Chapter 19 Whitney #2
I laugh. “That’s called chemistry. It’s not something I expected to feel with you, if I’m being honest, but I feel it too.”
His eyes flare. “You’ve felt this with someone else?” His jaw tightens. “Who. Tell me.”
“No one in the same way I feel it with you.” This time I’m the one reaching for his face, and he lets me. My fingers brush over his dark, strong eyebrows. His eyelashes are so long, they touch my finger as I do. “You have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.”
“Yours are much prettier.” He captures my hand.
“But I’d like to try something.” He ducks down, his eyes moving toward my mouth.
“I’ve seen humans do this for a very long time, and I’ve never once been curious.
But now I find that I am.” He lowers his head even more, his eyes never wavering from my mouth.
“Can I?” His deep blue eyes dart up to mine.
It’s not hot for a guy to ask for permission. It’s lame. Have some confidence, or buzz off, loser. But having Death ask to kiss me, knowing it’s his very first kiss, it’s. . .well, it’s actually pretty hot.
I fling my hands around his neck and drag him the rest of the way.
When our lips finally meet, it makes that initial tingle feel like static electricity to a cattle prod.
The jolt as his mouth touches mine is nothing short of a thousand volts.
I shoot to my tiptoes, dragging him closer, needing him closer.
He growls, loudly.
“For heaven’s sake.” A voice I recognize calls from the house. “At least go far enough that we don’t have to see this.” It’s the voice of my stepdad, Steve.
“Shut up,” Amanda Saddler says. “Stay right there, you two. I’m so glad I bought that nice camera. This is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened here.”
I can’t help my laughter.
Xolotl looks disoriented. “What just happened?”
“That’s what a kiss should be like,” I say.
“Is that all there is?” Xolotl looks from my mouth down to the rest of my body. “Because when you press your hands to my chest. . .” His nostrils flare. “I know humans—is mating connected to this?”
“Easy there, sir. One thing at a time.”
He’s beaming at me. “Yes, one thing at a time.” He kisses me again, and I can’t help myself.
I press my hands against his chest.
He growls against my mouth, and I bite his lip. He picks me up then, with one arm, and he starts walking farther away from the house. “Their shouting’s bothering me.”
I had stopped even noticing it.
He shifts me so that one arm runs beneath my knees, and the other’s braced behind my back.
I can’t argue with him about getting away.
But right now, anything that keeps me from crawling inside his skin bothers me. Plus, it’s pretty hot that he picked me up like I’m a doll or something. We’ve nearly reached the creek when I shove against his chest. “Far enough.”
He sets me down, his right hand cupping my jaw. “You—you don’t hate me, then?”
I sigh. “I’ve missed you, Xolotl, almost from the moment I left with Leonid and Izzy. They didn’t kidnap me, by the way. I left. I was trying to figure out how to put you to sleep. I told Leonid to kill me. He would have, if it hadn’t been for my sister’s insistence that we find another way.”
A muscle in Xolotl’s jaw pops repeatedly. “He almost killed you anyway. I had shoved that distasteful memory out of my mind.” Now muscles all over his body are bunching, like he can’t quite control his reaction to his rage.
I drop a hand on his chest, mostly to calm him, but also to see whether it really has the effect he claimed. His eyes immediately drop to my hand. “You’re touching me.”
“I am.” I can’t help my smile. “You like it?”
He nods slowly. “Too much. So much that it makes my heart beat too fast.”
“Did your heart beat at all before?”
He nods. “But very steadily, all the time. Now it keeps racing.”
“You’ll get used to that,” I say. “Or at least, more used to it.” I can’t really ignore it entirely. And now that I’ve admitted it to myself, I’m even more aware of my body’s reaction when he’s near. “But what we feel. . .” I clear my throat. “It’s not common, even among humans.”
His eyes widen. “I can’t help thinking about how often you might have done this with other men, and it makes me very, very angry.” He’s scowling. “It makes me long to kill someone. Anyone. But mostly the men who have touched you in the past.”
I laugh. “There weren’t many, actually. I had a recurring dream for most of my life about this one guy. I knew I’d love him and only him.” I freeze, because I’d almost forgotten about the other part. The part where I knew I’d love only him, and then the part where I know he’ll kill me.
I almost died because of him.
Leonid only stabbed me to free me.
But I didn’t actually die. Maybe I misunderstood my dream. Maybe it just meant I’d almost die, and that’s surely already happened. Now that I’m here with him, I find that I don’t really fear death anymore. Maybe I just realized that to love him was to love death.
