Chapter 12 – Xander
“ I ’m going, and you can’t stop me.”
Evangeline stands in the kitchen, dressed in scrubs, with her hands on her hips.
It’s been two weeks since she found out her mother’s a witch and something evil is out to kill her to end my reign. Evangeline took time off work—and I didn’t even have to beg her—stating personal reasons, and we’ve been taking time getting to know each other.
And having a lot of sex.
She’s yet to accept the bond. I don’t want to rush her. It’s a big decision, and her abusive marriage is the one thing keeping her from making it. Plus, it’s only been two weeks. For humans, it’s inconceivable to fall in love within that amount of time. They’re not as open when it comes to accepting the magic and the unexplainably intense attraction that comes with the bond.
For me, I grew up dreaming about this moment. I’d been expecting it and hoping for it. I knew since the night we met that she would be my forever.
Our need for each other grows stronger every day, and we can barely keep our hands off each other. But it’s also putting us both on edge. We fight almost as much as we fuck.
Like right now.
She wants to go back to work, but her shift begins and ends in sunlight. There will be at least an hour before and after when she is without my or Locheran’s protection.
“I’m going crazy, Xander. I need to get out of the penthouse,” she whines.
“Then I will take you anywhere you want to go. What about a date? A redo of the night we met. I’ll take you to my favorite Italian restaurant, and we’ll order everything on the menu. Then we’ll go on a walk along the Hudson River. I could fly us high into the sky, and we can star gaze until the sun begins to wake.”
Her anger subsides, and she walks to where I stand. I’ve just woken up to find Evangeline dressed in her scrubs. We had plans today to join Locheran to scour her mother’s journal entries. We’ve spent the last couple weeks trying to decipher any clues from the stories.
She was right about it having every detail, but the journal is written in a way that makes no sense. They’re riddles, and I’ve always hated riddles. Even Evangeline mentioned how they weren’t the same stories her mother shared, and they couldn’t provide us with any new information about the evil threatening my reign.
I’m agitated and worried. My tail must give me away because she grabs it as it flickers back and forth. She kisses the tip. Her favorite part, which gives her immense pleasure when we make love.
“I want the sun on my face,” she says and pouts. “Look at how pale I am. I need vitamin D.”
I hold back the joke on my tongue about giving her all the ‘D’ she could want because she’s upset with me. Frustrated, for sure. I understand. We’ve barely left one another’s side since the night we met. I’ve been hesitant to take her out of the penthouse and into public where danger lurks around every corner.
It hasn’t been an issue up until this point as we’ve been too preoccupied exploring each other’s bodies.
But she’s restless .
“I’ll be fine. I have the tattooed heathers. I have the hexafoil to protect me until you or Locheran or whoever you send in to watch over me arrives after the sun sets.”
We’ll have to pose as medical staff. Not ideal, but she threatened to leave me if I didn’t let her go back to work. She didn’t believe her own words. I know she doesn’t want to leave me. It’s not like she’s a prisoner here. She knows she can leave whenever she wants. I’m merely trying to convince her to never go back to work, to let me take care of her and spoil her until the end of time. She never has to worry about money ever again.
It was the wrong thing to offer because Evangeline is an independent woman. She’s no longer the wife whose ex-husband controlled every decision she made. He hated that she worked, and I don’t want to be that man.
“Kitten, you never have to ask my permission for anything. I just worry, and no matter what you decide or where you plan to go, I will have someone there watching over you. If I lose you...”
“You won’t.”
She smooths her palms over my chest, and I snatch them to place a kiss in the middle of each one. The hexafoil glows every time I do that. She rises on her tiptoes, and I lean in to claim her soft lips. She keeps the kiss short, and I whine when she pulls away .
“My sweet king. You will not lose me.”
I lift her off the ground, and she wraps her short legs around my waist. I carry her over to the island and set her on top.
“I don’t like it, but you are in control here,” I say and press my lips against her neck. She sighs at the burst of lust that shoots through her body, something that’s been happening more frequently. It’s the bond tempting us—begging us to complete it. “You are not bound by me or my rules.” A kiss along her jaw. “But I do plan on having a couple of my human assistants, who help me out during daylight hours, be with you at the beginning of your shift.”
I lay her back onto the counter, prepared to take her pants off, when the door opens and Locheran stops in his tracks.
“Dammit. I took a gamble not calling before showing up.” He walks in and closes the door. “But now that I’m here, what’s for breakfast?”
I hold up a finger, about to say Evangeline is for breakfast, but she slaps her palm over my mouth.
“Xander was just about to make breakfast burritos,” she says and wiggles off the island.
“Hell yeah!” Locheran walks to the coffeemaker to start a pot of Joe .
“Make yourself at home, why don’t you,” I grumble and get to work, because apparently, I’m making breakfast burritos.
“Are you excited to go back to—holy shit, get this thing away from me.”
Birdie has jumped onto the counter where Locheran stands making coffee and rubs up against him.
“Aww, she likes you,” Evangeline says.
“This is unsanitary. Her paws walk around in her toilet.”
“It’s called a litter box and disinfectant is a thing.”
“Cat people. I swear.”
“You swear, what, Locheran?”
I chuckle at my kitten’s banter with my best friend. The two have quickly become close like siblings. They remind me of the verbal fights I’d have with my own brother.
