Page 61 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

Kali’s eyelashes fluttered as she rolled onto her side, her palm wrapped in gauze sliding under the dark blue folded towel Zion had placed under her head after I had carried her unconscious to the tiny bay not many knew about.

“You are going to have to be more specific,” I said to Sadira, focused on Kali about to wake up. I was not missing it this time.

Sadira snorted and nudged my side with her hip. “You know what I mean,” she said, tracking the ball drawing arches high in the air as Jayla, Ryder, and Eli passed it between them along the shoreline, while Eislyn and Ezra unloaded food and drinks from our bags. “You didn’t bring her here alone with you two.”

An animal cornered in an unfamiliar environment by a predator hunting them always did one thing—run. As such, inviting the group here guaranteed two things: she would not feel attacked, and even if she tried to flee, there was nowhere to go. This secluded bay lay more than a hundred miles away from our compound and more from Ilasall.

“Catch!” Eli warned, and Sadira caught the ball with a thump.

“Don’t act like an egotistical brute and she might actually have fun today,” she said, striding backward. She threw the fraying-at-the-seams ball back to the group and sprinted off to join them.

“How many more times do you plan on drugging her?” Scowling, Eislyn rummaged in the duffel bag filled with water bottles. “You do know she will do the same to us one day if you don’t stop, right?”

“Wedidn’t drug her. They did.” Ezra sunk his teeth into a peach and flicked the juices flowing down to his elbow. “If she wants to drug them in revenge, I’ll help her.” Eislyn punched his shoulder, and he added, “You know I’m kidding. It’s not like I would break into your med supply storage to get what I need. I’m not as insane as him.”

“She looks heavenly in her sleep,” Zion remarked. “And having her head in my lap while we drove here was worth it.”

“It doesn’t matter who knocked her out. The rest of us didn’t stop them. That’s the point. Make sure she drinks this.” Eislyn passed me a water bottle and dabbed the condensation left on her palms onto her nape. “It’ll help to flush out the meds.”

“How long will the pain meds work for?” I asked, pressing the cool steel bottle on the back of my neck.

“Four to six hours. She’ll have to take a pill after. But Gedeon, it’s really not good to have her swim in the sea while the stitches haven’t been removed.”

“I know.” But some rules were meant to be broken. And I had ensured we had a sufficient supply of antibiotics and pain meds for her.

A sleepy grumble attracted my attention to Kali flinging an arm over her eyes. Hope simmered in her to break loose and return to life as she knew it, but I was going to crush it down to nothing. When I had arrived back at our compound last night and saw her sleeping soundly in bed, an idea had popped into my head.

She loved the stars.

I wanted to pluck them out of the sky and offer them to her on a silver platter so she did not have to visit the damned forest in search of them but, unfortunately, my dream was unattainable. Taking her to the seaside to spend the day swimming and the night marveling at her gazing at the stars was the best I could come up with.

If my plan brought unsatisfactory results, an option to lock her up in her room remained. I had already done so.

Although I would prefer it if she chose to stay. Free will, as they said.

“What the…” she groggily trailed off, blinking the bleariness away. With elbows propped on the blanket, her mouth dropped open as she gaped at the endless horizon.

“Here.” I situated myself at her other side and handed her the bottle. “You must be thirsty.”

“Where are we?” Kali licked her parched lips, her head swiveling around. Increment by increment, confusion meltedinto realization. She leaped up and hurled the bottle at me. “You drugged me?Again? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I ducked to avoid getting hit, and the bottle rolled on the beach blanket, ending its journey at the hem.

Nothing could put out the fight in her. Not drugs, not being taken by two strangers, away from what you held as your home with no option to come back. A fierceness that called me to think about her time and time again.

Her feet tangled from the leftover meds coursing through her system, and she swayed, losing her balance and falling.

Zion caught her and licked the tip of her nose. “So tasty.”

“Something is clearly very wrong with you,” she sputtered and pushed him away, scooching closer to me.

Her back collided with my shoulder. Startled, she crawled to the edge of the blanket and hugged her knees. With her chin resting on top of them, she squeezed her eyes shut. Like she was wishing for a bad dream to end and to wake up in a different place.

If she thought I was her nightmare, she was going to learn to love them.

Her wish remained only a wish, and she sighed heavily. Emotions warred on her expressive face as she surveyed her surroundings once again, her forehead wrinkling and smoothing out, the tiny muscles working overtime, and soon the rumble of the sea dissolved her fury into wonder and the wind tousling her hair melted her shock into astonishment.

“I’ve never seen it before.” She covered her ears and half-shouted, “It’s so loud.”