CHAPTER 9
Damian wiped his oil-stained hands on his bundled up black shirt and shut the hood of his car. He peered to his left, spotting Jade sitting alone at the edge of the field where the stream curved into the woods. It was now or never. He threw his shirt in the car and started to make his way toward her, but his steps faltered as Jason stepped out the patio door with two sodas in his hands. Apparently, it was never. Frowning, he turned back to his car and swung open the driver’s side door. He dropped into the seat and cranked the engine, and it came to life with a heavy roar, the motor humming beautifully. He dug a cigarette out his pack and flicked a glance at Jade as he put it in his mouth and lit it. Then his eyes went to Jason as the faerie handed her a drink. Did he know about the river? Yeah, Damian had a feeling that punk knew. Len couldn’t keep a secret like that away from him. Shaking his head, he pulled out the driveway. He decided to pay Jay a visit. He had yet to yell at the boy for giving his brother all that dope before they’d left. Sure, Aidyn was clean right now, but while he’d been using, Damian had been the poor SOB taking care of him. He parked in the driveway of a peach-colored cottage, so normal-looking and peaceful, out in the middle of nowhere, but in the basement it held not-so-normal rooms occupied by not-so-normal people. Vampires, faeries, elven chicks, you name it—Jay had it. Damian climbed the steps of the porch and knocked on the mahogany door. A moment later, an elf named Tara answered it. Around the corners of her eyes, her skin sheened with its natural golden elven glow. Glitter-like almost. "Seems I'm the only one with a free schedule right now," she said, curling her thin red lips and holding her pointy chin high. “Think you can handle me?” He grimaced. “Get Jay.” Her dark eyes sparkled, and her smile grew wider. She let him in, shutting the door behind him, and then danced her fingers across his shoulder blades, her sharp nails digging into his flesh. He smacked her hand away. “Get Jay. Now.” “So you really are as cold as they say.” It wasn’t a question. She bit her lip as she undid the laces of her black corset. “But I bet I know what can make you melt.” “Save it, sweetie. I don’t touch any sloppy seconds of Zeke’s.” That halted her in her tracks, and her face became an evil sneer. "I guess Freckle's does have your attention.” His eyes narrowed. “What’d you just say?” “Freckles.” She smirked. “The human you’re holding in your house.” Damian’s face reddened, and his nails dug into his palm. “Which idiot told you that?” “Let’s just say your brother really shouldn’t come over drunk like he did last night.” Tara undressed him with her eyes. “Don’t worry, though. Nobody else knows, and they don’t have to, if you come upstairs with me.” Damian pictured Zeke’s head being used as a soccer ball. “Blackmail? For sex? Now that’s just desperate.” “I could get more desperate than that and threaten little Miss Freckles while I’m at it.” Out of reflex, he gripped her by the throat and shoved her into the pea-colored wall of the foyer. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, man. Calm down," he heard Jay say, as the Korean came out of the den. Damian was so focused on breaking the elf’s neck that the words didn’t register to him. Jay pulled at his hands, trying to pry his fingers from around her throat. "Come on, let her go. She’s not worth your time." Damian jerked his hand back from the elf’s throat, breathing heavy, nostrils flaring as he glared down at her. Her eyes widened, and her lips and body trembled with fear. “Did you hear that, everyone? Mr. Adair here has himself a human,” she said in a shaky tone. A crowd had gathered, most of them girls that worked for Jay, a few of them vampire men who seemed way too curious for his liking, and they were whispering to each other like children. He looked down at Tara. Cutting her tongue out sounded too easy. “Ignore her and go cool off. I'll have a girl ready when you come back.” Jay patted his back and ushered him out of the house. He gritted his teeth and jumped in the car. He hated to say it, but his anger wasn’t directed at Tara. And it should have been. But instead, all the rage he felt was toward Jade, because the elf was right. The small human was taking up all his attention. His eyes narrowed into slits as he drove back home. “You sure you don't wanna come with us?” Zeke asked again, as he stood at the bottom of the