CHAPTER TEN

CAL

Robin Goodfellow was probably the most long winded creature known to all of man and monster kind. I once spent an entire shift at the Ninth with him ranting about the continuity of the label on his whiskey. Of course I was actually watching the television over his shoulder, but he could talk. So much that I wondered how he had his voice by the end of the night. And he couldn't just talk, he could talk with great emotion. He could make me feel awkward just talking about the power of love, mostly because sexual details would often get tossed into the lecture. You could feel his irritation when he was ticked off and you could see his amusement when he was happy. When you live with the ass-kicking version of Buddah your whole life you don't see emotions revealed so honestly often.

I'd learned to read Niko, but he wasn't forthcoming with his feelings. And hell, the only emotions you could read on my face were pissed, bitchy, and enraged. Robin was a whole new kind of creature to us; literally since he was the first puck we'd met. But of all the emotions I'd seen clearly on his self-proclaimed godly face, I had never had such a violent urge to start pointing and laughing hysterically at him as I did the moment we walked into his office at the dealership.

Robin Goodfellow was hungover.

For one, I didn't think it were possible. Loman could drink Sasquatch under the table and still have the ability to play beer pong with...well, some historical guy he probably knew by a nickname that was a heavy drinker. I don't think I'd ever seen Robin hungover. Drunk through the night, yes, drunk the next morning, yes, but never hungover. He always said his metabolism kicked it out of his system before it caused adverse effects.

But there he was, hunched over his work desk with his eyes closed and one hand braced against the bridge of his nose. There was a tall glass of water, a spilled bottle of aspirin, and what looked to be a Venti cup of coffee from Starbucks. I glanced over at Niko, who looked slightly surprised as well, then we both walked into the office.

The sales area was alive with activity, probably because it was Saturday. The overhead speakers were requesting assistance in the lot, on the showroom floor, and Robin just sat at his desk lamenting poor decisions of the night before. I could help myself. I slammed my palms against the desk and shouted his name. What can I say, I am half evil. Niko smacked me on the back of the head for that, but it was worth it when Goodfellow jumped out of his skin and focus a painful dead glare on me.

"Dick," it was all he said and it only made me want to laugh at him again.

"What were you doing last night? I've never seen you this hungover before."

"You've never seen me hungover, at all," Robin replied, articulating his words a bit more than he usually did, probably to sound more coherent than he was. "I don't get hungover." I smiled and tilted my head, just waiting for him to stop there so I could clap my hands at the ready in front of his face. He clasped them and pushed them down. "I don't usually get hungover."

"Ish drink you under the table?"

"Cassie, and no she didn't. Considering she has been at the apartment regurgitating the little contents in her stomach for the last four hours, I believe that means I drank her under the table." I cringed, feeling a little sympathy for the poor girl. I'd never been there myself, since our drunken mother kept Niko and I off the hair of the dog religiously, but I'd seen it in others and my fair share of regulars at the various bars I worked in.

Robin ran a hand over his face to ease the tension of his, no doubt, epic headache. "So what can I do for the Leandros brothers? Don't tell me there's a job. I can't handle a job right now."

Niko silently pulled out one of the plush chairs on the other side of Robin's desk and sat down. A little out of character for my brother, but at the same time few monsters would attack us in broad daylight in the middle of an open car dealership. The Auphe might have, but they were taken out by the big bang theory in the form of a nuke suitcase. "We have some questions for you."

"Questions," Robin repeated, took a swig of coffee, then popped two more painkillers. "Is it time for that talk? Well, you see when a woman and a man, or a man and a man, or a woman and another woman—"

"Not those kinds of questions," I cut in, before he actually did go off on a sex ed rant. I'd already learned too much of what I knew from Goodfellow. He even drew a diagram once, and let me say, sketching is not one of his weak points when it came to realism. "It's about Cassie."

It wasn't often that Robin got ruffled. More often than Nik, of course, but still a momentous occasion. He straightened in his leather chair, glancing between the two of us and frowning. "Then it depends solely on what you're asking. I might not be able to confirm or deny suspicions. For her protection and yours."

