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  Manny ran out of patience long before I did. She grabbed my hips and pulled me the rest of the way inside of her. If it hurt, she didn’t let it show. Her eyes opened to slits, and she stared at me for a second before smiling.

  I returned the smile and started moving. I pulled out until I was almost free of her body, then shoved myself back in. Manny met my movement with one of her own, even more forceful than mine. I let her set the pace, which was more than I thought she would have been able to handle if it were my call. With each thrust, her eyes got a little wilder, and she ground her nails into my shoulders with a little more force.

  We rocked together, making the bed shake and squeak. When the orgasm hit Manny, she seemed startled. Her legs locked around me, pulling me in tight. Her body squeezed mine, and I breathed out with the feel of it. Manny’s legs twitched and fell from around me.

  I thrust into her and paused, letting a little aftershock rock through her body. Then I did it again, and something in her must’ve snapped. She rolled us over in one powerful movement, until she was on top. She sank onto me, letting me slide inside of her. Her eyes closed. She leaned over to kiss me, then she started to rock on my lap. She twisted her hips in a seductive circle, and it was my turn to groan.

  She pumped her hips, and I dug my fingers into them so that I could meet each of her thrusts with one of my own. Small sounds escaped Manny’s mouth long before another climax hit her. She threw her head back and slammed her hips into mine, pushing me as far into her as she possibly could.

  When it was over, I was still hard inside of her. A small smile appeared on her face. She started to move her hips again. This time slower, with more patience. Her mouth met mine, and then moved along my jaw.

  My hands dug into her hips, and I started pumping into her much faster, harder than before. If she minded, or if it hurt her, she didn’t say anything. Manny propped herself up, putting a hand on either side of my hand, pounding down on me as I thrust up into her.

  She started to come again, and I felt the buildup of pleasure coming over me. I grabbed her hips and thrust into her, staying there as she climaxed. My own followed right after hers. My erection kicked inside her, and that seemed to send her over the edge again, or perhaps further. Cries fell from her lips as I finished.

  Manny slumped over, still half on me. Her breathing was heightened, and she stared at the opposite wall. I brushed my hand down her hair. “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Do you want to go again?”

  She started to laugh.

  Chapter Twenty

  Halfway

  Manny

  My brain was mush. Happy, happy mush as I laid there, recovering from round two. I would regret it when it came time to walk but for now... mushy brain.

  I wiggled on top of Becket, sleepily kissing his throat as the sun came up. We’d be dead on our feet when it came time to be people but I cared so little. For now, I could just enjoy Becket’s skin against my lips, his heartbeat matching mine.

  Sitting up, I ignored the pain I felt from last night’s activities. Becket’s hands went to my hips, and he smiled at me. “Did you sleep okay?” I asked him.

  “I got in a few hours. You?”

  “Same.”

  He pulled me down to him, getting a very long good morning kiss. I wanted to stay there forever because this bed felt safe. Everything outside of this mattress was hell and ash and razor blades but we were safe on this cloud.

  I sighed when I rolled onto my back. With my eyes on the ceiling, I said, “My parents are gonna kill me.”

  “Not if you let me kill them first.”

  I turned to him with a smile. “No, sweetheart. They’re reacting like parents do. I did stay over on dan—oh fuck...”

  “What?”

  I frowned. “I lost my virginity on the night of a dance. How cliché.”

  His eyebrow went up. “Do you regret having sex with me?”

  “No!” I said immediately, rolling closer to him again. “Not even a little. I just honestly never thought that would happen. I figured I’d probably not date at all until the middle of college, when my dad set me up with someone convenient for him.”

  Old anger came back to me when I thought about the things they said about Becket. Thinking he was less than for his blood working. He and I were the same in that way. But then again, my parents made me feel bad for my specialty every chance they got. How disappointing I was for not working metal. That was why I would never have a job with them past clerk. I wasn’t as good as them in their eyes.

