Chapter 17 #2
“It doesn’t work like that anymore.” I shook my head, remembering her words. “You have to ask now; you can’t just carry her out of places. She gets very upset when you do stuff like that.”
Zain laughed as Ashur frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t either at first.” I shrugged and tightened my grip around Arabella.
“It doesn’t really fucking matter, because you won’t be talking to her any time soon,” Blackwell said with frustration. “We have no idea who the fuck you are—”
“And what if she wants me around?” Ashur countered, and all of us went quiet.
“She won’t,” Damian bit out, despite none of us knowing that.
“Plus, weren’t you just worried about even being around her?” Saint leveled.
Ashur frowned. “Because I thought I would hurt her, but you claim my vision won’t do that. You claim that she would be perfectly fine.”
“Saint,” Cy sighed.
Saint shrugged. “I’m not going to lie.”
I wished he would though. I really wished the bastard would lie sometimes. Although, I had to admit, the more time I spent around Saint, the more I found myself somewhat enjoying his company. He was a crazy bastard, but at least our views on Arabella aligned.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Zain pointed out. “You are just guessing, Saint.”
Saint narrowed his eyes back on Ashur. “You can follow us through the forest, but don’t fucking shift. I have no idea how she will be affected by you. You aren’t a normal nightmare, and if you hurt her, I will kill every creature in this goddamn forest.”
“Fine.” Ashur looked sad at that, and I could sympathize to an extent, considering I still had fears about draining Arabella. Fears that were paired with the primal need to drink in her energy and life force until I was consuming her whole.
I was hoping to find some type of balance.
“Until she wakes up,” Saint stepped back before snapping, “you stay out there.”
The ‘out there’ was the outside of the protective dome made of silver smoky matter that Saint created. Ashur stepped outside, clearly not even caring about Saint’s words, but instead focused on the space between himself and Arabella. I squeezed her tighter against me.
“That’s a bad idea, Arabella is going to be pissed,” I murmured, looking down at her. I was finding I didn’t like her upset, especially at any of us. I just didn’t know how to permanently stop it since I wasn’t allowed to kill most of the people that upset her.
Instead of rushing the barrier or trying anything, Ashur simply shifted into a normal wolf form and disappeared. I knew he wouldn’t be far, but it instantly had the group relaxing. Well, everyone except for myself.
“I really don’t think that was a good idea.” I stood up as Cy wrapped his arms around Arabella and shifted her weight. She was still knocked out from his venom, but I could feel her energy signature growing even more vibrant than before.
It was like her life force was increasing tenfold. I didn’t know much about sis metas, but I was learning that this was going to be an ever-changing journey, and the more durable it made Arabella, the more of a fan I became of it.
Razar gave a dismissive grunt at my warning and went back towards Arabella and Cy. Everyone seemed perfectly content with the concept, except for myself and Saint. He was still staring with indecision at the spot where the wolf had disappeared.
I had a feeling the reason that it was easier to understand where Ashur was coming from was because these other nightmares were pups compared to how old we were.
I was younger than either of them, and I was still thousands of years older than Cy.
Having a long life span seemed nice until you had to constantly adapt and readapt to culture and realize that anyone you had cared about was long gone.
This time it was going to be different… I hoped.
Moments later, Ashur broke back through the trees and came to sit right outside of the barrier with a blanket in his mouth.
It was clear he was completely unconcerned about the creatures in the forest around him.
He just sat there with an object to keep my precious human warm as we blocked his ability to get to her.
I ran a hand through my hair as the others sat around Arabella, determined to not move forward until she had woken.
The oddest part about all of this was that I was almost positive Ashur could break through the barrier.
Maybe he was concerned he would accidentally hurt Arabella.
I could practically feel the sadness and concern radiating off of him, and not for the first time, I wished that the ability to sense life forces wasn’t so heavily intertwined with auras and emotions.
That shit was exhausting.
I mean, it helped a lot, especially when trying to figure out what was going on with Arabella if she was upset… But exhausting in nearly any other situation.
I truly didn’t think Ashur meant any harm, but because this team was so used to seeing every terror they interacted with as a possible threat, they couldn’t distinguish the difference between Ashur and someone with ill will towards Arabella.
