[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Melodies of harmonyand peace, not quite real music, danced in the air.I hadn t noticed it before, and yet itseemed like the background noise had always been there part of the lives of the FairOnes who lived in an underground cave and guarded the gate to Hell.It sounded absurd, but no more so than the idea of a twenty-two-year-old who servedunofficial warrants on vampires, goblins, half-Bloods, and weres for a living.Or atwenty-seven-year-old barista and part-time college student who committed suicide intime for a murdered girl s soul to possess her body.Why this body? Why Chalice andnot the Hunter Tovin chose?The answer was probably in her past, but that had been erased except for the hardcopies Wyatt had requested.Was it worth getting her history? Did it really matter whyChalice? Not really, not when possessing her had been a stroke of sheer luck.The firstwrench in Tovin s wheel.On one pass from the bed to the far wall, I spotted a shadow by the door and stopped.Wyatt stood just inside, half his body still covered by the curtain.His color was back tonormal.He d lost the shell shock and seemed almost sheepish, both in his half smile andthe slump of his shoulders. Can I come in? he asked. You re already halfway in.Might as well come the rest of the way. He did, but stayed close to the door.Ten feet of empty air separated us, but it might aswell have been ten miles.He shifted from foot to foot as he gazed around the room.Myattention kept dropping to his chest rippling with perfectly toned muscles, glisteningwith scented oil, the scars of the last few days washed away by gnome magic.Too badthe gnomes didn t have an oil to heal the internal wounds, too. You were right, he said. Tovin manipulated all of this, and by sitting and wallowingin self-pity, I m letting him manipulate me again.I won t do that anymore, Evy.I maynot see a way out of this yet, but if this really is our last day together, I want to spendevery second of it with you. Preferably not fighting? Doing anything except fighting. Did you have something else in mind? He didn t reply.Not long ago, he d said I looked like a goddess.Even with the winestain and our most recent argument, the sentiment was reflected in his expression.Iremembered yesterday s kiss.The heat of his lips, the spicy taste of him.The way myheart had raced, and how strongly this body wanted him.Then I remembered themoment memory overcame desire, and I d pulled away.God damn Kelsa for what she ddone.So many words perched on the tip of my tongue.Reasons why and why not.Words ofcomfort, and words to shut him down.Standing one day from oblivion, I didn t knowwhat I wanted, so I chose silence.Words were useless while my mind remaineduncertain, muddled by fear and indecision two weaknesses I despised, both in myselfand others.I sat on the corner of the grand, silk-covered bed.The sheer dress whispered around myankles.An answering rustle of fabric accompanied Wyatt across the room.He knelt infront of me, eye-level now, warm hands gently grasping my thighs just above the knee.The touch of his skin, both innocent and urgent, loosed those damned butterflies.Heatspeared my abdomen, as welcome as it was uninvited. You know what I have in mind, Evy, he said, a husky edge to his voice that made myheart hammer.Onyx eyes seemed to look right through me.I wanted to ask what he sawthere, if he could read me better than I could read myself.Could he see the real Evyburied deep inside? The one he loved so much?I licked my lips, mouth dry.He interpreted it as an invitation.I closed my eyes andallowed the kiss.His lips moved against mine, soft but insistent.No clashing teeth, noinhibiting steel bars.Just us and the tingling heat everywhere we touched.His fingerscaressed my throat and wandered back to tangle in my hair.My lips parted, allowinghim entrance to my mouth, and for a moment we shared the same breath.His tonguetraced along my upper lip, sending delicious tingles through my belly.I parted my knees, allowing him closer.He shifted forward.The flimsy material of ourclothing created a meager barrier.I felt the heat of his arousal straining against my innerthigh.A tremor surged through my chest, down to my legs, but it brought no warmthonly a bracing chill and a weak cry deep in my throat.His tongue darted into my mouth, stroked across my teeth, misinterpreting that cry.Itried to meet his tongue with mine, but no longer felt his heat.I felt only cold and anew, terrible ache deep in my gut.He trailed cool fingertips along my back.I raked myfingers down his bare chest and earned a soft moan.His hand stopped to caress thesensitive small of my back.No longer so sensitive.Phantom agony speared my stomach, from belly button to spine.I felt cold skin all over me, and putrid breath in my face.Misery and death moving in and out of me with brutal strokes.Memories of torture awoken so innocently by thelove of a man who had risked his life and bargained away his free will, and all for me.I shuddered.He broke the kiss.Warm hands cupped my cheeks.Thumbs brushed awaytears I hadn t felt fall.I grabbed his wrists and squeezed.My chest was tight.My legstrembled.I didn t open my eyes. Evy? I concentrated on breathing, on keeping those memories at bay, lest I break intounfixable pieces.I couldn t acknowledge them, not while Wyatt held me in his arms.IfI did, I would never see him, only the goblin.I wouldn t feel Wyatt s skin or taste hismouth or know his touch without remembering. Please, Evy, look at me. The anguish in his voice, so like what I d heard as I lay dying, drew me out.I openedmy eyes and blinked away a film of tears.His cheeks were flushed, twin roses of colorthat highlighted the tumultuous emotions warring in his eyes.His entire body seemed tovibrate. I m sorry, I whispered.He blanched and, for the briefest moment, I thought he would burst into tears. You resorry? Evy, no. I want to, Wyatt. It s not your fault. Truth, in so many ways, and yet the simple platitude did something entirely unexpected.Instead of tamping down my emotions, I exploded into a rage.It bubbled up from aplace I never knew existed, as scorching and destructive as magma.My face heated, andI pushed Wyatt away with shaking hands.He tumbled backward, unprepared, and fellon his ass with a surprised cry.I stood and stalked to the other side of the room, barefeet making unsatisfying slaps on the stone floor.I balled my fists, but could not stopthem shaking. Evy Don t tell me it s not my fault, Wyatt, I said, rounding to face him. It is my fault,because I m fucking stronger than this! He didn t move from the floor, frozen there by the fury of my outburst.I couldn t readhis expression, nor did I care to try.Fuck what he was feeling; it wasn t about him.Itwasn t even about me.It was about the goddamned goblin and getting the goddamnedthing out of my head. Do you remember the Halfies we took out last summer? I asked, words streamingfrom my mouth. Remember how one of them held me down and systematically broke every finger of my left hand? I healed; I moved on.Or the were-cat who stabbed me twoyears ago, or all the broken bones when I was pushed off a three-story building threeChristmases ago? It s what I do, Wyatt, I heal.I bounce back, and I go on with my life.Hell, this time Ididn t even have to heal.Fate just gave me a new body and said, Have fun again,girlfriend. She was even cruel enough to give me one that insists on knowing how wefit together naked, and I can t even kiss you without remembering that fucking goblin
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