I rolled my eyes. "Why is everything about her cryptic? If she's done all the dark and bad things everyone's claiming, she's the most bubbly murderer I've ever met."

"Caliban," Goodfellow hissed, leaning forward on his desk to admonish me. He pressed his hand down on the air in a gesture of quiet. "For the sake of my pounding head and for the sake of those innocent workers who love to hear gossip, please keep your ungodly foul mouth shut or at least lower it a few decibels."

Instead I opened my ungodly foul mouth to prove his insult. Niko swung at my head and narrowly missed, but he'd stopped me from disrupting the mundane work day, which was the intention. Robin continued to lean against his desk, pinching the bridge of his nose again. "I'm not going to try and dissuade you from judging her like that. She did annihilate several formidable peri clans before she came to her senses, but the point is that she came to her senses. She isn't a murderer. No more than you and Niko are. She killed to survive."

"I wasn't judging her," I countered. I was the last monster to judge.

Robin stared at me for a moment. "What happened that night? She wouldn't give me details."

I wrinkled my nose. "Like I will? We had sex, it was nice, and she left while I was sleeping. If that doesn't give you indication that it ends there then I don't know what evasive tactic you've been using all these years, but they're probably far more creative than the standard."

"They are far more creative, thank you," Robin replied. "And I wasn't talking about the sex. She was hurt and wouldn't tell me how it happened."

"Kin." I explained further, telling him how they jumped me. Begrudgingly admitted that Cassie swooped down in the nick of time, how she was hurt and how we went back to the apartment to clean up. "Things just went..."

"Horizontal from there?" Robin supplied.

"It wasn't always horizontal." Goodfellow smiled at that, but I couldn't really drudge up the emotion to follow. "Not that it matters. One crazy night. You get your best friend back and I go on with my menial existence."

"Let me tell you something about Castiella." Robin sighed as if it were a chore to paint a picture for the local idiot. "She is every sin and every virtue rolled into one body. Which means she probably more 'human' than any of us." He used the air quotes and paused to assess Niko, who was the only human among us. He decided against retracting his statement and I didn't blame him –Niko rarely partook in half the blissful sins known to his species and practiced the virtues almost too righteously. "It also means she has a lot of the same insecurities and fears. A big one, I'm sure you can relate too," a pointed look at me, "is the fear that others will be hurt because of her or her situation."

"Her uncles."

Robin lifted his eyebrows and nodded. "They want her dead, with the exception of Ishiah, for what she did thousands of years ago. And sleeping with the local half Auphe will not help her sentence. And yet, she's drawn to you for obvious reasons." I shot him a shocked look for the subtle compliment and he snorted. "You've both been through the same rejection. Stuck with family that despises you or wants to use you for horrible purposes. She calls you little lamb, because she can tell you are just as lost as she used to be. Cassie wants to help you, but she fears involving you in her affairs. I'm sure your mediocre display of cunning and battle skills have strengthened her resolve."

Amazing, even hungover this bastard could filibuster a courtroom for days. "Are you getting to a point eventually?"

"My point, you halfwit, is that she didn't leave in the middle of the night because she was done with you. She left because she likes you enough that she doesn't want you hurt. Sound familiar? Because I'm pretty sure you did the same 'standard' move when you hid like a pansy from Georgina."

"Don't," I warned. I let Robin insult me and mock me as much as he wanted on an extensive list of topics, but George was not one of them.

"The horrible thing is that it would be perfect," Robin went on, but at least he heeded my threat. He took up his coffee cup again, but didn't drink –I was a little in awe that it was out of a paper cup and not some gold inlaid mug that said 'world's greatest' and left it at that. Instead Goodfellow sighed and kneaded at his temple again, lamenting Cassie and my one night stand like it was Romeo and Juliet torn apart by their families. Hah, it kind of was, except instead of Montague and Capulet it was Auphe and peri. And back to Shakespeare references.

