The Kiss of Death

by Auryn Hadley

  "How did you figure out my favorite outfit?"

  "Yeah, um..." He pulled a shirt over his head. "I've been keeping an eye on you, to make sure no angels tried to make a move, but those were on the dresser looking like you'd just washed them. I've seen you in that before, so assumed you liked it."

  "So you just shifted into my house?"

  He ran his fingers through his hair. "Wasn't the first time, either. After the robbery, I stopped by every so often. I needed to see if you'd been trained, but mostly I just wanted to make sure you were ok. Seeing Death messes some people up pretty bad."

  "It did. I kept trying to figure out how to see you again." I shrugged. "But since I'm not really interested in dying, I only thought about doing something disastrous for a few seconds."

  "Good, because I would've just put you back together." Then he met my eyes. "I didn't ward your house until after the accident last week. Before that, I tried not to snoop, but once angels were involved? The three of us have been keeping an eye on you since. I mean, not directly. Just making sure there aren't any of those assholes trying to move in."

  "Thank you."

  He lifted a brow. "You're ok with that?"

  "Yes and no. You didn't hide it, Sam and Luke have been trying to be upfront, and I've already figured out that the other side hates me. I don't like that I have to be babysat, but I get it. So thank you for putting up with my bullshit and not making me feel like I'm the asshole."

  He tilted his head to the door. "Speaking of assholes, you willing to spend the day with Sam?"

  I rolled my eyes. "Sam's not an asshole, but sure. I'll pretty much do anything for a little coffee right now. Go do whatever nefarious stuff you have planned. I promise I'll keep a bodyguard close."

  I kissed Nick again then opened the door, walking into the rest of the house. In the pit of my stomach, the first butterfly decided to start flapping around. It didn't take much to guess that Sam had already told Luke I was still here. It most certainly wasn't rocket science to figure out what we'd been doing last night, and a part of me worried what they would think. I shouldn't have. Shuffling into the kitchen, I found Sam pouring himself a cup of coffee.

  "Morning, sunshine," he said, pulling another cup out of the cabinet. "Tell me you didn't abuse him too bad?"

  "Not more than he deserved."

  "Good." He filled the second cup, adding the perfect amount of cream and sugar to it. "Glad you two didn't try to avoid it."

  "So you're ok with this?" I accepted the coffee gratefully, cradling it to keep my hands occupied. "No problems with Death screwing the Muse?"

  "Well, I guess I can let you have him. Nah, Luke agrees. You're good for him, and we both like having you around to keep things interesting." Sam shrugged. "But this thing between us? Sweetheart, I know it'll be hard, but you've made your choice. Just look at what you've given up."

  I laughed. Sam had never tried to be anything to me but a friend, which made his antics even funnier. "It's only because I didn't want to get shot down. Besides, Sam, if you want the girl, you need to do a little more than just be a nice guy. Flirting helps."

  "Good to know. So, you do breakfast?"

  I groaned and lifted my cup. "This is all I need. I'm also not used to staying up all night and waking at the crack of dawn. You monsters really need to learn how to sleep in."

  Chapter 19

  Nick left without saying a word. I wasn't offended, not exactly, but it was still a little weird. The only reason I knew was because Sam muttered something about having the house to ourselves now. It seemed the wards on my place weren't the only ones he could feel.

  Coffee in hand, Sam and I took over the parlor. That was not the room with the console in it, but the couches were just as good. It also had a lot more space to draw, and there was a certain demon who hadn't yet finished his second-week art project. While he arranged his supplies, I figured out where I'd left my stuff the night before and got to work on a few touch ups to my own.

  It was kinda nice having someone to draw with. It was also a great ending to one hell of an amazing night. Neither of us bothered talking until we'd made it through a few cups of coffee. Even then, we focused mostly on asking for an opinion, pointing out issues the other couldn't see and sharing our art supplies. It was after my third cup of the morning when I realized the house was still amazingly silent.

  "Luke still sleeping?" I asked.

  Sam pushed his hair back, leaving a smudge of charcoal behind. "Nah, he went with Nick."

