Chapter 6 #3
I considered how to phrase what I was going to say and then tilted my head, pretending I wasn’t embarrassed while staring ahead at the silver doors. “It wasn’t exactly his fault, anyway. I sort of asked him to do it…”
“You asked him to lick you?” Zain mused, causing me to look up at the ceiling, willing myself to not be embarrassed.
“Something like that,” I muttered, remembering I wasn’t positive what I wanted besides his lips on me. “I even used the word ‘please,’ so we can’t really blame him.”
“Holy shit.” Zain chuckled authentically as Blackwell froze next to me. Razar let out a rumble as he muttered something under his breath that sounded almost tortured.
“You said ‘please Cy, lick me’?” Damian rounded me as his smile grew, an excitement dancing in his gaze.
“I didn’t specify, but I very much wanted his mouth on me,” I bit out, feeling ten shades of red. Impressive, I know, and it probably looked great with my hair. “I also said I liked being under him.” I muttered that last part as the doors opened, Damian looking thrilled beyond measure.
“Holy fuck.” He turned, striding out of the elevator. “You’re right, cherry blossom—I can’t blame the man either. If you said ‘Damian, I want to be underneath you with your tongue on me, pretty please,’ I wouldn’t even bother to fucking fight that shit—”
“Damian,” Razar snarled, his voice turning rough.
The heir of Hell put his hands out, walking backwards down the hall. “What?! I’m not going to lie. I mean, fuck, Razar, imagine that.”
No seriously, please imagine it, because I was now.
“Ignore him,” Blackwell demanded softly, his eyes on my expression as I looked up and shrugged, secretly loving Damian’s words.
“It doesn’t matter.” I waved it off for now, but I tucked that away, hoping that meant Damian found me as attractive as I found him. “I need to find Cy so I can apologize.”
“Bella, you don’t ever need to apologize to someone, let alone a nightmare who had the pleasure of being on top— Fuck!” Zain groaned as Blackwell hit him on the back of the head, Razar chucking next to me and making me grin.
“Wait, where is Amun?” I asked, frowning.
“Went with Saint to catch up with Cy,” Damian hedged. Crap.
“You let Saint and Amun go somewhere alone?” I shot all of them a look, and Zain had the decency to at least wince. I muttered a curse, hurrying down the hallway faster, until I came to the large archway of the stunning main foyer. This day was just turning into a bit of a hot mess, wasn’t it?
The institute’s main foyer was empty with the exception of a large modern chandelier that reflected light on the landscape of dark marble and iron.
I quickly made my way across the large room, my heels clicking along as I ignored the guards that stood at the front, their bodies tensing at the men behind me.
All nightmares had the potential to be dangerous…
but then there was my team. I found a bit of pride in how terrifying they were perceived, I couldn’t lie.
I knew how important that was in nightmare culture.
As I walked out the front door of the institute, my eyes darted across the manicured front lawn and gray skies.
Was it about to storm? I hoped not. I began cursing my shorter human legs as I walked down a path towards a large training yard located on the side of the impressive gothic structure.
Luckily, before long, I was rounding the massive building’s corner as my eyes narrowed on the scene in front of me.
The institute grounds as a whole consisted of a several-mile-wide perimeter, with the main building at the very center of it.
The beautiful manicured grounds towards the center consisted of my garden, housing for some families that worked here, and training grounds, but the further out you traveled every which way, a thick, dark forest grew, acting as a natural protective barrier.
It made it almost appear as if you could just walk right out of the forest and find yourself here.
But you couldn’t. Security was tight, and military-like walls, equipped with nightmare security teams, surrounded the entire fortress to keep humans away and prevent them from causing chaos.
To say this place was safe and well guarded was the understatement of the century.
It also allowed for privacy so that nightmares could train in their true forms without fear of humans exploiting them through pictures or the media.
If you think I’m being dramatic, then just look to the human news van that tried to drive through our gate just the other month or when some rogue humans attempted to bomb the back wall of our home.
No, this security was very much needed. Plus, in order to train as nightmares did, you needed massive amounts of space, similar to the current training yard I was making my way towards.
It was one of our main ones, a fenced sandy area surrounded by bleachers for other nightmares to watch if they weren’t busy throughout the day.
Sometimes new recruits were brought here to watch the more experienced teams practice.
It also usually showed them that they didn’t have to be afraid of training to their full extent.
Most nightmares were used to holding back, and that wasn’t something we encouraged here.
