| |
Anna
“You realize, don’t you, that you’re adding kidnapping to your list of crimes now.”
Damien grimaced. “Yeah. How does it feel to be dating a bad boy?”
Anna gaped. “How can you make light of this?”
“What else would you have me do?” he said with a shrug as they completed their descent to a ledge on the side of the mountain.
They hadn’t flown for long. Anna had no idea where they were exactly, the storm preventing her from seeing outside the protective sphere Damien was keeping about them. For all she knew, they could be fifty feet above the Outpost, or ten miles away.
“I don’t know, maybe take it seriously? Your life is quite likely in danger now. Your people’s safety as well.”
“Perhaps. But this is what’s best for you, Anna.”
Their stallions landed on the ledge, and slow dispersed until Anna’s feet touched solid ground, preventing her from ever having to actually get ‘off’ the wind-created animal. That was a neat trick, and she’d have to remember it for her own creations next time she flew.
Then Damien’s words clicked in.
“Wait a minute. Best for me?” she yelped. “How the hell is this any good for me?”
His blue eyes clouded over and he stroked the strong lines of his jaw in thought. “I don’t know how to explain it.”
“You should try,” she said quietly. “Like, try really hard.”
Ahead, the storm cleared, revealing a cave set into the side of the cliff.
“Your lair, I presume?” she said, walking forward. “And I’m not letting you off the hook. You have to answer that question.”
“I just know,” he said quietly. “This is where you need to be. With me. We need to be together. My entire body calls for it. Tell me yours doesn’t. That you don’t feel better around me. Stronger, more dynamic. Smarter. Everything.”
“I don’t feel very smart right now,” she muttered. “I just got tricked into coming to a cave.”
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t know. A real lair? A secret hideaway maybe. Trapdoors and furniture. A secret room where you plot evil things. I don’t know, Damien! But I expected more than a small cave on the side of the mountain!”
Damien shrugged. “I only had two days to set it up. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.”
“You never answered my question though,” he pointed out as they went inside, both of them forced to duck low to avoid an overhang.
Once inside, she straightened, looking around. It was bigger than she’d thought it would be. As seems to be the case with everything about Damien.
“Well isn’t this cozy looking,” she remarked.
“It’s not much, but I did what I could. Rane smuggled a lot of stuff out for me.”
Off to the left was a large pile of blankets and other material piled to make a bed of sorts. At the front were the remnants of a fire, though it was still warm, meaning it hadn’t gone out long ago. Even as she watched, Damien shot sparks from his fingertips that reignited the flames. A minor gust of wind broke up the smoke and forced it out the exit.
“Must be nice having powers like that,” she said quietly. “I could think of a lot of good uses.”
“You still didn’t answer my question,” Damien replied in an equally soft voice.
“Which one?” she asked, trying to sound calmer than she was. It didn’t work.
“You know exactly which one. The one where I said that I feel different around you. And asked you the same.” He kept facing her as she walked around the cave, looking at the boxes of food supplies and water jugs.
“Maybe,” she admitted.
“We have to figure this out,” he pushed. “To prove to everyone else that there’s a reason we’re drawn together. That they should be letting us explore this, not trying to prevent it. There is something going on here, Anna. You know it. Not just attraction, though there’s that too, at least from my side.”
“I’m attracted to you as well,” she said, seeing no harm in admitting that. “Let’s not pretend otherwise. But what you’re talking about, I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do,” he said. “I know you do. I can feel it in you. I see it in your eyes. You’re just afraid, because you don’t know what it is. But neither do I. Yet it’s still there, Anna. We can’t change that.”
“You’re really passionate about this,” she observed.
“I’m passionate about you, Anna. I have been since the start. I didn’t know why, I still don’t know why, but I’m not hiding it. I’m not denying it. Not anymore! I want you. I need you, in a way I’ve never needed anyone, anything, before in my life. This is real, and I’m not backing down until everyone else sees it.”
“But what is it, Damien? What’s going on here?”
“Whatever it is,” he said, stepping closer. “Whatever it means. I want you to know that I’ll figure it out with you. We can do this. Together. All you have to do is say okay.”
“Then what?” she asked. “Say I do say ‘okay’. What next?”
“Next? Next, we explore it. Stop holding ourselves back and just let go, be free. And see where it takes us.”
“Damien, I don’t know,” she said, shuffling nervously from one foot to the other. “I like you. I can admit that now. But what you’re talking about, that’s something bigger. Something more. I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet,” she protested weakly.
“I’m not asking you to do anything,” he said quietly, coming close enough to take her free hand. “I’m just saying we need to stop holding back. That doesn’t mean we’re going to rush into anything, it just means we no longer stand still. We let whatever is going to happen, happen.” He was looking down at her, eyes wide, open, and for perhaps the first time, unguarded.
The scariest part of it all, was that Anna liked what she was seeing. What she was hearing. Liked it so much. Everything in her, even the core where she reached for her magic, was alive, beating with a frenzy that she couldn’t deny.
But acknowledging that, and letting herself explore it, that was two different things. Was she ready for the next one? For the next level?
“Damien...”
“Anna.”
She inhaled slowly.
Where was the harm in it? She’d been exiled, was likely going to be thrown in prison once the Coven caught up with her. Her life couldn’t get any worse. Maybe, just maybe, if she stopped resisting things, she would be able to enjoy at least a little bit of happiness before everything came crashing down.
“You had better kiss me before I realize what I’m doing,” she said, deciding that it was time she stopped being afraid.
Wind swirled at her feet, lifting her from the ground so that the tall shifter could kiss her without bending over. She wrapped her arms around his neck and fell into him, letting herself go completely.
“You had better be right about this,” she whispered as he took her over to the blanket-bed, lowering her down into its depths. “Because if you aren’t, I’m gonna whoop your butt and—”
“Shut up,” Damien said with a grin, and kissed her again.
