Chapter Twelve
Limos
Every plan I had evaporated the moment Nomi told me to leave.
Seeing the demons circle around her, the angels readying their swords to plunge into her heart, it’d roused that terrible feeling in my chest I’d suffered all week.
Made worse by the thought that if I left, they’d succeed the next time they tried.
She hadn’t been afraid. She was grateful and determined to make the most of the time she was given.
Nomi had all but sacrificed herself for a stranger, and I’d never been so angry. I hadn’t even understood the emotion until it consumed my thoughts and summoned a storm inside my body. She told me to leave her to die, and she…thanked me. For what? For not once thinking about her until that moment?
I hadn’t once felt shame, not even when it came to Ares. Gratitude and determination to aid her in any way I could, yes. But shame? Never.
Yesterday, my shame was so strong it buried me.
Demons and angels and whoever else, they might want to claim her beautiful mortal soul, but I wouldn’t let them. I’d unmask this wild rage and set it loose on her enemies.
Perhaps this was what Ares meant when she said one day I’d understand that my aversion to them was ill-conceived and baseless. That one day I’d meet a mortal who’d give me a perspective that would forever change my mind.
No surprise, Ares saw the truth where I couldn’t.
So few had been on the other side of my power, and they were ill-prepared to fight it. But their numbers would grow, and there was still the issue of Michael. I’d need to be careful with how I moved now that I had Nomi to protect.
But that could wait a few days.
Thankfully, my connections meant I had food stocked before bringing her here. I didn’t have a need for such things, but she needed them to survive. I didn’t hesitate to stock every house and place I might find use for. I’d made all the arrangements before we even left her apartment.
She’d want for nothing.
After Nomi joined me to cook a simple meal and drink the tea I prepared, she struggled to keep her eyes open. She insisted she was fine, but she slow-blinked and her voice grew quiet. In a matter of minutes, she lost the battle with herself and slumped.
She hadn’t been sleeping much. The fear of missing a single moment with her loved one had driven her body to its limits. I wanted to track Ares’s location, but Nomi needed time to recover even if she wouldn’t admit it. So we’d remain here for a few days.
I noticed how quick she was to put everyone else first. Nomi was one of the most selfless mortals I’d ever encountered. Every thought, every action, it was always considered next to everyone else. But it came from a place of fear. She didn’t want to be a burden, not even to me.
It was clear by the way her chosen father stared at me, she’d always been this way, and I’d need to be careful with how I navigated it. For once, I understood Ares’s fussiness. Was this what she complained about each time I disappeared as she called it? When I simply existed and did nothing else?
It was vexing.
When Nomi’s head hit my shoulder, I swept my slumbering wisp into my arms and brought her to the best room in the house.
It was cozy and had the best early-morning views.
I covered her shivering frame with blankets and, after a brief moment of hesitation, climbed into bed with her.
The urge to be close to her was one I’d been failing to deny myself all day.
She moved and went onto her side, facing me, and I froze. “Ghost?”
“That’s right, little wisp,” I answered her, feeling a bit odd caught in the act of following her into bed.
She smiled in such a soft way my eyes couldn’t help but get fixated on her mouth. With a sigh, she wiggled closer and put an arm around my waist. “Stay close. You’re always so cold. Must be a ghost thing,” she mumbled into my chest.
I so rarely found a reason to smile, but around her I was doing it so often I didn’t recognize myself. It was harder and harder to keep my unreadable mask in place. The cracks this mortal made in it were growing and beyond repair.
I eased closer and brushed her soft face with my knuckles, luxuriating in her warmth and cookie scent.
It was becoming impossible to deny myself the touches.
I no longer tried to. Anytime I wanted to, I did.
And the way her head moved into my touch, her mouth parting on a sigh, my little wisp didn’t mind them either.
“Wouldn’t it be better if I stayed away? Won’t I make you cold, too?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Everything about her puzzled me, but not in a way that was frustrating or bothersome. In a way that made me desperate to figure her out. I’d studied the mortal every minute of every day since meeting her, and it didn’t feel like enough to get at the heart of this sweet creature.
The agony staining her past never bled into her present. She refused to let it. She chose happiness, even when it didn’t choose her.
Nomi’s face was in the hollow of my neck, and the intense heat that always seemed to go straight to my groin when I touched her was already zinging down my body.
“Nope. I’ll warm you up,” she murmured into my neck, her lips brushing my skin. I hadn’t thought I was sensitive there, but her mouth just proved otherwise.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know what was happening to me; it was that I’d never once experienced it. Lust, desire, need—I’d been under the impression I couldn’t feel anything close to those emotions. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say I never wanted to.
Not until her.
Swallowing and overcome by the new but familiar sensations, I wrapped my arms around her.
It was better for her protection that I stay out of bed.
I couldn’t be sure we were safe or that the angels and demons hadn’t followed because while they couldn’t see or track me, they could track her.
Still, I didn’t let go of her. I went against every bit of sense I’d honed over the many millennia I’d lived and indulged myself.
I held her close.
Catching sight of Ignis and Glacies, I whispered an order, “Help me protect her.”
They fluttered and brightened with joy, swirling in excitement. My familiars were eager to be of use to her. They wanted her as safe as I did. They separated into pieces and fluttered throughout the house. With their assistance, I could relax a bit.
As she slept, I traced her curves, memorized her heat, and counted her breaths. I took note of everything despite having done so every night since meeting her.
Nomi brought the cup I’d made after she woke to her lips, staring at me as she did, curiosity beaming in her captivating ice-blue eyes.
