by C. G. Blaine
“Two, three decades?”
I’m warm, but she keeps a poker face.
“And the only way I’m completely safe is if I’m with you.”
It’s not a question, but I answer it anyway. “Or if you’re here. Which means—”
“We need to be together as much as possible, or I die and you never reenter Heaven.”
We’re on the same page about something for once. Amazing.
I drain my whiskey in one swallow and immediately start pouring another. “At least until I figure something else out. We thought they were only targeting Nephilim when you were alone, but after tonight, I’m not so sure. We might be able to throw together a spell to help hide you, but it will take time.”
And chanting. It’s all about the chanting.
Hannah brings the rim of the glass to her lips. “I need you to do me a favor.” She finishes her drink and grimaces as she sits down on the couch beside me, pulling her legs between us. “The only reason Gabe got hurt tonight is because of me. I don’t want him to be in that kind of danger again, so I need you to make him forget we’re dating.”
My eyebrows shoot up, as I was not expecting the “favor” to be breaking Preppy’s heart for her. Her eyes drop to the empty glass in her hand, so I bury the urge to act like a complete asshole about it.
“Are you sure?”
She nods, looking back at me. “I only said yes at dinner. Plus, who wants to be with a girl who spends all her time with another guy?”
If I’m not mistaken, a brief moment of relief flashes over her face before she sighs. “Any chance you’ll let me sleep at the dorms tonight?”
“Take the bed,” I say, standing up. “I need to move Preppy’s car to the park before anyone finds it at the restaurant.”
“Wait. I’ll come with you.”
Before I can tell her no, she runs to the bedroom. While I listen to her rifling through my shit again, I drain my drink and pull on a hoodie. I’m about to the door when she finally reemerges in my leather jacket, a pair of sweatpants with the legs rolled up, and her shoes.
“Let’s go.” Her hand swipes over the back of her neck, pulling the hair out of the collar of my jacket.
It’s not worth the effort of arguing, so I head back toward her. If she’s coming, we’re at least taking advantage of the Hannah Expressway and saving ourselves time.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
I scoop her up, throwing her over my shoulder.
“Cass!”
And we drop.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I jolt awake on the couch. Power pounds through me. I reach for the ball on my chest, the need to see Hannah deafening. Then I remember it’s not there because she’s in my bedroom. In a blink, so am I. She’s sitting in bed, sobbing into her hands.
Nightmare.
I give myself a second to recover before walking farther into the room. The floor creaks as I reach the bed, startling her until she realizes it’s me. She throws off the blankets and pushes onto her knees. As soon as I’m close enough, her arms lock around my neck.
“You’re okay,” I say. “It was just a dream.”
The hold on me tightens, her face burying in my neck, and I secure my arm around her. Of all the times I’ve witnessed her wake up from a dream, it’s the first time I’ve ever really been there.
Once the light begins to fade and her breathing evens out, I lean down so her knees touch the mattress. She lets go and sits back on her heels, wiping away the tears. I wait until she’s back under the blanket before leaving.
“Cass.”
I pause in the doorway.
“I know nothing can get in, but will you stay anyway?”
My hand rakes through my hair as I change direction. She shifts over, and I settle in next to her, stretching out on my back. Just when I think I can fall asleep, cold feet hit my leg. Hannah squirms around, readjusting, then she pulls all the blankets off me and flips from one side to the other every few minutes. After her third sigh, I reach over and drag her over to me.
“Cass! What are you doing?”
I’ve never even let someone else sleep in my bed, and now I’m about to fucking cuddle with someone in it.
My arm slides under her, and I pin her against my side, so she can’t move anymore. At first, she acts like she’s going to protest, but soon she relaxes against me.
“You’re so warm.”
Her arm drapes over my stomach, and she snuggles into me. She smells like my body wash and shampoo, but underneath it is Hannah and the faintest hint of flowers. After her breathing slows, I let my eyes fall shut. And then I sleep the same way I always do—with her on my chest.
