OBSIDIAN

~Chapter 37 ~

I don't know when I fell asleep. The last thing I remember is the sound of the TV in the background and the thought of just closing my eyes for two seconds.

Yeah, sure. Two seconds.

When I blink again, the room is…

different light. Warmer, evening. And it smells like dinner. Great. Have I slept yet?

I try to move, but something, or someone, is holding me back.

Actually… two someones.

Ash is slumped against my arm as if he's decided that's his personal pillow, and Niko is pressed against the other side, his nose against my shoulder, breathing quietly and completely indifferent to the fact that he's strangling me with all his weight.

"Really...?" I muttered to myself, trying to get my hand out from under Ash.

No reaction. Normal. When they and Sergio sleep.

.. you can teleport, they still don't wake up.

I try to get up a little, but Niko hugs me even tighter, as if he senses that I want to run away and it's not good for him.

"Great. Exactly what I needed. To be sandwiched between two unconscious giants," I think to myself, taking a deep breath.

I let out a sigh.

Then I hear something moving in the kitchen.

Probably Sergio.

"Perfect moment for them to see me and think I invited them like this, even if it was intentional. .."

I lift my head again to see if at least one of them has sensed that I'm awake.

Nothing.

Ash fluffs a strand of hair, and Niko pulls his knees up a little higher and pushes against my rib.

"Oww… Niko, bro, you really didn't feel that?!" I whisper softly, while trying to free my chest.

The truth? It seems like he's suffocating me "out of love", but he's still suffocating me, he calls me.

In this absurd and warm thing... I can't help but laugh a little to myself.

It's the kind of scene that, if someone had told me I was going to experience, I would have said it sounded too. .. domestic.

And yet... here I am.

Still trying to escape… with zero success.

I move very slowly, so as not to wake them…

or to activate them, because they’re both already holding on to me like I’m some kind of pillow on which their lives depend.

I try to gently pull my waist out of Ash’s arm.

I haven’t even had time to breathe.

His arm tightens instantly, like a hot vise, pulling me back with a force that’s not normal for someone who’s still sleeping.

“Hey,” I start to whisper, but I stop, because I feel pressure from the other side as well.

Niko’s hand, cold at first, tightens on my thigh as if anchoring me to the bed.

His nails dig into the material slightly, like a warning.

And his head lifts an inch, enough for me to know he’s no longer asleep.

I freeze.

Their breathing changes at the same time.

Heavy. Deep. Conscious.

Then, the first to fully wake up is Ash.

I feel his gaze before I hear it. Warm, intense, too close to my neck.

“Where… are you going?” he says, his voice low, sleepy, but filled with an authority that makes me swallow hard.

I don’t answer right away. How can I answer when I can already feel Niko rising behind me?

Niko says nothing at first. He stands up very slowly, as if surveying his territory.

Me.

He touches the back of my neck with his nose, a brief, checking, obsessive gesture.

Then he whispers, almost in a creepy murmur:

“I didn’t let you go.

”

I feel a shiver run down my spine.

I don’t know what they are, I don’t think they are what I am.

I don’t know why I am like this.

But no normal person reacts like this when someone tries to get out of bed.

I find myself trapped between them like in a warm trap.

“I… woke up. That’s all,” I try to say, calmly, though it doesn’t come out very well.

Ash pulls me another inch closer to him, pressing his forehead to the back of my neck.

“So what if you woke up?” he murmurs, with dangerous certainty.

“That doesn’t mean you’re leaving.”

Niko touches my jaw with his fingers, lifting my head slightly to force me to look at him.

His eyes are open.

Cold. Penetrating.

Obsessive.

“You fell asleep between us,” he says calmly, but his tone is clearly possessive.

“So stay between us.”

I feel my heart beating too fast.

Not like that.

Too fast.

“I didn’t..” I begin.

Ash places his palm on my stomach, pressing gently, to hold me in place.

“Don’t try to leave again.”

Niko steps closer, almost pressing his forehead to mine.

“You won’t be able to.”

I don’t know if that’s a warning or a promise.

But what's certain is that I'm not moving a single millimeter.

And they... they look at me as if I'm something that already belongs to them.

Ash runs his hand over my abdomen slowly, going lower and lower until he reaches the waistband of my underwear and stuffs his fingers there.

"Ugh..." I mumble.

