I roll my eyes. “Dude, you were knocked out, so how could you have?”
“Maybe you’re right,” he says. “But you never should’ve been in that explosion to begin with.”
“It’s not like you knew it was going to happen,” I remind him. “And enough with the guilt already. I’m fine … I think. I’m still totally lost, though, so some details on what happened after the fire would be fantastic.” I dazzle him with a cheeky grin, trying to alleviate his worry.
I also might be a little bit high from all this glittery flower spit that’s twinkling all over my arms.
Surprised delight twinkles in his pretty eyes. “Your smile’s so damn beautiful.” He brushes another strand of my hair away from my eyes. “Can I kiss you?”
If I were human, this would be the part where my heart would thump deafeningly inside my chest. But my reaper heart stays stagnant. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel anything.
When I nod, he gently presses a kiss to my mouth, but then he swiftly pulls back. I try not to pout, but seriously, that’s it?
“Later,” he whispers, as if reading my mind.
I’m not sure what later means, but the ideas that come to mind remind me a lot of the stuff I saw going on at the club.
Get your mind out of the gutter, Hadley? What the fuck is wrong with you?
My thoughts must be reflecting across my face because Alex’s lips begin to curve into a smirk. Before he can tease me, I hop out of his arms.
“Tell me what happened, please,” I say, plucking a flower petal out of my hair.
He takes my hand and leads me to the table where Jaxon still remains. His eyes are on me, but when Alex sits down and pulls me into his lap, he looks away from me. Blaise turns and sits back down, his eyes roving all over me.
“Your skin looks better.” He props his elbows on the table, clasps his hands together, then skims his thumb along a silver ring ornamenting his finger. “The flames burned up your arms pretty badly.”
“Yeah, I think a lot of that happened with the explosion.” I fiddle with a poker chip. “I remember when we were in the alleyway and you guys saying the fire was an everlasting fire … which is like a magical fire, but what does that do exactly? I mean, I inhaled a lot of smoke, so is that going to do something to me?”
“It already did,” Alex responds with his arms looped around my waist and my back pressed against his chest. “It’s why you passed out—because the smoke has a poisonous effect. And inhaling too much can end a creature’s life.” He rests his chin on my shoulder. “We were lucky we got you to a healer so quickly, or else …” He doesn’t finish, but I know what he was going to say.
I would’ve died. Or, well, probably became a ghost since my death would’ve been a murder.
“Who started the fire?” I feel on edge over the fact that I almost became a ghost.
The look the three of them trade is a sign that the answer is bad, and they don’t want to tell me the truth.
“Please don’t lie to me,” I warn. “You want my trust, then tell me the truth.”
They hesitate, exchanging another look, then Blaise caves.
“It was Elise,” he tells me, plucking up a card on the table.
“Oh.” I glance at the three of them. “Was she trying to get rid of you guys?”
Blaise gradually shakes his head. “Unfortunately no.”
I’m about to ask who was the target, but it strikes me like a blazing lightning bolt to the chest.
“She was trying to get rid of me, wasn’t she?” I whisper, fear trying to rise to the surface.
They don’t answer, but they don’t have to—their expressions say it all.
“Why was she trying to kill me?” I ask quietly. “Because of what I am?”
“That’s the question we still don’t have an answer to.” Alex presses a feather-soft kiss to the curve of my shoulder. “Rhyland’s trying to find out. That’s why he’s not here.” He gives a short pause as thunder rumbles in the sky, and their gazes drift upward to the clouds now above us.
“I think we should continue this conversation inside,” Jaxon states. “Away from the rain and the wind.”
I get the feeling he’s not just worried about the storm, but also that this conversation could be overhead. He said something like that to Blaise while I was approaching them. But the question is what?
What are they so worried about being overheard?
Better yet, what are they so afraid of?
After we get up from the table, the four of us hurry away from the poker table, practically jogging down a flattened path that weaves through the trees. Silver streaks of lightning blaze across the graying sky and the temperature is dropping. Alex is holding my hand, and Blaise is right behind me while Jaxon travels ahead.
“Where are we going?” I shout over the splashing rain as it begins to trickle from the sky and splatter against the ground.
Alex tightens his hold on my hand as he quickens his pace. “To our house.”
“Jeez, how many places do you guys have?” I’m glad I’m wearing boots since the rain is flooding the ground and turning everything into a muddy mess.
“Four,” Blaise answers as rain pours down from the sky so thickly it creates a veil around us.
“Four?” My lips part in shock. “That’s a shit ton of houses.”
Alex quickens his pace. “We’ve been around for a while. It’s given us time to accumulate a ton of property.”
“Oh.” I suddenly feel like a child in the midst of them.
They own property. They’ve seen centuries pass by. They know all about this world. And I know nothing, because I’m new … right?
My mind flashes back to that memory-like dream. If that was real, then when did it happen? Why did I forget it? And better yet, who was the boy that jumped off the cliff with me?
I need to bring this up to the guys, but I want answers first. While I do trust them for the most part, they can be dodgy at times, like right before I first fed off them and woke up to them discussing just forcing me to feed from them so that I wouldn’t wither away.
I groan, suddenly realizing how hungry I am.
Alex keeps running through the mud, but his attention darts to me. “What’s wrong?” Raindrops are beading his face, and his hair is soaked.
He looks so sexy.
And I’m so damn hungry.
I want to devour him.
When he notes my eyes, he nearly trips into the mud. He manages to catch himself, but I’m left startled.
“You just tripped,” I state the obvious. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you guys clumsy.”
That was always my thing. Although, I’ve gotten a bit more graceful lately.
“Yeah, well, the look you were giving me made my mind blank out for a sec,” he tells me as we start running down the path again.
“What was the look?” Blaise shouts over the howling of the rain.
The wind has picked up, too, sending leaves and flower petals scattering into the air. Branches are falling all over the path we’re running on, and the light is slipping away so rapidly I can barely see the outline of the trees around us.
“I’ll tell you later!” Alex shouts to his brother when he suddenly slams to a sudden halt.