Demon Day by Penelope Fletcher (best novels in english .TXT) 📕

smirked. “Didn’t need to think on itmuch after that to figure it out. I was terrified she would try tohelp you and get caught. So … I agreed to fight the shifterthinking I could knock her out and save her. Then I told Lex whathappened and she spoke to me.” He looked at her. “When I told heryou were at Temple, alive, the light flickered on behind her eyesand she whispered all quiet like, “Fairy.”.” He chuckled. “Then shestarted ordering me about, and I couldn’t get her to shut up, or becalm until I agreed to go get you.”

Rubbing my circlet then pushing thehair off my face I breathed out. “That is one messed up story, Ro.Do you realize what might have happened if Amelia managed to getyour neck between her jaws, or if she’d swiped a claw too deep intoyour stomach? Do you not have the faintest clue of the risk youtook coming to get me?”

He punched my shoulder. “I got yourback.”

I yanked on a clump of my hair;convinced I was going to scream in the face of how nonchalant hewas about risking his life.

“We must keep moving,” Lexsaid tonelessly and walked off in that strange fluidglide.

I hesitated, looking back over myshoulder. “I had friends back there. People I have tohelp.”

She drifted on. “They will be rescuedby the fairies when they come looking for you.”

“Uh, but Breandan can feelwhere I am. If he senses I have moved on, he won’t wait to check.We can’t abandon them.”

She stopped and spun to face me. Iblinked because her features blurred together she moved so fast. “Idon’t want to fight,” she replied stiffly. “I want to go far awayfrom that place. It feels bad now. I want us tosurvive.”

“It’s justTemple.”

A flash of something close to rageflitted across her doll-like face. “It feels bad now, somethingevil is happening there, and I don’t want to go back.”

I hissed. “Well I am.”

Lex shrieked, the sound high, jarring,and deranged. I jumped, my mouth dropping wide even as her handsflew to her cheeks. Her face crumpled and her eyes welled withblood again. Gods, she was creepier than Tomas.

Ro approached her with care. “It’s allgood,” he said soothingly.

“You’ll take care of me?”she whispered and walked into his arms. It was beautiful to see,her chalky skin against the milky brown of his.

He hugged her to him. “Ipromise.”

The sun winked out of sight and Ijolted as Tomas awakened. He was close. Dreadfully close. I couldalmost imagine him crawling out of his resting place and coughingup dirt.

But one thing I didn’t have to imaginewas a distinct feeling of him getting closer, the darknessswelled.

He was coming for me.

“Uh, guys,’ I said not surehow to put this delicately. “How do you feel aboutvampires?”

Ro made a noise of disgust andderision.

Lex straightened. “Tomas is coming?”she asked with a shadow of a naughty grin on her face.

It was so like how she used to be Ismiled back as I asked, “How–”

“I told you, memories andfeelings. This thing you have with him is dark and complicated,”she said solemnly. “And really weird, just saying. You should becareful the darkness doesn’t– ” Cutting off, both she and Ro took astep back, their gazes fixing over my shoulder.

Cold lips pressed onto the back of myneck. My hair was pushed aside to fall over my shoulder as Tomasran his mouth up the side of my neck, breathing in. His hands slidunder the folds of the blanket I was wrapped in and travelledgently over the bruises covering my hips and sides.

“How much do you hurt?” heasked.

“It’s bearable,” I repliedbreathlessly. “I’m healing.”

He turned me in his arms so I facedhim. I stared hard at his chin, avoiding his eyes, not wanting tosee my reflection in them, afraid to connect.

He waited patiently.

The silence deepened and stretched on.Instead of becoming comfortable, it rubbed me up, and unsettled meto the point tears threatened to fall.

I noted he wore all black again, rightdown to his boots.

“Do you take your clothesoff when you sleep?” I blurted then blushed and stammered toapologize. “I mean, I just thought … it makes sense you’d be nakedsince your clothes would get muddy, and yours aren’t. But don’tanswer.” I waved my hands; still I had not looked past the smoothcolumn of his neck. “I’m sorry.”

Soon, my gaze drifted up, over hisstrong square jaw, firm, wide lips, and sharp cheekbones. I pausedat his crooked nose that should have been repulsive, but insteadwas dear to me. His skin was ashy, pale, and cold-soaked. I couldfeel the frosty temperature seeping through the blanket, and Ishivered at the contrast, as a fairy I ran hot. Finally, I reachedhis eyes that glinted beneath his jutting brow and broad eyebrows.His coal black hair was swept back off his high forehead and wascut close at the neck.

He swallowed hard, and I watched histhroat bob. “When I sleep in the ground … yes it is morecomfortable and practical to sleep without any clothes. I simplyhide these nearby until I need them.” A strange expressionflittered across his face, and I would have said it wasembarrassment but he was a vampire, and they were beyond such pettyemotion. So I will say he looked enamored with the idea of feelingbashfully discomfited. “Sleeping in the earth is an experience Iwould like to share with you,” he said formally.

Unable to find a suitable response, Icleared my throat, and rubbed my nose.

Tomas slowly unwrapped the roughlywoven blanket, and without taking his eyes from mine, wrapped ittighter around my torso. He tugged off his shirt, ruffling hishair, and making him shake his head to smooth it down then handedthe thin, black material to me wordlessly.

I took it from him, my fingersbrushing his. “Ta,” I murmured.

His head tilted with the slightestinclination as he stepped around me. “Turn around,” he said to Lexand Ro, whom I assume did so without question, as I heard noargument from either of them.

I dropped the blanket, glad to be ridof its itchy confines, and paused, realizing how ridiculous it wasto be stark naked in a forest at night. Instead of feeling abashed,I felt outlandishly liberated.