Page 19

Dante

Selene’s words about not coming over echo in my head but it’s a siren call, a challenge I’m desperately trying to ignore. She’s caught up in a new job, I can tell by the excitement brimming off of her and I don’t want to ruin that. She’ll know that I know soon enough.

I walk back toward the truck, Malik in the passenger seat looking like a whole fucking snack until I catch his bloody hands and the blissed-out look on his face. His pants are stained crimson, blood covering his lips and chin from the knife he’s currently sucking on.

My stomach lurches as I jump into the driver’s seat and look around, wondering if anyone’s been watching. I’ve never seen Malik lose his shit like this so there has to be a reason. “What the fuck is going on, babe?” I snatch the knife from him, wondering how deep the cut on his thigh is and if he stabbed himself.

He’s got this feral look as his head lolls to the side, eyes glinting with an excitement I haven’t seen in years. “My little sparrow got to me,” he purrs.

Confusion spreads in my chest because I know for a fact Malik did something stupid, probably cornered her, pushed too far but there’s no time to dig into it. He’s already leaning over the console, his bloody fingers smearing something across my lips. It takes a second to register that it’s lipstick.

The lipstick’s sloppy, streaked over my upper lip, down my chin, Malik dragging me into a full kiss, his lips crashing into mine, licking and nipping, the taste of blood and chemicals from the lipstick mixing together. He pulls back, his grin even more feral than before as I try to gauge whatever the fuck is going on here.

“Babe,” I say, wiping at my chin, the lipstick smearing on my fingers, “I know you’ve got a screw loose, but what the fuck?”

Malik leans back, twirling the lipstick tube between his bloody fingers, his eyes locked on mine. “That’s Sparrow’s color,” he muses. “It’s pretty, isn’t it? The color of blood. Thought you’d look pretty in it too. You do. Want to mark you up in this color, smother you in it. Want it everywhere.”

Holy shit. Selene’s gone from an obsession to a downright craving. The fact that he picked up her crimson lipstick and now wants to bathe in it, paint us both in it, is a whole new level of crazy. Problem is, my cock’s throbbing, hard as fuck, and I’m into it. It helps that the car already smells like sex and the darkened stain in the crotch of Malik’s pants tells me I already missed the obscene fantasy he just played out in his head.

“As much as I’d love to wrap my pretty red lips around you, we’re in the police parking lot. I like a lot of risks, but that’s not one of them.”

“You’re no fun.”

“Quite the opposite. Now, what happened to your leg?”

Malik leans back in his chair, staring down at the wound before pressing a finger to it, giggling as more blood dribbles out. “She got mad that I touched her,” he sings, like he’s talking about a love tap instead of a fucking stab wound.

A growl rumbles in my chest, my hands tightening on the steering wheel as I start the car. “You touched her without asking?” Selene’s mine but I also know that I can’t keep her to myself. However, I will protect her from Malik if I have to.

He shrugs, unfazed, his grin never faltering. “I forgot to ask. She was right to stab me. But I’ll remember next time.”

“Next time?” My voice rises, disbelief mixing with the anger, my eyes narrowing as I stare over at him.

“You don’t get to keep her anymore. She’s mine too. She’ll want us both.”

He’s right, and that’s the fucking problem. Selene can handle us both. Her fire, her deviance, her hunger for blood and sex make her more than a match for our chaos. She’s just crazy enough to want it, to crave the unhinged danger we bring, but that’s exactly what’s gonna burn her down.

I nearly ask him to tone it down as I peel out of the parking lot and then realize that’s impossible for someone like him. No, I’ll just wait till we get home, let him fuck me for getting shampoo in his eyes earlier and then hopefully figure out how to get Selene’s hammer back in her hands.