Killer Crescent by Leigh Kelsey
11
Istaggered out of the thick tree cover of the whimpering woods the second the sky began to lighten, my head in a daze and the terror of the male screams rattling around my skull. Slasher had given me a deep, underwear-melting kiss at the first rays of dawn, and left as soon as he saw me to safety. Like the other vampires, he had a witch’s potion charm that allowed him to be out in the sun, but it still drained his energy and felt like being stung by a thousand bees all at once. Not a fun situation for my psychotic darling vampire.
“Dean!” I breathed when I spotted him pacing the edge of the woods, his silver hair sticking up in places like he’d run his hands through it and his tweed suit horribly rumpled. He looked good like this, unkempt and tempting. My pussy throbbed a message in morse code I was pretty sure spelled out g-i-v-e. m-e. c-o-c-k. “You waited for me,” I said, and threw myself at him with my arms outstretched.
His shoulders sagged a second before he caught me, holding me so tight he threatened to bruise. I wiggled against him, all turned on and needy from a night of making out with Slasher, and locked my hands behind his neck. He shocked me by running his hand over my tangled pink curls and holding me close in silence, his chest expanding with a deep breath like he was sucking down my scent. Usually I smelled of vanilla and honey,1 but I knew I must stink of dirt and leaves now. Dean didn’t seem to mind, he breathed me in and shuddered.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, a deep V between my brows as I put a tiny bit of space between us, scanning his lined, scruffy face for clues.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded in a growl, his whiskey eyes flashing. “We heard screams all fucking night, Rebel. I thought it was you.”
I huffed, giving him a sulky look. “I said I wouldn’t hurt anyone; it was one of your rules, remember?”
“Baby, I thought the screams were yours,” he rumbled, all guttural and deep and shiver-inducing.
“Oh,” I breathed, sliding my hands up his arms to his impressive biceps. “You were worried about me,” I realised, and knew my eyes must have been like Slasher’s when he gave me his heart-eyed stare. “I knew you liked me, Sexy Sir.”
He didn’t respond to my teasing. “You’re my mate,” he snarled, his lip curled back from his sharp canines and his chest jerking with fast breaths. “You might be a brat and a pain in the ass, but you’re my mate, and I’m supposed to keep you safe.”
“I amsafe,” I pointed out cheerfully, my fingers continuing their quest of mapping his body as they dove down the strong slope of his back.
“No thanks to me,” he growled. “I sent you in there, to face fuck knows what was causing those screams.”
“But you followed me,” I replied, blinking up at him. “Right?”
Confusion tightened his features, and surprise lit up my insides like fireworks on Bonfire Night. “No, baby,” he replied, something like guilt in his eyes, turning down the corners of his mouth. I’d have to fix that with a long, heated kiss, but first…
“If you weren’t the wolf following me through the woods,” I mused, a cool shiver skating down my back, “then who was stalking me?”