“What was so important that he had to talk with you?”

Trik stopped and his eyes met hers. He stepped up and cupped her face in his hands. He was so close that she could feel his breath on her face. His scent surrounded her and she fought the urge to seek refuge in his arms. “It’s best if you didn’t know.”

Cassie’s lips tensed in a straight line as she tried to step away from him, but he refused to release her.

He shook his head. “I told you I would never let you go.”

“Even if I want you to?” She asked quietly.

“You don’t want me to,” he told her with complete confidence.

“Is it going to harm people? What does your King want to do? Are you going to have to kill someone?” Cassie’s eyes implored him to say no; she needed him to say no.

He dropped his hands to her waist and pulled her closer to him. He saw her needs in his mind as he touched her, needs that he didn’t know if he could meet.

“Please don’t ask this of me Cassie. You know what I am.”

Cassie glared at him. She would not let him off that easily.

“I know that you have a choice. Regardless of what you were born into, you have a choice.”

“It’s not that simple,” he pleaded.

“We are the ones who complicate things, Trik. You either choose what’s right or what’s wrong. What is not simple about that?”

“I have responsibilities that I can’t turn from. My loyalty is to my King and my race,” Trik’s voice was growing into a frustrated growl.

Cassie pushed away from him. His hands dropped to his sides.

“You just met me,” she told him. “I don’t expect you to suddenly switch your loyalty to me, Trik. I still don’t understand all that is going on between us, but I know that I care for you. I care about what happens to you and I’m telling you that if you continue down the dark road you have been on for so long, it’s going to destroy you. You may be a dark elf, you may be an assassin, but you aren’t evil.”

Trik snorted, “Please, Arwenamin. Don’t romanticize me. Whatever good was in me, if ever there was any, was snuffed out long ago.”

“I don’t believe that.” Her hands fisted at her sides and she challenged him with her stare. “If that were true, then I would feel nothing for you.”

“If what you say is true, if there is any light left in me, then how come I am willing to steal you away against your will?” He watched the shock and then fear flash across her face.

“That’s who I am, Cassie. Something pure and good has landed in my lap, my Chosen. I never thought I would ever find you, but now that I have nothing will take you from me, not even your desire to leave me.”

“I never said that I didn’t want to be withyou,” she said quickly.

“I see the disgust in your eyes when you talk of what I am,” he spat at her.

“Not disgust at you, Trik. Disgust at what you have had to do? Yes. Whether you admit it or not, the things you have had to do have left holes in you. It’s eating away at you. I’m disgusted at the King who would care so little for you and allow you, even order you, to do such things.”

“YOU AREN’T LISTENING!” Trik yelled, causing Cassie to jump.

“I have enjoyed it, Cassandra! I like the kill. I like proving myself better than my adversary. It is in my nature to destroy things.” He turned from her, trying to gather his composure, not wanting to scare her any further. “I should let you go . I should leave and never look back. I will wind up destroying you.” His words were a whisper on the air, but Cassie heard them and felt the pain of them in her chest.

Cassie started to speak but he cut her off. “I have some things to take care of. I just came back to make sure you were alright. I need you to be okay with me going or else you will be in pain.”

“Are you coming back?” She asked him, trying to cover up the desperation she was feeling.

Trik closed the space between them and grabbed her face, pulling her to his own. He kissed her firmly, possessively. Cassie opened her mouth and let him deepen the kiss. His tongue brushed against hers and she felt her knees weaken. Trik wrapped an arm around her waist, supporting her as he continued to kiss her. Cassie once again felt the pull that was becoming all too familiar. She heard Trik groan into her mouth and suddenly felt cold metal behind her. Trik had pushed her back against the lockers and she hadn’t even realized they had been moving.

Trik had never felt anything better than his Chosen’s lips against his own. He nipped at her bottom lip playfully and pulled back from her mouth only to continue nipping and kissing her across her jaw and down her neck. He heard a gasp from her and felt her breath quicken against his cheek. He needed to stop, but he didn’t. He kissed her lower and when his teeth grazed her collarbone; her passionate whimper finally had him pulling back. When a woman makes a sound like that a man can do one of two things; push forward knowing she was beyond the point of saying no, or be a gentleman and step back. Trik had never been a gentleman, but then Cassie brought all sorts of things out of him that he never knew himself to be capable of.

He lifted his head to look at her face. Her lips were swollen and red, glistening from his kiss. Her eyes were half closed, clouded with pleasure and her chest rose and fell quickly as she tried to regulate her breathing. She was breathtaking, Trik thought to himself. Her lips rose into a sultry smile and Trik quickly pushed away from her. He needed some space between them before he threw her on the floor and…