Page 56 of Loving Nightmares
“Sorry, guys.” She winced. “I thought about the ‘staying for two days’ thing on the fly—I just considered that they would try to come back to the institute, and I wanted to avoid that. I know it’ll be a lot of work, but it’ll be worth it to keep people from disrupting our home.”
“That’s true,” Blackwell grunted, not seeming to like that he agreed.
“Lets get that penthouse and work out of there,” I suggested. Cy nodded and pulled out his phone, most likely to call Arabella’s father.
Amun and Ashur were standing to the side, watching the neo terrors in confusion, and I couldn’t help but find that more than amusing—the technology was probably throwing them for a loop. Especially since a ton of screens were now showing her broadcast on a bunch of different networks.
It was going to work.
When Bella appeared in front of me, wrapping her arms around my waist, I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “How was it?”
Running a hand up her throat to tilt up her chin, I gave her a smile. “You were amazing. I think you told them exactly what they needed to know without it being too confusing.”
“Because human minds are simple,” Saint added, making Arabella roll her eyes.
“Alright,” she said. “We need to go to the penthouse. And Saint?”
“Yes, flower?”
“You should probably put the skull away for the humans—we don’t want to scare them.”
But didn’t we?
Around the fifthtime of Arabella having to lie to a reporter about the skull being fake, Saint finally relented and put it away. It wasn’t because he cared about the humans, but Arabella was looking a bit tired from having to answer the same questions again and again. Even in groups of reporters it was draining, and while we had tried to step in and answer, the natural human fear of us had them paralyzed. Until Arabella stepped in, they just stared at us instead of asking questions.
It was causing the atmosphere to turn less than pleasant, because all of us were blaming the humans for our mate’s discomfort. Luckily, it appeared the evening was close to done, with only the human military officials on the list to come and talk. I don’t know why they’d waited until so late at night, but if I had to guess it was to avoid all of the reporters themselves.
After all, it was a bit awkward to admit that your military had been infiltrated and controlled by a god terror for years.
As the elevator doors closed on a group of reporters, leaving all of us in a comfortable silence and giving us a bit of a break, Arabella groaned and face-planted into the cushion next to me.
“Why did they need interviews one-on-one? Why wasn’t the larger one to a bunch of reporters good enough?” she grumbled. “These military guys better have their questions ready to go, especially since I have to miss out on seeing thesis metasoff.”
Although, there had been no lack of goodbyes. They’d all gathered in a garden outside of the hotel to see Arabella before leaving, hugs being exchanged along with the promise that we would return and visit them. I didn’t care to go back all that much, but from it had come an even better compromise.
Arabella had told them to tell Jalissa that whenever a youngsis metaor nightmare wanted to go out into the world, the institute would pick them up and let them stay at ISS until they decided a safe plan on where to explore. I thought it was a brilliant idea, and one of the young women,MaeveI think Bella called her, planned to do exactly that within the coming months.
It was a brilliant move to make sure we stayed in touch with Jalissa’s village as well. I had no doubt that this wouldn’t be the last time we needed them.
“I’m sure they’ll be back soon,” I said, pulling her onto my lap and tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
Before she could respond, Arabella’s stomach growled, and her cheeks turned pink as she muttered a curse. I chuckled, my tone a bit more tense than normal, as it sent the entire room into a damn near frenzy. I knew that Arabella wasn’t starving, obviously, but it did make me uncomfortable to know we hadn’t provided food for her. I needed to start carrying snacks around.
I had to admit, since the village, but more so the power explosion, Arabella’s health seemed almost unnatural. Itpossibly had to do with completing all her mate bonds, but maybe it was something else. Either way, she seemed to be glowing with life, and it went a long way to making me feel better about everything we’d been through.
“I have a feeling that this is about to turn into a dinner meeting,” she grumbled.
“As it should be.” I brushed my lips across her cheek. “You need to relax after everything you’ve been through.”
“Oh, I have no doubt the minute we get home I’ll be forced to relax.” Her smile grew, seemingly amused. She wasn’t wrong.
When the elevator bell rang, signaling our guests’ arrival, Bella stood up. I knew I wouldn’t pay much attention to the meeting, except for her safety and reactions, so I left my thoughts to go where they pleased.
Once this meeting was done and Bella had eaten enough dinner, I wanted to ensure that she got to sleep because I knew she was only running on fumes right now. Then after everything was settled here and the humans got their answers, we would be able to go home…
There would be a few key decisions and things we needed to handle in the upcoming days, mainly making sure our union—call it marriage or whatever else—was recognized in both the human world as well as the nightmare world. I wanted to marry Bella, which meant I—we—needed to propose to her, and I wanted the moment to be one she’d always remember. Which meant she needed a ring worthy of her finger.
Instantly my lips pressed up, my thoughts running a million miles an hour, a vision of a ring coming to mind. I looked at Ashur across the room. I had no doubt that with his help, we would be able to create the ring of Arabella’s dreams.
