laugh at me and give back a snarky reply, but he nodded and repositioned his arm better. Huh.
“Keep your eyes on my eyes, but watch my every limb at the same time. Try to find something in me that will help you predict my next move.”
I swung my fist at him. He blocked. His feet were looser, and he seemed more relaxed now. He aimed for my face with his fist. I dodged, but he hit my shoulder. The pain echoed and vibrated, more so where the vampire had bitten me. I’d feel the real pain from that hit later, after the adrenaline wore off. I pushed my arm up and hit him in the elbow, then kicked him in his inner thigh. His leg shook and almost gave, but he recovered quickly. His fists were on me fast, left, right, left, and he was down on his knees, perfectly imitating one of my favorite moves. He managed to kick my legs from under me.
Before I could fall, I leaned forward and pushed his shoulders back so I could regain some balance and found myself on top of him, flat on my stomach, our mouths a hair apart.
I found him staring at my lips as I analyzed his. They looked so juicy and full that I wanted to run my tongue over them. My stomach was a mess but not in a bad way. I was hot and dry in a second. His arms were around my waist, pinning me to him, and I could feel his strong chest and stomach, and…oh.
I smiled.
“Something you like?” he whispered. Oh, I like, all right.
He tried to guard his expression, but it was too late. I caught a glimpse of raw desire in his eyes, and I felt the tension in his body. It was like our bodies were made for each other. They fit perfectly in every small way.
Aaron kept his arms around me, never loosening them. He could try to hide or fight the desire, but his body told a different story. He was affected just as much as I was, and I couldn’t believe the way that made me feel.
“You wish,” I said after too long for it to have any effect. It was the best line I had. He did that to me, talked back to me while I lost my own words. I pushed up with my hands on his strong chest and landed on my feet before I let myself lose control.
“Man, where is the popcorn when you need it?” Jack said, but we didn’t pay any attention to him.
I couldn’t look at Aaron. As soon as he was on his feet, I kicked him on the side and moved around to avoid his eyes.
What was wrong with me? Was I embarrassed?! Since when?!
In five minutes, I had him pinned with his face against the wall, just like the first time we’d met, my mouth close to his ear. Before I could do something that I would probably regret—say, lick or bite his earlobe, I let go and took a couple of steps back. Our breathing was heavy, and Jack was applauding. I bowed before him, ignoring Aaron for my own sake.
“Thanks for the tips,” Aaron said dryly and headed for the door without looking back. I couldn’t blame him.
“Anytime.”
I tried to sound excited, ignoring the disappointment of seeing him leave. I liked my hands on him. As much as I tried to deny it, I missed him on the three days I didn’t see him. I missed him more than I wanted—or needed—to. I definitely didn’t need that kind of complication in my life. But I watched him. I watched his strong back, the line of his spine all the way down to his narrow hips. And that ass. I watched how the material of his blue shorts danced around his thighs as he walked out the door, never looking back.
Suddenly, I had the urge to run after him and lick and bite and kiss every inch of him, all while he moved so gracefully.
After he was out of sight, fortunately for me, I turned to Jack. I fought him for another hour until a boy called him for whatever and left running after giving me the stink eye.
I went back to the small room they gave me, but, hey, it had a private bathroom. I took a shower and dressed in a pair of loose yoga pants and a green, long-sleeved shirt that said Unicorns are cool. I went outside for some more controlling practice before I changed for the last time to go to Lyndor. True, I was leaving in a couple of hours, but I couldn’t sleep. My mind kept going back to Aaron, to his bare chest, to the feel of him under me. And that led to me reproaching myself in my mind, reminding me of why I felt guilty for wanting him. Then I thought of Ella and Dad. I couldn’t afford to go there yet.
The rain had stopped, and it was scary dark outside. I used my hood to cover some wet ground and sat. I took my phone with me, and when I could finally reach reception, I got a text message.
Where r u? They say they have ur family. Is it true ur w/ the RR?
It was from Nick. I’d forgotten all about him. Shit. I’d forgotten he knew about the cage. I was planning on taking that road to get inside Lyndor unnoticed. Panic started to slowly crawl inside my veins. Someone walked outside the door the next second.
I turned to see Aaron, freshly showered and dressed in a white shirt and jeans, coming toward me.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi,” I replied, surprised. Just a little more than two hours ago he’d left the training room looking like he wanted to strangle me. Now, he was greeting me like normal people do, like he didn’t want to kill me. I stared at him as he walked around my right side and sat next to me.
“Sleeping problems?”
I smiled bitterly and nodded. “You?”
“Yeah,” he breathed but didn’t turn to look at me. He was staring at the darkness behind the trees. I was a little relieved. See? We could have a normal conversation after all, as long as I didn’t look at him or he at me.
I thought about what to say to Nick. Don’t go back to the cave? The message was sent a day before. I couldn’t be sure that he hadn’t told McGraw and the others about it.
“What’s that?” Aaron asked, looking at my phone.
“Message from my apprentice. I forgot all about him,” I said reluctantly, shaking my head. No point in lying, really.
