“Oh, fuck,” Mal said softly. “You don’t love her, do you? Does she know?”
“I do love her,” Conah said. “She’s my soulmate.”
“Uh-huh, and what would you have done if I hadn’t interrupted you just now?”
“She pulled away. Nothing happened.”
“At least she has the decency to back off. Fucking hell, brother. You’re the key to peace. You fuck this up, and there will be war.”
“I know. I won’t. I’ll stay away.”
“You fucking better. We don’t know what effect another trauma could have on her.”
Huh? Were they talking about Kiara or me?
“She’s not broken,” Conah said. “She’s the strongest woman I know.”
“Oh, boy.” Mal sounded disgusted. “Pull your shit together, tuck your dick into your pants, and man the fuck up.”
Fuck, he was headed this way. I turned and ran.
I made it back to the courtyard before him, but I was still breathing heavily when he joined me.
He looked at me strangely.
I made a meh face. “I did a couple of laps.”
He shrugged. “Let’s go.”
“I want to say bye to the children first.”
“Luena has made it clear you’re not to spend time with the demon spawn.”
My heart sank. “Mal, they need me.”
“No, Fee, they don’t. This is the way we do things, and you need to fall in line or stay away. The reapers aren’t simply soul collectors. We are Lilith’s army. We’ve seen many wars, and any peace is always tentative and temporary. This works, so leave it be.”
Just because it worked didn’t mean there wasn’t a better way of doing things. I opened my mouth to say as much, but Mal held up his hand.
“Enough, Fee. You have a fucking job to do. How about you focus on that, eh?”
Once again, shame stung my cheeks. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms stiffly around his neck.
“Let’s go.”
My body was tense, thrumming with frustration. His sigh echoed through me, and then he wrapped his arms around me and held me. My brain froze, and for a moment, I didn’t comprehend what he was doing.
And then the reality of this moment filtered into my shocked brain. Mal, arrogant, cocky, loved-himself Mal, was hugging me.
He was hugging me, and I had no idea what to do with that.
Chapter Four
Neither of us spoke on the way to the human realm. It was that time of the week where I checked in on the house. The house I’d bought outright. The one that I’d paid Lucas wads of money for so I could keep.
The house had been unlived in all month, and it would probably remain that way because Mal had been right about life never being the same again for me.
The fact that my life was linked to Lilith’s wellbeing, which in turn was linked to Azazel being successful at keeping me breathing, meant that living in the human realm held too many risks for me.
The human realm was where the Dread spent most of their time. It was where the vampires that could wound and weaken me, and the mouths that could tear me to shreds hid out. I was stronger than before, faster, and I could throw a great punch, but I wasn’t up to par with the Dominus. Not yet. But I was determined to get there.
In the meantime, this house would have to be rented out.
The first set of prospective tenants stood on the doorstep as Mal and I approached the gate. Wait a second … The guy looked familiar.
Lucas turned to glare at me from the porch steps. “Hello, Fee.”
Oh, shit. “What are you doing here, Lucas. You got your money.”
“You think this is about the money?” he asked.
“I doubt you came for a social visit. What do you want?”
“The house. This house. I backed off because I thought you loved it, that you were going to raise a family in it, but imagine my horror when I saw it up for rent.”
He’d booked the viewing appointment? I grit my teeth to stem a curse. “You didn’t back off, Lucas. You were offered a buyout, and you took it. And whether I rent out the house or live in it is none of your fucking business.”
“It is when you’re making money off it,” Melody said.
Lucas shot her a look of reproach.
She paled and took a step back.
He was pissed off that he’d been paid only enough to put a down payment on a house, a huge down payment, but he probably still had a hefty mortgage to pay. Whereas I didn’t. I owned