  We both sat up, and Becket grabbed a couple of his pens. I happily sat on his lap while he fixed what was lost on my face. It wasn’t until he was done that he told me what he’d drawn. In the corner of my right eye was a little butterfly with bright green and yellow wings. The detail he could get was amazing, and I wanted to show it off the second it was done. Under my left eye was something else, a spider crawling down a line of webbing. She stopped just above my jaw, with her legs reared up in an attack.

  I kissed Becket and said, “Thank you. I love them.”

  He smiled again, and it made me feel warm. “I’m glad. Can I get you something to eat?”

  I didn’t have anything to wear, so he let me borrow his sweater again, as well as a pair of boxers. It wasn’t until we were halfway down the stairs that I realized his father would see me like that. And then I realized I didn’t care because nothing he thought mattered. Not a damn thing, in any way at all.

  Becket’s mind was formed in a broken mold. I saw now, why he let his father do what he did. He thought these were acts of love, meant to protect him. I wanted to erase those thoughts entirely, starting fresh. Becket didn’t know what real love was because he hadn’t had it before. I couldn’t undo his past but I could give him a better future. Starting with changing his present.

  How could I get him away from this man? I couldn’t kill him, even though I wanted to. It would have been so easy. I could open the thin skin of his throat and bleed him out in seconds. But Becket would stop that, and then he would hate me. I couldn’t lose him like that. I couldn’t lose him to his father either. One of these days, something would go too far, and I wouldn’t be able to stop it. That was something I didn’t want to survive.

  Oh... I didn’t want to survive his loss. Didn’t know that before.

  Becket pulled my chair out for me, and I gave him another kiss on the cheek. I very much liked being able to touch him in any way I liked. It made me obnoxiously giddy. Like I could feel the joy pulsing in my chest every time I even thought about him. It was nice, being in love.

  I offered to help Becket cook but he insisted he didn’t need it. He made us eggs, bacon, and biscuits. Then we sat together, and I full on played footsie with him. He didn’t seem to understand the game but he nudged me back when he caught on to what I was doing. God, I was a dope. He had to have thought this was lame.

  We were halfway through a nice meal when his father walked into the room. He may as well have been toting a black cloud for all it did to my mood. I didn’t want this ruined because of him. It was special, and he didn’t deserve to take it away from us.

  “Do you want me to make you something?” Becket asked his father.

  “No,” the man said, turning the coffee machine on. “I’m going to skip breakfast. I have a client I’m meeting for brunch. He doesn’t like to leave his house.”

  Well, that had to break some kind of code, telling us that.

  “You don’t need the house cleared out?”

  “Nope.”

  The man turned, leaning against the counter when he looked at us. He seemed to take note of the lack of cuts on Becket’s face but didn’t comment. He probably guessed that I wouldn’t let him remain wounded. I would have healed every scar on him if he would have let me.

  Then I watched Dr. Anders see what I was wearing. He knew that we’d come back from the dance, and that I’d stayed over. He wasn’t surprised but
his stare made me uncomfortable.

  “Plans today?” he asked normally, as if he didn’t make me torture his kid the night before. How dare he.

  “None as far as I know,” Becket said, and then turned to me. “Anything?”

  I shrugged. “I have to check in with my parents. Maybe we can get lunch and then...”

  “Actually,” his father said, cutting me off. “I have a couple chores I need Becket to do. Maybe he can go out once he’s finished.”

  I shot him a glare but I didn’t say anything. This was a fragile game, and I didn’t want to make the wrong move. If I was a good girl, then I could avoid more damage to Becket.

  His father was making me leave him alone for the afternoon at least. I was a little more than afraid but Becket promised me that he would tell me if his father did anything else. I’d known it was utterly pointless to make him promise that he wouldn’t let himself get hurt. Not when he wasn’t fully aware yet of what was a big deal or not. One day, he would see it clearly. Though sometimes when I looked at him, he felt halfway there. Halfway out of the grave he’d been thrown in, and inching ever closer to the light. He had me, and I loved him completely, honestly, and unconditionally. Becket knew that. Eventually, it would make him understand.

