Page 77 of Haunted Nightmares
My brow furrows as I pull back to look at her. “The house? Yes. It’ll require some work but I?—”
“No,” Zephyr says as she shakes her head. “This,us.You were literally losing your mind before I came back, your griefand despair, they were so consuming. You were vulnerable and waiting for death, thenbam, I’m back.”
“That’s the long and short of it,” I deadpan.
“Wraith, honey, I want you to talk to me.” My gentle breeze grabs my hands then starts walking backward, leading me to the only piece of furniture on this entire floor. “You can’t just be allyou’re back now and everything’s great.”
“I can’t?”
“No. I mean, you can, but not really.”
“I can but I can’t, is this what you’re telling me?”I don’t understand this at all.“I’m to be conflicted about you being back and having emotions about that, as well as the emotions I was having while you were gone?”
Zephyr frowns adorably then shakes her head again, nods then shakes it. “I’m confused.”
“As am I. This is your territory, my love, and if you cannot navigate it then I believe we are up shite’s creek without a bloody paddle.”
“I only meant that you’ve been so accepting of everything,” my gentle breeze practically groans as she throws herself back on the mattress and stares at the ceiling. “Once you decided to stop fighting me, once we mated, it was like there wasn’t this weird chapter in our story that involves you, the voices in your head, and the dozens of bodies mounted in our sitting room.” She turns to me, those citrine pulls full of questions. “You couldn’t have just turned that off.”
“I didn’t. Zenlothanai hasn’t left. I still like murdering those I deem deserving, getting creative with their corpses. In case you’ve forgotten, I’vealwaysbeen like that.”
Her cheeks go pink as I see the night poor Wilfred crossed our path flash through her mind. “That’s not what I meant.”
With a sigh, I sprawl on my side next to her, propping my head on my palm while I look down at my mate. Who’sapparently trying to psychoanalyze me. “Zephyr, my love, I can appreciate what you’re trying to do, what you’re concerned about and if roles were reversed I’m sure I’d attempt to do the same.” I trace her bottom lip with my finger, ghosting over it as I lightly drag it down the middle of her bare chest. “But I am not like you, not when it comes to these things. I don’t feel as though our months apart has given me morebaggage, it hasn’t caused me some sort of trauma that will prevent me from functioning day to day.”
“Gee, thanks,” she says sarcastically.
I dip my chin and kiss that smart mouth. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it. If things like this fucked me up more than or differently than I already am, I’d have more feelings than anger over how my parents have treated me. I’d probably be a little more broken up over killing my own sister. Call it myoptimistic viewon life, but those months apart, what I went through while you were gone from me? It is all over now, and none of it holds meaning because I have you back. We are together, therefore everything is right in the world once again.” Kissing her slowly, I grin as I slide my hand down her stomach and into the top of her panties. “Consider yourself warned, however. Idohave an uncontrollable need to be touching you at all times now, and the way your sun-kissed skin looks against my alabaster tainted in darkness, it makes the urge that much stronger.”
My lips capture hers in a searing kiss, my tongue pushing past Zephyr’s lips to meet hers. I dip my finger into her core, barely inside her dripping cunt to gather her arousal. My gentle breeze’s hips buck as I circle her clit, the ache within her pussy one I can almost feel myself, and just as I’m about to tear those lacy little things right off of her body, my mate quickly winces in pain at the exact moment Declan practically kicks in the door.
“The treaty is on the move.”
I scowl at him before my gaze swings back to Zephyr, my love breathing through some sharp sting I can feel in her lower stomach but when I open my mouth to demand an explanation, she relaxes and drapes her arms across her breasts. “Better hurry, baby. This is important.”
“Youare important,” I whisper, searching her thoughts. “What was that?”
“Nothing to worry about.”
“Zephyr…”
She reaches up and pushes my hair out of my eyes. “I promise, this is absolutely nothing to worry about, and we can talk about it after you figure out who the hell is leaking information to Cuntsilla.”
“Very creative.” I smirk and plant a hard kiss on her lips. “And a little filthy. Not bad on the fly.” Then I’m out of bed, getting dressed, and doing exactly what she said in no time.
“Has anyone seen their face?”Orion asks from the backseat as we follow a generic black Taurus. One from the lot we thought Atticus purchased but I’m starting to think this was all my mother’s game, one my late sire may have unknowingly been playing.
We’re trying not to lose the car and keep far enough back that its driver won’t notice us but Declan is driving as if he’s forgotten how and it’s grinding on my nerves. Especially sincemy mind keeps wandering back to Zephyr and the brief pain she experienced before I left.
What was that?
It didn’t linger, didn’t happen again. Just one sharp pang in the belly and it was done.
If it was higher I’d worry that Ian did some kind of long term damage when he stabbed my gentle breeze. Which is also ridiculous since she came back to me without some of the other things she had before she died, so I doubt that’s even possible.
I’m overreacting.
It’s just the anxiety returning, the constant worry for Zephyr settling itself back into my bones. Every little thing will terrify me until we’ve gotten back into our routine, as soon as we’re able to truly spend time reestablishing our bonded life.
