Drowning In The Dark - Pippa DaCosta Page 0,72

He arched an eyebrow and teased his tongue across his lower lip. I tracked the tiny, entrancing movement and my mind vacated the premises.

“—Muse?”

“Huh?”

“I said, where are you? Are you with Akil yet?”

“What? No?” Stefan’s hand roamed higher.

“What’s going on?” Ryder barked.

Stefan’s fingers skipped lightly over the denim between my legs, sending countless tremors rippling through me. I gasped, heard Ryder swear, and punched Stefan on the arm. He feigned pain with a chuckle.

“I should never have let you go together.” Ryder grumbled. “It’s like letting two kids loose in a candy-store. For fucks sake, Muse. Save it ’til later.”

I covered the mic on the phone. “Busted.” Clearing my throat, I batted Stefan’s hands away. “Ryder, it’s nothing. We just stopped for…gas. We’re nearly there. Five minutes out, max”

“Get to Akil’s, make sure he’s doing what he’s meant to be doing, and come back here. Your brother is awake and giving me the evil eye. He’s too smug. I don’t like it.”

“Understood.”

“Good, now pass the phone to Stefan.”

“Erm, okay…” I handed it over, answering Stefan’s enquiring gaze with a shrug.

In the quiet of the car, I heard every one of Ryder’s words. “If you hurt Muse, I will hunt you down, use every rusted weapon I own, cut off your precious parts, and feed them to the hellhounds. Comprende, amigo?”

Stefan swallowed back a chuckle. “Understood.” Ryder hung up before Stefan had chance to. “I believe him.”

“He doesn’t make empty threats.” Well, that was the mood thoroughly spoiled. A blush touched my face as I realized I was straddling Stefan, virtually naked from the waist up. I snatching my top from the dashboard and wriggled it over my head. “We will continue this,” I promised, or maybe threatened. Who knew with Stefan?

He leaned forward, eye-to-eye with me, salacious smile begging to be kissed. When he reached out to touch his fingertips to my cheek, I tensed, uncertain. “You’ll either save me, or condemn me, Muse. Either way, I have no intention of letting you get away again.”

I’d have kissed him, but he bowed his head and pulled me into the kind of embrace reserved for goodbyes. My heart fluttered, trapped. I closed my arms around him, gathering him close, suddenly so very afraid for the both of us. What if this was the best we ever had? What if tonight, something terrible happened? Val had said Stefan’s future held tragedy.

The smallest of trembles shivered through him. I tightened my grip and turned my cheek against him, holding him so close that his heart beat against mine. This, now, was real. This was Stefan, and he just wanted to be held. I breathed him in, and stroked my hand softly down his hair. “It’s okay.”

When he whispered, his lips tickled my ear. “I’d forgotten what it was like to feel.”

Years in the netherworld, hunted by the Institute, abandoned by his father, how long had it been since somebody loved him? I tightened my hold and clutched his shirt in my fists. He’d been alone through all of it. Was it any wonder that ice had frozen his heart? How else could he have survived?

“I...” He sighed. “Don’t let go.”

He couldn’t see my face, buried as it was in his hair, but had he been able to, he’d have seen bright tears in my eyes. “Never. As long as I live and breathe, as long as I have a shred of humanity left, as long as I have it in me to care, I will be here for you. Always.”

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Demon eyes glowed in the half-light, smothering the long, meandering driveway snaking through the forest toward Blackstone. As soon as we’d pulled off the main road, I’d felt the crawl of demon stares. Within a few hundred yards, they’d started to spill from the trees. Now, as we rolled forward at a snail’s pace, the demons were everywhere: in the trees, lining the driveway, crouched by the earthen banks. They watched with multicolored eyes. Lessers, mostly, but some higher demons, especially the closer we got to Akil’s house. Wings fluttered, flapped, and shivered. Claws glinted, and teeth chittered. Elements swirled, charging the air. The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

“Stop. Let me out.” Stefan climbed from the car and strode ahead. Speared by headlights, the demons parted before him, hunkered low, submissive, even as they hissed and spat in his direction.

With a clear path behind Stefan, I picked up the pace in the car, muttering to myself, “This is the