7. Chapter 7

After getting a constant flow of insulin going, sleeping for a couple days, and only waking to chug massive amounts of magic-enhanced fluids, I was finally able to get the ketones to clear from my system and let my body heal.

I woke up on the third day finally feeling almost one hundred percent myself. I knew I was in better shape when the roaring heat that radiated against my skin on the left side of my body finally made sense in a way my poor, overwhelmed brain hadn"t been able to process for the last couple of days.

I sucked in a deep breath and stretched, one of those delicious, mind-melting stretches that was just life-altering. The motion jostled Aahil, and he woke, his golden eyes studying me from where his head lay on the pillow next to mine. He was like a furnace when he slept, all that fire magic barely banked inside him. I didn"t remember much from the last couple of days, besides waking up to check my insulin pump, drink something, or pee. But I did recall being sweaty and overly-warm, and I suspected it had more to do with a certain jinn being glued to my side the whole time, rather than my body going through the effects of DKA.

"You okay?" I asked, my voice still rough with sleep.

Aahil sat up on the bed beside me, scoffing. "Me? You"re the one who nearly died of stubbornness and a silly human disease, useless witch."

I laughed and pushed up into sitting beside him, both of us leaning against the headboard with our legs touching. "Mhm," I said dryly. "And you didn"t go into a murderous, stabby, trauma-induced rage, then spend several days in here babysitting me?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, his shoulders tense. "Nonsense."

I huffed out another laugh and took his hand, threading our fingers together. Even with his magic suppressed, I could feel the spark of his aura as it reached for mine. "Thanks for watching over me."

He looked away, but squeezed my hand. "It was boring watching you snore."

I rubbed my free hand over my face. "Yeah. I bet. Anything exciting happen while I was out of it? Dyre didn"t make anymore dead doormen, did he?"

Aahil looked down at the comforter, picking at a stray thread with his free hand. "No. Everyone has been far too busy worrying about you to get up to anything even vaguely interesting."

I smirked. "Even Hasumi?"

Aahil bared his teeth at me, and his seductive voice turned into a growl. "What is that supposed to mean? Do you think I have to cling to one of you to exist? I"m not that pathetic!"

Says the man who probably slept in my bed for three days just to be close to me while I was out of my mind.

"Sure," I said, releasing his hand and sliding to the edge of the bed. "I"ll be right back. Stay put. Or don"t. It"s not an order or anything."

He sighed, the sound so deep that it sounded like his soul was escaping. "Just hurry the fuck up."

I turned away so he wouldn"t see my smile. Poor little jinn. He was getting better over time, but he still didn"t know how to handle being vulnerable. He depended on me and Hasumi to keep him together and moving forward. But I had been out of commission, and it sounded like he had been too proud to go to the water weaver, or something else had happened to make him refuse to ask for help.

I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and freshened up a little before returning to the bedroom. I had been sleeping for most of the past few days, and the diabetes thing made my breath uniquely awful if it was out of control. Feeling a bit more like a living person, I clambered back onto the bed and pulled Aahil to me.

The grumbly jinn didn"t protest at all, which proved that I was right about why he was here. He had come back from the O"Leary coven with all his trauma around sex and physical touch re-activated and worsened. But sensuality and sex magic were literally part of the man"s genetic makeup. He needed to express that part of himself to be whole.

Fire jinn weren"t exactly like the human stories of incubi and succubi, but they were pretty damned close in a lot of ways. As I understood it, some part of Aahil actually physically or energetically fed on passion and sensuality. And cutting that off completely couldn"t be pleasant. Or good for him.

I drew him into a soft kiss, letting him know I saw him, and I understood. I would never push him for anything he wasn"t comfortable with, but he was comfortable with kissing. We"d even had some pretty intense make-out sessions, both with and without Hasumi. It was enough to keep the part of him that actually craved affection and physical touch somewhat happy while he healed.

Today, he seemed needier than ever, his lean, supple body moving against me instinctively, his warm hand coming up to cup my jaw as he pushed me down to lie with him. He tasted like hot cinnamon candies and danger, and I was just as hungry for him as he was for me, despite recent events.

My hands smoothed slowly over the loose t-shirt he wore today, feeling the taught muscles of his back as he pressed me into the bed. I was careful to keep my touches above the waist and over his clothes, but he pulled back, a bit of fire dancing in his beautiful eyes as he looked down at me. "Take your shirt off, witch," he commanded. His tone was closer to the angry, domineering asshole I had first met, the one who always needed to be in charge. But there was a new hint of vulnerability there as well.

I did as I was told, sitting up long enough to get rid of the tank top I currently wore and toss it aside before I flopped back down on the bed in just my underwear. My eyebrows lifted when Aahil did the same, pulling the loose shirt off over his head and revealing smooth, red-brown skin, above soft flannel pajama pants that hung low on his narrow hips.

All the perfect, lean muscles of his chest and abs were on display. Before the O"Leary asshats, the jinn hardly ever wore a shirt, and goddess, I had missed the sight. Gold hoops glinted at his nipples, and a ruby teardrop at his belly button. My fingers ached to trace the graceful, powerful lines of his body and toy with all those shiny decorations. But I kept my hands to myself.

Aahil tossed his t-shirt over to join mine on the floor, then surprised me even further by leaning in to cover me, pressing his smooth, warm skin to mine as he drew a hand over my breast and down my side to my hip in a soft caress. "Touch me, witch," he said in a low, husky whisper that made my body tingle and my core clench. "Let me feel your skin on mine."

I swallowed back the snarky commentary that wanted to escape. Even before the bullshit with the O"Learys, Aahil had never liked to be touched. Sure, he"d do some touching, but only if he was in control of the entire interaction. He had never given me free rein to do as I liked.

