Page 87 of Legendary

“I told him that night that I didn’t plan for anything more to happen with Dimitri. He was well aware of that. He was satisfied with the response he got from me, what more is there to say.” I raised my eyebrows.

Reese took a few steps towards me. “You want to know why he would cave though, Dani? Why he would make it seem like everything is fine and forgotten?” His hazel eyes looked around my face. “He wants you to be happy, he wants to be in your good graces like fuck, he wantsyou. You can make a million and one mistakes now and guess what? He’ll still be there.”

“I. Didn’t. Ask. Him. To. Do. That.” I found myself repeating. My cheeks were turning hot from my temper starting to flare. I wasn’t aware that I had to play all my cards, that we needed to feel things at the same time, at the same pace. In the beginning Nick was so fucking closed off and careful about the way he felt and how he moved, how he flirted. Eventually piece by piece, it started to fall away and after the night at this father’s house I could sense a small shift. I could feel myself shifting as well and that was scaryenough in itself that I didn’t know what it would mean when we both found solid ground to meet on, when the cards were no longer near our chests but laid out completely on the table.

“How many times do I have to explain this? You don’t have to! I’ve made so many stupid fucking mistakes growing up with him and somehow, he’s still right here, letting me tag along, pulling me out of the dumb situations I get us in and forgiving me when I probably don’t deserve it, but that’s literally just Nick. His commitment is overwhelming. I don’t understand his loyalty to me, let alone his newfound loyalty to you.” His hazel eyes looked around my face as if he was searching for some sort of recognition that what he was saying sounded familiar to me. It didn’t surprise me when I really thought about it.

I let out a breath, followed by a sigh. I walked over to the bed, sitting down so that my back was propped up against the headboard and I bent one of my legs so I could rest my foot on top of the comforter while my other leg dangled off of the side. “You want to talk about overwhelming, Reese. It’s a lot to hear you say that he’s so committed to me when we have yet to break real ground on whatever this is between us. I only know so much about Nick, so you have the upper hand when it comes to the way he moves and acts. It’s not fair to think that I’ll automatically fall in line and swoon so openly just because he has his own way of doing things. I have my own way as well and he and I will figure that out. He’s a grown man and if he’s making a mistake with me then so be it, lesson learned.” I realized he hadn’t turned around to face me. His body was still, except for the way his shoulders moved to tell me that he was breathing. He tucked a piece of his hair behind his ear and slowly turned around. Reese walked the few steps it took with his long legs over to the bed and sat down.

He spread his legs a bit and placed his hands on his thighs, staring at the floor. It wasn’t an awkward silence, but it was the type of silence where the earlier tension was getting released and now maybe there could be a mutual understanding on the horizon. He gripped the back of his neck, swallowing.

“I guess being in Purgatory and not really needing anyone but yourself makes sense. That’s not really how it worked for me, okay. His commitment, loyalty, friendship, all of the above was something I clung to as a fucking kid.” He wasn’t looking at me yet, he was still staring right at the floor as if it was easier to speak to wooden planks. He took one big deep breath in and then one long exhale. “You remember me telling you that my parents weren’t the greatest. That they were very this is how it is and how it will be kind of attitudes toward everything, especially demons and anything not in the Heaven’s Gate bubble?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m self-aware enough to know that some of that stuck with me, but in case you couldn’t already put it together they weren’t the best people to be around. They uh…they lost someone, a family member in that whole battle in Oculus and they were never the same after that. They were on Jonah’s dads’ side of the whole thing, and they stuck with him until they got pregnant with me and decided it would be better to live in one of the villages. I almost kind of think that if they hadn’t had me, they would have still been by Isaac Zuriel’s side, but regardless that’s how I crossed paths with Nick and I learned pretty quickly that my parents were not a fan of Maurice Cassial. They called him a traitor behind his back, which I never told Maurice about, but I think he always knew that they gave him a weird cold shoulder.” He shook his head, and I remained quiet as I let him continue to speak. “I found myself watching Nick and his dad, their dynamic when they were out, and I wanted that. My parents tried, but it was so fucking forced that it was nauseating. One day out of nowhere Maurice caught me watching them and I guess asked Nick to invite me over to their house, which I had to lie to my parents so I could go, and well let’s just say that was the start of everything.”

I found myself smiling just a little at their origin story. I felt a small tug in my chest for younger Reese and the lack of affection he got. I could relate, even though Lilith had her ways of showing affection, it was obviously very different from how Maurice was with his son. I had witnessed it myself and I had felt it secondhand with the way his father hugged me. I still didn’t understand something though. “Reese, what does this have to do with your obsession with Nick’s happiness? Your need to butt in and make your opinions known when they are definitely not warranted.”

