Page 11 of Bite The Terror That Feeds

“You stopped, Kingsnake.”

“But I almost didn’t.” He looked down at the bedspread, one ankle resting on the opposite knee, his powerful body thudding with a new invigoration. “How did Viper change your mind?”

“He took me to that brothel place…and introduced me to your enthusiast.”

His eyes lifted to mine, hard and unashamed.

“Buck naked with a glass of wine in her hand, just waiting for you.”

He still said nothing.

“I didn’t like that one bit.”

The corner of his lip tugged up slightly. “I warned you.”

Seeing it in the flesh made it personal. Made my heart ache when my rage couldn’t mask the pain any longer.

“I wanted you—not her. Remember that.”

I looked down at my half-eaten food, suddenly no longer hungry. The vitality had returned to my body, and the faintness had faded. His bedroom smelled exactly the way it did before, like nothing had changed in the three weeks I’d been confined to my plush prisoner cell.

I didn’t want to go back.

When he noticed I’d stopped eating, he took the tray and set it aside.

We stared at each other, a heavy conversation ahead of us.

He went first. “I want to be what we were—and you do too.”

My cards were on the table, and I couldn’t pretend I didn’t care. Couldn’t pretend this distance hadn’t changed my heart.

“Let’s move forward.”

My eyes dropped as I tried to organize my thoughts. “I have a proposition.”

“I’m listening.” The heat of his stare was on the side of my face.

“Help me find the Golden Serpents, and in exchange, I’ll stay.” I lifted my gaze.

His features had hardened.

“And once we have a cure for humankind…you let me go.”

He didn’t say a word.

“We don’t discuss our feelings. Don’t talk about a future. Never ask for more.”

His face conveyed nothing, but his emotions started to vibrate with a spectrum of feelings—anger, intensity…despair. “I’ll help you find the Golden Serpents and eradicate this sickness, but I won’t let you go—not until you help me defeat the Ethereal.”

My heart dropped into my stomach.

“I need your strength to win this war. I need your abilities.”

“Can gods be defeated?”

“They’re vulnerable to sword and arrow just like we are. Those are my terms.”

“A bit ballsy, considering you didn’t keep your word before.”