27. Zeph
ZEPH
It wasa testament to humanity that no one seemed to notice or care that I carried an unconscious female through the streets of New York City. There were a few glances here and there, but not a single human tried to stop me or raise questions.
Which was precisely why I chose Manhattan to lie low.
“Good evening, sir,” the doorman greeted me as I approached the familiar residential building. I’d spent a good portion of the last year here before returning to the Academy. No one really knew about this place, aside from Kols. He knew I enjoyed hiding here, mostly because of the added convenience of available blood walking around everywhere.
“Is everything all right?” the doorman asked, eyeing Aflora in my arms.
Of all the mortals, of course this one would ask. “She’s fine, just had a bit too much to drink. Bringing her back here to sleep it off.”
He nodded solemnly. “Ah, yes. I understand. Good luck, sir.”
“Thank you,” I replied, heading toward the stairwell. My flat was on the third floor, making it easy enough to reach by foot, even with the precious cargo in my arms.
She didn’t stir or make a sound as I walked, her head pillowed against my shoulder as she slept off whatever magic she’d tapped into back at the village. I’d felt the burn of it, the imminent danger surrounding us both, and her mental defensive measures.
It’d all happened so quickly that I hadn’t been prepared to fight, and the next thing I knew, power exploded out of her. My only option was to bite her, to try to ground her. It’d resembled an electrical wire hitting my bloodstream, spiraling me into a dark-magic whirlpool that nearly drowned me alive. Then she surfaced, bringing me up with her, and we were back in the village again.
The whole thing had felt like a dream. But I knew it was real because of the energy humming through the cobblestone street and dancing along the wood beams of the surrounding light-colored buildings. Flares of magic had lit up the night like lanterns, drawing a straight path to Aflora.
I hadn’t waited around to see if anyone else felt the disruption, and instead headed right for the portal to bring her to the Human Realm. We’d stay here until I heard back from Kols—who’d been silent since going into the Council meeting.
Balancing Aflora with one arm, I reached for my wand and muttered an unlocking spell at my door. It opened with a slight creak to reveal my one-bedroom home.
The interior didn’t boast elegance or wealth, the kitchen being sorely outdated compared to the Academy accommodations, but I rather preferred this place to my Elite Residence suite. Mostly because it was mine.
I’d purchased it using my credits as a Guardian to the Nacht family. The credits could be traded in for human cash at an exorbitant amount—a good thing because owning a place in New York City required a lot of mortal money.
I kicked my door closed behind me with the heel of my boot, then took Aflora into my bedroom to lay her on the bed. Her blue-black hair sprawled beautifully across my dark green pillows, her face holding a pale glow that reminded me of the Midnight Fae moon.
Gorgeous,I thought, smiling down at her. Then I carefully removed her knee-high boots and set them in the corner of my walk-in closet. Her cloak was next—which I hung beside mine. They weren’t normal accessories in the Human Realm, but no one had seemed to notice. I slipped off my own shoes, placed them beside hers, and returned to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear.
“Be back in a few minutes,” I whispered, kissing her forehead. I could feel her slowly slipping back into consciousness and wanted to be prepared to welcome her back to reality.
Since I’d left all our food back at the village, I opted to whip up a few things for us in the kitchen. It required a bit of magic, as my fridge and shelves were pretty empty—I lived primarily on blood when I visited the city—but I managed to create some of those mouseberries Aflora kept talking about.
She was awake when I returned to the bedroom, her gaze on the windows that broadcast boring views of the residential building across the street.
I liked Upper Manhattan for the location, not so much for the scenery.
Her nose twitched as I approached, her focus shifting to the plates in my hands. “What happened?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
I set the plates down on my nightstand, then magicked a cup of water for her and held it to her lips for a sip. “I’m not sure, but I think you saved our asses in the village,” I told her.
She took the glass and drank half the contents in one go.
“Someone or something attacked us, and you fought back.” Or I thought that was what had happened. “Do you remember it?”
