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When she breathed out, I could feel it on my lips she was
so close. It made me ache. “Why did you have to be so bloody beautiful, Fay?” She inhaled sharply. “Why did you have to have such a beautiful heart?”

Her skin practically sizzled mine as our foreheads pressed together, and I was done
fighting. She gripped my collar and I slid my free hand to her ribs around to her back.

“What the hell is going on?”

Fay sighed into my mouth, and that was close to a kiss as we got. I opened my eyes to find Fay’s opened, too. I loosened my grip, but I didn’t let her go. Aries was with Clara and Eli, along with Franz, who seemed entirely too pleased as he grinned at me. I refused to meet his gaze.

Aries went first. “I met them on the path, told them what happened, and that you’d be bringing Fay back in a moment, but Clara wouldn’t wait.”

“And it’s a good thing I didn’t!” she yelled and gave me a look that could have killed a weaker man on the spot. “Look at him, trying to take advantage of my sister after what she just went through. I get that you need to feed and it’s hard not to force emotions on people in the camp, but after what she just went through—”

“I wasn’t fee
ding from her,” I said. “I hate what her fear tastes like.” She seemed taken aback and I felt Fay’s hand on my chest. I hadn’t realized that I’d growled it at her until I saw Eli’s hand wrap around Clara’s wrist. I took a deep breath. “I’m not going to hurt you, Clara. Just the thought that I want to force fear on Fay is…it’s ridiculous.” I shook my head, but I knew it was pointless. Clara would always see me as a monster. It would only be a matter of time before she turned Fay against me, too.

“Then what was going on?” Clara asked
, quieter this time.

When Fay said nothing, I shook my head. “I’m…going to bed.”

“Enoch,” Fay whispered, but that one tiny noise glued me to my spot. “Stay. Please.” I looked over. “Will you stay with me?”

“Fay?” Clara hissed, but I ignored her.

“Why?” I asked. I had to know why, when she knew that her sister hated me, she still wanted me to stay.

She looked at Clara. “He saved my life tonight. Again. He was the one who found out that I had been taken from your house, h
e followed me through the woods,” she fingered the hole in my shirt, “to save me from the troll who took me.”

Clara gasped and ran to her. She hugged her and cried, “Oh, my gosh, Fannie. I’m so sorry.”

Fay sighed. “I hate when you call me that.”

Clara winced. “Sorry. I can never remember. I’m sorry. I know that this is all a lot to take in. It’s…” She shrugged. “I wish there something I could say to make it better. It seems like ever since you found out about me and Eli, you’ve had a rough time.”

Fay looked at me. “I’m going to bed.”

“That’s a good idea,” Clara said and
took her arm.
              Her eyes stayed on me. “Enoch, stay with me.”

“Um…” Clara said and looked between them. “Hell no.”

“On our trip to find you, Enoch kept me safe. I’ve never felt so safe as when I’m with him.” She left Clara and looked up at me. “It’s not your decision, Clara, it’s Enoch’s. If he doesn’t want to stay with me, then—”

I took her hand and we started walking through Eli and Franz. One was smiling and one was not. I’m sure you can guess which was which. I could practically hear Clara’s head exploding behind me, but I didn’t care. And I wanted us to have a little time before they got
there, so I turned to Fay and smiled as I put my arms around her. She looked pleasantly surprised at my pit stop and the show of affection. “Hold on tight,” I whispered.

I blurred us through the trees, down the trail, all the way to Eli’s. When we stopped, I fully expected to taste her fear, but her
head fell back as she laughed.

“Wow,” she whispered and stood up straight. “That’s amazing.”

“Come on,” I beckoned and tugged her inside. “You may feel fine, but you still had a bad day. You need to rest.”

“Thanks for staying,” she said shyly as she kicked her shoes off and pulled the couch out.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m sure sitting here watching me sleep isn’t the most fun thing you can be doing.”

I shook my head and settled into the left side of the bed. “I told you I like to sleep. I like to lie in the bed. Resting, relaxing. If I can do that and know that you’re safe, especially after the day and night that you’ve had?” I shook my head. “Come here.”

She shook her head. “I sleep on the left side.”

I laughed. “No, I sleep on the left side.”
              She smiled and it was gorgeous. “You. Can’t. Sleep.”

“Touché. I
rest
on the left side.”

“Are you serious right now?” She raised her eyebrow and tilted her head. Then she bit into her lip.

I rolled my eyes and scooted over a bit, but not much. “I can’t believe I was brought down by your teeth and that lip.”

She giggled as she climbed in and I was hit with how normal this was. How
human
. This was what a normal couple would do. This was what Eli and Clara did, I was sure.

“What’s wrong?”

I turned to find her looking at me. I shook my head. “Nothing.”

“You’re a really bad liar. You would think hundreds of years of living would have honed your skills.”

I forced a laugh, feeling the weakness from not feeding seeping into me. “So, tell me something.”

“Like what?”

I shrugged, though she couldn’t see it. “Anything.”

She exhaled a shaky breath. “I was dishonorably discharged from the military.” I looked down at her, surprised. She went on. “
I was doing everything in my power to get into trouble it seemed.” She shook her head and laughed angrily. “I was so pathetic. I thought the world owed me or something. I hated being in the military, I hated that I was so far away from Clara, I hated myself, I hated that my parents were gone. I got
letters of reprimand
all the time, but the final straw was a…DUI on the base.” She licked her lip a few times. I could see it in her profile. “The judge practically said I was a spoiled lost cause and stamped my final ticket home.”

“He was wrong,” I practically barked.

She laughed softly and reached up to rub my arm with her cool fingers. “Thanks for that, but it’s okay. I deserved it. I was being stupid. If I had hurt someone…” She exhaled and I got a spike of sadness from her. She was honestly fearful about it.

