Page 12 of Axes & Nos
“What are you?” I whisper in awe and maybe a little bit of fear, because whatever Dax is it’s definitely not a hundred percent human. Which meant Chase was probably not a hundred percent human. Looking over at him and Alia their heads are close together talking in whispers. Did that mean Alia wasn’t a hundred percent human either?
“I won’t hurt you. We...we won’t hurt you. I promise you are safe.” Dax says soothingly as he moves toward me again. Suddenly I don’t feel safe at all, not even a little, and I start to move slowly toward my truck. If I can make it to my truck, I'll feel safer, I can leave.
“Shit, Myra, let me explain. Great job Dax!” Alia says as she starts to jog towards me. Yelping I dash to the driver side door, jump in, slam the door shut, and lock it.
When I turn from buckling up Alia’s sad face is mashed against the window. It would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that my best friend slash my boss’s eyes weren’t glowing bright yellow like fireflies at night. Nope, she was definitely not a hundred percent human.
“Myra, let us explain, please. You know me. I wouldn’t hurt you. You have nothing to be afraid of.” Alia begged from the other side of the window.
She was right, I did know her or at least I thought I had known her. Now I didn’t know if I truly knew her or not. Maybe our whole friendship was a lie? Whatever was going on I needed some time to sort it out. Before I can say just that my passenger side door opens up and Dax slides in beside me. Damn it, I thought that door was locked. Now I was trapped between Alia and Dax, with nowhere to go. I was definitely, possibly, maybe going to die.
“Myra, calm down.” Dax gritted out his eyes flashing from green to gold and back again.
“Don’t tell her to calm down, asshat. You never tell a woman to calm down. Now she is going to be the least calmed down as she can possibly get. You know nothing about women. Get out of there you big oaf and let me talk to my friend.” Alia yells through the window next to me, glaring at Dax. Even though I’m scared of what she could be right at this moment, she still has my back and that makes me smile.
“See she’s calming down. I was right and you were wrong.” Dax taunts Alia, sticking his tongue out like a toddler toward her through the window.
“I hate to burst your bubble, but she’s got a point there. Telling me to calm down will do the exact opposite. I will in fact not calm down and will actually freak the fuck out. Which is what I am currently doing, because a strange man is in the cab of my truck. I feel trapped and not in the sexy kind of way, where I’m up against a wall with your hands around my throat while you bang me. More like you're a stalker and I need to use my gun kind of way. So don’t tell me to calm down.” I say as I slowly reach for my pistol I keep in the door of the truck. This is Texas and I ain’t the kind of girl who’s going down without a fight.
“First, damn woman, did you have to give me that visual? My dick is about to carve a hole in my jeans thanks to you. Second, you don’t need that, Myra. None of us will hurt you. You’re too important to all of us to ever hurt you.” Dax grits out, as he scoots as far away from me as the cab will allow.
“What do you mean I’m too important to all of you? Like I’m a sacrifice or something? I hate to tell all of you I’m not a virgin. There will be no virgin sacrificing of this chick. That ship has sailed. A long time ago, and there have been so many men. Like I lost count on how many have visited my love nest. It’s been like a plethora of dong down there. So nope, no virgin sacrifices for you.” Alia is cackling like a maniac outside the window, Dax looks like he either wants to throttle me or kiss me, and Chase has his fingers in his ears humming loudly.
“Good god woman! What do you think we are? There is no sacrificing going on here, virgin or otherwise.” There’s a growl to his voice again, the air starts to feel heavy with tension, and I raise my eyebrow at him questioningly. “I don’t like you talking about other men. You know, sexually. It makes my other sideharder to control. He’s a bit possessive of you already.” He tries to explain.
“Girl, stop lying to that man! You could hear the lie in her voice Dax, stop acting like a dick. There is no plethora of men that have visited her love nest.” Turning toward Alia I glare at her through the window.
