Hunted

Chapter 47: Prepare

I woke up in his arms. We were both so tired we eventually laid down, facing each other and hugging each other tightly. I adjusted a little to look up and see if Rykan was awake but that small movement was enough to make him stir. His arms tightened around me and he nuzzled into my hair. The morning light came through a crack in the curtains, shining over his face in only a spot right by his mouth where I could see the sleepy frown he always had when he was about to wake up.

"Morning," I murmured, closing my eyes and settling back in his chest. I wished we could just stay here and pretend the world didn't exist, pretend I wasn't being hunted, pretend we were safe and everything was okay and all that happened the last few days was only a bad nightmare that was now over. If only.

"Morning, angel," he said his sleepy, raspy voice I missed so much. He pressed a kiss to my head and brought a hand up from my back, coming over my shoulder and along my neck until he reached my chin. He tilted my face up towards him and placed a light kiss on my lips. "Are you all right?"

"I mean, no," I admitted, pressing my lips to his in a kiss that was so much more beyond physical, it was something else that I never knew I could feel from a kiss. "Not even a little. Are you all right?"

"I've been better," he said, almost giving me a smile. "Although I do feel infinitely better now that I have you again," he said, nuzzling my nose. "I just could do without the whole everyone wants to kill us thing."

"I could too," I laughed, hiding in his chest. "Can we just hide in a cave forever, just the two of us?"

"I'm not the hiding type, Kora, I'd rather take on anyone that dares come near you and make an example out of them," he said, bringing his hand up behind my head, running it over my hair.

Well, at least he was getting back to his normal no bullshit attitude.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"We're going to see if Cassie and Francesca are done with that brew to help mute your aura but not your abilities," he said, tucking my hair back and running his fingers through my hair until he reached my neck. He set his hand against my mark and the look on his face changed to a little more intimidating. "And we're going to deal with that fucker, Damon."

"Deal with him how?" I asked, a little afraid of the answer.

"Preferably by slowly cutting him apart piece by piece so he has to watch himself die," Rykan said, his eyes flickering.

"Wow, um, that seems like you're giving him an awful lot of unnecessary attention," I pointed out. "He doesn't deserve that much of your time." And also ew, dude, ew!

"He doesn't deserve a quick death," Rykan countered, pressing his lips to my forehead. "Let's just deal with one thing at a time. Let's see how Cassie and Francesca made out with that brew. I need to check in with my scouts and see if they found Catelyn."

"Fucking bitch," I muttered. Rykan seemed surprised by my words and raised an eyebrow. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm normally a nice person and I'm normally all about girl solidarity but fuck that bitch. I hope I lose control of my powers if I see her again and send a knife through her stupid, manipulative little head."

Rykan started laughing and it really did make everything better, at least by a little bit. "Feeling protective over me, my angel?" He asked, amusement in his eyes.

"Obviously," I said, rolling my eyes and sitting up. "I almost lost you because of her. She put you through hell. I wish all of the world's most annoying inconveniences on her until I see her and sort of accidentally send a knife through her head. Like I want her to stub her toe and while she's hopping around, knocks a glass of water over and gets her socks all wet and then on her way to get new socks she forgets she left a drawer open and runs into it and hurts herself then gets mad and slams it shut but shuts it too fast and shuts it over her finger. Then I want to accidentally send a knife through her head."