Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and she reached up to brush some of it back.
He liked the way she looked today, in tight jeans and brown boots that came up to
her knees, and a long cream sweater that hung loosely and yet still managed to hint
tantalizingly at the curves beneath it. She had her coat draped over one arm, while
the other, closer to him, swung loose. He had a sudden, strange urge to grab her hand.
Phenex turned his head away and frowned, clenching his fist instead of reaching for
her. Maybe he needed sleep or something. He hadn’t bothered in days.
“I’m surprised you don’t have any pets, then,” Phenex said, trying to distract himself.
Sofia seemed oblivious to the turmoil she was causing him. She smiled and shrugged,
watching a family walk past with a child who was proudly carrying a large, new, and
very purple stuffed lizard.
“I wish. The building has a no-pet policy. Besides, Amy’s allergic to cats, which
is about all I could handle with my hours right now. I might be able to manage a hamster
or something, but with my luck it would escape and stick around to gnaw holes in the
cereal boxes. So, no pets. Yet.” She glanced at him. “What about you? No pet hellhound
or anything?”
He hesitated, then offered another small fragment of himself up for scrutiny. “No.
But most of my brothers have an animal form. Birds, mainly. One snake. A griffin.
Meresin just has one form, which is dangerous enough. And then there’s Levi.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Ah. That’s the one who got you all out, right? Gadreel said
he was...well, what
is
Levi, exactly?”
Phenex tried to come up with a good way to describe what Leviathan was when he didn’t
look like a man.
“You don’t want to know,” Phenex finally said. “He’s got scales.”
“You’re right,” Sofia said. “I don’t want to know.” They walked in companionable silence
for another minute. Then she said, “So you can really turn into a phoenix?”
He hunched his shoulders a little as he nodded, expecting yet another joke in what
seemed to be an endless stream of Harry Potter jokes since the books had come out.
Instead, Sofia simply said, a little shyly, “I’ve always loved that myth. Maybe you’ll
show me sometime.”
Phenex looked at her, surprised. “Yeah, maybe.” He hadn’t assumed his avian form in
a very long time, finding it an unpleasant reminder of things lost. But for her, he
found he might actually consider it.
She smiled her pleasure, and he felt a weird, not entirely comfortable sensation start
in the pit of his stomach and flood him with a warmth that made him momentarily light-headed.
At first he thought it might be nausea. Then he realized it was pure, simple happiness.
And that he hadn’t felt such a thing in so long he might have been experiencing it
for the very first time. Also, he seemed to be grinning like a complete ass.
Oh, hellfire. No.
But he was still trying to shake the warm, fuzzy feeling as Sofia turned the subject
back to safer territory.
“So speaking of creatures, I got tickets to do the butterfly pavilion before we go.
Do you mind? It’s right over there.”
Phenex allowed himself to be directed through the entryway of the futuristic dome
that housed the butterfly habitat, hoping that maybe being bombarded by flying insects
would dampen his mood. The humidity and heat they stepped into made him glad he’d
only worn a T-shirt under his simple black peacoat. He pulled off the coat as he looked
around, joining Sofia on a path that ran alongside overflowing banks of blooming flowers.
The air was alive with brightly colored wings.
“Oh, look! I love the blue ones!”
Sofia was laughing, delighted, as a large black and blue butterfly fluttered around
her head, then decided to land on her shirt, making a living corsage of itself. It
pulsed its wings gently, probably trying to decide how she tasted.
Lucky bastard.
Phenex couldn’t look away—for a few moments, everything around him seemed to vanish
until there was just Sofia and her butterfly, two fragile, impermanent, beautiful
creatures. He had a momentary wild impulse to spread his own wings and envelop the
two of them, protecting them. The need was so strong that his flying muscles ached
from holding back. Every breath Sofia took, every soft rush of air beneath the wings
around them, suddenly seemed to be the most glorious music, dancing, swelling, swirling
around him in a way that made something long dormant inside himself stretch and stir.
It filled the empty places, silenced the endless aching…
Then the butterfly flitted off again, and Sofia watched it go with a smile that was
touched with wistfulness. The moment was broken.
Phenex looked around, dazed. Whatever he’d just felt had vanished as suddenly as it
had come. But…it had left an echo. One he could still feel, one he’d be mulling over
later, once he quit feeling as though the ground had just shifted beneath his feet.
