44. OBSIDIAN

I smelt her the moment I opened the door.

My hands curled into fists as I slowly descended the stairs. Sniffing, I retraced her steps all the way into my bedroom and to the closet. Vanya hadn’t closed the doors all the way.

She touched some of my clothes and then searched through the bag. I snarled as I turned away from it and walked into the bathroom where nothing was out of place. But as I made to exit the bedroom, my eyes caught the glint of a knife near the edge of the bed. The small wooden box I kept hidden there was sticking out from underneath the bed.

I knew exactly what she had seen.

Red hot anger shot through me.

I was moving before I knew it. Storming up the stairs, I growled as I entered the living room.

“What—?”

Vanya gasped when I gripped her arm and spun her around. She stumbled, but I steadied her with a hand gripping her throat.

The fear I saw flashing through her eyes made satisfaction fill me. It made the beast stir, and some of the anger I felt faded. I walked her backwards until her back hit the door.

“You touched my stuff.”

I felt her swallow against the palm of my hand. As I watched, Vanya’s expression changed.

“So what?” she questioned. “I touched Ezra and Devrim’s stuff too, and they don’t have a problem with it.”

“You don’t touch my stuff. It’s off-limits,” I growled.

“I feel sorry for you,” she whispered. “I—”

I pulled her away from the door and slammed her back against it to silence her. Vanya gasped, but didn’t fight me otherwise.

My eyes narrowed. “What did you do? What did you see?”

I caught the panic before she lowered her eyes. I had years of practice in reading people. I knew every tell-tale sign. Vanya’s pulse had increased when I asked her that question, and she was avoiding eye contact.

My eyes narrowed. What is she hiding?

“Do you remember what I said, Vanya?” I rasped.

Her eyes snapped to mine. “Y-yes.”

“Is this your first step to betrayal?”

“N-no.”

My eyes dropped to her lips when they parted. She had painted them a blood-red colour that instantly drew attention to them. An image of Vanya on her knees with her lips wrapped around my cock flashed through my mind.

She shook her head. “I-I was searching.”

My heart dropped. I knew it wouldn’t last, it never did. Humans were all the same.

“Not like that,” Vanya said. “You won’t tell me anything about yourself, s-so I searched for things that would help me g-get to know you.”

I tilted my head to the side and waited.

“Ezra likes a lot of different things. He listens to some weird music and he likes to read and draw. He’s very good at that—drawing, I mean.” She smiled as her eyes darted over to him for a few seconds before she looked at me again. Her smile disappeared when our eyes locked. “You like knives. You’re also into dark shit.”

“I like to make people bleed,” I told her. “You’ve seen it.”

I brushed my thumb back and forth over the beating pulse at the base of her neck.

My eyes dropped and slowly trailed over her pale skin. I already knew what I wanted to carve into her skin. So many ways I wanted to mark her pale skin.

“I want to make you bleed,” I whispered. “I want to hurt you while I fuck you, but you won’t like that, will you, sweets?”

Vanya instantly shook her head.

“It’s one of the reasons why I don’t want you as my mate. You’re too fragile,” I lied.

She flinched as if I’d struck her. The pain that filled her eyes made my chest constrict, but I forced the emotions down.

“Obsidian.” Devrim gripped my shoulder and squeezed. “You need to get dressed.”

“Stay out of my stuff.” I leaned closer and pressed my lips to her ear. “I wish you never saved me.” Pressing a kiss to the skin behind her ear, I stepped away and smirked at her. “I’m going to punish you for disobeying the rules.”

***

Reeves had sent a car to pick us up at the main house. It was black, long, and something I’d never seen before. Vanya said that it was called a limo.

“I told him that we wanted to blend in, and he sends a fucking limo,” Vanya nearly yelled. “He never listens.”

My lips twitched. Vanya had a foul mouth, and I loved that. I fucking loved that sometimes she was feisty and didn’t hesitate to speak her mind.

Swallowing, I turned my head to stare out the window. It would be a thirty-two minute drive, then hours amongst humans. My fists clenched as fear settled inside me.

I loved spending time in the cave, or hunting, or locking myself in the basement where they couldn’t hurt me. I hated being around humans. I hated having their eyes on me.

But not Vanya. I liked having her eyes on me. I liked the way they would darken in anger when I did something that pissed her off. I like watching the way her pupils dilated whenever she got turned on.

I jerked when a hand was placed on top of mine. Devrim leaned closer until his breath fanned my ear. “You don’t have to do this,” he whispered.

I swallowed and after a moment’s hesitation, I turned my hand so my palm rested against his. He instantly entwined our fingers and squeezed my hand.

“I have to.”

My eyes darted over to Vanya who shared a seat opposite us with Ezra.

“She would understand,” he muttered.

I shook my head. Nobody would understand the constant need to remind myself of why I needed to do the things I did. Besides, it wasn’t only Vanya in danger. He had threatened Devrim, and pretty soon, he would start threatening our pride.

Devrim had seen me at my worst, but he only had an inkling of what I had suffered at the facility.

Guilt twisted in my gut. I had lied on the reports we had to write when we first got out.

Ezra’s eyes caught mine as I was about to look away. He had expressive eyes like Vanya’s. It hurt to see the disgust there, but it shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter what he felt about me, but I had seen how Devrim reacted to his words. It had hurt and shamed him.

My lips curled into a sneer. I was just waiting for the right time to teach him a fucking lesson.  

“We need a code word or something,” Ezra said, breaking the silence and looking away.

“For what?” Devrim questioned.

“We’re not going to stay the whole night, are we?” he asked.

“Hell no!” Vanya pulled a face. “Only long enough to make Obsidian’s plan work.”

Vanya smiled at me. My lips twitched, but I didn’t return it.

Her smile faded and her eyes darted away. It was then that I noticed how pale she had turned. If I blocked out the sound of everything else and listened carefully, I could hear how fast her heart was beating.

Is she as nervous as I am?

I squeezed Devrim’s hand when we entered town and joined the line of cars a few seconds later. Lights flashed and humans milled about in groups near the stairs that led into the building.

It was where all the shit started, and I was hoping it would be where it all ended.