Whatever happens, she has me now. She has us.
CHAPTER23
CASSANDRA
With my stomach full and heavy, I shower and snuggle into the couch. The fire from the fireplace crackles, creating the perfect background noise, warm light spilling onto the rug. Donatello has turned the lights off, and the orange light creates soft shadows on his face as he looks out the window. Ren’s long fingers massage my foot, propped on his lap, and he sings some unknown song under his breath, lulling me to sleep.
I snap my eyelids open. Nope. It’s like nine in the evening, I shouldn’t go to sleep. I want to fuck. Today was awful, with me almost killing the two and the car crash, and I need some love, at least in the physical sense. After all the teasing with Apollo, I am not letting it go this easily.
“Don,” I mutter, unwilling to break this spell. He hums back. “You’re sitting too far away.”
He chuckles, moving on the chair he’s sitting by the window. “I’m keeping watch.” The vampire shoots me a heated glance. “And you’re halfway to Dream Land,bella.”
“I am not.”
“I saw your head lolling to the side.
“I saw that, too,” Ren chimes in, and I poke him in his hard stomach with my toes. He merely smirks back.
“But if someone fucks me to sleep, that will give me much better dreams,” I blow over my shoulder, my face warming up, and not because of the fire. After I figured out I wasn’t frigid, something broke free inside me. Even not trusting people with my heart, I’m both confident and comfortable when it comes to sex. What I usually am not is this forward.
Donatello grunts deep in his throat, that lusty sound that makes me press my thighs together. The chair creaks as he gets up and approaches me. A hand of his buries into my hair, and he closes his fingers near my roots, tugging. He tilts my head back, exposing my throat as I stare at him.
“Fuck, this is hot,” I murmur, and Ren’s moves halt around my foot. Bet he thinks this is hot too.
Donatello lowers his face until our noses brush. I swallow hard, my body warming. “Let’s get you rested and cared for first. I want to make sure everything goes right for the dragon. Then we can think of fun.”
He lets my hair go, and I stretch my neck, working out the kinks. “We could think of fun now too.”
Donatello chuckles, but he’s clearly more responsible than I am. He goes back to the window, but the door opens before he can sit, and Apollo walks in.
“Everything alright?” I ask, looking him up and down. He’s hot and good-looking, so nothing out of the usual.
Apollo nods, letting the door close behind him. “I pushed the car out of the road. With some luck, they won’t know where we are. And even if they do, they can’t enter the wards.”
I release the air in my lungs. These wards will come in handy. If they can keep us hidden, I can work my powers out, learn to control them. This way, our group has one more fighter.
Apollo presses a kiss to my temple and makes for the dooragain. I shoot my attention up at him, arching my eyebrows in doubt. “Where do you think you’re going now?”
He shoots a wink over his shoulder. “I’ll see if one of our neighbors can lend us a car. We’re still driving to your mother’s tomorrow, right?”
My body tenses. The soft orange light and the wine and full stomach almost made me forget the true goal in this. My mother. I need to know why she abandoned me. I need to learn the reason she sealed my powers.
“Of course,” I reply in a steady voice. Apollo nods once, then exits. His heavy steps diminish in volume until he’s gone. I stare at Donatello.
He watches me, dark eyes studying my face. Donatello runs a hand through his golden hair, letting it drop to the side as he releases a breath. “What’s on your mind?”
I stare at him. “Don’t think anyone’s ever asked me that.”
Ren sticks his thumb to the arch of my foot, making me jump. “What’s on your mind?” A smirk takes his face.
I chuckle. “Just digesting this... whole thing.”
Donatello sits on the couch’s arm behind me, his arm draping on the back of it. His yummy scent hits me, and I tilt my head back to capture his gaze. “A lot has happened,” he says. “It’s like I’ve known you for years.”
His words hit me like a sucker punch. I gape at him, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe he’ll crack up. Any moment now. Any moment now...
Donatello reaches out and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “You look like you had a stroke,bella.”