Page 108 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

“That is exactly why part of our deal was that no one hears about it,” he hissed. If you could incinerate a person with a look, ashes would float in the air where Tarri was standing and bending her arm repeatedly to nail the throwing motion.

“I didn’t know you were such an avid reader,” I remarked.

“I’m not. But for her…” Eli scanned the vast field covered in a blanket of grass beginning to wither on our left, the three other sides of our training space framed by tall, dilapidated buildings. “I want to know what she likes about them so much.”

I opened my mouth, but Jayla anticipated my response. “Don’t you dare say anything. You’re just as obsessed with Kali. Won’t let her live a little without hovering at her back.” She handed her a short knife, and they joined Tarri practicing how to hold the double-edged blade without cutting yourself.

“How did you slip past Gedeon?” I asked Kali. We couldn’t have her wandering around without protection. Not after she remained alive solely because she’d been doing exactly that—roaming the forest during the night the soldier had sneaked into our rooms.

Plus, having her glare at me during the days did things to me. And at nights… Having her in my arms and off-limits was the most mind-scrambling torture a person could possibly endure.

“I didn’t have to,” she answered without actually answering, unless you counted her smug smile as a response.

I prowled closer and tugged the waistband of her leggings. My knuckles grazed her belly, as soft as when her t-shirt would ride up during the night and she’d snore faintly. “Pretty birdie,” I cautioned.

“Fine,” she huffed. “I got bored with you both not leaving me alone and”—she cast a glance at Ava and Jayla—“I needed somefun. With girls. Nothing has happened in the last three weeks, and I shouldn’t be watched every second of my life. Especially at night.”

Since the soldier had sought our deaths, we hadn’t let her out of our sight, not leaving her alone during the days or nights. She’d fight me or Gedeon, or both of us, and always lose the battle. Her body felt exquisite when she’d fall asleep and mold her curves to ours without realizing it.

I traced the contour of her hips, up and down, my fingers barely grazing her, and savored the pink creeping up her cheeks. “That doesn’t explain why you are here and not with one of us.”

“Gedeon thinks I’m with you. But you’re here now, so I don’t see the problem. And we’re taking Ava down, so either help us or go sit in the corner. Because I’m not leaving.”

Sneaky, sneaky pretty birdie.

“You’re taking Ava down?” I echoed, spinning her around and joining their group as Eli gave notes and fixed stances of Tarri and Jayla as they attempted to make their knives sink into the array of wooden targets resembling human body shapes, the paint indicating the various organs dull and half-flaked off.

Ava struck right to the center, and the three of them collectively groaned. Eli wiped the smugness off Ava’s face by setting five knives flying and hitting his chosen target in a vertical line, from the top of the chest to the pelvis, crossing the center, much to Ava’s chagrin and everyone’s delight.

“It’s supposed to be Tarri’s welcome to our compound present. Ava promised she’d invite us over for a girls’ night if we could do better than her.” Kali stuck out her tongue from intense concentration and released her knife with a motion lacking the fluidity it required for success. It soared over the target and fell into the grass behind it.

“Godsdamnit.” She threw her head back in frustration.

She was so cute. Like a pretty little bird learning how to fly.

“Break!” she yelled and rushed to retrieve her knife. Walking back, she tried to flip the weapon over in the air, but Eli shouted at her to get back and not act stupid with it.

“I understand you want to learn the trick, but be careful.” I hooked my thumbs through the loops of my faded black jeans. “How will you touch me without your fingers?”

Her eyes glinted deviously. “I have my tongue for that.”

“Fuck,” I hissed, shuffling on my feet to adjust the stretch of my pants across my hips. Imagining her tongue sliding down, down, down…it had brought me to the brink of explosion. Implosion. Both.

How I was going to get through their lesson without constantly thinking of her tongue, I had not a faintest idea.

“Exactly.” She grinned and resumed listening to Eli lecturing them on the movements, distances, and dangers of doing idiotic shit with knives with me as the prime example.

So, of course, I had to stand up to my reputation. I threw blade after blade, chuckling at how Kali’s glower deepened as they kept failing, and Ava and I succeeded, and at how she huffed when I would flip my knife over in the air and catch it by the handle, exasperating Eli.

“This is not fair. You have years of training,” she grumbled at me, then returned the knife she’d borrowed to Ava. “I’m done. You win.”

“Which book titles should we tell him? The soft ones or the…” Ava wiggled her eyebrows, and they burst out laughing.

“What do you mean the soft ones?” Eli asked, picking up five water bottles from the wobbly bench and handing them out.

Tarri snickered as she untwisted the cap of her steel bottle. “Oh, you’re in for a ride.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll start you off easy,” Jayla added, shrugging Ava’s previously discarded leather jacket on.