“Where is Saint?” I questioned, the man’s presence noticeably absent.
“Here.” His voice wrapped around me as he appeared in a flash of dark smoke, his sexy smile causing me to squeak as his eyes flashed with a dangerous silver glint. I shook my head as he pulled me against his chest, nuzzling my neck and making me laugh as he lifted me off the ground.
“Saint!” I patted his chest, laughing as I tried to get down.
“I need you to relax, my little flower. This is like every other fucking mission. We arrive, we kill the stupid humans that try to fight us, and we pick up our target,” he promised, ushering me into the hallway.
“I know,” I murmured, offering a small smile.
His words were reassuring… but something still felt off.
8
Amun
I was torn on the prospect of being left alone with my precious human and her father figure. Part of me was absolutely thrilled, but there was an equal part of me that was concerned about the expression of worry on her stunning face and tension that she was now carrying through her delicate frame. I may not have liked the others, especially with how they seemed to surround her in such a territorial and possessive way, but I didn’t like that expression even more.
The mere concept of her being uneasy made me feel… something.
My chest tightened and I ignored the urge to rub the pain away, knowing instinctively that it wasn’t caused by anything physical. Was it even possible for me to feel that strong of emotions anymore? So strong that it caused physical pain? Maybe at one time, but it had been thousands of years since I’d felt anything similar. Then again, I also hadn’t thought it was possible for me to feel anything but disdain or hatred for humans until today.
My eyes ran over Arabella, her hands clasped together nervously as she watched a helicopter lift off, carrying the six nightmares that were apparently my new ‘team’ to where they would be flying off for their mission. A team that I had only agreed to being a part of because, frankly, I had a feeling there was no way she would let her guard down around me unless I did. I mean, the chances of me even getting around her would be legitimately cut short if I didn’t. It was obvious how well-insulated they kept her, and I was thanking my instinctual reaction to agree to her little plan, because if I had rejected it, I may have lost my chance at being around Arabella.
My Arabella. My human.
I didn’t fully understand my obsession with my precious human. There was no reason for it. Well, actually there were a million, but I still couldn’t grasp how they were having such an effect on me. It made no sense the way she pulled such a physical and emotional reaction from me. It made no sense the way I felt everything soothe and calm the moment her hand was on me. I’d always been somewhat of a temperamental individual, but when she touched me, I felt more human than I did when I was attempting to be a human ruler in the time of the pharaohs.
I let out a small exhale, wondering how to go about any of this. I had experienced a lot in the thousands of years of my existence, but this was absolutely a new one, even for me.
I’d been reactionary upon seeing her, but I realized now that it wasn’t going to get me anywhere except threatened by Saint. I narrowed my eyes at the annoyance I felt with the concept of any nightmare having dominance over me, but felt moderately better considering he was not only far older than me, but contained death magic that was literally impossible to supersede. I would have probably been somewhat in awe of the bastard if he hadn’t threatened to cut my dick off and shove it down my throat if I ever put my hand around her throat again.
It was possible that I’d been somewhat rough in my action towards her, but I had truly been shocked that she was human, and I honestly hadn’t fully believed her. Well, until I had her pinned by the throat and felt her faint, delicate pulse under my fingers and how breakable she truly was. It seemed almost impossible that someone with the confidence that she had wasn’t a nightmare.
Once I had accepted her words, I’d found myself reeling from a protective urge that was long buried but came to life under her touch and voice. I should have felt disgust or annoyance towards her, but instead all I felt was concern that I would break her. Or that someone would try to take her away from me, a possessive ripple of awareness rolling over my skin at the precious treasure I’d found.
One that I fully intended on making mine… somehow.
While it had taken a few hours, the complicated dynamic between Arabella and her team was becoming far too clear. It was obvious they reacted the same way towards her as I did, and I could see a sense of devotion—more obsession, honestly—coming off of them in reference to her. However, it was also clear that they were not only worried but avoiding dealing with the obvious obstacle.
Arabella was human.
Humans were not built to mate with nightmares successfully. I winced, thinking about when I’d been a fairly young nightmare and pharaoh and the few lovers that I’d taken carelessly. They had died, each one ending up a drained corpse. I think it was about six months and three lovers before I gave up on the notion of mating with anyone that wasn’t a nightmare of my own kind.
Unfortunately, that hadn’t been much of an option either, considering I was related to most that lived within Egypt, so to say that I hadn’t felt physical affection of any kind for a long period of time was an understatement.
It was frustrating as hell that my body was so goddamn responsive to a delicate creature like Arabella. I wasn’t even positive how to handle her, and I was a bit concerned that my need for her would overrule those newer protective instincts. If it was bad for me and I’d been around her for only hours, I couldn’t imagine what it was like for the others.
My thoughts went to Cy and how tortured he had looked over the concept of almost hurting her. Something Saint, of all people, had tried to reassure him of, seemingly oddly confident that Arabella was just fine. I wasn’t positive how confident I felt in his analysis on anything that wasn’t a judgement on whether it was someone’s time to die or not, though.
Not that I should talk—I killed often, usually without remorse.
I had been asleep for nearly four hundred years, and when I’d woken to find that humans were more annoying than ever, I had killed a fair amount. I had not expected, though, to be bombarded by other nightmares. Hell, I hadn’t expected them in the first place, since usually we kept to ourselves. They had successfully caught me off guard, and when I woke to find myself in a large warehouse room, I’d been furious, almost instantly shifting and using up most of my reserved energy. As much as I liked sleeping away my immortal existence, playing catch-up could be absolutely exhausting, especially with so much development having occurred.
From what I gathered, humans were aware of us and predictably hated us. How this group, MAM or something, played into it, I was still putting together. Unfortunately, one aspect that hadn’t changed was our need for their fear and our reliance on them to survive. It was absolutely bullshit, considering if we really wanted to, we could completely exterminate them. I craved to see that.
Well, not Arabella. I would never allow anyone to kill her. She would end up the only human left on all of Earth, if I had it my way.