Mortal Danger (The Immortal Game) by Ann Aguirre Read Free Book Online

Euphoria sparkled through me, a low-grade fizz in my veins as I rummaged through the tops. I chose a black baby-doll T-shirt with white Japanese characters and a pink dot in the middle of the design. This time I didn’t check the size before I pulled it on. Shifting, I assessed myself in the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door.
    Incredible.
    Taking a deep breath, I popped the door open before I could lose my nerve. Kian stopped, arrested in his progress across the front room. His gaze swept me from head to toe, and then he offered an approving nod.
    “Obviously I think you look amazing or I would’ve kept working. But it’s more important what you think.”
    “Perfect. I wouldn’t have been able to say, This is what I want, but you knew.”
    “I’m good at seeing the potential,” he said quietly. “You have any pain?”
    “A little. Nothing dramatic.”
    “There may be a little blood, nothing to worry about. It’s a result of the internal shifting I had to do.”
    I froze. “ Blood? Like … where?”
    “I had some when I brushed my teeth afterward, sometimes. And … in the bathroom. You know.”
    The toilet? Oh my God. My parents would rush me to the hospital. “You swear it’s not indicative of hemorrhaging or something?”
    “No, it’s definitely not. It’s just a reaction to the procedure. It’ll ease back as your body adapts to the transformation.”
    “Okay. You haven’t lied to me so far, though ‘some pain’ was a massive understatement. It felt like my whole face was on fire.”
    “Worth it, though, right?”
    I smoothed my hands down my sides and thrilled at the way his green gaze followed the movement. “Definitely.”
    “I’m glad you passed out. It’s pretty awful for people with a higher pain tolerance. They scream the whole time.”
    “Which is why you bring them out here to the middle of nowhere.”
    To my surprise, Kian shook his head. “I never bring clients here, Edie. There’s a soundproof room at headquarters set aside for this kind of thing.”
    “But … I’m here.”
    He ducked his head. The copper strands in his hair shone against the black, giving him a burnished look in the morning light. His thick tangle of lashes hid his devastating green eyes, but it was easier for me to ignore his beauty, knowing he’d broken the rules for me. I could look at him and see him. From certain angles, I could almost imagine what he’d looked like before someone set burning fingertips to his face and cut away the flaws. That mental image made him seem much more human, less the divine being who’d plucked me off the bridge. I preferred seeing him as a person, not a god.
    His silence wasn’t an answer. “Kian. If this isn’t protocol, why am I here?”
    “I was afraid the people at headquarters would freak you out.” By the way his eyes shifted away from mine, that wasn’t the whole truth.
    “Bullshit.”
    This time, he met my stare head-on. “I wanted more time with you.”
    “Is that allowed?”
    “Not really.” He ran an agitated hand through his hair. “Just forget it, okay? And before you ask, no, I didn’t do anything weird to your unconscious body.”
    “I wasn’t going to ask that.” I’d be sore in different places if he had, and while my muscles burned, there was no pain down below.
    “So let’s get going.”
    “Wait.” I moved toward him and put a hand on his arm. “Do you mean you like me? In a normal way. Nothing to do with deals or bargains or favors?”
    He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. There are rules.”
    “The answer matters to me .”
    “For all the good it does either of us, yes, I do. I did before.” Bitterness colored his voice, his expression, and I didn’t understand why. He’d wished for the same thing . Why did he seem to mind changing me for the better?
    “Nobody liked me before,” I said. “So thank you.”
    He ignored my gratitude. Maybe I wouldn’t want it, either. I tried to put myself in his shoes.