Page 73 of Living Legend

I finally yanked her leg towards me, watching as she lost her footing and fell onto the floor with a thud. I looked down at her, eyes shut, no doubt calculating her next move. I started to circle her. “You are making this insanely more difficult than it has to be. You think that you’ll be betraying your own kind by doing this one thing for us, but it’s for the good of everyone. You’ll be doing a good thing.”

She slapped the floor with both her palms and pushed herself up, jumping a bit as she landed upright. “You still don’t understand, do you?”

“Understand what?”

“You think I’m worried about other demons!” Dani laughed out loud. “I don’t care about other demons. I’m talking about myself. I don’t want to do it forme, because, for once, I just don’t fucking want to.” She pushed forward and shoved my shoulders, hauling me back.

“So, this is a matter of you being a brat?” I reached for her wrists, and she tried to shove me again, but before I got ahold of her, she spun around and got her foot to connect with my stomach. I hunched over, clutching my middle, trying to catch my breath.

“Oh, I’m a brat, but why, after all this time, are you still acting like a little bitch?”

I tried reaching for her ankle, but she jumped back. She closed the distance to punch me in the jaw again. “I was starting to think you weren’t like the others. You had a mind of your own, but you love playing both sides. You can’t do that forever. Let me guess, you didn’t want to even consider asking me and then they got into your head. Better yet, Jonah did. Jonah has his hand so far up your ass, he uses you like a damn puppet. They all do!”

I shot my legs out from under me and swiped her ankles with my feet. She fell backwards, but I caught her, shoving her towards one side of the room. She tried to refocus herself, but I’d had enough. Dani lifted her hands up and tried to strike, but I ducked down and elbowed her side. I watched as she reached for her ribs, but I didn’t give her much time to recover. I turned and grabbed her shoulder, swinging her around against the wall. I hustled over to her as she lunged towards me, but I smacked my hand against her chest, shoving her back.

I bent my arm, placing my forearm at her throat and locked both her hands in mine, making her immobile. She squirmed and lifted her head up, gazing up at the ceiling. “You know what’s hilarious?” She didn’t wait for me to answer. “If they had sat you down and told you that the only way to save everyone was to kill me, you would have done it. You would have thought about it for a moment, but you would have done it and probably apologized the whole time. You would have told yourself that you did it for the greater good, while deep inside, you would hate yourself. I’ve felt it and it’s shitty.”

Dani leaned her face towards mine so I could smell the raw cinnamon of her skin. She was so close, I could practically count her eyelashes.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about. That’s crazy.”

“Is it? You would do anything to make a name for yourself. Survive. Be seen as something other than what you are, just so what? You can move up the angelic power ladder? They would use you, your knack for a sword, and your loyalty for their purpose and you would let them. You want to do right by them, but you alsolovethe recognition.”

I blinked at her statement. “What are you talking about? You’re making them out to be monsters when all they're trying to do is fix things.”

“Don’t act stupid.” I felt her pull her hands against mine, but I held on tighter. Her legs brushed my own and before I realized it, I was leaning in. “You live to hear people cheer you on, tell you how great you are. You want to know that you’re the best, that you canfixthings, regardless of the kind of fixing you must do. We aren’t so different. I just know when it’s notworthit.” She said the last part through gritted teeth as she continued to tug at my hands.

The laugh she let out was breathy, mocking. “Demons aren’t the only monsters around here, Nicholas. They’re just easier to blame.”

“Don’t try to tell me about myself.” I pressed her back into the wall, feeling my heart beat rapidly. “Nothing you say is going to change my mind and what you need to do,” I stated, her eyes trying to search for something in mine, her words trying to get a rise out of me. A part of me wondered why she didn’t jump at the chance to unleash herself on something in the Ethereal Bastille. She was getting the opportunity to be exactly what she was without consequences. Maybe she was right, and things weren’t that simple, then again, Dani wasn’t easily understandable.

“You have a choice, Nicholas, and you have to make it soon, because by the looks of things, shit isn’t getting less complicated.” She looked down at my mouth and then at my arm trapping her neck. “Do you want to stand behind people you can’t even decide if you trust enough to be honest with, or do you want to go with your gut and make a decision for yourself, despite the consequences?”

I remained silent and looked at her. I could feel the ache in my stomach from her powerful kick, but I powered through it. I could feel the way she was trying to escape me, but without her powers, she couldn’t free herself. I could feel my body wanting to lean completely against her and I fought hard against it. Her shirt rose from where I pressed her hands together and my fingers got a taste of her skin, sending a small shock through my body.

“What do you want, Nicholas?”

Her words ran into me like a punch to the gut. Her stare was intense, meaningful, as if she wanted her look to burn right through me. I felt her chest thump, her body tense against mine as I laid my weight on her. Her breathing was slightly uneven but strong, as if she could go at this with me for so much longer than I anticipated.

That’s when I noticed her mouth.

I’d noticed it before, but never this close. I hadn’t noticed the way her bottom lip pushed out whenever she was out of breath, or the pink hue of them. My eyes traveled from her mouth to her neck, to her shoulders down the rest of her. We were so close, I could feel her body heat.

My eyes shot back up to her face as she squirmed, trying to release herself from my hold, but I pushed back, forcing her back the wall, her shoulders slamming against it.

What did I want?What did I want?That was an extremely loaded question.

Her tongue snuck out and licked at her bottom lip, my eyes following the movement. I knew what I wanted.At least, what I wanted right now.

The last thing I saw was her eyes widening when my mouth collided with hers. Her lips were just as soft as I’d imagined. They slid over mine so quickly and were taken away just as fast. The kiss was surprising to both of us. I had never been shy about initiating anything, but this wasdifferent. Her eyes weren’t laced with confusion or disgust when she met mine. They were perplexed.Intrigued, even.

My forearm still pressed to her chest, but she fell back onto the wall, not resisting anymore. My eyes darted along her face, waiting for her to say something, make some sort of move. I almost considered apologizing and could feel my hand start to lose their grip on her wrists. After a beat, she smirked.

Before I could take another breath, she had snaked her hands out of my hold and wrapped them around my arm, escaping me. She grabbed my shirt and pulled me to her, pressing her mouth to mine again. Dani held onto my shirt so tight, I felt the fabric strain against my shoulders. I walked forward, using my entire body to pin her against the wall again. My hands aimed for her waist, squeezing so hard, she groaned against my mouth. She wrapped her arms around my neck and started to lean her body against me, letting her hips push against mine. My hands found her ass, forcing her to press harder into me.

She unleashed her tongue, exploring my mouth while I grazed it slightly with my teeth. I moved my hands up into her hair, tugging it to get a better angle to her mouth. I shouldn’t have felt the heat rise in my skin when she took her hand and rubbed it down the front of my pants, but it happened automatically. Chills crept along my spine from the sounds she made when my lips traveled from her pretty mouth to her perfect neck.

My hands skated over her waist again and towards the elastic of her leggings, letting my fingers tease the exposed skin of her stomach. I grabbed the ends of her shirt and lifted it up and over her head, her brown skin glowing in the light of the afternoon. Her skin felt soft and warm on my fingertips, but I wanted more. She let out a loud gasp as I grabbed the back of her thighs and lifted her, preening at the way she instantly wrapped her legs around my waist and grabbed my face to kiss me again.

---