Chapter Fifteen

Beautiful Mind

Valek felt himself in the cool darkness, caught in some undertow he could not resurface from, and wheeling around in this infinite space. No oxygen. No smell. No sight. Something pounded in his ears. A pulse he recognized, though it sounded drowned, like it was sinking just next to him in this dark ocean. Then, suddenly, it was as if someone had ripped a gaping hole in his universe. All of the black water flooded away, the sound overwhelming his ears as if he were being washed away with it through a large, hollow tunnel.

It muffled the sound of the beating heart completely, until the rushing almost deafened him. His mouth opened, gasping for air, though he only felt suffocated. And then he opened his eyes.

Darting about the dark casket, he gasped for the oxygen to return to him, his gaze finally resting on her.

“Lottie?” His heaving calmed when he saw her fearful eyes, heard her heart flutter like a bird in a cage. He immediately pulled her closer to him, his hands burying in her hair.

Charlotte, who had probably been dreaming intently, woke with a fright when Valek jolted back to life. The smell of her fear instantly filled the tiny space around them. Her pulse was a weak, shallow throb in her chest, and he knew instantly it was the same pulse in his ears before he woke. The memory of the night before came flooding back as the tight space seemed to shrink around him, and her delicious scent became all too overwhelming. He clenched his jaw. She’d kissed him, Valek remembered. He heard the nervous lump form in Charlotte’s throat as he gazed down at her. She stared back, her eyes as wide and glassy as two full moons. She lightly began to trace the contours of lips.

“Lottie,” he whispered, as he began to run his wiry hand along the length of her jaw.

Charlotte immediately pulled away, wrapping her hands around her neck. He frowned, knowing his eyes must have shifted in that moment. The same hollow feeling he’d felt when Charlotte had been mad at him swelled in his chest again. He would sacrifice anything just to show her she really was safe with him.

“No. Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I'm not going to hurt you.”

Charlotte waited a few more moments before she released her hands. She inched closer to him again, and his sorrow melted.

He stroked her curls with his claws, reveling in her purity. It almost made him warm. “We’re really together now.” His lips pressed against her ear, smiling at the reality of what he was saying.

Valek mentally heard her shock over how he reacted to her. Charlotte was frowning at him. She had been anticipating some sort of argument—like he might try and convince her he was much better suited as her father figure, and her impulses were insane. But this was no longer how he felt in the least. It was the difference between night and day.

Her thoughts were extremely loud as they circled in his head. The challenges they now faced were enough to convince him, if they survived, they would survive together through anything. Even this confusing taboo. As he gazed down at her, he could see the apprehension burning all too fervently in her eyes.

Valek chuckled. He cradled her cheek in his palm and shifted so they lay gazing at each other, nose to nose. “Can I come back inside your head now?”

She gulped once and nodded.

He tilted her head back so he could look at her directly. Tidal waves of emotion flooded through open gates. All of her fears and fantasies he already knew would be there, made themselves extremely evident to him in that moment. He smiled at the chagrin burning in her cheeks.

“Do not be embarrassed, Charlotte.” He grinned when he felt her face heat against his palm. He brought his mouth cautiously closer to hers and hesitated.

He was testing himself before pressing his cool lips against her warm ones. She sighed into his mouth as he moved his hands to the base of her neck.

Their lips moved together. The ache, which had burdened them for so long, seemed to melt away in that moment in which everything else disappeared. The world and all of its problems were lost somewhere in space. Charlotte was once again the person Valek knew best. In that moment, they weren’t different from each other at all.

Valek pulled away first, one small thought fighting him in the oceans of his mind. But he continued to hug her close to him. He listened, enjoying the complicated mind he had been forbidden from for what seemed an eternity. Even though he couldn’t physically see it, he mentally heard the enormous smile Charlotte hid as she pressed her face against his chest.

That was when Valek remembered something else about what happened the night before—the evil, disgusting promise he was forced to make. Lottie peered at him, still beaming, but her face dropped when she noticed he wasn’t smiling anymore.

“I need you to stay strong for me tonight,” he said darkly.

Then, the thin sliver of orange light filtering in through the open crack in the coffin was eclipsed. Valek quickly released Charlotte and glared up at it as someone’s fist lightly tapped at the roof.

“Valek?” It was Francis.

