Luca gave Nox a questioning look.
“Repairs for rent.”
“You make it sound like we’ll be staying longer than a day.”
“… Let us help you… Let us help him….”
“A break from riding around will be good for both of us.”
“Yesterday, you were worried about the military tracking us if we stayed in one spot too long.”
“I know, it’s just….”
“You want to talk to him again, don’t you?”
Nox scrubbed his palms over his knees, breaking a few more threads on the worn-through material. “I don’t know.”
“He’s wrong. About everything. You know it.Iknow it.”
Nox rested his arms on the steering wheel.
“Nox…”
“I don’t think he is. At least about the Anubis.”
“Youreallythink it will kill me?”
“Killing is what it does.”
“No.”
“I’ve had this thing inside me long enough to know that for a fact, it is.”
“Yeah, you’ve had it inside you. You know it. He doesn’t. So tell me, has it ever wanted to kill me?”
Nox exhaled his frustration.
“I didn’t think so,” Luca said.
“But Isaiah didn’t say it murdered the Cana. He said ittookfrom him.”
“The Anubis doesn’t take anything from me.”
Yes, it did. It stole pleasure and gorged on Luca’s cries. If it had its way, it would never stop. It would take until Luca broke.
Luca moved close enough for Nox to get lost in the darkness of his gaze and the almost ancient shadows clouding them.
“It’s never hurt me. It’s never controlled me. It’s never forced me. It’s never done anything I didn’t want. And it could have. A hundred times over, it could have done horrible things, but it hasn’t. Not once, Nox. Not a single time. It hasn’t so much as touched me without my consent. And the only reason for that is because itknowsit’s wrong.”
No. There was no logical reason why the Anubis didn’t do whatever it wanted, yet it held back, never damaging Luca beyond a couple of bruises that anyone could leave in the throes of hard sex.
But it didn’t cherish him either. It didn’t love him like Nox did. It didn’t think of Luca first.
Luca shrugged. “I guess if the owner will trade labor for rent, we can stay a few more days. I mean, you’re right. Hot water is nice and the bed’s softer than a sleeping bag on the van floor. And that’s softer than you are.”
Nox laughed, and Luca smiled.
God, how that smile illuminated Nox’s world.