by K. C. Hamby
Her lips, oh, goddess, those perfect lips breathe down my neck and linger on my chest for a while, with her tongue exploring and teeth nipping skin the entire way. She moves those lips down my stomach, hooking her finger into the band of my boxer briefs, and sensually pulls them off. I’m lying here, bare and at the mercy of this wonderfully sexy creature looking down at me with such desire, my everything heats. Her mouth trails down, down, down, and travels to uncharted territory. I lean back into the sheets, gripping the headboard like my life depends on it while the fire from Nina’s tongue consumes me completely. It becomes hotter and hotter with every breath I take, burning me up on the inside.
If this is what burning alive feels like, I’ll gladly burn forever.
***
I’m pulled in consciousness by the steady thump thump thump of Nina’s heart. I open my eyes to find the freckled skin of her back pressed against my cheek. My arm is wrapped around her bare waist and I’m flooded with vivid memories of last night. It occurs to me that my entire body is flesh with Nina’s. My entire naked body against her entire naked body.
A different fire than the one Nina’s touch consumed me with lights up my cheeks. I pull away gradually, so I can stretch my cramped muscles when I notice marks travelling down her spine again. Seven water colored circles stretch up her back. Each one filled in a little different than the next. It appears to be the moon phases, but instead of a full moon in the middle, a new moon has taken its place with each receding circle becoming a little less filled until two full moons are the beginning and end.
It’s amazingly intricate and beautiful. The new moon consists of darker colors such as navy, violet, and olive green. As the moons get further from the new moon, the colors get lighter and brighter. I trace the new moon with my fingertip. Hecate’s moon is the new moon—also known as the dark moon. I wonder why Nina got this.
She stirs, yawning as she rolls over to face me. She pulls the covers up to her chin and gives me a soft smile. Her freckles dot her face and her ocean eyes are boring into my soul.
“Good morning.” She blushes. I wiggle down in the covers next to her.
“Good morning, love.” The whisper barely leaves my lips before I smile. “What is the tattoo on your back for?”
She grins. “The new moon means new beginnings. Starting over.” I give her a tilted smile and reach out, pulling her to my chest, relishing in all the skin contact between us. Nina nuzzles in closer and I sigh. “Fal?”
“Hm?” I answer. Sort of.
“I love you.”
“I love you, my Luna.”
“Boof,” I hear right before Luna jumps on the bed, probably from hearing her name. Nina giggles.
“I didn’t mean you, you silly dog,” I coo and rub Luna’s belly.
“So, what’s the plan for today?
“Well, I have to train with Nathan earlier today since it’s the weekend. Training and classes don’t usually happen on the weekends, but Nathan loves to practice.”
“Wow, even assassins have the weekends off?” She giggles and I roll my eyes dramatically.
“Anyway, do you want to meet Nathan today?” I’m ready for the two sides of my life to come together.
“Yes! Yes yes yes!” She squeals and claps her hands like a seal.
“Okay, I’ll bring him here after his practice and we can go to The Bean.” Bringing up Nathan reminds me of yesterday and I snuggle in closer to her. “Nina, I shifted yesterday.”
Her eyes spring to life. “You did?! Oh, my god was it amazing? I bet it was amazing. Tell me it was amazing.”
“It was amazing. It was like I never stopped. I’ll have to show you one day.” She yelps with happiness.
“I can’t wait!”
After we get up and get dressed—which almost results in us getting undressed again—I text Ash to sit with Nina to make sure no one comes for her when I’m gone. Apparently, last time he was here, Nina made him listen to different genres of music. He’s an indie guy—which, I’m assuming was pushed on him by Nina—and I never would have guessed that based on his vast collection of PennyForward CDs.
Sometime later, Ash comes in and Luna circles around his legs in excitement. I glance at the ceiling in exasperation and leave them to it after a quick kiss from Nina.
“Bye, Faligator!” Nina calls and Ash falls over in a laughing fit.
“Yeah, bye Faligator!” he manages to wheeze out between coughs and guffaws. I run outside and close the door behind me with a reddened face.
