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Her eyes filled with amusement. “Depends on my mood.” She moved her eyes down to my lips. “Sometimes I like to see the limits of a person's mind.” Then back up to my eyes. “And other times I want the silence.”

“So, messing with them to the point of insanity and when you're bored you take your little knife and stab them in the eye?”

The corner of her lips twisted up into a smile. “Exactly that.”

Celestine will be the reason the Angels come back down. “Is that why you like to piss me off in front of everyone? Because you think that making me angry will bring you some sort of joy?”

She didn't respond for a good moment, her eyes squinting ever so slightly. “You've got it all wrong.”

“Then, explain it to me,” I demanded.

She turned her head away from me. “I don't care to.”

I took in a deep breath, licking the front of my teeth, agitated by all her mysteries. With my free hand, I tugged the collar of her top down, pulled her close and caught her neck with my mouth, biting and sucking on it. She let out a small moan, and my body heated up. Shit.

“Lock the door.” I let her go for a moment so she could reach for the lock.

“There’s a thrill in getting caught,” she said.

I chuckled, reaching for the lock myself. I wasn’t planning on getting caught, locking the door would give us a warning that Niko was back.

“Coward.”

I responded by taking her neck back between my teeth. My hands moved up her back, under her top. Where did she get all these scars?

She shifted in the seat to face me and I got a glimpse of her eyes glowing a soft red. It was her turn to mark my neck. The touch of her lips on my skin radiated a pleasurable tingly feeling that reached inside my bones.

“Celestine,” I groaned, which only encouraged her, sucking and biting harder.

She pressed her body against me and scratched at the other side of my neck, hot blood rushing through me.

How is she doing this? I should kill her before she ruins me, but the thought left as she slowly moved up to kiss my jaw, taking her time, making her way up to me.

She paused right before she reached my lips, just a breath apart.

“We won’t be able to go back from this,” I told her. Neither of us were intoxicated, so we couldn’t use that as an excuse. Not this time.

“I know,” she whispered. That’s why she was hesitating.

Niko attempted to open the door, but we didn’t move. Neither of us could decide and were waiting on the other, but it was an almost impossible decision. I shouldn’t have started this .

Niko knocked on the door, attempting to open it once more. His voice muted by the soundproof walls.

Celestine let out a small breath before pulling away and slipping to the back of the car.

His knocks grew louder.

I reached over and unlocked the door, facing the window before he could see my heated face.

“Celestine better not be dead in here,” he grunted as he climbed into his seat. “Why was that locked?” he asked, suspiciously.

“No idea,” I replied, taking in slow, controlled breaths to calm my racing heart.

Niko put his seatbelt on and glanced at Celestine through the rearview mirror. “Are you alright, Celestine?”

I glanced back at her, she was covering her eyes. “Hyacinth just gives me a headache.” Okay, not a bad lie.

Niko chuckled, looking at me, then his eyes went down to my neck and I cursed. “What is that?”

I pulled my hoodie up, turning away again. “Mosquito bite.” Not my best lie, but I really couldn’t think of anything else.

He turned on the car and began the drive. “Was that mosquito a seventeen-year-old girl?”

I smirked. “A very annoying one.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Celestine sighed.

“I think Niko might beat you to it,” I muttered.

“He didn’t force you, did he?” Niko asked her.

“I think it might have been me who forced him,” she admitted.

“You didn’t,” I told her .

“Please, both of you, be careful. If Silias finds out.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what he’d do. Especially that scene you two caused at the bar…”

We were reckless.

“They won’t remember I was there,” Celestine whispered.

Niko glanced at her from the rearview mirror. “Let’s hope not.”

***

We finally arrived at the apartment and Celestine’s eyes widened. “It’s so pretty,” she complimented.

Everything was kept minimalistic, modern and dark. Niko and I liked it like that. Black furniture, dark grey walls, dark wooden floor, and dimly lit. I was a bit surprised she liked it because she’s quite feminine and in my head, I imagine her room being just that.

“Cinth, why don’t you show her around the apartment and both of you can clean up while I cook dinner.”

“Uh, okay,” I muttered. I gestured to what we walked into first, a large open area.

“The kitchen, dining room and living room–” pointed at the door on the right “–Niko’s room and he has his own bathroom in there–” the door next to it “–training room–” then, pointed to one of the doors on the left “–my room and I have my own bathroom–” and the last door “–guest bathroom.” Not that we really ever have guests over except for Renee and Jerome.

