Chapter 26
twenty-six
OPHELIA
Jazz and River brought us and our entourage food a few hours later.
I was too nauseous from the pain to be hungry, but Dante refused to let me go back to work until I'd taken a few bites and gotten a little water down. So, I did.
I was even more nauseous when I went back to unweaving afterward. The water and the food I'd eaten made a reappearance soon enough, and Dante reluctantly agreed that I should wait to eat until I felt like I could.
Hours passed.
The prisoners were gone, and our people had swept the floor a dozen times, making completely sure the place was empty.
I'd passed someone installing security cameras at one point, even though River and I would be locking the place down with a little magic.
The fae would follow the magic with cement.
Liv and Niall brought us tacos and coffee, at some point. Dante said it was dinnertime, but it felt later.
I was dizzy enough to force myself to take a few more bites.
My well of magic was refilling faster than I expected. I was going to be really fucking powerful, when everything was said and done.
I had dreaded that power when I first built the prison, but I wasn't afraid of it anymore. Not really.
"I know you don't want to hear this, but I think we need to call it a night and come back in the morning," Dante said into my mind, while I struggled to eat.
"I'm not going to want to come back after we go home."
"Your pain is getting worse, Angel."
Yeah.
It was.
"And you have at least twelve hours left. Probably more like fifteen. With breaks, even if you don't stop, we're not leaving here until lunchtime tomorrow."
I tried to imagine it. Unraveling for fifteen more hours, without a real break.
"That's a lot of hours," I finally said.
"It is. It's your call, but I think it'll be easier for both of us to deal with if we come back in the morning."
Part of me just wanted to keep working until it was done. Get it over with, so I didn't have to think about it anymore or deal with the pain again.
But the other part saw where he was coming from.
"I don't love the idea of coming back to do twelve to fifteen more hours of this," I finally said.
"I know. You like to get the painful things over with quickly."
"Can you feel my pain?" I realized I'd never asked.
"I can't feel the pain itself, but I can feel you hurting."
Fuck.
"Then this is hard on you too. I don't want it to be my call. You get to decide," I finally said.
He studied me for a long moment. "Alright. We'll stay two more hours, so we're not here as long tomorrow. Then, we're going home. I'll let the fae know."
"Thanks."
"Thank you." He leaned toward me, taking my chin in his hand and tipping my head back so he could kiss me lightly.
He was typing on his phone moments later.
I managed one more bite of my taco before I set it back down on the plate and handed it to him.
Instead of getting up right away, I gave it a few minutes for my stomach to settle before I went back to hell. Err, to work.
Dante had to carry me to the car again, by the time I was done.
I was no longer convinced that I'd be ready in the morning, even though we'd only stayed for the extra two hours Dante decided on.
He wrapped me in a blanket he'd pulled out of the back of the car—it hadn't been there before, so he'd definitely brought it for me.
He buckled my seatbelt for me before going around the car and taking his seat. His hand slid beneath my blanket to rest on my thigh through the drive. I scooted closer so he could touch me easier.
My entire body ached.
My eyelids were heavy as he helped me out of the car. When I told him I would walk, he carried all of my weight while my bare feet dragged on the ground. I wasn’t completely sure where my shoes had gone, but I either remembered or had imagined taking them off in the car.
I protested the possibility of a shower, so Dante led me right to our bed, pulling me down to the mattress with him. I was mostly asleep when he got me out of my overalls and bra. Somehow, he managed to get most of his clothes off, too.
He coaxed my wings out before I crashed with my face tucked against his neck, my body sprawled out over the top of my giant vampire's.
My body still hurt when I woke up the next morning.
When I wrestled my eyelids open and saw a few cracks of light leaking through the places the blackout curtains met, I realized it wasn't morning at all.
Shit.
Dante was working from his phone with one hand, stroking my back lightly with his other.
"We're supposed to be at the prison," I mumbled, trying to pull myself off the sweaty, warm male that I would've preferred to stay plastered to for the next century.
Dante held me pressed against his chest, instead of letting me go. "The prisoners are all secured, and there's no rush to get the magic taken down. We're exactly where we need to be right now."
I made a noise of protest.
He lifted his hand to my wings, and stroked lightly. Not in a way that was meant to turn me on, but in one that would relax me.
It worked.
I melted against him, my eyelids lowering again.