He finally looked at me with a hardness in his eyes that had my spine straightening. I could tell that whatever he was about to say was meant for me to hear and pay attention to. “Nick has been that one constant in my life. Girls come and go and, fuck, my family is a total mess so I’ve had him to lean on for longer than I can remember. The first time I ever really spent time with him, his dad made us food, we fought outside, and he even offered to let me sleep over. I actually got him to sneak out of his house and fly around with me in the middle of the night. Which ended up with me getting caught in tree branches and then he also got caught in tree branches trying to help me, which was followed by us both falling and having to walk back with way too many cuts and bruises, but that night I figured hey, this is probably going to be my best friend. He’s somehow given me everything I’ve wanted, a new kind of family, a brother, freedom of choice and a place to fucking breathe…and in exchange, I guess I just silently decided that he deserved the world for making mine better.”

I blinked a few times, his eyes never leaving mine. It was as if he was waiting for me to say something to his bomb of emotional vulnerability. “And I just went and curved your plan to keep his life on the up and up.”

“You could put it like that, sure.”

“I’m not trying to fuck up his life, Reese. I can promise you that. My shit is already fucked up as it is, I wouldn’t want to bestow that on anyone else.” I snorted.

He nodded, more to himself than to me. “Do I wish that you weren’t Purgatory’s little hybrid princess, yes, but do I know how he feels about you and want you to feel the same way so that he can be ethereally happy…also yes.”

“You do love him, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question; it was just a rhetorical statement that I needed to say out loud for some reason. He didn’t respond, but his expression told me all I needed to know. Oddly enough, I understood him wanting Nick to be ethereally happy because I was realizing that I wanted that too. “Do your parents even bother to check on you, I mean I assume you’ve been staying with Nick the whole time before we met back up.”

He scoffed. “Yeah…I went back home once, got grilled like a motherfucker and stormed out. Listen, it’s not worth it getting into my issues with them and their issues with the past.”

“Case closed,” I agreed, squinting up at him. “I don’t plan to do anything but talk with Dimitri. Nick’s feelings are safe with me.”

Reese’s eyebrow quirked up. “So, he can go with you?”

I groaned. “Why is thatsoimportant?”

The blonde angel chuckled. “Importance isn’t the issue. I think he knows you can run shit by yourself Dani, I’m pretty sure that’s why he likes you, but you don’thaveto. From what you’ve said Dimitri knows Nick exists, so just let him exist next to you.”

That reminded me of what I’d said to my raven-haired angel before we left my room this morning.I’m willing to let you in, so let me in as well. I hated admitting it, but I did kind of like the fact that he wanted to be there with me when I spoke to Dimitri, even if I likely wouldn’t let him do any talking. I was willing to let him in, I was honest about that and maybe I had to give a little for him to do what I asked. This could be my way of doing just that.

“You’re a good friend, Reese,” I complimented, gaining a smile in my direction.

“Thanks, let’s hope he still thinks so when we go back downstairs.”

“I’ll make sure he knows.” I winked at him, pushing up off the bed.

I heard Reese clear his throat. I turned my head, just to watch his eyes narrow for a moment. “Can I ask you one thing?”

I shrugged and nodded. He stuck his tongue out and licked his lips. “Do you care about him? And I mean really care, Dani.”

I pressed my lips together and maintained eye contact with him. I didn’t want him to see how nervous I had just gotten. I had told Nick that I cared about him, but that was before we had gotten together again before he had cuddled me against his chest and told me he had feelings before I started to have real feelings too. Bringing him with me to Leviathan, no Reese, no Elise, would be like a calling card that we were together in Dimitri’s eyes, and I didn’t know how I felt about that; especially since I had played it off like we weren’t much to each other. It actually kind of stung my own chest remembering how Dimitri had asked me if he was the person in my bed and I had acted like it wasn’t true. Nick was exactly who I wanted in my bed, and I had him there…and that’s where I wanted him to stay. I cared, but now I cared more than before and just like Nick I didn’t know how to put that kind of caring, that kind of feeling into words to say to his face.

One corner of my lips tilted up as I answered him. “Yes.”

Reese gave me a genuine smile. “Good. Umm, I have a feeling you’ve noticed that he’s been off lately. I haven’t wanted to push him because Nick will just retreat further if you do. He says it’s not because of you and maybe it’s not, but since I have a feeling he’ll be sleeping in here more often, can you…watch him?” His eyes glazed over with concern, and I knew that concern well enough. That dark energy Nick played off like he was well aware it was there but didn’t mind it. It wasn’t like the darkness that had bonded with me, that wrapped around me like we had one soul. It was the kind that infiltrated, hooking its debilitating claws into someone that was susceptible to it. I knew that what happened at The Skies would be hard on them, but maybe I underestimated how much of a mental wound it had left. A wound that was left to fester and now entertain a dark infection.

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