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Page 59

   


I roar and she clamps her arms around her head and falls to her knees, and I remember how much noise Im capable of making and kick myself. I deafened a human woman I recently had sex with. I broke her arm, too. I didnt mean to. I cant get used to whats happening to me. Try living your whole life one way then abruptly being something else. Its not easy to remember what you are every single bloody fucking second.
Except enraged. That, Im aware of all the time. It never diminishes, never stops. The blackouts where I lose chunks of time are getting more frequent, lasting longer.
She topples in the street. I throw myself from the roof, land on the balls of my feet, and gather her in my arms. Where was I when she needed me? Fucking another faceless woman. Trying to defuse the constant lust.
She feels so slight against my chest.
Im not surprised to feel myself trembling. Im touching my goddess.
Och, lass, whatve you done to yourself now? I push hair from her face. Theres so much blood that I cant see whats causing it. How is she even walking? It makes me crazy that shes in this city, without a guardian or consort, always getting into trouble. I want to lock her up somewhere I can keep her safe forever. Someplace white and shining and beautiful, where nothing ever goes wrong.
Her brain has more muscles than her body, and less sense. Her passion for life pushes her limbs further than they were meant to go. Shes going to burn herself to ash if she doesnt find someone or something that takes her all the way down to ground zero and recharges her. She needs to crash as hard as she lives or shell die young. I cant stand the thought of her dying. If I knew how, I would make her Fae so she would never die. Doesnt matter that I hate being it myself, or that she would, too. Immortality is immortality.
I run with her, careful to move easy. I take her where Ive pictured her a thousand times but knew better. I still know better. Im doing it anyway.
Just one time before I turn into the villain of this piece, just one time before I become the fourth and final Unseelie prince, I want to be her Highlander. And her hero.
Shell remember, when theres nothing else left of me worth remembering.
I cant wait till I grow up enough that I stop having superhero growing pains. Waking up confused and cross all the time sucks. My hair is in my face and it makes me so mad for a sec that I almost tear it out at the scalp, trying to get it out of my eyes, and its matted, then my bracelet gets stuck in it and theres something crustyEw, I say irritably, then somebody else has their hands in my hair, trying to gently disentangle my wrist from my hair.
Who? What? Where?
Im always doing a mental check when I first wake up, trying to remember what happened before I fell asleep so I can connect towhere I am and how I got there. When I first got run of the abbey (dude, like a million times bigger than my cage with Mom!) I was constantly knocking myself out because I couldnt get over how far and fast I was able to run and giddiness made me a freeze-framing train wreck. Im never real sure when I first wake up if I went to sleep or just managed to brain myself unconscious again. Then that fecker Ryodan knocked me out, too, and now I have to add that in to my worries when I wake.
Memory slams me upside the head. I get so mad I yank my bracelet off my head along with a good chunk of hair, and feel frantically for my sword even though I know its not at my hip or anywhere else.
A man curses. My eardrums vibrate painfully and my head feels like it might split.
I open my eyes. Christian, mute it! I shove my hair out of my face and look up. Im lying in bed and hes sitting next to me, looking down at me. Somethings different. He doesnt look quite so scary. I take that back. Yes, he does, but either Im getting better at reading his expressions or hes getting better at making them, because theres like an ounce of remorse in his iridescent eyes. Dude. His eyes are full Fae now! They werent last time I saw him.
Sorry, lass. But I almost had the bracelet free. You tore some of your hair out. You might have waited a second longer. He picks up the thatch of hair I yanked out at the root and flattens it straight between his fingers. Curl springs back instantly. Stubborn as the head it came from, he murmurs. Then he does the weirdest thing. He puts it in his pocket. Maybe the dude collects hair. I got bigger worries on my mind.
He took my sword! The fecker actually took my sword! I cant believe it. I have no way to kill my enemies. I could hunt them all day longand do a great big fat nothing with them when I catch them. It makes me so nuts I cant stand it. I try to push up from the bed but my legs arent a hundred percent.
Who took your sword?
Inspector Jayne. Im going to kill him.
HE DID THIS TO YOU?
I get an instant migraine, flop down, cover my head with my arms and burrow beneath the pillows.
He sighs so loud I still hear it, even with my ears covered.
Sorry, lass. Did he?
Im not taking my hands from my ears. I think about telling him yes so hell go after Jayne for me, but I dont like to lie unless the payoff is huge. Lies are horny little buggers, they breed like rabbits and bound around just as insanely and then you have to try to keep track of them. I got cut up myself but its his fault. He startled me and I freeze-framed too soon. Speaking of cuts, I dont feel as bad as I did and I dont seem to be bleeding anymore.