Live Like Legends (LIVING LEGEND #3)

Chapter 4

T he inside of Natalia’s home was massive, yet it still gave off the warmth of a smaller more intimate residence. The inside was colored light pink and beige. Large columns flanked a grand staircase that resided in the middle of the foyer. The stairs were graced with a cream-colored runner that looked soft enough to sleep on. Lights twinkled from above us, intricately placed so that the light was even on all ends of the room.

I twirled around, trying not to miss a single thing. “This is incredible.”

Natalia giggled. “Thank you. I like it very much. I redecorated a bit after my mother passed, but most of it is still her original designs.”

Enchanters passed by us, as if we were invisible. They moved at a speed I didn’t think angelically possible, but I assumed they worked here, so I could get behind getting the job done. Reese had wandered in another direction, and I really wanted to see what else this place had to offer, but I could feel Dani’s eyes on me. I glanced over to her, which confirmed my suspicions. Her eyes looked me up and down, but it wasn’t in the way I liked; it wasn’t in the way that told me she was very eager to have my hands on her or for me to be inside of her.

No, this look had skepticism written all over it. I didn’t know how to explain to the woman that happened to have my entire heart in a chokehold that she occasionally burned me during sex. It could happen other times, I’m sure, but for now that particular new Dani feature had only happened during intimate times. That was partly why she was staring me down, but the other reason was for me to deal with on my own. My father had to go to the back of my mind, especially with Ariel now on more of a power trip than I originally thought.

I looked away from Dani when Natalia stopped an Enchanter in their tracks. “Where are you taking that?” Natalia pointed to whatever was in the girl’s hand.

The girl’s voice was shaky and timid as she looked up at her queen. “Um, you told us to give them whatever they needed.”

The High Priestess gave her a tight-lipped smile before gently removing whatever she had from her hands. I heard the slosh of liquid, craning my neck to finally see a bottle of alcohol. “You are not in trouble Sarah, please go back to your duties.”

The Enchanter quickly bowed her head, looking around at us and then darted off. Zane walked over to her, grabbing the bottle and huffed. The large Enchanter began to read the bottle’s label. “At least she picked a good one.”

Dani chuckled. “Oh, did you just make a joke, tough guy.”

Zane raised an eyebrow at her but turned to Natalia. “I’ll return this to the kitchen.”

“Elise?” I questioned, smirking.

Natalia fluffed out her long, maroon colored dress. “She hasn’t changed, that I can assure you.” She turned around, walking up the stairs. “Come, we have much to discuss it seems and I’m sure a nice little reunion is well overdue.”

Once we were at the top of the stairs, we followed Natalia past a few doors until we got to a large room that held multiple couches, a day bed and bookcases that looked as if they had never seen a days’ worth of dust. The ground was covered in oakwood and a glass coffee table was placed in the middle of the room atop a rectangular lilac rug with silver tassels. I was so busy surveying the room that I hardly noticed who was in it.

Beetee sprang up from her place on one of the couches and ran over to me. She embraced me in a hug that almost sent me into the wall. I laughed as she held onto me but hugged her back. Over her shoulder I saw Elise sprawled out on another couch and Garrett looking out one of the windows near the side of the room.

The pink-haired demon let me go, pulling back to look at me. “Sorry for the abrupt approach.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m happy you’re healed.”

Beetee tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “For the most part. I j—.” She stopped when she locked eyes with something behind me. I swiveled my head to follow her lilac eyes and found Dani watching her as well.

Add this to the list of things that needed to be resolved before Ariel crowned himself leader of his realm.

Beetee rubbed at the back of her neck, her brown skin growing red as she shuffled from foot to foot. “It’s really good to see you again, Soul Seether.”

Dani squinted at her, but then she started rubbing at the back of her neck as well. Was she nervous? “I thought we discussed this whole Soul Seether thing. Dani is perfectly fine.”

Beetee nodded quickly. “Of course, right I forgot. I should have remembered, I’m sorry. Like seriously, I am so, so…”

“Hey, I think she gets it.” I placed my hand on her arm, ceasing her rambling. She winced as if she had severely fucked up.

Dani shook her head, making her way over to us. “The constant apology is going to get really annoying, so let’s cut that off. Actually, without a certain weapon, I don’t even know if Soul Seether is correct anymore.” She ruffled her curls with her fingers, her eyes flicking to mine so quickly that if I hadn’t been looking at her, I would have missed it. “We should talk soon….about…things.”

I could see that Beetee was chewing on the inside of her cheek, more redness blotching her golden brown skin. Her bright yellow dress made the discoloration even more apparent. “Yes, we should.”

“Finally, the gangs all here,” Reese announced, strolling in with an apple in his hand. He brought it to his mouth, taking a large bite. He lifted his chin towards Beetee. “What’s up, reptile queen.”