  "Oh." I added a few more details to my perspective piece from the day before, wondering how much he'd tell me. "You know where they went?"

  Sam's hand stopped and he looked up. "You probably don't want to know that, Sia."

  "Why?"

  He sighed and put down his charcoal. "Because you've spent your entire life believing in a certain set of rules. When they change, your body doesn't know how to react, so it tries to relate to what it's done before. In this case, worry."

  That sounded like he was quoting something, and it wasn't making me feel any better. "Sam? Should I be worried?"

  "Nope." He paused. "Well, not really. I mean, it's a dumb fucking idea, but –"

  I groaned. "Just tell me already! You're not exactly helping."

  "Luke set up a meeting with Mike yesterday." He glanced at his hands, thought about it, then wiped them down the legs of his pants before scooting back. "They're going to meet with the ranking angels in the area and see what's going on. Nick wants to know if they have any idea what they're chasing. They probably want to know what we know just as bad."

  My guts clenched. "Fuck."

  "See? Worry. I know it's hard to comprehend, but we're immortal. Not the vampire kind who end up dying to a whole list of things type of eternal life, either."

  I heard him, I honestly did, but there was a very big grey area between perfectly fine and dead. A big portion of it involved a whole lot of pain, and I wasn't really fond of Nick suffering. Especially not when I was the cause.

  "Why would he do that?" I asked. "Did he think they were just going to sit down and trade information to see which one's going to get me first or something?"

  "Sia..."

  But I was on a rant. "Don't 'Sia' me. He's probably walking into a trap right now. Those bastards can't be trusted!"

  "Sia!" Sam snapped, grabbing my shoulder to make me shut up. "They may not know there's a Muse around. Nick thought it was a weapon bending the veils. Why would they think any different?"

  "Because I've been face to face with a few of those creeps now. Why wouldn't they know? I mean, Nick figured it out! Luke said he could see it on me."

  "Sweetheart," he said gently, his thumb wiping a smudge from my chin. "It doesn't work like that. Nick saw you pulling raw aether from a living man. That's how he figured it out. Most of the time, you don't look special at all. Just like any other beautiful girl. Your aura only flares when you're in a panic. Like when you couldn't get away from Luke – which was stupid on his part, but regardless. Otherwise, we can't see anything out of the ordinary. That's why Luke and I weren't convinced at first. Nick said you were a Muse, but we hadn't seen any proof of it, just a lot of hints. And we've spent a lot of time around you."

  "Oh."

  "Exactly." Sam bobbed his head slowly, watching me process that. "Which is why Nick wants to know if they're blaming us for the veils changing. They have to know about that. That's the only reason they'd be here, but it doesn't necessarily mean they know why. The peaks in the bubbles may point at you, but where have you been lately?"

  "Here," I realized. "At your place."

  "Exactly. With the enemy forces who might have a weapon. Us staying close just makes it that much harder for them to be sure and keeps you safe if we have to. Don't worry, sweetie, we'll take care of you and make sure you have nothing to worry about."

  That only helped to a point. "They're still going to end up in a trap," I pointed out. "Y'all said you and angels have been fighting f
or millions of years, Sam. Why wouldn't they try to jump him?"

  "They will," he admitted. "But this is Nick and Luke we're talking about. There isn't a whole lot they can do to them. Trust me. We've done this a few times since the worlds formed."

  "Uh, and if they get shot, or stabbed, or whatever else y'all do to each other?" I could only imagine what kind of damage magic could do.

  Sam cocked his head like he was weighing that. "Sure, that would be annoying, but Nick can heal almost anything they can do. Luke's not bad, either. Not exactly something to worry about."

  "Oh. So if normal pain isn't a problem is there anything else I should worry about?" I got the feeling Sam was hiding something.

  He looked away, proving I was right. "Aether drain. They'd have to break his wards to do it, which would be hard but not completely impossible. Anyway, if he's drained, he'd be in a coma – basically – until he can be refilled, and I'm not sure anyone can do that. Depending upon what world they're on, that could take a while."

  "Why?"

