Page 264

Chapter 9

Bailey lay awake until his cell mate started snoring, then slid off his pajama pants and burrowed into the blanket. It took him less than a heartbeat to draw up the energy to shift, but the effort it took to remain hidden, when all he wanted to do was prowl, gave him the shakes. As much as he wanted to run and climb trees, getting off the bed and pacing the room wouldn’t be worth the trouble if he were caught.

This would have to do. He was putting a bandage on a bone deep wound and hoping for a miracle. He lay there, whiskers twitching against the blanket, tail flicking, until he fell asleep. Sometime during the night, he woke as a human and put his pants back on. The jitter in his blood was gone, though it would be back in a few weeks.

He listened to the night noises of the prison. They were already becoming familiar. Had he made the right choice, or had he made things worse?

He had no idea if he’d passed his exam.

Not that it mattered even if he had, he now had a criminal record, and no one would want to employ him. All he’d done was delay the inevitable. He’d end up back at his grandmother’s door and working for the men who’d been controlling his life since the day he was born.

He bit his lip until it bled. He would not cry. He wouldn’t become one of those sad sacks he heard at night when they thought no one else was awake. The taste of hot metal on his tongue and the pain grounded him.

He would not go back to Gran and the men. He’d rather go feral and live in the bush as a snow leopard for the rest of his life. After shifting under a blanket, giving up his humanity to be wild seemed like a fucking good plan.

There were some flaws, like how he got out of Sydney and to the Blue Mountains without being found by the men, especially Crooked Nose the cop. Vanishing completely would be much harder to do now the government had his details. He almost laughed. All that time fighting to be legit, and now all he wanted to do was disappear.

Kass’s worry flowed through the connection. He didn’t let up, no matter how hard Bailey pushed back. But tonight he was weak and needy, alone and scared. The bond hadn’t weakened even though they hadn’t been feeding it. They were stuck together.

It was too hard to keep up the wall between them, so he let it fall and opened himself to Kass. As much as he wanted to see him, it was impossible. He didn’t want Kass to know where he was or what had happened. Shame consumed him. He should’ve left home before it had gotten so bad. Just walked out and started over. He could’ve finished school another way—there were guys finishing their education while inside.

With the wall down, Kass was with him in the next breath. And with his eyes closed, it was like Kass was lying next to him. The flood of emotion was too much. Why did Kass still care? When Kass’s arms slid around him and his lips pressed against his, Bailey didn’t pull away. He let his thoughts, memories, and dreams unfurl. And Kass responded in kind.

He could almost taste the witch’s lips and feel him against his body.

Like the shift, it was something close, but not enough to fill the expanding hollowness.

* * *

Kass satat the gray table that had seen better days and waited like every other loved one for the prisoners to be let in. He wasn’t the only guy waiting, but he was outnumbered. He didn’t like being here and being judged by the guards, and he didn’t like that Bailey was spending the next year of his life here—even though he was guilty and Kass had first-hand experience of Bailey’s light fingers.

Finally, the door opened, and the men were let through. A few of the waiting family members gasped and cried when they saw the man they were waiting for, but no one got up to greet them. Kass’s heart stuttered. Would the attraction hold up? They’d only been together for a few minutes, the rest had all been magic. Anxiety twisted his stomach as he searched the incoming faces for Bailey. What if he didn’t recognize him?

What if Bailey didn’t show?

But Bailey’s confusion echoed through him. There was static on his skin and he knew that Bailey was close. He appeared at last, and he stopped in the doorway as though an invisible door had shut in his face. His shock reverberated through Kass’s bones.

This was the first time he’d seen Bailey in over six months. The last time they’d been basically in the dark and he’d had more than a few drinks in his gullet. He remembered him as smiling trouble that he’d wanted to grab with both hands.

He was still trouble, but there was no smile. Bailey’s hair was a little longer, with a couple of inches of dark roots, but his eyes were the same magnetic blue that Kass wanted to die in. Under the harsh light, Bailey looked younger than he had the night they met. Too young to be in here. Something uncomfortable squirmed within him.

Bailey stepped through the doorway and took his seat opposite Kass. His expression was pinched, but his emotions were a messy tumble Kass couldn’t hope to unravel in the time they had together.

Half the time he didn’t know which were his thoughts and which were Bailey’s. The line between them had blurred.

Was this unwelcome?

After the other night…

Kass swallowed, his mouth dry. Now he was here, he didn’t know what to say.

Bailey’s gaze flicked over him. Was he assessing and correcting assumptions that had been made in a hurry six months ago?

“Hey,” Bailey said. “I didn’t know you were back in the country.”

“I’ve been back about a week.” He should’ve come sooner. “You moved and didn’t say.”

Though how one worded the surprise ‘I’m in prison’ email, Kass didn’t know.