A knock sounded at the door a few seconds later.
“Are you decent?” I heard him ask through the door.
“Yeah, you can come in.”
He cracked the door open and then paused as his eyes took me in, sitting up in his bed, wearing his t-shirt. I was no mind reader but judging by the heated look in his eyes, he liked what he saw. Kicking the door shut behind himself, he walked over to me carrying a glass of water in one hand and a plate in the other. My eyebrows lifted as I took in the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
He shrugged and then smirked at me. “Cooking’s not really my thing, but I make a mean PBJ sandwich.”
I covered my mouth to hide my smile as he walked around his bed and placed the glass on the nightstand and the plate on the bed in front of me. His waggled his eyebrows and then pulled a bottle of Advil from his pocket and placed that next to the water.
“Thank you for this.” I meant to smile my gratitude at him, but for some reason my eyes welled up with tears, and I swiftly dropped my gaze back down to the sandwich in front of me.
The last thing I wanted to do was start crying in his bed like some damsel in distress. Not that I wasn’t distressed, because I totally was, but I didn’t want to let him know that. Trace was just the kind of guy that would ride in on his white horse to save the day and that was precisely the opposite of what I needed him to do.
“You don’t need to thank me for being decent, Jemma.”
With my eyes still averted, I nodded and then picked up my sandwich to take a bite.
“I guess I’ll turn in too. Give you some privacy,” he said and then started to turn to leave.
A weird noise squeaked out of me causing him to pause and look over at me. His brows furrowed as he read something from my face and then said, “Or I could sleep on the floor?”
I covered my mouth and swallowed the bite. “I mean, only if you really want to,” I said, my cheeks warming as his gaze dusted over me. As much as I didn’t want to be alone, I couldn’t find it in me to just come right out and ask him to stay. My mouth refused to do it.
“It’s good for my back, so…” He shrugged and then smiled at me, his dimples pressing in like a wink.
I returned his smile and then finished up my sandwich as he pulled out some blanket and set up his bed on the floor for the night. As crappy as I felt for making him sleep there, I knew that offering to share the bed was out of the question. Between our tangled past, our mutual attraction, and the body buzz we got from being near each other, we’d undoubtably end up in each other’s arms by morning. Or worse.
The room was mostly silent after he cut the lights, save for the sound of the falling rain outside the window. As tired and achy as I was, I couldn’t seem to get my mind to switch off. All I could think about was Dominic and what Pricilla had done to him…what he’d done to me.
I silently cursed myself for not getting rid of her that first night when I had the chance, but I intended on rectifying that mistake the first chance I got. Pricilla was going to pay dearly for what she’d done to him, and when I was done with that, I was going to figure out a way to get Dominic to turn his damn emotions back on—providing that was even a possibility. Until then, I intended on staying the hell away from him.
My stomach churned as a morbid thought crept into my head. What if I’d never again have the real Dominic back? What if the monster that attacked me outside All Saints was all that was left of him?
“Are you still awake?” asked Trace, his voice slicing through my errant thoughts.
“Uh-huh.” I looked up at the ceiling and waited as a beat of silence passed between us.
“I need to ask you something,” he finally said, his voice a gruff whisper that calms me in an unexpected way.
“Okay…”
“About tonight.”
The calm that had come over me disappeared as I swallowed roughly. “Okay.”
It felt like forever before he spoke again. “I didn’t want to mess you up more than you were before, but I saw the guy who attacked you.”
My heart seized in my chest. “And?”
“And I went after him with a baseball bat from my car.”
“Why are telling me this?”
“Because I broke the bat in half and rammed the end of it into his chest,” he said, his voice edgier than usual as though something were troubling him. “But the weirdest thing happened.”
I cleared my throat. “What?
“Absolutely jack shit.” He pushed up from his makeshift bed on the floor and looked over at me. “That bat should’ve incapacitated him twice over, but he just laughed and took off running.” The light from the window dusted over him as he furrowed his brows. “You said you knew the guy. Is there something different about him that I should know about because I’ve never seen that happen before?”
“It’s not him. It’s me,” I said and then turned back to stare up at the sightless ceiling. Anything but his face. “My bloodline is different—it’s corrupted,” I explained, but decided to keep out the part of being a Descendant of Lucifer. I didn’t want to risk triggering a flashback or new memory.
“I don’t understand,” he said softly.
I saw no harm in telling him the truth. “Basically, if a Rev drinks from me, they become unvanquishable for as long as my blood is in their system. Depending on how much they drink, that can be a few hours to a couple of days.”
“Fuck. Me.” He flopped back on his pillow as though I’d knocked the wind right out of him. “Does the Council know about this? About what your blood can do?” he asked, though I wasn’t sure if he was worried for them or for me, like he knew that if they found out, I’d be in trouble.
“They know,” I answered, but decided to leave out the part about how they tried to kill me because of it. I knew Trace and I knew he’d get all alpha about it if he thought I was in danger.
“And you’re still willing to hunt Revs?” I could hear the surprise in his tone.
“Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?” I propped myself onto my elbow and looked down at him.
