“Now, can we go interrogate someone?” he plays.
“Yeah,” I chuckle out, watching the anger run free from me, leaving me with just confusion and curiosity.
He holds onto me as we head into the bustling, populated areas full of vendors and consumers.
No. No. He’s not doing this again and getting away with it.
I decide to force myself to be mad, and he hides a secretive smile, making me wonder if he doesn’t already know what I’m trying to do. It’s hard to be mad when he’s so damn cute - cheeky, but cute.
“You swore we would spend the rest of the day in bed,” he murmurs against my ear.
“That was before Clay wanted us to fan out and get to work right away. We were lucky enough to find a picture of the guy we’re looking for. He fits the profile and the description perfectly. Now shush,” I force out in my best I’m-staying-mad-at-you-until-you-talk tone.
“I like it when you’re mad,” he sizzles out, and I stifle an unwelcome grin.
Damn him.
“Good because you’re starting to piss me off. Focus,” I grumble while fighting harder to suppress my smile.
“Even better. When you fuck me while angry, it’s all I can do to stay composed.”
I feel a dull throbbing starting now as my lower body starts to pulse with my quickened heartbeat. I hate it when he’s this fucking sexy. It’s too hard to deny him when he’s this damn cocky, crude, and sexy-as-Hale. I’m trying to be mad. I am mad.
He smirks more and gives me a devilish wink - his bag of tricks spilling onto the floor as he uses his magic on me. Conniving Bastard.
“I love you, Araya,” he coos, and I turn to face his smiling face while rolling my eyes.
“I love you,” I huff out, and I can’t fight my smile anymore as his lips press firmly against mine to hold me captive.
“You’re so annoying,” I grumble against his lips.
“I think you mean hot, irresistible, and undeniably charming,” he playfully retorts while kissing me harder.
“I think you’re impossibly full of yourself.”
He laughs lightly, and then his eyes flash over to view something.
“That’s odd,” he murmurs to himself, his hands abandoning my body.
“What’s odd?”
He doesn’t answer, but he pulls my hand while leading me to a far corner. My eyes scour the surface for something, but I can’t see what he’s talking about until I finally smell the blood.
“That’s human,” I almost whisper.
“It’s fresh too. This can’t be good. There’s more blood hiding under this ground than we can see, and a human will die from that amount lost. If one has been bitten, we need to put the others under lockdown before an infection spreads.”
“Shit,” I gasp, my eyes catching something I’ve always hated to see.
He stands to his feet to stare eye to eye with the paling woman emerging from a shed.
“Step back, and make sure there aren’t any humans close by,” he whispers.
“Help me,” the woman pleads, her voice broken and desperate, as she stares in disbelief at the hair in her hands that is rapidly falling from her head.
She’s crying, she’s scared, and her eyes are slowly turning red beneath the brown ones that once shined much sweeter. I haven’t had to witness this in a really long time, and I forgot how painful it is to endure.
Her sad body is contending with the venom not meant for her veins to carry. Her life is slowly leaving her mouth with each breath she takes, and her sanity is disintegrating by the second.
