Innocently Evil (A Kitty Bloom Novel) (22 page)

Out of the blue
, a memory emerged in my mind, not brought to the surface by me, but instead by her. I heard my mum’s voice tell me about a story Ninetta used to tell her, a story about a daughter of Lilith who walked on both sides, never choosing one completely. Mum had said that she believed it to be a myth, but now I decided to believe otherwise. I needed to believe that it could be possible. I had no intention of going through life like Mum or Ninetta, always influenced and controlled by the will of others. I needed to be strong enough in myself, in both my ‘selves’, to deal with all the problems that I would eventually have to come to face as a daughter of Lilith. It made sense to me, and to her too, that we should do it together, that our lives should become one. So in that moment, both the good and the bad halves of me made a mental agreement to live a life of negotiation and cooperation, never shutting any part of me out.

Suddenly, a sharp pain
sliced through my skull and forced my body to tense and my eyes to slam shut. I cringed in agony and then, just as quickly as it had hit, the pain disappeared. I relaxed my body cautiously, unsure of what to expect, confused as to where the pain had come from. Then I raised my head slightly and opened my eyes. I stared at Max though a newly discovered vision and was amazed at how different everything felt. The world seemed wider somehow, as though my narrow vision had magically increased to panorama. Even my mind felt different. I felt as though things I hadn’t understood about the world just moments before, finally made sense.

Max was looking at me fearfully and I wasn’t sure whether it was me he was afraid of or what had just happened. His eyes were wide and his touch on my shoulders was now gentle and soft. “Kitty,” he said, swallowing
deeply as worry filled his eyes. “Are you okay?”

I grinned at him, still astonished by how much my world had increased both internally and externally, and then I
realized that I had two answers to his question. Both were very different, yet they still contained the same general meaning, and they were both very much from me. My smile broadened as I realized that I was finally hearing both sides of me at the same time. Two sets of opinions, although somewhat similar, and two sets of thoughts now filled my head and strengthened my understanding of the world.

“Yes,” I said to Max. “B
etter than ever.”

Max’s anxious expression didn’t change with my answer
and he raised one of his hands to my face, placing it tenderly against my cheek. He stared deeper into my eyes and tilted my head up slightly to get a better look. “What happened to you,” he asked, sincerely “Where did you go before?”

One side of me was surprised by Max’s compassion towards me, while the other was happy that he
was finally showing his true colors. My grin softened and I pushed my cheek closer against his hand. I wasn’t really sure how to answer him or if I wanted him to know what had just happened. As trust went, both sides of me agreed that I needed to see a little more of the real Max before I told him more than the obvious.

When I didn’t answer, Max continued, t
hough he sounded as though he was verbalizing internal thoughts rather than talking to me. “Your eyes,” he said, slowly. “They’ve changed. I could have sworn they were a pure and deep blue, but now—there is emerald green in there.”

Astonished by his answer, I scooted forward on the bench top, causing
Max to drop his hands from my shoulders and step back. Then, I dropped my feet on the floor and spun around to check my eyes in the mirror. I rested my hands on the cool, white tile on either side of the basin and leaned in closer to the mirror. The fluorescent light glowing brightly above my head made the newly formed green flecks in my irises appear more vibrant. I stared into my eyes, from one blue-green iris to the next and wondered whether this was a physical manifestation of my new vision.

Soon, I was smiling as wide as I had just moments before and I finally began to feel quite content. I was no longer scared of what my other half was thinking or planning or scheming, because I could hear her thoughts,
our thoughts, all at once. Although, we now had mutual control over our body and our actions, we could no longer hide the truth, our desires and our fears from each other. Our life was simpler now.

I felt Max move closer behind me and I saw movement in the mir
ror as his face leaned in beside mine. He seemed careful not to touch me and as I looked from my face to his in the mirror, I was surprised to see how worried and confused his expression still remained.

“It’s okay,” I said q
uietly, trying to be reassuring. “I’m fine.”

Max frowned at me, looking as though
he had some doubts about the truth of my answer, yet he nodded his head and stepped back.

I turned to face him as he moved and
looked up into his dark amber eyes as I rested a hand on his chest above his undead heart. “Why are you here, Max,” I said, while both halves of me curiously waited for an answer.

Max’s eyes held mine for a moment and then
they dropped to the floor. He took another step back and the back of his legs touched the rim of the bathtub. I stepped with him and refused to let my hand fall from his chest. As if realizing the weakness in his retreat, he shook his head and then raised his eyes back to mine. His compassionate, but tense posture changed and then he seemed to relax artificially into the arrogant side of his personality that I was used to.

He crossed his arms over his chest, forcing my hand off his body and then gave me a flimsy smirk.
“If you hadn’t noticed,” he said, somewhat smugly. “You would have been werewolf chow had it not been for me.”

I took a step back from him, annoyed at his haughtiness and
then leant against the edge of the basin. I mirrored his crossed arms and raised a doubtful eyebrow at him. “I was doing just fine before you showed up,” I said boldly.

Max tilted his head
to the side and his smirk became more natural with honest amusement. “Oh really,” he said sarcastically. “And what were you planning to do with that comb? Brush the werewolf to death?”

I pouted at him and glared. He’d obviously missed the fact that I’d already managed to get a few meaningful blows to the wer
ewolf’s back. So, it was clearly time for me to inform him. “I’ll have you know,” I said, confidently. “That before you arrived, the comb had been a very successful stabbing utensil. So really, I weakened the werewolf for you. It wouldn’t have been that easy for you to kill it had I not.”

Max raised a surprised eyebrow at me and
laughed, then took a step forward. I held my head high, refusing to be intimidated and glared into his eyes.