She appeared to fall into her thoughts for a moment, her throat working as she finished the drink. A spell refilled it for her, something she seemed to appreciate given the glimmer in her blue irises. “I felt him,” she finally said after finishing the second cup of water. “He… he was there.” She brought her hand up to her neck, frowning as she felt the healing mark against her skin. “Did you bite me?”
“Yes,” I admitted, taking her glass and setting it on the nightstand. “You were buzzing with power, like that time in the LethaForest.” I sat on the edge of the bed near where she lay on her side. My knuckles whispered over her cheekbone to her throat. “I had to call you back to me, Aflora. The energy seemed like it was going to swallow you whole.”
She frowned, making me wonder if I’d done the wrong thing. I was the one she hadn’t yet accepted as hers, and I supposed she could see my actions as a way of forcing her hand—a common male behavior of Midnight Fae kind.
“I… I had to anchor you, Aflora,” I said, uncertain of how to explain it. “I could feel you slipping away, almost as if another entity had forced the power to explode out of you. If you erupted in the village, fae would have died. It was the best way to protect you, as well as the others.”
Her blue eyes flickered with confusion as she met my gaze. “Did you not want to bite me?”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” I palmed the back of my neck, frustrated.
Why is this so damn difficult?I wondered. Probably because I never cared what a woman truly thought of me before. Really, I rarely cared what anyone thought of me. But Aflora was different. I needed to win her over for reasons I didn’t quite understand. They went deeper than our bond. Like my very spirit required her approval, yet I had no idea how to acquire it.
“Zeph,” she said, reaching out to lay a hand on my forearm. “Do you regret mating me? Is that why you’ve been distant all week?”
“What? No.” Fuck, what a shit show. “This whole situation is so far outside my comfort zone, it’s… I don’t know how to handle it.” And that was the rub right there, the reason this mess infuriated me.
I couldn’t control the outcome.
“I lead,” I told her. “It’s who I am. I make decisions every day. Everything I do is driven by logic. But none of my training has prepared me properly for…” For you, I wanted to say but wisely chose not to.
I blew out a breath, released my neck, and dropped my head into my hands. I was totally fucking this up. And I hated that I had no idea what to say.
“Talking isn’t my strength,” I admitted. “Neither is giving up control.”
This seemed ridiculous. Fretting over the bullshit would get us nowhere. So I’d just be blunt. She might not like it, but it would be better than dancing around these asinine thoughts.
“I’ve never agreed with the Midnight Fae mentality associated with mating,” I told her. “But I never really cared too much because I never intended to take a mate. I’m independent and I do my own thing. However, you changed that, and now I’ve bitten you twice without your permission. Which is technically fine by our societal laws, but that doesn’t mean I feel right about it.”
My logical side argued that it wasn’t convenient at all, more of a burden. Especially considering the consequences of that action.
But that was all beside the point.
“Anyway, you chose Kols with your earth magic. You even chose Shade by biting him. Yet I essentially forced myself on you. Yeah, it was for the right reasons in the end, but that doesn’t change the circumstances for biting you.”
Okay. I was done rambling now. It left me feeling vulnerable and weak, two adjectives that were very much not me. And I sort of hated that Aflora drew that side out of me.
Avoiding relationships had worked well for me.
Maybe I’d go back to that.
Leave Kols and Shade to handle Aflora, protect them all from afar, and just?—
“Zeph,” Aflora said, her hand curling around my wrist to tug my hand away from my face. “Look at me.”
I was tempted to glare at her in response but chose not to make this worse and gave her my attention instead. She studied my expression, her lips curling at whatever she saw there. Probably a scowl because this was fucking uncomfortable.
“I think that’s the most emotion you’ve ever displayed in my presence.” She sounded amused, which only made me want to glower again. But she distracted me with her tits as she sat up, her sweater stretching deliciously across her chest.
Removing her cloak had been a fantastic idea.
Actually, no. I should have just taken everything off.
