Heir of the Dog Black Dog - Hailey Edwards Page 0,16

mixed with our lethal powers made for a dangerous cocktail. I murmured appreciatively when he cracked one open for me. Sometimes it was nice having a man around the house. Or his bottle opener at least.

“When I left,” he began in a subdued voice, “it wasn’t for the reason you think.”

I bit into a slice, not regretting the charge for extra toppings at all. “Oh?”

He sat there holding the bottle, peeling the damp label with his thumb. “I’m dying.”

A shocked gasp sucked the pizza down my throat, and I choked until my eyes watered and I coughed up the murderous slice of pepperoni clogging my windpipe. “What?” I wheezed.

Concern knitted his brow like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on my head and watched it explode, but he didn’t say the words again.

“You can’t...” Turned out I couldn’t say them either. “You’re only what—fifty or sixty years old?”

“Seventy-two,” he corrected.

Chills walked on mouse feet up my spine. “What’s wrong?”

“I had sex with someone.”

I didn’t like where this was heading.

“She...fed from me while I was feeding from her.”

I shifted uncomfortably. “Fed how?”

“Green light.” He continued the methodical peeling of the label. “Palm to my chest.”

Memories of that night washed over me, flushing my skin and shortening my breath.

Shaw loomed over me, his hips wedged between mine. I traced the hard curve of his right pectoral with my fingertip before placing my left palm over his racing heart. He slid inside me, growling my name, holding me so tight I couldn’t breathe, and then he shouted. Not in pleasure, not in pain, but in horror.

That night desire had ignited my magic. I don’t know why or what was different that time from all the others. All I know is instead of sliding off him, my power latched on and fed. Fear I would drink him down, panic that my grim history was repeating, was enough to save him.

That time.

There wasn’t a next time. Answers were hard to come by, and I was too scared sex with me would kill him. Turned out I worried for nothing. I found him a week later playing naked Twister with five harpy sisters. He hadn’t even locked the door. Who cheats on their girlfriend without locking the door?

The next day I paid a local human witch to spell a leather glove with a Word. No more accidents for me. Not with Shaw or anyone else. The witch had enough fae blood in her family tree to give its branches a little zing but was so far removed she was mortal. I could have used a fae, but they live for centuries, and I took comfort knowing my secrets would die with her.

Sick to my core, I whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” He brushed aside my apology. “You didn’t mean for it to happen.”

I hated the twist of hope in my chest, the need to hear his explanation. “That’s why you left?”

“That’s part of the reason.” He drew in a long breath. “I went home. I thought my people could help.”

“Did they?”

He shook his head.

I set my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Don’t.” His tone shattered, turned to broken glass and cut its way from his throat. “Please.”

The anguish in his voice answered for him. I didn’t want to make our situation worse or the debts I owed any deeper, but I couldn’t have another innocent’s death on my conscience. I had plenty of those already.

“Tell me what to do.” I tugged on his shirt when he ignored me. “I want to help.”

“You don’t understand.” Hunger reverberated in his voice. “You’re the only one who can.”

I slowly broke contact with him. “Why?”

“We completed a circuit, Thierry.” His eyes were cloudy white when he looked at me. “I can only feed from you.”

Chapter Eleven

Obligation is the worst burden in the world. The sense you must atone for your sins, the guilt that keeps you up at night. First I wrecked Mom’s life, now I might have ended Shaw’s. Under different circumstances, I might have joked about my sexual prowess breaking an incubus, but I wasn’t laughing now.

Thierry strikes again.

I did this. I broke him. That meant I had to fix him. There must be a way.

I rubbed the back of my arms. “How long has it been since you fed?”

He shrugged, closing his eyes until he regained control. “That isn’t why I came back to Wink.”

“Why did you?” I bit my lip. “I didn’t mean it like—I was surprised is all.