Beetee rolled her eyes. “That’s still an awful name.”

“Accurate, but yes I agree, awful,” Elise piped up from her place on the couch. She had her arm flung over her face, so she hid her eyes. Dani shuffled over to her, lifting her foot and kicking Elise’s thigh.

“Fuck what the hell…”

“Look alive, you asshole.” Dani laughed as she walked over to the purple curtains that cover two large glass double doors. She grabbed the curtains and pulled them apart, making sure each side was equally open. Sunlight shined into the room, making everything look more alive. “Much better.”

“Oh, for fucks sake.” Elise grabbed one of the throw blankets from behind the couch and moved it over her eyes. “Can I not have my raging hangover in fucking peace? I’m very happy to see that Nicholas hasn’t ripped you in half with his massive cock already, but like can we move this little meeting until tomorrow?”

“Hangover? They were just about to bring you more alcohol from downstairs,” I pointed out, ignoring her comment. Elise threw the blanket down and gave me a death glare.

“Also, Nick has an average sized dick, it’s not massive,” Reese joked, slapping me on the back. I heard Dani snort from where she was standing near Natalia.

Elise hummed. “You would know that how?” She placed her fist under her chin, her eyebrows raised, challenging my best friend.

Reese opened his mouth to continue this usually normal back and forth of theirs, but we all heard Garrett clear his throat. “I think we should be getting around to talking about what we are here for.”

He was likely around my father’s age, but he looked as if he had aged more in two weeks than any normal entity should. I couldn’t possibly understand what he was going through, and I hadn’t been around the past few weeks to ask him. His voice was the same deep fatherly tone that had us all standing up straight and taking a seat wherever we could find it.

I opened my mouth to say anything, something of merit at this point and time, but he just patted me on the shoulder and pulled me in for a quick hug before settling himself into one of the armchairs. The talk would have to wait.

My eyes quickly searched the room before I found Dani who patted the spot next to her on the couch opposite Elise and Beetee. Natalia chose to stand, leaning her back against one of the bookshelves, while Reese made himself comfortable on one of the couches armrests.

“So, they let you out?” Elise asked as she leaned forward.

“Well…” Dani started.

“Or did you escape? Personally, I prefer knowing you pulled a fast one on that red head buffoon.”

Escape always sounded like an intense word. “It’s not like she was in a prison, Elise.”

The grumpy demon fluttered her eyelashes at me. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure being secluded in your bedroom is just a dream, isn’t it Nicholas.”

I rolled my eyes and felt Dani’s hand land on my thigh. She squeezed and I placed my own hand over hers, not really understanding what she was doing, but any reason to touch her was enough of a reason for me.

“He let me out,” Dani blurted quickly.

Beetee cocked her head to the side. “I haven’t really met the man before, except for super quickly when he scowled at me, but he doesn’t seem like the type to let you out. It’s just so simple.”

I peeked over at Garrett who was running his index finger across his chin, almost in thought. Elise scoffed. “Ariel is a simple man with less than half a brain cell, but there is no way in fuck he just let you out.”

“From what Reese said, he was very adamant on you, oh how did he put it…” Garrett rubbed his lips together. “Staying put and knowing your place.”

I had to remove my hand from Dani’s, or I would have crushed hers. My hand automatically wanted to curl into a fist thinking about all the things Ariel had said under his breath or even in a leveled tone to my face.

Dani nearly growled with frustration. She ripped her hand from my leg and shoved both hands into her curls. She moved the majority of her hair to one side and shot up from the couch. “He let me out under stipulations .” She walked towards the back of the couch, placing her hands on it so she could lean forward. “That smug faced fuck let me out on the conditions of working for him.” Her cheeks were red and so was her chest.

Natalia’s eyebrows raised as she motioned for Beetee to scoot over on the couch. “Let’s start from the beginning.”

Dani, Reese and I all explained what happened, each of us occasionally interrupting the other. Reese balanced his apple core between his hands as the room went silent once we finished.

Elise tapped her fingers against the glass coffee table. Beetee chewed on her bottom lip, twirling her pink hair around her finger.

Garrett cleared his throat. “So, he wants you to learn how to be a full hybrid and harness it, so he can weaponize you? Does he plan to make you go to Purgatory once you’ve figured it out?” There was a tiny sliver of hope in his voice, likely the idea of going back and collecting his family. It wasn’t something I would ever say to him out loud, but as much as I cared for Garrett and his family, I wouldn’t throw Dani into something she wasn’t ready for and potentially lose her.

“I don’t know,” Dani answered, shrugging.

“I have every faith that you can develop them equally, but it does seem a bit presumptuous that he thinks I can manage to teach you anything about that. Does he even understand that learning all of this might take you a while?” Natalia said, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

“I don’t know,” Dani repeated.