"Cal, she could give you everything you've ever needed or wanted or damned near dreamed about and..." Robin sobered and reclined in his chair again. "And you could save her from herself, but none of that matters because together you have a target the size of King Henry's posterior on your backs."

"Because the peris hate the Auphe and the uncles know I'm an Auphe."

"Mostly that, yes."

"What did she do, Robin?" Niko asked. I was glad to have the conversation steer away from my wants and needs, because having Robin confirm what my body didn't want to admit made avoiding her all the more difficult. Robin knew Cassie, knew her for a long while and knew me long enough to know what a girl had to put up with. Yet he said she'd be perfect. Experience had me doubt it, but Robin would sooner and gleefully tell me fat chance than he would lie and claim the opposite.

Robin took in a long breath, then stood from his chair. "Let's get some lunch, yes?"

I glanced over at Niko; we both knew a comment like that wasn't just to evade the topic. This was going to be a long story. At least he was offering refreshments this time.

We ended up in a middle class Japanese restaurant –probably slumming it for Robin– where we were hidden behind a rice paper partition from the few other patrons. I didn't think the walls would muffle much sound, but Goodfellow seemed more comfortable here. After the sushi and drinks were served –even hungover Robin ordered plum wine– he started into a story that lasted well into the early evening rush. But I sat there and I listened, more and more having to squelch the need to go see Castiella.

She said she knew the Auphe. I hadn't believed her and I'd been wrong. The first years of her life they had her. In Tumulus, trapped, just like me. Robin said she was so young that when she was released –yes, released like a caged animal– onto the Earth she knew nothing but the means to kill the peri race. The Auphe had used her as a tool in their long going feud and she'd been a very good tool. Three peri clans nearly extinct and an extensive body count throughout other clans sentenced her to death by any being's hands.

"The Auphe didn't aid her when their little assassin started becoming the hunted," Robin explained. He let off a little snort. "The concept that those hellions would offer anything to anyone is ludicrous to us, but to Cassie…they were her family and she was abandoned by them. She was lost and alone and learning what it was like to be prey. She started hating the Auphe." Robin paused to take a drink. I tried to contemplate what that would be like. I never considered the Auphe my family, not like I did Niko. They were always the enemy, but somehow what Cassie when through seemed worse. To actually believe those hideous bastards were all you had was sickening enough, then to think of the betrayal she felt when they just weren't there.

She'd been abandoned by everyone and everything she'd ever known.

"With the humans she realized she was something more. Like if a lamb could realize it was actually a lamb raised by a lion. She watched the humans in their simple Neanderthal lives. She interacted with them and found a whole new range of emotions. She wanted to be part of it, be accepted and loved and protected."

Such a silly pipe dream, but one I was familiar with. Robin went on to tell us how she immersed herself with the humans, evolved with them, which was how he stumbled upon her. She'd apparently come to her own by then, still constantly ducking the peris, but she hadn't killed in centuries. "Almost a millennium," Robin exaggerated. "And the only reason Cassie killed again, was to save me. Oh, there was this one time in Barcelona where the Evati, which was the Spanish father of the Kin, had staked out a monopoly on nearly every brothel in town, human and nonhuman. Now at the time there was the solider that had a fancy for Cassie, courting her with horrible poetry and exquisite pastries. She wanted none of it because he was human and she feared her strength with him and her past. So Cassie had placed a bet with me that I couldn't convince at least one lady in each house on the main strip to pay me. If she lost she would seal the deal with the Spanish soldier, if I lost I would drop it for once and for all."

"Point, Robin. Make you're point."

He snorted. "Are we feeling the niggling green-eyed monster rising up, Caliban?"

"I'm thinking more my fist in your green-eyed face."

