She closed the door behind her with relief. The thought of being with Alain, a slimy little snake, made her nauseous. Between he and Variable, she was losing faith in men. Was there any that wouldn’t make her stomach turn?
Will’s face passed through her mind, and she pushed it away.
She went into the kitchen, tiredly sat on the stairs that led from the first to second levels and undid her strappy heels.
She had blood lust swirling up through her, and she couldn’t wait for tomorrow.
Reaper would fall before her. That was something that she did not doubt.
Something moved in the corner of the dark kitchen, and she jumped up on instinct.
“William,” she hissed at him.
He said nothing, just rubbed his face, then face her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked flatly.
His eyes were blue flames; tinfoil in the bonfire.
“You need to stop,” he said, his voice just as flat as hers.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. And you need to leave,” she said. As she spoke she stood, removing her heels gone from her mind.
He shook his head as he approached her rapidly, his body like a large human boulder; unmoving.
“I’m not leaving until you are yourself again,” he said coldly.
She backed up until she realized what she was doing and stopped, but she was pressed up against the wall.
“I am myself,” she said. She tilted her chin up in rebellion as she spoke.
His face did not alter.
“No, you’re not. You are Maverick. I want Max,” he said.
Maverick scoffed.
“You’re acting like they’re two different people,” she sneered at him.
He looked at her.
“Aren’t they?” he demanded.
The truth was that she didn’t know, and she looked away. He was too close; his body was hot and it was coming off of him in waves; she felt it.
It burnt her.
He wasn’t touching her. He was only inches away, and might as well have been touching her, but he wasn’t touching her.
“Max and Maverick are just two sides of one person, each one of them too afraid to embrace the other,” she said in self-disgust.
As Max she couldn’t accept the violence, the fury that lived inside her. As Maverick she couldn’t accept the softness for fear that she would be weak.
“Then force them together. You’re broken, Max,” she snarled and snapped at him as he spoke, “And you won’t be whole until you accept this.”
His whispers were passionate, and Maverick found herself staring into his eyes.
“What do you see when you look at me?” she murmured. The words slipped out before she could stop them and she cursed them as they hung in the air.
“I see someone that is strong. Too strong. So strong that she can’t accept help. I see someone that I love,” he whispered.
She stood very still, and something washed over her. Warm and throbbing.
“You can’t love me,” she whispered.
She shoved her way past him and into the small bathroom off the kitchen. She looked in the mirror.