He grabbed my member with his big hand and that made it rise.

He rubbed slowly but after the speed started to increase.

"Mmh-" I moaned but after Niko's tongue entered my mouth, he bit my tongue and I moaned.

Ash picked up his pace more and more.

I was almost at the end and Ash could feel it too, so he continued what he was doing.

I released myself into his hand when I was at my most ecstatic, but his hand stayed there, and my mouth gasped after Niko released me from the kiss.

“Look what you did!” I said when I came to.

Then, Ash removed his hand from my boxers too and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“I know what I did,” he says and lets me stand up.

I see him bring his hand to his mouth. And he licks it, literally.

I sigh dramatically and get out of bed. Niko doesn't seem to like it, but what do I care about him?

I enter the bathroom and head straight for the shower.

I let myself under the hot shower, trying to clear myself and push those…

“strange” thoughts aside. The water flows over my shoulders and back, and for a second I feel like I’m breathing normally, that I’m alone.

But it’s impossible not to feel… still Ash’s traces.

His skin, his fingers… they seem to have left him like an echo, as if he’d tasted every inch of me and left his imprint.

I raise my hand to my neck and take a deep breath.

Yes, there are still his “traces.”

I try to tell myself that it’s just my imagination, that it’s absurd to think about it.

But then I hear a soft click, and… Niko is there.

At the door. His hair wet, the towel wrapped around his waist. His eyes look at me intensely, without saying anything.

"I said I'd check to see if everything's okay," he says in a tone that's not at all innocent, but not aggressive either, right in the middle, enough to make my heart skip a beat.

Before I can react, he’s beside me. The water touches his legs, rushing into the shower with me like a warm wave.

He reaches up and places it on my shoulder, gently pushing me against the wall next to the shower.

“You’re not leaving,” he murmurs, close to my ear, and I feel his breath on my neck.

I try to laugh nervously, to make a joke: “Really, Niko? In the shower?” But the laugh dies on my lips as I feel his body move closer, almost touching me in ways I can’t ignore.

The hot jet hits my back, but the tension between us is hotter.

I feel it’s not just his obsessiveness from earlier, it’s something deeper.

Possessive, curious, almost like he wants to “check” that everything that’s his is intact.

“It’s just water,” I tell myself, but it’s hard to believe when Niko runs his hand lightly over my arm, a calculated but intense touch, just enough to make me pass out.

"Did you forget something?" he asks, smiling subtly, almost provocatively.

"Or are you just trying to hide from me? "

I roll my eyes and try to laugh again, but it’s weak.

The water is flowing over us, but the feeling is different.

. it’s like he… feels everything. His breath almost mingles with mine.

I try to move aside, to give myself some space, but Niko doesn’t give in.

His hand pushes me gently but firmly against the cold wall.

“You don’t have to run, Cassian,” he murmurs.

“You can’t.”

And then I understand that it’s not just the obsession from earlier.

Niko wants to be close, to control, to make me feel like there’s no room for anyone else.

He’s… dominant. And it’s… so hard not to feel this attraction.

Me too? I let myself be carried away by the water, but also by his almost obsessive feeling, as he tries to convince me that…

this is just a shower.

But I know it’s not just a shower.

I push him away when it's getting too complicated.

"Give it" I say softly and get out of the shower.

I look around the bathroom for a second.

I have no other choice.

I get out of the bathroom and Ash is no longer in my room, I hope.

I go into the dressing room, grab some underwear and some black sweatpants with a black fitted blouse that I forgot existed.

I look in the mirror and now I realize that it's been a while since I've spoken to Brex.

Even though he usually exaggerates, it's really nice to talk to someone, especially since I haven't spoken to Theo and Emy in.

...4 days? I don't know

A...yeah right. ..I had school

I realize this and look out the window.

It's almost dinner time I think, so school has been over for a long time.

I leave the room with my phone in my hand and go down the stairs.

Sergio is on the couch and when he hears me he turns his head

"Good Dinner , how was your night?

" He says in a joking manner and I laugh when what he says doesn't make sense

"Hello to you too", I say I go into the kitchen, get a glass of water and go back to the living room

"Where They are Voss?

" I ask

"Do you miss your lovers already?

" He says with amusement from earlier

"Is that a trick question?

