Page 12 of Live Like Legends

My eyes quickly searched the room before I found Dani who patted the spot next to her on the couch opposite Elise and Beetee. Natalia chose to stand, leaning her back against one of the bookshelves, while Reese made himself comfortable on one of the couches armrests.

“So, they let you out?” Elise asked as she leaned forward.

“Well…” Dani started.

“Or did you escape? Personally, I prefer knowing you pulled a fast one on that red head buffoon.”

Escape always sounded like an intense word. “It’s not like she was in a prison, Elise.”

The grumpy demon fluttered her eyelashes at me. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure being secluded in your bedroom is just a dream, isn’t it Nicholas.”

I rolled my eyes and felt Dani’s hand land on my thigh. She squeezed and I placed my own hand over hers, not really understanding what she was doing, but any reason to touch her was enough of a reason for me.

“He let me out,” Dani blurted quickly.

Beetee cocked her head to the side. “I haven’t really met the man before, except for super quickly when he scowled at me, but he doesn’t seem like the type to let you out. It’s just so simple.”

I peeked over at Garrett who was running his index finger across his chin, almost in thought. Elise scoffed. “Ariel is a simple man with less than half a brain cell, but there is no way in fuck he just let you out.”

“From what Reese said, he was very adamant on you, oh how did he put it…” Garrett rubbed his lips together. “Staying put and knowing your place.”

I had to remove my hand from Dani’s, or I would have crushed hers. My hand automatically wanted to curl into a fist thinking about all the things Ariel had said under his breath or even in a leveled tone to my face.

Dani nearly growled with frustration. She ripped her hand from my leg and shoved both hands into her curls. She moved the majority of her hair to one side and shot up from the couch. “He let me out understipulations.” She walked towards the back of the couch, placing her hands on it so she could lean forward. “That smug faced fuck let me out on the conditions of working for him.” Her cheeks were red and so was her chest.

Natalia’s eyebrows raised as she motioned for Beetee to scoot over on the couch. “Let’s start from the beginning.”

Dani, Reese and I all explained what happened, each of us occasionally interrupting the other. Reese balanced his apple core between his hands as the room went silent once we finished.

Elise tapped her fingers against the glass coffee table. Beetee chewed on her bottom lip, twirling her pink hair around her finger.

Garrett cleared his throat. “So, he wants you to learn how to be a full hybrid and harness it, so he can weaponize you? Does he plan to make you go to Purgatory once you’ve figured it out?” There was a tiny sliver of hope in his voice, likely the idea of going back and collecting his family. It wasn’t something I would ever say to him out loud, but as much as I cared for Garrett and his family, I wouldn’t throw Dani into something she wasn’t ready for and potentially lose her.

“I don’t know,” Dani answered, shrugging.

“I have every faith that you can develop them equally, but it does seem a bit presumptuous that he thinks I can manage to teach you anything about that. Does he even understand that learning all of this might take you a while?” Natalia said, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

“I don’t know,” Dani repeated.

“I guess it’s nice that you get to spend so much time in Oculus. Are you going to stay here forever and just be like some kind of hybrid sentry angel, always on alert just in case Lilith catches wind that you’re alive?” Beetee asked, her voice a bit softer than everyone else’s.

“Ugh! I don’t—” Dani’s words were cut off by a loud crash, followed by shattering glass. Everyone shot up from their seats watching as the light from the large glass doors hit the cluster of glass shards, decorating the room in twinkling colors.

“Did you just break my table?” Natalia asked under her breath towards the only person left sitting.

Elise still had her hand over the now destroyed coffee table. She unfurled the fist she made, ignoring Natalia and pointed her finger at me. “You let that overzealous piece of fucking shit force her hand by threateningus?!” Her voice got louder as she walked around the pile of glass and came up to me, her finger pushing into my chest. “You take your pretty ass right back to Heaven’s Gate and you tell that motherfucker that if he wants to fucking threaten me, then do it to my face. I mean come the fuck on?! Where are your balls?” She looked from me to Reese, who stepped up next to me.

“I didn’tletanything happen. If you haven’t realized, Ariel is a little bit out of fucking control and trying to maintain some level of truth while also keeping a load of information away from him is really fucking exhausting.” I ran a hand through my hair, watching as her facial expression never wavered.

“Am I supposed to be sympathetic to you, Nicholas?” Elise raised one of her dark eyebrows.

“Okay tiny psycho what did you want us to do, fight him? Shit doesn’t work like that here,” Reese explained.

Elise laughed, “oh, and what does? Bending over and taking it?” Beetee let out a small cough at Elise’s blunt comment as she walked past us to the entrance door.

Garrett clearly had all the confidence in the world when he came over and pushed Elise away from us. Her eyes glowed a tiny red before turning back to their gray coloring. “I think everyone here needs a minute. Ariel seems like a piece of work, but maybe the best course of action is letting him think he’s gotten away with something. Those kinds of men always need to feel like they have the upper hand.”

Elise rolled her shoulders and her eyes. “Whatever. At least you’re smart enough to keep your newfound resurrection powersto yourself because I can already tell he’s probably asked about the fucked-up mess that was Purgatory. Nosey little shit.” She reached out and lightly slapped my face. “If I see Ariel, I’ll force feed him his own dick, got it?” If all of this was her way to saying,I care about Dani, so don’t let your leader fuck with her, then she was doing an excellent job. She turned around to the sound of the door opening and Zane rushing inside with Beetee trailing behind him.

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