The Complete Crimson Forest series

Onyx: Chapter 6

The rest of the drive is surprisingly rather silent. Kade seems to ignore the entire car and Daniel and Kai sleep and play car games. I spend the car ride napping and thinking about the previous day's events. I can't wait to get home. Henry off and on tries to make small talk with me but neither of us are particularly good at it nor motivated to talk about anything deeper than the weather. We both surely have a lot on our minds.

When we finally reach the border of our property, Daniel gets out to clear the ward and let us in. Then he closes it back up and we park in front of the house. It feels like ages since I've been here even though it's only been a couple weeks.

I'm greeted by my dad who has more than a few questions, but I need to relax for a while by myself and head to my room. I lie down under the covers and although I know they can hear me, I cry.

A knock on my door a few minutes later doesn't surprise me and I ignore it.

"May? Can we talk? I've sent the others out of hearing range. They're going to redo the wards and Henry is going to do a run, so they'll be gone a while." I see Kade, who appears showered and changed, looking such a far cry from the bloodied man he was earlier. His hair is styled off to one side with gel and his black V-neck and dark wash jeans are clean and unwrinkled, free of any blood. I'd never guess that this handsome, gentle man was capable of such horrendous acts, that he was anything other than kind and caring.

I make room for him next to me and he sits on the edge of my bed.

"May, I don't want you to be scared of me," he starts. "Have I ruined what we had or what we were starting to have?" His face is ashen and tired. He clasps his hands together between his spread knees and rubs them together in anxiety.

I have no idea how to respond. "I'm not scared of you, but I am scared of what you are, the part of you that you have no control over."

Kade takes this in and nods. "Me too, May. Me too." He nibbles his bottom lip and rests his elbows on his thighs. "Are you going to be okay? What did they do to you in there?"

"I'm fine, Kade. I just need some alone time to process all of this. I'm not like you guys, I can't just move on from something like that like it's just another day. As for what they did to me in there, I imagine it was far less than what they did to you. You saw the worst of it. Henry was kind, his employees were nice, and even Marvin the guy testing me was pretty nice to me."

Kade bites his cheek. "That's a relief. I had no idea what they were doing to you while you were in there." Kade leans over and uses his shirt to wipe at my tears. I'm surprised when his nearness doesn't cause me to jump or my fear to skyrocket. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that but Henry and I didn't know how to get you out of there in time. Another day and...well, they were planning for me to kill you, May." He says this as if he's breaking the news to me.

"I knew that's what they were planning but I didn't know they were planning it so soon."

Kade nods and presses a kiss to my forehead. "If you want to move slower, just tell me, okay? I know that was a lot." He nods towards the bathroom. "Would you like me to run you a bubble bath?"

I can't help but let a smile creep onto my lips. "Please? ...To the bath. I have to think about the other thing."

He smirks. "Of course." The muscles in his arms flex as he pushes himself up off the bed and I watch him walk into the bathroom. He returns a moment later. "Peach or mango?" He holds up two bottles of bubble bath.

"Mango," I answer him easily. "Please."

He races back into the bathroom and returns a moment later. "Have you noticed the density between your brother and Kai?"