House of Slide Hybrid (14 page)

Chapter 6

Once we got to Grim’s house, I stopped, staring at Lewis and gripping his hand tight.

“We’re here,” I finally said.

He raised his dark eyebrows and smiled. “I’ll walk you to your door.”

I shook my head. “It’s a window.”

“I’ll walk you to your window,” he said with a grin that showed a flash of teeth in the shadowy night.

“It’s all right. You don’t have to…”

He started walking, pushing through the hedge in the exact spot where I’d fallen through. I sighed and followed him, muttering thanks when he pushed back the shrubbery for me to pass. He walked unerringly to the window I’d left ajar, sliding his hands around my waist, under my coat against my shirt.

He froze in that position instead of lifting me up like I knew he’d been about to do.

“I guess this is good-night,” I murmured, sliding my hands up his shoulders and around his neck.

I leaned forward, brushing my lips against his before I lost my nerve. His mouth burned against mine, spreading warmth through me as I tangled my hands in his hair, pressing against him in sudden urgency. I needed to remember this, the way he tasted, the feel of his lips and hands against my back, because who knew when he’d call me. He had to call me. I had to see him again. I couldn’t wake up not knowing if he were alive or dead. I pressed my mouth against his, desperate and wild until he responded in kind, one hand sliding up my back beneath my puffer coat while the other gripped my hip, pulling me against his body in a way that made the rest of the world fall away. I kissed Lewis, felt warmth, home and desire that grew from my stomach and spread through my limbs.

I gasped when he pulled away, steam filling the air between us.

“That’s a little passionate for a Cool girl,” he said, sounding almost as shaky as I felt.

“Sorry. Let me try again,” I said, pulling him against me.

He shook his head slightly then lifted me up, sliding my body against his until I perched on the windowsill. When he let go of me, I fell over backwards, hitting my head against the floor. He climbed in after me, smoothing my hair as he hung over me before he slipped his hand beneath my head, cradling the bruise. His eyes glowed in the darkness.

“You’re in my uncle’s house,” I whispered as he traced a path over my skin with his fingertips.

“Lying on the floor,” he agreed.

“I’ve never kissed so much in my life. You’d think it would get boring.”

“Would you?” he asked as he leaned over me and then a centimeter from my lips I heard a thump. He pulled away, glaring at the door.

“What was that?” I asked following his gaze. The dark room showed nothing out of the ordinary, lit dimly through the window by city lights.

“Shhh,” he murmured against my ear, his breath spreading over my cheek like a tropical breeze.

“Like being on vacation,” I sighed, settling against his warmth and weight, like a big, hot, hard, Hotblooded blanket.

“Wait here,” he whispered as he moved, sliding away from me like a shadow, leaving me alone on the cold, hard floor.

I scrambled to my feet and followed him out of the room, a few steps behind him as he edged into the hall. I strained my eyes in the dark, but all that I could see was a line of light under the kitchen door past Lewis’s boots. I gasped and covered my mouth as Lewis neared the door. I hurried as quietly as I could to grab Lewis and get him out of there before Grim saw him, barely noticing that the door to the Hybrid’s room was wide open, the bed empty. I felt something twist in my stomach when I saw the messy sheets tangled over the bed.

Grim would not have left that mess there. I reached Lewis at the closed door where he stood, listening. I wrapped my arm around his chest while my heart pounded. I looked cautiously behind me but there was nothing to see beside the open door to my room with a cold breeze from my open window.

Lewis covered my hand with his, squeezing my fingers before he sprang forward, knocking the door open and landing inside the room, dragging me behind him. I stared around at the all-white kitchen, all-white, that is, except for a human sized black spider smashed on the wall.

The spider turned his head and managed to raise one eyebrow curiously, like he wondered if I would stay staring at him all day. My uncle was spread-eagled against the white wall like a bug on a corkboard, in fact, as I looked closer I could see steel protruding from his wrists and ankles, like someone had nailed him there. I spun around, searching for the psycho who stuck people to walls, but besides Lewis, Grim and I, the room was empty.

