She shrugs. “When else was I going to get the chance to be with one of The Fallen?” Her melty eyes engage until they suddenly lower to the bed between us. “And I tried to get you to leave with me after, but you used your light on me. I wasn’t supposed to care if I saw you again or want you to call me. I couldn’t exactly…”
She says more, but I’m in the middle of a fuck me moment.
Call me.
And a second later, I’m rolling out of bed. I grab my dirty-ass jeans off the floor, dragging them on instead of the shorts, and I throw Nyx’s clothes at her. “Get up.”
She sits up on the edge of the bed, confused, her hair a mess. She looks fucking hot, and I can’t help myself. I dip down to kiss her and push her onto her back while I crawl on top of her, and I definitely have a problem because I’m thinking about being inside her again instead of untying her hands. I tug apart the knot and force myself off the bed, leaving her panting and even more confused.
I find my shirt at the front of the camper and pull it on along with my shoes. Then I open the cupboard under the sink and grab the Dimming Blade from where I wedged it between the pipes. By the time I tuck it behind me and stand up, Nyx is in the doorway.
“Are we going somewhere?” she asks.
“Yep.”
“But Jared won’t be here for hours.”
“Fuck Jared. And not in his truck.” I tack on the last part to be an asshole.
She doesn’t get a chance to be pissy about it, though, only getting to open her mouth before I cross the trailer and scoop her up.
“What the hell?” she says, but her arms go around my neck.
I pull open the inside door and nudge the latch for the screen door, kneeing it the rest of the way open. At the bottom of the stairs, I swing Nyx onto my back and open a portal.
“Chaz, wait. What about Hex?” she whispers like he’ll hear her, holding on while I readjust her.
“Hex has until we reach Patty’s Saloon to catch us.”
Then we’re through the portal. It seems to go farther than the last one I created. Unnerving as shit but helpful nonetheless. In no time, we pop out beside the bar. I keep Nyx on my back, going behind the building. I pull open the screen door and see the padlock on the inner one.
“Hold the screen,” I tell her.
She tightens her hold with one arm and plants a hand on the wood framing the door. I blow out a breath and close my fist around the lock.
“What are you—”
I shush her and concentrate on earlier when I walked out of the bathroom and heard her laughing. For the fucking dude in a checkered shirt. How his eyes were glued to her tits when I pulled down on the slats of the blinds. My jaw clenches, the urge to drop him in the middle of the desert resurfacing. Then, just like last time, ice shoots down my arm and into my palm. A flash of cold flame, and when I jerk down, the lock breaks. I unhook it and throw it on the ground.
Fuck Jared.
“Shit,” Nyx says as I open the door. “You make flames now?”
I shrug, and once we’re inside, she slides off my back. She holds on to my arm, following me through the dark kitchen and out into the main bar area. When we reach the pay phone, I swipe my hand underneath for quarters. A couple of coolers light the room, and I see Nyx squinting at me when I pick up the receiver and drop the quarters into the slot.
“I thought you couldn’t remember anyone’s phone number.”
I smirk, dialing the one phone number I do know.
Mine.
Something inside me relaxes at the sound of the first ring, and by the second, someone answers.
“Hello?” she says. “Oh my God. Chaz, be you.”
Hannah fucking Kelley.
I smile, slumping against the wall, and I can sense her pulse pounding. “I knew you wanted me, beautiful, but breaking into my apartment and stealing my phone?”
I’ve barely finished when the bar fills with divine light. Now, both Nyx and I are squinting until the brightness fades. And then there’s Cass, standing in the center of the room, and I, for one, have never been more grateful for caller ID.
The first few hours after Nyx and I get back to my apartment are eventful, to say the least. I tie Nyx up—obviously. Then Cass ties me up because he can sense the darkness taking up residence. Ros shows up shortly after and rushes to untie me, only for them to all find out I’ve taken care of it myself with the help of my new little buddy, the flame. After that, there’s a bunch of sitting around and staring at the floor while I tell them about my last few days. And Nyx.
“Whose lineage is she from?” Cass asks. “Which of The Others?”
Ros perks up, both of them waiting to see if she has ties to their Nephilim.
“Kokabiel,” I say, locked on Cass.
The muscles of his jaw work overtime beneath the skin, but he gives nothing away.
“You said you have the Dimming Blade?” Rosdan moves us along like the exchange means nothing, and Cass shoots him an appreciative look.
We both know if Cass wants to tell Hannah that she shares a bloodline with Nyx, he will. Not our charge, not our choice.
When I whip out the dagger, they both lean back on the couch, instinctively putting as much space as possible between them and the thing that could end the ride.
After a minute of no one moving, Hannah comes and throws her arms around my middle. “I’m so sorry,” she mumbles.
“Fuck, Kelley, not in front of the guys.” But I wrap my arm around her shoulders anyway, letting out a long breath. Even with the ache from the missing light, the cold of the darkness, and the scar on my chest, it only now takes hold how screwed I am unless we undo what Donny’s done. How one wrong move can wipe me from existence.
“Chaz…” Ros doesn’t go any further with the pity, his sad eyes darting to Cass. “We just have to reverse the direction of the light from the blade, right? The light will banish the darkness, and then we can figure out the rest.”
Cass is honed in on Nyx with a look that even causes Hannah to shift uneasily at my side. “She has to die to unbind you?”
Nyx shrinks into the chair, giving all the answer we need.
“All right,” he says, “so we get you back the light, and then we kill her.”
“What?” She sits up, shaking her head. “No, I—”
“That’s how it works, right?” Rosdan, the only one of us who might have been her ally, raises a curious brow. “Why else would Abaddon have kept you alive?”
She turns to me in a panic. “Please. I probably only have one resurrection left. I can’t die again.”
“And he can?” Cass crosses the room. “You’ll still come back. He’ll cease to exist.”
“He what?” she asks, but I look away as Cass pulls Hannah away from me.
He tucks her into his side. “You cool with lying low until we figure out the blade?”
I nod. “Not a huge fan of being connected to dickhead Donny, but that just means Armaros needs to get me up and glowing faster than he did the amulet.”