Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Dax
After they retrieved Everett’s sedan, Dax followed him to his grandfather’s house. It was only around eight, so Everett had said he planned to do more packing that night.
The house sat high on a hill but still inside the city, and there was a low, stone fence around the property.
There weren’t as many trees as he’d expected—the views from the upstairs windows must be incredible.
With autumn bringing in earlier nights, the sun had long set and city lights filled the sky.
The home itself was a Queen Anne style, complete with turrets, a steep roof, and prominent front-facing gables.
A wide porch with several bright lights graced the front.
Inside, the house held a lot of warmth for a place built with great wealth.
Warm wood graced the walls and floors, with colorful rugs throughout the rooms. Everett’s grandfather had obviously been a collector.
Numerous shelves filled with eclectic items dotted every area.
Scenic paintings were interspersed with more fanciful ones, and Dax held back a snort when he saw a large one in the living area featuring two ogres in battle.
Overstuffed furniture held multiple pillows and fluffy throw blankets.
It was exactly the kind of place where Dax would love to live, if it weren’t for the lingering darkness of black magic that prickled his skin as he walked with Everett through the house.
Magic that grew stronger when they reached his grandfather’s study.
Something in this room was spelled in a way that raised the fine hairs on Dax’s body, and he knew he needed to find whatever it was.
It could be that very thing that had put Everett in danger.
The office was two stories tall, with actual sliding ladders connected to bookcases on each wall. There was so much stuffed into this room, it would take him forever to find the bespelled item. And he could sense it was just one thing—one powerful thing.
“As you can see,” Everett said, “Wilson never threw anything away and he liked…things. All sorts of things as well as books. All those spell books in your boss’s office would have made him dance with joy.
” Everett picked up a chimera statuette off the large desk and turned it over in his hands as he frowned at it.
“I got the feeling he was always searching for something. To the day he died, he still had boxes of books shipped here from all over the world. But his true passion was anything of Norse myth.” He waved a hand over a shelf that held Valkyries and different depictions of gods.
“With each new box of books, Wilson would spend weeks and even months poring over them.”
“He never told you what he was searching for?” Dax asked as he walked around, trying to get a feel for the thicker magic. It filled the room, so he couldn’t narrow anything down. It could be a book, or one of the collectibles. Hell, it could be a pencil eraser. Fuck, this wasn’t going to be easy.
And neither was being around Everett. His attraction to the man was beyond anything he’d experienced, and he was still working through the disappointment that Everett wasn’t one of the unique humans who could be a preternatural’s soulmate.
No, it was more than disappointment. It felt more like devastation—which made absolutely no sense, since he’d just met the man.
Dax watched Everett grab a box before coming to stand next to him. The man was so small, he made Dax feel like a lumbering ox.
“I’ll help you pack,” Dax offered as he held out his hand.
Everett handed over a roll of tape with a thankful smile.
“I will definitely take you up on the help. There’s so much stuff, it’s overwhelming.
Thankfully, the estate sale company is handling the rest of the house, but this room—and everything in it—means something to me.
I’ll be keeping a lot of this.” He chuckled as he started gathering the items on the desk.
“Though I have no idea where I’ll be putting it.
My house isn’t even close to the size of this one.
I have one room dedicated to my grandfather’s things, but this is more than one regular room’s worth. ”
“Why don’t you hand things to me and I’ll wrap them and put them into the boxes? That way, you can go through and organize everything the best way for you.” And Dax could hold each item and figure out which one was emitting so much magic.
“Sure. I’ll be going up and down the ladders, so that’ll be a huge help.” Everett went to a shelf with figurines and started pulling them down, setting each one onto the desk next to Dax. “So, tell me about yourself. How long have you been a bodyguard?”
“A few years. Normally, I’m a student.”
Everett looked over his shoulder, eyebrows climbing up his forehead. “Like…a professional student? How does that work?”
“I just mean I was in school when Xavier approached me for this job. He was hiring my two best friends, Ivor and Emory, so I suppose that’s why he asked me.”
“That and your size, I imagine. I’ve never met anyone who takes up so much space.” He clapped a hand over his mouth, mumbling from behind it. “Oh, was that rude?”
Dax laughed. “No, it wasn’t. I do stand out a bit.”
“Do you get your height from your dad?”
“From both my parents. My mother is over six feet herself.” She was actually closer to seven.
As full-blooded ogres, their size came with their species.
It wasn’t just the height that set them apart; there were plenty of humans just as tall.
It was their overall breadth. His mother had spent her life being stared at and shrugging off the strange looks she received.
“So what were you studying?” Everett asked.
“Physics this time.”
“This time?”
“I have several degrees.”
“In physics?”
“That and mathematics and literature.”
Everett paused, holding a figurine in front of him. “Wow. That’s impressive and surprising.”
Faintly offended, Dax narrowed his eyes. “Why surprising? Because of my size?”
“What?” Everett blinked at him, then shook his head. “No, of course not. Because you make your living protecting people.”
“It’s just an interlude in my life for a bit of time. And time is relative.”
“Mathematics and physics together make sense, but why literature? And what particular study?”
“Math comes easy to me. Physics because I like knowing how the universe works, and literature because words are our greatest gift. Life is about stories. I specialized in nineteenth-century English literature.” Dax took the Valkyrie figurine and held it in his hand.
He sensed no magic in it, so he carefully placed it into a box.
“I want to know about everything, so those won’t be my only degrees. ”
“So you plan to go back to school?”
He nodded. “As I said, this is just a blip in time. I enjoy the job, though, and working with my friends has been great.”
Everett paused to study him. “I’m guessing you’re around thirty, but I’m thinking I’m wrong because of all those degrees.”
Dax winked at him. “I’m older than I look.”
Everett looked like he was dying to ask just how old, but he was too polite to do so.
Instead, he went up one of the attached ladders, pointing his tight little ass right at Dax’s face.
Heat speared through Dax, and he couldn’t look away from it, his mind unable to filter whatever Everett was saying to him.
Those cheeks would nestle so perfectly in his hands…
But then, Everett wobbled on the ladder. Dax shot forward and grabbed both sides of his hips to steady him.
Everett went completely still, then slowly turned his head and looked down at Dax.
Dax cleared his throat. “Thought you were about to fall,” he murmured.
But he didn’t let go. Couldn’t make himself let go.
His desire spun through him so fiercely, he could only stare up into that unusual, attractive face—and it wasn’t his imagination that Everett was returning his attraction.
It was there in his blazing, narrowed eyes and the way his lips parted as he licked them, leaving them wet and shiny.
Dax tightened his fingers, making Everett gasp softly.
His nostrils flared as the musky scent of lust hit him.
He’d never felt this kind of intense need, and it didn’t make sense. Everett was not his soulmate—couldn’t be his soulmate. His earlier devastation washed over him like a tidal wave, and he forced his hands away from those slim hips and stepped back.
He didn’t know Everett well, but he could sense he was a good person, and his obvious affection for his grandfather showed he was capable of love.
Plus, Dax couldn’t shake the curiosity about the passion he could also sense in the man.
It felt like a live wire stretched between them, a connection he somehow knew would only grow stronger with time.
Everett was exactly the kind of human he’d want as a soulmate, and it was unbearable to feel so much while knowing it could only be a dead end, that a relationship between them would doom him to pain and grief.
Everett continued to stare at him a long time before he slowly handed Dax some books off the shelf. He stayed quiet, but he didn’t have to speak. His confusion and lingering desire stayed stamped on his face.
Dax went back to packing, making sure to hold each item long enough to feel for magic. The whole time, he called himself a fool for taking this job, because this man could not be what he truly wanted.