I wake up, too warm with Cass’s arm around me and his chest pressed against my back. I try to move away, but his hold on me tightens.
“Stop moving,” he demands, pulling me closer.
His leg hooks over mine, further emphasizing the point, and he actually nuzzles against the back of my neck. Big, bad, broody Cass spooning me would be funny if he wasn’t like an electric blanket. This time, when I pry his arm away from me, he lets go and rolls onto his back. I scoot over to the edge of the bed and find my phone on the nightstand.
Three missed calls from Gabe and twice as many texts. Shit. I read through them, all matching what Cass told him had happened—he was mugged after he dropped me off. The last one lets me know they’re releasing him this afternoon, and he wants to see me. I set my phone back down, not answering. It’s better to wait until after Cass erases the memory of me saying yes to dating him. Saddest part is, at only one day, he will still be my third-longest relationship.
I roll over as Cass turns to face me again, hugging his pillow. It’s the most peaceful I’ve ever seen him, his features and body relaxed, breathing slow and even. My eyes drift down to the smooth skin on his side. Hours ago, it was torn open and burned from when he saved me. Now it’s healed because of powers I somehow control.
I run my fingers over the spot, finally beginning to understand the true connection between Nephilim and Watcher.
We need each other.
Cass’s gaze waits for me when I look up, and my hand falls to the mattress between us. The softness stays in his face a little longer before the edge creeps back in.
“You’re a pain in the ass to sleep with,” he says, getting out of bed. “Don’t ever expect me to do it again.”
He slams the bathroom door behind him. Big, bad, broody Cass is back, and as strange as it sounds, I think I missed him.
When he reemerges, his hair’s dripping wet from his shower, and a towel haphazardly hangs low on his hips. I pretend not to notice how incredibly hot he looks, but he knows the second my heart rate increases. A dimple appears as he swipes a shirt out of a laundry basket.
Asshole.
He heads back into the bathroom and steps around the door, leaving it open. “What do you want me to tell Preppy when I go see him? That his gee-Mary-Sue-you’re-the-keenest bullshit makes you want to hurl yourself off a cliff?”
I get out of bed and search through the same basket for something I can wear until he takes me back to the dorms. “What’s your problem with him anyway?”
His head pops out. “You want the list?”
I shake my head, and he disappears again.
“I guess tell him, instead of saying yes, I said I need to concentrate on school.”
He steps out, fully dressed and dragging a hoodie over his head. I pass him on my way in to change. I start to shut the door, but his hand catches it.
“You want to come with me?”
If I thought breaking up with someone would be awkward, watching someone else do it for you is way worse. Cass sticks to the script, albeit with a shit-eating grin on his face the entire time. Once he finishes, we leave Gabe still in a daze. Cass grabs my hand, tugging me toward him. He wraps his arm around me and leans down until his lips are at my ear.
“Demon,” he whispers.
A rush of anxiety shocks through my chest at the word, and everything goes white. He keeps ahold of me as I blink a few times and realize we’re back in his living room.
“Sorry,” he says, staring down at me. “We needed to get out of there before Preppy came out of it.”
I nod and fake a smile, taking a step backward. “It’s fine.”
He reaches into his hoodie pocket for a cigarette and his lighter. “We’ll take the bike to the dorms to grab your stuff.”
I’m right behind him when he heads toward the bedroom. “And why do we need to grab my stuff?”
Cigarette lit and balanced between his lips, he grabs his leather jacket off the dresser. “Would you prefer I stay with you and Terra at the dorms?”
“Cass, I’m not moving in with you.”
“You’re right. You’re not. But until I know they aren’t coming after you every time I’m not around you, we’re not taking any chances.”
I want to argue, but if the demons do keep attacking, I can’t risk putting Terra or anyone else in the same kind of danger I did Gabe. Not anyone who doesn’t heal the second I hyperventilate anyway.