I pick up Nathan’s gift. I may or may not have bribed the guy with more money if he would finish it in a day. It looks like he got the job done.
I hurry to the Complex to make our practice. I hope Nathan likes it.
Chapter 31
I walk in the gym with my boots clumping on the waxed floor. Nathan is, yet again, nowhere to be seen.
“If you attack me, you don’t get your present!” He materializes from the darkness on the other side of the gym.
“Weird. I have a present for you too.” He pulls out a small box from his pullover pocket. I cock my head to the side.
“For what?”
“For being an awesome trainer, duh.”
The corner of my eye burns with an unshed tear that better remain unshed. You hear me, body?
Nathan throws the box to me and I catch the small thing, hearing a bouncing object inside. I hand him his gift and we open them at the same time.
“Whoa, no way! This is awesome!” Nathan pulls the dagger out of its leather sheath. The silver gleams even in the dim light of the gym. The Lapis Lazuli stone in the pommel looks as if the sea is alive in its etches.
I pull out the necklace from the small box and it, too, gleams silver. It’s a short necklace with a blue stone set in the middle. But, it looks like something familiar.
“An evil eye,” I gasp in realization. It’s said The evil eye keeps the wearer safe from evil and it can decipher the good from the bad. “I love it, Nathan.” My eyes sting as I slip it around my neck. It sits perfectly below Mom’s moon necklace.
“I got a hunch you could use it,” Nathan tells me, sounding secretive and smug. I scrunch my brow in question, but he just acts like he doesn’t notice. I tackle him in a rare hug and help him attach the sheath to his belt.
“Don’t use this unless you absolutely have to, okay? And no practicing with it.” He nods his understanding and I smile crookedly at him.
“Do you want to meet my Mate?”
“I can meet them? Yes!” Pauses with confusion. “What about practice?”
“I tell you what, why don’t we skip practice today? I think you’ve been working hard and deserve a day off.” I arch my brow and cross my arms over my chest.
“Okay, let’s go!” He grabs my hand, pulling me all the way out of the gym, across the Complex, and to my car. The cold, snowy air stings my eyes, bringing out those tears I was holding back earlier.
Nathan turns on the radio and sings—or really, mumbles pretending he knows the words—a Sir Gogo song while I shake my head and laugh. His peppiness is contagious and, by the time we pull up in front of Nina’s, I’m yelling the songs right along with him. Nathan laughs as I pretend to hit a high note and make painful looking face. He plays ‘drums’ on his legs, head banging with the beat.
I already sent Ash a text, letting him know I would be there soon, so he is nowhere in sight when we get out at Nina’s apartment. He didn’t leave too long ago though. I can still smell him. Nathan sniffs the air.
“Weird, that smells like you, but not like you at the same time.” I rub his head playfully and he tries to slap my hand away.
“That’s my brother’s scent.”
“Ohhhhhhhh.” He follows me up the stairs I’ve become all too familiar with, nodding his head in acknowledgement the whole way. I walk in without knocking, deciding not to comment on how Nina or Ash left the door unlocked. She sits at her computer typing away. Her head jerks up when she hears us come in and
a breathtaking smile forms on her lips. She nearly jumps off the stool to run over and give Nathan a giant, smothering hug. He looks at me with wide eyes, not knowing what to do. I just laugh as he awkwardly returns the hug. Lupi don’t hug much. I’m pretty sure Nathan’s mom and I are the only ones that have ever hugged him. Well, now Nina makes three.
“Hi, Nathan! I’m Nina.” Nathan smiles extra wide.
“Hi, Nina.”
“Boof,” Luna huffs, runs up to Nathan, and soars through the air into his arms. He catches her with ease and wide eyes. She licks his face and he giggles happily. I think Luna might like him more than me, but I’m too happy to be jealous.
“She’s not Lupi,” Nathan says, sniffing the air and putting Luna down gently. For a second, I think he’s talking about Luna, but my stomach drops when I realize he’s talking about Nina.
“Yeah, we talked about this, remember?”
