“What you thinking about, Serena?” he asks. Jaxon’s voice is low and rough, and from the tone of it, I have a feeling he knows exactly what I’m thinking about.
“I’m thinking it might be worth the risk of getting killed if I come in that vault and show you what I’m thinking about,” I confess in a husky voice.
I watch as Jaxon’s eyes rise up over my body as well, and it isn’t too hard to imagine what he’s thinking about either.
“What are you thinking about?” I ask, and I can’t fight the sultry smile that pulls on my lips.
“I’m thinking about those little black shorts you were wearing yesterday,” he says. His eyes trail over my legs and he licks his lower lip before biting it.
I can’t help it. I can’t stop the smile that he brings out of me. “How much longer, Jaxon?”
His eyes rise to meet mine. There’s still hunger there, but also serious contemplation. “The urge is still there. I can’t really explain it, I just want…” He shakes his head as if he doesn’t want to admit what he’s feeling. But we have to be honest with each other. We have already been robbed of so many normal things, so this is one thing we can lay claim to: honesty. “I want to tear you to pieces, and it’s real and visceral, but also…” His eyes rise to meet mine once more, and I like the look in them. “Sexual. Which kind of disturbs the hell out of me.”
It should scare me. It should freak me out. What he just confessed is…carnal.
Instead, it sparks every bit of my blood to life.
I need him.
I need him right now.
I nod. “I get that. And I’m not afraid, Jaxon. Whenever you’re ready, I’m ready to take the risk.”
He places his hands on the glass, so I align my hands with his. “I can’t make any promises, Serena. It might get ugly.”
I shake my head. “I’ve survived this long. I can take ugly. I’m ready to risk it all if it means we can be together again.”
I see hope on his face. And a small smile pulls on his lips. “I have a feeling the others won’t approve of how this might go down.”
My eyes fall away from his for a moment. He’s right. There’s no way anyone else will want to risk how this might happen. “I’ll get them all out of here. We might only get an hour or two. But I’ll think of something. I’ll get them out so they won’t have to witness or deal with whatever might happen.”
His eyes are slightly wider. I can tell, he’s scared. He doesn’t want to hurt me. But if he’s feeling even a fraction of what I’m feeling, he’s desperate enough to take the risk. “I’m in.”
I nod once, a smile curling on my lips, as a plan begins to form in my head.
Chapter Seven
It's a stupid plan, but what's even more stupid is that it works so easily.
Really though, I just get lucky at the timing.
Half of us don't remember when our birthdays are. Once you're more than a hundred years old, and you haven't aged one day in such a long time, birthdays aren't exactly important anymore.
But every now and then, we remember to celebrate. Because every now and then, we need something to break up the monotony of such a long, long life.
So I get lucky that I remember that the next day is Davorian's birthday.
I plant the reminder in Renwick's ear. I mention it casually to Philomena. I started up a casual, though forced, conversation with a few other darklings who have yet to move out of the compound.
They plan a surprise birthday party. Considering they don't want the day to go by without actually celebrating it, they pull it all together in a matter of hours.
I never get an official invitation. I wasn't expecting one, and I'm relieved when it doesn't come.
But the compound gets quieter throughout the day. Some of the darklings go off to get party supplies. Renwick takes on the task of scouting out a place in the desert where they can host the party in the middle of the night without being heard. We are darklings after all. The nighttime is when we thrive.
As the hour grows later, the compound becomes more and more empty.
Philomena and Renwick have been gone for hours. I haven't seen the other darklings since mid-day. Nisha looks slightly annoyed as she heads out for the night. I think she could be perfectly comfortable living down here in a dark tunnel for the rest of her immortal life. Ascelin checks all his security cameras, making sure everything is secure and observed. He hasn't left his post in a long, long time. But there are no immediate signs of threat, so he sets everything on autopilot, give me one glance before he shifts and climbs out of the tunnel.
I haven't seen Davorian all day. He's been assisting all of the other darklings in getting settled into their new lives here in Nevada. He doesn't come back.
So, by eleven o'clock at night, it's entirely silent in the compound.
I step out of my room and head down the passageway.
I stop in front of the vault, peering in through the glass.
Jaxon stands there in the middle of the vault. I can see heat rising from his skin. But I can also see the look of absolute determination on his face. As he walks across the vault, closer to the glass, I see the heat begin to diminish as he reigns in self-control.
"They all leave?" he asks.
I nod my head. "I think we need to wait a little bit to make sure nobody comes back. A darkling birthday party like this… Well, I wouldn't expect anyone back until daybreak. So…" My eyes rise to meet his. "We should have the entire night to figure this out."
He doesn't hide it one bit. The hunger is in his eyes, in his expression, and in every bit of Jaxon's body language. "It's been a long three weeks in here, but the next thirty minutes, I have a feeling, are going to be the longest."
I chuckle, because I absolutely agree. "We need the time though," I say. "Ascelin has cameras set up throughout this entire place. I don't want anything setting them off, alerting him. I need to freeze them, and it might take me that much time to figure out how to do it."
"Something tells me you won't have too hard of a time figuring out how to disable them," he says with a smirk.
It's just one more thing I love about this man. He accepts the dark side of me. The side of me that has done things others wouldn't necessarily call okay. It's because he's done more, and worse. We accept each other for who we are.
It's just one of the things that makes us work.
"Be right back," I say as I press a kiss to my fingers and then place them on the glass. I really like the look in his eyes as I walk away.
I've been in Ascelin's office plenty of times before. So if he catches this footage of me walking inside, it shouldn't be cause for too much concern for him.
But I need to be quick when it comes to messing with his computer.
He doesn't have security on it. For someone whose main job is security, you'd think he'd have some kind of insane password or something. But Ascelin’s strong suit is literal, physical security. It's fighting and fists, and shifting into a terrifying shadow monster to protect those he cares about. Sure, his title has evolved to include technology. But it's definitely not the essence of his job.