Page 11 of Fearless
That bird gave me the first, and one of the most precious, gifts I had ever received in my miserable life. I saw colors and details like I never imagined before. It was the first and only time I cried.
And that bird looked exactly like the one that rode around on Gunner’s shoulder all day.
“Go ahead. He might peck at you as a warning if he doesn’t like it, but he won’t hurt you.”
While lost in my memory, my hand reached out to touch Horus without realizing it. I knew Gunner and his falcon had some kind of otherworldly bond, just as Hades and Reaper did. But was it really the same bird that healed and enhanced my vision? I wondered ever since I first saw Horus with his talons curled into Gunner’s shoulder. But it never felt right to ask. And the falcon had never flown so close to me before.
I stroked the back of my fingers against Horus’s chest feathers a few times. When I put my hand down, the bird pecked at me.
“He doesn’t want you to stop!” Gunner laughed. “Damn, look at you two all chummy.”
“I feel like I’ve met this bird before.” I looked at the blonde, smiling man with an uneasy glance, trying to gauge his reaction. Gunner was my brother by the Steel Demon code, but we weren’t particularly close.
“Yeah, when?” His tone was curious, which came to me as a relief.
“Years ago,” I confessed. “Way before I joined the club. When I was a kid.”
“Not possible,” Gunner shook his head. “Horus is just about two years old. I found him as a chick.”
“Ah, okay.”
He continued to look at me curiously. “What makes you think it was Horus?”
My heart rate sped up by half a beat. Despite knowing he could see through Horus at will, the gift of sight from my childhood felt deeply personal. I wanted to keep that knowledge under lock and key. Some of the guys figured out I could see well in the dark, but no one paid it any special attention. And I intended to keep it that way. No one could take anything away from me if they didn’t know about it.
“I just knew the bird I met was different,” I said.
A brush-off and he knew it, but he didn’t bother prying.
“Interesting.” Gunner flicked away his second cigarette. “Maybe there’s more like him out there, who knows?”
Another question nagged at me. I almost couldn’t bring myself to ask it, but not knowing the answer would torture me if I didn’t.
“Does Horus ever…talk to you?”
Gunner’s brow pinched. “What do you mean?”
“Like you can hear a voice in your head. But it’s not your thoughts. It’s like another person is talking to you, directly into your mind.”
He took a long moment to answer.
“No, Horus doesn’t talk to me like that.”
“Oh. I was just curious.”
The bird in question blinked his large, brown eyes at me before hopping a short flight across the railing to perch on his human’s shoulder.
Five
REAPER
“You’re wearing that?”
“What?” Mari stared down at her clothes before looking back up at me. “Should I change?”
She had on a long skirt with some bright tribal pattern, black ankle boots, and a simple black tank top. It was the skirt that concerned me. Not for riding, but for me. She’d have to hike that thing up, spread her legs open and press her bare thighs against me as we rode. Just the thought of it sent my cock twitching.
The fabric wasn’t too form-fitting. She’d be comfortable, but the garment still outlined her hip and thigh in a way that drove me wild with wanting her. I had her every morning and night since after the party when Gunner returned, and it still wasn’t enough. Oh, IthoughtI was sated after her sweet body drained my balls empty. But after a few hours of sleep, just a look, a wandering touch, or a kiss had me craving to get inside her again.
