“I’m not leaving.”
“Yes, you are.” I flagged down our server to make sure of it. Warning bells began to chime between my ears as I watched fire-tinged sparks fly behind Scarlett’s sharpening eyes.
“I’m not done yet, James,” she forced out, breathy and defiant.
My fists curled beneath the table, skin of my knuckles stretching as I inhaled deeply. Scanning down her face, the red kiss of blood rushing beneath her cheeks and the uneven way her tiny neck hollowed out as she subtly fought for air told me all I needed.
Dammit.
Her brother had done this. Thick-headed Demitri had done this to her by bringing him up, and now she was struggling underneath her rising demons—a too familiar feeling. It was as if I could literally see her heating up across the table, but I didn’t have the energy or patience to extinguish her right now.
I just wanted to grab her and get the fuck out of here before any other Vitalis joined our table.
“Scarlett,” I rumbled deeply.
Her shapely chest heaved as I corrected her behavior in two syllables, a dangerous thrill brightening her green to gemstones as she leaned in.
“What happened to Queen of the Underworld?”
I fished out my wallet as our waitress approached. “What happened to the girl that was halfway pleasant to share a meal with? Can you bring her back out?”
She paused, almost looking mournful as the breeze grabbed a few crimson-stained flyaways and tousled them across her face.
Raven eyelashes flitted out of rhythm, Scarlett softly tilting her head and shaking it.
“She burned all up.”
An exhale stole from my lungs as she fed me her sadness on those four ruined words. I don’t think she even meant for me to taste it, but it slipped between her lips and crawled past mine anyway because nothing about this woman didn’t get under my skin.
Her sadness coated my mouth with salty teardrops and her ruined innocence, ashes and the bitterest betrayal. My skin flamed hot as the ball of fire in the sky remembering last night, how small and shriveled her reverent flames were, and the urge to flip the table between us out of the way and drag her away from the rest of the world was crippling.
Especially when she was daring me to do it with those goddamn shameless eyes.
“Guys,” Demitri chimed, vying for our attention and failing fantastically. She didn’t even blink in his direction, and my male pride bucked in victory as I held her gaze.
She was giving it all to me, and I drank it down like sunshine to bathe and burn in while a voice in my head roared to get a grip on things.
I barely even registered our waitress dropping off the check I was so ensnared in Scarlett Avery’s web. I’d entered a limbo state between wanting to collect her pain and destroy it or collect her pain and control it, my world turning dangerously blurry behind my green-eyed focal point.
Just over the horizon of Scarlett’s flaming hair, a perfect example of why the fuck I needed to pay attention walked right up in dark shades and a white V-neck.
“Ey! Brother,” he clipped as he came up to our table.
Scarlett blinked like a trance had been shattered, and every muscle in my body seized up.
He swooped down next to Scarlett, planting a fast kiss on her cheek and an inked hand on her shoulder.
“Sorry to date and dash, but I’ve gotta steal Demitri to fly us back. Becs is giving me hell for coming along.”
Irises so dark they were practically rancid flashed up to me over the top of his black shades, the point of his canines revealing themselves in a slow-building grin.
“You know how she can be.”
A bright swarm of red burst behind my eyes.
Blood. His blood. I saw it everywhere. On my clothes. Between my fingers. Smeared across the concrete. Slapped across my cheeks and forehead as I breathed hard standing over his mangled body.
The tangy taste that made me sick to my stomach last night teased my tongue now, the flavor of murder suddenly really fucking sweet.