“You are way overthinking this. We left no trail of where we are going, and those men Kayn had aid us, are going to send them in the complete opposite direction.” His thumb draws a line down my lips back to my chin, holding it steadily. “Don’t worry. It was clean—our escape that is. Nothing about what you did in there was sanitary.”
My chest feels lighter—he’s right. Besides, he spent ages driving up and down the same highway before finally getting us back on track to the cabin. Nothing about our route made sense; it would take a damn hound trained in vehicular tracking to figure out where we even went.
I lean over the console, cupping his cheek as I press a kiss to the side closest to me. My forehead rests against his temple. “Thank you.”
He gives me that deep, throaty chuckle. “You’re welcome, little demon.”
Rubbing my nose along his jaw down to his neck, I wrap my arms around him and pull myself to him. “Alright, I’ll do my best…” He shifts as I slide into his lap, adjusting seamlessly. I know we’re pushing over a hundred on the highway, but I like it here. The seat clicks back, and he wraps an arm around my waist, drawing me in. “… not to crash.”
He presses a kiss to my forehead, and I feel my Amoro purring. It’s vile. And yet, I can’t deny the warmth curling through me. My insides, at least.
I’ve always been perpetually cold. Not just my dead heart or my body’s temperature, but something deeper—a constant chill, like drinking freezing water that never quite leaves my system. It starts behind my ears, drips down my spine and pools in my knees. But now, giving in to this moment, it’s as if I’m wrapped in fire.
I rest my head against his shoulder, my forehead pressing into his neck, and release a slow, heavy breath through my nose.
“My kind is terrifying,” I say through a sigh, my hand tugging at his shirt idly. “I understand why we are dwindling. Imagine if I was inclined to be a dictator—anywhere. Bored one day? Command my armies to send out the nukes.”
He chuckles, shifting to swap hands so he can wrap the arm closest to my back around my shoulders, pulling me deeper into his hold. He stays silent and in this moment, I’m glad. No need to acknowledge that he’s thought the same thing.
I may not be inclined to do it right now, but with an eternal life, I could slowly destroy this world.
Who could stop me?
I hear a loud thump in the back, but promptly ignore it. “I wish she’d just go away.”
That makes him lean his head back to look down at me, and with an incredulous tone, says, “Tali?”
I nod.
“No,” he nearly growls. “She’s going to fucking?—”
“Die?” I cut him off, swallowing roughly. “Kai…” Feeling his arm tremble, I stop mid-thought. Fear isn’t in my nature—it never has been. The thought of that woman taking him like she threatened, does strike terror into me.
I should feel weak knowing that if she ever had him and used him as collateral, I’d give her everything she wanted. As long as she didn’t touch him, hurt him… take him from me.
Yet, I don’t feel weak for it, and I think of what Kayn said:love.
A sense of power flows through me knowing how badly I want to keep him safe and protect what ismine.
It still terrifies me, because it makes me vulnerable in a way that I’ve never been before.
“I never really liked hunting.” I suck a sharp breath in as he begins talking, breaking our moment of silence. “When I was a kid, my dad would take me, said it brought us back to our roots when we had to fend for everything ourselves.”
I lift a hand to his, the one draped lazily over my shoulder, and lace our fingers together.
“It reminded me of our destruction.” His thumb brushes against my knuckles. “I had never picked up a gun, not until I was fourteen. My uncle and my dad were trailing a set of deer tracks when we ran into a group of hunters—likely in their twenties. They had been drinking, said that we were fucking up their hunt,” he huffs. “Assholes shot my uncles leg,accidentally.” There is no missing the sarcasm. “My dad was not violent, but obviously it was his brother. He fired back and I had never been so terrified up until that point in my life.
“I had grabbed my uncle’s shotgun.” He leans his cheek against the top of my head while pausing. “Blew one of the guys’ heads off byaccident.”
“Nice,” I comment. “Fuck that guy.”
He chuckles, and I enjoy how I can feel it rumble straight from his chest to his throat.
“Why are you telling me this?” It used to annoy me when he talked, but that had nothing to do with him—just me trying to push him away. Now, I love hearing him. When I told Brice I preferred silence, I wasn’t talking about Kairhyse.
“I almost didn’t go with them,” he continues. “But the 'what if' of staying behind sent me to therapy. It wasn’t the trauma of killing a man that haunted me—it was the thought that, if I hadn’t been there, they might never have made it home.”
A hum escapes me before I say, “What if’s create fear. It’s the one thing that bitch said that I’ll agree with.”