“You’re better as a tour guide than a trainer,” she told me, monotoned.

“Yeah, yeah.” She followed me to the guest bathroom. “You can clean up here.” I pulled out a towel from a cupboard and handed it to her. She nodded a thanks, not meeting my eyes, and I left her to go to my own bathroom.

As I let the warm water drizzle onto me, I slammed my forehead onto the tiled wall. What did we do in that car? I let out a deep shaky breath, swearing to myself that I’d never do that to her again. I turned the faucet to the coldest setting .

I walked out of my room to hear Celestine and Niko laughing in the kitchen. She had taken her hair out of its ponytail and let it fall to her waist and was back in her school uniform.

“I can’t believe you’ve never cooked before.” Niko handed her an ingredient. “You can cut these now. How do you like your meat, Celestine?”

“Rare.”

We stared at her.

“You don’t want me to…”

“Medium… Medium-rare,” she corrected herself.

I closed my eyes and bit my lip to stop myself from laughing. Shit. Maybe I should just tell her I know, but this is too funny. Niko couldn’t help his chuckle as he sizzled our meat on the pan.

I took my seat across from Celestine and Niko set down our plates, sitting at the end of the table.

“So, how are you adjusting to your new school, Celestine? Have you made lots of friends?”

“It’s okay.” She smiled. “The school is really big and even after four months I still get a bit lost sometimes, but everyone’s really nice.”

They’re obsessed with her .

“Yeah, the first time I had to visit for the parent-teacher conference I had no idea where I was going and ended up in the wrong classroom.” Niko laughed at the memory. “Did you join any clubs?”

She shook her head. “I don’t have time to do anything outside of school, but Silias lets me go ice-skating sometimes.” She took a bite of her steak. “This is really good, Nikodemus, and it’s cooked so perfectly.” I glanced at her meat, barely cooked.

“Thank you, I used this new spice my partner, Renee, suggested to me. ”

“You have a partner?”

“Yes, we’ve been together for a few years now.” The mention of Renee always gets him gushing with excitement. He pulled out his phone and showed Celestine a picture of them. “This was us last weekend on a date.”

“She’s pretty,” Celestine commented.

He looked at the picture for a moment more before putting his phone away. “What about you, do you have a partner?”

Her eyes shifted to mine then back to Niko. Subtle. “I don’t like anyone.”

“Weren’t you two kissing in the car?” he teased.

I felt my face heat up. “No, we weren’t. Niko, please.”

He laughed. “Sure.” Then turned to Celestine. “But you sound just like Cinth when you said you didn’t like anyone.”

She bit her lip to suppress her smile.

“I swear it’s like you want to be me,” I muttered. I’m flattered, but… I’m deranged.

“I want to be better than you,” she corrected.

I shook my head. “Why?”

“Because.” She shifted in her seat, looked down at her food and mumbled, “you’re like, kind of cool.”

I clapped my hands together with a big grin. “Please, say that louder for Niko.”

“I said kind of.” She glared at me.

“Cinth, you know why you’ll never be cool to me,” Niko started.

I narrowed my eyes. Don’t you dare tell her any of my humiliating stories, I will throw this table out the window.

He turned to Celestine with a light chuckle. “The first bone Cinth broke was his arm, and it looked like a noodle. He had these fat crocodile tears running down his face and couldn’t stop cackling. ”

Celestine nodded, intrigued.

“Gods, Niko,” I sighed.

“I was helping him out and wondering why there were quiet pauses between…” Niko couldn’t stop laughing at this point. “And when I looked up…” he could barely finish his story. “I realised those quiet moments were him passing out.”

Celestine used both her hands to cover her laugh. “God below.”

“Yeah, alright, I was ten, give me a break.” I rolled my eyes. I’m used to seeing people severely injured, but when it comes to my own body, it doesn’t really process well.

Celestine mocked, “I guess you’re not that cool to me anymore.”

I hate these people.

When the laughing subsided, Niko asked Celestine, curious, “have you gotten injured a lot, Celestine?”

“When I'm on assignments?” she clarified.

Niko shrugged, trying to keep it as casual as he could. “In general, I suppose.”

Celestine nodded. “Yeah, but I don't remember every time.”

“What's your worst?” I asked her.

She thought about it for a moment. “My knee, I think, it's been years and I still have problems with it.”

“Ah,” Niko started, “that's a rough injury. I've known many people who have injured their knee, and it's never been the same since.”