I had a feeling that was the last thing he wanted.
“Amun.” Zain’s voice had me looking back where he was motioning me over.
Normally, I would have immediately gone over there, because I wouldn’t lie, after being alone for so long, it felt good to feel accepted by a group of individuals…
despite the clawing primal need inside of me to take my precious human away from all of them.
But unfortunately for that need, the longer I spent around them and was exposed to the modern world, the more I realized that they may have a purpose.
It may be essential for them to hang around.
There were far too many threats that I was inexperienced at handling, and they seemed to have the answers to them. Maybe if we all worked together it would be possible for us to take care of her and keep her safe.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” I called and walked towards the barrier. I narrowed my eyes as Saint suddenly appeared in front of me.
“What are you doing?”
“I am going to try to talk to him again.”
“Why?”
“Because you and I both know that he doesn’t mean any harm,” I said lazily before moving my eyes to the wolf version of Ashur, who was watching Arabella attentively. “Rather the opposite.”
“I don’t give a fuck what he means,” Saint hissed, following me. “He’s easily thousands, tens of thousands, years old. I am not letting him around her. Amun, you have to recognize that he could be lethal to Arabella.”
I paused and looked at the god terror. “Who is he? I have no idea who he is, Saint. Clearly that was before even my time.”
“That’s another problem—I can’t say who he is. I literally can’t say it unless he does.” Saint sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. The point is that he’s turned feral. It is unacceptable for him to be around her.”
“What you are saying makes no sense.” I wasn’t afraid to call Saint out.
Everyone else didn’t want to risk making him mad or didn’t want to bother with his theatrics, but I knew for a fact that Saint wouldn’t do shit.
Sure, he would start a fight for me calling him out on a war he completely misremembered, but I was safe as far as actually dying.
Arabella wanted me around for now and had told Saint so.
“No sense?” He offered me an incredulous look.
“He has been alive forever, and the first time he comes into contact with a human, he goes into a dream realm with her and what?”
“Lays down next to her and holds her.” Saint growled. “But he literally pulled her right off the path.”
“Remove the barrier and let him in. This is bigger than Ashur. You know that if you don’t, Arabella is going to be upset when she wakes up. He went to go get a fucking blanket for her.”
“Dude.” Saint blinked at me as I nearly fucking laughed at the word out of his mouth. “How are you okay with this?”
“I only care about how my precious is going to react.” And honestly, I felt a bit bad for Ashur.
Saint frowned. “And how do we know this isn’t about the sis meta thing?”
“We don’t.” I ran a hand through my hair. “But it’s not. I really don’t think it’s about that.”
Saint groaned and looked skyward. “If I put down this barrier, you are taking every single one of the hits that Razar throws my way. I am so fucking over his petty shit.”
“Deal.”
The barrier came down, and Ashur shot forward before the barrier went back up to block out any other nightmares. Instead of going to Arabella, he held the blanket in his mouth and came to sit next to Saint and me. Smart guy, considering the chaos that was potentially about to erupt.
I did wonder why he chose to not shift again though. Maybe he thought Arabella would wake up soon. Which reminded me…
“What the fuck are you doing?” Razar demanded from where he crouched next to Arabella and Cy. Damian was moving forward to stand near Zain, but in front of our girl, and Blackwell was just glaring at Ashur.
“Arabella wants him here, and until she says different…” I let my words trail off. I didn’t feel like explaining myself to Razar. I had a mounting headache that was very rare for me and had to do with the influx of power that infused this forest.
“I don’t care. He’s a male nightmare who isn’t on our team,” Razar growled sharply. “Get him the fuck out of here.”
“No.”
“No?” Razar’s power started to fill the space as his temper began to splinter.
I exhaled, closing my eyes, really not wanting to do this with him right now.
I let my magic snap out and completely eclipse him, my eyes opening to find him completely wrapped up and paralyzed in bandages.
I offered him a dry look as his eyes turned black, his power straining against my own.
Razar was dangerous, extremely strong, but he had absolutely no experience, and his age made a difference in how he fought.