Night Kissed (Chosen Vampire Slayer #1) - Mila Young Page 0,54

word. Then he reached out. “Give me back your hand.”

“No.” I shook my head. My hair fell into my face, and I pushed it fiercely back. Distraught or not, there was not going to be any hiding. I was just trying not to remember the way Dylan looked when I found him. “Don’t touch me.”

He gave me a slightly impatient look, as if I were simply being difficult instead of having a panic attack. “Is that why you think you can ‘help’ me?” His tone was disarmingly conversational. “Because you think your vendetta against Orion and his kind means we have something in common? Or is it that something else stirs in your veins?”

“It’s not a vendetta, and what do you mean?” Having a point to argue forced me to focus and cleared some of the fog from my brain. “They have no place here among mortals. All they do is spread chaos and kill.” A lump rose in my throat. I swallowed hard. “I’m not the only one who thinks they’re a plague. Therefore, not a vendetta.”

“If you say so.” He caught my eye once more, and I was startled to see that he’d reclaimed my hand without me noticing. His fingertips resumed their delicate, precise track over my skin. “You never answered the first question.”

“Do I have to? You never answered mine either.” I was unapologetically sullen. He had gotten me more out of sorts than I wanted to admit.

“I would appreciate you answered. And there’s nothing for me to reveal about you, other than I sense something unusual. But I don’t know what it is.” The way he talked was so bafflingly unassuming, for a man who kept the company he did. Upstairs, the battle raged on between his two untamed associates. Every now and then I caught another whiff of Seth’s smoke, usually right around the same time as another thing hit the ceiling. The house trembled intermittently at the center of its own personal earthquake.

“Fine.” I tugged at my arm, but he held fast. “Move over, then,” I grumbled. “If you’re going to keep me trapped, the least you can do is give me a seat.” Logan moved his foot, and I sat down in the newly available space on the couch. “I don’t know why I offered to help you. Not like you’re asking for any. I think I just…thought you were different in some way.”

Hearing the words leave my mouth made me cringe internally. What was I still doing in this room, talking to this guy? Being near him was like being hypnotized but self-aware. I knew full well that he was having an unanticipated effect on me, and that my efforts to resist weren’t entirely successful. The source of Logan’s allure wasn’t as readily apparent as with Orion or Seth, either, although he was just as handsome.

I had always been drawn harder to men whose first instincts were to issue orders or start fights. Logan exuded a different type of power and charisma. He preferred to bide his time, waiting patiently in the shadows for the right moment to strike.

He ran the side of his index finger along the length of my forearm, smiling slightly as goosebumps raised on my skin. “I am…unique,” he said slowly. “But it doesn’t matter. There is no help for the fallen.”

I furrowed my brow. “Fallen from where?”

“Grace.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Paradise. Whatever you want to call it. I was there, and now I’m here, and there is nothing to be done.”

I froze, my mouth dropping open at first. “No way.” Throughout my time in the field, I’d heard of certain forsaken beings, but not in any concrete sense. The rumors of things like cursed angels held the quality of urban legends, so rare were the shreds of proof. Up until I realized that Logan was very serious, I wasn’t sure I believed them at all.

Logan, for his part, could not have cared less whether I subscribed to his reality or not. He idly spread my fingers apart, traced over the lines in my palm, and let me go. “I’m not going to convince you.” The trace of irritation crept back into his tone. “You’re too raw and idealistic. I would suggest you come back to discuss your experiences in a hundred years, but you’ll be dead by then.”

“Wow, okay. Sorry I asked.” Now he was the one acting sullen and difficult, and some of his mysterious charm was wearing off. “I was just trying to…”