her, demand she give me a better answer than that, but I could see the truth in her eyes.
“I just follow the magic of the moon, it’s never steered me wrong before,” she said, a crease forming between her eyes as she stared at the mark she’d placed on me.
I pushed myself up, staggering away from her and clutching my arm as my breaths came in heavy pants.
“You need to go back to your cell block,” I rasped.
I rested my back to the door as I made it across the room, trying to swallow down my discomfort at her seeing me like this. “Let’s go,” I snapped, trying to move on from what she’d witnessed, but the look in her eyes said she wasn’t letting it go.
She strode forward, reaching for my arm and for some reason I let her as she pulled up my sleeve again and continued to examine the silvery mark on my flesh. Her touch was warm and tugged on some innate part of me, begging me to draw her closer. The rose had grown once more, the little vines coiling along my skin towards the crook of my elbow.
I tugged my hand free and yanked my sleeve down, my jaw ticking as I gazed at her. When she was this close, it was hard to remember why I so desperately needed to stay away from her. But the hate in her eyes was a reminder in itself. She didn’t want me. She never had.
“I hope you’re suffering like I suffered,” she breathed and my heart clenched.
I growled low in my throat, grabbing her wrist and turning to yank the door open. I escorted her back to the elevator and released her as we stepped inside together.
My pulse thumped heavily at the base of my skull and I held my breath as we descended. In a space this small, it was all too tempting to think of the blood pounding through her body. The memories of me drinking from her were far too clear and I swear the curse latched onto my thoughts and urged more of those memories into my mind. Of my fangs in her neck, of her urgent moans, of my mouth finding hers in the dark and our bodies becoming a tangled mess of limbs as we clung to each other like two Fae possessed. I blinked hard to try and force them back and was glad when the doors opened.
I pushed her along ahead of me and she seemed happy to remain silent as I walked her back to her block.
“You’ll be given a timetable for your classes,” I muttered and she nodded stiffly as we reached Cell Block D.
I lowered the bridge for her and she turned to me instead of immediately walking across it.
“Have a shitty day, Officer.” She mocked me with a curtsy and headed across the bridge while I seethed at her words.
I locked up the cell block once more and strode back to the elevator. I had a few hours off now and I knew exactly how I’d be spending them. I’d been researching moon curses online ever since she’d put the damn thing on me and had come across a book which seemed promising. It had arrived in the mail this morning and I was anxious to start studying it.
I headed into the guards’ quarters, but before I made it to my room, Jack Hastings stepped into the corridor dressed in his uniform, looking ready to start his shift.
“Oh hey, Mason,” he said brightly and I gave him a withering look.
“Hello,” I said, moving to walk past him, but he sprang into my way.
“This was in the rec room for you. I was about to come find you.” He waved a slim package in his grip and my heart jolted at the sight of the Midnight Hospital’s emblem on it.
I was about to snatch it from him when I figured he had been about to bring it to me, so I muttered a thanks and held out my hand instead.
He placed the envelope into it with another smile. “Everything okay? Haven’t seen you outside of shifts for a while. I could use some help finishing off a box of beers my grandma sent me this evening.” He looked hopeful and for once I was almost tempted to agree. With the curse making me relive my past every time I was alone and Pike not letting me take on endless shifts to occupy myself, I was