Fangs, Fate & Other Bad Decisions novel Chapter 83

Chapter 83

1 feel the weight of Thane’s presence as he kneels before me, with his face a perfect study in both tension and vulnerability. His hand is still clasped around mine, but I’m aware of every fraction of distance between us.

He’s also waiting. I can feel it in the stillness of the room, and in the way the air hangs thick with unsaid words. He’s offering me everything, but what good is it if I can’t take it?

1 look over at Mike and Griffin as they stand before my bay windows like sentinels, Griffin having followed behind Thane when he pushed past Mike. Their eyes are locked on me with an intensity that makes it hard to breathe–they’re waiting, too. For me to make sense of this–of him. But, they’re also offering me protection, and perhaps even serving as my shields.

But that’s not what I need. Not anymore.

1 slowly pull my hand from Thane’s, ignoring the sudden ache in my chest that follows the action. I straighten, shifting on the couch, with every inch of me painfully aware of the tension between us. The last few days have felt like a blur–blurred by passion, by confusion, and now by the knot of fear twisting in my stomach. I need answers, and I need them now.

My voice comes out quieter than I mean it to, almost like I’m trying to convince myself just as much as him. “I need answers, Thane, Real

answers.”

He doesn’t say anything at first, but the change in his demeanor is unmistakable. The way his shoulders tense and how his eyes, flicker with something dark behind them is subtle, but it’s enough. Enough to make my heart race in a way I can’t control.

I don’t wait for him to speak. I can’t. I need to say it, even if it’s the last thing I want to know. “Back at the gala…in the bathroom…I overheard something.” I glance at Griffin, then at Mike, feeling their gazes on me like a weight. “Some women were talking about you.”

1 pause for a beat, the words feeling like lead in my mouth–heavy and full of consequences. “They said you didn’t age. That you were…not

My following words tremble from my chest as I add, “One of them even said you might be a vampire.” The word sounds almost absurd coming from my mouth. A vampire. It sounds like the punchline to a shitty joke. Like a fantasy someone made up to explain the impossible.

I glance at Thane, my throat tight. His face is unreadable, but there’s something in his eyes. Something 1 can’t name, but I can feel it deep down in may bones. It’s like a warning, or an Instinct I haven’t learned how to trust fully yet. But it’s there. And it makes everything inside me stop moving for a moment.

I don’t look at Griffin or Mike right now. I can’t. I’m entirely focused on Thane and on the way the air shifts around him. “Is it true?” The question leaves my mouth without me even thinking about it, the words too fragile, yet too desperate to be left unspoken.

There’s a long moment of silence–too long–and then Thane’s lips tighten just the slightest bit as a muscle in his jaw flexes. It’s a small change, but it’s enough. And when I see it, something inside me freezes,

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