I met his eyes as I slowly slid my hands over the muscles of his back again, this time without the barrier of the t-shirt between us. My tits squashed against his deliciously warm chest as he kissed me again, slow and devouring, hungry but pacing himself. As if he was just as scared as I was that this whole thing would suddenly go wrong.

I let one of my hands move higher, then drew it around to the front, tracing lightly around his collarbones and throat, then around to thread through his dark, silky hair to the back of his neck. I massaged the nape of his neck lightly before gripping him a bit more firmly, holding him close as our tongues tangled. Aahil shuddered at the hint of insistence from me, but he didn"t freak out or pull away at what he might have previously seen as an attempt to control him. When he did finally pull out of my grasp, it was only to trail hot, open-mouthed kisses down the side of my neck and to my breasts.

I felt a flare in his magic as he dealt with some powerful emotion, but the flare wasn"t so big that it set off his protective wards. He bit down on the swell of my breast, scraping his sharp teeth across the tender flesh before moving downward. I sucked in a breath and arched off the bed a little when he pulled my nipple into his mouth. The wet heat of his mouth was almost too much, just this side of too hot on my sensitive skin, but he pulled away to blow cool air over the hardened nub and I shivered in pleasure.

Goddess… Aahil as an unhinged sexual terror was hot—terrifying, sure, but hot all the same—but this… I had never expected this sort of slow, sensual torture from him. It made me want to think about all the fun we could have if he was finally free of his baggage. My hand landed on his hip without thinking and he tensed a bit, but he only pulled away enough to make room to caress my breast and draw his warm, graceful hand over the skin of my ribs.

Aahil smirked at me, all sensual, wicked promise, as he curled his fingertips inward, dragging his short claws over the soft swell of my belly. He circled my belly button in a slow tease before dragging one black claw up the center of my torso, circling each breast, then drawing a line up my throat to my chin, leaving tingling desire in his wake.

"You"re being awfully quiet for once, witch," he purred, his eyes searching mine. "No complaints? No commentary? Are you ill?"

I licked my lips before replying. "Nope. I"m fine," I finally managed. "Just wondering when I"m going to wake up. Because this is clearly a dream."

He chuckled lightly, and a genuine smile ghosted over his perfect lips. "It certainly feels as tenuous as a dream."

Then the jinn pushed up to kiss my forehead before he moved to lie along my side with his sleek, dark head pillowed on my shoulder. His warm hand continued to stroke over my exposed skin, but slower, without the lusty intent of his previous touches. He was outlining my curves, drawing comfort from the contact, and I read the words he couldn"t say out loud in his touch. He wanted more. We both did. But for now, this had filled the ache inside him. For now, it was enough.

I didn"t protest. I just pulled the covers up over us and snuggled closer to him, offering whatever comfort my body might provide. And hey, it wasn"t like it was exactly a hardship to bask in his newly gentle affections. "I love you," I whispered against the top of his head, so quiet, afraid of his response but willing to tell him a million times over if that"s what it took to get him to believe it. To believe that he was worth loving. Broken pieces and all.

Aahil sighed against the base of my throat. "So sappy," he grumbled. "It was just a bit of light foreplay, witch, don"t lose your mind."

I smiled against his hair. But a moment later, his soft, sultry voice whispered against the skin of my throat, making me shudder. "I love you too, I think. It"s all very disgusting and I hate it."

I chuckled softly at his bluster and turned more fully onto my side, so we were wrapped in each other, our noses nearly touching and those brilliant gold eyes unable to escape my gaze. Long black lashes swept downward over his high cheekbones as he tried to avoid the eye contact. "You"re so freaking adorable," I prodded, feeling warm inside.

His hand was resting on my hip, and he slowly dug his claws into the soft flesh as he ground out a warning. "Lovell."

I knew it was just more of his bluster. And besides, it wasn"t like he could set me on fire with his magic suppressed the way it was. So I kissed the tip of his long, slightly upturned nose. "Aahil."

Our adorable moment was shattered by the swell of power that came from my nightstand, immediately followed by the chill that told me there was a ghost present. "Andy!" Elijah demanded in his hollow voice.

I groaned. "Damn it. You were watching the entire time, weren"t you?"

Aahil sat up and yanked the covers up under his armpits to cover his chest like a virginal maiden in some weird human-realm movie. He bared his teeth and sneered at the ghost. "No one invited you, spook."

Elijah ignored that, coming to hover near me when I sat up over the edge of the bed and bent to retrieve my tank top. "Andy, something"s happened to Hasumi. Please hurry."

He was still a ghost, but Elijah had been slightly more opaque since Dyre tied him to his new finger-bone anchor charm. He was just solid enough for me to see him wringing his hands. Goddess, what had caused a dead angel that kind of distress?

"What"s happened to Hasumi?" I asked, trying to stay calm. The water weaver was probably the strongest of all of us. Elijah had to be overreacting to whatever it was.

"I think the necromancer broke the water weaver!" Elijah insisted. "They were arguing, and then Hasumi had a seizure."

Okay, that had me sitting up and taking notice. "Hasumi what?"

Aahil whipped the blanket off so fast it made a cracking sound. "That corpse fucking bastard!" Then the jinn dematerialized and popped out of existence, probably off to murder Dyre for hurting his water weaver.

I took a deep breath and prayed to whatever gods or goddesses were listening. Hell, I"d even take demonic assistance at this point. I wasn"t picky. "Fuck my life," I said as I stood and scrambled to find some pants. Hasumi had better fucking be okay, or I wasn"t likely to react any better than Aahil.