  We only needed time.

  Becket ran out of juice, and started getting up to fill his glass. I stopped him, putting my hand over his. I smiled and kissed his cheek, then went to grab it myself. I poured him a glass, affectionately ran my fingers through his hair, then put the bottle away before I sat down. He thanked me.

  Dr. Anders cleared his throat. “I see you two are getting quite close.”

  I grinned smugly at him. “Very. Becket is family.”

  Something too quick for me to see flashed in Becket’s eyes, and his father said, “How sweet. Have you kids thought about what you’ll do once you’re in school? Odds are that you’ll go to different ones and get separated. It sure is tough maintaining any kind of relationship that way.”

  My grin didn’t fade. “I’m not worried about it.” I wouldn’t go anywhere that wasn’t with Becket. Nothing was worth leaving him for.

  The man shrugged. “You’ll meet new people, kids. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find someone you’re more compatible with.”

  Becket looked down at the table, and I took his hand under it. “Not a chance,” I told him. “You’re the only person I even like.”

  That seemed to help.

  And then it was time for me to go home. I didn’t at all want to leave but the choice wasn’t mine. Maybe Becket could sneak into my room later, and we could at least go to bed together. Something told me I wouldn’t get much sleep if he wasn’t there next to me. I doubted he would do much better alone.

  I had no clothes other than my dress, so a walk of not-shame it was. Becket let me borrow his sweater and boxers for a bit longer than intended, and his father let him drive me back home. Every moment that passed worried me because the last thing I wanted was to be away from that boy. We should have gotten to lay in bed all day, holding each other, having a break from reality. The universe was not so kind.

  We got up to my door, and I refused to let Becket break our very long goodbye kiss. I was up on my tiptoes, and holding his shoulders while he did the same with my hips. I didn’t care if the neighbors saw me in a boy’s underwear, making out with him early in the morning on a Sunday. The world didn’t exist when Becket touched me.

  “I’ll miss you,” he told me when it finally ended.

  “I’ll miss you too. Call me if you get freed later, okay?”

  He agreed.

  “I love you, sweetheart,” I said. “Be safe today.”

  His eyes went to my throat, and I flinched when I knew what he was seeing. Becket put his hand on the side of my neck, running his thumb along my cheek. The pain from my throat started fading away as he healed me, erasing the mistake I hadn’t known I’d been making. I was glad because I didn’t want my parents thinking he’d hurt me.

  I watched him as he walked away, back to the car. I felt every inch between us and squirmed internally at the thought of him going home. At least his house would be empty for some of the day.

  Slowly, I walked into my house, ready for the hell that awaited me. My dad was in the kitchen, looking for something to eat. Mom sat at the table, going over some kind of paperwork.

  Dad saw me first, and his stare turned hateful. “What the hell are you wearing, Manny?”

  I tried not to cower. “I... I didn’t have clothes.”

  My father stormed over to me and shoved me against the wall. My back smacked into it hard. I could feel the wall tremble against me. I did not move, keeping my eyes on the man in front of me.

  “You didn’t call, you didn’t text, and you stayed over with some boy who would probably kill you for fun. Do you have no respect for us at all?”

  I stayed focused on him. “His dad was there the whole time. Nothing happened,” I lied.

  Dad smacked my shoulder. “Then why the fuck are you in his clothes?”

  “It was all he had.”

  “You think I care? You should have come home. Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?”

  I’d warned him that I wasn’t coming back but that didn’t seem to matter. They shouldn’t have worried about me, knowing where I was. And it infuriated me that they thought Becket would ever hurt me in any way. I was the one to hurt him. I always would be because that was me. I ruined everything around me.

  “I’m sorry,” I lied again.

  “You should be. You’re selfish and rude, and you put us through hell. We provide for you, and all you do is slap us in the face. We asked you one thing, Manny. One thing. Not to hang out with that blood worker. It wasn’t much to ask but you ignored us.”

