The venom that glistens in his eyes lets me know he hates me just as much as I hate him. I let my night stalker eyes come to life as a warning not to fuck with me. He doesn't cower like he should, but he does finally cede.
"I didn'tdoa damn thing. She got sick while we were with the widows, so we left. She passed out, I carried her to the car, and I was on the phone with Drackus when she came to and fucking lost it.
"She hit me with a shot of power that was so massive it flipped the car. Shocked the hell out of me. I climbed to my feet, worried to death she was dead, but she was perfectly fine as she stalked toward me, acting like she wanted to rip me in half. I asked her what the fuck she was doing, only to see she her hair turn black and her eyes turn silver. Silver!"
All the oxygen is stripped from the air. She really is a descendent of Freya. A goddess by right. But this can't be happening right now.
"Silver eyes?" Zee asks, but I ignore him as I move on to the real problem at hand.
"She can't have silver eyes yet, Gage. She's mortal. She's not—it's not possible. She still bleeds like a human."
I'll spare him the details of why I know that. I'm sure he doesn't want to know how soft her flesh still is beneath my fangs when she offers herself to me, and how freely it runs through me just before I take—
"They were definitely silver. And she was pissed at me for reasons I have no clue about. Alyssa was gone. Nowhere at all to be found inside the thing that took over her body."
That infuriates me. "It's still Alyssa, you fucking idiot. She's not athing. She has to learn to control the beasts."
His snarling response is quick, verging on becoming a challenge. "I didn't callherathing.I called this possession a thing. She can't control it. Freya couldn't control all the pieces. Her eyes rarely went silver, and when they did, it was because she lost it under the—"
His voice trails off because we both realize how fucking stupid we've been. "The red moon," I grumble while considering slapping myself. "And Sierra can't track her while she's fucking crazy. What about her phone?" I ask, hoping he can track her that way.
I didn't think about the fact he would have already done that if he could have.
"This phone?" he snarls, pulling her phone from his pocket and tossing it to the table by the wall.
"Shit," I gripe while running my hand through my hair. "I have to go find her."
"I've been trying for over an hour to find her. It's pointless. We'll just have to wait until morning—when she's herself again."
He flops down to the couch and scrubs his hands over his face over and over. If I had been there, I could have stopped her from doing this. I brought her back the last time. Albeit, she wasn't quite so destructive last time.
I glance out the window as headlights pull up. Dice. Now is not the time. How did that asshole even find this place?
"Zee, get rid of him," I grumble, motioning to the incubus in his car.
"Sure. Then you can tell me what the hell the two of you freaks are talking about."
He rolls his eyes, acting pissed for being out of the loop, but this is Alyssa's secret to tell, not mine.
"She wasn't careful. I hope she hasn't fucking exposed herself. I've got to find a way to help her subdue that part of her," Gage says, acting as though he's going to be the one taking care of her.
"First of all, she doesn't need tosubdueanything. It's part of her. Pushing it down, denying it—it'll hurt her in the end. I know that personally. She has to learn control it."
He scoffs something too low for me to hear fully—something about night stalkers coaching witches on how to be monsters. Fucking dick.
"No matter what you say," he grumbles, "this isn't Alyssa. Being this...creaturewill surely destroy her. I won't let you decide what's best. If she contains it the way Freya did, she'll be powerful without being a monster. She'll never forgive herself if she hurts someone."
I glare at him, ready to rip his head from his shoulders. How dare he! He doesn't love her. If you love someone, you love all of them, not just the parts that are easy to love. You love the good, the bad, the extremely fucked-up. You don't tell them to pretend to be something they're not. You don't try to change them. You accept all of them, encourage them to be comfortable in their own skin—especially in our world.
"Alyssa is stronger than you're giving her credit for being, damn it. Freya might have been strong, but she was a ticking time bomb because she isolated the sections of her like they were categories, never allowing herself to be at peace with what she was for fear of becoming one of the underlings in her species. Had those creatures learned control, they too could have been just as amazing as Alyssawillbe."
He has no faith in her, yet he claims to love her. He's no good for her. He'll drag her to the pits of hell with his good intentions. I pray she never goes back. Please, God let her marry me and stay the fuck away from this judgmental ass.
He turns his cold gaze back to meet my unrelenting glower. "If she kills, it will draw the darkness out and leave it in control. Maybe you want her to be some demented killer, but I don't want to see her lose herself to the darkness within."
I lunge after him, but Deke is suddenly restraining me. I forgot all about him even being here. Shit. He heard all that.
"Fighting isn't helping," Deke barks, holding my arms behind me.
