“Yes, my love?” I look up at him and he approaches me cautiously as if I am a rabbit about to bolt.
“Are you calm now?” he asks as he sits on the bed next to me.
I put the book carefully down and pat it. “Yes. I am perfectly fine.”
“No, don’t use that word,” he chides me. “When you say ‘fine’, you are anything but.”
“All right then, I am perfectly calm,” I say through gritted teeth.
He takes my hand and holds it tightly, stroking my arm with his other. “You sure? That looked like it hurt.”
“It did,” I admit, and he squeezes even tighter.
He turns to everybody else, all of them just standing around, not daring to speak. “Leave us,” he says in a tone worthy of my sire and they do as he asks, probably more stunned by my outburst than anything else.
“He has taken to dressing you up as Alice?” he asks as the door closes quietly.
“Yep.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No. It was a perfectly civilized dream.”
“Why did you hurt yourself?” he asks me in a soothing tone, as he would a fragile teen prone to self-harming. Christ, the man has a soft touch. He should have been a counselor.
“It was that prickling. It got worse. It felt like a million needles attacking me from the inside out. I wanted it to stop.”
“What prickling?”
What prickling? Did I not mention it before? I honestly can’t remember.
“It’s nothing,” I sigh, not really wanting to explain it now. “You are going to be late. You should go.”
“No, I’m not leaving you. Certainly, not while your eyes are all freaky and you are still dressed up as some kind of horror movie Alice.”
I look down at myself then and I look an absolute fright. Literally. I am smeared in my own blood, all down my arm, all over my dress where it had sprayed over me. My face is white, my hair is a mess, my eyes are my own but now two bloodshot peepers and my dress somehow is torn. I must have caught it with my Dragon talon thingies. I laugh, a hollow sound that makes him flinch. “Yes, I can see why you are concerned about me. I am a mess. But really, Cole, I am fi…erm, good. Please don’t worry about me.”
“Oh, I’m worried. Especially as I am now not going to see you for two days.”
“I promise that you don’t have to worry. CK will make sure I am taken care of,” I say quietly.
“I know he will,” he sighs. “Liv, this isn’t working for me anymore,” he says, standing up suddenly and pacing, running his hand through his hair in agitation. It sticks up adorably as it is still wet from the shower and all I want to do is run my own hand through it to flatten it, so he can do it again. “You going off for two days, not seeing you. I can’t do it anymore. There has to be another way.”
I shake my head. “We have already seen what the other way is, Cole. I don’t think that I can cope with being piggy-in-the-middle while you two duke it out over me.”
“This just isn’t working for me anymore,” he repeats desperately and drops to his knees in front of me. “Please, Liv. We must find another way. Use that brilliant brain of yours to come up with another plan. Please.”
I take his face in my hands and smile sadly at him. “I’ve tried. Believe me, I have tried to think of alternatives. There isn’t one.” Or at least not one that either one of my men will agree to. I take this opportunity to run my fingers through his hair and he closes his eyes.
“There is,” he says. “And I will find it.” He stands determinedly and turns his back to me to get dressed. I watch him, wishing he had stayed in his towel just a little bit longer. “Please change,” he mumbles. “I can’t bear to see you so fragile.”
My heart breaks at his words and I do as he asks. I whip the dress over my head and pull on my robe, covering up the blood stains. I check my hand to make sure the talons have retracted and thankfully they have now. That was quite disturbing. I tie my hair back naturally as I am loathed to use magick at the moment. Don’t ask me why, I just need something to be normal for a few minutes.
He turns and smiles at me. “It’s better,” he says. “Please try and destroy that thing while you are away. I can’t stand it messing with you anymore.”
“You and me both,” I say as I kiss him. “I am going to miss you.”
“Don’t,” he says against my lips. “It just makes it harder to let you go.” Which he does and steps back. “I will call you later. I’ll be at Claridges.”