He’s just leaned over to kiss me again when there’s a massive explosion and that ear-popping sensation. Xolotl freezes. “This is bad,” he whispers against my mouth. “That’s one of my brothers, and they won’t be pleased to learn that I’ve retired for a human.”
“We can’t leave my family to deal with him.” I glance back at the house. “But maybe I should go alone. Will you be safe?”
“Not a chance.” Xolotl wraps one arm around me. “I’m not sure how they’ll react, and I’m not sending you. You’ll never sacrifice for me.”
I can’t help a tiny smile. “We’re about to meet the family—both sides—on a first date. My life is so strange.”
“A date?” He smiles. “A date.” He takes my hand, interlacing our fingers, and he starts jogging toward the house again.
“If we survive this, I want a proper date. I think we should go on another walk.” He looks over his shoulder with a grin.
“The same kind of walk, but without such a short time limit.”
“Agreed,” I say. “If we survive.”
He wraps me in bands of air then, and he flies us back to the house. He may not be a horseman anymore, but he’s at least as powerful as the horse shifters we know, and he’s had millennia to develop his use of these particular powers.
“So it’s true.” Short hair was my least favorite of all his brothers, so it would have to be him.
“Hey, Osiris,” Xolotl says.
“Don’t you think you should say Anubis now?” Dark energy crackles around the disgruntled horseman, and I wonder whether it was always there, but I couldn’t see it, or whether Xolotl’s demotion somehow powered his brother up.
“Oh, I think you’ll find not much has changed.” Xolotl lifts his chin.
“I see it, though.” Anubis steps closer.
“The bright, shining ribbon inside of you is right there, pulsing in your soul.” He shakes his head.
“You’re a bigger idiot than I realized. You gave up all this for a human?
” He spreads his arms wide and dark energy crackles from one hand to the next. “Guess how I know?”
Xolotl tilts his head, looking extremely bored. “How?”
“I got a new power. Wanna see me use it?” Anubis turns toward me. “I can finally yank souls right out of bodies, just like you could.” He flicks his hand my direction, and just like that, I’m sailing out of my body, which has slumped to the ground behind me, and I’m headed for stupid Osiris.
Only, when my soul reaches him, before I can plunge through him like I saw souls do with Xolotl, something tugs me back.
When I turn to look over my shoulder, it’s Xolotl. He’s reached out, and he’s holding my soul with the shining light from his own—only this time, it’s the bright golden strand from his that’s attached to mine. “I’m bonding this human as mine,” he says.
Our golden strands entwine.
“You can’t.” Anubis snarls. “She’s mine, now.”
“Not so, brother. You hadn’t taken her yet.”
Anubis points at my limp body. “She’s dead.”
“Her heart no longer beats,” Xolotl says, “but she’s not yet dead.”
“She is,” Anubis snarls.
And then Leonid and all his buddies attack, their powers blending to assault one of the horsemen. It’s stupid, but it distracts him, and my former horseman slams my soul back into my body.
And I realize—it’s come true.
I fell in love with Cobalt Blue, and I died because of him. My dream didn’t warn me that he might bring me back. Maybe that part wasn’t certain. Xolotl’s holding me in his arms like I’m a baby when I open my human eyes again.
“I love you, Whitney,” he whispers. “And I know how you feel about killing, so I really hope you’ll forgive what I’m about to do.
” He sets me on the porch bench, and he vaults off the porch and joins the fray, attacking Anubis, presumably to prevent the newly refurbished death lord from soul-snuffing anyone else.
“Why would you get my favorite power.” Xolotl’s shaking his head.
“It’s such a waste, but you’re forgetting that it was my power for longer than you’ve existed.
” He’s smiling when he gathers up a ball of light energy, siphoning from each of us, forming it into a wad, and shoving it at Anubis, effectively blocking him from being able to soul-suck anyone.
“The first time that happened to me, I couldn’t use my ability for a month.” Xolotl’s smiling. “So I suggest that if you want to punish me for my past crimes, you find a magical plumber and circle back around later.”
“You—you’ve just made me angrier.” Anubis glares at Xolotl like he wants to shred him right on the spot. “When I come back, you’ll regret this.”
“I’ll regret defeating you, even without my horseman powers?” Xolotl laughs. “Doubtful, but I guess we’ll see.”
“You can’t watch her forever,” Anubis says.
“Try me.”
But then Anubis dives into a puddle, which opens wider into a hole, and disappears with a pop.
