Chapter 5

Atlas

"Incitare?" she breathes, her green eyes—I knew it—dark with desire.

I nod, driven by the need to close the distance and actually fuck her against this wall like I've suggested to complete the joining. But she's finally hearing me, and I know she needs more time or she's going to bolt.

Instead, I take a step away from her, even as my body strains toward her.

Her eyes drop to my dick, still hard in my pants, then back to my face.

I freeze, the desire for her overwhelming my prior decision to wait.

Did you make it,Rome's voice interrupts my thoughts.

I clear my throat; hopeful it will reinstate my rationality. Yes. You get to the Garage?

Clear. Joining done?

No, Rome. There's sarcasm in my communication to him that I'm sure my oldest brother notices. A bit more complicated than that, I tell him. She doesn't know anything about being a calix.

So fucked,comes his reply. Then he's gone, and I'm left trying to figure out how to explain centuries of history and condense it to what's relevant.

"What are you trying to tell me?" she asks, her breath coming a bit easier.

I turn away and adjust my cock, willing that shit into submission. It's a stubborn bastard. "I'll tell you," I say, crossing back to the table and grabbing my drink to finish it off. I need something to do with my hands and body other than reach for her. And something to take my mind off her. Getting that close wasn't well thought out. Her scent—a concoction of something…well… fucking perfect—is filling my head now, and I'm sliding toward the incoherence of my need. A trained calix would understand the bond—even if trained ones are few and far between. This woman doesn't understand it, doesn't know anything about it. I take a deep breath and look at her over my shoulder. "I'm really hungry," I say. "I'll make us something. How does a sandwich sound?"

"A sandwich?" She looks surprised that I've suggested it. I suppose I understand given I was just talking about fucking her against a wall. It's a hard 180.

"I make really good ones," I tell her and smile.

She looks unsettled but grabs her glass and follows me across the room to the kitchen. "Okay."

I sift through my memory, looking for innocuous topics given what she's said so far. "So you're from Griphin?"

She clears her throat, and after a lengthy pause says, "Yes."

I'm leaning into the fridge when I hear her take a seat at the bar. I pull out a bunch of sandwich stuff. "What are you doing in Murrus?" The question makes her nervous as she adjusts in her seat, which is curious, so I switch tactics. "The bus broke down?"

"Yes." She nods, wrapping her hands around her glass. "I'm just passing through Murrus. The bus bit it right as we pulled into town. At the bar—" she pauses and takes a deep breath— "at the bar, I was trying to find a way out of town."

"Well, lucky you met me. Accommodations." I wave a hand, then untwist the tie on the bread. Her smile should make me feel like I've won something, but there's worry behind her yes. "But you weren't planning on staying."

She shakes her head, her eyes on the bread bag as I pull slices from inside. "I need to get to Onyx City."

I lay the bread out on the cutting board. "And you can't wait a week?"

"I'm supposed to be there in three days." Her eyes rise from the bread to meet mine. Definitely worried.

"How come?"

She swallows. "My sister is there."

"And she can't wait an extra couple of days for you?" I hold up the mayo.

She swallows again and nods. There's something she's not saying, and I get that, but she's not going to be able to leave. At least not for a while. There's incitare, then there's gratus, or the gratification, and that shit lasted for months for Lief—my cousin—and his calix, Mercy. I can tell whatever has her hesitating is making her nervous.

"Maybe I can help?" I ask as I draw a knife of mayo across two slices of bread. "With your sister?"

"I don't think so."

I hum a noise, accepting her evasion for now. "Mustard okay?"

She nods. "Are you from here?"

"Carran Hollow?" I ask. "Born and raised. Cheese okay?"

When she nods, I hold up the Swiss and the cheddar and she says, "Both."

"Good girl," I say, offering her a smile. The blush tinting her cheeks makes my dick twitch, but I ignore it for the time being.

"What was it like living in such a small town?"

"Stifling." I layer the turkey over the cheese. "If you were to take a walk up and down Main Street—where we were earlier—and were to ask, ‘what do you think of Atlas Black?' everyone would say, ‘he and his family are trouble.'"

"That tracks," she says, and this time truly smiles.

That smile. Fuck. It's perfect. Curls up and reaches her eyes, making them sparkle. I clear my throat again. "Tomatoes? Pickles?"

"Please," she says.

I add both to each of our sandwiches. "My family and I have been in this town since before this town began." More accurately, since the Great Demon seized the Original Cup from the Great Illumination, and in their battle, broke the chalice, which scattered the shards. Each bit of that sacred chalice became the Hallowed Ground from which Sentinels were born—at least one family to guard the remnant.

"A legacy then."

"So you could say." I use a knife to cut her sandwich in half and place it on a plate, which I slide toward her.

"Thank you." She pauses, as if to measure what she wants to ask. "Do you ever wish to leave?"

"You're welcome." I ponder her question as I carry my plate to the table. "Sure," I say. "Who doesn't want to leave home? I've traveled some." Which is more accurately translated to demon chasing. "I work a lot, so I haven't thought a lot about it since."

