Black Rook (44 page)

She faltered, uncertain for the first time since they’d met, and he’d done that. With time and distance between herself and this moment, she would understand that ending this before it began was the correct choice. Besides, he didn’t deserve something in his life that could make him happy, even if only temporarily. He wasn’t allowed that, not while Knight suffered.

He knew enough of her past to draw on the cruelest thing possible in order to drive her away. “This is a mistake.” Stone cold. Hateful. “I’m not really into a dead man’s leftovers.”

Fury darkened her expression, and her entire body coiled tight. He braced for a slap, a punch, some physical manifestation of her temper. She took a step toward him, rage rolling off of her in waves that tempted his Gray’s instinctive need to kneel beneath the weight of a Black’s fury. He forced himself to stay still. Not to apologize.

“You have no idea what I lost that night,” she said, her voice cold. Brittle.

She walked away.

Bishop leaned against the shed, sick at what he’d done. Sick over everything that had happened today, and certain he had just lost something very precious.

Raised on a steady diet of Star Wars, Freddy Krueger and “Fear Street” novels,
Kelly Meade
developed a love for all things paranormal at a very young age. The stealthy adolescent theft of a tattered paperback from her grandmother’s collection of Harlequins sparked an interest in romance that has continued to this day. Writing as Kelly Meding, Meade is the author of the Dreg City urban fantasy and the MetaWars books.