“A moment, please.” Valek quickly kissed Charlotte on the forehead before gazing at her sadly one last time. He slid open the top of the coffin to reveal Francis standing there, along with the rest of the rogue coven. All of their faces looked harder and paler than they had the night before. Valek slowly got to his feet, watching them. Charlotte began to get up, but Valek held his hand out to stop her.

“We need to talk to the girl now, Valek,” Francis said regretfully.

Valek grimaced as the rest of the coven stared at Lottie with their hellish eyes.

“What’s going on?” Charlotte asked, the blood draining out of her face. He frowned. She had always been so intuitive.

“We have confirmation of what the regime has planned. It’s exactly as I thought.” Lusian was the one speaking. “An all-out genocide of our kind. They are planning on cleaning out Occults all over the world.”

Valek glanced at Charlotte, tuning in to her mind again.

“Well, there is only one thing to do then.” He looked at Lusian and the rest of them. Andela stood next to Lusian, her dove face stained with streaks of red. “We have to gain as many as we can on our side. Build our own empire. That means going to the other Occults before the Regime can, and convincing other Vampires to join our forces. If they want a war, I think we should give them one.”

“Why stop there?” This time, Jorge spoke from his stance at Dusana’s side. “Why not get any Lycan who isn’t on the side of the Elves, and Witches, too.”

“No. That puts us at risk. What if the Wizards send someone to be their insider?” Francis argued.

“How can they when we are able to know everything they think?” Jorge argued back.

Valek stepped forward, addressing the entire coven then. “They boast so well they rule with the light, true? They hate the darkness. We are the darkness. Their safe haven is beginning to divide now because they fail to recognize both powers have to coexist, or else the entire world loses balance. Well, if they are trying to rid the world of one of its halves, I think they have officially lost our balance!”

Lusian gazed thoughtfully at the ground.

“They have created a world in the light and ruled it. Now I think there must be someone to rule in the dark. If they want a war, that’s what they shall be served.”

Charlotte smiled at Andela as she walked toward her.

The tall, drawn woman glared down at Lottie’s innocent face as more ruby tears rolled down her cheeks. An odd sort of fear shot up Valek’s spine when Charlotte took the Vampire’s cold hand in hers, causing Andela to stiffen.

“Don’t worry. We will win. I know it.” The girl smiled again. Andela still was not happy, and she withdrew her hand quickly.

Valek rushed up behind Lottie and pulled her back against him. “Not right now,” he whispered, keeping his eyes locked on Andela’s strained face.

Valek could tell that the realization clicked in Charlotte’s mind then, as she slowly backed away from Andela and closer to him again.

“Charlotte?” Francis spoke carefully. “Do you think you might like to stay upstairs for now, with Sarah?”

“Who?” Charlotte lifted an eyebrow.

“I will take her,” Valek lamented, avoiding all the thirsty, angry stares in the room. “I would rather be the one to talk to her about this, anyway.” He shot an acidic glare toward Francis, who only grinned in reply.

Valek put his arm around Charlotte’s waist and led her to where the ceiling opened up to the tunnel. He watched as Charlotte peered into the dusty, dark tunnel, reluctance playing on her face.

“It will be all right, love. Sarah is Francis’ house Witch. It’s just for now.” He glanced back at the testy coven. “You’ll like her. She is…nice.”

Charlotte frowned. “I’m bothering them, right?”

“It’s just because it’s early,” he admitted, and kissed her head.

Sasha, the tall, dark Vampire, snorted in disgust.

Valek scowled at him before hugging Charlotte so tightly to his chest that her feet lifted off the ground. “Hold on.” He leapt up through the black hole, leaving the rest glaring after the two of them.

They shot ferociously through the trap door, sending clods of dust flying everywhere about the narrow, lavender hallway. The Witch, Sarah, who had clearly just finished sweeping, frowned at the mess, still clutching the broom in her hand as she watched Valek land gracefully on the floorboards.

Valek smiled apologetically at her. “I’m just going to need a few moments with her, then she’s all yours.”

Sarah smiled brightly, but didn’t say a word. She flitted off to some other part of the house. Charlotte frowned, and Valek noticed how she strained to sift through her memory of this house or of the little Witch from the night before.

He answered her thoughts. “You wouldn’t remember, Lottie.”

Valek led Charlotte up the stairs across from the Witch’s study, down another, shorter, lavender hallway, and into an empty bedroom.

