Bold steps carried her to where indeed Sebastian crouched. She hadn’t waited for Drew’s reply, not caring if he understood nor needing his approval. Her feelings for Sebastian were true. His wealth didn’t matter; neither did his illness or the fact that he was a vampire or a dragon. All she asked for was a little more time with him.

She slowed within a few feet of Sebastian. Her gaze went to his hands and then face, searching for signs of change. The wings folded behind his back still seemed the same, but maybe the lesser signs had diminished somewhat.

“He looks the same,” whispered Drew, echoing her disappointing thoughts.

“Last time it was several hours before his wings disappeared,” she whispered back. Her arms broke out in goose bumps as she remembered the session of lovemaking that had preceded his reversion to normal.

“Last time?”

“Yeah. This isn’t the first time and I doubt it will be the last. We’d hoped it wouldn’t happen again, but...” She left off the rest. Sebastian’s men couldn’t help. She probably didn’t help much. But for now, Drew could allow them some measure of privacy by letting Sebastian recover in peace.

“He’s my friend as well as my commander. I won’t make the decision to bring others into this lightly, okay?”

She paused, but then nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Ignoring him again after that didn’t take much effort. It wasn’t that she didn’t value his willingness to watch over them both should the need arise and in truth, she felt comforted by the ability to share this burden with someone else, but Alice figured it was her and Sebastian against the world. They’d handle whatever was thrown their way together.

She kneeled beside him and almost drew back when she realized his eyes were open and watching her movements. They’d reverted to a brilliant black, shiny from the moonlight and perhaps infused with a swirling pearl. There was intelligence behind the eyes studying her so intently. Knowledge that didn’t belong to beast alone, but must have come from the man.

Alice made herself as comfortable as possible, stretching out on the damp grass in front of him. Resting her head on one arm, she settled in to wait. “You’d wanted to know,” she said after a few minutes, “what brought me to this place. Why I live the way I do. Why don’t I tell you about it now?”

Whether or not he understood what she said or if he’d remember later on didn’t matter. She wanted him to feel comforted by her nearness. Ignoring Drew’s presence, not caring if he listened, she focused on Sebastian.

“My brother and I were thick as thieves. We did everything together. So when our parents died, it made sense that we looked out for each other. But a nineteen-year-old isn’t set out to be a good parental substitute, you know? He wasn’t very good in school and barely graduated. I’d only just graduated.” Alice blew out a breath. “Money was hard to come by. Hard. So to make ends meet, he started dealing. Things were okay for a while there.”

She paused, her throat thickening. There had been so much hope for their futures at that point of their lives.

“Then because things were so bad—I mean, eating-once-a-day bad unless he stole it—I guess he started using. One day he was sullen and the next, he was happy again. Like everything was the way it used to be. His happiness was infectious. I didn’t get it. I had no idea, but Bast, I was living high with him. Things were going to be all right. We were going to survive.

“I should have known that since it was too good to be true, it wouldn’t last long. Money he owed was short. Then it wasn’t turned in at all. His friends...” Alice choked out a harsh laugh. “They started dropping by. Then touching me.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Then hitting me.”

Her hand came to her face, swiping quickly at tears tracking over her cheeks. Somehow she’d forgotten how miserable things had become. How impossible. It wouldn’t have been long before Richard’s friends had started demanding payment from her in other ways. She wasn’t naïve enough to think that once they’d finished using her bodily, they wouldn’t turn her out on the street corners to earn even more money for them. If she put up a struggle, chemical means would be employed to keep her in line.




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