Page 4 of Live Like Legends

I let out a heavy sigh and moved off the bed. I padded over to where he stood, wrapping my arms around him, and tilting my face up so I could see him. At first, he didn’t move, he just let me hold him, but with every passing second his tension melted away and he placed both his hands on either side of my face. I stood on the tips of my toes and kissed his lips. “Maybe I do push a little, but that’s because I care. You have every right to be upset but maybe some time has passed that you can try to look at it from his point of view. He is still your dad, babe.”

He nodded, but it was the same nod as before. The nod that told me he was distracted and only doing it for the benefit of the moment. He moved his hand to the back of head, threading his fingers into my hair and pulled me towards him, kissing my forehead.

He gave me the answer he always ended up on. “Yeah, okay.”

“Nick.”

“I’ll think about it, how’s that?”

I kissed his nose, mumbling afineagainst his skin. “Can I go with you?”

He raised one of his eyebrows. “Go where?”

I took a step back and nodded over to his door. “Wherever you’re going. I’m quite literally a prisoner in your room, Nicholas.”

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Don’t be dramatic, you are not a…”

“I promise you I can be dramatic when I need to, but right now I’m speaking only the truth. The only outside knowledge I get is from you reporting on life beyond that door. We’ve been out of your room once and that’s only because it was pitch black outside and I’d begged you for twenty-four hours straight. Not to mention every time I tried to bring up your dad you kept trying to kiss me, mister master deflector.”

Nick closed his eyes, tilting his head towards the ceiling. He hadn’t bound me to his bedroom or threatened me into remaining here under his watch, but after the first two days of living in his room, he’d come back from his first of many Ariel meetings and told me—in so many words—that the red-headed angel was still not my biggest fan and that he was severely unimpressed, but also not surprised with the fact that Lilith was still out there. Nick had thought it was best I didn’t try to move about The Skies—unless he was with me, and it was the fucking witching hour— in hopes that I wouldn’t run into Ariel or any of the other sentries he had gotten to follow his lead of tyrannical insanity. I’d wanted to let things cool down but after about three days of his insanely boring four walls, I’d wanted a change.

“I can handle Ariel, you know.”

He shook his head. “I know you can handle yourself. You are probably one of the most capable creatures I know.” He sent a small smile in my direction, “I just…with everything that happened…Ariel can be a triggering individual.” Nicholas had agood heart, a heart he had ultimately given to me, and I had a feeling that was holding me back from simply walking out of this room during all hours of the day.

“I’m well aware or did you think I forgot about the time you almost pounded his face in because he insinuated you made all your choices because I seduced you.”

He narrowed his eyes at me, but there was a glint of playfulness.

“You also almost beat him up because he talked shit about your dad. I’m pretty surethatNicholas would give his old man a chance.”

The playfulness was gone, and it looked like he was lost for a moment remembering a time when he held his father on a pedestal. He licked his lips, taking one step towards me. He kissed my forehead again. “I said I would think about it.”

I placed my hands on my hips, blowing a loose curl from my face. “And I’ve said toyoubefore that I can control myself. If you want me to believe you, you will need to believe me.” I didn’t have my dagger anymore and that in itself had me feeling like I was just an ordinary demon. I felt like something Ariel shouldn’t be worried about, although there was a nagging feeling telling me that was a complete lie and that I should quit while I’m ahead.

“You need to just lay low, alright. We don’t need anything leading Lilith or Dimitri to believe you’re alive. Until I can get Ariel to simmer down and not look at you like…” he hesitated, rubbing his lips together. The sun was starting to shine through his window more, casting a light on his face and that distinctive scar under his eye.

“A monster,” I finished for him. “I know you don’t think I’m anything like that Nick, but the longer you hide me away in here, the more you are giving into whatever Ariel thinks. I can be a lot more helpful out there than I will be in here, or at least I won’tunderstand how helpful Icanbe unless you let me out so I can talk to Natalia.”

Nick gave me a sympathetic look, almost like he wanted to keep me in this bubble to shield me from the realms. It was sweet but suffocating. “Just relax. I’ll be back with some food, and I’ll take you for a midnight walk through The Skies again later tonight.” He sounded like he wanted that moment to hold me over for the time being and all I could do was roll my eyes. He grabbed his sword from where it leaned next to his dresser.

I caught a small glimpse of his hand, the one he had pulled back from around my throat far too quickly. I thought I saw a pink handprint on his skin, almost like a surface level burn. “Nick, what’s on your hand?”

He tensed for a moment, but rallied, placing the hand in question into his pants pocket. He took one of my hands in his free one and kissed it. “I’m going to be late, but I’ll be back soon. I love you.”

He had given me one last forehead kiss and was out the door before I could figure out what the fuck just happened.

I walked over to his dresser and leaned down, opening up one of the drawers that had my clothes in it. Pulling out what I wanted, I headed towards the bathroom. I turned the knob for the shower, running my hand under the water while I waited for it to get hot.

Nicholas had told me to stay put.

I told him to talk to his dad.

I laughed to myself, shaking my head. I guess neither one of us was getting our wish. I had sat in this room and played house with him, waiting for way too long. I removed my clothes and stepped into the shower knowing he would be less than thrilled. My handsome angel should know by now that his authoritative tone only worked when he planned to get me naked and use that mouth for better things.

Irubbed my hand as Reese and I walked down the hall. It didn’t hurt, well, it didn’t hurtnow. The moment I felt the heat from her palm sink into my skin, I wanted to immediately pull away, but in a moment like the one we had, it was extremely hard to want to do anything but let her do whatever she wanted.

This wasn’t the first time it had happened, but thiswasthe first time she’d started to notice. The burn was never bad enough to leave a scar, so the evidence wasn’t there too long to rouse any sort of suspicion. I should have been one hundred percent concerned with why it was happening in the first place, but I was honestly rattled by the idea that I didn’t have an answer to that very question if she were to find out and question it herself.

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