“It’s only for a few days.” He tosses the jacket at me and walks out.
At least he says things before leaving now.
I catch up and follow him to the stairwell at the end of the hall. At the first landing, his hand touches my lower back, guiding me around the corner to the next set of stairs. I might not have a direct line to his adrenaline responses, but if I have to guess, the stairs make Cass nervous.
Once I crawl onto the motorcycle behind him, he seems to relax. I slide my hands into the front pocket of his hoodie without invitation this time. He doesn’t seem to mind, speeding out of the parking lot.
We only stay at the dorms long enough for me to pack a bag, then it’s back to the apartment where we spend the rest of the day no more than a room apart from each other. For dinner, we finally eat that pizza we were supposed to have the day he told me who he was.
We sit at the kitchen counter in our usual silence until I ask, “Do you have wings?”
He picks up his pizza like he doesn’t plan on answering.
Fair, since I’ve bothered him with random angel questions all day. Most he shrugged off or spit out a sarcastic response to.
But he pauses with the slice halfway to his mouth. “Yes.”
“Can I see them?”
He considers it, his eyes dragging down my body. “Can I see your tits?”
I squint at him, and he smirks.
“Then no, you can’t see them.”
After we finish, we lounge around in the living room—him reading, me getting a jump-start on studying for midterms. God, I really must be boring to follow around. School, studying, and that’s about it. The last two summers, I worked at a pet rescue, but I doubt that was very entertaining to watch. All I did was give dogs baths. Maybe instead of summer classes or working, I should do something this year.
“If you could go anywhere, where would you go?” I ask.
He answers right away, never losing focus on the page. “Home.”
“I meant, in the world.”
Still reading. “Are we going together?”
“Yes.”
“There’s a dam in Switzerland where you can bungee jump from over seven hundred feet.” He looks at me then and says, “I want to throw you off it.”
Fighting off a smile, he returns to his book. I sigh, putting away my textbook, and shove his legs out of the way to go take a shower, never bothering to ask if he’s kidding. He probably wouldn’t answer anyway, and on the off chance he did, I would more than likely wish he hadn’t.
Since he hasn’t told me not to, I use Cass’s bathroom because it’s bigger. I brought my own shampoo and soap from the dorms, but as I pull on my tank top and a pair of shorts, I swear I still smell like him.
By the time I come out, it’s after midnight. He’s stretched out on the couch, asleep with the book resting on his chest. I throw a blanket over him and shut off the lights before I retreat back to the bedroom and go to sleep.
Just like last night, the blackness that encircled the demon appears. It grows and creeps until it surrounds me. I open my mouth to scream, but it fills my lungs, suffocating me. I’m gasping when I wake up, clutching my heaving chest. Cass is already on his way over to the bed.
He rubs the back of his neck and puts his knee on the mattress. “Move over.”
I do, but after he lies down, he slides me against his side. My head rests on his chest, and he folds his arms around me, the heat of his skin lulling me to sleep.
Even if he did throw me off that dam in Switzerland, he’d catch me before I hit the bottom. We both know it.
Every day, Cass walks me to my classes and waits there for me to come out. We eat breakfast together and lunch and dinner. In the evenings, he reads, and I study until one of us annoys the other so much that we can’t stand to be near each other anymore. Our new arrangement is quite the adjustment for two people who have no one to answer to but themselves. Doors slam, I refuse to talk to him, he walks out. But even after all that, every night ends the same way—with him being the only thing that keeps the nightmares away.
On Thursday afternoon, he meets me outside my ethics lecture with a coffee. I graciously accept, not even testing the temperature before taking a sip. Even though spring break is only a week away, no one told the weather we’d moved on past January. My free hand pulls into the sleeves of the leather jacket as we walk to his motorcycle, which Cass insists it’s warm enough out to ride. He climbs on while I drain the rest of my drink and already has the engine running when I get back from throwing it away. Cass, as patient as always.