“Good evening,” Grim said, calmly. “He’s gone. It seems you missed all the excitement. I have to admit that I’m relieved. So that’s where you’ve been. I take it that you’re the mysterious Axel who helped Dariana find her soul.”

Lewis walked over to Grim and pulled a butter knife out of his wrist slowly while Grim held his breath and turned white. Lewis held the wrist against the wall, holding him in place instead of taking out another knife.

“What happened?” I asked, wrapping my arms around my stomach as I forced myself to walk towards him instead of running away from the sight of steel poking out of his wrists and ankles.

“The Hybrid burned hot enough to heal more quickly than any Hotblood I’ve ever seen. His Cool abilities kept me from defending myself while he stuck me here.” Grim shook his head slightly, like it was a shame to waste so much talent on such bizarre behavior. “The Cool/Hot combination must give him an extremely unique ability set although it doesn’t seem to do much for his overall happiness. I was afraid he had kidnapped you but perhaps you’d already left on your nocturnal wanderings.”

I bit my bottom lip. I never should have left without telling Grim that the Hybrid was awake and very dangerous. I’d left Grim helpless in the hands of Aiden while I’d gone off to see Lewis, not that I’d known he would be there. I rested my head against Lewis’s shoulder, inhaling the smell of him, knowing that I felt less guilt and regret than I should.

I touched the handle poking out of Grim’s pants leg with trembling fingers. “He just flipped out and stuck you to the wall? Are these butter knives?”

“Indeed,” Grim said, soberly. “I can’t say that I’m impressed with his etiquette, seeing as he used both hands at the same time, but what else do you expect from a renegade Hybrid. I trust that you will only use your right hand should you ever be in the position to use them.” He gasped as Lewis pulled out the knife in his other ankle.

I turned away from my uncle and Lewis, getting a white chair from the white table so that Grim could stand on it instead of staying pressed by Lewis against the wall.

“Don’t you think you could do that a little bit faster?” I asked Lewis as I slid the chair under Grim’s black shoe.

“He’s giving me time to heal,” Grim said, calmly. “Slow, yes, painful, very, but efficient use of blood. Don’t rush the process, Dari. I’m certain that after I’ve had the chance to heal, your friend will be pinning me to the wall in his own way. He’s right. I did not protect you adequately.”

I looked up at Lewis, startled. His eyes glowed. He didn’t look angry or vengeful, but he didn’t meet my gaze, either.

“Thank you for walking me home. Also thanks for unsticking my uncle from the wall. I probably couldn’t do that without passing out or throwing up. I appreciate it. You wouldn’t waste all that effort by doing that, would you?”

“Stick someone to a wall with butterknives? Crookedly?” he added, grinning at me. “That’s the part your Wild uncle really hates. No. Aiden is more creative than I am. I’m more likely to put his nose through the back of his skull.”

I swallowed and pulled back, feeling my heart race in my chest. He was joking. Of course he was joking only I’d had his soul and I’d felt that, the need to crush, destroy, to send the world into a sparkling mess of shattered glass.

My mind raced while I searched for a solution. I turned and left the room, moving fast so that I was at the door before Lewis realized what I was doing.

He held it closed above me, abandoning my uncle who was only half unpinned.

“Where are you going?” he growled.

I lifted my chin in the air. “I don’t like violence. If you’re going to threaten my uncle, I’m going to be somewhere else.”

His eyes glowed as he leaned down, capturing my lips with his, pulling me against him in an embrace like he didn’t care that my uncle hung behind him. I held back, but his lips tasted like nectar, his tongue making me gasp and forget where I was even who I was.

“Dariana,” my uncle’s voice broke through the fog making Lewis pull away.

Lewis clenched his jaw and ducked around me, out the door, shutting it behind him, leaving me alone with my uncle while my lips burned.

I stared at the white door, at the handle that was still warm when I touched it. Should I go after him? He’d left just like that. He’d left and I couldn’t call him, but I knew where he kept his car. If I climbed into it, eventually he’d come.