Niko gave Robin that 'wrap it up' look as well and for once the puck begrudgingly adhered. "Anyway, the Evati busted in after I'd just convinced lady of the night number four, from the same brothel mind you, and they tried to tear me apart. Naturally, I slaughtered the pups in my way and left the brothel at Cassie's request. Reinforcements there brought it to twenty against two. With Cassie and I, it was hardly fair for the wolves, but she still tried to mediate. It, inevitably, ended in a blood bath. The Evati weren't pleased to say the least, which it why she and I, eventually, had to take out the majority of the Evati to stop them from constantly attacking us."

I'm sure my look was suspicious and Robin sneered. "Ask Delilah, many of the Kin are descendants of not just the Tokyo branch –because Kin comes from the Japanese glyph for 'gold' not from the Old English 'cyn' meaning of familial relation. The Kin nationality is varying. The Irish, the Spanish, the Israeli, the list goes on. Just like America is the melting pot of the world, so is the Kin to their criminally organized brothers. Some of the Kin are Evati descendants. They like to boast a different story, but Cassie and I are still in it."

"Are there any other races that Castiella has placed on the endangered species list?" Niko asked. Funny, that had been on my mind in similar words too. Three peri clans and now a sect of the werewolf mafia; who knew a little package like Cassie could kick so much ass.

"The Auphe," Robin replied. He placed his empty glass near the edge of the table in request for more. "You may have finished the job, but Cassie's been hunting them since the first century. I assume it was the Auphe's second kidnapping that pitted her against them."

"Second kidnapping?" I echoed. Robin cleared his throat uncomfortably. It was his tell that he was about to say something he knew he shouldn't, but it was Goodfellow so of course he would say it anyway.

"It was shortly after she stopped killing the peris in rebellion against the Auphe. I hadn't met her at this time and she's never been forthcoming with her early years, so I know very little of what happened. Cassie has confessed to me before that they attempted to brainwash her again. She told me they failed and tossed her back out, but never explained why they would do that. I was naive before, but I've seen how tenacious the Auphe are. Why would they just let her go? Eventually they avoided her because she kept stalking them and killing them. She would never engage them unless it was one and they could never seem to find her while they were in a pack." Robin paused and wet his lips as the server refilled his wine glass. "Cassie said something last night that concerns me, though. We were reminiscing and mocking old mistakes. Oh, like that one in Thailand where I..." he trailed off when I chucked a stray chopstick at him. He dodged it, frowned, and continued, "She said the second time the Auphe took her was 'about the time' she learned she couldn't have children."

My stomach dropped to my knees the moment the gears tripped into place in my head. It could be nothing, just a coincidence that she figured it out, but somehow I doubted that. And the female Auphe, when they had no other males, had planned the same for me. I hoped they would have waited until I was completely insane before using me as a stud, but I also doubted that. I was safe from them now, unless they figured out a way to come back from the grave, but Cassie didn't have the same skin of the teeth luck as I did. "Are you telling me the Auphe..."

"Forcibly mated with her to breed a more obedient tool, yes, but it's only an assumption. Breeding with her would create a rather amazing creature and they were still experimenting back then, probably already trying to bear something like you, Cal. And if they couldn't brainwash her and they wouldn't obtain offspring from her, then I could see them letting her go if only to try and find another use for her. Cassie has not confirmed or denied. I don't even know if the Auphe are capable of that particular kind of nefarious thought."

"They are," Niko cut in, square jaw set tensely. Goodfellow stared at Niko for a moment before his emerald eyes panned over to me. He asked the question without words, but I wasn't willing to supply the answer. Niko and I had kept that particular piece of information, regarding the female Auphes' sudden interest in me last year, a secret. The puck hadn't needed another reason to help me, of which should have been a warming thought. The only reason I hadn't told him was because I never ever wanted to think about that reality.

"So I was right," Robin said slowly. He took a drink of his wine and shook his head; apparently alcohol was the sure-fire cure for a hangover, because Goodfellow looked much less piqued. Also, apparently, we couldn't hide secrets as well as we used to. "Why did you feel the need to keep that from me? Knowing that there were only females left, knowing what they wanted from Caliban, it would only have made me fight harder for him. I would never wish rape on anyone, especially if it involved an Auphe."

