Page 126 of Black Bird

Wren shrugged and took one last drag before stomping her cigarette out. “It’s not as awful as the tension between you two. Come with me. I wanna show you how damn stupid you are.” She stepped around the swing and grabbed Sarah’s hand to drag her around the side of the house where loud whacking was growing louder as they hid around the corner. Athan was close to the tree line hacking away at some large logs with an old, rusted ax—the entire top half of his heavily inked body glistening with sweat while his white t-shirt hung from his hip. “Dear God … I will change my ways. I will go to church. Donate to charity …” Wren’s fingers steepled in front of her and Sarah snorted and shoved her elbow into her ribs. “Ow, bitch …” They pressed into the side of the cabin and continued to watch him. “It’s massive, isn’t it?”

Sarah didn’t take her eyes off Athan, her mouth slightly open. “Huh?”

“Don’t hold out on me. You know damned well what I’m talking about. He can’t be blessed enough to look like that and have a tiny wiener.” Wren shook her head, wincing when Sarah hit her again. “Tell me! Is that why you haven’t jumped his old ass bones yet? You scared?”

“No, I’m not scared. Not of that part, anyway,” Sarah lowered her voice while they watched him lift an entire log over his head and place it down on the stump like it weighed no more than Wren’s cat.

“Then what? Cause you are without a doubt the mostrestrainedmotherfucker I’ve ever met in my life.” Wren chewed her lip.

“You forget why we’re able to watch him do this in the daylight, Wren.”

Wren turned her face to her and scowled. “You remember when I was giving you the business about Brent at the club that night you were attacked? You kept assuring me he was a good guy. Then we find out I was right, but that’s beside the point. Lemme take a page from your book on this one, Sarah. Athan made amistake. A mistake he couldn’t control. I’d say that’s a lot different than what Stratford put you through.”

Sarah sighed. “He killed me. He killed me and left me to rot in an alley. That part, at least, he chose to do. How does anybody expect me to just forget about that?”

“You won’t, Sarah. Youforgivehim. He’s a good person, and I don’t have to tell you that. You already know that he is. What happened doesn’t define him anymore than the way we look, and dress defines us. You know that better than anybody. You still cared about Brent after everyrotten thing they wrote about you in the tabloids. Athan loves you. You love him right back. Only a damn fool wouldn’t see it.” They stared at each other for a silent moment and Sarah’s mouth tightened in agreement before they returned their attention back to Athan, who seemingly grew irritated with the dull ax and had tossed it aside to use his inhuman strength to rip the logs apart with his bare hands. “Mother Mary … I can’t watch this anymore.” Wren drove a fist into Sarah’s shoulder, and she grunted, making an open-mouthed face that was drawn up with pain. “Dumbass.”

Sarah snapped her teeth at her as they turned away, and Wren dodged her swinging arm as she darted ahead and rounded the other side of the house.

It was seldom that Athan had ever felt tired from any physical labor. In all honesty, he wasn’t physically tired at all. He’d finished the last log and stacked the firewood into a rusty wheelbarrow around the back of the small shed by the woods. It did seem colder, but he welcomed it as he stretched out in the grass and folded his arms behind his head, relishing in the feel of the afternoon sunlight that broke incandescently through the colors of late fall. As relaxing as closing his eyes would be, he couldn’t stop looking through the painted canopy of trees at the small bits of blue sky that shone behind them. He was one fortunate sod. Even through his selfish wants, he was so incredibly lucky.

Athan couldn’t help but be reminded of all the similar colors of Sarah’s eyes as the quiet of nature and oncoming winter shifted above him. She was just as beautiful as the impossibility of what he was able to currently enjoy. He wondered if it was, in part, because of her fragility of being human. How precious her short years were, and how badly he wished to protect them. If shedidchoose to be with him, would she ask him for this life? To spend an eternity living, even after the new wore off and immortality became what it was to him? He had a gut feeling that if they were to be together, she’d argue when she began to age. When her mortal body started looking older than his. He’d probably not get an inch when he tried explaining he’d never love her any less when she was eighty. That he’d dote on, and comfort her, and make sure she lived the fullest life. She’d want for nothing. Ever.

He didn’t know how long he laid there. At some point he must have closed his eyes, because they fluttered open when he felt a nudge against his shoulder, and the sun had hidden itself, leaving him in a shade that was as familiar a cold as the night used to be. Bleak and bitter, and empty as hell. Every one of those feelings dissolved when Sarah stood over him, watching and smiling softly as her hair blew around her.

“Sorry to wake you.” She smiled, clutching her arms around herself as the wind bit into her. Her eyes shifted momentarily to the tattooon his breast. “Rhaena said you wouldn’t get any dinner until you washed the stink off you.”

Athan turned his face to sniff beneath his arm. “She’s full of shit. I smell like a god.”

Sarah’s soft laugh made it impossible for him not to smile up at her. Their eyes met and lingered a bit too long. She swallowed hard. “Sorry Platelet Pete, but I gotta side with Rhaena on this one.” She grinned, scrunching her nose when she did, and driving him absolutely mad with the need to touch her. Athan sat up and lowered his brows.

“Platelet Pete?” he drawled. She cackled and turned away, tucking her hands under her arms as the wind picked up and she started back toward the cabin. “I don’t like that one!” he snapped, raising himself off the ground.

“You can thank Wren!” she called back as she went up the steps and smiled at him before shutting the back door. He was gonna string that redhead up by her feet.

As he went inside and made his way through the kitchen, he caught Wren’s glance and gestured with two fingers, pointing first at his eyes, and then at her. She had a potato chip halfway in her mouth as she sat cross-legged on the couch and furrowed her brows.

“What?” She shrugged, her eyes following him to the bedroom.

“You’re an asshole,” Athan declared. Sarah snickered from beside her as she stole chips from Wren’s bag. He shut the door, not missing her thoroughly confused reaction, and undressed to get a shower. Denver was curled up on Rhaena’s bed, and after deciding he was in no mood to argue with a cat, he let him stay there as he shut himself in the small bathroom.

The water pressure at the cabin was shit, but the water itself was blessedly hot and as he leaned into it, Athan loosed a satisfied groan. The porcelain tub was small and stood alone in the tiny wood-paneled bathroom. It didn’t stop him from wishing Sarah was in it, with nowhere to stand but against him. He couldn’t deny that ever since the bond between them snapped tight, he seemed ten times as starved for her. He wondered if she could feel it. He could feel her, for certain.

Dinner was comfortable, and the soup was surprisingly good. They all exchanged the usual playful banter, and several times Athan caught Sarah staring at him. One of those times, she didn’t balk from it, or pretend she wasn’t looking, and he held that stare while Wren and Rhaena bickered over something stupid. The longer he did, the more their voices faded around him and when he had Sarah’s full attention, he tried something.

You’re driving me mad.

Sarah’s eyes widened and right then, Athan realized she heard him. His mouth curled up in the corner.

What kind of fuckery is this? Can you hear me, too?

He gave her the faintest nod and her fingers rested on her mouth. The two hens continued talking while they carried on in silent conversation.

I wasn’t sure it would work, but I can’t say I’m upset about it.

Her face crumpled in confusion.

How can I do this if I’m human?

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