Renegade (28 page)

“A day.” Then her forehead wrinkled and she said, “You must be starving. I made some food a while ago. Let me get you some.”

She stood, but I wouldn’t release her hand so she could leave. “I’m not that hungry.”

“You?” she said, a smile lighting up her face. “You’re always hungry.”

“Not today,” I said, my voice coming out in a low baritone.

A look of concern crossed her features and she sat on the edge of the bed, fitting her hip so it was against my side and she was turned toward me. “Are you feeling okay?” She leaned over and the scent of wildflowers tickled my nose and filled my senses. She pulled her hand free and placed it on my forehead. “Do you still feel pain?”

I shook my head.

“Do you feel like you need more sleep?”

I shook my head again.

Her brow puzzled and she seemed to be deep in thought. Then she said, “I don’t know why you couldn’t be hungry, then.”

She was so utterly innocent and inexperienced that the hound inside me let loose a low whine that echoed in my head.

“Kiss me,” I said, the words barely making it from my throat.

My request had her sitting back, staring down at me dumbly.

“What?”

“That’s why I don’t want food. I’d rather have you instead.”

Her cheeks turned pink. It was the exact color streaking through the sky outside with the setting of the sun.

“Have you ever kissed someone before?” I drawled.

She shook her head.

“Has anyone ever kissed you?”

Again, she shook her head.

“Lay it on me,” I said, feeling my lips curve upward.

“I-I can’t,” she said, getting up from the bed.

I caught her around the hips and pulled her back down. “It’s really quite simple,” I said, sitting up away from the pillows so we were face to face. “All you have to do is lean in, very close,” I said low and leaned just ever so slightly closer, “and press your lips to mine.”

She was watching me, looking between my lips and my eyes. I didn’t move any closer. I wanted her to come to me.

We stayed like that for a long time, so long I’d just about given up. If it had been any other lady, I would have grabbed her and crushed her lips to mine. If it had been any other lady, I would have given her a kiss to end all kisses. But she wasn’t just some lady.

She was special.

I began to pull away and she laid her hand on my arm, the lightest touch, and then she came forward. She closed the distance between us and pressed her lips to mine.

She held herself there, her full lips taunting mine, and I was practically shaking with the need to crush her against me. But I didn’t. I did, however, bring my hand up and run it through the length of her hair, my fingers trailing through the silky ends and then resting between us. She pulled back, her gaze colliding with mine, and she smiled.

“I got you some Ho Hos,” I blurted and then wondered what the hell I was thinking. It was like my brain threw up the first words it happened to string together to form a sentence.

“You did?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.

I nodded. “But they’re in my Jeep in hell.”

“That’s okay,” she said, slipping from the bed and landing on the floor with a soft thud. “Are you hungry now?”

I wasn’t, but I nodded anyway.

My answer seemed to please her and she went off to find me something to eat.

I looked up at the ceiling, feeling lighter than I had… ever.

I couldn’t understand it. That kiss was nothing that would boil a man’s blood. It wasn’t the kind of kiss that would ignite a firestorm of passion until I could think of nothing else.

It had been chaste.

It had been innocent.

It had been the best damn kiss of my life.

The knowledge hit me like a ton of bricks. Suddenly, crazily, I felt as if I was being pulled back under the sludge and it pressed in on me, weighed me down until I couldn’t fight back, and I was just sinking… lower, lower still.

I had to get out of here.

I had to think.

Ana entered the room carrying a tray full of cut-up fruit and a bowl of soup. The very air around her was utterly serene and the feeling of being trapped in that water lifted enough that I could breathe.

“I hope this is okay,” she said, her words almost shy.

God, I was so jaded compared to her. What the hell was I doing? But I couldn’t find the energy to leap off the bed and go running from the house. I wanted to be here. She made me feel… Well, I didn’t know how she made me feel and I didn’t want to think about it.

“It’s good,” I said and then grinned. “You know me. I’ll eat anything.”

She handed me the tray and then sat down in the chair by the bed. I took the first bite of food because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

The third, fourth, and fifth bites I shoveled into my mouth were because it was good and I liked to eat. “So how’s the hunt for the soul’s going?”