"Can we not talk about this?" I grumbled. The raw fish in my stomach was beginning to turn. Thinking about my possible fate with the Auphe made me think about what Cassie could have already have been through. I was beginning to understand what Robin had meant by saying she was perfect for me. Everything I'd been through, she'd survived as well. I could tell her anything and she'd understand. I could tell her things I didn't even express to Niko and she'd probably smile and touch my face in that coddling manner that didn't seem condescending when it really, probably, should. My perfect match was a peri…who'd have thought?

"You have work tonight, don't you?" Niko asked me, changing the subject but hardly derailing my thoughts.

"Ish told me to take the night off. He's even paying me." He actually said he would without me whining about it. Something about it not being my fault this time so I shouldn't have to suffer the consequences. I think it had more to do with him not wanting me to start a bar fight if daddy Godfeather was still around.

I ran a hand over my face and gazed over at my brother with my knuckles still to my lips. I was pleading, obviously so, and Niko caved after only a moment, which surprised me. "Go." I blinked and started getting up, but paused. I didn't think he was done after one word, so I waited for the limitations. "Just call me when you get there…and call me if you're staying the night."

I nodded and was out of the restaurant in less than a minute. I would let Niko figure out how to tell Robin I was crashing his apartment. The puck said it was a perfect match in a bad way and we shouldn't pursue it, but I couldn't help myself. I never liked it when people told me what to do. I would be the first idiot to press that big red button at the nuclear reactor plant and I knew it.

I wanted to talk to Cassie, more than I wanted to have sex with her again. Although, that was certainly in the back of my mind too. I made it to Goodfellow's apartment without Kin or any other incident. I called Niko before I even knocked on the apartment door, telling him, "Made it, safe," and promptly hung up. Then I knocked. No answer. I tried the door and it turned, unobstructed, under my palm.

Robin was one of the few people we gave a key to our apartment to. Promise had one as well, but she was usually too polite to use it. Robin never bestowed a key to his pan-cave upon us, but he also didn't feel the need to lock it when he or his ass-kicking best friend was home. After the stories I heard, I wouldn't want to be the thug-wanna-be that tried to jack Robin's television while he was out and Cassie was still in. Or Salome for that matter.

The mummy cat was lounging on the dinning room table, glowering at me with those disturbing black sockets for eyes that burned from the inside like fire embers. She didn't move though, save for a tail twitch.

"Cassie?" I called, thinking that announcing myself might be a good idea. Cassie could take me down with her thighs…yeah, somehow I didn't mind that thought. "Cas?"

There was a light laugh to my right and I turned. She was home and by her clothes hadn't planned on leaving said home anytime tonight. I never thought a girl could look sexy in plaid boxers and a tank top outside of a Victoria Secret catalogue, but again I was proven wrong. No bra this time, I noticed.

"Hi, I heard," I paused to swallow back the dryness in my throat. "I heard you weren't doing too hot." She did look like she'd been through a rough day. There were circles under her eyes and her skin around her collarbones was a little blotchy. Her hair was disheveled in that wake up first thing in the morning way, only more alluring. And I could smell the toothpaste overdose from where I stood.

"No one other than Robbie has ever called me Cas," she said. She ran her hands through her hair and laughed again. It was a little nervous in its music. "I certainly didn't expect visitors, so you'll have to pardon the train wreck."

I walked across Robin's exaggerated living room to her. There was a guest room tucked back in that corner, so I assumed that's where she'd been sleeping. "Did I wake you?"

"That obvious?"

I stopped directly in front of her and emphasized checking her out. "Well, for a girl who's been retching in the bathroom all day you still look…" I smiled at her. "Well, I'd still do ya."

"Ever the charmer, Mr. Caliban Leandros." I wanted to press her against the wall and kiss her, but considering how horrid I felt after puking from creating too-big gates I refrained. "What are you doing here? You didn't come over here to check on me."

