“I don’t have fangs. I’m not a vampire.” I rolled my offended navy eyes at him.
He laughed under his breath. “You had a mouth full of shark teeth,” he informed me. York and Palmer both turned their heads to silently laugh, their bodies shaking as they kept the sounds contained. Vaughn’s crystal blue eyes danced with amusement. Novak was hysterical.
“I’ve never heard them compared to shark teeth,” he blurted as he sat down to talk to Levi. “I take it you haven’t seen too many demons in your time at that camp?”
“Uhhh, no.” Levi scratched his neck. “Bunch of shifters. A few vamps and mages. That's about it.”
“Well, Levi, Stone is a demon,” Novak threw out with too much joy. “A very big, very scary demon.”
“Yeah, okay. You don’t look like a demon.” Right. Of course I didn’t. That was the point. He wasn’t scared, though, so that was good.
“I told you, man, I’m a dentist.” I tossed my hands up and went to walk out, but Sloane appeared from around the corner.
With a determined and serious set to her oval face, she tentatively approached Levi. “I have an ultimatum for you. This is completely up to you, but think them both through before you answer.” She smiled reassuringly as she sat beside him and grasped his hand. He let out the breath he must have been holding, and his shoulders sagged with what looked like defeat.
“You know more about our world than most humans do, and that’s both a good and bad thing. We can erase your memories of the last few years and feed you better ones. Memories where you’ve been living off the grid and enjoying life before you decided to go back home.” She held her index finger up to indicate that was the first option she was giving him.
“Or, you can keep your memories, and I’ll give you a job so I can keep an eye on you. For your safety, of course.” She held up two fingers and then continued. “Either one you choose is fine with me. I’ll put you up for a couple months so you can get back on your feet. We’ll make sure you don’t have any issues getting an apartment or a car. Whatever you need, it’s yours. I’ll give you an hour to think about it.”
Levi’s mouth gaped open as he struggled for words. Shaking his head vigorously, he stopped her from standing. “I don’t need to think about it,” he choked out before clearing his throat. “I want to keep my memories. I need to live with the things I’ve done. I need those lessons to learn from my mistakes. To remember that a bad guy conned me into thinking he was good and then turned me from a naïve teenager in a bad situation to one of the bad guys in a worse situation. If I forget that then I’ll go back to being the same person I was before all this began. I don’t want to be that naïve person anymore.”
Sloane grinned her approval at him. “That’s a mature way to look at what you’ve been through, Levi,” she observed. “Would you like to know what your new job is now?”
He hesitated for a moment before giving a squeaky “sure” in reply. Sloane told him all about the position of head of security at CBP. She gushed about the changes she wanted to make and complained about the lazy guards that were currently employed. I soon realized I stood alone listening to Sloane talk. I drifted out of the living room after a few minutes and found myself outside on the deck.
York was sitting with his back against one of the trees growing through the porch. His teal and green eyes were turned up to the canopy above us as he soaked in the rays of early morning sunlight. He looked better than he did when we’d found him last night, but it would be awhile before he was back to himself. I sank to the wooden floor beside him, content to observe nature unfold around us. The Underworld had forests and oceans similar to Earth, yet none of it felt as peaceful as this. We soaked in the quiet tranquility, and minutes passed before York heaved a resigned sigh and forced his attention to me.
“She’s really mad at me, isn’t she?” he questioned me softly. I could hear regret twined into his words and his eyes closed as he waited for my reply.
“I think she’s more hurt than anything, York,” I admitted to him. “You didn’t trust her. You didn’t tell her what was going on. To her, you just disappeared. No explanations. No goodbye. Nothing.” I grimaced as I told him the truth he needed to hear.
He opened his eyes, and they welled with unshed tears. He clenched his jaw to hold them at bay. When the first tear trailed down his cheek, he looked away from me and back to the sky. “She’s my mate. What was I supposed to do? Tell her? Do you know what she would’ve done, Stone?” he asked me with a hint of fear in his voice. “Exactly what she did last night, except she’d have done it by herself. I couldn’t risk her getting caught.” His tone was rough with emotion as he pushed the words out. His hands were fisted so tightly that his knuckles were changing color.
“We’re all her mates. It’s not like I don’t understand your side, because I do. I also understand hers, though.” I wanted to remain a neutral party in their issues, but I knew he needed someone to talk to. York had been my friend for years. I would always be honest with him.
“No,” he whispered. “She’s not just a potential mate, Stone. We sealed the mate bond.” He paused to let his statement sink in and I turned wide eyes to him. “I never said anything to her about it. I thought that she knew, but after some time I figured out that she wasn’t aware of it. She’s so powerful that she didn’t notice any new abilities, but I did. My own power increased considerably. Magic I’d not been able to wield before was as easy as breathing, like second nature.” He blew out a strained breath, and I waited for him to continue. He was frustrated with himself, but also with her. I got it. I probably would be too.
“I filled her greenhouse with plants from my kingdom. I shouldn’t have been able to do that without seeds. I did, though, with nothing but the thought of missing my homeland. I grew them with no seeds or soil. Not even water. Look.” His request was urgent. York opened his hand, palm facing up, and as if out of thin air a flower bloomed. Not an earthly flower. It resembled a daisy, but the petals were twisted and warped. It was a deep plum color with a feather-like texture, and the stem it grew from curled around his wrist like a delicate bracelet. Over the years of our friendship, I’d seen him create many things, but never from nothing.
“So,” I started as my fraying thoughts began to form, “that time you and Vaughn were sword fighting in the backyard at our old house and you lost a couple fingers?” It made me smile thinking about it. Back then? Not so much.
He chuckled as he nodded his head. “I stitched my fingers back on with grass from the yard. That shouldn’t even be possible. It wasn’t sterile, that’s for sure. Still, somehow the earth magic healed me. I've got no scars or suppressed motion. It’s like it never happened. I healed as fast as Novak would have, but it worked more like how Vaughn heals his injuries with his ice.” He flexed his fingers and smiled down at them.
“And that was after you sealed the bond?” I needed clarification. What could Sloane do if she had been practicing with his earth magic? Her possibilities really would be limitless when she was bound to us all.