“Apprentice?” he asked, bemused and with a little sense of disbelief. I wasn’t surprised, so I just I nodded.
“When we got word that you guys were recruiting, we called students to Lyndor to train for Royal Guards.”
Aaron nodded. “I know. One of ours got the call. He ran away after his family refused to let him answer the Council’s call. They’ve been with us undercover for a long time.”
“Really? Which family?”
I thought McGraw did a background check on all of them. Can’t say I wasn’t glad he did a lousy job, but still.
“The Grimaldies,” Aaron said, never meeting my eyes.
“Grimaldies? Like Nicholas Grimaldie?” I asked, stunned as my heart started to pound in my chest. It couldn’t be.
“Yeah. Have you seen him?”
“Nick is my apprentice!” Holy shit, what were the odds?
“Are you kidding me?”
His face broke into a huge smile that made him a thousand times more swoon-worthy. I grinned. I couldn’t believe it! This was perfect. Finally, some luck. I couldn’t contain my joy. This made things so much easier. Nick was one of the RR. There was no way he told McGraw about the cave. No way at all.
So I texted back.
Yes. Aaron says hi. Can u help?
And I pressed SEND. I hoped to God that nobody found the cave. I hoped Nick was careful enough to not be followed. That was my only option to get inside the castle unnoticed.
“Before I left, I told Nick about my cave in Lyndor, a place I discovered during my time there and the only place where you can get cell reception. I plan to take that way to get inside Lyndor. It’s going to be a long way up, though.”
My original plan was to climb. It was high, but the rocks were climbable. I could have done it in a day. Or at least I hoped I could. Now, with Nick inside, if he could help, things would be simpler.
“That sucks,” Aaron said.
“Not if Nick can help. Maybe I won’t need to climb the rocks.”
“Good.” He nodded. “I was never a good climber.”
>
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I always fall flat on my back—” he started, but I cut him off.
“No, Aaron. You are not going with me.”
I had agreed to take two Rebels and a lot of weapons. But I definitely didn’t want Aaron there with me. I couldn’t bear the weight of his life on my conscience.
“Of course I am,” he said matter-of-factly.
“No, you’re not.” Anger built fast inside me, my heart already pounding.
“We both are, Jack and I. We’re the best they have on this base. We are both coming.”
“There’s no way in hell—” I started to shout, but he stopped me.
“This is not your decision to make. We made our decision to come, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us.”
I wanted to punch him in the face and hard, but I got it together, going for a more reasonable approach instead.
“I know you don’t trust me—”
“I really don’t,” he spit.
I closed my eyes, breathing deeply. I hated being interrupted mid-sentence.
“But you could get killed if you come. I know that place, and I operate better by myself.”
And I did work better by myself. I was planning to tell the men who would come with me to come up with some sort of distraction for only a few minutes, and then run like hell back where they came from after the alarm rang.
“You think I’ll slow you down?” he asked dryly.
No, that wasn’t it at all. I just didn’t want his life in danger. Idiot.
“Of course you’ll slow me down,” I snapped back instead. “But you will get killed in there. There will be Royals, and they are good.”
“I’ve fought Royals before. I’m not as weak as you apparently think I am.” I caught a hint of disappointment in his voice.
“I don’t care, Aaron. You will not be in danger because of me.” That last one slipped out and I regretted it immediately. He slowly turned to face me.
“What, you just grew a conscience all of a sudden?”
It felt like a slap to my face, but he was right. The way I’d acted the first day in the Base, I believed I was a conscienceless bitch, too. But he didn’t have to know that.
“Stop whining like a little pussy, and just accept it that you will get killed if you come. I am not about to let that happen,” I said, and he grinned at me. “Trust me, it’s not because I like you.” I turned away from him.
“The feeling’s mutual so we’re good. You don’t like me and I don’t like you, so we won’t care what happens to one another,” he said and I liked to think I caught a hint of disappointment in his voice in that last sentence. But then again, I liked to occasionally flatter myself. “You’ll get your family, I’ll see to it that you take care of the potion, and we’re out.” He made it sound so damn easy. If he only knew.
I laughed. “You think that’ll be it? That it’ll be as easy as that? That just shows how unprepared you are for a mission like this,” I mocked, determined to use every low blow to change his mind.
His face turned dead serious. “You have no idea what I am and am not prepared to do,” he whispered, and for a second, he seemed different. The vibe he gave me was lower, darker somehow. It disappeared as fast as it appeared, though. I turned to look at him, meeting his cold gaze with mine, trying to figure out what that was. I never came across anything like that before. Nobody’s vibe changed, ever. Curiosity burned inside me. The look on his face showed pure anger, letting me know I’d crossed the line. I didn’t care.
I leaned forward, closing the distance between us, keeping his eyes, and said: “I am going alone.”
He leaned even closer to me, leaving our faces barely two inches apart.
“I am going with you,” he said, his voice just as low and as dangerous, until his eyes went to my parted lips. As if on cue, my tongue came out and licked my bottom lip. I mind-slapped myself. I didn’t want to provoke him or make him think that I was thinking about his lips on mine. Even though I was. A lot more than was reasonable, in fact.