He trailed along behind Sofia, not really hearing or seeing anything, absurdly relieved
when she announced she was starving and it was time to go eat.
It was nothing, Phenex decided.
Except that he was still hearing music, very faintly—a song he’d never heard, even
though he hadn’t composed an original piece in over a thousand years. Something was
different. And different usually turned out to be bad. But it didn’t
feel
bad.
Confused, but strangely elated, Phenex pulled on his jacket and walked with Sofia
out into the cold gray day. When he lagged behind, Sofia looked back, grinned, and
then reached to catch his hand in hers to pull him along.
“Come on,” she said. “The mountain rolls at Okada… Seriously. You don’t even know
what you’re keeping me from, Phenex. They’re amazing.”
So he let her lead. And it wasn’t until three blocks later that he realized he’d left
his hand in hers.
Chapter Twelve
It was dark by the time they got back to the apartment, with Phenex carrying a heavenly
smelling bag of what they hadn’t been able to finish…along with a few things Phenex
had decided he just had to bring back for later, even though he’d already eaten five
times what Sofia could have managed at her hungriest.
“I can’t believe you’re this ancient thing and you’d never eaten sushi,” Sofia teased
him. It still surprised her. She expected that he would have done everything, tasted
everything. Wasn’t that what eternity was for? But whatever Phenex had been spending
his existence doing, it didn’t seem that adventures in food had been his thing.
“I felt like eating a raw fish would have too much of a Gollum vibe,” Phenex said
as they headed through the front door of the building and started up the stairs. “Now
I’m too full to give a damn. I don’t think I’ve been this full in at least a couple
hundred years. When I told you to order what was good and I’d try it, I didn’t think
you’d order the whole menu.”
“You should have been more specific.” Sofia laughed. “Everything’s good.”
“That much is true,” he replied, then groaned. “What was the thing again? With the
pile of stuff on top?”
“I think you mean the mountain roll. With the spicy mayo and the masago on top.”
“Yeah, the fish eggs.” He made a face that had Sofia snorting. “They were good as
long as I didn’t think about what they were. But I probably should have stopped at
the mountain roll. That was about when I started to feel like I had a stomach full
of bricks.”
“It’s all the rice,” Sofia said. “Nobody held your mouth open and made you e—”
She didn’t expect the kiss. The man moved like a cat, or some kind of ninja. He was
just there all of a sudden, his mouth on hers. The bigger surprise was that the kiss
was over almost as soon as it had begun, a soft brush of his lips that was as fleeting
and gentle as yesterday’s kiss had been lengthy and heated. It didn’t seem to matter.
Her lips tingled just the same where Phenex’s had been.
Sofia stood very still on the landing between the first floor and the second, waiting—who
was she kidding, hoping—for him to kiss her again. But Phenex simply stood there,
inches from her, looking down at her with a curious expression.
She looked back at him, eyebrows raised, unsure of what he was looking for, or what
to say.
“It was a nice day,” he finally said, and she would swear that his cheeks actually
looked kind of pink. Maybe it was just the weird lighting in the stairwell.
Sofia smiled. “It was a nice day,” she agreed. “The kiss was nice, too.”
In response, he twisted up his mouth. “
Nice?
I don’t give
nice
kisses.”
Her grin widened. Maybe it was his almost-blush. Maybe it was just that he’d been
so normal today, so easy to be with. But despite all of her misgivings, it was the
easiest thing in the world to rise up on her tiptoes and press her mouth against his.
She’d startled him. Sofia could feel it in the way he went still, hear it in his soft
inhalation when her lips met his. She had the briefest moment to savor it, and then
he slid into her. She heard the bags of leftovers hit the floor, and then his arms
were around her, pulling her against him. Sofia wound her arms around him, determined
not to just be swept along this time. Wanting him didn’t mean just succumbing. She
might be a human, but she would hold her own with him.
Sofia molded herself against Phenex, stroking his tongue with hers, showing him without
words how she wanted, needed to be kissed. Phenex made a soft, achingly sensual sound
in the back of his throat that had fire curling through every inch of her body. Then
he slid his hands into her hair and took the kiss deeper, turning it into something
dark and decadent.