He noticed it had already been dressed to welcome someone, with clean sheets placed neatly on the bed, fresh-cut lilacs on top of the nightstand, and pressed dresses hanging neatly in a row in an armoire left open. He knew all of these accommodations were specifically for Charlotte. This was the place Francis would house her during their stay. Something rolled in his center. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Charlotte glance up at him, and he attempted to calm his strained face.

“Valek?”

“Sit down.”

She sat on the edge of the bed, not tearing her focus from him. Her unyielding stare made it impossible for him to look directly at her. He inhaled, trying to steady the warbling he knew would appear the instant he started to speak.

“Let me preface by saying, no matter what, you are completely safe here. I am constantly at arms length away from you.”

“Okay….”

“Lottie, there were several…provisions which needed to be agreed upon for Francis to let you stay here with me.”

Charlotte frowned at this.

“Please. I don’t want you to be frightened, but if I hadn’t agreed to this, he would have killed you. I saw it in his mind. He wouldn’t even let me search for another place to hide without backing me into this proverbial corner.”

“Valek, what is going on?”

He got to his knees in front of her and took her hands in his. “Sometimes, in our world, there are human beings, like yourself, whom we develop relationships with.”

Charlotte smiled at this.

“No. When I use the word ‘relationship,’ that isn’t what I mean. They are used as a sort of pet we keep.” Valek searched her expression to see if she understood what he was getting at. “We do not kill these humans, but we feed from them nightly. The sort of nickname we call these types of people are ‘blood dolls’. They are like…personal donors.” He stopped, searching her face again.

Her eyes grew wide and watery as she gaped at him, inching backward on the bed, grabbing onto the bedclothes for support. “You’re whoring me out? ” she hollered.

“Charlotte, no. It isn’t exactly like that—”

“Yes, it is! It is exactly like that!” She fought and buried her face into the pillow.

“Lottie, the point is, I had to give in to Francis, lest he kill you. I am never going to let anything happen to you.”

She sat up and looked at him, her eyes red. “What do I have to do exactly?”

Valek glanced to one side. “Nothing really. You just sort of…sit there.”

“You mean they take it straight from me? You can’t just prick my arm with a syringe or something?”

Valek shook his head. “I promise it’s just for now. I meant what I said about leaving, just the two of us.” He struggled to find the right words. “Charlotte, I love you.”

She stayed quiet. When he noticed how tightly she clenched her jaw, he tuned in to her mind. He needed to know what she was thinking. Her mind was spinning as the disgusting visualization of what he was asking of her played over and over again. He was going to let them feed off her. Use her. How could he love her and still do this?

Valek silently agreed with her on that one. Suddenly, she began relating herself to the frozen corpses that rested in Valek’s freezer back in their home in the Occult.

“Lottie, I have no other choice. Don’t you see? Francis was never going to let me leave once I entered this house with you in my arms. He articulated one thing to me, but his mind was saying something altogether different. The moment I would have crossed the threshold back out into the city would have been the moment he came after me to kill you. It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. There is not a single living or un-living thing on this planet that means more to me. When you were dying in the dungeons of the Regime, so was I. I will make sure every time you are called upon you will be safe. I promise you. You have to believe me. I love you.”

Charlotte’s frightened gaze stayed locked on his face. Valek grabbed her clammy hands in his and tuned in again. She was considering all of this, fighting two different impulses in her mind, one of them wanting to hate Valek and the other, wanting to love him. The hollow feeling swelled in his chest again as he listened. Would he ever escape from his role as “the monster?” Finally, Lottie’s mind rested on one thought; there was no other way for now. She had to give in if she wanted to stay alive and stay with him.

“I love you, Valek,” she said meekly. “But I’m afraid.”

“I know you are. As am I.” He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him.

Holding her was the most comforting thing he could think of, though he understood it was not enough.

“I want you to be first, though.”

He pulled away to look at her, gaping. “I don’t know if I am entirely comfortable with that.”

“Valek, I’m so afraid to do this. You owe it to me.” Tears streamed in silvery ribbons down her pale face.

He breathed in slowly through his nose and just stared at her. He glanced at the floor. “Lottie—”

“Please?” Her voice wavered as he anticipated more of her warm tears to come.

