What exactly were you expecting to do when you got here? Single-handedly take down a demon with no weapons and protected by nothing but a hospital gown? he asked.
He loosened his hold enough for her to wiggle free. As soon as she left his arms, he missed the feel of her body pressed against him. He grabbed her hand to keep her from leaving, but she wrenched away from him.
I hadnt thought that far through it, okay? Get off my case. What does it matter to you, anyway?
Davids jaw dropped. What does it matter to me? Im the one whos been stationed at your bedside nearly 24/7 since you were hospitalized. Im the one who carried you out of that awful warehouse where Robert tortured you. You do remember that, right?
She met his stare. Theres no way I could forget that, even though I want to.
A lull fell between them. There were so many things he wanted to say, but he wasnt even certain where to begin.
Allsún broke the silence first. Once the drugs wore off, it all came back to me pretty fast.
David couldnt believe what he was hearing. Shed simply snapped out of her coma? That was it? On the very night hed found out that her life was in danger?
No. It was too coincidental. Her senses were clearly trying to tell her something.
Allsún dropped her hands to her sides in exasperation. Look, I get that it was dumb, okay? And I can clearly see that Im not needed here. The carnage thats down there her eyes flicked to the staircase leading down to the basement well, you can take care of that. Now that you have the Execution Underground on your side with all their fancy equipment, Im sure that sort of thing is no problem for you.
He could hear the slight contempt in her voice at the mention of the Execution Underground. Did it really still piss her off after all these years? Shed left him after he joined the Execution Underground. She hadnt approved of him signing on. Not that he could really blame her. Hell, he shouldve considered her feelings more back then. He knew that now. Hed been young, naïve and so ready to save the world that hed failed her in the process. For the first year, every day without her had been worse than the last. He tried to tell himself that things had improved since then, that he wasnt constantly longing for her to be by his side, and that he was really okay, but who was he kidding? Even being with her like this now was killing him. He shoved the feelings inside, boxing them away where they wouldnt be so painful. He couldnt allow himself to go down that road.
She wrenched her eyes away from the stairs and spoke again. Anyway, Im out of here, she said. She moved toward the door.
David stepped in front of her. I cant let you do that.
She crossed her arms over her chest. Why not?
Because I need to watch over you.
She scoffed. Im perfectly capable of taking care of myself. In case you hadnt noticed, I wasnt kidnapped by a psychotic killer until you and Jace barged into Frankies pack. Before that I was fine.
He winced. He knew it was his fault. He knew that before he and Jace had shown up at K9s, the club run by Frankie Amato, Rochester werewolf packmaster and Jaces girlfriend, Allsún had just been hanging out with the werewolves. He had brought Robert into her life. She didnt need to point that out to him. Yeah, I know it was my fault, but thats all the more reason I need to keep you protected now. I know youve always been capable, but give yourself at least a few days to recover from what youve been through, Allsún. Allow me to watch over you.
She tried to move around him, but whatever way she turned, he blocked her path. I dont need you to watch over me. Roberts dead, right? If I remember correctly, Jace killed him.
David nodded. Yeah, Jace killed him.
The tense muscles in her shoulders relaxed. Good. Then, as far as Im concerned, Im perfectly safe.
Without warning, she ducked underneath his arm and started to walk out of his life yet again.
A few days ago a demon possessed your psychiatrist.
Allsún froze. She lingered in the doorway for a moment as if she couldnt decide whether she wanted to leave or not. Finally she turned around. You have my attention now, she said.
Relief washed over David. Maybe he could actually convince her to stay. I went after that demon tonight.
Allsún wrapped her arms around her body as if she was trying to hold herself together while she listened to him speak. And?
His face hardened at the thought of that demonic piece of shit threatening Allsún. And I killed him.
Good, she said. She turned to leave again.
But it knew about you, Allie. It knew youre the last Fae outside the Isle of Apples.
Allsún turned back toward him. He could see in her eyes that she realized the ramifications of the news hed just told her. If that demon had told even one other demon about herand according to the doctor, it had told far more than onethe word would spread amongst them.
