Sylvia Day - A Touch of Crimson

Adrian’s flame blue gaze bored into her, searing her with its heat. “You’ve now exposed yourself to the Fallen. They’re going to come after you.”

“I hope they send her ,” Lindsay shot back defiantly. “Next time, I won’t play with her. I’ll just take her down.”

Damien made a noise that drew her attention. “If you could have killed her, why didn’t you?”

“Because I need to know where the other two assholes are. She was alone when I first saw her. I didn’t see anyone with her until she was rescued. And, by the way, the guy driving the getaway vehicle had the same crazy crayon-colored spiked hair I remember from the day they attacked my mother. If she’s still hanging with that dude, I’m guessing the other one isn’t far away.”

“The ramifications of what you’ve done are going to haunt us. We don’t hunt the Fallen. We can’t. Their punishment is to live with what they are.”

“She wasn’t suffering when she terrorized my mom; she was having a damn good time. That bloodsucking cunt doesn’t deserve to live.” She shot a look at Adrian, whose impassive face gave nothing away. Her stomach knotted. God, she didn’t want to cause him any more trouble. But what could she have done? Her entire life had been built around avenging her mother. “She left me alive, so it’s her stupid mistake that I’m hunting her now. I guess she figured that, as a human, I wasn’t going to grow up to be a threat. But that should absolve you of any blame. I’m not one of you. I don’t operate under the same rules. What I do shouldn’t affect you.”

“You had a lycan with you,” Adrian reminded. “That involves us.”

“So cut me loose.” She hated the soft note of pleading in her voice. “I can’t bring you anything but trouble. That’s killing me, Adrian. It’s breaking my heart.”

With a harsh exhale, Adrian leaned his hip against his desk and wrapped his hands around the edge. “When Vash shoved you into Elijah, she could have just as easily punctured your rib cage with her fist and ripped out your heart. You’re only breathing now because she let you go.”

“Why the fuck would she do that? Again? I got the drop on her; I can do it again.”

“That was Vash?” Elijah’s growl rumbled through the room. “I want that hunt.”

Lindsay glanced at him and gave a curt nod. Vash had taken people they loved from them, and it was time to make her pay.

Looking back at Adrian, Lindsay said, “You told me you’d help me hunt her down. You dug around in my brain. You knew who she was. Were you lying?”

“No. But we need to provoke them into attacking us, not launch a war ourselves. We can take defense, not offense. There are rules and there are ways around those rules-” His cell phone rang, drawing his attention to where the phone rested on his desk. Frowning, he said, “Excuse me.”

He answered with a clipped “Mitchell.”

As she watched, Adrian’s face took on the hardness of stone. She could hear someone speaking rapidly, but couldn’t make out the words. Elijah exhaled in a rush and stepped closer to her, as if to stand with her. Support her. A chilly sense of foreboding swept over her.

A long, drawn-out moment passed. Finally, Adrian nodded. “Yes. Stand by. I’ll make the arrangements.”

Putting the BlackBerry down with far too much care, Adrian swept his gaze from Damien to Elijah. A silent communication passed between them, and the two men moved to leave the room. Elijah’s brief squeeze to her shoulder and Damien’s pitying look tightened the cold knot of dread in her stomach.

“What is it?” she asked when the door shut, leaving her and Adrian alone in his office.

He stepped toward her and gripped her upper arms in gentle hands. “It’s your father, Lindsay. He-”

“No.” The floor fell away from her and she swayed. Her chest felt as if it had just cracked open, the pain so excruciating she would have sunk to the floor if not for Adrian’s hold.

“He was driving and swerved off the road. He hit a tree.”

“Bullshit.” Tears streamed down her face. “I don’t fucking believe it. My dad handles cars like a pro. This is Vash’s fault. She’s Syre’s second. She could order this.”

Which made this partly her own fault.

His wings unfurled and wrapped around her, sheltering her. He caught her close, gripping her nape and hip to press her fully against him. “I can’t rule that out. I’ll investigate until I know for sure.”

A broken, serrated noise filled the room. Lindsay realized she was sobbing, her entire body racked by violent quaking.

Adrian held her, his warmth penetrating from the outside and sinking into her. No- he was inside her. Inside her mind like before, curling around everything like insidious tendrils of smoke. Her agonized grief began to fade, the sharpest edges softened by a strange sense of comfort.

Lindsay wrenched away from him, stumbling backward before crumpling to the floor. “What the f-fuck are you doing?”

Crouching beside her, he reached to brush her hair away from her face. His eyes flickered with preternatural flame and glistened with tears. “Taking away your pain. I can’t bear it.”

“W-what? How…?”

“I can pull the painful memories from you, neshama . I can heighten your recollection of the happy ones.”

“Don’t you dare!” She pushed to her feet, shoving away his hand when he reached to steady her. “If you ever steal a memory from me, painful or not, I’ll never forgive you.”

“You can’t resent the loss of something you don’t remember.”

How she remained standing when it felt like a glowing-hot poker was piercing her chest was a miracle. “If you care about me at all, you won’t take away the events that shaped me into who I am today… God-” She gripped her pounding head in her hands, her thoughts tumbling through her mind in a chaotic deluge. Her chest was heaving in its struggle for air, her sobs half crazed to her own ears. “I have to go. I can’t stay here.”

“Stay tonight,” he said quietly. “Can you do that for me? You’re in no condition to be alone now.”

“Adrian-” She couldn’t even see him through the rush of tears that burned her eyes and throat. They’d made love in this room, held each other for hours. It was fitting that she would face the punishment for that transgression in the same space. “We’re killing each other. Every moment we spend together comes back to us in torment inflicted on people we love. We have to stay away from each other.”

“Yes,” he agreed quietly. “I’ll let you go. But not tonight. Not like this. One night in my home, where I know you’ll be safe. I won’t disturb you. Can you give me that?”

“You promise to let me go?”

“Yes, neshama sheli . I promise.”

She no longer wanted to know what that meant. It was all too painful, the sweet and hot intimacy they shared. She nodded in acquiescence to his request, her mouth too dry to allow her to speak.

He bowed his head slightly. “Thank you.”

There was something in the severe austerity of his features that unsettled her. A hint of grim determination. But she couldn’t take any more right now. She was falling apart, shattered by a blow she’d never recover from.

Daddy…

Without another word, Lindsay left the office and shut the door behind her. She was a mess. Her life was a mess. And she was fucking up the lives of everyone around her.

She retreated to her room and crawled into bed, crying herself into dark, restless sleep.

Adrian packed an overnight bag with quiet deliberation. He set aside a week’s worth of clothes, but didn’t anticipate needing all of them. God willing, Syre would be dead within the next forty-eight hours.