* * *
Luca led Dr. Dante over to the dining room table while everyone else glared at Phillips.
He pulled out a chair.
“I’m not sure we should leave her alone with them.” Dr. Dante sat.
“They’re just staring.” But if looks could kill, she would have been in ribbons and on fire.
Dr. Dante set his elbows on the table and held his face, watching the window across the room. Morning sprinkled light through the edge of the hazy curtains, spilling dots onto the wooden floor and blanketing the room in soft pinks.
But Dr. Dante still had no color to his cheeks and exhaustion muddied the soft green of his eyes.
“Do you want something to eat?” Luca leaned closer, hoping to catch his attention. “Are you thirsty?”
Dr. Dante exhaled hard against his hands.
“I can make you some coffee if you want?”
He watched nothing outside the window, his gaze darting back and forth as if reading invisible text.
“Dr. Dante?”
He looked up. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”
“I asked if you wanted something to eat, or some coffee, or anything?”
“Uh, no, no, I’m fine… I….” He rubbed his forehead. “Maybe some water if it’s not too much to ask.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Luca went into the kitchen. He found a glass in the dish strainer and turned on the tap. Just like the home he’d been forced from, the window over the sink framed a rolling pasture. But here it was unbroken by a barn, fence, and a barking dog.
How could six weeks seem like a lifetime ago? He’d been a dying man then, living on borrowed time, running for his life and yet savoring every second he experienced.
Now he was someone else. A part of a people who weren’t human, haunted by phantom wolves, and a lover to the most beautiful man he’d ever seen.
Even the Anubis, as terrifying as it was, as uncaring, unfeeling, selfish, and violent, had woven itself into Luca’s being. He never wanted Nox to be without the creature, and not just because it meant losing him, but because it meant never having such a unique and impossible lifeform coexisting with them.
“You okay?” Nox’s deep voice dragged a sigh from Luca’s lips.
Warmth pressed against his back, then the firmness of muscle trapped him against the counter.
“How long are you going to wait to fill that glass?” Nox pressed his cheek against Luca’s temple.
“Sorry, guess I was daydreaming.” He filled it halfway. “Do you know if there’s any ice?”
“I’ll look.” Nox returned with a metal ice tray. A leaver on the side forced the cubes from their resting place.
Luca dropped several into the glass.
“You should probably drink some water too, along with eating some breakfast.” Nox returned the tray to the freezer.
“I will in a little while. But right now, I think Dr. Dante needs someone to keep him company.”
“He’s worried. It’s understandable.”
“Not just worried.”