However, we ate our food and managed to get back to my place without interruption. I stared up at my house, cloaked in the dark, not a soul moving inside. A chill passed over me. It drew my attention away from the house. As I looked up and down the street, I wondered if death had come again to take another life.
Or was it just the wind?
My gaze fell on Maddox. He got out of the car and shoved his hands into his pockets. Grim expression lining his face, he refused to look directly at me.
“You don’t have to see me inside,” I said, even though I desperately wanted him to stay.
He’d done enough for me today. I couldn’t have him at my beck and call, or he might start to feel like a pet, and I didn’t want that.
This time, he locked eyes with me. “Do you really think I’m going to leave you alone?”
Maddox took a step closer. Somehow, it put him too close. Heat wafted off him and grazed my skin like a tired lover. I could hear the soft sigh in his breath, as if being closer had eased something in him.
I lifted my chin. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. You need to go get some sleep.”
“I can do that here, where you’re closer.”
“Maddox,” I breathed. “I know you’re doing this because you feel like you have to. I’m here to tell you that you can leave and do anything else. You’re not required to stay here. If…if you do, you’re going to resent me even more. I don’t want that for us.”
“Who said I resent you?”
He stood so close that my hair brushed his chest when a gentle wind blew past. One burst of courage, and I would be able to yank him into me without having to think twice. Perhaps it was the safety that Maddox offered. Maybe it was his persistence. Either way, I felt safer around him, and it was becoming addictive.
There was no way that he didn’t resent me for all that he’d been through by now. He wasn’t human anymore. Since we’d met, more people had died. His own life had been in danger several times over. Everything had gone wrong, and he was paying the price.
He grazed my cheek with his bent knuckle, tucking my hair behind my ear as I looked up at him. A soft yet tight smile reached his lips, as if in reassurance, though it didn’t quite hit the mark.
“I don’t resent you. If anything, I think I kind of like you. That means I’m not letting anyone sneak in and take you away.”
Heat rushed to cover my face. “You like me?”
Maddox laughed, a rich sound that took me by surprise because of how real it was for the first time. “Yeah. Despite everything, you’re a good person. I like that about you. It’s been a long time since I’ve met someone who cares about the people around them as much as you do. My last…”
His voice trailed off. A shadow raced across his eyes.
Maddox held something back, and I felt the desperate urge to dig deeper. Instead, I bit my lip and wrapped my arms around myself. His business was his own. He didn’t need me digging through his garbage in the middle of the night.
Conversation over, we headed inside. I unlocked the door and Maddox cleared the way, making sure that the house was empty before I followed him inside. All it took was one sweep of my arcana to know that the house was free of most undead.
There was only one dead thing inside, and it rushed to happily greet us. The undead cat launched itself into my arms. Surprised, I managed to catch it in time. Its weight was comforting . It snuggled into my chin and let out a loud, rattling purr.
“How the hell has that thing survived this long?” Maddox asked in astonishment.
Oh. Shit.
I never told him about the cat. It’s loud purr, sounding uncomfortably like a bunch of bones clanking against one another, filled the room. The cat bit at the rosary that I’d hung around my neck earlier. I yanked it away from the little feline and let the creature nuzzle and nibble on my hand instead.
“This cat is very dead already.”
Maddox stopped in his tracks and cocked his head in disbelief. “Excuse me?”
“I think she was the woman’s familiar,” I said. “Don’t ask me how I know. I’m going to look into it tomorrow when we visit the library.”
He reached out to let the cat sniff his hand. I expected her to hiss and fling herself from my arms because Maddox had become a shifter, but she didn’t. Instead, she stretched towards him to rub her cheek along his extended hand.
Even Maddox seemed surprised. I guessed that a cat that was already living long past her own expiration date had no fear of shifters. The little beast had thrown herself into harm’s way more than once. She was a fearless little assistant, and I was grateful to have her in my life now.
The three of us went upstairs. I offered to let Maddox have the bed since he was the one who’d expended the most energy recently, but he tossed a pile of pillows to the floor and said it was good enough. Of course, I stifled a laugh at his make-shift dog bed.