Chapter 14

14

GRAYSON

As I heal my cut palm, I disappear into my not-infrequent thoughts of Violet in the bed that I'm sitting on, and it takes a few moments before I realize the water has stopped running. The only sound comes from muffled voices in a nearby room.

Shit . She hasn't .

I take the few steps to the bathroom, where Violet grips the sinks, focused on the mirror. The hybrid has retreated, but her eyes are still closer to the dark ocean depths than glacial blue, the water trickling down her beautiful face mingled with the remains of the blood that I didn't lick away.

What a dumb move that was.

I search the nearby cupboard for a washcloth and lean around her to dampen it beneath the faucet. As I stand behind Violet, our gazes lock in the mirror. "Not licking my blood from the floor, too, Grayson?" she asks coolly and pivots to face me.

"No. Sorry. I stepped out of line." Tentatively, I touch the edge of Violet's face and dab at her cheeks with the washcloth. Her whole body goes rigid, but at least I'm not thrown across the room again.

"Why didn't I attack you?" she asks.

I pause. "Uh. You did."

Her eyes meet mine. "No. Why didn't I attack you when there was a real possibility your teeth would pierce my vein?"

"You seriously believe I'd do that without permission? I have more self-preservation than that." I laugh softly to myself, turn Violet's face, and wipe the streaked blood from the other cheek.

"What's happening to me?" she whispers.

"I'd say you're having issues managing your emotions now that people mean something to you." I smile. "And your temper."

"What's happening to me around you ?"

Sweet Violet . She hates the name that Rowan teases her with, but Violet is sweet to me in every single way. She's beautiful. She's everything. And I want her more than the blood or power.

I'd give up the chance of Violet's blood forever if I could have her as mine just once. But deep in my heart, I know that would never be enough.

"I experience all your emotions, Grayson," she continues. "And quite frequently experience unsettling thoughts prompted by physical need."

"Mine?" I ask in alarm. "Mind reading?"

"I physically experienced your fear the night Josef attacked you. I also experienced your desire when we kissed that night, and not only in that unfortunate way that males can't control." I stifle a laugh when Violet's eyes harden, and she rests against the sink. "If your thoughts and desires can fill my mind and body because I contain your blood, what would happen if you took my blood and experienced mine too? What would I prompt in you?"

Cautiously, I step closer. "You share the physical experience from my emotions?"

"I've informed you of this before. Inconveniently, yes."

"Is that why you haven't left the room yet?" I ask.

"I would not allow your physical desire for me to sway my thoughts and behavior," she retorts, and side steps. "I apologize for my overreaction, and for placing the blame on you for Holly's situation. Overall, I've experienced more unpleasant physical and psychological symptoms than I can cope with for one evening."

I sigh as she edges past me from the bathroom. Violet Blackwood is back.

"Don't leave."

She pauses and turns. "Why?"

"Because I'm scared you'll leave , leave."

"I'm more rational now. I will not leave the vicinity until I've visited Holly at the hospital, which I shall do tomorrow morning. My attendance tonight may be unwise." She hesitates for a moment. "Good night, and, again, I apologize for your injuries."

"Could've been worse," I say. "Thanks for leaving me intact."

"Intact? Unlike Holly," Violet says as she reaches for the door handle.

A wave of Violet's energy smacks me hard across the face. The girl who prides herself on inner strength, and thrives on solitude, can't be alone tonight. I curl my fingers around the back of Violet's neck and, as she turns her head to speak, I slam my mouth on hers, kissing Violet in the way I've dreamed every day since she pushed me away.

I've ached to taste Violet again, experience the heady mix of sweetness and power that causes her to run hot in my veins. The kiss that dented the lockers came from the unleashed need that's built up since the first time I touched her in the woods: tonight, that's tinged by an admittance that we can't avoid each other. Violet tasted my blood that night Rory died and triggered an inevitable future.

The charge created by this evening has us both in its grip, Violet's scent surrounding me still, and my own driving us into a moment I'd hold onto forever. She's different, yielding to something, her kiss edged with a darkness she hides. This Violet is raw, torn open by tonight's events, both in the woods and in this room.