" I say and drink from my glass of water

"Maybe yes, maybe no" he says and for a second he looks away from the stairs

"Now without further ado, where the hell are they?

" I say and sit down on the couch next to them

"I don't know" he says and I glare at him "I just know that Niko came to me to ask where the second bathroom was to take a quick shower and then he went downstairs with Ash they said bye and something else and left. End of story"

I sit motionless on the couch for a few seconds, my glass still in my hand, my eyes fixed on Sergio.

“They left?” I ask, slowly, as if confirming something I didn’t know was bothering me.

“Yes, boss, they left. What, did you think they were superglued to you?” Sergio says, waving his hand as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

But I feel a twinge in my chest.

Too intense to be just “ah, they left.”

Too…

personal.

“And they didn’t… say where?

” I insist, trying to sound relaxed.

Sergio shrugs.

“No. They just said they’d be back later.

And not to go anywhere.”

I freeze.

“Excuse me?!”

“You’re not going anywhere,” he repeats, imitating Niko, in an exaggeratedly serious tone.

“That’s exactly what he said, facial expressions included.

”

I hit him with the pillow.

“It’s not funny.

”

“It’s a little bit,” he laughs. “Don’t you see how they treat you? You say you’re… a pedigreed pet.”

I open my mouth to argue, but the thought of loving my mind.

How they held me.

How they react to my every move.

How Niko knew I was trying to run more than any normal person would have felt.

My heart is pounding in my throat.

I don't want to think about it.

I don't want to admit anything.

"And.

.. Ash?" I ask, my voice too playful.

Sergio raises an eyebrow, crosses his arms, and realizes immediately.

"Aha. That's the one you liked best."

"Sergio.

"

"WHAT? It's obvious. Your face says I want to throw him out the window and kiss him at the same time.

"

I hit him with the pillow again, but less softly.

Because it hits me.

Too accurate.

And then my phone vibrates.

I look up, surprised.

Perfect moment to snap me out of this awkward conversation.

Theo

I quickly open the message.

Theo : "Are you alive?

I thought you were dead or abducted by aliens.

"

Theo: "Or did you find a boyfriend and forget about us?

."

Theo: "Answer."

I sigh, put the phone to my chest and lie back.

Sergio looks at me quietly, for the first time without joking.

"What is it?" he asks.

"Nothing..

. just Theo" I say "I feel bad that I haven't talked to him and Emy in a while"

"Anyway, you go to school tomorrow, sorry, we go to school" he says and I laugh when he takes the words out of my mouth

Then I find myself saying something I didn't mean to say:

"I feel... weird."

"Strange how?"

I close my eyes.

Inhale.

“It’s like… something’s changed.”

“Yours or theirs?”

Silence.

My mouth opens on its own.

“I don’t think they’re human, Sergio. What if what Brex said is true, that they’re werewolves like me?”

His eyebrow rises. “I’ve reached the point where I don’t know what to believe anymore, Cass.”

I shake my head helplessly.

“I don’t know. But no one… no one normal feels like that. They don’t react like that. They don’t…”

My voice trails off, the thought making my stomach churn.

Niko in front of us, reacting to every breath.

Ash behind me, touching, controlling, possessing.

Their breaths.

Those looks.

The fact that he only gets angry when I move.

“It scares me a little,” I whisper. “But I can’t…

walk away.”

Sergio sighs, stands up, and puts his hand on my shoulder.

“Then we have to find out if it’s true.

”

I look up.

“What if… I don’t like it?

”

“Too late, bro. You already like me.”

Before I can answer, the automatic gate opens.

Beep…

Beep…

Sergio turns his head to the window.

I freeze.

"I forgot what Dad looks like," Sergio says quietly.

"Excuse me, Silas, please" I say angrily.

I can't believe he still has the nerve to come home after he hasn't even been home in a while.

Sergio whispers, as if to himself:

"And he came earlier than last time.

.."

And I feel something in my chest.

Not fear.

Not disinterest

A strange instinct.

As if my body knows something before my mind.

His footsteps are approaching.

Don't rush.

But be sure.

As if they're coming straight for us

I stand up without wanting to.

Sergio glances at me briefly.

"Get ready.

"

"For what?"

He raises an eyebrow

"Ash and Niko will beat him to death when they find out he slapped you," he says and turns his gaze back to the TV.

I think about whether to sit down or not, but in the end I sit down.

God willing