Their Thief: Redemption

Chapter 21 (Part 2)

At first, I felt nothing but the warmth of Luca's skin beneath mine, his skin soft and warm, but then I made the mistake of moving my fingers. The slightest of shifts and a new, sticky, and wet warmth began to spread from my fingers and my palms. It bubbled to the surface in a continuous flow, Luca's claws had cut deep and continued to trickle down my wrist and arms. I hissed in a breath when I tried to release his clawed hand, but the movement only made my cut skin spreading and rubbing against itself. An unpleasant shiver traveled its way down my spine at the pain-filled friction.

The silence that followed my sharp intake was filled with a tension that I could feel growing more strained than it already was when their eyes took in my blood-slicked hands. The metallic scent of blood filled my nostrils for a moment before their scents joined to dull the unease it sent through me. While they couldn't look away from the red painting my skin, I couldn't look away from Luca's arms and bare shoulders.

Where fur had been sprouting to signal his impending shift, now there was nothing. Not a single hair nor the faintest of pores were visible on his skin that seemed to be hardening under my touch.

And turning to ice.

The heat seemed to bleed from him along with the color bleaching from his complexion. He grew pale, nearing Kiara's translucent state. I could faintly see dark veins spidering just below his skin in dark shades of blues, greens, and purples. They remind me of the bruises they once painted my skin with. Only, their results never managed to look as beautiful as the faint lines did. Though my fingers were growing numb from the frigid touch, they twitched to trace the colored veins like they had the colors on my own skin once, producing more pain as fresh blood rose to warm the stiff digits.

Not him, the reminder sounded insistently in my head. Luca hadn't painted my flesh or spilled my blood- until now. But he had never intentionally with the purpose of hurting me. He had just watched, his eyes dull... until he could no longer hold back his conflicted thoughts, reflecting them in his eyes that were still grey...

Until now. The greys were no longer still as they locked onto the red coating both his hand and both of mine. They crashed with black ink that pushed against the confines of his irises. Irises that seemed to reflect the red blood they were staring at so intently as it continued to spread from claws that were prepared to strike in retribution. For me.

It warmed my heart in a twisted way to know he was now willing to hurt his brother for me where he had once refused, choosing instead to stand back and let things play out when his words had no sway.

There was definitely something wrong with me. Last night and this morning were just proving that.

"Aris."

My eyes snapped up from Luca to meet with Jace's wide ones as they stared at me in horror. He swallowed hard, the bobbing of his Adam's apple drawing my attention.

"Don't make any sudden moves," he warned me, slowly bringing his hands up in front of him as he shifted his eyes to his brother.

His warning had my muscles tensing, making the pain in my fingers worse. Pain that Jace's eyes seemed to squint in reaction too. 

"Luca-"

Hearing Jace say his name snapped Luca into a blur of motion, but not in the way my mind had me thinking he would. Instead of striking out at his brother like I thought he was going to, I felt his hands grab. My stomach sank as I felt the ground shift beneath my feet and everything turned into a blur. My eyes slammed shut as my hands reached for Luca, grabbing his arms firmly while waiting for the slice of his claws to come where his fingers dug into my sides.