Violet doesn't want to give me her blood, but she's giving me a part of herself that she's hidden. The first time I kissed her, I was surprised I couldn't sense something dangerous, and now I know why. The hybrid she suppresses wasn't with us—she felt my fear and saw my injuries, and came to me out of concern that night. Tonight, Violet's harsh passion could pull me into directions I'd never dare go right now. Not just into my bed. This girl's grip on my heart and soul is vice-like, worse than any hybrid attack, and that's a descent into a bond that's wanted but terrifying.

Violet holds onto me, face pressed to my chest, breathing as raggedly as she did when she held me down before. Her fingers tangle into my shirt, but she's still. Thinking of walking away again? Scared of what we've prompted?

"Stay with me," I whisper. "Don't be alone."

Violet's darker eyes lift to mine. "Are you worried I'll walk straight to the hospital? I've explained that I won't."

"I want to support you."

She blinks at me.

"Do you mean keep me away from others I might attack?"

Shaking my head, I step back and run a hand down Violet's hair until I cup her chin. "No. Wait with me for updates on Holly. I'll message Rowan. You shouldn't be on your own."

Violet sits on the end of the bed facing the door as if ready to bolt at any moment, and I send Rowan a text with shaking hands as she pulls out her phone too.

"Rowan already sent me a message." Violet stares at her screen. "I never heard due to… our altercation."

"And?" I ask cautiously.

"Holly's injuries aren't life-threatening. The police are interviewing him." She rubs her forehead. "Asked me not to tell Leif until the morning, and?—"

"And?"

Violet looks up. "'Don't kill Grayson'."

I splutter. "He thinks you would?"

"Difficult to say." Violet looks back to her phone and chews on her lip. Wow. Okay. "I hope nobody tells Dorian. Not yet."

"Why?"

The room fills with a silence I wish I could bypass by sensing Violet's emotions the way she can mine.

"Because I don't trust his methods of investigation. Especially around my injured friend," she says eventually. "I should rest and be at full strength tomorrow."

Phone gripped in her hand, Violet lies on my bed and turns away. I hesitate. "You're staying then?"

"Evidently." She rolls back to look up at me. "If you're willing to share your bed." I struggle to form a response. "And if you can keep your teeth away from my veins."

"By ‘share' do you mean me in the bed?"

Violet shuffles to one side, leaving more than enough room for me—enough that we wouldn't touch. I lie down, saying nothing, partly because I'm still speechless. We're side by side, Violet clutching her phone to her chest as if it's a lifeline to Holly.

My fingers link with the other hand by her side, and we continue to stare upwards in silence, a bizarre calm after the havoc from minutes ago.

"I care for you as much as Leif and Rowan," she says quietly. "But you speak to the wrong side of me."

"There is no wrong side," I say to the ceiling. "Just two halves of you."

"I should, perhaps, stop reacting to you in that manner because the repercussions will be extreme."

I turn onto my side, looking at her profile as she talks to the ceiling too. "If I lose control too, and fight back? You worry the hybrid might kill me?"

Her head turns. "No. I crave everything that you do, and I worry because my blood might kill you. Tonight, I faced the possibility somebody I love had died. I don't want to experience that situation again, but caused by my own hands."

"Someone you love?" I whisper.

Violet says nothing.

She tells me that my love speaks to the wrong part of her, but doesn't she understand that I'm wrong? That I've murdered without caring more than once? I've almost killed an innocent through a lust that overtook the pretense that I'm anything different to how I was born. I've died. Returned. Experienced torture that changed my soul. Josef's treatment may've given me control but hasn't taken away the desires.

Is my own pitch darkness what recognized Violet that first day? Why I stepped down when she wanted my blood at Kai's party and I ran? We're wrong, but oh so fucking right . Violet's hemia bloodlust lies inside the hybrid, and I'm the one person who she can safely become the hybrid around.

Violet Blackwood is everything to me.