I was furious and terrified and the depths of my feeling for this beautiful nightmare of mine was pressing down on me so hard that I couldn’t fucking breathe.
Darius’s eyes were closed and his breathing heavy and as I stood there, I found my irritation sliding into relief at having him back.
He was okay. Here. Mine.
That was all that really counted. Besides, he’d helped rescue Sofia, Tyler and the rest of their herd so I couldn’t really justify staying angry over that.
Shit. Maybe I was going soft.
I closed the door quietly behind me, locking it again and casting a silencing bubble around myself so that I wouldn’t disturb him as I moved further into the room. The space felt weirdly like home despite the fact that it was just a cave beneath the ground. But since Darius had gotten Caleb to create furniture and little home comforts around the space and formed a hearth in the corner which always held a roaring flame, I couldn’t help but like it here. There were little white flowers decorating the rock walls, a soft carpet of moss on the floor and a tiny waterfall which tumbled down the far wall in an endless trickle too and somehow it just felt like it was…ours. Our own little slice of peace away from the world outside.
I drew closer to Darius, tilting my head as I looked at him, drinking in this rare sight of his features fully relaxed in sleep as he just lay there, the monster in him dormant and the man so achingly beautiful I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d caught him sleeping. He always held me in his arms while I drifted off then inevitably woke me up every morning with his mouth either on my lips or on some other part of my body if I was particularly lucky.
Then we’d get up, head to the surface for our run which consisted of endless laps around the protected area above ground before getting breakfast together - where he made sure to grab me a coffee every single day. But amongst all that, I never really caught him sleeping, and now that I had, I was starting to realise how odd that was. Did he always sleep this little? I’d never had the chance to find that out before we came here, but it seemed strange that he literally never fell asleep before me or woke after.
I climbed up onto the bed, my silencing bubble hiding the sound of the treasure shifting about all around me and the few coins which tumbled to the floor as I made my way onto his lap.
Darius murmured something in his sleep, his hands shifting to my thighs as he drew me a little closer and I let the silencing bubble fall away.
But his grip was loose, his breathing still deep and there was a furrow in his brow which made my heart tug.
I reached out gently, my fingers caressing the tattoo he’d gotten for me where it curved over his left hip and disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans. My eyes drifted over the words as I sought them out. There is only her.
Fuck, I loved this man.
I pushed my hands up his chest, healing magic building in my palms as I went and I sent it into him, seeking out the cuts and bruises, healing the wound to the side of his head where blood clotted against his temple and finding a cracked rib which I promptly fused back into place too.
I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know what the hell he’d survived while he’d been away from me.
It took a fair bit of magic and a lot of concentration, but with the fire raging behind me, it was replenishing almost as fast as I was wearing it down.
A sigh escaped my lips as I finished and I realised my eyes had fallen shut in concentration. I opened them again, finding Darius’s gaze locked on mine as I did, his grip on my thighs tightening enough to make me feel like he was holding onto me just as much as I was holding onto him in that moment.
“Shit, I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” he said with a frown, looking genuinely pissed off about the fact and I breathed a laugh as I reached out to run my fingers along his jaw, loving the bite of his stubble against my skin.
“Are you apologising for sleeping?” I teased, but it didn’t lessen the unease in his dark eyes.
“I just don’t want to miss anything,” he said, swiping a hand over his face and releasing a flash of magic which looked like a beam of pure sunlight. It sank into his skin, making his eyes blaze more intensely as he dropped his hand back to my thigh, his fingers moving over my pants where my tattoo lay against my skin.
“What was that?” I asked, cocking my head to one side curiously because he didn’t even look tired anymore, his gaze intense and raking over me like he was afraid I might disappear if he looked away.
“Just a spell to give me energy and keep me awake,” he said dismissively. “I didn't have the magic to do it when I got here and my eyes must have fallen shut…”