He sighed. “I want you to know you won’t have to do this forever. This will not be the rest of your life, Charlotte.”

Grasping both sides of his face, she pulled him forward and pressed her lips firmly to his. She released a hot breath that sent a trail of fire down the back of his throat. Wrapping her arms around his neck, he felt her tongue brush over his fangs. She was impossible to let go of, as lingering and intoxicating as red wine.

They rolled back together so he loomed over her on the bed. He whispered her name in her ear, slid his lips along the soft contours of her jaw. She sighed. He opened his mouth, letting his cool breath prickle the tiny hairs on her skin. She exhaled again, a happy sound. It sent a jolt of electricity through his center. Her fingers knotted in his hair as he skimmed only the tips of his fangs down one side of her neck.

“Do it,” she whispered.

He swiftly pulled away and looked at her, his breathing still heavy and staggered in his chest.

“You’re thirsty.” She grazed her fingertips across his purple lids. This newfound daringness in her was completely foreign to him. He had never thought Lottie would be this way—passionate, sensual.

His hand trailed up her arm until he found her palm, mouth open, tasting the scent she left in the air.

“Do it,” she challenged again. She met him with a corrupt simper. “I trust you,” she whispered, kissing him deeply again.

He breathed her in, but it was too much this time. He turned his face away. “I'm not perfect, Lottie. I couldn’t live with myself if I ever—” But she didn’t let him finish.

“Please.”

Valek looked down at her underneath him, both of his marble arms keeping his upper half perfectly steady on the mattress. He thought for a moment, thankful she was unable to hear exactly what he was thinking. He smiled. “You’re going to be very tired later,” he warned.

“I don’t care.” She bit her lower lip. It was enough to send a slight tremor down his middle.

He smiled and lifted away from her slowly, something malicious curling the ends of his mouth. He moved out of the light, letting the shadows play tricks on the cracks in his skin, before disappearing completely.

He heard Charlotte’s pulse leap into her throat, though she laughed despite her fear. She looked behind her. “Valek?” Her voice cracked a little.

A soft, inhuman hissing rumbled deep within Valek. But unlike the minatory hissing that had woken Charlotte in the dungeon of the Regime palace, Valek didn’t mean for this sound to be threatening at all. It came out calm. He knew it allured her, and just as she sat up on the bed, he dashed through the darkness, grabbing her arms, pinning them to her sides.

“Don’t move,” he whispered, his mouth pressed to her ear once more. The soft throbbing of her heart quickened in his ears. He measured it every time he inhaled. When her pulse quickened, so did his breathing. It was driving him mad. He reached around, gently pulling a dark, red ringlet away from her pallid throat.

“Valek?” Her voice came out trembling.

He replied with another inhuman sound. His hands traveled down her arms to her wrists and forcefully pulled her back to the mattress. Her heart thumped in her chest as his cool breath heated over her collarbone.

He saw himself, reflected back to him from her mind then; eyes, shrouded underneath his hair, glinted dimly at her. His entire face seemed to be one, large shadow, with only his fangs glistening at her in a devastating smile. She watched him with wide eyes, finding suddenly she really was afraid. But she was so numb, a body caught in a rip current, that she failed to move now, even if she wanted to.

He carefully lowered himself again, letting his face hover directly over hers. A sound, like thunder, quaked low in his chest as he listened to her breathing accelerate. He moved his mouth down until it was directly underneath her ear and searched her throat until he felt the pulse living under the bed of ivory skin. His lips parted the same time her eyelids did.

She inhaled, grasping his arms for support.

Then, with one hot breath, he pushed downward. Warm, thick wine exploded over his gums and slammed against the back of his throat, swimming into the concrete veins.

He heard Charlotte gasp. Her heart fluttered wildly, like the sound of African war drums pummeling in his ears, so loud it drowned out the sound of her screaming. The rhythms grew louder and more rapid with each second that passed, his sanity slipping further away.

“Valek!” She pushed with all of her strength. “Stop! Valek!”

But it was too much. The rhythm raged on as the focus of the room washed over with deep red. Light melded together with darkness and his consciousness slipped to the current of some stormy sea, tugging him in different directions. The warmth of her pooled over his lips and it was as though her pulse had somehow become his. Hypnotic. Sinking him into a trance that would keep him locked to her until it stopped. But something else began to grow in his mind. A distantly different sound that pulled him back from a roaring typhoon to shore.

