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Her fingers brushed my chest, and my pulse spiked before her hand flinched back.

She’d felt it too, whatever that was.

Whateverthiswas.

I felt a tickle on my lip, still bleeding, and her eyes darted to it. I licked it away.

She wanted that blood.

Her gaze lifted shyly to mine. “Was that fight about me, Jame Asher?”

She was calling me out, and I had no answer. I shook my head, my heart thumping at the base of my throat.

“About how he was talking to me?”

And looking at you.

“Nah,” I said, running a hand through my hair, “I just didn’t like his punk attitude. Wasn’t about you.”

She knew I was lying, she could read it on my face.

I knew I should break the moment, snap out of it, ignore her and keep walking like I didn’t want to be here, but I couldn’t budge. In that instant, everything else faded away—the drunks swimming around us like fish, the chaos of Bourbon Street, the rhythm and blues thumping from nearby clubs. Maybe it was the adrenaline still pumping through my veins, maybe it was the odor of sex and desire in the air, maybe it was the way her eyes seemed to glow like blue-violet flames, but all I saw right then was her.

And for the barest of moments, it didn’t matter that I’d sworn to kill her kind, or that they were hunting me. All that mattered was that for the first time in a very long time, I felt something beyond grief and anger. Something light and good. And even though a part of me knew it was reckless, knew that I was that idiot moth about to get burned, for once I didn’t fucking care.

I cupped the side of Lana’s neck and I kissed her.

Chapter 13

Lana

Asher’s lips weremagic. Human magic, but magic nonetheless. They glided over mine, so much softer than I would have imagined. Each stroke of them felt like lightning, like gathering power in my veins.

Jame Asher is kissing me.

Jame Asher iskissingme.

And it feelsamazing.

My lips moved against his, my arms draping themselves around his neck. Thank the gods for the alcohol that dulled my mind. Sober, I would’ve wondered about a whole slew of things, but right now all I could concentrate on was Asher’s touch and his taste and the odd things they were doing to me.

My fingers stroked the ends of his hair. I was playing with a man’shair! How I’d imagined what this would feel like. How I imagined what being enveloped by a man would feel like.

It felt exquisite.

I savored the blood that still lingered on Asher’s lower lip. He bled defending me. Heat roared through my veins at the thought, and it was all I could do not to moan against his mouth.

His hand gripped my neck tighter as he held me close, his other arm going around my waist. Had his arm not anchored me to earth, I would’ve floated up and away.

This was too much. And yet... I leaned deeper into Asher, wantingmore.

Instead, the kiss came to an end.

Asher pulled away slowly, his eyes lingering on my lips. I felt the heat of his breath against me. Reluctantly, my arms dropped from his neck. His gaze moved up then, meeting mine.

Damn this alcohol, I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking while he stared at me. Then, all at once, he startled, blinking as though he were waking from a dream.

He straightened, and the arm that had pressed against my back fell away.