Page 82 of Legendary

She wiggled in my lap. “Whatever I want?”

My cock stirred and I tightened my hold on her waist. “We need to go downstairs.”

“How about you put that tongue to good use…” She moved her hips over me in the most distracting way possible. “And help me understand why I felt an overwhelming amount of dark energy coming from you in the middle of the night.”

I felt my shoulders stiffen as I leaned back away from her. She had a patient expression on her face. “Dark energy?”

She nodded, wrapping her arms around my neck. “It woke me up.”

“I…I…” I stuttered, feeling like my throat was clogged.

She started to smooth down my hair in a comforting way. “Hey, it’s totally fine, I mean when I woke up you were still very much asleep, but…”

“But, what?”

She chewed on her lower lip. “You were radiating this energy, Nick. I felt like it wanted me to address it in some way, get my darkness to combine with it, but I didn’t. It kept pushing and I just kept ignoring it. I waited to see if it wanted to hurt you, but it just simmered and then settled, but it didn’t leave you. It just stopped trying to get to me.”

I leaned forward, placing the top of my head against her chest and letting out breath after breath. That feeling I felt last night was real. And now Dani could feel it too. Itwantedher to feel it. She wasn’t privy to the things my mind liked to conjure up for me to see when I was in my own head and so deep in the past that sometimes I couldn’t find my way out.

“Nick, my own darkness wanted to let it in. It felt like it wanted something to latch onto, but I had to pull myself back. I have a hold on my own shadows, but that dark energy you have is tempting, I can’t lie.”

I lifted my head up, narrowing my eyes at her. “Tempting?”

She nodded. “There was a part of me that wanted to let it in, but I don’t know how connected it is to you, or why it’s even there. It was so thick I could taste it and it tasted like…” Her eyes softened and she ran her hand through my hair slowly. “Anger and a lot of sadness.”

I nearly opened my mouth and told her everything. It all made sense now, if what she was saying was true, I had all but allowed this darkness inside of me. I was aware of my issues and was getting through it the only way I knew how. It only got this bad once we stepped into Purgatory, so once I was back in Heaven’s Gate, then I would focus on how to fix this. How to fix myself.

“Why does it want you?” I asked.

She snorted. “Nick, I feed off that shit, darkness knows darkness. It makes sense that it would try to latch onto something as strong as myself. I can’t say that I haven’t noticed my shadows wanting to gravitate towards you.”

“Maybe it’s just because you like me so much.” I tried to joke, but I couldn’t force myself to laugh.

She shoved my shoulder, but her smile didn’t quite meet her eyes. “Maybe, but Nick, what’s wrong? Is this place too much? Maybe I should just force you to go back to Heaven’s Gate.”

I grabbed the side of her face, forcing her to look at me. “Uh, no. I’m fine, okay. I knew this place was going to mess with me, it was going to mess with all of us. I’m a big boy, I got this. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Always so stubborn. Like come on, Nick, give me more credit. I know you’re a big boy, but I’m not a dumb demon.”

I sighed softly. “It’s nothing.”

“Stop lying,” she urged. I could hear the desperation in her voice.

“Maybe it is this place, okay. It’s just getting to me. I can handle it. I am an angel if you remember correctly.”

She placed her hands on my shoulders and started massaging them. “Things like anger are easy to build off of, but when you add emotions like sadness, a kind of heaviness that weighs on you, then it can amplify it, grow so much stronger than you anticipated. Angel or not, darkness doesn’t care. Whatever happened to you when you were speaking to Natalia latched on hard and your light tried to help, but that won’t always be the case. You have an engrained darkness fighter already inside of you, but while you’re here, the shadows…. they reign free and wild and will tear your light apart if you aren’t careful.”

I was listening to what she was saying, but I didn’t know what she wanted me to do. I couldn’t fight off something I couldn’t see. I didn’t know how to eliminate something when I was awake, let alone when I was asleep. “You underestimate how strong the light can be. I think you’re worrying about me too much.” It was strong enough to shock her back into remembering herself for the most part, which was something she hadn’t brought up oddly enough. I hadn’t brought it up either, so I just let it be.

“So, you’re allowed to fret over me, but I can’t give a shit about you?” She raised an eyebrow at me.

“That’s not what I’m saying. I think we’re here for a reason and it’s not to worry about me. I can handle whatever this is, I promise.” I tried to sound sincere even though I had no idea if I could. I had been good at telling myselfthat for a while now and I always felt like I could in facthandleit. Once I thought I was in a good place, something would happen that would set me off and cause me to sweat, feel sick, and I would find myself needing to lean against something just to catch my breath. She didn’t need to know about that. Despite whatever darkness she felt coming from me, I slept soundly last night. I was grateful for that if nothing else.

“You don’t need to handle things by yourself all the time.” She slid her thumb over my pulse point on my neck.

My heart stuttered at her words. I wanted us to be open and honest from now on, but I couldn’t dothis. I couldn’t explain myself right now. I grabbed her and flipped us over, so I had her pinned on her back as I hovered over her. “I know that. And I appreciate you caring so much, but like I keep saying I’m fine. I don’t know what more you want me to say.” I took both her wrists in my hands and pinned them above her head. The dynamic was odd, seeing as she was fully clothed, and I was completely naked.

“I just don’t like you having this darkness looming over you or inside of you.”

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