Amy Lane Little Goddess 03 Bound

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Max the same night Green and Nicky had invaded my dreams, and her hard won
humanity, so tenuous after Mitch died, was gradually leaching away again. I
made her come to school by telling her that she needed to keep Nicky up to
date, but she'd started wearing those loose fitting wool sack dresses again,
which was a bad sign. She had a high metabolism, but it was still colder here
than in San Francisco, and she was just setting herself up to shed her
humanity and start running wild as a giant 100 lb. tabby cat again. I'd forced
her to wear sweats today, ostensibly to keep me company on the track, and
since she'd developed a quiet, almost pathological jealousy of Davy, it had
worked.
Davy was oblivious to all of this. She seemed to find me almost irresistible
as a friend, and Renny was simply a part of the whole package. I didn't
understand the attraction hell, considering my problems relating to my native
species, it baffled me completely but I did appreciate the company. Today,
like most days, she was talking about her boyfriend, Kyle, her glossy ponytail
bobbing jauntily behind her, and the fierce, bright wind whipping her purple
scarf behind her. She had a number of these scarves I d asked her about them,
and she said her mother crocheted them by the dozens, and when I asked her why
she always wore them, she'd blushed charmingly and said, with a happy, brazen
edge, "Hickies. Kyle loves to chew on my neck and they hide the hickies." I'd
found myself blushing too, which, considering my own love life was pretty
silly, but true nonetheless, and we'd giggled and jogged in silence for a
while.
Today, I got to hear more about Kyle's job woes. Kyle had been out of work
since June, but he still slept days because he liked night work. I'd never
gotten a bead on exactly what it was Kyle did for a living, but that could be
because until this week, I'd spent most of my time on the track wheezing like
a broken accordion. Today, I was simply breathing hard, and I looked to the
stands to show Bracken that I was getting better. Bracken was so relieved that
I'd actually started looking him in the eyes after that really embarrassing
night of channeling all of Nicky's sex demands into our own bed that he
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actually waved and smiled. We'd gone to our session with Hallow together
today, and it just goes to show you how warped our life is that this was the
least uncomfortable subject for us to bring up.
"So& " Hallow said after the whole thing just spilled out of us, "Did you enjoy
it when you woke up?
"I didn't mind it the whole time," Bracken had replied grumpily. "She's the
one who seems to forget that sensual and consensual is the rule.
They both had turned to me then, waiting for my answer. I'd been red from my
toenails up. "I came didn't I?" I asked hostilely. "And if Green hadn't been
there in my head, I might have blown off the top of the goddamned hill, so
maybe my sexual preferences aren't the problem here.
"And if Nicky hadn't been there in your head, you wouldn't have needed Green,"
Hallow had said reasonably, "So maybe we need to focus on whether or not these
are your desires or his, so you can figure out a way to block him when he's in
your head.
"We've already figured that out. All I need is a little warning," I replied,
and even I knew I was being surly.
"But what about you, Cory?" Hallow asked patiently. "There's a difference
between doing something in your dreams and being possessed to do something
against your will Bracken needs to know what it is you do and do not want.
I'd scowled into the teeth of his indulgent smile and had tried for some
dignity. "Bracken has access to many of the most erotic moments of my sexual
history in sculpture," I'd said distinctly. "If he needs to know about a
particular act, he can always use the garden as a reference.
Bracken blinked, thought for a moment, and a truly lascivious grin had split
his features. "I'll take that as a yes then," he'd said brightly. "That's
excellent.
I'd scowled at him even more furiously and told him to shut up, but he'd been
so happy to realize that what we'd done together hadn't been all Nicky's
little orgy that he'd completely ignored me, and had spoken openly with Hallow
about the night Green, Adrian, and I had created the erotic garden while I
slumped in my chair and wished I was a hamster or something.
So now, seeing his smile and his relaxed wave, I thought that maybe my
mortification had been worth his happiness. Then Renny spoke up from my side.
"I miss Green," she all but growled, and I knew that it wasn't just Green she
missed, it was a person in her bed.
"So do I," I murmured, "But that's not going to help you and you know it.
"Who's Green?" Davy asked from my other side, and then before I could answer
she went on in that careless, prattling way she had that I enjoyed but that
drove Renny bonkers. "Because Kyle says his old boss was taken over by a guy
named Green, and I could never figure out if Green was his first name or his
last name although, you have to admit, it's a little strange as a first name,
but it's common as a last name I mean, it's your name, isn't it?
"Kind of," I answered numbly, trying to sort out what she'd just said, because
between this, and Kyle's love of hickies and the way he only slept at during
the day and even Davy's odd attachment to me as a friend, a nasty suspicion
was beginning form in the pit of my stomach. "Who was Kyle's old boss?
"Some guy named Crispin, but I could never figure out if that was a first name
or a last name either& are you okay?
Because Renny and I had actually tripped in tandem and gone down, and I could
feel my knee smarting on the all-weather, and hoped it wasn't bad enough for
Bracken to make it bleed more.
"We're fine, I said quietly, putting my hand out to steady Renny's arm.
Renny met my eyes for the first time in days and said lowly, "She doesn't
know, does she?
I shook my head. All those guileless hints, all those blithe references to
Kyle's work habits, to his love for chewing on her neck all of it she couldn't
have just dropped that information off like clothes at a secondhand store if
she'd realized her boyfriend was a vampire.
"I've got to go," Renny said, popping up like her knee didn't hurt. Knowing
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how fast were-creatures healed, it probably didn't, I thought sourly, but that
didn't keep me from making a plea.
"Renny& no& you've got a class&
"Consider it cut," she growled, and I could hear the change in her voice
already, as we both flashed to that horrible, horrible moment in our lives
when the world had exploded in crimson. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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