“We haven’t found them yet. But we have an idea on how to find them.” I said, finishing the bowl of fruit and starting in on the soup. It was some kind of chicken with big, fat biscuit things in it. I liked it.

“Well, that’s good. I’ve been wondering about you.” Then she glanced at me sharply. “And Heven and Sam, of course.”

I nodded around bites. “Speaking of, I really have to go. I was doing something for them… trying to find out information when I got hurt.” Her serene nature might make me feel better, but that didn’t mean the thunderstorm of feelings wasn’t still churning somewhere inside me. Plus, I really did want to know where Beelzebub was.

“Hey, do you happen to know what day it is?” I asked Ana, trying to calculate in my head. But since I seemed to lose one, I was a little behind.

She nodded. “It’s October thirty-first.”

“Halloween,” I murmured.

She nodded again.

I uttered a curse and set the tray of food aside and pushed back the covers, getting out of the bed. Then I froze. I looked down and expelled a breath of air. I was wearing a pair of boxer briefs. Thank God. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to wear them this morning, but I was sure glad I did.

I would surely have blinded her innocent eyes.

I smirked at the thought.

I looked around, trying to see if any of my clothes were left. Ana noticed and went across the room to get a neatly folded stack and bring it over to me. “They were a mess, but I managed to clean them up,”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling guilty for reasons I couldn’t name. I began pulling on the cargo pants and long-sleeved T-shirt and she went back to pick up the tray. “You seem upset about today’s date.”

“It’s Heven’s birthday.”

“Oh! That sounds like fun!”

I had a feeling Heven was thinking different, but I didn’t really want to drag Ana into all that darkness. It was a place she didn’t belong.

“Yeah. They’re having a party for her and I need to go.”

“Of course you should be there.” Ana agreed. “Will there be dancing at the party?”

I thought about Kimber then. I have no idea why. Probably because she was the one having the party. “I’m sure.”

“I love to dance.” She swayed a little on her feet and smiled.

How lonely it must be for her to be here day after day, year after year with no one but herself for company.

My stomach clenched a little and I pulled the rest of my clothes on, found my shoes, and shoved my feet into them.

Then I turned to Ana. I looked at the bed with the rumpled sheets. I looked at the bowl of water she used to clean me. No one had ever taken care of me like this before.

“What is it?” Ana asked, setting down the tray and coming toward me.

“I don’t know how to thank you for what you did,” I said honestly, not trying to hide my feelings behind a joke. “If it wasn’t for you, I might still be in that ocean.”

“Well, that was the Devourer who pulled you out, not me.”

“Right.” It was so odd to think of that dragon as anything other than a pest. “But you did all this.” I motioned at the bed.

“You don’t have to thank me,” she said, and I knew she meant the words.

“Can I come back? To see you, I mean.”

“Will you bring me a box of those chocolate things I like?”

I grinned. “You got it.”

“Tell Heven I said happy birthday.”

I went to the door, but hesitated, knowing I had to go, but not really wanting to. Before I could think too much about it, I closed the distance between us and pulled her against me, wrapping my arms around her and fitting her face in the crook of my neck. She wound her arms around my waist and hugged me back and we stood like that until I could hear the clock ticking inside my head.

Then I pulled back and walked away. I didn’t turn or look back. I wanted to. And that’s exactly why I didn’t.

When I came out of the mouth of the Devourer’s cave, he was there, almost like he was waiting for me.

“I’m not really sure why you would’ve done that for me,” I told him.

He blew some hot air out of his nostrils. It smelled, but I didn’t even crack a joke. Man, I was going soft.

“This definitely deserves some Snickers next time I see you.”

I have no clue if he understood what I said, but he offered me his back and I climbed on. I wasn’t exactly in a hurry to get back into that water. This time around, riding him was a lot smoother and I realized the last time he was just being a pain acting the way he was. A few minutes later he touched down where my Jeep was parked.

I jumped off his back and looked at the dragon. His nose was covered in bright blue feathers. I reached out and gave them a pat. “Thanks, bud.”

He snorted again and flew away. I pointed the Jeep in the direction of my castle, but halfway there some demons flagged me down. It was the one of the demons I let out of the jar I found and the one I called Oscar. He looked like he lived in a garbage can at one point so I thought the name fit.