His touch was everywhere, stroking, gliding, and Sofia curled into him, seeking his
heat. They seemed made to fit together, every curve and hollow matched so that they
were fused perfectly, no space between them. Phenex settled his hands on the small
of her back, and with every slow stroke of his tongue, she could feel the pressure
in his fingertips change ever so slightly. The thought flitted through her mind that
he was playing her body just as he would an instrument, and her lips curved lazily
against his mouth as she began to let her body move in time to every gentle press
of his fingers.
Immediately, she could feel how hard he was, rigid and hot even through the fabric
between them. The sound she made was somewhere between a gasp and a moan when she
felt him against her lower belly, and she moved her own hips against his, savoring
every shudder of his breath, the way he moved one hand to her hip and guided her against
him, over and over until Sofia was swollen and wet, so ready for him she was quivering.
He maneuvered her so deftly that she barely realized it was happening until she’d
been backed against the wall. When he lifted her, she wrapped her legs around his
waist instinctively, then remembered, albeit in the haziest of ways, where exactly
they were.
“I think...I think we should go upstairs,” she breathed, as Phenex moved to suckle
at her earlobe. Just that tiny bit of suction had her tightening her legs around him.
“Oh. God.”
She could feel his smile as he pulled her lobe through his teeth, lightly. “What happens
then? Or are you still thinking about it?”
She stroked the back of his neck lightly and felt him shiver. How had she thought
she could resist this? It had been hopeless from the start, and he’d known it. But
she couldn’t regret waiting even the one day she’d managed to hold him at bay. His
kisses, his touch had gentled, and he was taking care not to overwhelm her. Sofia
could feel it in the way he held himself, had seen it in his sweet uncertainty. She
knew he was holding back. The effort counted for a lot with her. He didn’t want to
scare her. He just wanted her.
And she didn’t think she was going to be able to push him away this time.
“You told me to be sure the next time I touched you,” she breathed. “I kissed you.
Draw your own conclusions.”
His chuckle was soft and full of the kind of promise that had goose bumps rising in
pleasurable little prickles on her arms.
“I want to hear you say it.”
He shifted his grip on her ever so slightly, and that was when she felt those long,
talented fingers begin to stroke her from underneath, sliding over the fabric of her
jeans and creating delicious friction against her tight, swollen sex. Sofia pressed
into him with a soft gasp, her eyes slipping shut. The sound echoed around her, a
reminder that Phenex was ravishing her in a place where they could easily be walked
in on. It was a small, quiet building…but it was also a Friday evening.
“I’ll tell you…upstairs.”
“No,” he said, intensifying the rhythm, pulling her even closer to the climax that
shimmered just out of reach. Her muscles tightened, her breathing grew shallow.
“Look at me, Sofia. I want to see you. You’re so beautiful.”
The words were as unexpected as his restraint. Sofia did as he wanted, opening her
eyes and seeing how his blazed an unearthly blue. He was the beautiful one, she thought.
Luminous, not dark at all. His fingers pressed harder against her, and her head fell
back as everything began to tighten deep within, a wave about to crest.
“Tell me.”
Sofia dug her nails into his shoulders. “I want you. On me. In me. Phenex…”
Then she came, her orgasm intensifying as it unfurled. Sofia surged forward, her legs
squeezing Phenex tight as she gave a broken, strangled cry that was as close as she
could come to being quiet. He watched her with something like awe, his own rough breathing
keeping time with hers as she rode the wave he’d sent crashing through her.
When those waves subsided, she curled around him, feeling as though every bone had
been removed from her body. Phenex said nothing for a long moment, simply holding
her there with her head on his shoulder, her legs dangling. But she could feel his
heart thundering in his chest, keeping time with hers. There was an intimacy about
it that she hadn’t expected from him, along with that lingering sweetness he’d displayed.
She would have to be careful. So, so careful not to fall for him, Sofia thought, drifting
in a fog that was all pleasure. Then he tucked his head into the crook of her neck
and breathed deeply, drinking in her scent. Something deep inside began to ache, and
she knew that it might already be too late to keep any kind of emotional distance.
She turned her head and pressed her cheek against his ear, hungry for the contact.
Even as the last of her orgasm ebbed, she knew he would be able to stoke her need
for him again in a heartbeat…and that he would in very short order.
The door opened below them, and Sofia found herself on her feet in an instant. Somehow,
she managed not to topple over and land on the floor, though it was close. Phenex,
on the other hand, looked as though he had it all together. Sofia felt a moment’s
hurt watching him bend to pick up the dropped leftover bags, worried that he was just
playing with her. But when he rose, she saw the way his eyes were still full of light,
accompanied by two bright, flushed spots high on his cheeks.
