“Yeah…” He turned to face her and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know when I fell asleep. I thought I was going to stay awake until morning. Come here.” He made room for her, and she sneaked under the duvet and right into his arms. “You’re shivering…”
She snuggled against his chest, inhaled the fresh scent of his skin, and sighed in delight. Yes, she could get used to this. She could sleep in his arms anytime and anywhere, under the open sky if they had no other choice. It would have been even better if Alexi had been there to hug her from behind. Thinking of their partner, she pushed at Kain’s chest and put a little distance between them. It suddenly didn’t feel right for her to be here, cuddling with the blond, when Alexi was alone in a dark room and a cold bed.
“We need to talk,” she said, searching for his blue eyes in the dark.
Kain sighed. “I know.”
Sophie hadn’t expected that answer, so she was silent for a moment. She had thought the blond would throw a tantrum and refuse to talk about Alexi and what had happened in the morning, right before they left for Ukraine. It seemed like so much time had passed since then. An eternity, not just a little over 20 hours. Not even an entire day.
“Alexi is not okay… I just think we should let him be for now, until we solve this whole mess with the Ke’let Count.”
Kain sat up a bit, supporting his weight on his elbow. “You’re right.”
“I am?” Sophie was taken aback by his unexpected compliance. Since when was Kain so selfless and reasonable?
The blond gave a short laugh and tucked a thick strand of hair behind her ear. He loved it when she had her hair pulled back so he could see the soft, round curve of her shoulder. “I know he’s not okay. Do you think I’m blind? He barely touched his dinner. If things go like this, he’ll drop dead before we even make our first move against the Count.”
“Then… why don’t you tell this to him? You two barely talked all day.”
“I know… It’s just that…” Kain hesitated and fixed his gaze somewhere above her head.
“What?”
“It’s not fair.”
Sophie raised her hand to cup his cheek. Her fingers rested there for a moment, then traveled down to his chin. She forced him to look back into her eyes. “Tell me. You can’t keep me in the dark like this, do you understand? We’re partners, Kain. I want to help, but I can’t if you two never tell me anything.”
Kain simply stared, listening to her as if he were entranced by her words. He had never seen Sophie so involved in their partnership. Relationship? Should he finally take that final step and refer to what the three of them had as a relationship?
“I heard you mention some personal case files,” Sophie pressed on. “What’s that all about?”
The blond’s gaze went from her eyes to her lips, and he contemplated silencing her with a kiss. He could claim her lips, then her whole body, and she would be too busy to ask any questions. Come morning, she’d be too tired to even get out of bed. His eyes locked back on hers. No, he couldn’t avoid this anymore. Alexi already knew about that old case and the consequences he had to suffer because of one stupid mistake cumulated with a lot of bad luck. And that was the problem. Alexi knew too much about Kain, while Kain had yet to scratch the surface in what his partner and roommate was concerned.
“It’s a long story, Sophie,” he finally said.
She chuckled. “I’ve got all the time in the world. Sleep is overrated anyway.”
“All right, then. You asked for it.” He lay back down on the uncomfortable pillow and pulled her with him. Sophie rested her head on his chest and waited for him to gather his thoughts and tell her a story she would never forget, a story that would haunt her forever.
That was how Sophie learned why a cambion’s greatest advantage could also be his greatest weakness. While they lived much longer than humans, for hundreds and hundreds of years, they could be injured in such ways that their bodies could never recover, not even with the help of their inner demons. Sophie understood why Kain would have preferred to end his life than endure a life of pain and misery in complete darkness. It was one thing to be born blind, but a whole different thing to have your eyes literally ripped out of your sockets. She also understood the sorrow he had to live with now, the regret of having to take away a man’s sight to regain his own. She had had no idea that if a cambion lost a limb or an organ, the severed part could be replaced with the same part taken from one of the cambion’s human parents; either the mother who had given birth to the cambion, or the father who had innocently and cluelessly provided the seed. It hurt even more knowing that Kain’s real human father had been a painter.
“Now you know…” he whispered in her hair.
She dug her nails into his chest, but didn’t dare say anything. She was afraid her voice would crack.
He kissed the top of her head. “That’s why I think it’s unfair, Sophie. Alexi knows my story. I want to know his. I want…” Long seconds passed before the blond took a deep breath and forced the words out. “I want him to trust me.”
“He will.” She sniffed her nose and cleared her throat. What would Kain think if he realized tears had been running down her cheeks and into his shirt for the past few minutes? “Just give him time. All we can do now is let him know we are here for him. Everything will be better after we solve this case, and when he’s ready we won’t even have to ask him to tell us what h
appened.”
“It bothers me.”
“What bothers you?”
“This is not a story about losing a body part and having to steal it from your human father and go through a long, painful surgery that combines science with magic to get your old life back.”
“That’s not what you did…”