Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [644]
She shook her head. “I don’t need to worry about daylight. I can go back into the city by myself—”
“Like hell you will.” His hands were gruff as he turned her around to face him. His eyes glittered with sparks of amber, and an emotion that looked remarkably like fear, even in the darkness. “You’re not going anywhere near Fabien without me.” He stroked her brow, his fierce eyes burning into her. “We’re in this together, Renata. You know that, right? You know that you can trust me?”
She stared into Nikolai’s face and felt a well of emotion begin to rise up within her, felt it rise over her like a swamping wave she couldn’t hold back if she tried. Tears stung her eyes, then filled them. Before she could stop the flood, she was weeping as though a dam had burst inside her and all the hurts she’d ever felt—all the pain and emptiness of her entire existence—came rushing out of her in great, heaving sobs.
Nikolai wrapped his strong arms around her and held her close. He didn’t try to make her tears stop. He didn’t feed her soft lies to make her feel better, or give her false promises to cushion her despair.
He just held her.
Held her, and let her feel that she was understood. That she was not alone, and that maybe, in some small way, she might be worthy of being loved.
He picked her up, lifting her into his arms, and began to carry her away from the bullet-riddled barn. “Let’s find you someplace to rest for a while,” he said, his soothing voice rumbling in his chest, vibrating against her as she clung to him.
“I can’t go back into the lodge, Nikolai. I won’t stay in there.”
“I know,” he murmured, bringing her deeper into the woods. “I have another idea.”
He set her down in a leaf-strewn alcove between two towering pines. Renata didn’t know what to expect, but she never would have imagined what she witnessed in those next moments.
Nikolai knelt down near her and spread his arms wide, his chin lowered, his immense, muscled body held in a study of quiet concentration. Renata felt the energy around them crackle. She smelled rich, fertile earth, like the forest after a rainstorm. A warm breeze tickled her nape as Nikolai touched his fingertips to the ground on either side of him.
There was a quiet rustle of movement in the grass nearby—a whisper of life. Renata saw something snake up from beneath Nikolai’s hands and couldn’t keep from gasping in awestruck wonder when she realized what she was seeing.
Tiny vines, shooting through the soil, running toward the twin pines on either side of her.
“Oh, my God,” she murmured, rapt with amazement. “Nikolai… what’s happening here?”
“It’s all right,” he said, watching the vines—commanding them, hard as it was to believe.
The tendrils spiraled around the tree trunks and climbed higher, filling in with leaves that multiplied exponentially as she watched. Well over her head some eight feet, the vines leapt across the space between the pines. They twisted together, then sent off shooting lengths of vegetation, creating a living canopy that stretched all the way to the ground where Renata and Nikolai sat.
“You’re doing this?” she asked, incredulous.
He gave her a nod but kept his focus on his creation, more and more leaves unfolding on the vines. Thick walls of fragrant shelter formed a haven around them, the lush greenery interspersed with the same tiny white flowers that Renata had found in Mira’s room.
“Okay… how are you doing this?”
The rustle of growing plant life slowed and Nikolai turned a nonchalant look on her. “My mother’s gift, passed down to her two sons.”
“Who’s your mom, Mother Nature?” Renata said, laughing, delighted in spite of the knowledge that the beautiful flowers and vines were just a temporary veil. Outside, all of the ugliness and violence remained.
Nikolai smiled and shook