“That’s because there isn’t anywhere, and you know it.” Luca walked to the door and yanked it open. Crisp air sucked away the heat left over from the shower. Luca buried himself in his coat.
The door to the shower building squeaked open and shut with a thump.
Luca reached the van and climbed into the passenger side. He clicked his seatbelt in place.
The driver’s door opened. Nox got behind the wheel. He cranked the van and flipped on the heater.
Nox rested his head on the steering wheel and closed his eyes. Worry drew lines around his mouth. He shook his head like answering a silent question. Somehow after that, he looked even more defeated.
“You won’t be any less dangerous without me,” Luca said.
The vee between Nox’s eyes deepened. “If the Anubis takes over, I will hurt you.”
“You didn’t.” Luca put his towel in the back with Nox’s. “You said I stopped it.”
“You got lucky. Next time it might not. I’m scared, Luca.”
The admission smothered Luca’s anger. “Why?”
“It responds to you.”
“And by respond you mean…”
“It wants you. It makes me want you.” Nox smacked a hand against the steering wheel. “It wants you like it did your brother, and next time, it might take what it wants. I might take what I want.” He closed his grip on the wheel with enough force to bleach his knuckles. “I could never live with myself if I did that to you.”
“What if I wanted you to?” Luca couldn’t believe he said it out loud no matter how true.
“How can you say that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Because you’re dying? You never have? Or because you’re bored?”
Luca deserved that. But it hadn’t been any of those reasons before. He just didn’t understand the emotions bounding around inside his chest. Now he did.
Luca twisted his fingers in his lap. “I want to be with you because it feels right.”
The engine of the van rumbled. A set of twins wearing puffy green coats crossed the parking lot to the park under the trees. One of them carried a small dog. She put it down, and it trembled at the end of its rhinestone lead.
When Luca found his courage, he met Nox’s gaze. What watched him from the gray depths of Nox’s eyes wasn’t human.
Nox blinked and it was gone. “Your brother trusted me with you. He trusted me to protect you.”
He did.
But Koda always had a way of protecting those he loved even if they didn’t know it or want it.
Or just too plain stubborn to admit they needed it.
“I’d think if I were off limits, Koda would have told you. Have you considered there might be a reason he didn’t?” The more Luca thought about it, the more he knew he was right. “And maybe why you respond to me is because he knew you’d need me as much as I need you.”