“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
Nox rolled over on his back. “Okay, there was something, but it wasnothing.” He rubbed his face.
“One day, there will be.”
Said the man who spoke to the Anubis like an unruly puppy and it obeyed him. Nox had lived with the ichor for years and never came close to trying to reason with it.
Luca had only needed to explain back in the horse trailer to get it to force Nox to his feet. Then again, in the bed, to let Nox have control. Even lying there after attempting to hear it, like Luca suggested, it remained calm.
Impatient but not fighting its way to the surface.
Waiting.
Listening.
Learning.
Cooperating.
“What is it?” Luca pushed up on his elbow and looked down at Nox.
“It takes time to learn a language.”
Luca curled the corner of his mouth. “Usually, yeah, unless you’re a savant.”
“Maybe what I interpreted as nothing is because I don’t understand what it’s saying. And it understands us because it’s had years tolearn.”
Luca grinned. “You’re pretty smart for an Army boy.”
“Hey…”
Nox went for Luca’s ribs, and he kicked and laughed.
“Mercy, mercy. Okay, you win.”
Nox stopped, and Luca caught his breath. God, he was beautiful. Cheeks flushed, hair tousled, lips still swollen.
And the happiness he radiated.
Luca laid back down and they wound up with their limbs entwined and their bodies touching from end to end.
“So, we have a language barrier,” Luca said.
“I honestly don’t know what we have.” Because it could have all been in Nox’s head.
Luca made a thinking sound.
“What?”
“You told me at the hardware store you kept it from killing those men because you thought about me.”
More precisely, the things the Anubis loved to do to Luca.
“Yeah.”
“Maybe that’s your Rosetta stone.”