Page 27 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

A few seals came and went over the next few days as Alex reopened the Gatehouse.

None of them so far had proven to be their quarry, Solrin.

Alex had made it clear that this guy did not play well with others.

He was apparently more of a loner than Sasha had been in that respect, and for good reason.

Most seals found him downright unsettling.

His abilities remained a mystery but seemed to center around drawing fae to him. The most they could do for now was wait as Puck had instructed, since Solrin was apparently headed their way.

Puck. Nathan could still hardly believe he had met the famous trickster.

When most of the gang and currently residing seals headed up to bed, and Alex locked the place up for the night, Nathan told Sasha not to worry about waiting for him; he needed to think a while before he hit the hay.

Nathan chose the library for his musing, which was in incredible shape after Iain’s careful work with it, and Walter’s added assistance. Iain was already anxious to seek out new tomes to add to Alex’s collection.

It was late and Nathan had quickly lost track of time, lying back on the large sofa.

Absently, he picked at a string on his jeans, knees bent up a little as he tried to find some train of thought that didn’t give him chills.

He could leave well enough alone for now, wait and see what happened with Solrin before he made any decisions, but a decision would still have to be made—one that might lead him straight to Malak.

Nathan half wanted to call out to his Spirit Guide, but Walter was more or less human now and he would need to knock on the man’s door if he wanted to talk.

Well, Walter had mentioned that if Nathan called for him, in true dire need, he would have the power to manifest before him as he once did, but only under special circumstances that Walter hadn’t elaborated on.

But this wasn’t an emergency. Nathan needed to decide these things on his own.

“Prrrp?” came a sudden questioning chirp from somewhere below Nathan.

Smiling, Nathan peered over the side of the couch.

“Hey, girl, can’t sleep either?” He smiled at Wally, teddy bear-sized ball of fluff that she was.

He was pleased to see her back in chimera form, even though it was generally safer if she stayed a cat when seals were boarding.

He wondered for a moment if anyone had bothered to explain to Iain that the Gatehouse cat was actually a failed witch’s familiar.

There were so many ways Nathan could have fun with that.

“Prrrp,” Wally chirped again, climbing up onto the couch using Nathan’s nearby arm as support.

She weighed next to nothing, less than she should, Nathan often thought, since her appearance said she would have to be at least as heavy as a large tom cat.

Maybe she was all fur, he mused, stroking her head and fuzzy ears as she settled on his stomach.

Actually, she more like sat, so much like a person that Nathan had to snicker at how cute it was.

“Are we gonna have some kinda heart to heart? Coz I’m finally starting to feel a little sleepy here.” He was very sleepy all of a sudden, probably because Wally was just so warm and rumbled as she purred on his chest.

Wally cocked her head at him. He scratched her under the chin, and she purred more loudly, pushing into his hand.

“So what did ya wanna talk about, Wally?” Nathan asked almost seriously.

“Still trying to figure out why I don’t smell all wrong anymore?

Had you real freaked for a while, didn’t I?

” Nathan’s voice was soft as he said that, trailing.

He knew she could understand everything he said, always could, but he was sort of glad she couldn’t answer back.

Instead, the chimera stood back up on her little feet and walked up closer to Nathan’s face.

She peered at him, leaning forward like a curious child so that her large blue-grey eyes took up his entire vision.

He knew what she was looking for—the black eyes, some sign that what had frightened her was still hiding within Nathan somewhere.

She seemed to frown for a moment, her face so suddenly human, maybe because of her eyes and the way her expressions were so much more complex than a cat’s.

“All me, girl,” Nathan said, picking Wally up by her furry sides and situating her in the crook of his arm where she curled up gratefully without fuss.

“Good thing you can tell when one of us is off, though. Coz I’m gonna count on you…

I’m counting on you, Wally…to sound the alarm if it ever happens again.

Gotta warn the others for me if it happens and they don’t know. And I don’t know. Okay?”

Nathan looked down at Wally snuggled against him. That was definitely a frown he saw, and sadness in her large eyes. She reached up towards his face and pressed one of her tiny human hands to his cheek.

