Chapter 23

23

SYLAS

Mina was pissed, and I loved it.

She was pacing around her room, muttering to herself, scrabbling for clothing on her floor—she didn't even care if I saw the bare white of her legs. I found myself disappointed by her lack of shame; I didn't like my presence being forgotten, but I was willing to forgive her anything for the sheer energy she radiated now. Frustration, anger, sorrow, and yes, a tinge of fear—but more than anything else she was active, and that's what I wanted.

To live.

Not watch someone sleep.

And not just wait for someone to die, when there were so many people that needed killing.

I coalesced inside her car before she got there, then when she looked at me she tossed her phone into my lap. I caught it—she'd opened the screen for me—and she had her keys, but she didn't have her purse.

"Text that asshole back that he'd better meet me in the alley behind our regular place," she announced, and hit the accelerator, reversing out of her parking spot.

"Why has he sent you so many of these purple fruits?" I asked, texting as commanded, before scrolling back to see all of their messages. Their relationship seemed odd—every few days he would send one of these images to her, and she would respond with a thumbs up.

It went back like that for months.

I decided to not distract her while she was driving, intensely curious where this thing would go, and soon enough we were driving through narrower roads, in between old brick buildings, in a less dense part of town, until she pulled to a sudden stop, throwing her parking brake on.

And from a door in the building in front of her, a man walked out.

He was short, built squarely, and was holding a pillow of some sort underneath one arm.

"Hey, Mina," he said, giving her a bright grin. She hadn't turned her headlights off, as she got out of the car.

"Brad," she said, the lines of her body tense.

"I'm glad you could fit me into your busy schedule," he said, raking his eyes over her body. "Rocking the au naturel look. I like it." He seemed overly acquainted with her form, and I wanted to eat one of his eyes at once—and I would make him watch me do so, with his remaining one.

She crossed her arms beneath the breasts that he enjoyed. "I'm going to give you one chance to apologize."

"For what? "

She didn't answer him. "I'm counting down from ten. Ten. Nine."

He made a baffled face. "I assumed this'd be a quickie."

"Eight. Seven."

"What the fuck, Mina?" he said and laughed.

Her counting was undeterred. "Six. Five," she said, and my anticipation mounted, hoping I knew where this was going. "Four."

"Are you threatening me?" he asked. "If so—with what?"

"You'll see," she said. "Three."

"Does this mean you don't need my library access anymore?" he asked, then showed her the object he'd brought. It appeared to be a chair cushion. "I brought this for your knees."

"Two!" she almost shouted. "Do you really think you don't have anything to apologize for?"

"I was helping you out!" he protested, like she was the unreasonable one. "I told you I wouldn't tell anyone, and I didn't! You wanted access to the vaults, I had it, sheesh."

"No, Bradley." I heard her swallow beside me. Mina looked around her, presumably for me, and I felt a flash of pride. "Sylas?"

"Yes, my queen." I made sure to say the words so that he could hear them—and his fear piqued in an instant.

"He's yours."

I condensed into a very visible creature of claws and violence, letting myself see the glowing threads of irrevocable fate picking up between him and I at once. "Oh, we're going to have so much fun."

There was a delicious pause wherein he realized what was happening, and then he started howling as I advanced. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I helped you!" he said, throwing the sad little pillow at me. It bounced off my side, and then caught on fire, because I wanted it to. "You're not through counting!" he sobbed, and I paused mid-lurch, waiting on Mina's behest.

"Oh, I'm fucking done ," she said. "Because if you'd really wanted to help me out, you could've just loaned me your access card, like a person."

That was all I needed. I swept him up inside my smoke and made him disappear.