I nodded once. “I promise.”
I helped him lay on my bed, stacking pillows for him to elevate his head. He leaned back, complaining at the many pains in his body. I could feel them, not as pain, just awareness, and it helped me to support him where needed to make him comfortable.
I sat next to him, brushing back his dark hair.
His eyes closed as he sighed. “This bed smells like you,” he whispered.
I smiled. “Rest.”
Eventually, we would have to discuss how to get Bex out of the mess he’d gotten himself into. He’d disturbed The Balance when he threatened Cassia, and for a human who wasn’t even his Taleh. Then again when he told Allison the truth. The punishment was death, but he was Levi’s protector. The Balance was anything but stable, and it was my job to fix it. I couldn’t kill my uncle even if he wasn’t biologically connected to my boyfriend, and Hell was going to cry foul either way.
“What are you thinking about?” Levi asked, touching my lips.
I held his hand in my lap. “I don’t know how I’m going to fix this.”
“We’ll figure it out together.”
“How’s that worked for us so far?” I teased.
Levi grimaced.
“I was kidding,” I said.
“You’re not wrong. We need a new point of view, logical and without emotion.”
I shook my head. “Love is how I was sent to be with my parents, how I escaped Hell, why you came to save me, and how we found each other again. Love is not the problem.”
He blinked slowly, struggling to stay awake. “I’m a lucky man.”
I kissed him once more, letting my lips linger. “Sleep,” I said.
His muscles relaxed, his head fell a centimeter to the side, his breath grew deeper, and he escaped our reality for a new one. I hoped it was full of thoughts of me, too full to hold even ribbons of the nightmare we’d just endured.
Chapter Eight
Levi
Eden was the last thing I saw when I fell from consciousness, and the first thing when my lids opened and eyes focused. The most beautiful creature to exist was above me, grinning and excited. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve been sure we had already won and made it to Heaven together.
“You must’ve slept well. The vibes I’m getting from you are like pure light,” she said.
I stretched, feeling the newly formed scar tissue tug. “That can’t be. I’m the bad guy, remember?”
“Don’t hurt yourself,” she said. She helped me to a sitting position, making sure the pillows supported me appropriately. “If you’re the bad guy, why does everything in Hell want you dead?”
“Because I refused to carry out my orders.”
“Which makes you,” she pecked my lips, “the good guy.”
I pulled her in for another kiss, unable to stop myself, but then a thought popped into my head. “Emotion,” I said, pulling away from Eden to meet her gaze.
“Huh?”
“Before I fell asleep, you said emotion could be the answer instead of logic.”
“Yeah?”
I let my head relax back. “I have an idea. But we have to be careful of who’s listening. It’s risky.”
She shrugged. “If your plan isn’t impossible, it’s just boring.”
I chuckled and leaned forward slowly, finishing the kiss I’d started.
“Are you up for a shower?” she whispered against my lips.
My muscles twinged each time I moved. I felt ten years older, maybe more. “Why hasn’t this healed?” I growled, irritated.
Eden blinked, looking back over her shoulder. I waited to feel something too, but I could only feel love—maybe a bit of worry.
“You’ll heal. I can sense it.”
“What else do you sense?” I asked.
Her gaze met mine. “You caught that, huh?”
“Yes. It’s not Hell. What’s going on?”
She bit her lip, clearly worried. “You should hurry. You have a visitor.”
“A visitor?”
She hooked my arm around her neck, helping me to stand and walking with me to the bathroom. I didn’t know I was dizzy until the third step, but she must have.
Eden stood outside while I undressed and stepped under the steaming hot water. Once I scrubbed off soot and blood, all I could think about was asking her to join me. Just before I opened my mouth to call for her, Agatha’s voice drifted under the door.
From their conversation, she was collecting the sheets I’d slept on and replaced them with clean linens.
“Yes, he’s aware. Thank you,” Eden called to her as Agatha closed the door behind her.
I turned the lever and stepped out, tying the towel around my waist. My wet hair was wavy and still dripping down my shoulders and chest, but it was the pink line across my torso that caught my eye. “You removed the sutures?” I asked.
Eden smiled, the sunlight from the window making her platinum hair seem to glow. “Before you woke.”
I reached out to her, and she took my hand. “I’m a light sleeper. That’s talent.”
She shrugged, then shifted her weight away from me. Anyone else would’ve missed it, but her body language told me loud and clear. “Does me in a towel make you uncomfortable?”
“You’re just … beautiful,” she said, making me forget all about whoever was downstairs. Her fingers traced a stream of water that had made its way down my chest, and soon all four fingertips were grazing the highs and lows of my skin, making goose bumps rise in the millions.
I pulled her closer, wrapping her in one arm and tugging at the towel with my free hand.
She stopped me from pulling the soft cotton away, but I planted a kiss on her mouth anyway, parting her lips and sliding my tongue inside. She grabbed my middle and pulled me closer. My body reacted violently. The bed was just feet away…
“Levi,” she said between kisses. “You… you have a visitor.”
“I know,” I said, unable to stop. “But I need you.”
“Levi,” she said, enjoying my hands and lips for a few seconds more before backing away, breathless. “She’s downstairs.”
“She?” I asked.
After taking a few seconds to collect herself, Eden handed me a dark blue T-shirt and jeans. “They’re Bex’s, so the pants might be an inch too long. Agatha managed to clean your shoes, but your clothes weren’t so lucky.”
“Whoever she is, it can wait,” I said, reaching for her again.
“You don’t feel her?” she asked. Eden put her hand on my chest, looking up at me with her ocean eyes. “It’s your mother.”
My hands fell away. “My mother?”
Eden nodded slowly. “Downstairs. And she insists on seeing you now. She doesn’t trust us, not that I blame her, but she thinks it’s a trap. You should go, calm her down. She’s armed.”