"You're hurting, Angel. We're not going anywhere."
"I can handle it," I mumbled.
"You can, but I don't want you to."
I sighed half-heartedly. "You're too good to me."
"I've been imagining sinking my teeth into that pretty little throat for the last four hours. I'm not that good."
"I wouldn't complain if you bit me."
"You know the rules. I don't drink from you while you're hungry or in pain."
"I'm not—" I started, but cut myself off when my stomach rumbled loudly.
Okay, fine.
Maybe I was hungry.
"Do you know what sounds really good?" I asked.
"What?"
"Cup noodles."
Dante snorted. "Sure."
"I'm not kidding. There's probably a fancy version of it somewhere. Let's go find it."
"A fancy version of cup noodles?" He sounded skeptical.
I was about to blow his mind.
Finally peeling my head off his chest, I reached over and plucked his phone from his grip. It only took a minute to search "ramen", and a dozen restaurants in the city popped up.
Since I'd slept through the morning, all of them were open.
"We're leaving," I declared.
"Not until we shower."
"Fuck showering, Dante. I'm hungry. Who cares if we stink a little? We're going to spend the rest of the day suffering in my prison anyway."
He shook his head at me, but I was already walking toward the closet.
We were both in sweats (after using plenty of deodorant) when we made it to the restaurant. Most people were wearing casual clothes, but we still had everyone's eyes when we walked in.
The way they were whispering told me there was something on the internet about us. I didn't care.
People could talk shit if they wanted to. Dante's fingers were intertwined with mine, and I was about to eat expensive ramen until I was sick.
Life was fucking perfect.
You know… minus the fact that I was going to have to go back to the penitentiary after I made myself sick.
"The noodle cups don't taste like that, right?" Dante asked, as he started the car.
"Some are better than others, but no. Not really."
I'd still be adding noodle cups to our next grocery order, just so I could make sure he had the opportunity to taste them.
Yeah, the fancy ramen was definitely better, but the cups were still amazing.
"I still think we should go home," he said. "It's not a big deal to leave the magic the way it is for another day or two."
"I know, but I'd rather get it over with."
He nodded slowly, his jaw a little tight.
I was still sore, but some of that had faded while we were eating. I'd guzzled water, which definitely hadn't hurt.
He reluctantly pulled away from the restaurant, and was quiet for the rest of the drive.
I needed to lighten the mood before we went back into hell, so when he parked, I set a hand on his thigh.
"Hey, Inferno?"
"Don't Inferno me right now, Angel."
"Have you ever knotted someone in a car?" The last time we had car sex, we'd been careful not to end up tied together.
His chest rumbled unhappily. "We were locked together an entire hour the last time we hooked up outside the house. Someone's going to walk past."
We'd done it in one of his offices. He'd been obsessed, and had bitten me at least a dozen times over the course of that hour. It had been incredible.
"I can use my magic to keep people away from the car."
"You should be saving your strength for the prison."
"You're the one who said there's no time limit. If I'm tired down there, we can come back tomorrow." I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed over the small center console, sitting down on Dante's lap and setting my hands on his chest. "What do you say?"
"You're sure you can keep us from being seen?"
"Positive."
He lowered his lips to my throat, kissing me there lightly. "And you're not in too much pain?"
"You'd be able to tell if I was."
Dante kissed my throat again, dragging his tongue slowly over my skin in a way that made me flush.
"You're fucking perfect, Ophelia."
My flush spread. "Then bite me already."
He chuckled quietly—and did.
His fangs sank into my throat, flooding me with heat in the way only his bite could. My magic bloomed around us, my power so thick now that I couldn't have held it back if I wanted to.
Darkness surrounded us as my magic intertwined with Dante's shadows.
"God, I fucking love your magic," he growled against my throat, releasing my neck and tugging my sweats down. He lined his erection up with my entrance as he licked my wounds to close them.
I sank over him, taking him deep. "Maybe I do too."
"You should." Dante pulled me down harder, and I moaned.
We moved together, his hands on my thighs and ass.
My pleasure consumed me. Leaking through the bond, his did too, until we were coming together, his knot locking our bodies together. We held each other's gaze as we went over the edge.
I didn't think I was falling in love with him, anymore.
I was pretty sure I loved him.
Maybe I should've been terrified by that, but all I felt was happiness.
And pleasure, obviously.