Page 37 of Possess Me at Midnight

Ice gnashes his teeth as if grinding up glass.

“They’re a necessary evil, and you know it.” My soft murmur closes the lid on his argument.

“Ludlow it is, then,” he grumbles. “But you’ll stay close to me. Every moment. I won’t have you in additional danger.”

Not only do his words make my heart flutter foolishly, but I’m touched by his concession, which I know wasn’t easy for him. I see it in the rigid set of his jaw and the way his fingers drum restlessly against his thigh. Ice’s world is black-and-white. He’ll protect what’s his at all costs. Mine is filled with shades of gray—duty, politics, compromise. We’re approaching the same danger from different perspectives. Yet this dangerous, stubborn wizard just put my priorities above his own. He would only fight his own instinct to please me. “Of course. I’ll be right beside you.”

“Where you belong, princess.”

Our eyes lock. His gaze drops to my lips, lingering with such hunger, I have to catch my breath.

Doing my best to ignore his stare, I watch the sun break fully above the horizon, pouring golden light through the windshield and illuminating his sharply angled face. For a moment, I imagine a different world where circumstances don’t stand between us, and Ice is my everything.

Then Bram moans again from the back seat, and reality crashes back.

Ice returns his attention to the road ahead, jaw set like stone. “When we get there, I’m going in first. No arguments.”

As I drive onward, I shove aside my fears and watch the countryside roll by. For this brief interlude between one danger and the next, I feel almost…content. The diary is in my backpack, my brother breathes in the back seat, and Ice sits beside me—solid, present, unwavering.

Morning light catches on the dashboard where Ice’s hand rests, highlighting a small scar crossing his knuckle. One of many mysteries about this man who’s turned my world upside down. Despite logic, my brother, and everything else, I find myself wondering what it would be like to say yes to his Call. To be his. To let him be mine.

The thought should terrify me.

Instead, it feels like coming home.

Chapter

Fifteen

Ice

* * *

Less than an hour later, Sabelle insists we stop in Hereford. Since we “nicked” our current ride, more or less, she worries the human police will be looking for the car and arrest us. Normally, I would dismiss that concern, but without the ability to teleport away from potential danger, it’s a serious issue.

A shudder of foreboding claws up the back of my neck. This trip—from Sabelle’s odd reluctance to end our drama and Renounce me to my gut feeling that we’re headed straight into danger—has me on edge.

In town, we encounter a cattle market with farmers milling about cold, dusty lots, waiting to sell their animals. Sabelle exits the car and shrugs on her backpack as she scans her unconscious brother in the back seat. To the human eye, Bram probably looks like a napping traveler. They can’t see the mysterious, choking black cloud around him thickening.

With a sigh, she motions me out of the car. “Wait for me at the end of the block.”

When she turns to leave, I grab her arm and spin her back around. She stumbles, and I automatically wrap an arm around her waist to steady her. At the feel of her against me, the scent of her surrounding me, a jolt of desire thunders through me. I can’t stop myself from dragging her closer.

She freezes. “Let go.”

“Where are you going?”

“To find another car so we can put more distance between us and the Anarki. I won’t get far from your sight, Ice. But I don’t have time to soothe your territorial feathers. Let me handle this so we can get back on the road.”

Blast the bloody logical witch. I’m proud of her cool head under pressure. Usually, that’s my role. But the woman has me turned upside down and tied in knots. I can’t think past my need to keep her safe—or my desire to lay her across my bed, breathe her in, and prove without a single word exactly how good we are together.

“I don’t like it.”

Her face softens. “I’ll be all right. Why don’t you find food we can take on the road and a phone to ring Duke?”

Her suggestion rankles. Is she trying to get rid of me because she’s plotting something I won’t like? Does she think I’m too thick to catch on? I’ll play along—for now. And watch her every move.

With my instincts screaming, I skulk to a café at the end of the block. The hour is a bit late for breakfast and a bit early for lunch, so the establishment is largely empty, except for the voices drifting from the kitchen.