Chapter 16 Saint
Chapter Sixteen
SAINT
The humans seemed authentically surprised when we detonated one of their bombs from a distance, my eyes narrowing as they scattered on the other side of the large security gate.
I could feel their nervous energy, and it didn’t feel like the anger and volatile nature of someone planning an attack.
Even the humans at the other gates seemed nervous, almost jumpy.
My flower was correct—something about this was very much off, and now we just needed to figure out what.
I narrowed my gaze as one of our Class A teams stood at the gates, talking with one of the main guards, the rest of us standing behind them.
We may have been the lead team at the institute, but that did not fucking mean we were about to waste time interacting with these pieces of shit. None of us had the patience for that.
My fingers tapped against my leg as I considered Arabella’s words. She had given me permission to slaughter whoever I wanted, and I found myself annoyed that I wasn’t able to enact my desire. Shaking my head, I considered walking back to the institute, but something kept me here.
Probably because I needed to know that Arabella would be safe, for sure, and that I had every piece of information that could assure that. Then I would go back and complete what I had set out to do anyway tonight.
I planned on making it very clear to her exactly how I felt about our little conversation earlier. It was time to put all this bullshit about the possibility of her dying to rest. I had thought I had enough patience, but… no. No, I was over it. Apparently, eternity hadn’t changed my impatience.
Then again, I had arrived a fair amount of time ago and was only reaching my limit now.
Maybe I was better than I gave myself credit for.
My head tilted as I remembered the first moment I had felt a call to the institute and, more specifically, my flower.
For the first time in my life, everything had crystalized, and eons of existence had become nothing but a blink of an eye, because if it wasn’t about the radiant light coming from the Americas, it didn’t really matter to me, frankly.
Blood dripped from my hands. I wiped them off on my jeans before tilting my head, frowning at the ringing in my ear.
I closed my eyes as a pulsing in my chest began to tug me towards…
somewhere. The sounds of the city around me went silent as I let my magic collapse over me, following the jolt and tug that had been pulling at me more and more throughout the night.
It was one of the reasons I hadn’t gotten to focus on my kills as much as normal.
I mean, shit, I had almost let one of those fuckers go.
Sometimes, if it was a specifically peaceful soul or non-confrontational human and I got busy, an extra day or two was no big deal. But these motherfuckers? No. Their time had very much reached its expiration date, and not a moment too soon, considering what they’d planned for tonight.
So you can imagine my distracted attitude was completely unacceptable.
I let out a frustrated exhale as I suddenly found myself landing in a warm room, my hand stabilizing myself on a carpeted floor, before snapping my head up to look around.
I frowned, instantly surrounded by a soft, sweet and cool scent that had my cock hardening to the point that I found myself authentically fucking concerned.
It was a fairly known fact that god terrors didn’t feel any form of desire unless they were around their mate, and after this long? It was truly startling.
A low growl broke through the space as I realized that there was a nightmare in the corner of the room—specifically, a night terror—staring at me with a level of aggression I didn’t fully get. I mean, I hadn’t even tried to kill him yet. This was me being objectively friendly.
Then I realized why he was so worked up, his magic moving to reveal a small, almost Thumbelina-like form wrapped up in the corner of the two-story ceiling like a sleeping fairy.
Her head popped up, sleepy gray and silver eyes squinting in confusion as a mess of pink hair surrounded her face, making me wonder what it would feel like against my skin.
My pulse picked up, my body hardening as I found myself completely entranced by her.
After all this time. All of these years. I’d found my mate… and she was human.
Except she was so much more than that, and it was something I had realized fairly quickly once getting within a few feet of her.
Arabella was human… to an extent, but there was something so much larger and greater to her that I had only been keeping a secret because I wasn’t sure she was ready to hear it.
I was almost positive we were at that point, though.
Plus, then all of those other fucking bastards could get off their goddamn soap box about being concerned over snapping her delicate frame in half while fucking her.
Arabella would be absolutely fine. Better than fine, if I had anything to say about it.
I inhaled sharply, closing my eyes as I counted to five in an attempt to calm myself down.
Unless you were in my position, it was impossible to imagine what eons of frustration all wanting to be released at once felt like.
I was past wanting Arabella, because that described a momentary desire.
Sure, I wanted her… but I wanted to consume her.
I wanted to brand and take her soul as my own.
I knew she wasn’t only mine, but her soul?
That was fucking mine.
“How long have we been out here?” I asked, realizing that the light from before was gone. Sometimes if I zoned out, days could pass, and while that didn’t happen very often with Arabella around, I did have to be careful of it.
“Two hours,” Cy muttered. He was leaning against a tree, Zain floating between the branches. Razar, Damian, and Blackwell seemed far more focused and were standing closer to the fences, attempting to intimidate the humans. It was working, for the record—I could smell their fear from here.
“I should go check on flower,” I noted under my breath.
“She’s probably worried,” Amun agreed.
I narrowed my eyes at the intrusive presence on our team.
I honestly wouldn’t have minded him all that much if it wasn’t for him stealing Arabella’s attention from me.
I already had to share most of it. On top of that, I preferred to be the only one with death magic on our team, so he was ruining that.
I mean, he at least had the decency to be respectful about it, but I also found myself wanting to snap his neck. Just on principle, really.
Just one more reason why I so badly wanted to brand her little soul, sooner rather than later.
