Otherworld Nights by Kelley Armstrong Read Free Book Online

glass of wine, perhaps light the fire. It’s getting cool.”
    He paused, still ready for a fight, but finding no excuse in my words.
    “I’ll start the fire,” he said.
    No more than ten minutes after I got into the tub, the door banged open with such a crash that I started, sloshing bubbles over the side. Aaron barreled in and shoved a small book at me. My appointment book.
    “I found this in your desk.”
    “Keen detective work. Practicing for your next council investigation?”
    “
Our
next council investigation.”
    I reached for my loofah brush. “My mistake. That’s what I meant.”
    “Is it?”
    I looked up, trying to understand his meaning but seeing only rage in his eyes. He was determined to find out what had happened in that alley, and somehow this was his route there. My stomachclenched, as if the blood was still pooled in it, curdling. I wouldn’t have this conversation. I wouldn’t.
    I sat up, letting the bubbles slide from me. Aaron’s gaze dropped from my face. I tucked my legs under, took hold of the side of the tub, and started to rise. He let me get halfway up, then put his hand on my head and firmly pushed me down.
    I reclined into the tub again, then leaned my head back, floating, breasts and belly peeking from the water. Aaron watched for a moment before tearing his gaze away with a growl.
    “Stop that, Cass. I’m not going to run off and I’m not going to be distracted. I want to talk to you.”
    I sighed. “About my appointment book, I presume.”
    He lifted it. “Last week. On the day marked ‘birthday.’ Not your rebirth day, but the date you planned to make your kill. There’s nothing else scheduled.”
    “Of course not. I keep that day open—”
    “But you said you were busy. That’s why you didn’t do it.”
    “I said things came up.”
    “Such as …?”
    I raised a leg onto the rim and ran the loofah brush down it. Aaron’s eyes followed, but after a second he forced his gaze back to mine and repeated the question.
    I sighed. “Very well. Let’s see. On that particular day, it was a midnight end-of-season designer clothing sale. As I was driving out of the city to make my kill, I saw the sign and stopped. By the time I left, it was too late to hunt.”
    He glowered at me. “That’s not funny.”
    “I didn’t say it was.”
    The glower deepened to a scowl. “You postponed your annual kill to
shop
? Bullshit. Yeah, you like your fancy clothes, and you’re cheap as hell. But getting distracted by a clothing sale?” He snorted. “That’s like a cop stopping a high-speed chase to grab doughnuts.”
    I went quiet, then said, as evenly as I could, “Perhaps. But I did.”
    He searched my gaze, finding the truth in my eyes. “Then something’s wrong. Very wrong. And you know it.”
    I shuttered my gaze. “All I know is that you’re making too big a deal of this, as always. You take the smallest—”
    “Cassandra DuCharme skips her annual kill to go
shopping
? That’s not small. That’s apocalyptic.”
    “Oh, please, spare me the—”
    He shoved the open book in my face. “Forget the sale. Explain the rest of it. You had nothing scheduled all week. There was no excuse. You didn’t forget. You didn’t get distracted.” His voice dropped as he lowered himself to the edge of the tub. “You have no intention of taking a life.”
    “You … you think I’m trying to kill myself?” I laughed, the sound almost bitter. “Do you forget how I became what I am, Aaron? I
chose
it. I risked everything to get this life, and if you think I’d throw that away one minute before my time is up—”
    “How you came into this life is exactly why you’re hell-bent on leaving it like this. You cheated death. No, you
beat
it—by sheer goddamned force of will. You said, ‘I won’t die.’ And now, when it’s coming around again, you’re damned well not going to sit back and let it happen. You chose once. You’ll choose again.”
    I paused, looked away, then