His arms were folded behind his head and he had been staring up at the ceiling, but his gaze quickly found mine in the dark. “Because of your blood.” His eyes tuned apologetic. “I mean, what do you do when a Rev gets a taste of your blood? Aren’t you basically trying to vanquish a Rev that can’t be killed?”
I shrugged my shoulder and smiled cockily. “I’ve gotten good at working around it.”
“Yeah?” he huffed out a laugh. “How so?”
“Well, for starters, I don’t let them bite me. And if they happen to get lucky and do, I can still outfight them.” A flash of lightning lit up the room followed by a clash of thunder. “It’s nothing that a few chains and a bit of time can’t fix.”
He considered it over for a moment and then asked me, “So what happened tonight then?”
All of my confidence left me, and I cringed for even taking the conversation there. “Tonight was…complicated,” I answered, unable to offer him any more than that. Honestly, I wouldn’t even know where to start. I hadn’t even had a chance to let the whole thing sink all the way in yet.
“Really? That’s all I’m getting?” he asked, unimpressed.
I flopped back onto my pillow and sighed. “For now, yeah.”
And with that, the conversation ended and neither one of us said anything as we drifted off to sleep, the humming song of soulmates fluttering through the air as if to keep us company.
26. TEMTPTED TO TOUCH
The rain was still battering down when I woke up in Trace’s bed the next morning. He had already gotten up and was showered and dressed when he came back into his room sometime later with breakfast and coffee. My cheeks turned scarlet as he set a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of me and then handed me the cup of coffee. His hair was freshly washed and slicked back, and he smelled like a million bucks. It took every bit of strength I had left not to pull him down to me and run my nose al
ong his neck like some kind of deranged leper.
After eating my breakfast in bed, showering and then changing into another pair of Trace’s jogging pants and t-shirt, I grabbed my jacket and shoes and followed Trace outside to his car. While he’d suggested—several times—that I should take the day off from school and just hang out at his house, after fifteen agonizing minutes alone in the shower I knew exactly how my day would end up going.
The last thing I needed was to be left alone with my own thoughts. I needed to be around people and keep my mind distracted enough not to think about Dominic, or Trace’s memories, or the fact that I’d have to leave all of that up in the air when I entered the Veil tonight.
After dropping me off at All Saints to pick up my car, Trace followed behind me in his Mustang until we were both safely parked into the student parking lot. I thanked him once we were inside, albeit awkwardly, and then rushed off to the office to pick up another school uniform since mine was completely ruined.
After changing into the stiff blouse and skirt, I high tailed it to my locker to get my books ready for second period since I’d already missed the first one completely.
I didn’t see Trace for much of the day after that and while I was grateful not to have to be put through the wringer by those eyes of his, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was avoiding me too now.
Maybe he’d finally seen enough of the real me to realize he didn’t want to get involved in any of it. And honestly, I couldn’t even blame him. If I saw me heading down the hall, I’d probably run the other way, too.
When lunch finally rolled around, I bought myself a sandwich and a bottle of water from the cafeteria and then headed to the library. For someone that rarely ever had time to read anymore, I sure did spend a lot of time among the dusty books. Old habits, I supposed. After finding a deserted aisle toward the back of the library, I slumped down to the floor and pressed my back against the wall.
As much as I had wanted to keep distracted with my classes today, I couldn’t seem to concentrate worth a damn in any of them. My head was inundated with nothing but the horrors unfolding in my life which played out in my mind like a gag reel set to repeat. As if Trace, the Horsemen and the Veil weren’t bad enough, now I had Dominic to contend with too. Dominic, my person—the only person I had left in this cruel world—had disappeared from my life with the flick of an emotional switch. Thanks to Pricilla.
That bitch was soooo not going to away with this.
I was making damn sure I was getting out of that Veil tonight if for no other reason than to hand deliver what she had coming. The only thing that gave me pause was whether Dominic would actually try to fight me in order to protect her. After what I saw last night, my guess was that he would. I’d have to make sure she was alone, just to be on the safe side.
My head snapped up at the sound of approaching footsteps. Trace rounded the corner and then leaned his arm into the side of the bookshelf as though he knew exactly where he’d find me.
“Are you following me again?” I asked, ignoring the way my stomach clenched when I looked at him.
His eyebrow lifted, but there was a definite smirk on his lips. “Again? When was I following you?”
“When are you not?” I shot back.
The smirk morphed into a full-blown, dimpled grin. “That obvious, eh?”
I rolled my eyes at him as he pushed off the bookshelf and walked over to me to sit by me. With his back against the wall and his long legs crossed at the ankles, he tipped his head back against the wall and then shut his eyes as though he needed a moment to quiet his head.
I knew the feeling well, but for some reason, on him, it made my insides twist with unease. “Is everything…okay?” I asked, studying his profile. I took in his straight nose and high cheekbones, those beautiful full lips and square jaw of his and practically signed at the sight. It was unnatural how breathtakingly handsome he was.
“I think I’m supposed to be asking you that,” he replied, expertly dodging my question without even bothering to open his eyes.
“Trace.”
“I’m good.” He straightened his head and then met my eyes with a smile. A forced one. “Just a bad headache that won’t go away.”
