Page 28 of A Touch Of Death

"Novia," Nix almost whispers. "You're glowing."

My eyes pop open, and, sure enough, there's a faint white glow emanating from my skin. My eyes widen before my mouth pulls up into a grin. A thin mist of tears film over my eyes, but no tears fall. The last time I glowed was when I was a child and my abilities began to surface. Unlike many races of Naturals, fae grow into their abilities. I was six when the ability to absorb energy came to me, and I glowed like a Christmas tree for a week before I learned to ration the amount of energy I took in. In my joy to finally draw in energy, I didn't think to ration.

"Yeah, that happens when I absorb until I'm full," I explain, albeit poorly since Nix looks at me with both confusion and wonder. I'm sure I look like a flashlight, but I don't have it in me to be embarrassed.

Nix looks at Zayn and then back at me. "What do you mean, absorb?"

Zayn answers for me. "She's afae,Nix. fae can take in the energy from light. They can store and transfer the energy or use it to increase their abilities."

I nod and send a smile in Zayn's direction, catching him watching me with rapt attention. "It's been a while since I had this amount of energy to absorb. The glow will fade when I burn some of the energy."

Nix nods, and he looks a little impressed. Not sure why, given that I'm glowing like the back end of a firefly. "That's pretty neat.”

I'm grinning again, happiness filling my chest until I'm almost overflowing with it. I'm slowly beginning to feel like me again, and it feels good. Bittersweet, but something I'll never take for granted again now that I know what it's like to live as a shell of myself.

Chapter 14

Novia

We spendthe next hour lounging in the sun, talking about nothing and everything all at once. I learn a lot about the vampire and shifter. Some things as small as their favourite places to visit or favourite food, and some things bigger like how they met and how they became as close as brothers.

"We met decades ago. My parents were killed by hunters when I turned sixteen, and two years later, my animals showed themselves. After that, I was discarded like trash and left to fend for myself. Zayn found us all and brought us together. Zayn found me first when the pack I'd been born into turned their backs on me when we found out I contained more animals than they thought I should have. I was shunned, disowned, then thrown out.

"I'd gone hunting one night, still learning how to live with my animals. I was still honing my senses, so I didn't catch the scent of the human when I was fishing in my bear form. The man shot me once in my shoulder and once in my stomach. I managed to run away far enough that the human didn't find me, but I left a trail of blood when I went back to the alcove I'd been living in. Zayn followed the scent and found me on death’s door, bleeding out of the stone floor. He gave me his blood, healed me, and offered me somewhere more secure to stay. He saved me. I've stayed with him since, growing as close as brothers."

He smiles at Zayn, who nods with a soft look on his face. I can sense their brotherly bond, the closeness between the two. That must have been a long time building.

"Eighty years, give or take a year or so," Zayn comments. "I'd been turned at twenty-five, clueless and bumbling through life. I stumbled upon a coven who'd welcomed me easily. I later found out that they were running a blood farm, luring humans into giving themselves over as blood sources to feed from. I didn't agree with the practice and left when I found out. I'd been alone for eight years before I found a wounded Nix in need of my help."

I'm hanging on to every word, reveling in all they have to tell me. My heart hurts for what they went through, but learning about how they came to be a group is fascinating to me. I feel like I can't possibly learn enough. I want to know everything.

Zayn continues with his story. "Nix and I found Ezra next. It had just been Phoenix and I for roughly four years before we stumbled upon the incubus. His story isn't a pleasant one, so I'll leave that to him to explain, should he decide to, but we took him in instantly, and he quickly became a brother to us. Spencer was the last to join us two years later."

Nix snorts. "He didn't exactly join us. It was more of a harassment into brotherhood."

I pull a face, and Nix laughs again.

"I suppose you could call it that," Zayn says, humour evident in his tone. "He was the most difficult to get close to. At every corner, he'd do his best to shove us away. I suppose, eventually, he simply gave up trying. He’d given it a good fight, but as soon as the resistance faded, he became one of us."

"Why did he push you away?" I question, enthralled with their past.

"That's a story for the mage to tell you himself, I'm afraid," Zayn answers with an apologetic look.

Before I can ask more questions or listen, Nix sits up and says, "We should probably head on back, check how Spencer is doing."

I nod and stand, brushing grass and dried dirt from my shorts. The guys pull themselves up a little more gracefully. As soon as Nix is standing, he takes a hold of my hand again. Zayn walks a little closer than before, so much so that his arm brushes against mine as we walk. We fill the silence with small talk on the way back to the house. The guys joke and playfully jab at one another while I stay silent, content to listen to the two bickering.

As soon as we reach the house, I actually take it in for the first time. It's a one-story house with white painted bricks. The windows are reasonably sized, with black painted shutters on the outside. It's modest, but it has a homely, lived in quality about it.

The three of us let ourselves into the house, Nix's hand still wrapped around mine.

"Want something to drink, Novia?" Nix asks, finally releasing my hand to walk towards the fridge.

"Uh, yeah. Please. I'm going to find Spencer, but I'll be back in a moment," I tell him. Zayn sits himself at the island counter, so I move towards the hallway and Spencer's room. I knock on the door but receive no answer. I knock again, but still nothing.

I move back from his door, and just as I'm about to turn and walk back the way I came, something catches my eye. The length of the hallway is longer, with an empty space where nothing used to be. I walk closer and find it's a newly-created stairwell next to Spencer's room. The stairs are wide enough to fit two people side by side and lead into an attic. I know they weren't there before because the house ends at Spencer and Nix's rooms.

I make my way up the stairs, and, as I reach the third from the top, my head pokes out over the floor to the attic. My breath catches when my eyes take in the room. The floor is wooden, a white distressed aesthetic to it. The walls have been insulated, plastered, and painted white. But what has my lungs stalling are the newly-created windows that sit on either side of a stunning set of French doors. The windows are curved, with small reading nooks beneath them. I spy a small balcony outside the French doors, and it leaves me breathless. The doors and windows shouldn't fit into an attic room, but somehow Spencer managed it. They suit the entire room perfectly.

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