I whispered, “Of course not, Lazarus.”
The tension seeped out of him, and he closed his eyes in relief. “I thought you hated me.”
Gently, I placed my hand on his knee. “I’ve never hated you.”
“You don’t like me, though.”
“That’s not… that’s not it.”
“Then why have you been…” he trailed off, but he didn’t need to finish that sentence.
I’d been keeping my distance from him, and for the most part, keeping to myself since Raph and I agreed to stand guard over the human. Some of that was because I was focusing on the job at hand and waiting for that evil witch, Claudette Rathmore, to make her move. But a lot of it had been because Raph had seemed so infatuated with Laz. I knew they’d been together last summer for one night, but the sexual tension between them made it hard to breathe. Raph’s one-night stands, I could handle. This wanting another round thing was making me uncomfortable. But I’d given up my claim to Raphael long ago, so I had no right to it. And I certainly shouldn’t be making Lazarus pay for the many mistakes Raph and I had made in the past.
So I went for honesty with him. He deserved that much. “You won’t say anything to Raph, right?” When he shook his head, I continued, “Raph and I aren’t together in that sense, but sometimes it’s hard to watch him with…” I waved my hand around, then gestured to Laz.
He hesitated, then said, “If it makes you feel any better, he lied and told me his name was Leif.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “That’s his middle name.”
“Oh.”
“He uses it when we’re on missions, at least that’s what he uses when interacting with humans. It’s better not to give our full names to non-magic users in case they come looking for us later on. It’s a Conclave rule.” I shrugged.
“Oh. You didn’t do that with me.”
“You’re different. You have special permission to be involved because of your best friend.”
He nodded and fell quiet for a few seconds, then, “I’m sorry.”
A chuckle fell unbidden from my lips. “I thought we established you have nothing to be sorry for.”
He shook his head. “I mean that I’m sorry it upsets you.”
“Not your fault.”
“It’s not yours either.”
I lifted a shoulder in assent. “True.”
He hesitated, then whispered, “I know what it’s like to feel lonely, and I’m sorry if I’ve added to that feeling.”
I almost didn’t respond to that, but then I sighed and said, “Thanks, I…” I cleared my throat. “Having you out here with me is nice.”
He sent me a sweet smile. “Yeah, it is.”
That smile was filled with such kindness and compassion, it nearly broke me. Gods, Lazarus was entirely too sweet for me, for Raph, for our world.
We both gazed at the stars for a long time in companionable silence before Laz asked, “Do you think we can be friends or is this… thing going to get in the way of that?”
I bumped his shoulder. “I think we can work something out.”
“I think I’d like that.”
We shared a smile before looking up yet again. Being in Laz’s presence—when I wasn’t thinking about him and Raph together—was calming. Peaceful, even. I hadn’t slept well since we arrived in this town and had been trying to protect Raph’s younger brother, his partner, and now, Laz. I’d been too stressed about what was coming. But sitting here with Lazarus had me relaxing more than I had in at least a week, and I found myself leaning into him.
When my cheek pressed to his shoulder, I jerked my head up and off of him and muttered, “Sorry.”
He shot me a grin. “I don’t mind.”
“Maybe I should go to bed,” I said, feeling awkward, but not awkward enough to get up and move.
When neither of us moved after several minutes, Laz lifted his arm in invitation. “I’m not going to sleep anytime soon, but if you want to sleep out here, I don’t mind. At least one of us would get some rest.” The and you won’t be lonely wasn’t said, but was clearly implied.
I scanned his face for dishonesty and found none. Staring at his arm, all I could think about was how much I really needed the comfort of a warm body. Not sexually, just the touch of another, a hug, or something like that. And that was exactly what Lazarus was offering, so I slowly scooted back over and rested my head on his shoulder. Laz wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer. I was tense and stiff, but I started to relax with every passing second. Being pressed to his side and inhaling his peppermint scent immediately put me at ease.
Laz rested his cheek on the top of my head and mumbled, “Go to sleep, Isiah. I’ll wake you if anything weird happens.”
“We’re well within the wards here. We’re safe.” My eyes were barely open and my words were jumbled, so I wasn’t sure if he could understand me.
“I know.”
I let my eyes drift completely closed, and found myself wrapped in my new friend’s arms as I fell into a peaceful sleep for the first time in several days, perhaps several weeks.
Chapter 1
Raphael
PRESENT DAY
Here was the thing you needed to know about Isiah: with everyday things, he was calm and collected, but when a fight broke out, he was a madman gunning for violence. Everyone thought I was the crazy one in our duo, but those people had obviously never seen the excited expression on Isiah’s face when we were fighting for our lives and dodging magical blasts left and right. My soul-pledged warlock was a fucking lunatic… so a perfect match for me.
“What?” Isiah asked me when he noticed me staring.
“Why does this make you so happy?” I asked.
Izzy gave me a weird look before holding his finger in front of his mouth, telling me to be quiet. I listened with him and realized it was suddenly silent. Considering we were in the middle of a magical battle, the silence was anything but relieving. When the quiet stretched for a few minutes, Izzy waved at me, so I followed him, walking in a crouch behind giant pallets of boxed paper or something so we wouldn’t get our heads blasted off.
There had been a dark magic surge located in this area several days ago, so Izzy and I had been sent here by the Conclave to investigate and apprehend anyone if need be. We’d been doing recon for the past two days once we discovered an entire coven participating in the darkest of magics—sacrifice. When Izzy and I saw them drag a human woman inside, we’d known we needed to interfere. Izzy being Izzy, I’d barely made the phone call for backup before he’d dashed in here.
Before I’d run after him, I’d asked our familiars—mine a beautiful black cat named Jezebel, and Izzy’s a gorgeous black crow named Nadia—to stay outside and wait for our backup so they could lead them to us. They hadn’t been happy with that arrangement, but they’d stayed. If it got too bad in here, they wouldn’t hesitate to come help us, though. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.
Right now, we couldn’t see where the witches, warlocks, or even the human they were going to sacrifice were. Not good.