Page 13 of A Touch Of Death

With the shifter pressed up against me, his heat seeping into my bones and feeling utterly spent after releasing my grief into the world, I feel utterly exhausted. I can feel my eyelids drooping, and my breathing begins to even out. I really shouldn't fall asleep outside, though. I don’t know how far away from the waterfall we are, and I have no way of knowing if Davis is still searching for me.

I give myself a mental slap to my face, blink a couple of times, and swallow hard before whispering to the big wolf behind me, "We should go back before I fall asleep out here."

Nix whines before nudging the back of my head gently with his nose. With great effort, I pull myself from the floor. Nix jumps up immediately, pushing his body into mine to help my balance. Once I'm upright and steady, I slide my hand into the fur at the nape of Nix's neck and stroke my thumb over his soft coat. "You'll have to lead the way. I have no idea which direction I went or anything."

The wolf huffs, once again making a sound similar to a laugh, but he leads us through the woods. I keep my hand pressed into his fur, for reasons unbeknownst to me, while we trail through the trees until we reach the bright red truck that's hard to miss.

My hand slips away from Nix when he stops, and I keep walking. He's then behind me, nudging my back until I'm walking towards the front door. The door opens before I can lift my hand to knock, and Zayn steps back before wolfy behind me pushes me into him.

"You could be a little less pushy," I grumble under my breath. Nix's only response is to shove me further into the house until I'm standing by the couch I'd been sitting on before. I turn to face Nix before he nudges me once more, and I fall onto the couch. "Well, alright. I guess that's one way to get what you want."

I get another huffed laugh, and then the animal is jumping onto the couch with me and plopping his giant head onto my lap, effectively pinning me in place. Not that I had any intention of leaving this spot, seeing as though it really is the comfiest thing I've ever sat on.

My hand crawls back into Nix's fur, and I tilt my head back against the couch, my eyes slowly drifting closed. My breathing slows, and the beginnings of sleep already start to pull at me.

Before I can succumb, a velvety voice whispers next to me, "Novia?"

With my head feeling like it's being weighed down with lead, I roll it on the couch to face the direction the voice came and force my eyes open. Directly in front of me is Ezra's face, his chiselled features more prominent now that he's right in front of me. His nose is straight and narrow, with full lips beneath it. There's a dimple in his chin that has me wanting to lift my hand and press a finger to it. What a strange thought. It's his eyes, however, that have me keeping my eyelids from closing again. His deep chocolate-coloured eyes look sad and guilt-ridden. I don't like that look.

"Novia?" he asks again, trying to gain my attention.

I'm too tired to give him a verbal answer, so I offer him a, "Hmm?"

He swallows hard, the gulp loud enough for me to hear, before his eyes flicker down and back up to meet mine. His voice is quiet when he says, "I'm sorry for what I said earlier. It was insensitive, and I didn't think before opening my mouth."

I don't need my abilities to know how sincere that apology is. I can see it in those dark eyes of his. I can feel the truth in his words.

I blink slowly, exhaustion dragging me down into a pit of unconsciousness. Before I drift off completely, I raise the hand that isn't gripping onto Nix without thinking and cup his face in my palm. He freezes, and his eyes widen a fraction, but he doesn't pull away. His stubbled jaw grazes my hand, but it's a pleasant feeling. I stroke my thumb over his cheekbone, close my eyes, and tell him, "I forgive you...as long as I get pancakes when I wake up."

I can feel it when he grins, and when I open my eyes again, it's to see a genuinesmile.That smile does something funny to me, just like Nix's laugh, or the way Spencer always seems to help me when I need it, or Zayn's shy but attuned nature. Something inside me settles and warms with it, but I don't know what.

I'll think about it when I'm awake and not already half asleep.

I feel Ezra push his face further into my hand before whispering, "I'll make you all the pancakes you want."

His smile is the last thing I see before everything goes dark, and I'm fast asleep.

*****

I wake up to light streaming through the open curtains of the living room. My entire body is warm all over, bordering on too warm, but I'm too comfortable to move just yet. I'm curled up against the arm of the couch, and someone was kind enough to drape the fluffy throw over me, but that's not what has me so warm. It's the body snuggled up to my side and back.

Nix is in back in man form, his entire body plastered to me, shaping mine perfectly with his knees tucked into the bend of my legs. Ican feel his chest firmly pressed up to my back, and every even breath he takes through his mouth causes my hair to move and tickle my forehead. One of his arms is wrapped tightly around my waist like he's afraid I'm going to disappear, and the other, I realise, is cushioning my head. So, it's not the arm of the couch I'm curled against, it's Nix.

I don't know the shifter, but I find myself not wanting to move from his embrace. Is it weird that it feels right to be exactly where I am? Once again, something insideme settles, like there was a raging bull pacing around in the caverns of mychest, but it's been soothed by the touch of this stranger. It's strange. Mating bonds between fae are the only cause of those kinds of feelings and reactions. I know I'm not mated to a fae,but that isn’t a fact that seems to matter since the unusual feelings only appear when the four strangers are around. I wonder what it could be.

The arm around my waist tightens suddenly, and a deep grumble sounds from behind my head. I don't know why that has my belly tightening and my heartbeat picking up its pace, but it does. Nix snuggles closer to me, and I feel my body going rigid. It's not because being held like this isn't amazing, because it is, but I haven't been held like this in... well, ever. We were taken when I'd just turned eighteen, and before that I never really had an interest in guys. I was always following my older sister around or getting into whatever trouble I could find. Guys weren't on my radar and became even less so when we were captured.

Nix must feel my body turn to stone because he's suddenly awake and quickly but carefully unravelling himself from me. He sits up swiftly, and when I look over, there's an alluring blush staining his tanned cheeks. I can feel my cheeks warming too, but I can't help but smile at the embarrassed and twitchy man next to me.

"Sorry! You were shivering, and when we all left to go to bed, you started crying in your sleep, and then you screamed, and then you cried more, and you were only quiet when I sat back down next to you," he blurts so fast that it's almost a struggle to keep up with what he's saying. He carries on with his word vomit before I can intervene. "I didn't mean to wrap around you like a pretzel, but I must have gotten uncomfortable at some point in the night and snuggled into you without knowing it. I mean, you're a snuggable person, so it's partly your fault. Not that I'm blaming you! But you really shouldn't be easy to snuggle like that if you don't want to be snuggled. I've said the word snuggle so many times that it doesn't sound like a word anymore."

I'm pretty sure my eyebrows are almost halfway up my head. He's rambling so hard that I have to bite my lip to stop the laugh that's building in my chest from flying out of my mouth.

"Nix, shut up, mate. You're making it worse with the verbal diarrhea." The crisp English accent has my head snapping up to see Ezra leaning against the island counter with his right arm crossed over his chest and a steaming mug in his left hand. He lifts the cup, so his mouth is hidden, but I'm pretty sure I saw the beginnings of a smile.

My eyes go back to Nix, who looks more flushed than before. I'd never have pegged him to be embarrassed easily. I sit up fully and wrap myself thoroughly in the blanket, now that Nix stole his heat back, and face him.

"Nix, it's fine. I'm not bothered by it. It took me by surprise because..." I let my sentence trail off and look down. I don't want to sound pathetic, and I really don't want to see pity in his eyes if I tell him that I haven't had anyone hold me like that before. A frown forms on my face, and I look up again. Nix is warily watching me, and I feel bad that he's flustered because he thinks he's overstepped, so I suck up my pride and blurt out what I was going to say. "I've never been held like that before, so I kind of freaked out for a minute. I didn't know what to do, and I literally froze. It's fine. Don't worry about it."

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