Page 32 of Guarded By the Krampus

“And just what time are you landing?”

That, I knew—Sarah’d given me the information after she’d finished changing our coordinates.

“Don’t leave your plane. I’ll meet you on board.”

I remembered Serena’s admonition at the last moment. “Wait—don’t you need to ask your wife?”

“Don’t worry, she’ll be out at a holiday gathering with friends,” he said, and hung up.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

That left Sarah and I with eight hours to spare. But instead of fucking madly, we just sat by one another and talked. She was in jeans and a fitted T-shirt, and she couldn’t get enough of petting my fur—and I wanted to learn all about her, now that I had clearly made the cut.

The time passed like a quiet current between us, gentle and unhurried. Sarah rested her hand on my arm, her fingers stroking my fur absently, and for once, I didn’t feel like I had to be larger than life. She asked me questions about my childhood, about the first time I realized I was different, and instead of brushing them off, I found myself answering honestly. In return, she told me about the tiny rebellions of her youth—things like sneaking out of her family’s estate and then making the bodyguard who picked her up tell her how he caught her, so she could do a better job of it the next time. It was the most human I’d ever seen her, stripped of all the layers she wore to protect herself from the world, and I realized anew how much I wanted to be the one she didn’t have to hide from.

“Then I got these eyes when I was ten—and I had to re-learn everything,” she said, pointing to her blindfold. “I was upset at first, because I was a kid, you know, and I really wanted them toshoot lasers—then my mom said, “what would you even do with that if they could?” I couldn’t very well tell her ‘go and shoot all of my enemies’, so I said, “I don’t know. Carve statues?” and the very next day she hired a famous sculptor to tutor me. The rest is history.”

“I like a monofocused woman,” I teased, letting my voice carry the warmth of how much I enjoyed simply being with her. She flushed and shook her head, retreating, so I caught her wrists and pulled her back. “Don’t hide. I want to know everything.”

“Well that’s good, because I’ve never told anyone else this much.”

I brought her hands up to my lips and kissed them. “That’s because we’re meant to be, Sarah. I promise.”

Then she bowed her head further. “Ace—I’ve had all sorts of other men make me promises before.”

I wasn’t worried, I just kept smiling at her. “There’s your problem then,” I told her. “None of them were satyrs.”

Her head stayed bowed a moment longer, then she laughed.

Somehow I got her to sleep on my shoulder for a few hours, before the plane landed and we taxied out to the hangar where it lived in between missions.

“Tell your men to keep the door closed, okay?” I told her, pulling out my phone to send Sylas a text.

He appeared in the jet right after it was sent, in a cloud of smoke and malice.

“You rang?” he intoned, forming into something more solid quickly, although there was still a piece of smoke on his chest that I couldn’t quite make out.

Sarah jumped at the sound of his voice—and I realized he didn’t register on any of her equipment.

“Sarah, this is Sylas—he was with us at the MSA before we left.”

“I remember his voice—but how did he get on board?” she asked me, panicking.

“I can portal. But civilians aren’t supposed to know I can do that, so don’t spread it around.”

And just then…a baby cried, from the vicinity of Sylas’s ribcage.

It was my turn to panic. “What the fuck was that?”

“I told you—Mina’s went to Ellum’s Christmas party, and I stayed at home to watch Lucian,” Sylas said, settling a proprietary hand on what I was now realizing was a smoke-hidden baby-sling. “Don’t worry,” he said, this time to his child. “I’ll feed you soon,” he went on, before looking at me. “Right?”

“Uh…yeah—right—let’s get back to headquarters?”

“I’ll take you there immediately,” Sylas said, opening up some sort of hole through which the lobby of MSA headquarters could be seen.

I put Sarah’s hand on my arm. “Trust me?” I asked her.

“Of course,” she said with a nod.

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