Also, protecting me is a bit rich. Besides, it's not like he has much of a choice but to play nice-ish.

I tear one of my arms free with unnecessary force and Ashen rolls his eyes. I jab a finger to his chest, hoping that the spot is still sore, then I poke his arm where the tattoo is. I draw my thumb across my throat and then tick my finger back and forth in his face until he pushes it away.

"Yes, your spell prevents me from killing you but we both know I could have called in another Reaper to do the job. Any one of them would relish the opportunity to pull secrets from a bright soul in the Shadow Realm until they found a crime worthy of punishment. My sister most of all."

My glare intensifies as Ashen breaks down my arguments and throws my fears into the light. We stare at one another, my other wrist still warm within Ashen's grasp. My heart feels like a wild bird trapped in a cage, bounding from one set of bars to the next. I try to keep hold of a fierce vampiric stare but I can feel it dissolving. Ashen leans a little closer, his eyes fixed on mine.

"You want to know why I pulled you from the fight in Sanford?"

I swallow a breath. I give the slightest nod.

"Because you surprised me. You intrigued me. You were not what I expected. That you might fall in the fight, in some dirty alley of such a ridiculous little town, it didn't just seem like a waste. It felt... wrong. It felt like something irreplaceable was about to be lost. Like I had just found something worth saving, even though I didn't understand why."

Each beat of my heart detonates in my chest. The air catches in my lungs. We look at one another, unmoving. The fight in my flesh evaporates with every second that passes. I relax my arm in Ashen's grip and his palm slides down my arm until it meets mine. Our fingers interlace as he presses our hands to the wall, his movement slow and careful, his eyes never leaving mine. I hear the rush of blood through the chambers of his heart as he moves even closer. How there's any space between us I just don't know, and every place his body touches mine it feels like fire beneath my skin.

"You are acerbic and dramatic but you are also brave. You fear yet challenge this place. You fear yet challenge me," he says, his breath warm as it spills across my lips. His other hand finds my side, laying heat across my bones. I close my eyes, trying to calm the coil of need that snakes its way through my belly. When I open them his gaze is waiting for me, fiery and fierce, molten with desire. "You are like the wind or the sea, like an elemental force of nature. You feared me and yet I'm the one who is left defenseless as you dismantle my walls, stone by stone."

I take in a ragged breath as Ashen's gaze fuses to my parted lips. I move closer with every shallow inhalation until my skin touches his, until our breath mixes and our lips nearly meet. His hand moves across my ribs as though committing every bone to memory, like he would know each one in the dark. I realize now how much I've been wanting this moment, to hear that he feels something real. To admit that I do too. To feel his lips against mine-

"Elemental," he whispers, turning his face to the side at the last possible instant before our lips touch.

Ele...what?

...What the fuck?

Do I have vampire breath? Was it the fangria? Is it fangria hangover breath?

Oh my God I think I've died five thousand years worth of deaths in a single second of time.

"Elemental," Ashen whispers again, his eyes trapped in some kind of epiphany that is clearly not my kiss. I have a mild sense of relief that his touch still lingers and our faces remain close. But more than that I have irritation, which is a thin veil for an unhealthy amount of angst.

So, I make my point known.

What the fuck? I mouth, tilting my head to cast a line back to his errant gaze.

"That's what we're missing. It's not just werewolves using vampires to make the hybrid. The witches must be involved as well. Perhaps even humans."

What the fuck? I mouth again with a confused shake of my head.

"I need to go to the library," Ashen says, letting go of my hand and turning away, his expression consumed by whatever thoughts are whirling through his head. Thoughts which clearly have fuck-all to do with me. He passes the edge of the bed, heading toward the door.

What the fuck? 

I want to say it out loud. My hands hover in the air like I'm carrying my confused mind on a platter. I'm just standing, motionless, with some dumbass, incredulous expression on my face. Ashen stops abruptly and I have a surge of panic that I actually did utter the words out loud.

"Oh, one more thing," Ashen says as he turns around.

Within three strides he's there, right in front of me. His palms are warm on my face. His lips are pressed to mine. In five thousand years, there's never been a kiss like it.

Searing hot. Salty and sweet. Dark and dangerous. Intoxicating.

Heat cascades through my every vein, ignites every nerve like a fuse. His lips sweep across mine until I'm sure that Ashen is the only real thing in this Realm. Our tongues meet, and I taste mint and smoke and the sweet nectar of venom. I know he tastes it too, and he kisses me like I am the elixir for his very soul.

I grasp Ashen's shirt and pull him into me. There is no fucking around. There is no going back. I wrap my arms around his neck as Ashen presses my body to the wall and he makes his intentions clear, that he might be going to some fucking stupid library of ghosts but every thought he has will be consumed by one instinctive need. To be right back here, with his lips on mine.

Ashen gives a bite to my lower lip with just the right mix of pleasure and pain as he pulls away, both of us breathless and not ready to part. I open my eyes and his are fixed on mine like magnets to iron.

"I felt like I owed you after you put that image of a mating hybrid in my head," Ashen says with a dark smile. I huff a breath of a laugh and he kisses me again, this time a drugging, luxurious kiss. A deep and slow kiss, as though all we have is eternal time. When we separate, he presses his palms to my cheeks and catches my gaze, his expression serious.

What? I mouth as I furrow my brow and give him a questioning look.

"You need to stay here. It's too dangerous for a bright soul at this hour, even with me. I won't be long." Ashen looks into my eyes as though pressing every word into my brain. "Do not leave the room. It isn't safe. I will be as quick as I can."

I give a single nod. I'm not sure what would be worse about the Shadow Realm than what I've already experienced, but I don't really want to find out.

"Please, Lu. Promise me."

Jeez, he's adamant about this. I have no intentions whatsoever of going anywhere. The only thing I'm planning on doing is dreaming up creative ways to get back at him for faking me out with that kiss.

I nod again. I promise.

Ashen doesn't look completely convinced, and given our time together so far, I can't say that I blame him.

He presses one last kiss on my lips and then stalks to the door, looking back over his shoulder as he closes it behind him. I stand for a long while against the wall, replaying what just happened over and over in my mind, my fingers rolling back and forth over my swollen lips.

After a while, I sit on the edge of the bed. I'm still lost in thought when I hear a knock at the door. A surge of adrenaline hits my heart as I get up and drift silently toward it. There's another knock, and then a voice.

"Lu," it calls, as sweet as summer dew. "LuLu," it sings.