A shudder moved through my body as a hundred different scenarios assaulted my mind. Was this headache related to the wall protecting his memories? Had Nikki done the memory blocking spell on him yet? Could this be a side effect of that? Or was it just a regular headache? I had no answers and it was making me sick to stomach!
He reached out and captured my hand with his. The gesture immediately calmed my spiraling mind as I glanced up and met his eyes. Eyes that held a wealth of pain and worry. But it wasn’t his pain and worry. It was for me.
“You want to talk about what happened last night?” he asked, his piercing blue eyes holding mine captive as he mistook the panic shooting out of me as my own.
I shook my head and then pulled my hand away. Apart from the fact that I didn’t want him reading my thoughts and realizing that I hadn’t been freaking out because of what happened to me—that it was him I was worried about—I also didn’t have enough of my protective wall back up to be able to handle being like this with him.
It was too close.
Too intimate.
He nodded, not pushing the issue, but his eyes never abandoned mine.
I needed to break the tension swirling between us. “How much do you know about Revs?” I asked him, deciding to pick his brain for a while since, you know, he was a Reaper and grew up in this world.
“Enough.” The glimmer in his eyes had all but disappeared.
“What happens when a Rev shuts their emotions off?”
He stared at me for a moment and then scrubbed his hand down his face. He didn’t have to answer the question for me to know it was bad. The look on his face had said it all.
“Can they ever be turned back on?” I asked him, trying to keep my voice from giving anything away.
“Everything’s possible, but…” His tense gaze dusted over me with regret. “Once they let the demon out completely, it’s next to impossible to shut that off again.”
My blood ran cold, but I promptly schooled my features. I couldn’t let my face show that his words had just stabbed me in my heart. This had to look like shoptalk. Nothing more. I’d unpack my feelings later, when I was alone with my pain and heartbreak, the way I always did.
“Is that what happened with him? The Rev?” he asked quietly, his voice a baritone whisper that reached out and caressed me without my permission.
I tried to hide my surprise when I asked, “Why would you think that?”
He leveled me with his eyes. “You’re a Slayer, Jemma. You had to have trusted the guy to let him get that close to you.”
Right. Duh. “Yeah, I trusted him,” I answered, purposely staying vague about the other part of his question.
“So, I’m guessing that was your boyfriend then,” he surmised. Apparently, he’d already put all the pieces together.
Unable to answer, I propped my head back against the wall. Dominic wasn’t my boyfriend, not technically, but I loved him just the same. I couldn’t always say it or even show it to him—not after what happened between me and Trace and what I’d done to him that night at All Saints—because I couldn’t risk it.
I couldn’t fully allow myself to be happy again and risk losing it all again.
No matter how close or intense things had gotten between me and Dominic, I never allowed him to fully breach that wall around my heart. For his sake, and my own.
“I saw you with him before,” he admitted quietly, his voice tense and gruff like the words were scratching at his throat as they made their way out.
I shrugged because, well, I’d been out with Dominic plenty of times. Plenty of people had seen us together.
“I mean yesterday,” he added cautiously. “At your car.”
My heart leaped up into my throat and then stayed there as I silently prayed he
wasn’t telling me what I thought he was telling me…
“I left the bar a few minutes after you and saw you in the parking lot.” He paused and the tortuous wait went on forever. “You looked like you were—I mean, it didn’t seem like you were in trouble or anything,” he amended, his voice taking on a sharp edge. “So, I just continued to my car.”
In that instant, I knew that he’d seen what Dominic had been doing to me. Where his hand had been, and the illicit desire it had incited in me. My cheeks burned hot, but I refused to let myself feel embarrassed or ashamed. The only regret I had was that I hadn’t immediately noticed that something was very wrong with him.
I turned and met Trace’s eyes. Eyes that seemed troubled and angry and regretful, but there was also something else there. Something that looked a lot like…jealousy…and desire.
He quickly shuttered whatever was in his eyes before I could make sense of it. “It was only when I pulled out of the parking lot that I noticed something was up. He was still holding you, but your arms and legs were limp like you were unconscious. That was when I got out of the car and went after him.”
Well, then. There it was. The whole damn story, and he’d seen all of it.
“Jemma, I—”
His words were swallowed up by the bell, sparing both of us the agony of whatever he was about to say on the subject.
I pushed off the wall and straightened. “We should get to class.”
He looked at me for a long harrowing moment as though he had wells of words he wanted to say, and then finally conceded with a curt nod. We left the library and went our separate ways, but that tortured look in his eyes had stayed with me for the rest of the damn day.
27. HERE COMES THE VEIL
A light drizzle peppered the windshield as I left school and headed home to the Blackburn Estate. Despite my fears, I’d felt safe going home since I knew Dominic wouldn’t be there during the day. He’d wait for nightfall when it was safe to roam the streets freely in search of his next pray.
A shiver prickled over my body as I wondered how long it would be until he gave me no other choice but to stop him myself. I silently prayed that he was keeping his head down and laying low until I figured out how to turn his emotions back on, but if I knew Dominic—and I did—that was as likely as Hell freezing over.
Incarnate: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Saga Book 5) Page 22