Chapter Eighteen
“I told you I’m fine!” Nero yelled.
She frowned. Her eyes were still heavy with sleep, but she struggled to open them. Nero was upset, and she had to help him. Anassa. The Azilians. She wouldn’t let him get killed. It didn’t matter if she was wounded
As it all came flooding back, Nyx gasped and bolted upright.
Pain thumped in her head and her side. She covered her eyes with her arm and struggled to keep down the contents in her stomach. She could do this. It wasn’t like she had to be that strong to pull a trigger.
A warm hand pressed her back toward the bed. The calloused hands rubbed her there.
“Go back to sleep,” Nero whispered to her.
“Wait. The Azilians, I have to help,” she said.
“We’re safe now. We got away.”
She took a deep and shook her head slightly against the pillow. The smell of him surrounded her. The tension drained from her body as she realized they were in his bed. She doubted the Azilians had chased them all the way back to the hybrids’ community.
The whispers of several other people reached her ears. She might not be surrounded by the Azilians, but they definitely weren’t alone.
“What happened?” she said quietly.
The room grew quiet at her words. Afraid something had happened, Nyx pulled her hand off of one eye and opened it. The bright sun filtered in, and she cursed the annoying daystar.
They were in Nero’s bedroom. That much she was sure about. Nero sat next to her. His leg was propped up with bandages wrapped around it. Several of the hybrids she didn’t know all that well stood nearby. They had medical supplies in their hands, and she could only assume that they had helped bandage him.
“I’ll tell you what happened,” Rem said from the other side of her.
Nyx turned to stare at her normally flippant leader only to find him staring gravely at them both. She preferred smirking, playful Rem to serious Rem.
“I had two rogue hybrids nearly end themselves,” he said, his voice tight.
She swallowed hard.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It was all my—” she started but stopped when Rem held up a hand.
“On the positive side, you got some valuable information,” he said and leaned forward. “Which you’ll go into a very detailed account once you’ve recovered a little. We’ll need to know more about those Vestals and Anassa. I don’t know if the Azilians are with the Group or something else entirely, but they are definitely up to something that involves hybrids if they’ve gathered so many Vestals.”
“We can talk now,” she said. “If you need.”
“No, you need your rest.”
“I’m fine.”
He shook his head. “Stop being so stubborn, woman, and just rest, damn it. Magnus will have no trouble going over this with you once you’re well rested.”
The foreboding man nodded from his post near the door, and she groaned inwardly. Magnus was a man who wanted you to try and remember every nook and cranny of a place. He’d take forever getting everything.
“But I think I know my favorite part about this whole damn story,” Rem said, his eyes now twinkling with mischief.
She didn’t know what he was about to say but was just happy the more annoying and less serious version of their leader had returned. That at least meant he wasn’t going to kick their asses anytime soon.
Nero moved next to her as if he might stand. “You said you wouldn’t tell,” he said, anger laced with his words.
Rem grinned. “When did I say that? I don’t remember that at all.”
Nero huffed loudly. “When you said, ‘I won’t say anything.’”
Rem frowned as if he were trying to think of the time he said anything of the sort.
Nero growled loudly.
“Nope,” Rem said. “Not coming to mind.”
“Don’t,” Nero said, his one word stilled the room. Everyone watched the two as if expecting a battle. Considering that Nero had already attacked another hybrid recently, it wasn’t an outlandish idea.
The two men stared at one another for a moment before Rem turned back to her and smiled sweetly.
“He came waltzing back to camp with you in his arms. Riddled with bullets.”
Nero snorted. “I got shot once.”
“Hair blowing in the breeze.”
Nero glared at him. “Now you’re just making shit up, asshole.”
“Looking like some kind of big damn hero.”
Nyx stared between them as they bantered. The feel of the room shifted, now so very different from nearly every other time their people were in a room with Nero. Acceptance. That’s what it was. He was one of them now.
She looked over to him. His face was a bit paler than normal. Nero stared out the window. Nyx could see how weary he was and how much he needed everyone to just leave.
She sat back up on the bed and looked around the room.
“Out,” she said. “You want us to rest, then get the hell out.”
A few moved toward the door but looked to Rem.
He nodded to the others in the room. They quietly filed out of the bedroom and through the front door. Rem waited until the last person had gone.
“I’m glad you finally decided,” Rem said to Nero.
Nero looked over to him. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before he nodded.
“You’ll get used to the others,” Rem said with a smile.
Nero snorted loudly. “Not likely.”
She was surprised when Rem laughed at the huffy words.
“You rode in like a white knight.” He grinned at Nero. “I’m afraid you’re just going to have to come to terms with that.”
She watched in silence as their unpredictable leader made his way out of the house. Nyx sat quietly for a moment just taking in everything.
“How is your head?” Nero said.
His quiet words were all she needed. Nyx turned to him, tears in her eyes. She leaned down and placed her head against his chest.
She had nearly lost him.
A warm arm fell around her shoulders.
“Does it hurt that badly?”
She could hear the concern in his voice but had trouble speaking past the sobs that wracked her body.
Unable to stop herself, Nyx threw her arms around his neck and whispered into his ear.
“I love you.”
He sat still. Her warm body pressed into him, offering the comfort that he had craved before he even knew what comfort really was.
Nero shook his head and pulled her back.
“You can’t love me,” he said. The words rushed out as he scrambled to make her know what sort of man she was saying that to. “Those men tonight. I wanted nothing more than to rip their heads off for threatening you.”
Nyx stared at him for a moment before laughing through her tears.
“I’m serious,” he said and frowned.
Nyx leaned in to him again. Her pretty blue eyes fixed on his.
“I’d like to kill the men who shot you,” she said. “Slowly and painfully.”
He balked at her words, not sure what to say.
“You’re not that man,” she said and cupped his cheek, her warm palm promising so much more than he deserved.
“I am,” he whispered and closed his eyes.
“Not anymore.”
Her soft lips pressed to mouth. The response was instantaneous.
She pulled back for a moment.
“I trust you,” she whispered. “I know you are the man I believe you to be and that you’ll always do what is right.”
He shook his head a little. “What if the beast comes out? What if he doesn’t know what is right?”
Nyx placed her hand over his heart and smiled.
“Then I’ll be here to make sure my bonded knows who he really is.”
Bonded.
The simple words he never thought he’d hear. He had more than he could have ever wanted in life.
Nero leaned forward and kissed her with all the love he felt. When he pulled back, her lips were red and lush. He wanted nothing more than to continue where they’d left off just last night.
“I see we’ve finally made it to the bed this time.”
Nyx raised a brow and leaned in for another kiss. She gave him a gentle peck and then leaned back just a bit.
“You’re shot,” she said and rolled her eyes. “And I’m not exactly in the best shape.”
Nero grinned at her. He watched as the flicker of passion burned just below the surface.
“It’s just a scratch,” he said and pulled her leg over him so she straddled his lap. “Besides doesn’t the white knight get the damsel in the end?”
Nyx leaned over him. Her lips were just a hair away from his mouth.
“Only if it’s true love.”
Nero growled, his mouth brushing hers.
“My love for you is more than a word,” he said quietly. “It is all that I am. You are my heart.”
He didn’t care about anything else in that moment, not the Horatius Group, the Azilians, Anassa or his past. All he cared about was Nyx.
Their mouths met, and he knew the home the craved. It was there, nestled in his bonded arms, the only home he needed.