“Well, I can alter my appearance,” I blurted. She cocked her eyebrow. It was bloody cute. “Yeah,” I reiterated. “If you saw my
parents, they’ve altered their appearance to make themselves appear older.”

“So you can look like someone else?”

“No, we can’t change what we look like.” She squinted, confused. “What I mean is, we can decide our age basically. Most devourers keep their age relatively young. Why wouldn’t you? We stop aging at around nineteen, but if we choose it, we can alter our appearance to appear older if we like.”

“Wh
y would someone want to look old?” she asked with a little smile.

I shrugged. “My parents do it to make them
selves look wiser, more respected, I guess. Less like young people and more like people we should look up to.”

“More like parents?” she guessed.

I scoffed. “They were anything but good parents.” She pressed her lips together in sympathy. I shook my head. “Don’t feel badly for me. We don’t view family the way humans do. They raised me and their job was done. I wasn’t their prodigal son, the chosen one, so I…wasn’t the one they focused their time on.”

“That sounds awful.”

I waved it away. “Tell me about your parents,” I said slowly.

I expected sadness, but she smiled which surprised me greatly. Humans were such a conundrum. How was something that brought such sadness on every occasion now bringing a smile?

“They were amazing. My father would melt, literally melt, under Clara’s smile.” She laughed a little. “We were the biggest daddy’s girls. He gave us everything we ever wanted. And my mom…” Her lip quivered. “She was the best. She gave the best advice, took us shopping, made pancakes every Saturday morning, she loved my dad like parents are supposed to love each other.” She wiped under her eye as discreetly as she could. “I miss them and honestly I miss thinking about them that way. I only think about them in the ways that I miss them and they were taken from me and not in the ways that they were good to us. So thank you for that. I should do that more often.”

I rubbed her head a little harder in acknowledgment.
“Thanks for the history lesson. I like knowing what makes you tick.”

She smiled small
. “You owe me a story.”

I
felt a warmth settle in me as I imagined taking her in a reverie. ”I’ve got something even better for later. Go to sleep, princess.”

“What do yo
u do while the rest of us sleep?”

“Just think,” I whisper
ed. I pulled her over to rest her head on my lap and loved the smile that spread over her face.

“Don’t think too much, Enoch.” I laugh
ed a little at that and rested my head back against the headboard as I ran my hand through her hair. I knew it would help her go to sleep, and it did. In no time her breathing was slow and she was making those little noises that I was so in love with.

Bloody
hell. I was goner.

Clara and Eli ca
me in not too long after that. Clara was so mad that she almost stomped right past without even seeing us, but when she did, she boiled over.

She laid into me, in a whisper of course. “
How could you do this? What is wrong with you? Why are you leading her on when you know that you’re not going to act on it more than just banging her a couple times before you skip town?”

“Clara,” Eli scolded and sat on the chair with a th
ud. He looked as drained as I felt.

“No, Eli. You know just like I do that this isn’t going anywhere. It’s not fair for him to let her think that there’s something there when we all know there’s not.” She looked right at me. “She may not know you like we do, and boy do you really have her fooled, but it’s cruel. I don’t know why you’re doing it except to hurt me, to get back
at me for taking Eli from you.” A sob caught in her throat and I finally saw that she wasn’t just being a girl about this; she truly, honestly was worried about her sister. And I had been nothing but a monster before to her, a bastard and a monster. I deserved every bit of what she was dishing out. “I’m sorry, Enoch. I’m really sorry. But please don’t take it out on her because of it. Please. She dated a lot but she’s never really had a real boyfriend and…please don’t do this.”

Her
upset and worry hit me like a sledgehammer. I sucked in a breath as quietly as I could. When I looked again, Eli had Clara in his arms and was giving me a look for upsetting his wife.

I would always be the bad guy. That was apparent.

“Eli, that little boy who made you start feeling things differently?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
              “What happened? What did it feel like?”

“What?” Clara asked. “Why are you asking him that?”

“Because…I haven’t forced an emotion to feed in over a month.”

Eli immediately lit up, a smile and eyes that were hopeful. Clara, on the other hand, shook her head viciously. “No! You don’t actually believe this, do you? Babe, no.”

“But he hasn’t been feeding,” Eli reasoned. “He was starving when he showed up and has been ever since.”

“That’s because there’s no force-feeding in the camp and he doesn’t want to get kicked out.”

“CB,” he soothed softly and cupped her face, “look. Can we open our eyes about this? We can’t have an explanation about everything, okay?”

“Yes, we can!” She pushed his hands off. “I can’t believe you’re picking your brother over my sister.”

“That’s not what’s happening.” He sighed. “And besides, even if it was, listen to yourself, baby.”

She thought and sighed harshly. “Fine. I see your point. I don’t expect you to pick my sister over your brother, but he is up to no good and I don’t believe this whole
I’m changed
routine for one minute. He’s just trying to get back at me for bonding myself to you.”

“Fine, Clara.” He sighed and rubbed his head.

I drew little circles on Fay’s forehead with my thumb and enjoyed her skin, knowing this was going to have to be our last night together. Fay was fighting with her sister after just finding her, Clara and Eli were fighting, and it was all because of me. There wasn’t a way to prove that I was changed. There just wasn’t. Clara would never believe it and I couldn’t just break up all these other relationships because I selfishly wanted one of my own.

Clara and Eli went to bed and all night I sat there and relished my time with Fay, knowing it would be short and final.

She would hate me tomorrow. I would make sure of that. It would help her get over it. I, on the other hand, would live with this in my gut forever. But it was a pain I would cherish.