Page 31 of Loving Nightmares
And here I hadn’t even though she was truly mad at me. I was glad it was already fixed, though—I had no intention of fighting with this beautiful creature. She didn’t realize it yet, but I had dedicated the rest of my immortal existence to making her happy, no matter what I needed to do.
Right now, the thing that would make her happy was obvious—kill War. The only aspect that concerned me was that if we killed him without first snapping his bonds to the humans, it could injure those involved, and that wouldnotmake my moon happy. When I’d expressed my fears on the topic, her resolve to find thesis metashad only solidified.
“Just the truth.” I said, tugging her forward by the hips. “You sure you want to do this? I don’t remember the last time I interacted with thesis metas, and if they have been isolated for so long…I just worry they won’t react positively to unknown nightmares arriving.”
It also begged the question of how they had stayed isolated for so long while possibly prospering as a community. I had to assume that nightmares sought them out, or maybe they went looking for mates. Unless no one had children on the island because they didn’t want to risk outside exposure. I hadn’t accounted for the concept of them not having mates…
“Yes,” Arabella said, interrupting my string of thoughts. “I have a good feeling about this. There’s a reason my magic revealed such a hidden place to me.”
I nodded, and she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my lips. I was tempted to turn it into more than that, especially since I could scent that she and Amun had been in here and I craved to replace his magical signature with my own, but I restrained myself. I could tell she had a lot on her mind.
“What do you remember aboutsis metas?” she asked curiously, returning to the job of packing a small bag. Damian had taken care of her clothes, but now she was packing an assortment of small pieces of technology—pieces that I didn’t recognize, even from my attempts to keep informed of the modern world from inside the Oceanic Forest.
“In their prime, they were a community spread wide and far,” I explained. “Some had one mate, others had more. In fact, having more than one was much more common. It pushed nightmare society forward drastically, and the power balance allowed for everyone to live cohesively. Humans feared nightmares, but the most terrifying nightmares were mated to a sub-species of humans that weren’t scared of them and could carry their children to term.
“It didn’t become a problem until thesis metasbegan to showcase their ability to control nightmares when they acted out, stepping in when apocalyptic terrors tried to wreak havoc on large cities. They made a lot of enemies from that.”
“I imagine,” she murmured as she folded a few pieces of paper from her desk and placed them into the bag. “Is that why nightmares started to hunt them?”
“No; because they had so many high-power nightmares on their side, that wasn’t a particular issue,” I admitted. “The hunting began after they involved themselves in one of War’s wars.”
“Oh.” She paused. “Did they beat him?”
“They turned the tides for sure.” I chuckled softly. “He was enraged, and at first he only hunted thesis metaswho’d been directly involved, but soon it turned to hunting all of them. Their mates were powerful, but a god terror…”
“Is a god terror,” she finished.
“Exactly.”
“What were you doing during all of this?”
“For a time, I was building up the land throughout Eastern Europe and Asia, and then I turned my attention here. I never interacted much with society; it’s a trait my siblings and I share.”
“Your siblings,” she began, moving back towards me, clearly finished packing. “Are they around?”
“They are, but they’re not currently sentient,” I explained. “As creators of water and air, my brother and sister don’t feel the compelling urge to stay on solid ground like myself. So they wander as they please until a whim hits them to change into a physical form, and then we will usually reunite. It’s been around two hundred years since I last saw either of them, so when they do return I imagine I’ll have a lot to tell them.”
“That’s not lonely?” she asked, her brows dipped in concern. “You don’t miss them?”
I tilted my head in thought. “No, not really, but we also haven’t ever been particularly close—it’s hard to be when you’ve been alive as long as we have. The nature of our existence is isolating, but you grow used to it and begin to even like it.”
A dark shadow crossed over her face. “Thesesis metas…what are their lifespans like? I know all of you will live for a really long time, and I didn’t think about it until recently, but what if I don’t? What if my lifespan is a normal human one?”
I could see her panicking at that idea, and while I planned to put her mind at ease, I couldn’t help but love the candid and blunt way she expressed her concerns.
“We can ask when we meet them.” I cupped her jaw. “But my understanding is that whensis metasbond with their mates, the entire group gains the lifespan of whoever lives the longest in the bond. In this case, it would be immortality because of Saint and myself… Like I said, though, we can double check.”
Arabella blinked at me in surprise. “Wait, are you saying we’re immortal?”
“In theory. I think that’s how it works.”
I hadn’t realized the impact my words would have, but her squeal as she threw herself into my arms had me groaning. Clearly she was happy with the news, I should’ve known, because no one would ever want to die before one of their mates.
If true, it would also make me feel slightly better about her durability. Although, while her immortality would keep her safe from dying of old age, she could still be seriously injured.
“What did you tell her?” Saint demanded, strolling into the room.
Arabella got up and spun towards Saint, kissing him on the lips. “That whenever I complete all my bonds, everyone in it will gain the lifespan of whoever’s is the longest! Which is great because now I won’t die in like eighty something years, and it’s all because of you, Ashur, and Amun.”