“Yeah, I know. I was just reminding myself and putting her human scent in my memory bank.” He shrugs. “That’s cool though. She can teach me all the human things you don’t know about. We would have probably had an easier time getting ice cream if Nina was with us.” Nina laughs hysterically.
“Ice cream? She took you to get ice cream?” Nathan nods enthusiastically. “She didn’t even know how pizza tasted until I brought her into the light.”
“What’s pizza?” I glance at Nina, wondering if she is going to explode in disbelief.
“Oh, Nathan. I have so much to teach you.” She pushes him gently towards the door, putting her arm around his shoulders. I shake my head in utter happiness and follow behind them. We walk outside and I close—and lock—the door.
The whole walk to The Bean, Nina and Nathan talk. They ask each other questions—Nathan’s mainly consist of food—and I’m so content, I just listen. They are getting along so well. My two worlds have become one seamlessly.
Nina asks Nathan what I’ve been teaching him and he tells her every last detail. “She made me the cool kid in school.” He throws a glance back at me. I wink and Nina acts like she’s going to overflow with happiness watching the two of us interact.
The wind blows and a chill rolls ominously down my spine.
We arrive at The Bean and Nina insists we sit at the table we’ve come to know as ours. The cafe put up a shelter over the patio and heaters flame between the tables, so I agree and we pile in the seats with Nathan sitting between us. Nina slides him a menu and explains everything The Bean has to offer and what it tastes like. His eyes are wide with all the choices, but they keep coming back to one spot. I bet it’s going to be the one with the most sugar.
“Okay, I want a giant cinnamon roll with a cup of milk,” he chirps with finality. I don’t even know what that is—no, I‘m not talking about the milk—but it’s probably too sweet for me.
“Alright. Don’t blame me when you get a headache from all that sugar. Nina, will you come help me carry this larger than life cinnamon roll?” She nods with a cute giggle and I turn back to Nathan. “We’ll be right back, okay?”
“Yeah yeah, hurry up!” He shoos us inside with a wave of his hand like we’re peasants. I scoff in feigned annoyance as we head inside and walk up to the counter to order a black coffee and Nathan’s monstrosity of a cinnamon roll. Nina orders hot chocolate for herself, nearly falling over when I tell her I’ve never had that either. I use paying for everything as an excuse to dodge her glare.
Nina and I both have our hands full with our spoils as we push outside to the patio. I’m laughing at something Nina mumbles when I focus on our table. I nearly drop everything I’m holding.
Nathan is gone.
I look around frantically, my heart racing as I go through all the scenarios of what could have happened to him. Someone could have kidnapped him—which would be absolutely stupid because I’ll hunt them down before they can even breathe their next breath. He could have run off, seeing something new and human-y and then gotten hit by a car.
I run up to the table, nearly knocking it over, and find a napkin with a note on it:
Fal, come to the roof of the gray building! I have one more surprise for you. P.S. Bring my cinnamon roll unharmed.
I let out a sigh of relief when I read it and hand it to Nina. She looks around and points.
“Oh, it’s that one!” I look in the direction of where she’s pointing and groan. It’s at least ten stories high.
“Come on.” What the hell could this be?
We find the stairs inside the building—he just had to choose an office building, so we have to sneak by the desk by nearly crawling on the floor—and head up to the top. About halfway up, Nina is still keeping pace with me, barely out of breath. That kickboxing class has her in great shape. She catches me looking at said great shape and I blush, climbing faster. She giggles, opening her mouth to pick on me, but saying nothing because we can hear Nathan talking.
Before I open the door to the roof, Nathan says, “Whoa, this would be an awesome place to snipe from, don’t you think?” I roll my eyes.
“Yeah, I’m sure it would be,” I reply and open the door. Nathan is glancing cautiously over the edge of the building into the alleyway between this building and the next. He turns around and grins at me and I smirk back.
“Oh, Nathan, please be careful,” Nina pleads from behind me, her soft voice becoming fearful and stern.
