Slay Alive

Chapter 19

nineteen

Sex with a vampire is always risky, but sex with a vampire that you suspect of working for evil is definitely asking for trouble. Full stop. Too bad I wasn't thinking about that when I let my hormones take the driver’s seat.

Cade moves and so do I. I’ve got a stake in my hand and he’s defaulted to his hand around my throat. Good times.

“Why?” I gasp. Our eyes meet and even though they’re hardened in anger, I feel the familiar stirrings of want for Cade when I see his eyes. One blue, one brown. All on me.

I shake, not from fear but to hold myself back when he trails the fingers of his free hand over my cheek and across my lips. Gods. I still want this fucking vampire even though he could snap my neck. I’m absolutely dickmatized from the four orgasms he just gave me. The last of which had me speaking in tongues while I rode his face because Cade is nothing if not a giver.

It’s not just the sex, it’s more than that, my brain whispers to me but I shake it away. I don’t have time to think about what I feel for Cade. I have to focus. That means not losing myself in the beautiful eyes of a killer. Which, what the fuck is wrong with me? It should not be this hard to do that.

Ten more seconds and I’m going to shishkabob the hottest vampire I’ve ever met. I brace myself for the inevitable and start my mental countdown.

One…two…three…

“Why?” Cade smiles. I see a flash of his fangs as he shifts closer, bare chest only an inch away from me. We’re both still naked, because what else says ultimate showdown than fighting in the buff?

Nothing. That’s what.

“I did it because I wanted to do something good for once. The hardest thing in this world is to live in it, Bonnie. What’s that life worth if all you do is cause pain?” Cade shakes his head, one finger brushing my hair off my forehead. “It gets boring after a hundred years or so. Thought I’d change it up a bit, but you? Why are you working for them? You’re nothing but food to them.”

Wait a goddamn minute.

I hit pause on my Stake Cade Countdown and narrow my eyes as I run through Cade’s words at hyperspeed. Then I run through them again once more before I replay them again.

“Are we-are we on the same team and just idiots?” I ask him.

Cade jerks back from me like I slapped him, which is ironic considering he barely flinched when I punched him in the face. “I am, on occasion, an idiot. Explain.”

“Okay on three, say which side you’re on.”

“That’s bloody ridiculous.”

I gesture between us with my stake. “And we’re about to try and murder each other after we fucked. So like I said, on three say who you work for or we’re going back to nude Mortal Kombat.”

He rolls his eyes. “Fine, hunter.”

“Thanks, vampy.” I take a deep breath and then nod at him. “One,” I say. My voice shakes but I keep counting, “two…three.”

Cade and I both yell in unison. “The Nightwardens.”

Hope blooms eternal in my heart and I almost laugh. “Oh my gods. So this means you’re not an evil asshole who’s working for the Ascendants?”

“Why the bloody hell would I risk flambéing myself every day to train you sorry sods just to be working for the Ascendents?”

He’s got a point there. I’ve seen more than one close call with Cade nearly getting roasted because a hunter is too overzealous in their training. You’d think they’d learn after the first dozen close calls.

I drop my stake. “Oh, thank the gods, I don’t have to kill you this time.”

“You keep saying that like I’ve killed you once.”

I huff out a laugh. “I’d explain it to you but you would never believe me.”

“I would,” Cade says, surprising me. “I don’t like to think you’re daft but I’m going to need you to clue in, Bonnie. I’m with you. ”

“Is that why we just tried to stab each other?”

“What’s a little foreplay between lovers?”

I blush at his words and duck my head like I’m not sitting naked on top of a magical gemstone plaza we had sex on. “We’re lovers?”

“Back in my day that’s what we called someone after what we just did.” He reaches out and cups my jaw so I look at him. “It’s been decades since I’ve been with anyone. Even before then it wasn’t like this. I don’t know why I never realized it could be like this with you all those other times I saw you.”

My chest squeezes. Fuck. He feels what I do.

I put my hand over his. I have to tell him the truth about why I’m here. Even if I’m not lying, it still feels that way now. “Cade, I-there’s something about me that you should know.”

