Page 145 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

With a snarl of rage, I stalk off. This bunker is too small. I’ve got this whole feeling like the Earth is going to crash down and crush me. I don’t want to be here.

Except, I want to be with them.

It’s why I came back, but this place, it’s not good for me.

Roseland finds me in Blaze’s stupid dance room. I’m lying on the floor with my feet crossed at the ankles.

“You want to talk about it?”

“I need the sky.”

Roseland looks up. The ceiling is painted gold and red, and there are dragons and tigers everywhere. But no sky.

He stands over me and then kneels over my chest. He reaches out and grabs my jaw, turning my head to the side and exposing my mangled neck.

“Does it hurt?”

“A little bit.”

“Do you like having bonds?”

I stare up at him. I love these bonds, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t laid there and wished for one horrible, devastating moment that these bites and bonds were Roseland’s. His fingers trace down over the wounds, and they flare with warmth.

“I like them. I didn’t want to, but I do.”

He hums and leans down, he opens his mouth and puts his teeth over Blaze’s bond, but then abruptly, it’s like he’s dumped with a bucket of cold water because he pulls back, and I cannot decipher the emotions that race across his face.

“What do you want with Raven?”

“That’s between me and her, don’t you think?” I snap, irritated again by the alters shutting my request down.

He growls. His hand encircles my neck and squeezes.

“Now, this is a good time,” I purr and squirm under him.

His mouth slams down on mine, and I’m drowning in that taste that is purely him. The night that I’ve locked up in my memory slams back, the feral way he growled, how he manhandled me and didn’t treat me like I was delicate. He was rough but absolutely determined to make it good, and he was thorough.

I try to kiss him back, but he squeezes my throat until I start seeing spots. Only then does he break our kiss and let me breathe.

Someone claps. I turn my head, and somehow, without either of us being aware, she has crept in and is sitting cross-legged not even two feet away, clapping her hands.

“That was amazing and so incredibly hot.”

Kestrel.

I growl at her.

“Yes! That! I want that on something so I can listen to it over and over again.”

She lies down on her side with her head close to mine and smiles widely.

“You’re not going to let me speak to her, are you?”

She wiggles closer and rolls onto her back. “It’s not so much a problem of letting. Raven simply does what she wants, and she’s refusing right now, but even if she did want to come out. Raven broke the rules. She put us in danger by leaving Merle out on a motorbike. We could have died. So, the others don’t trust her right now, and for good reason. Also, she won’t tell us what she was doing. She did give me a message for you. She says she told you what she needs, she’s not sure why you need clarification.” Kestrel makes an irritated noise. “We are dying of curiosity. When exactly did you meet? What happened? What did she say?”

I stare at her. “None of your business.”

Instead of being offended, Kestrel tilts her head back and laughs like what I’ve said is hilarious.