Shadow's Kiss (Monstrous Hearts: Fleur's Story)

Chapter Nine

By the time Fleur returned inside the house, the only thing that survived her haze of exhaustion was surprise over how much she already felt her sister's absence. Even that vanished from her mind like smoke when she found Dario sitting at the kitchen table. His chair was pushed back enough for her to see Prosy sprawled on his lap, purring while he scratched her chin. For a man who had almost died, he looked very relaxed with his situation. Not to mention completely recovered.

Fleur slowed her steps, trying to think of a gentler way to say sorry I almost killed you.

Just then, he glanced up. His attention made her nervous, but all he said was, "You saved my life. Your sister wanted to kill me."

"I still feel like I should apologize. I didn't mean to order you to get rid of yourself. It was shitty of me." Then she sat in the chair across from his, staring at Prosy instead of him.

The cat's eyes were narrowed to contented slits while Dario continued petting her. Fleur couldn't help looking at his hands. They were like the rest of him, powerful but well-defined. They looked like hands that knew how to make a woman curl up in his lap just as easily. She had to force her next words out, and not just because she was rusty with open conversations. "Anyway, I'm sorry."

"It's all right. Mistakes are how you learn."

The sound of his voice startled her gaze back to his face. She expected to find anger or bitterness in his expression, but he looked as amused as he sounded. "Doesn't anything bother you? You almost died because I said something stupid while mad."

"But I didn't, and now we're here." He really did seem over it and was watching her with open interest again, as if he could sense that her mind was half-imagining his fingers stroking her.

"The nicer you are, the less I trust you," she muttered, without thinking.

He laughed, startling Prosy, who flicked her tail before resettling herself. Her paws kneaded against his knee when he began rubbing her cheek. The purring grew louder. "Your cat. What's her name?"

"Prosy. Well, Proserpina, but she won't respond to that. I can't believe she's letting you pet her. She never sits on laps."

He managed a shrug that didn't disturb Prosy again. "I like cats. They hide their affection and trust behind bites, scratches, and tantrums."

She couldn't tell if there was a double meaning to his words or not, and decided lack of sleep had made her paranoid. She rubbed at her eyes while saying, "I want to make a ground rule about giving orders. If I say that no sentence out of my mouth is an order unless it starts with, 'I order you,' will that keep you from having to do things I didn't mean?"

When he nodded, she quickly added, "Good. Let's go with that. Second, my sister told me the bond can be transferred off me and onto someone else."

His surprise looked real. "What makes her sure?"

"I didn't ask. She said we'd need to know more about your curse, which means finding someone who knows about magic."

Dario picked up Prosy long enough to rise to his feet and put her on the chair. As the cat licked her side in a huff, he said, "Mason would be the safest to seek out, at least for a first attempt. Parts of his spell book felt old and powerful. Perhaps he has access to true grimoires. Any idea of where he fled? Greg Iaquinta didn't know."

Fleur decided there was no reason to pester Colton for help if Alice's first interaction with Dario had been a death threat. "I'm pretty sure his book burned in the bonfire, and I'm definitely sure that he's dead."

"Are you certain? He had some mess of an immortality spell protecting him."

"Mm. I'm positive."

Dario paced back and forth, obviously thinking. She couldn't help watching him. He even moved in a sexy way. When he turned back to her, she quickly looked away from the muscles in his folded arms. "Even seeing the body will help. I might be able to glean something from it."