Page 113 of Bellamy

“Hmm?”

“I can trust you, right?” Lingering doubt remained in the back of my mind. I’d been burned too many times.

“Yes,” Phoenix answered with no hesitation. “I feel nothing for humans and don’t care about their fate. But you can always trust me to be by your side. I’ll always protect you.”

Love hadn’t changed who he was as a person. To the world, he was still a villain and probably always would be.

But to me?

He was snarky with a kindness he tried to hide, but it slipped through anyway. He was beautiful and maybe a bit wicked, but when he looked at me, I felt like I was walking on air. He was the one thing I cherished most in this life… and gods help the fool who ever tried to take him from me.

Chapter Nineteen

Phoenix

Warriors had taken over Ravenwood Mansion.

The spacious house felt much smaller as Nephilim and dragons crammed inside. Some Nephilim came from an island in Greece and others from the Caribbean. The latter group was all female, and they held nothing but contempt for me as they stood, gripping their weapons and glaring.

No surprise there. I had led the army that attacked their home. Alastair must’ve filled them in on the mate situation because none of them acted on their anger, but they made it clear where I stood in their eyes.

If looks could kill, I would’ve been a pile of blood and bone. A pile most of them would’ve then stepped on and kicked around. Maybe put me into a soup like one of Sven’s crazy concoctions.

“Potato go good with demon,”I could imagine him saying, his little antennas wiggling.

“Thank you for being here on such short notice,” Alastair said after the last of them arrived—the ones from Greece. We had gathered in the large parlor and brought chairs from the dining room to seat everyone. There were around forty of us total, Clara and Penemuel included.

“Keep your thanks,” Sirena, the head of the female Nephilim clan, spoke. Her red hair was braided down her back, and her green eyes held a certain intensity. “You called on us, and we answered. That is our duty as your allies.”

Alastair tipped his head to her.

“I’ll accept your gratitude,” Baxter said. He was the Nephilim leader from Athens. He had pink-streaked, spiky black hair and two different-colored eyes, one blue and one green. The bottom of his shirt rode up and showed a peek of his abs as he reclined back on the couch. “A hot meal too while you’re at it. And booze. Lots of booze.”

“Glad to see you’re still your usual self, Baxter,” Alastair said, humor dancing in his eyes. “Food and drink are a given. Raiden planned an entire feast for tonight, in fact.”

“Raiden’s here?” another male spoke up. He had short black hair, bronze skin, and eyes that fell somewhere between blue and green. He was missing his left arm and had a titanium-looking one in its place like something out of a sci-fi movie. The merging of magic and science was a wondrous thing.

“Yes,” Alastair answered. “Well, not at this exact moment. He’s at the store.”

Baxter snorted. “One day before battle… and he’s grocery shopping.”

“That’s Raiden for you,” Castor said, his arm draped across the back of Kyo’s chair. “Making sure we don’t go hungry is his life’s mission. Not even the damn zombie apocalypse stopped him.”

“Zombies,” Lev said, shuddering. He was Warrin’s second-in-command. Also his best friend. “And I thought ghosts were scary.”

“Hey, you liked the ghosts in Hoia Baciu,” Daman told him.

“Only after I realized they weren’t going to eat me.”

“Ghosts don’t eat people.” Daman rolled his eyes. “And the ones in the forest would never harm my friends.”

“Aw, D,” Bellamy said with a shit-eating grin. “Look at you making friends. I might cry. My baby brother is growing up so fast.”

“Don’t make me kill you.”

Once upon a time, I had thought the Nephilim brothers were only smart-asses toward me. But no. Bantering was an everyday occurrence in their household. One I was now part of too. My chest warmed.

Before his death, my father had been cruel. At the smallest sign of weakness, he’d beaten me until I couldn’t walk. For my entire childhood, I’d believed that’s what love was. But then I’d realized love didn’t exist. No one could truly love another person.