“Fal! I found one of your old friends!” Nathan cheers, ignoring Nina’s worry. “He said he wanted to surprise you, so I figured I would help.” He gestures to something beside him I can’t see. I open the door wider and my eyes land on a guy with a high-neck trench coat facing away from me. I furrow my brow.
“That’s sweet Nathan, but I don’t have any…”
I’m cut off by the guy abruptly turning around with an absolutely evil sneer covering his pale, freckled face. I gasp.
“Damien.”
“Surprise!” He holds his hands out like he is the greatest gift from heaven and fiery, red hair falls in his face from his ponytail. He glares over at Nathan and smirks. “Thanks, kid,” he purrs in a voice that makes my blood turn to ice.
To my utter disbelief and absolute horror, with one hard shove, Damien throws Nathan off the edge of the building.
The last thing I see is terror in his gray eyes before he disappears from sight.
My breath catches in my throat and my hands lose feeling, making everything I’m carrying fall to the gravel. The coffee and milk splatter, coating my shoes and dampening the roof. I faintly hear Nina screaming behind me, but my world has gone quiet. Too fucking quiet, until a sickening thud from the pavement below interrupts my silence. My mouth opens, but I can only push out a breathy croak.
Damien moves away from the edge, his evil eyes not leaving my face as he sneers, reveling in my silenced reaction. I find my legs again and stumble to the edge of the building. I manage one small peak to the ground below, further confirming this is actually real.
I tear my eyes to Damien and my blood defrosts, boiling hotter and hotter with every second passing where I have to look at this bastard’s face. A snarl rips out of my mouth from the pit of my soul, the pit responsible for holding the monster prisoner.
No longer a prisoner, no.
The monster is me.
“Nina, get Ash,” I growl, my canines extending.
“Fal…” Nina cries in grief, her soul reaching to me with desperation. I put a wall up, blocking everything but rage. My fingernails shift into claws.
“Get. Ash. NOW!” I scream at her, lunging in Damien’s direction. I shift mid jump and land on all fours, snapping my teeth at the vile bastard. I hear Nina gasp from behind me and take off down the stairs, her feet barely touching each step.
I revel in Damien’s look of pure terror. He thought I couldn’t shift. He thought I was going to be weak. I gnash my teeth at him and take a step forward. He manages to shake off his fear and pull his sickle and horrifying smile out instead.
I don’t react.
>
I don’t flinch.
I’m locked on target. I’m ready.
“You know, I wanted your little Nina,” he spits her name like it’s poison. I bare my teeth, saliva dripping from my chin. “But, little Nathan was a good substitute and you made it so easy, Reaper.”
He’s dead. I’m going to kill him. I’m going to fucking destroy this son of a bitch. I’m going to rip into his throat and bleed him out. He. Will. Die. Today.
“I would say it was as easy as taking candy from a baby, but I think he made it easier than that. Stupid boy,” he sneers, voice dripping with vicious hate and disappointment.
I lose it.
I lunge at him and see the surprise in his eyes. I ram into his chest and knock him to the ground, my claws digging into his flesh. Snapping at his face, I shift back into my person like it’s nothing. I throw my left arm across his throat, cutting off his air supply and pull my knife from my boot, sending it straight for his face.
He manages to move just enough, but my knife still slices through his ear, removing a lovely chuck of cartilage. He yells as blood splatters beautifully on the side of his face. In pain, he swings his sickle at me. This time, I’m ready. I jerk my head back just in time for the blade to zing past my nose.
I realize my mistake too late. I gave him leverage by dodging his blade. He throws me backwards, but I roll when I hit the ground and come up on my feet. My vision stays tunneled and red.
Kill him kill him kill him.
I could shift, but I need my hands to wrap around his throat. I need him to watch the Reaper he scarred kill him with a smile on her face.
I lunge for him again. He swings his sickle, leaving his body wide open for me after I dodge his blade. I roundhouse kick him square in the jaw, growling in pleasure when I hear the sick crack of his bone. It’s music to my ears when he cries out in pain. While he’s dazed, I bring my foot down hard on his thigh; the very thigh I dug my knife into in our last encounter. He howls and falls to his knees.