Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [35]
“Were you ever going to call me?” I asked, kicking the dirty linoleum with the toe of my very clean boot.
Dmitri touched my face briefly with his fingertips. “Of course I was. Once I had a minute to myself, and it was safe.” He shook his head. “What were you doing here, woman? This place is rough even for you.”
“Working,” I said. “And getting the crap beaten out of me, although that wasn’t in the plan.”
He chuckled. “I only saw the tail end, but I think those stains are gonna feel you come morning. And then they’ll have to explain to their pack leader how they managed to get so beat up, and he’ll probably just kill them.”
My face was already healed over, but it still stung, and the bruises I’d incurred weren’t going away anytime soon. Whenever I breathed, stabbing pain in my side was the reward. Dmitri’s forehead crinkled. “You okay?”
“Fine,” I said quickly. “Listen, is there someplace we can talk?” Someplace where I could ask him the five million questions that had accumulated since he left me. And maybe hit him again, if his answers weren’t satisfactory.
“Come outside,” Dmitri said, opening the fire door and leading me into the alley behind the club.
Dmitri let the door click shut behind us and fished in his denim jacket for a clove. He’d given up his leathers with the Redback pack insignia, and wore a plaid shirt over a black tee as a nod to the cold. And it was more than cold, it was freezing and prickling my skin painfully.
“Hex it!” I exclaimed. Dmitri paused mid-puff.
“What?”
“Those bastards stole my jacket while I was unconscious!” I shivered and crossed my bare arms over my torso. That jacket had been my favorite too—something I’d taken from an ex-boyfriend, Ted or Jed or something. We’d had a fight and I had stormed out into the rain and never gone back. The jacket had fit me better anyway.
Dmitri draped his denim over my shoulders as my teeth started to chatter. “Much as I enjoy the view…”He nodded at my now-pert bustier.
“You’re such a male.”
He grinned around the cigarette. “There’s no help for it.”
“Why didn’t you ever call me?” I asked softly. “Or even write to me? I’ve been going insane dreaming up stuff that could have happened to you.” Didn’t mean for the last part to slip out, but Dmitri had the effect of making me babble to counteract his overwhelmingly silent presence.
“I told you in that e-mail I couldn’t,” Dmitri said, flicking the clove into a puddle. “Luna, things have gotten complicated.”
“Then explain them to me,” I snapped. “Try to make up a good excuse for why you ran off and never spoke to me again.”
“I’m talking to you now, aren’t I?” he said, infuriatingly calm.
“You know that’s not what I mean,” I muttered. “I thought I could trust you.”
Dmitri closed the space between us and raised my chin with one finger to meet his eyes. “You can trust me,” he whispered. “You will always be able to trust me. But I… I can’t do this. Please try to understand.”
His proximity was too much. Everything around me washed away and I stood on tiptoes to press our lips together. A sense of rightness filled me, something that I’d been missing since Dmitri left sliding back into place.
“Luna, I said I can’t.” As quickly as the kiss started, Dmitri took me by the shoulders and firmly pushed me away.
Embarrassment and anger fought a quick battle over which would be first and anger won out. Hot humiliation washed over me and I swung at him again. He caught my fist, pinning it to my side.
“What the Hex do you mean?” I hissed. “Why did you even come back?”
“Dmitri.” The voice was female, heavily accented, and accompanied by a cloud of perfume that suffocated my senses. It could not disguise the heavy musk of were.
Dmitri looked over my shoulder, eyes narrowing. “I told you to wait upstairs, Irina.”
“I heard shouts,” Irina said, stepping under a streetlight. She was just a little shorter than where I stood at five-ten, broad-shouldered with Viking cheekbones and a thin straight nose. Her brown hair, streaked with gold,