Page 92 of Wicked Dove

“What did you do, Rion?”

“Took care of business,” I state with a shrug as her eyes narrow further.

“What business?”

I wet my lips. “Kael told me what you said to Elodie.”

My words hang in the air, stretching the silence until she huffs, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t fitting,” she declares, moving to her liquor cabinet to my left. She pulls out a small tumbler and her favorite bottle of bourbon, pouring a healthy measure before downing it in one gulp.

No ice. That’s a telling sign.

“You don’t get to decide what is and isn’t fitting, and you definitely don’t get to dictate who I do and don’t spend time with,” I state, and she cackles, shaking her head before she looks over her shoulder at me.

“As your guardian, it is my right.”

“And were you speaking to her as my guardian?” I ask, giving her a pointed look this time, and she turns to face me once again, pouting as she examines me.

“As opposed to what? Your lover?” A sinister grin spreads across her face as she licks her lips, liking the sound of that word on her tongue.

“Is that what you were?”

Her smile falters. “Were? Am I not anymore?” She flutters her eyelids as if she’s a damsel in distress, and not the dominant slayer that she is.

“I think I was your easy prey,” I state, and she snickers.

“I’ve heard it all now,” she bites, placing her empty glass down before she stalks toward me, finger aimed in my face. “You wanted me then, you want me now, and you’ll want me forever.”

I can’t decide if it’s a threat or a promise. Regardless, I shrug.

“Except I don’t want you, Laurie. I was simply your toy. It’s not like we were ever exclusive, right? Not when you fucked Professor Grimm and played with Professor Morton’s pussy on a schedule.”

She snarls at me. “You don’t know what you want.”

It’s no surprise that she ignores the other facts. It never bothered me at the time, and it definitely doesn’t make me feel anything now. I was too young to understand before, but now I do. Now I know what desire feels like, and it’s not what I feel for her.

“Let me guess, you do?” I ask, and she nods.

“I know you better than you know yourself.”

“Maybe, once upon a time. Or was that because you were trying to mold me into whoyouwanted me to be?” I feel revolutionized. Who knew a guy chat and intervention could make me take my rose-tinted glasses off and see my life in a different color? Now it’s all purple.

“I found you when you were nothing. I gave you hope, life, a future,” she snaps, bracing her hands on the arms of the chair as she leans over me.

“And what? You think that means I owe you?”

She pushes off the chair with a huff, her shoulders bunching with tension as she throws her arms out wide. “Why are you doing this right now, Rion? When you come to me after an episode, it usually involves?—”

“You. You trained me to come back to you.” My blood boils as I spit the truth at her. “But after my last episode, I realized there was only one person I wanted, and it wasn’t you.”

Her face pales. “Elodie Blackwood? You can’t mean her.”

“One and the same.” There’s no use in lying. I like her, and I don’t plan on hiding it.

“I can put a stop to that. As your guardian,” she promises, and I shake my head.

“You’re not getting it, are you?” I say with a sigh as she folds her arms over her chest.

“Enlighten me.”