“Valek! ”

Finally hearing her, he pushed away, the rushing in his ears lulled, and he could feel his eyes shifting back to normalcy. Humanity took control of animal instinct, as he looked down at green, fearful watery eyes. She lay there, still as she could, mouth open, barely breathing. Her blood pooled in a puddle of red in the white sheets beneath her.

“Lottie?” He choked. “Oh God.” He quickly moved away from her, yanking her into his lap. “I got carried away.” He brushed the hair out of her face.

“It’s not your fault,” she said, still shaken. It was too soon after her experience in the dungeon. “It wasn’t a good idea.”

“No. I should have known better.”

The two sat there in silence for a few moments longer, now staring at each other, reeling from the experience. Valek was the one to speak first.

“Did I hurt you?”

“A little. I was just scared, mostly.” She nuzzled underneath his chin. “I’m okay.”

He looked at her lovingly and placed a stray piece of hair behind her ear. He kissed the wound at the side of her neck closed.

Is that what I am to endure, Valek heard her think. He didn’t respond, knowing that was supposed to be a private thought.

“It was not the right time for us,” he whispered, and kissed her forehead.

A rapping came abruptly from outside the bedroom door. It was followed by Sarah swinging the door open, her expression sad and apologetic, as Francis moved in after her. A web of long, feathered eyelashes cradled thirsty black eyes. His pallid complexion was even more ashen than normal, the sides of his face seemingly able to cut glass.

“Excuse us, Valek.”

Valek turned, helpless, to his friend. “No. Not now. Francis, please.”

“I apologize in advance.” Francis swiftly moved forward, his gaze fixed at the base of Charlotte’s throat where blood still dried. The normally dazzling white hair, neatly combed to his mid back was now sheenless and erratic about his shoulders.

“Valek!” Charlotte yelped when Francis grabbed her by the shoulder.

Valek stood before them, his features strained into a forsaken grimace. He couldn’t stop this from happening as much as he wanted to. “I know you’re scared, Lottie. You need to remember what I said. You are safe, no matter what. I will be here.” He glared at Francis, who only sneered.

“Do what you please, Valek. Watch. If that is what contents you.” Francis gave a final smile toward his comrade and turned to see his reflection in the girl’s glassy eyes. “Ahoj, my little doll.” He flashed his large incisors and tore deep into the top of Charlotte’s shoulder.

Charlotte gasped, her jaw falling open but no sound escaped. Her hands flew to clutch Francis’ back, balling up in the white satin as Valek watched her red warmth ooze down the middle of her spine.

Valek flinched away from the sight of it, his eyes overflowing with red again. It pained him so much he shielded his face. He wanted to stay strong, to be there for her, but the pain smeared clear across her face caused him to stumble desperately out of the room. He noticed Sarah, leaned up against the wall in the hallway, listening. He could see she was upset as well.

She looked at him, shaking her head, and covered her mouth with her hands, crying, too.

Valek straightened up, his hands fisting tight at his sides. “It is not your place to regard me in this way. How could you possibly empathize?” He growled and began to plummet down the stairs to the first floor.

The horde of Vampires that only the night before remained submerged and hidden in the depths of the basement were now beginning to ascend, bursting through the trap door, gathering together on the landing. All of their stares locked on his face at once.

“No,” Valek said through his grit. “This cannot happen this way!”

Andela was the first to approach him. Her features were not beautiful as they were the night before. “I promised you last evening that Charlotte would be kept alive. None of us wish to kill her, Valek.”

“Don’t you realize this is harmful to her?” He brought his knuckle up to his teeth and twisted to peer back up the stairway. Francis had finished. Charlotte was petrified. Valek continued to cry.

“There is no other way.” She placed her hand on his shoulder but he immediately shrugged it off. “Sarah is caring for her now. That’s what she’s for. She knows how to keep Charlotte sustained between feedings until the time we’re finished. Then she will be able to heal her completely.”

Valek looked at Andela and gave up. He covered his face in his hands and knelt to the floor as the tall Vampire silently moved past him up the stairs.

Before he could follow her, Sasha and Jorge appeared on either side of him.

“Valek, we apologize in advance for this, but we cannot risk you interfering. If you do not allow us this, it could throw the weaker Vampires into a frenzy,” Jorge quickly explained, before nodding to Sasha.

