The Darkness Within

Chapter Forty Five

A/N: 

2 chapters, both epilogues left. After that I'll start posting a new book, Untamed Needs, a shifter romance!

20 votes, 5 comments for bonus chapter before next weekend!

Chapter Forty Five

Sergei

To my absolute shock, Kira's eyes start to glimmer with moisture, and she pointedly looks away from me with a sigh of irritation. She even tries to pull her hand from mine, but I tighten my grip to prevent it. I'm not ready to stop touching her yet, and something tells me I won't be for quite some time.

With as much curtness as she can muster despite barely having a voice, she says, "Stop talking to me."

I feel my brows raise, and amusement slithers through me. "Why?"

"Because if you make me cry twice in as many days, I'll have to run away. That can't possibly be good for my health."

I can't tell whether or not she's being serious—I'm not sure if she knows either—and I have to curb the darker part of me that wants to detail exactly what the consequences for such an action would look like. As in, getting locked away until she feels differently, or on a permanent basis.

Since she's heavily injured and in a hospital bed after being held captive by enemy forces for days, I keep my tone gentle as I say, "I wouldn't recommend trying. You wouldn't like the outcome."

Kira slowly turns her head back in my direction, appearing contemplative, her eyes no longer shining with tears. "It wouldn't be for the best, would it? You'd find me in a matter of hours, lock me in a room, and fuck me into a state of compliance."

I nod slowly, trying to ignore the slew of dirty images that conjures up. This is not the time and place to get turned on. "That sounds likely."

And like an idea worth testing once she's recovered. Kira's only compliant when she wants to be—the rest of the time she acts compliant while doing whatever the hell she wants. I'm willing to wager that's exactly how she managed to escape. It's titillating to imagine what it would take for her to bend to my every whim. With enough orgasms, I know she becomes temporarily agreeable...

The nurse chooses that moment to make an appearance, opening the door and striding in with a wide smile. The smile falters when she sees Leo and I like sentries beside Kira, but she quickly recovers. She spends a few minutes fussing over Kira, writing down her vitals and checking her circulation. She attaches the IV in Kira's arm to a morphine drip, before telling me to let her get rest and leaving.

Kira offers, "Would you like to get the part where I tell you what happened while I was a captive while I'm nice and high on painkillers?"

There's a slight slur to her words, telling me that the morphine kicked in very quickly. I wasn't going to press her considering she just woke up, but since she brought it up, I incline my head in agreement.

"There are currently two of you, so I'm not sure whether that was a yes or no," she remarks calmly.

"If you're feeling up to it, yes," I clarify.

"Best to get it out of the way right before I pass out, so that I won't be awake for the tantrum you throw." Kira tries to sit up, then flinches with a gasp of pain.

I snap, "Don't move. You have three broken ribs." I lean over to pick up the remote control to the hospital bed, then click on buttons until the top half of the bed starts to lift, helping Kira sit without her having to move. She still winces at the change of position, but doesn't voice any complaints.