  Because no one saw Becket for who he really was. He was kind and gentle, the only person in the world worth anything. He could have used his abilities to do whatever he wanted, and that was why people were afraid. They ostracized people like us because they knew better. They knew that if we chose, we could have taken over the world.

  The venom dripped again, and I tasted it on my tongue. Yes, Becket had that power but so did I. I could end people where they stood, leaving blood in trails behind me. Bodies littering the path as I found my way. Each and every adversary would run when they saw me coming. Becket and I together would be a force to be reckoned with.

  Whispering to me again, something told me I could do it now. I could want it and make it real. I pictured my father’s skin dripping off of his body, leaving a mess on the floor under him. He collapsed, and my mother screamed. It felt so vivid in my mind that for a moment, it was all I wanted. I wanted to be the only one that walked out of here alive.

  Dad took me by the shoulders, bashing me into the wall again. I must have missed something he’d said because his fury rose as he gripped me tightly. My shoulders ached at the harm but I didn’t say anything.

  “Never again,” he hissed. “I don’t want to hear his name come out of your mouth. I don’t want you seeing him or speaking with him for the rest of your damn life. If I find out you are, then I will see to it that the boy is removed from every aspect of your life.”

  I didn’t know exactly what he meant by that but it made me afraid. He couldn’t kill Becket. He wouldn’t kill Becket... No, I wouldn’t let anything touch him, let alone my father. He had to have meant he would have him taken out of school, or something like that. Dad wasn’t a killer.

  There wasn’t a chance in hell I would let anything keep me from the boy I loved. Not this man. Not a thing. It felt like it was on the tip of my tongue, some thought or emotion I couldn’t reach. Something telling me why Becket mattered more to me than my family. It was like something was trying to scream at me but I couldn’t hear the words. It stung when Dad hurt my shoulders and threw me against the wall. And again, when I saw my mother pretending it wasn’t happening.

  “And you’re not off the hook,” Dad added. “
Do you think I wouldn’t cut you off? You think I would give you a nice, easy life if you’re doing this to me? I wouldn’t. You’d be out on your ass, all alone. No one wants to take care of you. No one wants you. We’re your family, and we matter more.”

  Another scream in my head but it was muffled now. Words were not clear but they ran to me, desperate to get to me before a clock ran out.

  Dad was wrong. Becket wanted me, and that was all I needed. Becket wouldn’t hurt me like this. The man in front of me claimed to care about me... but he hurt me. He hurt me.

  “Say something!” he yelled at me, tearing me from my train of thought.

  I nodded. “I’ll be good,” I said.

  “And you won’t see the boy?”

  “I won’t see the boy.”

  “We’re your family.”

  “You’re my family.”

  “You’re nothing without us.”

  “I’m nothing without you.”

  “You’d be dead in a gutter.”

  “I’d be dead in a gutter.”

  He hugged me and patted my back. “Good girl. Now go get cleaned up. You’re not allowed to leave the house today.”

  I nodded, thanked him, and then vanished to my room.

  Once I was showered and changed into my own clothes, I put Becket’s sweater back on. I needed to feel warm, and everything around me was ice cold. I sat in the middle of my bed, staring up at the window in my room. I couldn’t see the stars but I pretended I could. Silence gave me spare time to pretend I was somewhere else. Somewhere safe, with Becket.

  My door slammed, and it made me realize that I’d lost some time. Footsteps pounded the stairs, and I scrambled to my feet, unsure of what was about to happen. I saw Lane, stomping in with his fists at his sides.

  “I’m so fucking sick of them!” he declared.

  “W-who?”

  His eyes narrowed at me. “Our parents, dumbass. Who else would I be talking about?”

  “What happened?”

  “I wanted to go out with my friends but they’re making me move more shit for them. I told them to make you do it but they said you were grounded. All the more fucking reason.”