Right now, though? I found myself scowling at all the bastards sitting in the stands, gawking at a shifted Cy, who appeared to be listening to a fairly frustrated Saint.
My gaze moved over towards Amun, who was slouched against the fence, watching the two of them with a fairly curious and content expression.
His lip was bleeding, and I could see bruising on his jaw, making me wonder how he wasn’t more pissed.
Maybe he was even crazier than the men on this team…
because that was all we needed right now.
Christ. I honestly was just glad to see Saint had kept his word and not killed him.
“Don’t.” I slammed my badge up against the gate, offering Razar a semi-sympathetic look as I darted away from his attempt to pull me back. I drew attention from everyone, including Saint and the massive basilisk in the center of the training ground, feeling far better now that I had eyes on Cy.
“Flower.” Saint flashed a smile. I saw Amun straighten up fully, suddenly looking more tense as I walked across the sand of the training grounds, kicking off my heels so I could walk easier.
“Can we get the others out of here?” As I looked around, eyes averted from me in the stands, making me a bit annoyed, frankly. What had I ever done to them? I knew it wasn’t because they were scared of me, either. I considered myself a very friendly person! So why were they acting like I wasn’t?
Man. Today was not my day.
Saint examined my expression and disappeared suddenly in a cloud of black smoke as I moved forward, needing to be as close as possible to Cy.
The massive snake was now coiled with his head down, watching me with familiar silver eyes that were easily the size of my actual body, if not larger.
My skin tingled, but instead of feeling uneasy at his possibly dangerous gaze, I felt worried about the darkness I could see there. I could tell he was upset.
“Precious.” Amun’s voice rang out, his concern palpable. Cute. I couldn’t lie, it made me smile a bit and feel warm inside.
I know, I was such a softie for my monsters.
Cy let out a low hiss as I ignored my mummy for now, knowing that my attention could start a dominance battle between Cy and him. Also, had I said my mummy? Whoa man, I clearly was feeling territorial today. What was going on with me?
I stepped closer and didn’t hesitate to immediately run a hand over the hot, dry scales of his face, not caring about his massive fangs or the hiss in his throat that rumbled the ground underneath us.
Seeing him in the light of day really just emphasized how large he was, and it was hard to keep focused on what I needed to get out once that sense of awe invaded my chest
“Cy, what happened earlier was not on you,” I promised in a gentle tone. “You don’t need to be out here beating yourself up about it.”
A soft, low hiss broke from his mouth as I leaned against him and continued to soothe him gently. “Please, please, please don’t feel bad about this. Neither of us could have known that was how I would have reacted to your tongue on me.”
Despite my blush, it was far easier to have this conversation with him in this form than in his human one.
I wasn’t even embarrassed because of what this conversation was about, but more about how I had literally asked him to do so.
Admitting that was both essential and making me feel like a needy bitch, frankly.
After a moment, his entire frame seemed to shudder, and I jumped back as pale green smoke filled the space around us, coating his large frame.
. I waited anxiously until the wind brushed through the space, clearing it to reveal Cy in his more human form.
I didn’t bother stopping my reaction at seeing him, launching myself at him.
Instantly, he caught me, and I buried my head against his neck.
I started to apologize, unable to stop myself but thrilled to see him back and looking far more calm.
“Pixie, why are you apologizing?” Cy demanded, pulling back, his eyes flashing with confusion and frustration. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t calm, because there was something underneath the surface that seemed to be boiling up.
“I shouldn’t have pushed, you said we should leave the room and I didn’t want to, I put you in a bad position,” I rambled. “I never want you to feel like that, feel like I forced you into a situation—”
Cy kissed me. A moan broke from my throat in surprise as his lips seared with mine in a hard, firm kiss that had my knees breaking.
Holy crap. I let out a soft whimper as I tried to pull him closer.
He grunted, suddenly pulling back and breaking our connection.
He let out a rough exhale and kissed my forehead gently before putting me down.
My mouth popped open as he strode past me towards the gate, not bothering to talk to any of our teammates.
All of whom were watching him with an equal amount of surprise and heat. Or was that disapproval and anger? I blinked, trying to clear my head as a warm scent filled the space around me, making me almost more relaxed and hazy, not less.
“Did he just kiss you?” Saint asked curiously, authentically surprised.
My fingers pressed to my lips as my gaze moved up to look at the massive man before nodding mutely. Yeah, yeah he freakin’ had.