“The view is sensational right now! Come on!”

“Slow down, your legs are longer than mine!”

Cade and I both look towards the opposite side of the plaza. Voices are floating up to us and I can hear the sound of running footsteps approaching.

“Time to go, my sweet.” Cade rises to his feet and helps me up.

“Oh shit, where are my clothes?” I scan the area and see our clothes scattered around like a bomb went off. I pick up Cade’s ripped shirt. “Oops,” I say, handing it to him.

He tosses the shirt over his shoulder and shrugs on his leather coat. Holy shit the shirtless plus leather combo is too good on him. “Hey, how did you get your pants on already?” I ask as I struggle to get a leg into mine. Laughter peels through the air and I wince. They’re almost here and I’m tits out fighting for my life against my leather pants. Whoever picked the Nightwarden outfit did not take into count the speed of getting into these damn pants.

“I’m a vampire, remember?” Cade reminds me before he steps into my space and pulls my pants up for me. The vampire breezes through getting my sweater and harness back into place as well.

“Huh,” I say, watching Cade do up the last buckle on my harness. “That’s interesting.”

“What?” he asks, looking at me as he slides the clasp home. Desire perks its head up quick, fast and in a hurry having Cade take of me like this.

“Call me old-fashioned but having a strapping vampire dress me is a turn on. Learned something new about myself.”

He huffs out a laugh. “Not keen on strangers getting an eyeful of my hunter.”

My hunter.

Yup. I’m horny again.

I leave the plaza with a stupid smile on my face and holding Cade’s hand just as a group of townsfolk enter the plaza. I don’t miss how they fall silent when they see Cade or the wide berth they give us.

“There he goes. Darkness follows him.”

That stops me. I look over my shoulder when I hear them whisper “ Nightstalker” and “ Evil Murderer” I use both hands to flip off the ones looking our way. That does the trick and they scurry away and into the plaza.

“Assholes,” I mutter, and move to follow after them but Cade stops me.

“Ah, it’s just words. Don’t pay it mind. I don’t.”

“It doesn’t bother you?” I ask him. When he tugs my hand I follow him even if I’d rather punch one of the shit talkers in the back of the head.

Cade shakes his head. “If it did, I’d leave Briarwood Hollow. Never been one for staying where I don’t have a mind to be.”

“I guess…” I say softly.

Cade squeezes my hand and then stops walking. We’re at the fork of the path that I took to the plaza. “Don’t let it worry you, Bonnie. If you pay mind to every idiot thing a twat says then you’ll never know peace.”

“It’s not just them shit talking, it’s that I don’t like it because they’re saying it about you.”

“Protective of me, are you?” He brushes my hair off my forehead and smiles down at me. “That warms my cold dead heart.”

“Please don’t say it like that. It makes you sound like you’re a zombie.”

“Zombies are decent folk. It’s the fairies you have to watch for,” Cade counters. I open my mouth to ask him how he knows what kind of folk zombies and fairies are but that’s when I catch sight of the torn up cobblestone.

Right. The whole reason I even ended up at Stargazer Plaza.

“There was a shadow. Did you see it on your way up to the plaza?” I ask Cade.

He nods. “Yeah, I saw it. Saw you moving fast with it. Thought it was suspicious to see you going the same direction so I followed you both up. Didn’t see where it went, though.” Cade looks above us and scans the buildings. “It shouldn’t have given us the slip that easily from the plaza. I reckon it went underground or flew.”

“And that’s when you thought I was working for the forces of evil?” I can’t hide the hurt in my voice when I say that. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“We’ve all done it from time to time, love.” He holds up his hands to stop me when I start to tell him he’s wrong. “This isn’t the place to linger. It’s best we get somewhere we can trust. I’ll take you back to mine.”

“I get to see your place?” I can’t contain my genuine excitement. I never made it into his home in Fangs Are Forever. I always ended up six feet under before that milestone. Uncharted territory.

He puts an arm around me. “Yeah, it’ll be safe. We can talk and I’ll feed you. How does that sound?”

I lean against the vampire I’m pretty sure I’m falling head over heels for and smile. “Like a dream come true.”