Page 19 of The Nephilim's Touch
I shake my head even before I know what to say. “I think he’s relieved to have you back. No one knew where you were. Wick is…”
“Oh, Wick is definitely pissed at me.”
I shake my head again. “I don’t think he is. Disappointed? Sure. But pissed? No. I know he’s happy to have you back. Wick doesn’t seem the type to get pissed. At least not the version Wick puts on in front of me, anyway. He’s got a lot going on in his head.”
“He does.” Van releases my hand and I miss his heat, but let him go.
“I heard the conversation you had with him at my apartment.”
“I know.” He rubs his hand over his face and sighs.
“Why was he punished at fifteen for you?” I’m too curious not to ask, though it’s probably rude.
“I pissed Poe off.”
“But what happened?” I urge. Perhaps everything has always been a misunderstanding.
Van lets out a dramatic sigh. “Why not? I was twenty. Pike was twenty-two. He always forgets he’s actually older than me.” Van chuckles at his memory. “The two of us got drunk, but I got summoned, taking him with me. He’d had his own crossroads since he was fifteen,alsobecause of me and a prank gone wrong.” Van swipes his hand across his face again. “What the fuck is this humidity about? The Hell realm isn’t even like this.”
“Don’t get distracted.” I take his hand again and he lets out a contented sigh.
“I may have gone against the rules and done a deal for free. I made Pike hide the fact, and since he was wasted off his ass, he didn’t even remember he was there when he sobered up. But Poe knew. Somehow Poe knew everything.”
“Why’d you do it, though?”
“Because the girl shouldn’t have had to pay for the deal.”
My brows scrunch as I think. “Why not?”
Van crosses his arms, and his tail wiggles like a snake ready to strike. “She was assaulted and her violater was never caught. Not until me.” He thumps a hand to his chest and winces when it hits the device. “She wanted justice, and I agreed. I plucked the image of the man from her memory and when I realized what he’d done to her, I refused payment. I found the guy, brought him to her, and ripped his fucking head off.”
“And Poe was upset with this?” I’ve met Poe a handful of times when he stops off at Flutter and Fangs for a bit of HellFire, but he always came across as a good guy. Though maybe I shouldn’t, maybe I should remember demons aren’t human and don’t have human morals.
Van’s arms drop and his tail droops. “I ran away. I knew Poe would find fault in my reasoning, but?—”
I hold up my free hand. “Do youalwaysrun away?”
“Yes.” Van scratches at his elbow and refuses to look at me. “It’s easier than facing the music.” His lips twitch. “Speaking of music…”
“We’re almost there,” I say as cornstalks get closer. When I stop at the gate, Van cocks his brow at me.
“Why are we in the middle of a cornfield?” He looks around as I squat to press my hand to the ground to gain access.
Stone rumbles against stone as the gate flickers into view and parts for us. Van stumbles back and I grab his hand before he can fall. “Welcome to the Hex community garden.” I tug him through the gate.
“I was not expecting all of this.” His tail wiggles and his head’s on a swivel.
People rush around tending to their plots or setting up a spot to enjoy the wood nymph’s performance from a distance. Chimes tinkle somewhere I can never place. Everyone always helps to keep the pathways clear of vegetation.
A few witches hunch over a plot and whisper enchantments over their herbs. A cat shifter snuggles down into a plot of catnip. I can’t tell if it’s Sparkle, one of the former dancers from Flutter and Fangs. He’s a bartender with me now when he’s not pole dancing or giving pole dancing classes.
Van’s eyes grow wide. “It’s amazing in here.”
“I know. Come on, it gets better.” We scramble past a dragon shifter wrapping themselves around a clutch of eggs. I’ve discovered dragon shifters are subtly different in their human forms than demons.
While they both have horns, dragons don’t have the wily tails and they have scales that run up their arms most of the time. They have to talk with the council before they shift if they want to fly, since the council needs to make sure the wards extend to enough of the sky for the dragon to get the best flight. Mostdragons just go to another realm, but sometimes they want to fly in Hex.
I love the scent of earth and the various vegetation around. We have fruit trees in their own area, too, and I love walking through the citrus trees just to breathe them in.
