Chapter 26
ADELINA
Usually, waking up to the sound of birds filled me with a strange kind of sadness. This morning wasn’t like the others. Cezar made things feel different, in a good way.
The door opened abruptly, and there he was. “What are you doing?” I sat up in bed, holding the sheets to my body since I never put any clothes on.
“Fuck, I wanted to get back in here before you woke up. I made breakfast… well, technically, I woke Dorin up and made him make you breakfast because I don’t know how to cook that well. Except for sandwiches, apparently.” He laughed, carrying the tray over to the bed and setting it in front of me.
All of it looked delicious. Dorin was a really good cook. He didn’t get to do it much, and I knew I was going to hear about this later, but it wasn’t me who Cezar woke up.
Cezar sat beside me, munching on some of what he had brought. I was already possessive of my food, even though I didn’t make it and it was hand-delivered. Letting go of the sheets, I moved the tray closer to me and my body further from him. “Ouch.” He snickered, helping himself to more anyway.
“I will bite you.”
“I know. You have. And I want you to again.” He kissed me on the forehead.
I didn’t even know what this life was anymore. It felt like I was playing a different version of myself in someone else’s world.
I could hear humming coming from deep within his core, the same melody as last night.
He was so willing to tell me everything, mostly anyway.
Why was it so hard for me to do the same?
I wasn’t in denial of what I wanted when it came to him.
Even though he was a perv and he wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he was staring at my boobs while I was eating.
“How did you get the name Nycto Reaper anyway?” Cezar was full of curiosity and so many damn questions. “You didn’t… name yourself, did you?” He started laughing at his own audacity.
“No, I did not name myself. What is wrong with you?” I shot him an annoyed glance, savoring the taste of the delectable bacon to mask my irritation.
“A lot is wrong with me, but I am curious.”
“Not sure, eventually it just started circulating. No idea who came up with it.” I shrugged and went on to eat more of the deliciousness.
“I had to look it up. I wasn’t sure what the whole Nycto thing meant. At first, I thought of necro and then necrophilia, and then I was all sorts of disturbed. I mean, I have seen some shit, but that would have been one wild twist with the black roses.”
I was mortified. “What the fuck, Cezar?”
“I’m just saying, obviously, I realized it was short for nyctophobia. Pretty clever if you ask me. Think we could find who named you?”
“I am not a dog. I don’t care who came up with the name. I guess it fits. Doesn’t matter to me.”
“You say that a lot, you know? Doesn’t matter. Sometimes, I know you are telling the truth. Sometimes, I think you are lying. Trying to hide the fact that it does matter. I get it. Fuck emotions, right? They make us weak.”
I hated the part of me that understood exactly what he meant. Maybe that was why I kept trying to outrun mine.
“I should get going.” I started grabbing my stuff so I could once again leave for a mission that may be my last. This time, I felt the need to stay at this safe house that had started to become home.
Cezar stopped me in my tracks, grabbing my arm and twisting me around to face him. Anger flashed in his eyes, a side of him I hadn’t witnessed before. “You’re not seriously thinking of going there, knowing what they’ve done?”
I freed my arm from his grasp. I didn’t even need to question how he knew where we were headed. He was always one step ahead. “Yes, I am. The deal has to be stopped. Their past deeds don’t matter. This is what needs to happen.”
He tried to grab me again.
“Don’t, Cezar.”
And just like that, he stopped. Not sure why he cared so much. Everything would probably be fine.
“I just… what if you get hurt?” There it was. He was worried. The tone, the look on his face—his body showed the underlying fear.
But why?
“Are you worried about me?” I questioned with a raised brow.
“How could I not be?”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything at all.
It was one thing to think the way I did, and the way I knew he did, but to say such things out loud, to almost promise that things could be different.
No one should make promises they couldn’t keep.
I grabbed my stuff, got dressed, and was out the door before I could dwell on any of it.
By the time Dorin came outside, I was already waiting in the car.
“Is he going to stay there and wait for you? Did you instruct him to?” Dorin asked at the door when he noticed me. Then he laughed, teasing me further. “You feel all right? Your cheeks are red.”
“Yeah, I am fine. Let’s just get this over with.”
I hoped Cezar was still there when we got back.