The two gripped Valek around the tops of his arms, and though he screamed and protested to try and get away, he could not fight off the strength of the two of them as they dragged him back toward the trap door.

“Please!” he begged. “I need to be with her!”

“Sorry, friend.” Sasha smirked as Jorge opened the trap door. They pushed Valek in and sent him plummeting through the darkness to the basement below. He landed stealthily, like a cat, on his feet. From above, he heard something click shut, like a padlock being fastened and he knew the coven was not about to let him escape.

“Lottie!” he called out, but there was no response back. She couldn’t hear him.

He was shocked to see the small, dirt-packet room had been ransacked. It was completely dark, the little fire burnt out in the hearth, dead soot where it used to be. Most of the upholstery was torn, a few chairs missing arms and legs. The splintered wood on the ground suggested they were bitten off.

***

A few hours had gone by, and Valek remained crouched on the floor in the center of the basement. He did not release his face from his hands because he did not want to see his reality. His other senses showed him enough as he stayed fixed, listening to his Lottie’s mind. She was talking to him from two stories up. Reassuring him. She was not happy, obviously, but she was being cared for. In the deeper parts of her thoughts, he felt the slight amount of blame she held for him. He put enough blame on his own shoulders for the both of them, anyway.

Someone touched Valek’s back very softly, though it still startled him. He looked up to see whom the touch belonged to. Sarah stood there meekly.

“Valek—”

“What?”

He hadn’t noticed Sarah come to join him in the basement. He peered up from his hands to see light filtering down the tunnel from the house above. The door had been opened.

“Valek, she’s okay. She is resting now but she’s asking for you.” The Witch looked at him with pity in her bright, brown eyes. “I-I wanted to get started on her…but I figure it’s best if I wait.”

Valek averted his focus from her, his face blank and distant, like he had just witnessed a house burning down with the family still inside. He slowly, fluidly rose to his feet. He regarded the Witch again, nodding at her with a faint smile, before he slowly began back up to the higher parts of the house. He had been drained as much as Charlotte had.

He rounded the corner to her bedroom to see her lying there peacefully. Her hands rested delicately on her stomach, her face away from him, gazing out the window.

“Lottie?”

“Yes?” she answered quickly, sitting up in the bed. “What are you doing here? Don’t they need you downstairs?” she whispered a little bitterly. Her pretty mouth contorted in a slight grimace.

He knelt to the floor, grasping one of her hands in his, seeing that while she had been cleaned up, the bedclothes had not. The sight of her lying in the middle of all that drying blood was both tantalizing and horrifying, a reaction he had never experienced before. “Yes. But I wanted to make sure you were all right.”

She lowered her gaze, her eyebrows mashing together. “I am now.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Didn’t you hear me? I’m all right.” Her tone was slightly flat.

Valek thought for a second. “Charlotte?” He wrapped his giant hand around both of hers.

“Yes?”

“Lottie,” he began again nervously. “This isn’t…wrong…is it? The way we are now?”

Tension began to fill the space. She pulled her hand away from him, and he heard her mind begin to race again, the frown returning to her face. Images from the night before when she had kissed him, flashed before him again, though she stayed silent.

“I only mean....” He continued to search for words. “Lottie, you know I love you more than anything. You’re my world, my angel on Earth. I want you to be happy. I had no other choice but to make this agreement with Francis, lest he kill you. You know our world is a dangerous one, but you could still have a normal life. It is not too late.”

Charlotte sat up, worry creasing her forehead. How could he be talking like this, Valek heard her think. She started to panic.

“Lottie.” He sighed and stood up. “I am only concerned about you. I would hate to think I am doing the wrong thing, or taking advantage of some situation in which I should be acting like a father.”

Charlotte winced at the word “father”.

His eyes widened and he knelt beside the bed again. “I love you more than anything. What do you want me to be?”

She stared at him, searching through his eyes for what he was thinking, but came up empty. “I want you to be whatever you want to be,” she said simply, looking at him again.

He thought about this, climbing next to her on the bed. He rested her head on his chest. Holding the rest of her secure to him, he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

He opened one eye, peeking down at her and smiling. “I think I like the place that you have put me in most recently.”

She nuzzled her cheek against him. “Good.”

His claw rested over a patch of dried blood left over on her clothes.