Luminesce

“I’m good at what I do.” His hand slides around the back of my neck and he draws me so close his breath warms my temple. “They never feel a thing.”
My voice emerges ragged. “Like I won’t?”
“You’ll feel everything I do to you.”
The hammering of blood in my ears increases exponentially, my breath trapped in my lungs. He shifts closer with each beat, my clenched hand captive between our rising and falling chests. His breath is too hot on my fingers, which he lifts to his lips.
“It’s not vengeance I’m thinking of now.” He kisses each of my knuckles in turn, his gaze on mine above my fingers. “How far are you willing to go for my protection?”

I didn’t start out like this.

Unsalvageable, dangerous, guilty of manslaughter, and unloved.

Before the mutation, I was only unloved. I lived in a spacious mansion with a father who never looked me in the face, and in secret I drew Lunar Adurian, the scarred guy who was always watching me.

The guy I hoped was unloved, too. I wanted him, at least, to understand.

Then the mutation hit us all. Lost, I entered the heart of rebellion with Lunar… but no dark underworld waited to tear me apart.

It’s Lunar, the guy who reeks of heartache, who wants to hurt me. He hates what I am.

But he’s also the person who awakens my sleepy soul, who takes what was unloved and drizzles it with honeyed hope. He wants me to love him even as he wants me to hurt. It’s a constant push and pull, on a balance we’re both afraid to tip.

In the end, though, there’s always a little self-destruction in love.

Read the first chapter here.