Feeling decided on the action, I turned my back on the gates and walked forward, deciding to take my time returning back. It wasn’t like we didn’t clearly have time to waste.
Plus, I wanted to talk to the Director about what was occurring.
I really did have to agree that something about this felt off.
I had been around humans for far longer than I cared to be, and everything about this attack smelled of distraction.
It concerned me that there could be something larger in the works.
Something that wouldn’t be nearly as easy to handle and could put my flower’s safety at risk.
After a few minutes of walking, I let my magic collapse over me as I appeared in the hallway outside of the office, immediately sensing two heartbeats.
The Director’s was rather standard, but Arabella’s was light and fast like a hummingbird’s wings.
I would be able to recognize it anywhere, and I found myself suddenly very eager to see her, wanting to assure her that nothing had happened yet.
I didn’t like how anxious she got about these missions and small attacks.
Didn’t she understand that I would never let anything happen to her?
I wouldn’t let anything happen to the others either, purely because I knew how much it would upset her…
not because I had begrudgingly formed a friendship with them that I was still iffy about most days.
Frowning, I paused as I opened up the door, the locks disengaging easily with a small surge of my power and drawing the attention of…
three sets of eyes? An annoyed groan broke from my throat as I realized what exactly was going on.
Honestly, it shouldn’t have been all that surprising—it had been about fifty years, so it made sense that she would show up again.
Although today, of all days, it was hardly needed.
Before paying mind to the nuisance in the room, I crossed the space and instantly wrapped my flower into a tight embrace, burying my nose in her hair.
I scowled, hating that she smelled even a bit like her father or anyone else that she had been spending time with.
It was acceptable for her to have my scent on her, and that was about it.
Maybe I should just start dressing her in my clothes each morning…
she already thought I was crazy, so it probably wouldn’t faze her.
“Came to check in on you.” I pulled back as she offered me a wide-eyed curious look, her eyes dancing with confusion and a possible amount of anger and frustration. Fuck.
“No hello for me?” Eve laughed as I tucked Arabella against me and offered my little sister a narrowed, clinical glance.
“Out of all the times you would choose to show up, did you have to pick now?” I questioned, knowing that the Director was watching all of this but choosing to stay quiet.
I knew we probably needed to talk to him, or I did, about what Arabella was… but I should probably tell her first. Maybe he had already assumed. It did seem odd to me that he was so okay with so many nightmares being around her without him being aware of what made her so special.
“I didn’t plan this!” Eve frowned. “That little girl wanted out, so here I am.”
“You never told me you had a sister.” Arabella’s voice was muffled against my chest as I realized that Eve had probably already put her through the works.
There was far too much I hadn’t told her, actually.
I cupped her jaw and spoke quietly. “Honestly, she is in and out of my life so much, I didn’t even think about it.”
“Nice,” Eve huffed. “To think I thought you would be excited to see me.”
It actually was rather nice to see her… but just not today.
“We have bigger issues right now. What you are causing is chaos, and the humans have followed us back here because of—”
“Not because of me,” she pointed out. She walked over towards the Director, who looked up from the tablet he was on. He handed it off, watching her with a clinical interest. “In fact, I think Arabella is correct. I think that this is a distraction.”
I felt pride swell in my chest as Arabella’s face lit up a bit, clearly happy that someone else came to the same conclusion. Then I felt a surge of fucking jealousy because I had thought the same thing, but now if I said anything she would think I was bullshitting her.
“So what do we do?” she asked.
“We keep them talking and everyone on alert,” the Director explained and then looked at me. “I’m assuming you got bored with negotiations and that’s why you’re back here.”
I shrugged. “Amongst other reasons.” Like wanting to toss your daughter over my shoulder and take her back to her room where I can work out a number of my frustrations on her tight, sexy body. But yeah, sure. Boredom.
“I really would have never expected you to find your mate, Saint,” Eve said clearly as both the Director and Arabella seemed to look up at me to gauge my reaction.
A sigh broke through my lips as I felt both exhilaration at the ability to admit that, because fuck, she had already said it…
so oh well. But also a bit of unease when meeting Arabella’s eyes that were now shaded in confusion and hurt, because I had no doubt she was thinking of a million fucking reasons why I hadn’t told her. All of them were wrong.
“Mate?” James rang out clearly, his eyes narrowing on me. Unfortunately, her father did know exactly what I was, and not just that I had reaper death magic. No, I was far more than that, and fuck did it make all of this more complicated, because Arabella wasn’t aware either. At least not fully.
“Yes,” I hissed out. Arabella seemed to jolt at my tone. Before I could stop her, she stepped away and pinned me with a look, a range of emotions flashing across her face as she muttered something under her breath. Eve clearly had heard it, because she laughed at the fucking situation I was in now.
“Flower,” I hedged softly, reaching out to her again.
“I need a minute.” Arabella frowned as she walked towards the door, betrayal flashing across her face.
Hadn’t I been shitting on the others for keeping secrets earlier? I suppose I looked like the worst kind of hypocrite now. I let out a low growl as I pinned my sister with a look.
She shrugged, sitting down across from the Director. “You should go fix that,” she suggested.
“And when you get back, we are talking,” James leveled, shaking his head and looking back down at the tablet.
Motherfuckers.
Cursing up a storm, I walked into the hallway and flashed down the space, catching the elevator door before it sealed me away from my flower.
“What?” she growled.
Now how the hell did I explain to the woman I obsessed over that she was mated to Death without her freaking the fuck out?