There was no reason why Nathan should feel halfway to crying. No damn reason at all. “I’ll take that as a promise,” he whispered to her. At least it was one thing he could count on, even if a warning hiss from a chimera might not be enough to save the people he cared about.

“Nathan?”

A sudden voice from the doorway made Nathan jump.

Wally jumped too, which, because she had been trained well, meant she morphed at the same time, immediately returning to her guise as a cat.

She scurried out of Nathan’s arms and peered at the door.

A second later she popped right back to chimera mode and climbed up the back of the couch, waiting to be held.

Nathan stayed kicked back, watching fondly as Sasha came into his line of sight and scooped Wally up into his arms, to which she began purring loud as ever.

Sasha smiled down at Nathan, looking rumpled and tired like he had tried to sleep without Nathan but couldn’t.

He was dressed for bed, modestly for him in sleep pants and a T-shirt.

Slowly, he came around the side of the couch, and Nathan pulled his legs in so the incubus could sit on the end, Wally still in his arms, rubbing contentedly into his chest.

“So, you…come up with anything?” Sasha asked. He looked like he would completely deflate if Nathan mentioned wanting to be alone some more.

“Not really,” Nathan said, sitting up with a stretch. “Probably better if I sleep on it, wait and see what happens with this Sol guy.”

Sasha shuddered when Nathan called the man by that nickname. “Creeps me out, like some not so funny cosmic joke the universe is having at my expense. Sol . Same as my mother’s nickname. Shi told me once that Dad was the first one to ever call Mom that.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure this guy doesn’t have any connection to your mom,” Nathan said.

Looking like he was thinking far too hard for so late at night, Sasha nodded absently, petting Wally in a hypnotic rhythm that had the ball of fluff dozing happily.

“Yeah... I still can’t believe we have Puck watching our backs on this though.

Sort of.” He chuckled. “Definitely not the guardian angel I’d wish for. ”

That made Nathan chuckle too.

With his head cocked Nathan’s direction, Sasha’s smile quirked up into a smirk. He hoisted Wally up to the back of the couch and settled her there. She protested, grumbling at being moved from her cozy bed, but curled right up and continued dozing.

As soon as Sasha started scooting closer, Nathan let his legs fall open to invite the incubus in. He let Sasha crowd him into the corner of the couch.

“You don’t mind a little company right now, do you?” Sasha asked, as he pulled back enough so that he could run his hands up underneath Nathan’s layered shirts.

Nathan shivered pleasantly. “Damn, baby…if that’s my final choice then fuck the world. I’m already damned.” He smiled wide up at Sasha even though the incubus scowled a little. “Come on now, you know you’re my savior. No doubt in my mind.”

Sasha sunk down into Nathan, his lips fitting over Nathan’s with the most familiar and wonderful press, a connection that went even deeper with tongues sliding smooth and wet within each other’s mouths.

Nathan couldn’t resist tugging Sasha down even more flush against him, hooking his ankles around Sasha’s lower back so that their hips finally aligned just right.

Nathan was still in jeans but Sasha was all softness on top of him—soft flannel pants, soft flesh beneath.

And then a telling, harder heat that made Nathan wish they weren’t wearing anything.

“Nathan…” Sasha said as he pulled from their kiss. “That night in the car…when I said I understood why you needed to leave, I meant it. You needed time. You needed to not be so suffocated by all of us pretending we were giving you time when we really weren’t. I’m so sorry for that.”

He took Nathan’s face in his hands, large hands with fingers that fanned over every bit of skin and stubble.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know how to give you what you needed.

I just wanted you to be…better. I wanted you to look at me the way you can again now.

Though I guess I had my work cut out for me since it took the Lord Almighty to knock some sense into you.

” He laughed unevenly, his eyes that iridescent blue that glowed and pulled Nathan right into their depths.

It didn’t upset Nathan to be called out on how truly wrecked he had been.

He knew and accepted that nothing short of divine intervention could have saved him that night.

Well, maybe he’d had a little something to do with it all on his own initially, denying Malak and all, but then there had been Walter to keep Malak from breaking the rules, knocking him back down to size. And after that there had been Dave.