“I really don’t like that guy,” I say. “He’s my least favorite.”
“Mine too,” Xolotl says. “But every family has one or two members that are just awful.”
I suppose that’s true. “Are you worried he’ll return soon?”
“I doubt we’ll see him before he naps again. He’s a notorious hothead, but once he cools down, his cowardly nature will kick in. He won’t kick the anthill again, not after being badly bitten.”
“Plus, maybe we can have Lechuza talk to Thanatos for us,” Leonid says. “She seems frustrated by him, but she did get him to come talk to us before.”
“Thanatos and I have a long-held bond, and he doesn’t want his children dead either.”
That’s true, I think. “So we’re in the clear, now?”
“It depends on what you consider to be clear,” Leonid says. “We’ve got three horsemen awake, including one who’s marauding around Russia, which isn’t exactly wonderful for my people or my country.”
“Actually,” I say, “someone fairly smart told me that people will appreciate life more if their safety’s occasionally thrown into jeopardy.”
“I’m thinking Xolotl’s not the only one who’s changed in the past few days.” My mom was presumably hiding from the insanity, but now she’s circled around the near pasture, and she’s stopped by the water trough. She glances down, screams, and stumbles backward.
“What?” I jog toward her.
“There’s something—several somethings—bobbing around in the water.” She points. “They’re—they have strange little faces.”
When I look into the trough, I shout, “Gabe!”
He flies out of the kitchen, rifle in hand. “Need me to shoot someone?”
“Put that gun down, idiot,” I say. “Where did you shoot Xol—”
“Your boyfriend?” He’s grinning. “Right over there.” He points to where I’m standing.
“Did any of his blood, by chance, land in the water trough?”
“Maybe.” Gabe shrugs. “Not sure.”
“Mom, it’s fine,” I say. “This is just a thing that happens if Xolotl bleeds on water.”
Now everyone’s gathered around, and they all coo and cluck at the ten axolotls that have appeared in our water trough.
“Sorry about that.” But Xolotl’s already got his hand in the water. They’re bumping against it and nipping his fingers, and he’s beaming.
“There are two strands now,” Leonid says. “The light strands in your soul are growing.”
“I imagine that will only continue,” Xolotl says, “as long as this one doesn’t force me to leave.” He drops his axolotl-free arm around my shoulders.
I like the weight of his arm on me. “You better watch yourself, or I’ll kick you to the curb.”
“There aren’t any curbs out in the country,” Izzy points out.
“Whitney’s pretty hard to deal with,” Gabe says. “Some people would even call her hostile, but I can give you some tips on how to manage her.”
“Oh?” Xolotl’s smiling. “How so?”
“For one, you should always have a steady supply of Nerds clusters on hand. She really likes those.”
“Shut up.” I kick at Gabe, and he dances away.
“And if she’s really crabby, take her for a ride.” His eyes are sparkling. “She loves going for long trail rides when she’s stressed.”
Mom calls everyone inside for dinner then, and we all fall into our normal chores. I set the table. Gabe mixes up more lemonade. Izzy makes the salad.
“What should I do?” Xolotl’s standing around awkwardly. I never thought he could look awkward. Ominous, yes. Threatening, sure. Awkward? That’s a new one.
“Do you know how to do anything helpful?” Mom asks.
He grimaces.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure we’ll come up with some things you’re good enough to do eventually.” She smiles.
“I bet there are lots of things you’d be good at. Working at a nursing home, for instance.” Izzy’s got a very strange sense of humor.
“A morgue?” Leonid suggests. “Or perhaps an insurance actuary.”
“Your family’s remarkably relaxed about having Death sitting at their table,” Xolotl whispers as we all fill our plates and sit.
“You can thank Leonid for that. He’s the first villain a Brooks girl brought home.” I wink at Izzy. “They warmed everyone up for us.”
“Speaking of bringing someone home, we’re doing our wedding in Russia soon, if we can be reasonably sure the horseman isn’t going to crash.” Izzy’s staring pointedly at us.
“I can assure you that won’t happen.” Xolotl takes a bite of my mom’s lasagna, and then he turns to face me. “This is great.” I literally see the lasagna rolling around in his mouth as he says it.
“We have some things to cover,” I say. “Manners haven’t been high on his list in the past, I’m guessing.”
“Cut him some slack,” Gabe says. “Man’s never had to eat before.”
Somehow, in this bizarre family, Xolotl fits in reasonably well, and with him at my side, I finally feel like I do, too.