As the natural enemy of the demons, the Fae had been engaged in a constant war with them for centuries. But not long before David and Allsún separated, there had been a mass movement of Fae back to the Isle of Apples, an alternate dimension inhabited exclusively by the Fae, a completely different world. Since then David had done plenty of searching, and as far as he could tell, all the full-blooded Fae were gone, and Allsún was the only remaining half-breed outside the Isle. When she stopped hunting, she had gone undetected by the demons. Now that the demons knew she was still here, they would all be gunning for her.
A slight note of panic crept into her voice. B-but Im only a half-breed. He must have realized that I
Allie, he said, cutting her off before she could get herself worked into a tizzy, you know that doesnt make a difference to demons. Youre a faerie all the same. Youre still their enemy. Plus, you dont think its strange that on all the nights you could have woken up, this was the one? I dont know about you, but thats a little too coincidental for my tastes.
Shite. Allsún swore under her breath. The slightest bit of her mothers Irish accent crept into her voice. That always happened when she was upset. What do I do now?
He stepped forward again. He was barely a foot away from her. He towered over her small frame and scanned the length of her body. She was hardly covered in the hospital gown, and being this close to her still electrified him. His desire for her came rushing back, though he was certain it had never truly left. God, how hed missed her.
Stay with me. Allow me to protect you. He said the words as if the situation were only temporary, only until they could find a way to get her off the demons radar again, but deep down he wanted so much more. Being so near her when he knew she didnt want him anymore was the sweetest form of torturepainful and divine all at once.
She shook her head. You know I cant do that, David.
Why not?
She glanced at the floor, refusing to meet his gaze. Because forgive me if Im the only person in the world who doesnt want to spend time with my ex-fiancé.
Damn. That stung. His face remained calm on the surface, but inside he wanted to scream in agony. He was tormented by so many emotions he couldnt let out. He wanted to say that he didnt have to be an ex-fiancé, that nothing in the world would make him happier than getting back together with her again, but instead he settled for, You know its necessary, at least for a few days until youre back to normal again and can fight off demons on your own.
Fine, she said. But I want to make it clear that this is not a chance to mend things between us.
A sharp pain hit him straight in the heart, but he held on to his poker face.
When he didnt respond, she continued. I assume thats not what youre going for here, but lets both be adult enough to agree beforehand that dredging up our past is only going to make both of us miserable. So, if I stay with you for the next few days, just until Im on my feet again and weve figured this situation out, well agree to be just friends and nothing more, okay?
She stuck out her hand to shake on it. He stared at her and couldnt help but wonder how theyd gotten to this point. How had their relationship gone so wrong? Theyd grown up together, been friends since they were young.
It was the summer in between Davids junior and senior years in high school that changed everything. Allsún had been away all summer in Ireland with her mother, while David had spent his free time acting like an idiot and getting into trouble with Jace, who was home for a brief summer break from training with the Execution Underground. Once Jace had shipped off again, the rest of Davids summer was spent watching too many bad cartoons. With Allsún not scheduled to return until the day before school began, David had anticipated the first day of class like a starving man staring at a juicy hamburger. He had never been a bookworm, much less enjoyed school, but Allsún had gotten him into reading, which was the extent of his interest in learning. His excitement for that first day of classes had been solely because of the chance to see Allsún again. He had counted down the days all summer long until he could tell her his thoughts on the books she had left him to read.
But all of that had been blown to hell as soon as he saw her.
The once gangly Allsún who wore glasses a little too large for her face and a retainer, and possessed an unruly amount of curly, slightly frizzy hair, had blossomed into the gorgeous girl who every guy in high school wanted. Over the summer she had filled out in all the right places. Her hips had widened, and her formerly nonexistent breasts had developed and then some. Shed ditched her retainer, giving her the perfect smile, and her mother had finally caved and bought her contacts. Even her once-crazy curls had now fallen in smooth, perfect ringlets without a hair out of place.
Whatever was in the water in Ireland, David was a major fan.
Really, he hadnt been sure if he was seeing correctly at first. Hell, hed always thought Allsún was beautiful, even despite all her geeky attributes, but shed been transformed overnight from his best friend to the girl he couldnt stop thinking about.
