Chapter 52
All the Bad Things In This World
The next sound from the outside world that reached me was Soren’s warm, honeyed voice.
“Gonna sleep all day?”
Rough fingers trailed up my shoulder over the strap of my tank top and then to the skin of my neck. A restless shiver quaked through me, but my eyes weren’t ready to open yet.
“We have your weapon, My Darling. Time to join everyone else downstairs and figure out how to get what you’ve been waiting for.”
My Darling?
The words sounded like a leaky tin roof in his voice.
Crust stiffened my lashes, making it hard to pull them apart. When I finally did and saw how close Soren was to my rancid morning breath, I ducked under the covers with a squeak.
“Go away!” I shouted. But hiding under the cocoon of blankets was worse. Down there, I could see he was wearing nothing but tented boxers.
I gulped.
His knee shifted dangerously close, and I wiggled further away.
“Come on, Elle. Everyone’s waiting on you.”
His lower half disappeared from under the covers, and the mattress shifted until it held only my weight.
The nickname caught me off guard.
Elle?
He’d never used it before.
My first instinct was to frown, but then I remembered he could feel my disappointment. So I smiled. Forced it. Refused to let him make me any weaker than he already had. He couldn’t just say a single syllable and illicit an emotional maelstrom from me.
The memories of my weakness on full display the night before made it even hotter under the blankets, and I emerged red and boiling to see him already heading for the door.
It took me at least another twenty minutes to drag myself to the bathroom to brush my teeth and then trudge my way to the land of the living.
Soren was right about everyone waiting downstairs.
By the time I made it down, the others had finished breakfast and busied themselves with one task or another.
Zade barely glanced in my direction, but when his eyes flickered toward the ancient bow that had hung right next to mine at Artemis, the space between us snapped, and I moved before thinking.
“The Jonathan bow?” I whispered.
Soren approached behind me as I neared the sofa where it rested.
“Turns out, you already had it within your grasp all this time.”
I let out a small hmph at the irony. Funny how life worked. I’d seen that rusty old thing hanging on the wall of Artemis Archery for years. I'd agreed to join the guild because I thought they could get this weapon for me, when I'd already had it.
Still, just because I had the weapon, it didn’t mean I would have gotten access to Azazel back then. Especially not after I’d been branded a terrorist. But perhaps that wouldn’t have happened if I’d never approached the guild in the first place.
Who am I kidding? The guild never would have left me alone.
Soren never would have left me alone.
They needed me to end the Dark One.
Even with the bow in my hands, I couldn’t picture it piercing the Dark One, though.
I couldn’t picture the Dark One at all.
His power—his evil—overshadowed what I’d thought the world was capable of if all the lore was true. Someone whose sole pleasure was the pain and misery of others?
I ran my finger down the weathered wood, struggling to believe this was the weapon that was going to save the world. I mean, it was a beautiful bow, but it was so familiar, always just hanging on the wall like a showpiece without purpose.
It was furniture in my head.
I had it all along.
After fawning over the bow for a while, I decided to look extra productive by skipping the plate Winifred had saved for me from breakfast despite the small twist in my tummy. I grabbed a stack of papers and headed over toward one of the screens set up at a desk off to the side of the living room.
While I was researching on Rui Xi’s Pulse account, I took a slight digital detour and looked up who Edward Cullen was. I was shocked to see that he’d turned Bella Swan into a vampire by feeding her his blood.
Then again, Soren had fed me his blood.
What did Soren mean by “more than one fluid" then?
I looked over my shoulder at him. He was already watching me, looking past me toward the screen. I quickly abandoned the search and returned to scanning articles about the grand opening of the Heavens.
The event showcasing the Founder’s ambitious opening of the millionth level of The Tower would be our best bet of getting close to Azazel and Abadon at the same time.
It was scheduled for the blood moon in two weeks because the astronomical event was supposed to bring supernatural protection and boost dark magic rituals according to legend.
We would need to learn every possible angle before approaching. As much as I wanted them both dead, I wanted my friends alive more.
Yeah, that thought shocked even me.
I stiffened when a familiar shadow draped over me and the screen.
My reaction lasted only for a millisecond, but it was long enough for him to have surely noticed.
