Page 71 of Incubus
Sasha’s eyes shone with a little disappointment, but he said, “You can have it,” reminding Nathan that they hadn't bothered the front desk for an extra cot. “I’ve slept on worse than a motel room floor.” Sasha started to get up, but Nathan grabbed his arm to stop him.
“No. You have it,” Nathan said. “Not that I…I just mean…you. You have this bed, and I’ll…I’ll just shove Sleeping Beauty over. Wouldn’t be the first time we shared. Besides, none of us deserve the floor after tonight.”
“Okay. We should probably hit the hay then.”
Nathan tried to make a point of not watching Sasha shrug out of his clothing, but it wasn't easy. He didn’t really want to rummage for a clean T-shirt to sleep in, so he stuck to hisboxers and moved for the other bed as soon as he was undressed. His pulse pumped hot knowing that Sasha’s eyes were probably following him.
“God, what a day,” Nathan said aloud, giving Jim a good—but careful—shove to the other side of the bed. As expected, his brother didn’t even twitch. Nathan climbed under the covers since Jim was sprawled on top of them, and tried not to think too hard.
Then it hit him.
“Day.Shit. It’s the same damn day,” Nathan groaned up at the ceiling. “Shoot me in the head.”
Laughter filtered over from Sasha’s side of the room. “No,” he said simply.
“Spoil sport.”
Again, Sasha laughed. “The movie was fun,” he said, completely offhand and casual. “We should do it again sometime.”
Shoot me in the head.
“Goodnight, Nathan.”
“Yeah. Goodnight,” Nathan said, but he knew that when he woke up in the morning, he would still have absolutely no idea what he was doing.
Chapter 27
Everycornertheyturned,following up on the dark fae leads Sasha had gathered from the Gatehouse, had Nathan certain Gabriel would suddenly show up, but they had seen no sign of him since that night. Alex told them that he hadn't argued when she said he was no longer allowed to come back to the Gatehouse. He had simply left.
As the days passed, Walter pressed regularly for more details on what had happened inside the Gatehouse, but Nathan kept the part about him and Sasha to himself. Their paranoia of Gabriel had them sharing a room with Sasha almost every night, meaning there was little opportunity for Nathan to be alone with the incubus. This made it easier to pretend he had been suffering from temporary insanity that night in Sasha’s room when they had kissed, and maybe it was better to leave things be.
So far, their leads had led them to nothing but dead ends, leaving only one more lead on their current list regarding recent sightings of a golem in Georgia. The sightings had even startedmaking it into the local news, but as warnings of a possible wild dog or wolf rather than a stone monster.
"Why does it have to be a golem?" Nathan said with distaste. They had stopped at a small bar along the route to their next doorway for something to eat.
"There isn't anything else on the radar," Jim said, "and we’re running out of time. I know your nightmares are getting worse, Nate. That's a bad sign. The longest anyone’s ever survived an unclaimed mark was—”
“Ayear. A whole year, Jim. We have plenty of time,” Nathan dismissed.
“I’ve heard of some who only lasted six weeks,” Sasha said.
Nathan shuddered, shrugging off the chill that crept up his shoulders. He shot the incubus a glare, well aware that his ticking clock wasn’t a set timeframe, but although his dreams had been growing more intense, he didn’t feel any different than he had when he was first marked. He assumed there would be some greater sign when the end was drawing near.
“Well there’s not much we can do about it, is there?” Nathan said. “Other than keep on moving, so that’s what we’re going to do. Even if it is a damn golem. There better be a dark fae pulling its strings or I will be sorely pissed off. I hate those things.”
“Right, well…I’m going to grab another drink,” Sasha said. He pushed away from the table and headed to the bar without another word.
Nathan stared after him. He had expected Sasha to question why Nathan was so uncomfortable about golems. It wasn’t a very interesting story; Nathan just never liked the idea of something that wasn’t really alive being able to move. He attributed the same principle to possessed dolls and had never cared for the creepy porcelain kind either.
But Sasha didn't even seem interested.
“What’s his problem?” Nathan asked.
“Apparentlyyou, if you haven’t been paying attention,” Jim said. “Did you two have some kind of fight? You know, other than you slugging him back in Rushville.”
“No,” Nathan said with a frown. “What makes you say that?”
The expression on Jim’s face was completely incredulous. “I can’t believe you haven’t noticed how pissed he’s been at you lately. Maybe if you actually looked Sasha in the eyes you would have seen some of the glares he’s been giving you. Is there something I’m missing here?”