Evangeline and I have shared a lot over these past two weeks, including more stories about my childhood. I told Evangeline how I haven’t seen my mother or father since the 1600s and the only communication I have with them now is through a phone call or text.
I explained that I used to be close with Magnus and Elara growing up because our parents were always busy. We relied on each other until we were forced to grow up the moment we turned eighteen and joined our father’s army .
Then I was sent here to rule New York City, and we grew apart, now more like strangers than brothers and sister. Which is why I was surprised when Elara requested to join my army three years ago.
I shared a lot of my experiences living in Paris and the battles I fought. Me talking about killing evil beings with nothing but a sword or my fangs often ended with Evangeline aroused and on top of me, sinking her wet pussy down onto my cock.
She told me about growing up in a small town in Upstate New York, meeting her best friend in second grade and then her ex in high school. She went to SUNY’s College of Nursing in Syracuse, and her ex went to Cornell an hour away. She talked about how he slowly lost interest in her, and she suspected he cheated.
I still plan to kill that man if he ever sets foot in this city.
I’m doing my best to undo the damage he did to her confidence and sexuality. Every day, I make sure Evangeline knows she deserves to be cherished. I not only worship her body, but that beautiful, smart mind of hers as well.
Any free moment I’ve had these past two weeks was spent with her.
Of course, I had royal obligations that took me away. Some nights, I’d be gone until dawn, inspecting barriers and keeping them maintained. They’re becoming weaker the closer I get to my one thousandth birthday. We’ve had a handful of demons slip through because of this, but they were quickly caught and imprisoned.
Most of the evil we encounter every day is not strong enough to bring down my kingdom like vampires who fall to blood lust and go on killing sprees. Just a few weeks ago, the vampire queen called on us to help track down an elder vamp gone rogue. He threatened the secrecy of supernatural beings by leaving bodies drained of blood for any human to find. The queen’s advisor contacted me a couple of days ago saying our services were no longer needed, meaning he’s either been caught...or killed.
“I’ll send Elara ahead of us once the sun sets,” Locheran says, and I realize I’ve tuned out the conversation.
“I get to see your sister today?” Evangeline asks.
She’s been dying to make friends with my sister, but Elara’s been away on vacation for nearly two weeks now, visiting my parents and brother in Paris. She got back yesterday.
“She’ll be helping us out at the hospital during your shift,” Locheran adds.
Her eyes light up, and I can already see all the questions she’s wanting to ask my sister.
Elara is going to hate it, which amuses me to no end .
Once I finish preparing the breakfast burritos, we all eat in silence, savoring the meal and fueling up on coffee. At a quarter to seven, Evangeline leaves for her overnight shift.
I stand at the windows of my penthouse, watching the sun set through the UV protective glass. It’s slow and torturous and, before now, I’ve never cared how fast the sun faded to night.
I’ve been texting Josh and Gary—my human assistants—for updates ever since my kitten left. They’ve been answering in a timely manner, but unease refuses to leave my body. My chest aches with anxiety. As I become weaker, I grow more concerned that I won’t be able to rightfully defend this city if a threat were to arise.
Evil is breathing down my neck.
When the sun’s final ray disappears, Locheran bursts through my door.
“I’ve figured it out,” he says and slams the journal down on the kitchen island. “We need to break Evangeline’s mother out of the hospital.”
“What are you talking about?”
He flips through the pages until reaching an entry halfway through. He taps on the paper. “The story about the woman lost in the woods, lured by the evil that wants to steal her soul. The journal says she falls in love with the sun and is saved from the darkness. I don’t think it means the literal sun. When Evangeline’s mother gave her the mark of protection, she told her it would give her light.”
“Evangeline didn’t mention her mother saying this. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know, but I think that mark is going to need to be...activated or something.”
“And we do that how?”
“Again, I don’t know, which is why we need to break out Evangeline’s mother and bring her here.”
I pick up the journal and skim the words. My mind reels, but what Locheran is saying makes sense. I’m not about to question the one and only lead we have to understanding the writings of a witch and seer.
“Do it. Go now.”
“I thought you’d say that. Elara should be with Evangeline now. Thorne will meet you on the hospital’s roof.”
We leave the penthouse and take the elevator to the building’s rooftop. Locheran launches north, heading to the institution to retrieve Evangeline’s mother, and I fly a few blocks away to the hospital. I land on the helipad where Thorne is waiting.
He’s one of my best soldiers and intimidating as hell. He’s got battle scars all over his dark purple body, including one diagonal across his face when a soul-sucking demon tried to slice him with a warspear. He was sick for months with iron poisoning.
His midnight hair is braided down to his lower back, and he’s as tall as me but with more muscles, which is saying something, because I’m the biggest gargoyle king in history.
Once our human forms are intact, we take the elevator down to the emergency department on the first floor. It’s a busy night and people are everywhere, running around and attending to patients.
“Do you see Evangeline? Or Elara?”
“No,” Thorne grunts. “Do you sense her?”
I close my eyes. Sensing my mate when we haven’t completed the bond is difficult but not impossible. That invisible string that tethers our souls constantly tugs at my heart when she’s not nearby.
“I cannot sense her.” I clutch my chest and fall to my knees. “I actually think I might be having a heart attack.”
Thorne pulls me to my feet and sets me on a chair so as not to draw attention to ourselves.
I’m struggling to breathe.
“She’s...she’s gone. I think they got her.”