Ascension by Felicity Heaton Page B

wasn’t frightening her. “Taig.”
    His demon side pushed again, threatening to expose his true form to her, and panic joined the emotions rushing in his blood. He couldn’t let her see it. If she saw it, she would never love him. She could never love a monster.
    He pulled out of her grasp and walked away. Blood ran down his arm when he raised his hand.
    “Taig?”
    Without looking at her, he stalked to the bedroom door.
    “Eat without me.” He slammed the door, headed into the bathroom and threw that door closed too before locking it.
    Red eyes stared back at him from the mirror. He spat into the sink again, convinced that her blood was still controlling him to a degree. It wasn’t, but it had been, and it had been frightening to feel as though he wasn’t in control of himself. Was that how Lealandra felt when the power demanded things of her, when it grew too strong for her to contain? He shuddered and rinsed the blood off his hand. The wound was already healing but it was going to make his work more difficult tonight. He picked a few splinters of glass out of his palm and dropped them into the sink.
    A sense of balance returned inside him.
    His claws receded, the skin repairing itself until his hands looked human again.
    Just how he liked them.
    Taig cast a glance towards his right, to where the kitchen stood on the other side of the wall. To Lealandra.
    Had he frightened her? She hadn’t felt afraid when she had touched him. He laughed at himself for thinking that. Of course he had scared her. He was a demon and had been on the brink of showing her just what lurked beneath the human skin she liked so much. No sane person wouldn’t be frightened.
    And no one as beautiful as her could truly love a monster like him.
    “Taig?” Her voice was loud through the bathroom door. “Come and eat with me.”
    There wasn’t even the slightest tremble in her voice and she didn’t feel scared. Only her usual calm acceptance came through on his senses. If she was afraid, she was hiding it well.
    “In a minute,” he said in a gruff voice, needing more time to gather himself and regain total control.
    His eyes altered back, the red dying away and leaving them black.
    “Come out,” she whispered. “You don’t scare me.”
    He wished he could bring himself to believe that.
    “Taig.” There was a note of impatience in her voice now.
    He unlocked the door. If she wanted to see him that badly, she could let herself in. The door opened and Lealandra stood on the threshold, her wide grey eyes meeting his in the mirror. He turned to face her, keeping his hands behind his back.
    “Let me see.” She tried to peer around him.
    Taig considered not doing as she had asked and then slowly brought his hands out from behind him. He watched her closely, gauging her reaction. She frowned at his hands and he turned them over, showing her, letting her see that there was nothing to be frightened of now.
    “There, all man again, no mon—”
    “You’re always a man, Taig,” she cut him off and reached out for his hands.
    He lowered them before she couldn’t touch them. She had told him the same thing before and he hadn’t believed her back then either. She didn’t know the real him and couldn’t judge whether he was man or monster until she did, and that was something that was never going to happen. His demonic side was dangerous. When he surrendered to it, his impulse to kill was too strong to fully control. His father had told him to change often during his youth, to learn to control himself, but then he had left him alone in the world. His demon side had despaired.
    His human side had blamed his demonic one.
    If his father hadn’t been a demon, his mother would have still been alive. He was sure that his mother had died at the hands of a demon because of his father. His demonic blood was responsible for their deaths. Blood that ran in Taig’s veins now.
    Taig clenched his fists when the urge to change struck him again, his