brick porch. “No, I'm good.” Jade sat on the top step, watching her sister get in Aidyn's car. The two lovers giggled as they disappeared out of view, doing God-knew-what. “You gonna be all right?” “I'll be fine. I’ll eat some cookies, maybe watch some porn.” She winked at him. Zeke chuckled and glanced over his shoulder at the love birds in the old Dodge Charger. “We shouldn't be gone too long, maybe three hours. Five at the most.” The county fair was in town, and being the party-pooper that she was, she had politely declined to go. “You should grab me a candy apple while you're there.” "Will do, milady,” he called out as he walked to the car. “And bring me back some pizza, too.” The pebbles rattled underneath the tires of the red Charger as they sped off, dirt and dust trailing behind them. Jade stepped back inside, ate a few homemade sugar cookies, bit into a green apple, drank a can of Pepsi, and called it a day as she curled up on the couch in the lounge. She was close to sleep when a loud ruckus coming from the kitchen startled her awake. With her brows drawn down, she tip-toed the hallway, the breaking of glass and the banging of pots and the tearing of wood growing evident as she drew closer. She stepped inside the kitchen, which looked more like an ongoing demolition. Pots and pans were strewn across the room. The cabinets torn from their hinges. The windows had been busted out, and the fluorescent lights flickered. It was a wreck, and in the midst of it all stood Dom, heaving like a madman. “Wolf boy, what’re you doing?” she asked, picking a pot off the floor and twirling it between her hands. He stilled and the muscles of his back tensed. The air suddenly became thick, and in the seconds she waited for him to turn, she realized she’d made a mistake in bothering him. He pivoted, and she gulped. The onyx color of his eyes blacked out the whites of them. And even though he stood in human form, she felt she was looking at the wolf. He stared at her with such hate. The ferocity of it had her backing away like a cowering dog. He stalked toward her, each step menacing and slow as his upper lip curled back from his teeth. Behind her, a large clutter of pots fell from their rack, causing her to hop and spin toward the sound. Her back smacked the hard wall of Dom’s chest, and she yelped, twisting around. He growled, the glint in his eyes growing fiercer. As he inched closer, she jumped back and swung the pot. “I have a pot and I am not afraid to use it.” He knocked it out of her hand, and it clanged against the wall. “That’s okay. I know Kung-Fu.” She got into her Mortal Kombat stance and danced back and forth on the balls of her feet with her fists up. “You wanna go? We’ll go.” It didn’t faze him. He took another step closer, and she swung at him, popping him square in the chest. Pain shot from her knuckles and ran down to her elbow. “Oh God, what’re you made of—rocks?” She cradled her hand. His steps didn’t falter, and before she could block him, his large hand wrapped around her throat. It should have been a hard grip, but it was gentle, soft actually, almost like he was caressing her. He pushed her against the wall, and his steady voice came out low and deep. “You just ran into me one too many goddamn times, human." A threat lingered behind his words as his eyes leveled with hers. “I'm gonna enjoy draining you dry." His breath fanned over her jaw, his nose skimming her cheek as the black liquid pools of his eyes shined in the flickering lights of the room. Then his lips were on hers, hard and rough, catching her off-guard and freezing her in place. Her mind blanked, her heart raced, and her eyes fluttered shut as his hot tongue did a thorough sweep of her mouth, setting a trail of fire in its wicked path. She asked herself what any other woman would do in this situation. Slap him, run off, and cry? Except she found her hands cupping the nape of his neck, pulling him closer to her and tugging his bottom lip with her teeth. He growled, gripped her ass, and scooped her up and, on their own accord, her legs wrapped around his waist as he slammed her back against the wall. Glass shattered and the heated moment ended just as quickly as it began. A sharp pain consumed her scalp. Only she would have the grace to bounce her head off of a picture frame in the middle of a good kiss. Dom’s eyes widened and his mouth became the shape of an “o” as her vision blurred.
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