I blinked as I pulled my hand off the knob, turning to Grim with a smile. My smile faded as I looked at my uncle, at the weapons he held in his hands, reminding me of the gallery, the night I’d been responsible for my uncle Stephen dying.

Knees weak, I sank down at the table, folding over the top like a rag doll.

“You were going to fight him,” I said, numbly.

“He required a show of strength, reassurance so that he could leave you in my care,” Grim said, soothingly as he slumped into the chair beside me. “We live in a violent world, Dariana.”

I laughed, a choking sound that reminded me of his laugh. He’d kissed me like he’d never stop, and then he’d left without taking me with him. How respectful, at least it would be respectful if that’s what I’d told him to do. I couldn’t remember what I’d said I wanted. I wanted him. But I couldn’t trust him. Could I? I sat up and looked at Grim, studying his sunken eyes and pinched face.

“Can I get you something?” I asked.

He shook his head slowly stood, taking the bloody knives in his hand to the sink. When Lewis had taken out the knives they hadn’t had any blood on them. Grim moved so slowly. How long had he hung there? Had Aiden really done that to keep him from following me to Lewis?

“Do you need me to get bandages or something?” I really hoped I didn’t have to go back into the room for medical supplies. I’d been lucky to come away with nothing more than a little burn. I looked down at my bandaged wrist.

“If you’d get the mop from the cupboard,” Grim said, nodding to the closet at the end of the kitchen. “I think this room could use a good clean. Don’t worry,” he added gently. “The Hybrid is strange but not homicidal. Not that I enjoy being toyed with, but there are worse things than being pinned to a wall.” He suddenly leaned forward to press down on my shoulder with his hand while giving me a very serious look with those dark blue eyes that seemed to bore into me, carrying all the grief and sorrow of the world with them. “Are you all right?”

I jumped from the suddenness of the movement, from the fact that I had to nod then shake my head no. I didn’t want to tell him about my failure, but how could I not?

“I’m fine. I’m sorry, Grim. The Hybrid woke up and showed me where Lewis’s garage was while you were talking with someone. I knew that he was awake and dangerous, but I didn’t tell you. Instead, I snuck out. It’s my fault that you got stuck to the wall. I knew the Hybrid was unstable,” I said running my hand over the bandage on my wrist. “Aiden apparently has a long history of psychopathic behavior that Lewis warned me about.” I stared at the walls where smudged blood stained the white.

“Well that’s better for my ego. I’d hate to be so thoroughly handled by anyone less than an old one. They’re the ones with too much Nether blood. They have difficulty dying. I’d heard that Aiden had been thrown into the Netherrealm for good. Your father supposedly did that, but apparently not.” He shook his head slowly. “Strange times when legends walk among us.” He gave me another piercing glance. “Why didn’t you complete the blood bond?”

“How do you know about that?” I demanded.

He laughed, a strangely wheezy sound that faded away. “Blood is my gift, my curse. I could hear his blood screaming for you from the other room. It’s only a matter of time.”

I swallowed. “Everything is a matter of time. If you have enough time that’s all you need,” I said firmly as I stood up and headed for the mop. I did my best to fill the mop bucket while he collapsed on a kitchen chair again, looking more tired and haunted than ever, his dark circles pronounced against his white face. He was a doctor and so he should know what to do about his injuries, but he seemed shaken up. I reached out, trying to feel what he felt, but there was nothing wrong with his emotional barriers. I felt nothing but my own guilt and the stunned realization that Lewis had kissed me. A lot.

I smiled with the sound of the clock ticking above the stove and the swish and drip of the mop as my music. When the floor was immaculate and I’d wiped down the wall, leaving nothing but white around the black gouge marks, I stood looking at Grim for a long time.

“If there isn’t anything else I can do for you, I guess I’ll go to bed,” I said, worrying that he might be staying up for me, or that he was too tired to go to bed. As momentous as the night had been, I felt like I was going to crash. Dying your hair took a lot out of you.