  "Natural aether will slowly seep in, but most places don't have as much as Earth. The outer worlds have nothing extra."

  "So why can't someone just slap it back in like he did with Luke?"

  Sam sighed heavily. "Those runes all over his body? I'm sure you saw them. They're wards. Nick protected his body to make it hard to pull aether. That means it's also hard to get back in. He's the best there is, Sienna, but if anyone figures out how to drain him, I'm not sure we could put it back."

  "And then what?"

  "Then he waits until someone is strong enough to break his wards or he gets it by osmosis. He can't die, but he can sleep for a really long time. Less if we bring him here, which is exactly what we'd do." He met my eyes and gave me a reassuring smile. "So stop worrying because it'll be fine. Nick's always fine, and he does a damned good job of keeping us fine. Let's just get our homework done and stop thinking about it for a bit."

  I tried. I honestly tried, but I couldn't stop worrying. What bothered me the most was that it was all my fault. I hadn't exactly asked to be a Muse, but these guys were going through hell trying to take such good care of me. I didn't deserve that, but the least I could do was pay them back.

  There was only one thing that could keep my mind off of waiting. That was Nick. In this case, his true form. I'd started drawing it yesterday but hadn't finished, and I was pretty sure Sam would know what he looked like as a demon.

  "Hey?" I asked, pulling out my smaller sketchpad. "Will you look at something and tell me if I'm even close?" I flipped to the page that had Nick's head and upper body on it, then slid it over so he could look.

  His eyes flicked from the page to me and back. "It's not bad, actually," he admitted after what felt like an eternity. "You didn't get the horns right, though."

  "I was going off feel. He never let me see under Death's hood."

  Sam chuckled and scooted closer, pushing the pad back in front of me. "See here? They attach a little farther back. Over his ears, not his temples. And there's another set on the top of his head." He gestured on himself to demonstrate the shape. "Same type of ridges, but a different arc."

  "And the rest?"

  He put his arm on the couch behind me and leaned in for a better view. I caught a whiff of something amazing and inhaled. He paused, slowly looking over. Our faces were a little too close.

  "Did you just sniff me?"

  My cheeks grew warmer. "You smell good. Shaving cream or deodorant?" Because that wasn't strong enough to be cologne.

  His eyes dropped and he chuckled once. "Demon."

  "Oh."

  "Yeah, uh..." He cleared his throat and tapped at the page. "His eyes are pretty close, but a bit bigger. You got the ears all wrong, though. Think sexy woodland elf or something."

  "Sam?" I asked, overly aware that he still hadn't moved his arm.

  He leaned a little closer to my neck. This time he inhaled. "I like it better when you use your own stuff, but Nick's works too."

  This time, I refused to look. "Did you just smell me back?"

  "Fair's fair."

  Now I had to know. "What do you really look like?"

  He didn't hesitate before answering, proving the problem with being a monster wasn't a universal thing. "I only have two horns. Like spirals that arc around the crown of my head. Thinner than his, little bigger than my thumb. Like antelope horns, I suppose."

  "And your skin?"

  He reached up and dragged one knuckle down my cheek. "Smoother, without the little hairs. Mine's like a dusky mauve color."

  "Like a stormy sunrise?" I asked, finally tilting my face to see him.

  He smiled. "Yeah. I like that."

  Before I could ask the next question, something in the air changed and footsteps sounded in the hall. Sam quickly grabbed the sketchpad from the coffee table and pulled it onto the floor, but that pushed him even closer to me. He didn't get the chance to sit back before Nick walked into the room. Luke followed a moment later.

  "Studying?" Nick asked, looking between the two of us pointedly. We were much too close for this to be accidental.

  Seeing him, my face wasn't getting warm. Nope, I felt all of the blood draining from it at warp speed. "Drawing, actually. Are you ok?"

  Nick's jaw clenched and he looked at Sam. "You told her?"

  "Mhm. She asked." And that's when he finally moved back to his corner of the couch, acting for all the world like we hadn't just been sitting way too close to each other. "So how'd it go?"

  "Mike brought friends," Nick said. "You aren't bothering her, are you?"