“You want to stay here for a couple of days? But how will you track Michael? Is that wise? Doesn’t tracking need to be done quickly or you lose the scent or whatever? ”
She wasn’t wrong. The path would be harder to trace once it faded, and I couldn’t be sure how long ago Michael had been there, but I wouldn’t tell her that. Nomi would sacrifice herself to ensure I could track down Ares, and her complexion was still weathered and uncomfortably pale.
“It’s fine,” was the simple response I gave her.
I flicked my gaze to the pastry still left on her plate, itching to feed it to her. But she’d kept a steady hold on her coffee like she’d figured me out. And by the easy way she read me when no one else could, I didn’t doubt she had.
I couldn’t make sense of why I was so insistent on being the one to feed her. There wasn’t an explanation for these urges, when I’d never, not once, had any inclination like it before. Attraction and lust I understood, but the overpowering desire to feed and care for her I couldn’t explain.
Ares would likely know, possibly Zelus or Thanatos, but I couldn’t risk talking to anyone. Until I found Ares, I’d be on my own to navigate the continued curiosities.
I’d pondered all night if the other Horsemen were overwhelmed by the same powerful need for their mortals. Was this the design of a Counter Soul? Not that it mattered. I was confident in my decision.
Nomi was mine to protect.
Possessiveness and yearning pounded in my veins every second I spent with her.
It was becoming a bigger distraction than I anticipated, this impulse to ensure every part of her was safe, both mind and body.
Ares would be pleased. She’d always been eager to see me show an inkling of fondness for mortals.
But I’d never struggled to stay in control, and I was acting out of character and impulsively. It could be dangerous if I didn’t figure out a way to manage these urges.
I nearly got found out this morning. Time seemed to soar by while watching her at night. I’d only just managed to escape a breath before she woke. She’d wandered down the hall a minute later, greeting me with a small, embarrassed smile. It had made my chest swell with an odd sort of warmth.
Her cup finally went on the coffee table, and I’d already plucked the pastry off her plate and brought it to her mouth.
She glared at me, but it didn’t have any heat to it.
With a withering sigh, she took a big bite.
I watched her mouth move and missed her sneaky hand slide up and snatch the chocolate croissant from my determined clutch.
“You’re such a weirdo,” she mumbled, taking another bite. “Happy? I’m eating.”
It was an effort not to sigh in disappointment, but her little giggle distracted me a second later. Her eyes sparkled with something I couldn’t read. Taking another bite, she let her gaze sweep down my body, and that look of hers went straight to my cock.
Was this what Zelus talked about, this insatiable feeling of want? This urge to spring forward and lock lips with her until she moaned my name?
The liquid fire that seemed to run rampant in my veins whenever she was near guided every action and turned me into a beast run purely on instinct. I couldn’t pretend I didn’t understand why he was so enamored with it. The pretty mortal might destroy me and I wouldn’t even care.
Nomi leaned back, crossed one leg over, and took another bite of her breakfast treat. “So, what do you do when you’re not tracking down powerful angels?”
Not expecting the question, I tipped my head and considered my answer. “I have an extensive library and video game collection. I find endless entertainment in them.”
“Oh?! Will you show me?” She leaned closer, and my eyes dropped to where her shirt had dipped and exposed the line of her cleavage.
Her curvy figure always drew my gaze when she did anything.
I hadn’t been at all interested in bodies before her, but now I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes away.
I wanted to touch everything, feel every part of her, explore all her softness.
Would it be as intoxicating as her mouth was? Her cheeks? Her hips? Between her legs?
Realizing she’d asked a question, my gaze met hers. Then with a nod, I stood. She followed after putting her pastry aside. One glance from me to the discarded food made her pause and sigh. Despite my expression never changing, she grabbed it again and took another bite.
“Okay, okay. Eating,” she mumbled and got to her feet.
Satisfied, I led her upstairs to where I had a huge room that served as a library and gaming den. Ares had decorated it, because I couldn’t be bothered, but it was one of my favorites. When we finally got to it, I heard Nomi gasp. She rushed past me and started to scan the wall of books.
Over the thousands of years I’d lived, knowledge had been my sanctuary.
I kept a library in every place I stayed for any length of time.
For hours I’d slip away to the growing wealth of information and keep myself informed, which led to an incalculable ability to navigate technological spaces in the mortal realm, all from within this room.
It'd never been a lonely space. I’d always preferred solitude, but seeing Nomi wandering around in it now, her eyes bright and eager, I realized that I’d been waiting for someone to share it with.
I trailed after her, staying close to her back. She was mumbling under her breath again, having already finished the rest of her food. She listened so well. Such a good little mortal who did as she was told. But she’d need a few more before I was truly satisfied.
“You really love these crazy hard topics no sane person would read for fun, don’t you? I don’t see much in the way of fiction.”
I leaned over her shoulder to see which ones had caught her attention, but she turned at the same moment, and our faces were so close, her mouth opened on a gasp. It sent my eyes straight to it.
“Oh,” she breathed, her tongue peeking out to swipe her bottom lip.
I tracked every second of it. Then my gaze jerked back up to hers. Her pupils were blown wide and her pulse raced at the side of her neck. A subtle blush had already started to spread across her freckled cheeks. Her body gave her arousal away, and it made my impulses worse.
Staring at her soft lips, I leaned closer, waiting for any sign of refusal. And when it didn’t come, I slammed my mouth over hers and pinned her to the wall of books. I swallowed her gasp and moan and kissed her the way I’d been craving to do since our last kiss.
Now that I had her, I wouldn’t let her go.