The door opened and something came in a flash. I yelped and dropped my mug, breaking it and spilling hot water all over the floor. I jumped back, avoiding the worst of it, but my heart raced, my chest hurt.
Killian stood just a few feet from me. He had even closed the front door again and I hadn’t seen it.
He looked down, to the wet floor and the broken mug. Slowly, his eyes moved up … up my bare legs, up my flimsy shirt, my naked neck, where they lingered for a couple of heartbeats, until he met my own gaze.
“Didn’t mean to startle you.” He grabbed a kitchen towel and knelt on the floor by my feet.
I stood frozen in place for a moment, willing my heart to slow down.
I inhaled deeply and crouched down to pick up the broken mug pieces. “How did you get in?”
“The same way I did before.”
Right. Delia had told him the keypad code so he could bring me in when I was hurt. A vampire could now get in and out of my house without any problems or forced entry. Great.
I stood with several pieces in my hands and threw them in the trash. I wanted to ignore him, but how could I when he had left the way he did and suddenly came back. “Did you clear your mind?”
Killian finished drying the floor and stood too. “I fed again, and I stopped by Delia’s to get close to the box.”
“Did she say anything?”
He shook his head. “She was sleeping. I stayed in the porch until I felt better.”
I frowned. He could have stayed there. Why did he come here? I bit down my lower lip, holding the question in. Killian’s eyes flicked to my mouth for a brief second, then he turned around and cleared his throat. “I ran around the neighborhood before coming here. There doesn’t seem to be any suspicious activity nearby.”
“Oh-kay.”
“You can go rest and get a good night sleep,” he said, his voice insistent.
Why was he pushing me to sleep? Well, it was after midnight already, and this was the third night I either stayed up until way too late, or didn’t sleep at all. I felt like a zombie walking around. I really did need some sleep.
“How about you?”
“I’ll stay around.” He held his figure tall and proud, and too still. “I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
My mind took off, turning that sentence in some many ways. But the one that stuck the most was the one that didn’t make any sense. I’ll make sure you’re safe.
I reminded myself Killian hated witches. No, he loathed them. If it weren’t for the fact that we were investigating these murders together, and that I had been the one to open the box and free him, he would have killed me already.
I couldn’t forget that.
Not in the mood for tea anymore, I grabbed the kitchen towel from him and walked past him. “Good night,” I whispered.