Sure, even to this day he still felt a bit shallow that he wasnt interested in Allsún romantically until her inside and outside matched in beauty, but he had been a teenage boy then, and he knew now, as a full-grown man, that even in her nerdlike state he would have fallen in love with her.
When shed walked into the hallway of Brighton High School after that summer, hed dropped the three textbooks he was carrying, just like a total idiot.
A smile had blossomed across her face at the sight of him, and shed thrown her backpack to the ground and run down the hallway to launch herself into his arms. Hey, jerk. Ive missed you.
It had taken him a minute to respond. Hed still been trying to process the fact that his best friend, someone hed never been nervous around, was suddenly the one girl in school he wished he could take advantage of. Shit, that was so not good.
Theyd danced back and forth in an overly flirtatious tango throughout the year. They would go from being comfortable with one another one minute to avoiding each other for days the next, because in some way the thought of wanting to kiss and touch the girl he had once considered to be like a sister made him sick to his stomach with anxiety. He hadnt wanted to hurt her, and he hadnt wanted a romance between them to mess up the friendship theyd shared for so long. But that friendship had already changed as soon as his attraction to her had made itself evident. Hed been certain Allsún had noticed the different way he looked at her.
He wished he could say that hed swept her off her feet on prom night or something equally cheesy, like Sixteen Candles or all those other 80s movies that she loved to watch. But he hadnt shown up with a birthday cake at her house to declare his love, he hadnt ridden a lawnmower across her front lawn, held a blaring boom box outside her window, or any of the other ridiculous things that Allsún fawned over in those films.
One night, when she was at his grandmothers house for dinner and his grandmother had gone to bed, leaving the two of them alone, hed just done it. Mid-sentence. Without any warning signs.
Allsún had been talking about how his grandmother had offered to teach her to cook, and before he knew what was happening, his hand had been on the back of her neck. Hed pulled her into his lap and was kissing her with so much force the world seemed to spin. Shed kissed him back, and that sealed the deal.
Theyd never been just friends since.
Hed thought that year of school had been pure unadulterated torturewanting her but being completely unable to make his movebut that would be nothing compared to the torture of being around her now. Because now he knew her in every way he possibly could, wanted her more than anything, loved her more than anything, knew how great it was to be with her, and he knew how much he wanted to stop boxing all that up and allow himself to go back to the way things had been when they were together.
Back then he hadnt known what he was missing, but now he knew exactly what he was missingand the longing was going to kill him.
But he didnt care.
He would torture himself every day if it meant he was able to see her.
With as much fake enthusiasm as he could muster, he forced a smile on to his face and stuck his hand out to meet hers. They shook.
Friends? she asked.
He gritted his teeth. Friends, he lied. And nothing more.
CHAPTER FIVE
FRIENDS? FRIENDS? WHY the hell did she have to label it like that? She had regretted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth, and Davids willingness to agree had hit her like a sucker punch to the gut. She was fooling herself if she thought she could ever be just friends with David. Shed always cared for him, from the time she thought boys didnt have cooties anymore until she was old enough to realize her true feelings: that she loved him.
She ran her eyes over his frame. Towering over her at a whopping six foot six, with muscles that put most of the male population to shame, he was quite literally tall, dark and handsome, sporting the bad-boy look to boot in his leather Harley gear. His deep brown eyes were so close to black she could almost drown in their darkness, and the feel of his large masculine hands holding her moments earlier was as divine as it had ever been. Heat rushed between her legs as she thought of all the things he could do with those hands.
No. She shook her head to shove the thoughts away as the handshake ended. She didnt love him, not anymore. She had moved on from that chapter in her life, left all the memories, both the good and the bad, behind her. She did not love David. She didnt even know David anymore. Until theyd recently met again, it had been years since theyd last seen each other for any extended period of time, much less spoken to one another. Her gaze traced over his sharply defined features, his prominent cheekbones and jawline. She was forced to admit to herself that David was like a fine bottle of top shelf whiskey that only got better and better with age.