  Sam shrugged. "Don't think so. She said I smell good."

  Nick chuckled. "You do." Then he smiled at me. "And we're pretty sure they haven't figured out what you are. Means we have a little breathing room here, but it would be easier if you found a reason to postpone your studies for a bit."

  I had to shake my head to make sure I'd heard him right. "You want me to drop my classes? For how long?"

  "Until we get you trained."

  "And how long is that going to take?"

  He pulled his hand across his mouth, but it didn't hide the sigh. "Two years, maybe? If we push it."

  What?! I'd already put it off for six just to save enough to actually do this. Now he wanted me to be a twenty-six-year-old freshman? To graduate at thirty if I was lucky? Yeah, not going to happen! I'd been ok with this whole demon war thing so far, but that was pushing it just a little too much.

  Never mind that all of this hinged on me blindly trusting a group of guys I'd just met. Oh, sure, all signs pointed to them being right, but the proof? I had none except for getting annoyed at pretty blondes with green eyes. I might be a little impulsive, but I needed more than hearsay before altering my entire life plan.

  "No."

  "Sia," he tried, but I didn't let him finish.

  "Two years of being stuck at some craptastic job, letting my life pass me by, struggling to make ends meet? Not going to happen, Nick. Maybe where y'all are from, you can just camp out under a tree and live happily ever after, but in case you missed it, on this world, we need jobs. To get a good one, that means I need a degree, and I'm already behind the curve. So, no. This is not negotiable."

  "We'll take care of you," he insisted.

  I used both hands to point at my chest. "Do I look like a damsel in distress? No. Already got my fill of living on the system, thank you very much. So here are your options. I help you while I get my degree, or I get my degree. Am I understood?"

  Again, he sighed, but this time he nodded. "We'll figure out a way to make it work."

  Luke shifted around Nick to look into the room. "Hey, Sam? I need help with something, I'm sure, in some other room, far away from where those two are."

  "All over that," Sam agreed, quickly shoving his things into a bag.

  I couldn't help but notice that he also grabbed my sketch pad, flipped it closed, and put it well out of sight. When he hopped up to leave, he caught my eye a
nd winked. I wasn't sure if I should feel guilty for something I hadn't really done, or appreciate that he was keeping my drawing a secret. I could only guess that Nick wouldn't be too thrilled to know I'd been fretting over his demonic body after all but hanging on his friend.

  I waited until they were both in the other room before asking, "Are you really ok?"

  He nodded. "I'm fine. We have a few days to get some protections set up now." He looked at me for a moment. "You were really worried?"

  "Is that bad?" Oh man, don't tell me I'd offended him.

  The look on his face removed all my worry, though. "No, it's not bad. I've just never really had anyone worry about me before."

  "And there wasn't anything with Sam. It's not what it looked like."

  He tossed me a smile and moved to claim the cushion beside me. "I'm not worried about Sam, little dove. You shouldn't be either. It's ok."

  "You're not mad?"

  He wobbled his head as if thinking about that. "I'm a little annoyed that my big date idea just got screwed up, but I think we can work around it." Then he leaned closer and kissed me. "I do wish you'd drop your classes."

  "Nick, I've only really known you a couple of weeks. There are so many what-ifs that I don't feel comfortable doing that. No, ok? Getting my degree is something I've spent my entire life working toward."

  "Even if I told you a few choirs are moving in?" he asked. "We've spotted three Archangels, at least a handful of Malakim, and there were four Cherubim there today -"

  "I don't even know what that means," I broke in.

  He nodded. "Exactly. Sia, these are angels, and they won't use the same tactics you're used to. Time is one thing that is always on our side. So long as you're not using aether, they're winning. Getting you to use it for their purposes is just icing on the cake."

  "Ok…"

  "Which means their first attack will be trying to drive you away from us – and our protection. I mean, if I told you I'm the Prince of the Watchers, does that mean anything to you at all?"

  "That I have a crush on royalty?"

  Nick chuckled but shook his head. "Often, biblical references actually match our threat levels. That's why I asked. I'm trying to be serious, Sia."