Still, I attempted to carry on with my research and feign nonchalance, but he knew what his presence did to me.
He knew the effect he had on me—that effect only strengthened after the intimacy of the past couple of nights.
He could feel it.
Soren’s hands closed over the back of my chair, his grip bracketing me in.
“Still trying to figure out how I’m going to turn you into a nephilim someday?”
I craned my neck to glare up at him. He said he could feel my emotions, not read my mind!
“What other fluid were you referring to?” I tried to sound snarky, mimicking his deep voice on that icky word.
He snorted and brought a finger to his lips.
“Shh. Everyone else will hear. And they’ll probably figure it out before you do.”
He leaned down so our cheeks were flush together, his stubble scratching me in the most distracting way. His whisper was heat in my ear.
“A nephilim can convert a human who has recently ingested their blood with a very...intimate procedure. What other warm fluid can I fill you up with, my sweet Little Shadow?”
I blanked.
My brain cells couldn’t fire on all cylinders with him this close.
Warm fluid…fill you up with…
Fill you up…
Oh.
With the mere thought of what he was implying, I would have very much enjoyed being swallowed by the floor at that moment.
I visibly cringed with an involuntary squeak slipping out.
“Gross!” My head shot back up, but my glare couldn’t be all that intimidating with how red my cheeks were now. “Go away.”
He laughed all sexy and gravelly as he did just that, sauntering back to the dining table after thoroughly humiliating me. He had complete confidence in how not gross I actually found that idea.
Concentrating on my research after that little revelation was a struggle because my brain kept floating somewhere far away and full of Soren.
Full. Of. Soren.
When I was sure that no one was looking, I opened a small window and kept it in the lower corner, ready to cover it with my more innocent research at any moment.
Search: turning into a nephilim
Results: Nephilim were believed to be the descendants of fallen angels…
Yes. Blahdy-blah-blah. I knew all that already.
I scrolled while skim-reading as fast as I could, checking the reflection in the blank screen next to mine to ensure that everyone was still occupied, especially Soren.
…believe that if a nephilim has sex with a human who has ingested the nephilim's blood in the past 24-48 hours, their reproductive fluids could possibly turn the human into a nephilim.
If their emotional connection is strong enough at the time of the procedure, the original nephlim and the transformed nephilim will become inseparable soulmates.
Otherwise, they will become potent adversaries bent on the other's destruction.
The transformed nephilim is hypothesized to be even more powerful than—
“Everyone break for lunch,” Winifred’s voice cut through the questions now swarming in on me, and I exited the search, as well as every other window I’d had open.
I backed away from the screen so fast that I bumped my knee under the desk. Soren flashed me an obnoxious smirk when I failed to hide my hiss of both pain and frustration.
He was probably smirking at the shock, confusion, and unexpected desire now sweeping through me as I realized that having sex with Soren could turn me into…him.
Would I live forever?
Does wearing protection prevent it?
Is it like a one-drop-and-you’re-done deal?
Does he plan on doing that to me one day?
Would we become soulmates?
I tried to remember what he’d said last night.
But then another question drowned out all the rest.
Would I want that?
The only answer I could come up with was:
I don't know.
Lunch was more delicious than ever given how hungry I was after skipping dinner the night before and breakfast that morning.
It helped that Winifred was a magician in the kitchen.
I almost forgot my animosity toward Rui Xi as I scarfed down as much creamy chicken pasta as I could get my hands on and chatted with Salah and Astrid.
Even Marigold’s sulkiness as she hung all over Soren’s arm couldn’t bring me down, mainly because Soren didn’t seem to be paying her any attention at all.
He watched me from the other end of the table, with a softness in his eyes that made it hard to return his gaze.
Didn’t matter if I turned away. Soren didn’t need to see my blush to know he was getting under my skin.
When we finally finished lunch and cleaned up, I joined the rest of the group at the table rather than returning to my research on Pulse.
We were about twenty minutes into a discussion on fake Mod IDs when everyone started arguing about how Rui Xi would get us through security to the Heavens Gate.
He said I could use my necklace to get us into the 900K level, but Winifred wasn’t convinced it would work, since Abadon would surely anticipate it and put other measures in place.