CHAPTER 32

Nika

"I'm glad your scaryold gran chased my prick of a brother away, but it doesn't excite me knowing you have a small society of dark and deranged wankers in your head with unlimited access to your thoughts and feelings, little rebel," Silas complained, propped up against the headboard with me laying over his chest.

I traced the dark lines of his tattoos with a fingernail. His stomach retracted, and his pecs moved in anticipation every time I veered too close to his nipple or scraped a sensitive patch of flesh. It was such a high to have such a powerful man at my mercy, and I'd grown fond of the silent moments we spent in bed together. After facing off with Death, I didn't want to miss a single second I could spend with him.

Giggling, I closed my eyes and let the ridiculous brute play with my hair to his heart's content. "I told you; she's teaching me how to keep them out of my head when I don't need them," I explained with a sly grin. "And she's a big fan of yours. I think you'd like some of the things she's had to say about you."

That perked the oversized mercenary right up.

Of course, my grandmother also warned that this was only the beginning; that one day I'd have to make a choice that would shake the world as we knew it. But her focus was on training me to use my powers effectively, so she refused to tell me more about what fate they thought they knew. She said when the time came, she'd tell me everything.

Tilting my face with his large hand, the gorgeous gaze of my silver savior met mine. "Is that right, bird? Don't toss my heart about. What's that saucy old fox saying about me?"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out," I quipped with a sassy wink, just glad to be back to our usual banter after escaping another life-or-death situation.

"That's our girl," I heard the murmur of a wolf in my head, and I laughed without meaning to. Luckily, Silas thought it was because of him and not the animal soul inside my head.

I'd asked them if they wanted to move on shortly after we got to safety, but every single one of them refused. Even Bear Claw. His excuse? He'd rather see this thing through and he had nothing better to do.

I never expected the same man who tried to kill me would one day be part of the reason I survived, but he was. No matter how hard he tried to spin it, Salvator was a good man. Something he denied vehemently every time he caught wind of the thought, but something that was irrefutably true no matter how often he denied it.

We'd fled to one of Silas's lesser used safe houses. It was in desperate need of repair, but it was perfect while we regrouped and Lev recovered. With a few nifty enchanted items, we were able to renovate it into a place that was both modern and cozy.

Lev did what he said he'd do. Yuma was dead. He'd killed her before Rilas appeared and stole his soul. He didn't visibly mourn her like I thought he might, but he didn't give many details either. Silas had enough sense not to ask. It was clear that even though he was proud of my friend for making sure Yuma paid for her crimes, the centuries-old assassin knew the guilt and shame that came with killing family.

But when Lev recounted what it was like having his soul taken, his face and body expressed it all. The fear dripped from every word. "All I heard were screams, Niks. It was a living nightmare inside that crazy asshole's head," Lev told me one night when I was feeding him in bed. "I've been alive for over a hundred years, so shit's scared me before, but nothing came close to that feeling. Nothing."

Unfortunately, after his soul was taken and then put back into his body, Lev was left terribly weak. For nearly three days, he couldn't move at all. I had to help him bathe, eat, and use the restroom. Silas bemoaned the idea at first, but after I posed the alternative, he quickly agreed it was best I do it. He'd be the brute he always was with Lev, and I worried he'd hurt my friend out of spite if I let him play caretaker.

But after a week, Lev was finally moving more on his own. He'd taken the farthest room "for reasons I'd rather not relive" as he put it. Probably everything to do with the full-moon night that served up a mercenary's ass on a silver platter. I'd hit Silas after he made a move to say something cheeky about it. Neither Lev nor I wanted to revisit that night. I'd vowed never to let it come up in a conversation for as long as I lived.

In the happiness that followed the heartbreak, I let myself indulge in everything the powerful Fae had to offer. But even when I was feeling his hardness filling the deepest parts of me and the soft friction of his lips kissing every place he could reach, or even when he had me so tightly bound inside his arms I wasn't sure if I'd ever escape—not that I'd ever want to—I remembered the words Rilas said before he fled.

"Silas...promise me something," I started, my lips thinning. The golden-eyed Fae stared at me, his eyebrow raising with interest. "If I...if I ever start to crave the darkness, promise you'll do whatever you can to bring me back to the light."

At first, I thought he might get angry. His face was twisted in on itself, the gold in his eyes bleeding completely to silver, and his muscles tautened and shuddered like he was holding back. But after a few seconds, he spoke, "I promise, love. Whatever it takes, I'll never let you go anywhere I can't follow. Even if it means killing Death himself, I'll do it without hesitating for one bloody second."

After kissing him and returning my head to his chest, I lifted the gem glistening on a thin chain and eyed the clear surface.

Grandmother said that any corruption of my soul would darken and color the gem. It was one of the few ways she kept an eye on her own power, and it was the reason Father gave it to me. It would be my warning before corruption took hold of me, and it was the reason she encouraged me to never take it off.

Silas grabbed my hand holding the gem and kissed the top of my head. "I promise, little rebel."

To Be Continued...