His own lips parted at the sight of my tongue, making the tension intensify and wrap around us like a thick blanket. I had to get my head together and stop looking at those lips. Slowly, before I could move, Aaron backed away and sat straight, once again his eyes on the darkness in front of us.
What the hell was he doing to me? Why did I feel so weak in front of him? I was pathetic. Suddenly, I couldn’t wait to get this over with and leave, never see him again. It wasn’t healthy to have someone around who could turn you into a good little puppy like that. I turned to look back at the entrance of the Base and found myself contemplating whether or not I should just get up and leave. Thankfully, the vibration of my phone broke the awkward silence, and stopped my childish impulse to run and hide. It was a message from Nick.
What do u need?
I sighed in relief. Then something else occurred to me. What if they caught Nick? What if McGraw was sending the texts? I shivered at the thought but decided that wasn’t the case. Nick was smart enough to go in and out of the cave unnoticed.
I looked at Aaron through the corner of my eye. His face showed the same determination and courage that impressed me the first time I met him. I shook my head, realizing I had to accept that he and Jack were coming with me. I hoped I wouldn’t regret it, though I probably would.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked for one last time.
“Yes,” he said without missing a beat.
I nodded and returned to the phone, a plan already forming in my mind as I texted Nick back.
We stood there side by side looking ahead at nothing. Aaron was so beautiful, even in complete darkness. I wanted to lay my head on his shoulder and rest. Just standing there close to him made me feel relaxed, complete. I wondered how much better it would feel if I put my arms around his neck. Of course, I didn’t. I couldn’t understand what was happening to me, but I just prayed for all of this to be over so I could get on with my life away from Aaron and everything and everyone else but my family. I had everything ready. Money, fake IDs, weapons. The rest, we could get on the way.
“So, what do you do when…” Aaron said, breaking the silence.
”When I’m not killing?” I finished the sentence for him, surprised that he even cared to ask. I guessed he just wanted time to pass as badly as I did. Conversation wouldn’t hurt.
He nodded, never turning to face me.
“I like to read,” I confessed for whatever reason. Hell, I was never going to see him again so I might as well have a decent conversation with another soul for once.
“Hmm. Who would’ve guessed?” he simply said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. Strangely, that made me want to smile, too.
“Don’t tell anyone. It would kill my reputation.”
He just nodded, but I think I saw his cheek tilt up.
“What about you?” I asked. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and I thought he didn’t hear me.
“I wanted to be a freelance photographer when I was a boy.” He shook his head at the memory, smiling. “When I got older, I wanted nothing more than to bring the Council down and protect my people.”
I remembered all the pictures I’d seen in his apartment. They were all very beautiful. I could almost picture Aaron with a camera in hand, focusing on the view in front of him (which just so happens to be me), taking in every little detail of my body and taking my picture for hours. For a moment there, I forgot that I was an assassin and that he hated my guts, and I just let myself feel like a teenager, sitting in the backyard of her house with her crush, talking about things they liked.
“The pictures in your apartment, is that your work?” I asked him. I liked how easy it was to talk to him when we weren’t trying to kill each other.
He nodded. “Yes, they are.”
“They’re very beautiful.”
Aaron turned to look at me, surprise filling his shining eyes. That brought me back fro
m my pretend game. Of course, I was an assassin. How could I possibly appreciate art?
I couldn’t, at least not in his opinion. I didn’t meet his eyes. I just looked ahead of me while he studied my face for the hundredth time, his expression showing me the same things again: surprise, curiosity, confusion. He didn’t know what to think of me.
“When will you leave?” Aaron asked, disrupting my distant thoughts.
I shrugged. I thought about staying, after I got my family out of Lyndor, after McGraw was dead and the potion was destroyed. But I wasn’t about to let my family go again.
“As soon as my family is safe and out of Lyndor. If I get out of there alive.”
“Ever considered staying?” he asked, whispering again.
I sighed. “I have. I can’t.” I told him, shaking my head.
“Can’t or won’t?” What was the difference?
“Both, I guess.”
He then turned his body completely to face me.
“You know, I hate to say this, but these people need you.”
I wanted to roll my eyes at his I hate to say this, but I didn’t.
“I will do my best to destroy the potion. After that, even if I get out alive, you won’t need me anymore.” Nobody needed an assassin.
“You think they will stop? You think they won’t try and find another way to get to what they want?” Aaron said, laughing dryly. “You have no idea what the word that you’re here—that the Raven is here—has done. We have more supernaturals at our doorstep, offering their help, than we ever thought possible.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they love the thought that the one that’s been hunting and killing them for more than a year is now living among them.” They weren’t exactly trying to hide the hatred and disgust they felt for me whenever they saw me.
Aaron shook his head.
“Can you blame them for not liking you? You have to understand—”
“I do understand!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the dark woods. “I understand very well. I don’t blame you—or them—for hating me. I know they wish to see me dead. I would have had me dead by now, screw the greater good. I understand, Aaron, all too well. That’s exactly why I can’t and won’t stay.”
