Page 96 of Legendary

I ran my hands down the front of my dress. “Yeah, and then things got out of hand. None of this was my intention, alright?”

“I’m well aware. But he must’ve felt a little threatened to have literally dug his claws into Nicholas.”

I raised my eyes to the ceiling nearly wanting to rewind and do that entire meeting differently. Maybe I would have had us leave sooner or maybe I would have cut off more than Dimitri’s hand. I would never know now though. “Maybe. He dug into more than just his skin, Elise.”

She moved us out of the way of clusters of demons making their way to the door. She let out a groan of annoyance and grabbed my wrist, pulling me towards the stairs. She closed the door to her room behind her, letting out a long sigh that sounded like relief. “What do you mean by more than just his skin?”

I ran a hand through my hair and ruffled the curls, not really knowing where to start. “You know what Dimitri can do, so let’s just leave it at that.” My suggestion fell on deaf ears when she crossed her arms over her chest and waited. She gave me a look that told me she would do the exact opposite of leaving it and would keep me trapped in this room if I didn’t open my fucking mouth.

“Ugh, fine. Nick has been having some issues while we’ve been here. I don’t know all the details so don’t ask me. There is darkness inside of him and it’s not the type that lingers in everybody. It’s the kind that’s created by the host and taken hold of, enhanced by the not so friendly darkness living here,” I explained, turning around, and walking towards her bed.

Elise swiped her tongue along the front of her teeth. “And Dimitri found out about Nick’s little issue?”

“Tasted his blood and everything.”

“Fucking fuck, fuck. Do we need to send your little boyfriend home? Is he going to last with us being here? You and I both know how fucking eagerdarkness can be and a pretty angel with a dimming light is a five-star meal.”

I shook my head and then stopped. She had a point. Sending Nick home would help him or at least it would get him out of this setting and place him in a more comfortable space to fix whatever was going on with him. That idea didn’t last long in my mind when I actually thought about who I was considering sending home. “He wouldn’t do it. He’s stubborn as fuck and wants to fight this with us. Making him go home, might make things easier for us to not have to worry about him, but he would be fucking miserable knowing that he couldn’t contribute.”

“And you didn’t think telling any of us about his condition might be helpful? I’m pretty sure he’s never seen people die before so what happened months ago literally rocked his fucking world.”

I raised one of my eyebrows in confusion. “Reese was there too. They both saw death right in front of their innocent little eyes, yet he isn’t having these problems. Unless they’re both hiding it from each other.”

She clucked her tongue. “As much as I hate talking about emotions and stupid feelings, Blondie and Nick are two different angels. They handle things differently, especially shit like that. Or the darkness could just find Nick much more delectable than the blonde one. It really could go either way.”

I hummed. “I could ask but I don’t think I’ll get a straight answer right about now. All I can say is Nick will fight to stay and Reese will follow his lead. No amount of verbal sparring with either of them will change that.” I also knew enough about Reese now to be overly confident about that assumption.

Elise plastered her hands to her face and groaned. “Fine, fucking fine. Plan A is out the door then. Plan B is you figure out a way to help him keep his shit together because we really don’t need him to get too overwhelmed that he turns around and starts trying to fightus.” I nodded, silently confirming my understanding. The harsh look in her eyes morphed into a more curious look. “Did you at least leave Dimitri in one piece?”

I tilted my head from side to side. “More or less.”

Elise smirked. “Hmph. I never liked the little shit anyway, so I guess I’m a little proud. He gave me small dick energy.”

I laughed and bit down on my lower lip, focusing my eyes on the door behind her. She followed my eyesight and snorted. “You can go to your lover boy when we’re done. Now sit that ass on the bed and tell me everything that happened. You leave anything out and I’ll choke you out myself.”

“You act like I’m scared of choking.”

“You will be if I have to do it. So, sit down,now.”

Elise had been agitated, but with a disgruntled noise and a whole explanation of prior events later, she let me leave her room. I quickly hustled over to my own room to change, exchanging my tight club dress for comfortable leggings and an off the shoulder black top. That dress reminded me too much of what had happened. If I had been alone, none of it would have occurred. Dimitri would have flirted, and I would have laughed him off, still maintaining my answer at the end of the conversation. I would not be yielding to Lilith, no matter what sort of favor she dangled in my face. The offer to kill Isabel did pique my interest, but I think Elise and I had decided that we would bring her back for Natalia to deal with her instead.

Dimitri didn’t like the word no; I honestly didn’t think he’d ever been told it before. His words meant nothing to me, but the thing I started to understand was that when Dimitri tried to want something better for me, it was for personal gain and it threatened the lives of so many demons, Enchanters and angels. But when Nick wanted something better for me, it was because he actually wanted me to see another side, venture towards what could have been and explore simply because I hadn’t been allowed the opportunity. Nicholas was pretty shit at expressing what he wanted, but he learned from that experience and now we had each other’s trust. He was willing to go head-to-head with a Son of Hell for me which was hot all by itself, but not at the expense of his soul.

He could want all the good things for me, but I wanted none of the bad things for him.

I made my way to the recovery room, knocking on the door. The knob turned and the door flung back revealing a stressed looking Reese. He held the door open wide enough for me to see Nick sitting, yet again, on the little bed in the corner, his legs dangling off the side. “How is he?”

“He’ll be okay. He told me what happened, well the majority of it. We stopped the bleeding and most of the redness is gone, but it’s gonna hurt like a bitch for the next few hours.” He tucked a piece of his messy blonde hair over his ear.

“Are you going to turn this into anit’s my faultthing?” I asked, tapping my sneaker covered foot on the ground.

Reese furrowed his blonde brows. “Uh, no. Nick wanted to go all on his own. This is aNick’s thing, but I do have to hand it to you. You cut off the guy’s hand?”

I chuckled proudly. “That I did.”

“Did I say earlier that we might be friends? I actually want to change that to us being best friends,” he joked, but his smile was genuine. We both laughed a little and his face gradually turned into one of concern. His voice was low, a bit like a whisper when he spoke next. “He was off when we brought him in here and I don’t know, when I look at him, he just seemed kind of lost.”

I noticed the way he wouldn’t look at me when he was done speaking as if he hated the fact that he couldn’t do anything for his friend. I knew how it felt to be lost in your own head with your crippling thoughts, while someone or something else was pulling the strings. Lilith had been quiet for a minute, and I was happy about it, but the quiet always put me on edge. I was tethered to my darkness, I would have to live with that, but Nicholas didn’t have to.

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