“You made me mouseberries?” she asked, gaping at the plates on the nightstand.
“Don’t get too excited,” I cautioned her. “Pretty sure they’re just mustard berries or something.”
She snorted. “You know what they’re called.”
“Do I?” I asked innocently. “Huh. Well, I guess you’ll have to taste them and find out if I did it right.” I knew I had, as they were pretty much the same thing as sour green grapes, but I enjoyed teasing her anyway.
She flashed me an amused smile that made my heart race. Aflora was a gorgeous woman, but when she smiled at me like that, I forgot how to think.
Because I’d made her happy.
A rarity, it seemed. But for a brief moment, I’d pleased her, and that made me want to puff up in pride.
Kols would laugh hysterically at the sight. Fortunately, he wasn’t here to witness it.
Aflora took the plate, settled it into her lap, and propped her back up against the headboard. “All right, Headmaster. Let’s see if your chef skills measure up, shall we?” She waggled her brows at me playfully, then lifted the loaf to her mouth and took a sensual bite.
Well, it was sensual to me, anyway. Hell, everything she did with her lips and tongue seemed to hypnotize me.
And that moan she released after tasting the food I’d prepared?
Yeah, that was hot, too.
I adjusted myself on the bed, my jeans suddenly a little too tight, and busied myself by eating the loaf off the other plate. It was okay. Sort of like having a sour fruit salad in a soggy tortilla. Not my favorite, but I knew better than to voice an opinion out loud on the topic.
“So where are we?” she finally asked, glancing out the window again.
“New York City,” I told her.
“In the Human Realm?”
While she voiced it as a rhetorical question, I responded with a nod. “Yeah. We’re lying low until we know what the Council meeting was about. And, well, also until we know if anyone noticed what happened in the village.” Because that could go bad quickly if anyone witnessed that explosion of power.
She visibly shivered but indulged in another bite.
A comfortable silence fell between us while we finished our meal, her gaze far away with thoughts I couldn’t hear. We needed to discuss what happened, but I wouldn’t push her.
Instead, I considered an alternative that might provide us both with a necessary reprieve from all the chaos surrounding our lives.
“Do you want to see Central Park? It’s only a few blocks away from here and should be pretty empty because of the late hour.” I checked my watch. “Actually, I think it closes to the public soon as well, or might already be closed. We’ll just enchant a guard or something.”
“Central Park?” she repeated, her eyes lighting up. “I’ve never been.”
I figured as much. “I’m sure it’s not the same as the Earth Fae Kingdom, but it’s probably more similar to it than our version of nature in the Midnight Fae realm.”
Her lips twitched. “Yours is about as opposite as you can get with black grass and burning trees.”
“Charcoal blades are not grass.”
“Oh, I know,” she said empathetically. “They’re closer to knives.”
I smirked. “Not like knives either.”
“Sure.” She set her empty plate to the side. “Do you want to go now?”
Given the eagerness pouring off her, I suspected a negative reply would upset her. Not that I wanted to refuse her. Actually, I rather liked the idea of making her smile again. “Sure,” I replied, placing my dish on top of hers. “We’ll need coats instead of cloaks, just to better fit in. Let me see what I can find.”
Aflora released a small chirping sound that had me glancing over my shoulder at her. She had her hands clasped in her lap like she wanted to clap them together, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
I arched a brow. “If all it takes is the mention of a park to earn your happiness, then I should do all right with this mate shit.”
She snorted. “I have a feeling there will be a lot of parks in our future, Zeph. With comments like that, you’ll be apologizing to me all the time.”
“Probably,” I admitted, but I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading over my lips. “Sometimes I’ll make it a little more interesting, though.”
“Yeah? Like how?” she asked, genuinely curious.
“Make-up sex, Aflora,” I told her. “I hear it’s fun. We’ll try it sometime.” I winked at her and left her gaping at me from the bed as I wandered into the living area to find some jackets.
This whole “normal activity” thing would be fun.
We’d have to try it more often.