“Sweet little K
itten,” he said condescendingly. “You really underestimate me. You have absolutely no idea how easy it would have been for me to kill him without the help of your tiny, little stab wounds. I am much stronger and more capable than you give me credit for.”

Glaring devilishly, I took a small step forward and stuck my chest out aggressively in protest to his criticism.
“Seriously,” I said, letting the obvious doubt I felt slide off my tongue. “I think it’s more the size of your ego and the stench of your arrogance that I failed to give you credit for. And I believe it’s you, dear Mr. Tiennan who has underestimated me. Are you quite sure you know what I’m capable of?”

Max’s smirk turned into a grin and he inched closer filling the space between us. I glared down my nose at him, ignoring the part of me that wanted to run out of the bathroom screaming, and I held my ground. As I watched him, waiting for his reply, I saw his face contort ever so slightly and before I had time to see them change, his canines had lowered to deadly sharp points.

I pulled my lips tight together and clenched my jaw. I refused to let him scare me. “Oooh,” I said feigning fear, as I pushed my face closer to his. “You’re such a big scary vampire, aren’t you? I bet you love making helpless women scream.”

Max’s lips pulled back tight over his fangs in an odd looking smile-snarl and his bright amber eyes glittered at me.
“Scream, yes,” he said, his face inches from mine. “But not for the reason you suppose.”

In an
instant, his hands dropped from his chest and he grabbed me ferociously around the waist, pulling my body tight against his. I tried to struggle free and then, without so much as a second thought, I raised my right hand and slapped him hard across the face. My glare was fierce as I watched him raise a hand to his cheek and turn his head back to face me. I half expected to hear him laughing at my weak attempt to hurt him, because the last time I’d tried it had been a terrible failure.

Instead, as he turned his face to look at me, I saw crimson droplets of blood spotting his bottom lip and felt quite impressed with myself. I felt the corners of my mouth try to pull into a grin and I forced myself to stay serious.
It looked as though Sam had been wrong about whether or not the evil side of me would be happy to use her strength on the bad guys. If anyone could have been exempt from her lethal fighting skills, it would have been Max. But, by the looks of things, it seemed as though that assumption had bitten the dust.

I clenched my jaw fighting the temptation to grin triumphantly and then raised a daring eyebrow. “Didn’t expect that, did you,” I said smugly, letting a little of my grin slip.

Max’s eyes narrowed
angrily on mine as he ran a finger over his lip, collecting the blood, and then dipped it into his mouth. A strange feeling came over me as I watched him and I bit my bottom lip trying to ignore it. His remaining hand around my waist began to feel heavy against my skin and the closeness of his body against mine started to boil my blood. I licked my lips involuntarily as he watched me intensely through warm amber eyes.

Breathing deep
ly, I tried to steady myself and calm my body, but instead all I could seem to inhale was Max. He smelt warm and spicy, beneath the gentle alcoholic tang of his cologne and it seemed to pull me nearer to him. Max’s eyes lost their anger and became heated in another way as they watched me move closer.

Before I had a chance to complain, not that I would have had much strength to in the situation, Max’s lips met mine again for a second time that night. His arms wrapped tightly behind my back and he pulled me close to him, hard along the line of his body. His lips were demanding, but gentle on mine as his tongue stroked deep
ly inside my mouth, trying to taste every inch of me. My hands found security around his neck and I gave in to the pleasure of the moment. I moaned as he pressed himself harder against me and as his teeth lightly nibbled at my lips.

Still holding me tightly against his body, Max forced me backwards into the edge of the basin and effortlessly propped me up on
to the narrow tiled bench top in front of it. He sighed deeply into my mouth as my legs wrapped around his waist and I tried desperately to get him even closer to me. His fingertips caressed the bare skin beneath the bottom of my white singlet and he began inching the material higher.

When his fingers reached my ribs, I raised my arms from behind his neck and
pulled out of the kiss. Max took the hint and pulled my singlet up and over my head, then threw it on the floor. Without asking his permission, I grabbed the bottom of his black t-shirt and started doing the same. Hurriedly, he grabbed it from my hands, pulled it off and threw it on the werewolf blood-spattered tiles next to mine.

His lips hungrily met mine again and our arms wrapped tightly back around each other. The heat emanating from my skin met the slight coolness of his and my body wanted more. I pulled him closer and harder against me, but it just wasn’t enough. Max’s hands ran over my waist and hips,
and then dipped down to grasp the curve of my bum. I ran my hands over his chest and around his back, my fingernails scratching delicately down from his shoulder blades to the top of his low-ridding black jeans. I slipped my fingers just under the material and tickled the sensitive skin below as I ran my hands round the circumference of his pants. As I got closer to the front, he sighed again deeply into my kiss and then pressed into me, making me moan softly in response.

Max’s hands started to climb higher on my body, stroking along the line of my waist and over my ribs. His fingertips lightly touched the material of my sports bra and I gasped as his thumbs caressed the skin beneath. Suddenly, his lips left mine and they kissed and nibbled a line from my jaw down to the nape of my neck. I swayed lightly in his embrace, closing my
eyes in pleasure and giving in to the excitement of his lips on my neck. I felt his hands follow the cloth of my bra around to my back and as his hands met the clasp, I felt his teeth gently graze my neck.

Instantly, my eyes shot open and I pushed him away. Max’s eyes looked at me in wide surprise and for a moment, I almost thought I saw a hint of rejection pass through them.

“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head in embarrassment. “I can’t do this.”

Max’s hands dropped from where they were, but landed softly on my
hips, creating a reassuring and undemanding weight. I looked into his eyes and was surprised to see that he wasn’t mad. In fact, a small smile lengthened his kiss-swollen lips.

“It’s fine
,” he said huskily, as he raised a hand to stroke a rogue piece of hair behind my ear. “I only want you willingly, when you’re ready.”