I paused, thinking about coming clean and being honest, then doing it without much hesitation. "Robin told Niko and me about what you've been through."

Cassie stiffened, dark eyes flickering to each of mine in panic. "What did he tell you?"

"About the Auphe, how they used you. I didn't really believe you when you said you knew what they were like and what they could do, but I was wrong. You might know it better than I do."

Cassie made a little sound to disagree and shook her head. "Don't compare. It's not comparable." She ducked her head for a moment, then leaned back against the wall. "So he told you about the peris?"

"And the Evati. You've been a busy girl." She still looked utterly shamed and I didn't like that. "Hey, I didn't mean that as an insult. It's like Robin said: you're no more a killer than Niko and I…well, Niko. We kill to survive—"

"You're not a killer," Cassie interrupted. At least she met my eyes again, even if it was during a sigh. "Why are you here?"

I took in a deep breath and shoved my hands in my pockets. "To be honest, it's a rather selfish reason." She lifted her eyebrows with a cute smirk on her face. "There are things in my head that shouldn't stay there if I want to stay sane and on the anti-Auphe bandwagon. And you might be the only one who'll understand."

"You want to talk?" Cassie asked, confused. I nodded, a little embarrassed to confess. Cassie smiled and tucked a piece of dark blond hair behind her ear, before she pushed off the wall and threaded her fingers around the edges of my jacket. "Okay, I'll listen under one condition."

"What's that?"

She snickered and pressed onto her toes. Her mouth brushed mine with the lightest of touches, but I could still feel the warmth of her breath and the languid movement. I grinned. "You sure you're up for it?"

Cassie scoffed and pulled me toward her as she backed up down the hall.

Amazing didn't even begin to describe the night. Not only did I get to have breathtaking sex with a peri again, but I got say things I never imagined I'd be able to aloud. And she listened, quietly. And she touched my chin or my hair in a comforting lulling manner every moment I started hating myself. Like she knew. Maybe she did. And the things I confessed I wouldn't to any priest or lawyer regardless of the whole in confidence thing. They were things I didn't tell Niko, my own brother, the person who raised me. Maybe it was because she'd been through the cold and tumble hell of Tumulus too, maybe it was because she'd killed so many to survive, or maybe it was just because I could walk away from her and never see her again like I couldn't with Niko. Whatever it was, I spilled my guts, and when I was done, when I couldn't say anymore, she kissed me.

Cassie kissed me with unexpected gentleness. She slipped over me with the grace of flowing water and brushed my dark hair back to kiss my forehead, my lips, my throat. She held me and without words she told me she understood, told me I wasn't a monster, told me that I could still be desired. We had sex for hours, talked for longer, until I was so exhausted I couldn't even think about everything racing through my brain. Like how this was different. How sleeping with her felt more tender and intense than anything I'd ever experienced. How when she looked at me it meant something more.

That scared the shit out of me. But spent, I fell asleep; Cassie curled up against my shoulder and drifting as well. All I really remembered was the last thought in my head before I passed out. A very Cal-esque soundbite of wisdom: I'd worry about this tomorrow.

And tomorrow came far too quickly.

"Cal...Cal?" I heard her, but my body didn't want to respond. Let me rephrase that; my body didn't want to wake up, but when her hand dragged down my chest it certainly responded. I couldn't remember the dream I was having, but it had encouraged little Cal to half mast before I even woke so it had to have been good. Plus I was still tried from last night and there was something I was avoiding in the morning, right? "Cali...wake up."

I cracked one eye to see Cassie leaning over me. She was showered and changed and looked far too awake at, I glanced at the radio clock by her bed, noon... "Fuck me, Niko's going to flip out."

Cassie laughed and placed a hand on my chest to keep me from clumsily scrambling out of the bed. "He called last night, while you were sleeping. I told him you were safe and let him listen to you breathing, which is a little creepy that your brother knows your breathing pattern."