“I guess it’s nice that you get to spend so much time in Oculus. Are you going to stay here forever and just be like some kind of hybrid sentry angel, always on alert just in case Lilith catches wind that you’re alive?” Beetee asked, her voice a bit softer than everyone else’s.

“Ugh! I don’t—” Dani’s words were cut off by a loud crash, followed by shattering glass. Everyone shot up from their seats watching as the light from the large glass doors hit the cluster of glass shards, decorating the room in twinkling colors.

“Did you just break my table?” Natalia asked under her breath towards the only person left sitting.

Elise still had her hand over the now destroyed coffee table. She unfurled the fist she made, ignoring Natalia and pointed her finger at me. “You let that overzealous piece of fucking shit force her hand by threatening us ?!” Her voice got louder as she walked around the pile of glass and came up to me, her finger pushing into my chest. “You take your pretty ass right back to Heaven’s Gate and you tell that motherfucker that if he wants to fucking threaten me, then do it to my face. I mean come the fuck on?! Where are your balls?” She looked from me to Reese, who stepped up next to me.

“I didn’t let anything happen. If you haven’t realized, Ariel is a little bit out of fucking control and trying to maintain some level of truth while also keeping a load of information away from him is really fucking exhausting.” I ran a hand through my hair, watching as her facial expression never wavered.

“Am I supposed to be sympathetic to you, Nicholas?” Elise raised one of her dark eyebrows.

“Okay tiny psycho what did you want us to do, fight him? Shit doesn’t work like that here,” Reese explained.

Elise laughed, “oh, and what does? Bending over and taking it?” Beetee let out a small cough at Elise’s blunt comment as she walked past us to the entrance door.

Garrett clearly had all the confidence in the world when he came over and pushed Elise away from us. Her eyes glowed a tiny red before turning back to their gray coloring. “I think everyone here needs a minute. Ariel seems like a piece of work, but maybe the best course of action is letting him think he’s gotten away with something. Those kinds of men always need to feel like they have the upper hand.”

Elise rolled her shoulders and her eyes. “Whatever. At least you’re smart enough to keep your newfound resurrection powers to yourself because I can already tell he’s probably asked about the fucked-up mess that was Purgatory. Nosey little shit.” She reached out and lightly slapped my face. “If I see Ariel, I’ll force feed him his own dick, got it?” If all of this was her way to saying, I care about Dani, so don’t let your leader fuck with her , then she was doing an excellent job. She turned around to the sound of the door opening and Zane rushing inside with Beetee trailing behind him.

“Zane, we’re fine. Just a little err…mishap.” Natalia started picking up more pieces of glass from the floor, but Zane stopped her before she could even attempt to accidentally cut herself.

“Mishap, mmhmm,” he muttered, keeping his eyes clearly on Elise.

“About your powers…” Garrett began, rubbing his hands together. I licked my bottom lip and shook my head. For now, my resurrection powers were off the table, they’d given me Dani back and I was grateful for them, but I honestly didn’t want to think anymore about them.

“We really don’t have to talk about that. You have a lot of things going on already, my issues aren’t your problem.”

Garrett nodded as if he understood, but he still pressed. “There aren’t many out there with these kinds of powers and if you did ever want to understand it, I’m here. The distraction might be, well…” His voice trailed off as he looked towards the window he was previously at.

I gave him the best smile I could. This man made me miss my father and I knew that what he was feeling would be my own father’s exact same feelings if it were me stuck in another realm. Our issues seemed so trivial next to Garrett’s, but on the other hand, I spent almost fifteen years thinking there weren’t any issues at all. If I spoke about the powers then everything else would come up and personally, I wasn’t ready for that. His shoulders were too heavy with his own burdens and my own would not be adding to it.

“I think for now my plate is full dealing with Dani’s—” I turned to look over to her, but she was nowhere to be found. She must have slipped out while Elise was on her tirade, because the room wasn’t big enough for me to just miss…

That’s when I found her. She had opened the doors and was outside on the balcony. She was hanging out near the railing with her back to me. The sunlight framed her so perfectly I could have just stared at her for hours; there was no doubt in my mind that she deserved anything and everything that the realms had to offer. If I didn’t know what was going on with her, I would think she was so calm and serene from where I stood. my heart hurt, knowing how much she was dealing with it and how there wasn’t much I could do about it. Loving her just didn’t seem like enough sometimes.

I gave Garrett one more smile, which he reciprocated, but his particular smile told me that our conversation wasn’t over. I started to make my way over to Dani, but Natalia stepped in front of me. Her honey-colored eyes were soft as she looked over her shoulder at the balcony. “You’ve spent a lot of time with her, Nicholas. Maybe let me give it a try, hmm?”