Nightmare (The Noctalis Chronicles 2)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Peter

I feel her progress. Di goes out to hunt, leaving Cal to watch me. He does not try to talk, to explain. I do not ask him to. It would be pointless.

“I know about the bind.” I stay silent. “The bind you made with Di. To protect your human.”

I still do not answer. It has been my experience that to stay silent is the best course of action more often than not.

Never show all your cards.

“It was a foolish move, I think. But you did not know about the bind that supersedes yours. The bind made at the time of transformation is stronger than any other bind you could ever make. When forced to fight against one another, the stronger bind will win out. But you did not know that, or else you would not have done it.” I cannot stop myself from asking the next question.

“Did Di know?” Even though I already knew the answer.

“Yes.” She had to have known. Well. She certainly put up a good act. I did not know she was that talented. She should win an award of some sort. Once again, Ava was right. I should give her an award.

“What was that?” Her heart has finally gotten close enough for him to hear.

“A human.” He looks up at the shaft of morning light that falls through the opening of the the cellar. There is no use denying it.

“What is a human doing here at this time?” For the first time ever, he seems perturbed. It seems that Di brings out his emotions. Like Ava brings out mine.

“I do not know.”

He goes to the entrance and sticks his head into the air.

“It is your human. And she is not alone.” I call out to her in my mind. Her soul calls my name and it is like an embrace. I was so much to see her, touch her. Kiss her. Adore her.

Di must be close by. I hear hear voice as she says, “Ivan, darling. What on earth are you doing here?” The ice is in her voice, but her tone is friendly.

“We're here for Peter. We want him back.” The sound of Ava's voice is almost my undoing. How could I have forgotten how lovely it is? It is, perhaps, the most beautiful sound in the entire world. Di cannot talk to Ava, or look at her. I hear her moving away from Ava. I did not give parameters for the bind, but it seems to be working.

“Ivan, why are you here? With her?” She cannot talk directly to Ava. I enjoy that very much. Cal looks at me, and then emerges. He doesn't do anything to stop me from doing the same. The sun is pleasant on my face after being underground. My eyes find her face and she beams the most brilliant smile at me. And I smile back. For the first time, I can smile without trying to.

Ava

Oh. My. God. He's here, he's here, he's here. I want to run to him and touch him and make sure he's all in one piece. Yes, I know he's immortal, but that doesn't stop me from making sure he's unharmed. Or at least that he's still generally okay.

“Peter.” I breathe his name, and everything inside me shatters. All the pain and the wanting and waiting. I want to jump on him so bad.

“Ava.” He breathes my name right back. He's still got the most glorious smile on his face that I don't think I'll ever forget as long as I live. Which I hope will be a very long time.

“I am here on an errand. It is none of your concern.”

“It is my concern. You are my son. I don't let my children keep secrets from me.”

“Then you should have put that in the bind.” Oh snap. I'd never been an Ivan fan, but I was starting to kind of like him. It would be a whole lot easier if it weren't for the almost strangle and the fact that he wants to destroy Peter. Other than that, we'd be buddies.

“What is he doing here?” Ivan says to Cal.

“I have come to support our mother. Unlike you.”

“She is not our mother,” Ivan snaps back. Feisty.

“You knew?” Peter says.

“Of course I did.” Ivan looks at me like I'm an idiot. And now he's back on my shit list.

“Why did you not tell me?”

“It did not matter at the time.” Guess I'm not the only one in the dark.

“It does now.”

“So it seems.”

“Can we go now? You guys can stay and chat, but I've got to get my beauty rest.” I yawn, which is totally unplanned, but totally works.

“Ivan will you tell that human that she is not leaving with him. I will not let it happen.”

“And how are you going to stop me? None of you can touch me. You can't even look at me or you'll crumble into a pile of dust. Which might not be a bad look for you.” I stare right at her. I feel her flinch and look away. Oh, I am enjoying this. It's sick, really. Ivan pinches my back through the blanket.

I walk to Peter and finally give him my hello. I let the blanket fall away from me, which exposes skin that they can't touch. My hands go around his neck and I pull him in. He resists for a moment, and I don't understand it. What is he doing? And what about Ivan and the whole promise thing? I shut my brain off for a moment and kiss him with everything I have. He gives it back to me. Tenfold. It's perhaps the sexiest kiss I'll ever have. Tongue and lip nibbling and hands in hair and pressing bodies.

“Ivan. Come to me. Bring her.” Di's voice is like a being dunked in an ice cold pond in January.

“No,” he says, stepping away from her.

“What did you say?”

“No.” He looks at me one more time. His eyes are deep and haunted. Then he winks. And he's gone. I scream, because it's a very troubling thing to see a person wink at you and then crumble into ashes. A wind comes out of nowhere and sweeps most of them away.

A brilliant sound fills the air around us. Di. She screams on and on as Peter puts his hands on my ears. It doesn't do much to stop the sound. I guess noctali can't cry. But talk about the cry of the banshee. My eyes tear up a little bit, even though I hated him most of the time. He'd brought me here. And he'd sacrificed himself for me. I hold onto Peter. I turn around to see his face. It is still, and not in a good way. Di stops keening. Finally.

“You did this to him, Peter. You killed your brother. For her.”

“Yes.”

“And you will keep killing. For her.”

“Yes.”

“When will it end? Would you try to kill Cal? Me? You cannot kill your mother, Peter. Not if you love me.” Cal is silent, watching. I wish he'd go to hell.

“Are you crazy? Don't listen to her.”

“You should listen to me Peter. She will destroy you too. I can't have that. Do you love me?” He looks at me and then over my head at her.

“Yes.”