We pull out of the parking lot, going the wrong way for his apartment. It takes me until we’re only a block away to realize where he’s heading. He parks at the curb in front of the dorms, and I squeeze him tighter before climbing off.
“Trial basis,” he says, swinging his leg over the seat. “And I’m inside with you whenever Terra isn’t.”
He takes the helmet from me, and I smile, backing up the sidewalk. “Thank you, Cass.”
I get a sighed, “Whatever.” The Cass equivalent to you’re welcome.
Walking from the top of the open stairway to my room, I’m the most stressed I’ve been over the past few days. The empty hallway threatens a similar setup as the alley, walls blocking me in. I fight the urge to run the last few steps, like I used to after shutting off the lights in the basement, and make it without anything appearing out of thin air.
I walk in to see my bags are already on the bed and a shirtless guy is in Terra’s. At least nothing’s changed there. I don’t pay attention to him on my way to the window. Cass is still waiting where I left him, where he’ll stay until he comes inside.
Terra walks in a minute later. Her guy has already found his shirt and left, but she doesn’t seem to care. She squeals and jumps at me, wrapping her arms around me like I’ve been gone for a year, not a few days. I hug her back, having missed her just as much. We spend the next hour catching up. Not that either of us have done much of anything since I texted her about staying off-campus to help a friend. Technically true. I was helping my friends not die.
When her work reminder goes off, she pouts out her lower lip. “I wish I didn’t have to leave. Promise you’ll be here when I get back and won’t have gone to find a new best friend you want to live with forever?”
I laugh and nod. “I’ll be here, waiting for you.”
She gives me one more hug and grabs her coat on the way out. Less than a minute later, Cass lets himself in. Really, I’m surprised it took that long. He shuts the door behind him, phone to his ear. I fold my legs up on the bed and watch him pace.
“Yeah … Nope … Fuck off … Fine.” He shoves his phone in his pocket. “None of the others have had a demon attack since yours.”
“Where are the others?” I ask.
Outside of when he originally told me about the Watchers, he’s never mentioned them.
He drops down on the floor and leans back against my bed in front of me. “Chaz is close to where you were in Colorado, Rosdan is in Seattle, and Samy’s supposed to be somewhere in West Virginia, but who the fuck knows anymore.”
“All of the Nephilim live in the United States?”
I can only see the side of his face, but a dimple appears. “A few hundred years ago, we all ‘suggested’ our charges come to America. It took a few decades to get them all here, but it made everything much easier. For a few years, Ros and I were in the same colony.”
An image of Cass in colonial era clothing enters my mind, but I dismiss it, not ready to dive into the weirdness.
“Which one were you just talking to?”
“Chaz.” He looks back over his shoulder at me. “He was asking me to sneak a picture of your ass and send it to him.”
His side of the conversation replays in my head. I stop myself from asking which was his answer.
He spreads out on the floor when I pull out my review notes. An hour ticks by without so much as a sound from him. I assume he’s asleep until he starts tossing the crystal ball in the air. It pops up and disappears a dozen times at least, my focus lost each and every time. I lean over far enough so that the next time he throws it, I can intercept.
“It’s a crystal ball, Hannah. You think I can’t see you in it?”
He sits up fast, surprising me, and my pounding heart follows close behind. The few inches of space between us warms. Cass shuts his eyes, a torn expression on his face. And that’s when Terra walks in, her mouth falling open at the sight of us. Cass’s eyes open as I sit back on the bed, away from him.
“What are you doing back already?”
“I, uh…” She watches Cass pushing off the floor, and with his back to her, she mouths, Oh. My. God. When he turns around, she smiles and cocks her head to the side. “I found someone to cover the rest of my shift, so we can go to dinner since you’ve been so busy lately. Hi, I’m Terra.” She seamlessly transitions into introducing herself, holding out her hand to Cass, who doesn’t bother even faking a pleasant expression.