I dropped back to the bed frame and snorted. "He's a little eccentric." That was putting it lightly, but Cassie would have plenty of time to figure that out. I paused and stared down at her hand to my chest, shocked that I'd actually entertained a long term thought. I never did that. With my track record, not only in girls but in life in general, nothing lasted and I never hoped for it to.

"You okay?" Cassie asked, crawling up next to me on the bed. She sat at the head with me. "Last night was pretty intense, so if you need some time alone I won't be insulted. I could go make you some breakfast. I make a mean Santa Fe scramble." I stared at her, brain not processing any of this. "The key is ranch dressing. Are you sure you're okay?"

Nevermind that I never replied the first time. I wasn't okay. I remembered this feeling with George. It was different; maybe more fiery than sun-bathed warmth, more electric than pleasantly tingling, but I knew it. I was growing much too attached to Cassie. She was, as Robin said, perfect for me and that meant one thing. "You're going to die."

Cassie's chin jerked to her chest in surprise, then she laughed. "Okay. I've heard of people being cranky before their morning coffee, but cryptic is a new one."

"If you stay with me you're going to die. That's how my history goes, so get out while you can."

"Cali." She said it like it was an old argument we used to have all the time. I hated that I kind of liked the nickname, or maybe just the way she said it. I shook myself out of my stupor and shimmied to the edge of the bed in search of my clothes.

"I need to go."

"Cal, stop it. Talk to me." Cassie tried to grab for my arm, but I swung it away. Grabbing my boxers, I pulled them on and snatched my tee shirt from the ground next to my shoes.

"I don't want to talk about it, Cas– Cassie. Robin's right, this will only lead to one of us dying. With the way you fight, it'll probably be me, but if they kill me—" The air left my lungs as I suddenly found myself belly up on the bed with Cassie pinning me down. I tensed, ready to claw and kick for my life, but Cassie just loomed over me. She only wanted to stop me from leaving.

"I would never let them hurt you, understand?" she told me sternly. I glanced down at her thighs stretched over my hips, her body curved over me and round innocent face inches from mine. Apparently, I liked it a little rough because this was turning me on; damned hormones. Of course that certainly explained my attraction toward Delilah.

"Cassie," I started, but couldn't find the right verb or noun to continue for the life of me.

"Cal, I'm not going to die. Not because of you. I've made plenty of my own mistakes, trust me," she paused and loosened her vice grip on my wrists. I almost shudder when she dropped her forehead to my shoulder and her hair slid over my bare chest. "Damn it all, I like you, Cal. I haven't felt so comfortable around someone before. I know I'm putting you in danger, but I don't want to stop."

Her arms curled up, wedging between our chests. She tucked her nose against my chin, warm breath over my throat and the soft treble of her voice rippling through my sternum. "Please. Let me just feel normal for a little while? I swear I can protect you from my uncles. I can protect you from the Kin too. Once you're sick of all this, then you can just tell me you're done. I'm used to being—"

"Cassie," I cut in, not wanting to hear her say what I'd thought and said so many times with sarcasm. Used to being thrown away, disregarded, looked down upon. I dropped my head to the pillow beneath my head and sighed out in loud frustration. Her hair receded from my chest as she lifted her head. "I'm trying to be a responsible adult here and you're ruining it."

She giggled, soft and lilting. I looked up at her, met her dark mahogany eyes and couldn't help but take her chin and tilt it toward me. I kissed her, then bit my own lip as we parted. "All right, so we know the shit were getting into, right?" She nodded and smirk on her lips. "Me being half Auphe makes you a leper. You being hunted by the peris makes me target practice. But we still want to try this because you can slaughter a pack of wolves single-handedly and I have a big gun with explosive rounds and that is not a euphemism so stop laughing."

She didn't stop laughing, even as she kissed me. She didn't stop me from sliding my hands under her shirt either. Her mouth melded to mine as we wrestled the rest of her clothes back off and I kicked out of my boxers. And we said screw the world. We were going to do what we wanted for once.

By the time we got around to eating it was an early dinner, but I still asked for breakfast.