Bound by Danger (The Alliance #6) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,74

his hands as Callie opened the door and swept into the room. Her loose ponytail bounced against her shoulders, and her formfitting yoga pants hugged her legs while her loose-fitting T-shirt fell off one shoulder.

Her face was flushed from her workout; she’d become more toned since arriving here and lost a couple of pounds. She looked beautiful, healthy, and vibrant. And every beat of her heart reminded him that she was human.

His hands fisted as he sought to keep the demon under control while it coiled and slithered inside him like a viper looking to escape captivity. She had a spring in her step as she crossed the room to kiss him on top of his head.

“I’m going to take a shower,” she announced before vanishing into the bathroom.

As he listened to the water running, he didn’t picture her nude or imagine everything he would do to her. Instead, he pictured sinking his fangs into her throat, draining her, and replacing her blood with his as he turned her.

When the water turned off, he was still sitting in the same place with his hands on his knees. The door opened, and a puff of steam wafted out. She emerged with a towel wrapped around her torso and another around her hair.

“If it’s possible, I’d like to go get my things soon,” she said without looking at him.

Lucien’s teeth scraped together as she crossed the room to the dresser. He’d taken all his clothes out, moved them to the armoire, and given the dresser for her things.

Callie sorted through her clothes as she searched for something to wear. Her things fell neatly into place in his room, just as she’d fallen neatly into place in his life. But then, she didn’t have many things to clutter up his space.

Her clothes weren’t hers, or at least they weren’t clothes she’d picked for herself; she didn’t have any of her pictures or the things her father made her. She was happy here, but she wanted her things and to officially say goodbye to her old life and start her new one. And she wanted to make sure she got those things before something happened and her landlord gave her apartment away.

“That’s not a good idea,” Lucien said.

“It’s been almost a month.” Callie removed a T-shirt and a pair of shorts from the dresser. “I doubt the Savages are still looking for me there. And if I don’t go back soon, my landlord will toss all my stuff onto the street.”

She couldn’t stand the idea of any of her things sitting on the corner, getting rained on, or hauled away to the dump. The possibility caused a knot of anxiety to form in her chest.

“I paid the rent,” he stated.

“I have things there that I want here, with me.”

She tossed the towel she’d been using on her hair onto the chair before digging out some underwear and pulling it on. She tugged on her shorts and removed her towel to don her bra and T-shirt before turning to face him.

“It’s been long enough, Lucien.”

Lucien kept his eyes on the door. “It’s dangerous out there for you.”

“We’ll go in the daytime; it will be safer then.”

“No.”

At first, Callie wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. She stood there, waiting to see if he would start laughing at his own joke. When he didn’t, anger rose to replace her disbelief.

“No?” she asked.

“No.”

She couldn’t be hearing him right, but how could she possibly hear him wrong when it was the only word he was saying? She willed him to look at her, but he kept his gaze on the wall as his fingers dug into his knees.

Something wasn’t right here. A part of her said to proceed with caution as he looked like he was about to snap, but she didn’t understand why. The other part, the far more annoyed part, didn’t care about caution.

“You promised me that I would be able to get my things,” she reminded him.

“You have everything you need here.”

She did a double take, and her mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she finally found words again. “I have memories there—”

“And you’ll have memories here too.”

It was taking everything she had to keep control of her temper as she resisted the idea of punching him in his face. And she knew how to throw a punch now, a good one that would knock some sense into his thick skull.

“There are things there that mean a lot to me,” she grated through