“You’re supposed to back up my lie’s woman! Remember, my bullshit is your bullshit, and your bullshit is my bullshit? Well, you’re supposed to back up my bullshit, best friend.” I point my finger at her through the window to punctuate my words. My fear from earlier has started to dissipate. This is my best friend, I’ve known her for a long time, she’s always had my back. Well, except apparently when I’m lying about the number of men I’ve slept with.
“My animal doesn’t care that they are lies, he only hears her talking about other men. Myra, I need you to take it back.” Dax groans out like he’s in pain, holding his stomach.
“Myra, get out of the truck before he changes.” Alia pitches up an octave as she tries to pull on my door. Dax is growling, and Chase is now yelling at Dax through the other window to not change.
“Dax, what’s going on? I’m getting scared again. Whatever is happening make it stop, please.” I beg him as I reach for his hand. As soon as our hands touch, I feel a zing of electricity shoot up my arm. Dax’s growling stops and he looks down at our hands in awe.
“You stopped him. One touch and you stopped him. Do you have any idea of the power you possess? One touch and you made him go completely quiet inside my head.” Dax looks up at me with wonder in his eyes. I don’t know what he’s talking about, but whatever I just did was something significant.
“Who went quiet? Do you have split personalities or something? How many do you have? Is that why your eyeschange colors? Is it contagious? Is that why Alia and Chase’s eyes change colors too?” I ramble as my breathing speeds up while Dax is still looking at me in awe. Chase and Alia are staring at us through the window with identical looks of shock on their faces. The truck feels cramped and hot all at the same time. My body doesn’t feel right, something is very wrong. My head feels like it weighs a million pounds, and everything feels off.
“We’ll answer all of your questions, I promise. Your heart is beating very fast. I think you might be having a panic attack. Myra breath, everything is okay baby, just breathe.” Dax sounds far away and slightly panicky.
“You shouldn’t call me baby. I’m not your baby. I’m no one's baby.” My words sound funny to my ears, like I’m underwater. The world starts to go black around the rims of my eyes. Just before I pass out, I’m pretty sure I hear Dax yelling at Alia to help him, but I could be wrong.
“Elevate her head. Or is it elevate her feet? Alia, you’re doing it all wrong, she’s not waking up. She looks pale. Does she look pale to you? Why isn’t she waking up? I haven’t even had a chance to claim her, and I’ve killed her.” Dax’s panic laced voice drifts through my mind as the blackness clings to me. What did he mean by claiming her? Is he talking about me? Everything feels so confusing.
“Don’t yell at my mate!” I hear Chase giving a warning growl. Mate? He called Alia his mate before, but I thought he meant ‘mate’ like Aussies say it. Now things are starting to make more sense. Growling, claiming, mates and glowing eyes. There’s a memory itching at the back of my mind, like I’ve read about this somewhere, sometime. It’s just out of my reach, the memory too fuzzy to recall the details.
“You didn’t fucking kill her, she’s still breathing. This is all your fault though! You freaked her out and now we’re going to have to explain something to her that she shouldn’t ever knowabout. You’ve put us all at risk. And for what, so you can get into her panties?” Alia sounds scared and angry.
“No. No, not just so I can get into her panties. She’s, my mate. She’s my mate and I might have just fucked everything up before it could even get started.” Dax groans in a pained voice. There’s that word again, mate. Where have I read that before?
“Holy shit, really?” Alia asks with wonderment.
“Fuck yeah, I knew it!” Chase crows, like he’s won some kind of victory over Dax.
“Yes, really, and again I’ve fucked it all up before I could even get it started. She’s going to hate me even more now.” Dax bemoaned himself. I kind of feel bad for him, he sounded like he was really interested in me. But Alia was probably right, he was probably only trying to get in my panties.
Every cell in my body feels like it’s waking up from a long sleep all at once. It’s not painful, but it’s a bit overwhelming as all my nerve endings feel like they start to fire off at once. A groan leaves my lips as I open my eyes to the bright sun glaring down at me. It’s gone almost as quickly as it was there and that’s when I notice Dax is blocking out the sun.