Page 211 of The Curse Trilogy

“What? Alex wasn’t the only one?” I snark, and then I stand up now that my trembles have become more tolerable.

“That’s not what I was going to say. Araya, I never-”

“I’m ready to take your blood now. We’ll check for contamination, but everything should check out,” Clay chirps in interruption, and Hale sighs out when he loses his chance to tell me whatever in the hell he was planning to divulge, leaving my curiosity piqued.

He never what?

“I’ll go first,” I mumble while pulling my wrist to my mouth.

I bite through the flesh, and then I take a beaker to let the blood fall into it. I wipe the spatters of blood from my mouth, and then my arm drips lightly on Hale’s arm when he wraps it around my waist.

“I’m okay now,” I murmur. “You don’t have to hold onto me anymore.”

“I’m just trying to see over Clay’s shoulder,” he lies, but why is he lying?

“You’ll need to wash my blood off,” I grouse.

“I suppose it would be bad if it got into my mouth, huh?” he flirts, and now I’m beyond confused.

Mm… Bad in a good way and bad in a bad way.

“Yes. It would be very bad. That would be a lot harder to explain to Brazen than the savage fuck we shared,” I grumble.

“You’re still together?” he asks with a baffled and surprised tone.

I turn to face him, and his bare chest is so close to my lips as my breath heats his skin. I accidentally let my lower lip graze over his perfect chest taunting me, and he closes his eyes as though he’s relishing my touch for the very brief second it’s there.

“Yes. Why?” I ask while drawing back ever so slightly, my lip throbbing the second it loses contact with his skin.

“I just assumed he would… because we had… you came to check in alone… you hid from his parents,” he stammers out.

He’s not usually so flustered. I’m used to cool, unfazed, and composed Hale. I turn back to await Clay’s very slow analysis.

“He wasn’t exactly crazy about what happened, but he’s trying to understand. He actually loves me, and when you love someone you tend to work your ass off to keep them. He’s better than I deserve,” I mutter, and the last part was only meant for my ears. “His parents are just full blood assholes. I can’t stand them. I checked in alone because he had to check in the full bloods.”

Hale seems to be disappointed and a little shocked by Brazen’s true love for me. I feel like an idiot for spending so many years of my life loving a man who never loved me. I feel like a stupid bitch for letting myself want him so badly right now.

“There’s no infection in your blood. That’s a damn good thing. You can head on up now. The rest of the compound is on lockdown, so no one will be seeing you wearing a blanket,” Clay says very casually while pretending as if he hasn’t been listening to mine and Hale’s conversation.

“Thanks,” I murmur softly, and then I rush away from the lingering eyes of the man who will forever leave me boggled and confused.

I head up the silent stairs with only the sounds of whispered worries edging out from behind the secured doors. I open the door to my apartment to see Brazen’s anxious face turning to face me. Relief fills his eyes as his whole body visibly relaxes, and he rushes over to scoop me up.

“I’ve been so fucking worried. What the hell happened?” he gushes while squeezing me almost too tightly.

“The new breed hybrid came back to life, killed the doctor, and then the doctor came back to life as well. It’s a fucking hybrid zombie apocalypse or some shit. I had to take a radiation shower in case the infection spread to me,” I babble.

I walk to the bedroom to pull out some clothes, and I drop the blanket to the floor as I dress myself with a pair of skimpy shorts and a lacy camisole.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he gushes as he follows me into the room. “Are you okay?”

“Clay wouldn’t have let me go if my blood hadn’t checked out. As for the rest, I’ll let him fill you in later. I just want to curl up in your lap and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day since we’ll be on lockdown until they find out if it’s viral or not. I don’t have the answers you’ll need anyways.”

He sighs out, and then he pulls out his phone while motioning for me to come to him. I wrap my arms around his neck, and his soft lips brush my forehead as his angst-ridden breaths cool my hair.

“Were you attacked? I at least want to know that much,” he huffs.

“No. The thing lunged at us, but I threw it into the wall. For some reason it suffers from light sensitivity. It’s a devolved savage, a true devolved savage. It’s nothing like our savages. It apparently shows up even after death has been declared. It’s really almost like an animal,” I grunt, and he scoops me up to push his lips against mine.