The interloper, a tall, dark-haired woman who was some sort of computer programmer,
if Sofia remembered right from the couple of times they’d run into each other, gave
them a curious look as she walked by and then through the door to the second floor.
Her eyes lingered on Phenex, so much that she nearly walked into the door instead
of through it. Sofia didn’t blame her. He was impossible not to stare at. As it turned
out, that was even more true when he was turned on.
And he seemed to have eyes only for Sofia.
“You ready?” he asked. Sofia nodded, thinking that was a loaded question if she ever
heard one. She wasn’t going to change her mind, though. Being with Phenex felt right,
even if her common sense had retreated to some darkened corner to cry.
They headed up the last flight of stairs, and Sofia couldn’t help but watch the way
he walked, the way his clothes hugged him in all the right places with even the smallest
movement. He was gorgeous, and tonight, he was all hers. And why not? She’d worked
so hard, always played by the rules. For once, why shouldn’t she just indulge in something—someone—she
wanted? Sofia inhaled on a wave of fresh desire, catching Phenex’s scent, and imagined
burying her face in his skin. She wanted to explore him with her hands, her tongue…
Phenex growled softly as he pushed through the door onto the third floor, turning
his head to glance back at her with a look that could have melted a glacier in seconds
flat.
“Behave for just a few more seconds, or I’m going to have you right here on the hallway
floor.”
Sofia’s mouth fell open. She was ready to demand he quit poking into her thoughts,
or whatever he was doing, when Phenex gave a growl of a very different sort. It was
the sound of a threatened and angry beast, and it had every hair on Sofia’s body standing
on end.
“What is—”
Phenex held up a hand so sharply that it stopped her in mid-sentence. Then she saw
the problem, and her heart sank.
Her door was cracked open.
She knew she’d locked it before they’d left, but it was very slightly open, revealing
a sliver of darkness inside the apartment. Sofia looked at Phenex, every last lovely
bit of her pleasure draining away. Anger was fast to replace it. It had been such
a good day, she thought. Probably the best day she’d had in a long time, which had
seemed to be moving into the best night she’d had in a long time.
And now this.
Phenex looked as though he was scenting the air, his head lifted just a little, eyes
narrowed. Slowly, his lips curled, revealing the sharp incisors that had lengthened
with his anger.
“Stay here,” he said, putting his bags of food beside the door. “I swear by all that’s
Above and Below, these vamps have shit for brains.” He glanced around the short hallway,
then reached back and drew his longsword from between his shoulders, pulling it from
the air itself. “I mean it, stay put,” he warned her as he headed in, his voice low.
She had just a glimpse of his eyes, glowing bright but cold, before he slipped inside.
Sofia frowned at his back as it vanished. She had no intention of going anywhere she
might get killed. She just hated that her apartment had become one of those places.
Her pulse began to pound, the sudden burst of adrenaline making the harsh light seem
overbright.
It made her wish she had a sword of her own. She hated being afraid, and hated feeling
helpless just as much. This, all of this situation with the vampires, had brought
her plenty of both.
Sofia listened, but it was completely quiet inside her apartment. There wasn’t a footstep,
not a murmur. If he found anyone, they weren’t lasting long enough to make a sound.
For such a big guy, Phenex was as silent as death.
The lights in the hallway flickered abruptly, then dimmed so much that the bulbs burned
a soft, angry reddish gold. Sofia’s breathing caught, even as she tried to tell herself
it was silly. She was out where anyone could see her. She had a big, dangerous protector
within earshot. Nothing was going to happen to her.
Too bad that didn’t do anything to stop the terrible, creeping dread that slithered
up her spine. The air felt heavier, pressing down on her until she felt glued to the
floor, and the reddish tint to the semi-dark grew more pronounced. Her throat felt
thick and strange when she swallowed, panic welling up like a scream. But when she
tried to call for Phenex, the only sound that came out was a pathetic whimper, barely
more than a breath.
“Hmm,” purred a soft voice by her ear, beautiful and awful in a way she hadn’t known
was possible. Sweat beaded on her brow. She felt sick.
Whatever was in her apartment, she knew that the true danger had just found her.