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Jewels said, “You still think it’s Venom that could be causing it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. That’s the only time I’ve seen anyone with black lines around their ey—” He choked as if he’d swallowed a moth.

Then stumbled to an abrupt halt, boots skidding across an icy patch on the sidewalk.

Jewels stopped and turned to face him, her ashen hair—the purple starting to fade—stirring in a frosty breeze. “Travis? Is something wrong?”

He stared at her beneath a foggy streetlight, his mind spinning like a top.

Venom users were not the only people he’d seen with black lines around their eyes.

He had seen them on Jewels, too. The night she was rushed to the hospital. The night her heart stopped as the city shook, and she’d screamed and had a seizure as the portal peeled open wider.

He stared at her now, searching her pale face for any dark lines.

“Travis…?” she asked. Her question wavered with suspicion.

She stepped away from him, as ifhewere the threat. Her eyes—green, no lines around them, the pupils a normal size—flickedto the rest of the group that was getting farther away, their voices bouncing down the block.

Travis blinked.Get a hold of yourself and talk to her,he thought.You’re freaking her out.“Sorry,” he managed to say, “nothing’s wrong, I just—” He cleared his throat. “I thought of something, but it’s not important.”

A beat of silence, her eyes flickering toward the others. “Are you sure?” She still had her body half-turned, as if waiting for the signal to run. Her right hand was grasping something inside her coat pocket, the shape bulging against the fabric.

A gun.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he breathed, forcing a hard chuckle. “Totally fine. Let’s go, or we’ll lose the others.” He waved her onward.

“O…kay.” She took just one step before pausing again, reluctant to turn her back on him.

They had that in common.

“I’m fine, I swear,” he said. “I won’t bite you, I promise.”

She smiled at that. Let go of the gun in her pocket and started moving.

“Biting’s kind of a turn-on for me, actually,” she panted as they jogged side by side, watching their step on patches of black ice. Travis suspected the new flush of pink in her cheeks was from more than just the cold.

She peeked sidelong at him.

“Yeah?” he breathed. “What else are you into?” If only she’d decided to tell him this when he wasn’t freaked out by the thought of her potentially turning on him. Ripping his throat out instead of kissing him. This was the first time they’d talked in a remotely sexual way since the day he’d seen the vibrators in her bedroom. He’d wanted to get to know this sexy, mysterious Reaper on a more personal—verypersonal—level for a while. But not like this. Not while something so disturbing was dousing every naughty thought in his head like a bucket of icy water.

She snickered. “Oh, Travis.” The way she purred his name almost—almost—made him forget all about the Venom, the black eyes, and the idea of being bitten anywhere outside of the bedroom. “I’m not sure we should talk about my kinks while my big brute of a brother is eavesdropping.” She playfully bumped her shoulder against his arm.

A nervous laugh slipped out of him, and before he could stop himself he blurted, “Have you ever taken Venom?” The moment the implication was out, he winced.

Understanding washed across her face. “Ohh.” Travis prepared for a swift kick to the nuts, but she merely grinned and said, “I get it. You’re worried about Malakai, aren’t you?”

Uhh…okay—that was better than Jewels believing he didn’t trust her.

“It’s just something I thought of,” he said quickly. “Back there—that’s why I was, you know, acting weird.” It was a detail—a very big detail—he wasn’t willing to brush off as unimportant, not when Darien was addicted to Venom.

And not when they had another Venom addict in their group, and he was currently storming around up ahead.

“I’m about to turn around,” Malakai threatened as he marched on, turning yet another corner that yielded no pay phone. “The only cardio I like to do is in the bedroom. This iswaytoo much exercise.”

Aspen caught up to Malakai, the male Reaper spitting with rage by a deserted intersection, their silhouettes obscured by milky fog.

“There’s one right there!” Aspen exclaimed, the echo of her words bouncing as she pointed across the street.