Page 57 of Loving Nightmares
Then, once that was settled, I wanted to build a house for us to live in. Even if we weren’t starting a family yet—although the concept of that was extremely appealing—I wanted to be able toshut our door after a long day and know that it would be just our family.
Thatwas true paradise, in my mind.
22
ARABELLA
I didn’t wantto wake up.
To be fair, I had most likely slept for twelve plus hours—hell, possibly way more than that—so my body was an absolute mush-ball right now. After the past three days, you could hardly blame me. Between all of the interviews and meetings in California, followed by a cross-country jet trip, andfinallycoming back to the institute and having to do a briefing…I’d absolutely knocked out the minute I’d crawled beneath the sheets.
It was also obvious that I’d been sleeping for a long time because not even my mates were still in bed. I stretched my arms up and rolled over onto my stomach, the pillow cool against my face. It felt wonderful. I knew I needed to get up, of course, but I wouldn’t lie, now that there was no longer a sense of impending doom and worry, I was moving just slightly slower than I would have the past week or two.
The sound of shuffling papers finally had my eyes opening as I turned to look at my desk, the piles of reports on the desktop caught in the wind from the open window. The light outside was muted by rain, so I couldn’t tell what time of day it was, but maybe early afternoon? Groaning under my breath, I draggedmyself from bed and went to grab my glasses, trying to slip them on and realizing…
I literally didn’t need them at all now.
Shaking my head, I put them down on the nightstand and shuffled across my bedroom and into the bathroom. Turning on the shower, feeling so hazy that it felt like I had a freakin’ hangover, I left the temperature a bit cooler than normal. I hated cold showers, but as I stripped down and stepped in, the cooler water immediately had my eyes opening wider as I winced at the feel of it against my skin.
After shaking myself awake, I turned it back warm and submerged myself beneath the rainfall showerhead. I hadn’t had the opportunity to shower when we got back, so I took the rare moment of solitude to completely scrub my hair and shave, waking up more and more by the moment. Now I just needed some coffee and I would be ten times more human.
Or maybenightmarewas more appropriate now—I didn’t think there was much ‘human’ to me anymore, and I loved it.
It was also something even Eve mentioned during the briefing yesterday, noting that my magic was noticeably enhanced. Considering she was a god terror, that was saying something. I hadn’t considered how my actions with War would have changed the other god terrors’ perception of me, but yesterday at the briefing, it was clear that it had. Not for Eve or Saint, of course—but I did notice a bit of caution in Eros’s gaze, and for sure Keres’s. Irina had been so focused on my dad that I wasn’t sure she’d fully realized I was in the room, but the other two had, obviously.
Keres had also informed me of her decision to stay for a while, which was something that made me happy to hear, while Eros had mentioned he and Drive were still deciding whether to stay or not. I’d encouraged them to stay, but I was a bit worried they thought there was a power balance issue since I’d been ableto kill War. Up until this point, Saint had been the only one who could do that, and I really didn’t think I could repeat it… I just needed to somehow assure them they were safe at the institute.
A reputation that had been clearly preserved despite everything that happened. Even from the short time I’d been downstairs yesterday, I had noticed how happy everyone seemed to be. Relieved, of course, but also hopeful for what was to come. Nightmares didn’t want to hate humans—scare them,sure, but the anger and animosity weren’t necessary.
Since we had left for Jalissa’s village, my dad and Irina had been working to make sure that anyone injured in the original battle was okay. It appeared that no one had sustained long-term injuries, so daily life had mostly resumed. Something I was personally looking forward to as well. I wanted to get back to meetings and missions, even.
While we would have less, hopefully, I knew there would still be things to do.
I turned off the shower, feeling a bit dizzy from the hot water, and wrapped myself up in a thick towel before approaching the mirror. A small smile appeared on my lips as I ran my finger over the permanent heart under my scar that was now outlined in pink and shimmered slightly following mating with Damian. Running a brush through my hair, I pulled out my blow dryer and decided to take the time to dry it fully since it seemed chilly outside.
I had briefly heard my mates mention something about showing me something, or maybe going for a walk yesterday before I fell asleep, so just to be safe I would also dress for the weather before finding them. Putting on some light makeup, I walked out of the bathroom and into my closet, deciding to go with a pair of dark jeans and an oversized sweater with pink laces up the back. Grabbing a pair of heeled ankle boots withpink bottoms, I checked myself over in the mirror, looking way better than I actually felt.
“You look like you may need some coffee.”
The rough, masculine voice had me snapping around to find Razar in the doorway of my closet, his demeanor far more relaxed than I was used to seeing recently. My smile grew as I eagerly approached him and the massive mug of coffee in his hand. I took it eagerly, the light blue mug dotted with black hearts. Luckily it wasn’t too hot because I literally chugged it down, saying absolutely nothing until I was completely finished.
My gaze took in Razar’s wide eyes. “I did not expect you to drink it that fast. I don’t think that’s healthy for a human—”
“Hey.” I placed a hand on his chest. “Thank you so much. As for the health thing…well, I don’t think I’m super human-ish anymore.”
Razar let out an amused hum. “I guess I’ll have to get used to thinking like that.”
Nibbling my lip, I shrugged. “You can still be worried and concerned over me. I sort of like it—always have.”
Razar snapped me up into his arms, and I placed a light kiss on his lips. “Well, that’s good because I didn’t really plan on stopping, and neither do the others.”
“Speaking of…” I looked behind him, not hearing anyone else in the room. “Where are the others?”
“We were trying to let you sleep. They’re down at breakfast, but I brought you up coffee in hopes that you’d be up.”
“Down at breakfast? Like at the cafeteria?” I asked in surprise. My mates weren’t exactly the most social nightmares out there.
“Isla’s mates actually contacted us—the kids wanted to talk to ask what happened and how it all went down,” Razar explained. I nodded, wondering how many more times I’d need to do the same—tell the story of everything that happened.
