REAPING INNOCENCE ◦ STILINSKI [3]

xiv.

She'd succeeded in riveting everyone's attention, something she knew without raising her eyes. She bit delicately down on a bread stick, holding it between her teeth like a pencil, and turned from the table.

"Mind if I have a bite?"

Shock snapped her eyes wide open and froze her breath. Her mind jammed, refusing to acknowledge what was going on, and leaving her helpless, vulnerable, in the face of it. But though rational though had disappeared, her senses went right on recording mercilessly: dark eyes dominating her field of vision, a whiff of some kind of cologne in her nostrils, two long fingers tilting her chin up. Theo. She had no idea who he was but his name popped up in her head. He leaned in, and, neatly and precisely, bit off the other end of the bread stick.

In that moment, their lips were only inches apart. He was leaning in for a second bite before Carter's wits revived enough to throw her backward, her hand grabbing the bit of crisp bread and tossing it away. He caught it midair, a virtuoso display of reflex.

His eyes were still on hers. Carter got in a breath at last and opened her mouth; she wasn't sure what for. To scream, probably. She had no idea why, but there was this persistent nagging at the back of her mind to scream. Her heart was pounding like a trip-hammer, her vision blurred.

"Easy, easy." He took the plate from her and then somehow got hold of her wrist. He was holding it lightly, as she continued to stare and gasp, he stroked it with his thumb, as if comforting her. "Easy. It's all right. Do you mind if I check your pulse? You seem a little faint."

"I mind." The voice came from behind Carter. It was clear and cold and quiet. Carter had never heard him speak that way before; in her other dreams he was always so gentle and caring. Theo's fingers stilled on her throat, and, released from his spell, she stepped back.

"But do you matter?" he said.

The two of them faced each other under the faintly flickering yellow light of the brass chandelier.

Carter was aware of layers of her own thoughts, like a parfait. Everyone's staring; this must be better than the movies...he was so much taller than Theo...There's Stiles, Scott, and Allison—along with the others—wondering what's going on...He's angry but he knows not to start a fight...

And in front of all these people. Her thoughts came to a clattering halt as everything fell into place. That was what Theo was here for, to make him attack, apparently unprovoked. No matter what happened after that, Theo won. It would mean his life, thought Carter. Oh, please don't do it. Don't play into Theo's hands. Theo wants to kill you; he's just looking for a chance.

She made her limbs move, though they were stiff and awkward as a marionette's. "Malakai," she said, shocked that she was finally able to place a name to his beautiful face as she took his large warm hand in hers, "let's go home."

She could feel the tension in his body, like an electric current running underneath his skin. At this moment, he was completely focused on Theo, and the light in his cat-like green eyes was like fire reflecting off a dagger blade. She didn't recognize him in this mood, didn't know him. He frightened her.

"Malakai," she said, calling to him as if she were lost in fog and couldn't find him. "Malakai, please."

And slowly, slowly, she felt him respond. She heard him breathe and felt his body go off alert, clicking down to some lower energy level. The deadly concentration of his mind was diverted and he looked at her, and saw her.