Chapter 9
Something was wrong.
Panic was building in Winter’s limbs, growing in his chest until he could barely draw a breath. Oh, God. He needed to run. To strike. To fight.
Something had his arm, fingers biting into flesh and shaking him.
He didn’t think. Just reacted.
Fangs burst free, and he snarled even as he opened his eyes. He rolled, pinning down the creature that had a hold of him.
“Whoa,” Fox exhaled in a rush. “That’s cool.”
Winter blinked as consciousness lurched to the forefront of his brain. Fox was beneath him, his body warm and relaxed. His red hair was tousled from sleep, and there was a stunned expression on his face.
“Are you always so sexy?” Fox teased, and Winter was sure he couldn’t have possibly heard him correctly.
“What?”
“Those other vampires had their fangs out when they grabbed me and they weren’t sexy, but for some damn reason, they are really freaking sexy on you.”
Winter had to actually feel around in his mouth with his tongue to confirm that his fangs were in fact down. Nothing was making any sense, and he was feeling far too comfortable on top of Fox. The witch stretched beneath him, his smile growing as if he’d just had the same thought.
“Have a nice nap?” Fox asked. It sounded like he was just barely holding in a laugh.
Groaning, Winter rolled off of him and onto his back on his side of the bed. He scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to get his brain fully working. “Did you wake me?”
“Yeah, you were having a nightmare.”
Winter dropped his hand to his side and looked over to find that Fox had shifted onto his side, his head propped up on his hand. It would have been so easy to just pull Fox closer and roll him beneath his slightly larger body. Holding him so close seconds ago felt so nice, so natural. Part of Winter wanted to gather him close again and fall asleep.
But that so was not going to happen.
“We need to get ready to leave,” Winter said.
Fox let out a little whine. “Really? It’s still more than an hour until sunset. Can’t we just lie in bed a little while longer? We can cuddle. I’ll even chase the bad dreams away.”
That had Winter getting to his feet. Nightmares he could deal with. He’d suffered from plenty of nightmares in his long existence. Cuddling in bed with Fox was not something he could handle.
“Get up. We need to get ready to leave. See if we can pack up any of that food. If not, we’ll get something while we’re on the road.”
Fox stared at him as if he’d just suggested having their teeth pulled out for shits and giggles.
“Get up,” Winter growled, trying to get Fox moving.
The witch flashed him a saucy grin and tossed off the covers before getting out bed. “Are you always grumpy when you first wake up in the evening? I should probably know, if we’re going to be together for a while.”
Winter took the coward’s route and escaped into the bathroom. The constant poking and teasing from Fox was making it hard to keep his distance. Right now, all he wanted to do was tackle him to the bed and explore his mouth with his tongue.
Unable to face himself in the mirror, Winter hid in the bathroom for a couple of minutes, pulling all his confused emotions together while splashing cold water on his face. Lines were starting to get blurred when it came to Fox. Since Winter had announced that he had no intention of killing the man if he meant no harm to the Variks, Fox seemed to have relaxed considerably. His teasing and flirting had increased. There were still little wrinkles of worry on his brow and a shadow of fear in his eyes, but that was to be expected, considering everything he’d already survived.
If Fox didn’t feel Winter was a threat, did that mean he was innocent—at least in terms of plotting against the Variks?
And if that were true, could Winter still kill him, even if he meant no harm to his family? If the witch was innocent, then there had to be a way to keep his family and Fox safe.
Winter lifted his head and growled at his own reflection. And since when was he worried about Fox’s safety?
Oh, just fuck that! Like things weren’t complicated enough already.
But there was no denying it. The compulsion was there. From the moment he’d seen the bruises and rope burns, Winter had felt this drive to help him, to stop his pain, to just…to just fix it. As it was, Winter was already battling an insane desire to pull the man into his arms every time he lifted those wide green eyes to him while they sparkled with fear and a kind of hopeless panic.