"And what is it you do?" She sits across from me rather than several seats away.

A loaded question, but the bite I took gives me the opportunity to think about how to answer it. "I own a mechanic shop at the edge of Carran with my brothers. I'm a mechanic there."

"So why would people say you're trouble? You help them with their cars."

"Probably would have gotten to take a look at that bus," I say, joking. My eyes meet hers. "People—normal people—can't see what you saw today."

She presses the edge of her sandwich. "So the people in the bar?"

"Couldn't see the manifold." I set my sandwich down. "To most people, it just looks like I start fights, that I hurt people."

"And you're not a demon? What does that make you?"

"Not a demon. Well, most days," I add with a grin, picking up my sandwich once more and taking a bite.

She smiles.

I like her smile. I like the way it lights up her big, green eyes. I notice her thick, dark lashes, and the perfect arches her dark brows make to frame them. I like how she tucks a stray strand of her silver hair behind an ear.

She takes a deep breath. "Okay. So, you can see demons and obviously fight them. That makes you…"

Here it comes. "A sentinel."

Her brow scrunches up and she sets down what's left of her sandwich. "A sentinel?"

I nod. "Yeah. In the old language, serephim. It's the magic of my family."

She repeats the word, then takes a bite of her sandwich. After she swallows—which I notice, as does my cock—she says, "Sentinel. It means guardian, right? Is that like a race or just a job?"

"Both."

She nods. "A protector with a side-gig from your day job as a mechanic? Protecting Carran from… demons."

I chuckle. "The other way around. Being a mechanic is a side gig." I take another bite.

We both eat together. I can see she's thinking about what I've told her, wrapping her thoughts around what she thought she knew and what she's learned.

"How come I've never seen them before? Like where I'm from?" She breaks the silence, her forearms pressed against the edge of the table.

"Would you have thought the dude in the bar was a demon at first?"

She shakes her head. "I didn't."

"They can look like anyone, blend in until they use their power like that manifold did. So you may have come across them and…"

"Didn't know. So based on what you've said… I'm not normal."

"Taedae," I say. She repeats the word. "Taedae means unsighted human. You're very normal, just not human." I smile. "You can see that layer of the world because of what you are."

"Like you. And that's because of what I am?"

I nod.

"Which is?"

"A calix."

"Not a sentinel?"

"Not in the same way. A sentinel is male, and a calix is female."

"That sounds very sexist."

I huff an amused laugh. "It's just a designation. Both are serephim. Both protect. Both defend hallowed ground—like this place and the taedae world. Both are skilled. The only difference is that calix can bear children. Sentinels cannot. And when a Sentinel and a calix join—especially with incitare—their strength increases."

"I'm not saying I believe you, but if I did, is it just random or like part of the family tree."

"If you're calix, every woman in your family is a calix."

She swallows. "So my sister?"

"Calix."

"My mother?"

"Calix."

She's eaten about half her sandwich and pushes the plate away.

I want to ask her if she's okay, her face suddenly pale, but I don't push. I'm pretty sure it's about her sister and the city, but I grab hold of my patience. "You going to finish that?" I ask.

She shakes her head and pushes the plate toward me. "I'm too keyed up to eat."

I pull her plate toward me.

"How do you know? That I'm calix. Just because I can see demons?"

I finish the bite, knowing this is now treading into the whole crux of why we're together. "That. And?—"

"The feeling?" Her eyes lift to mine and a blush stains her cheeks.

I nod. "Power."

Her breath rushes out of her, and the power climbs up through my spine again.

I stand, picking up our dishes and carrying them into the kitchen to keep myself from picking her up, plopping her on the table, and fucking her right there. "Maybe that's enough for tonight. I can take you to your room."

She stands. "But you haven't told me everything."

"It's a lot," I say, turning toward her. "Perhaps smaller doses are better."

"I don't work like that."

And when she says it, I know that's true. I think about her attitude at the bar and smile. "Okay," I say. "What else do you want to know?"

"So we're… incitare? You and me?"

I smile. "No. That's the act?—"

"The act?"

I arch and eyebrow at her.

"Oh. Why wouldn't my mom have told me this?"

"Calix have been hunted."

"By demons?"

I nod and hold my tongue about the other things. It's neither here nor there for the moment. "For a long time, so most calix families hid."

Her eyes flash with awareness, sliding into that unfocused way they glaze when she's processing information.

"What is it?" I ask.

She shakes her head.

"You can trust me. Trust me with everything."

"But not everything is relevant to you," she says.

"Anything relevant to you is relevant to me."

Her face scrunches up. "That's ridiculous. We're strangers."

"That's not the way the bond works."

"I'm not even sure I believe all that," she says, but her voice tells me that isn't exactly true.

I lean my elbows on the table. "That bond makes you mine."

She bristles, but I can also see the blush rush across her cheeks. She doesn't hate the idea, just like I don't hate it either, but still she says, "I'm my own."

I shake my head. "No, beautiful. Not anymore. You're mine."