"Check the gym," Void suggested, watching Sang and me with an unexpected warmth of affection. Like he was happy to see us close. "He goes there when he's upset."
"Mav's upset?" Sang asked with a sharp intensity, his whole body tensing. "Who hurt him?I'll kill them."
Void's eyes creased. "You can't kill what's hurting him, Sanguine. But come with me, I need to get more shields back up, and you can help."
Sang nodded, looking relieved to have a purpose. He dropped a kiss on my cheek when I turned away—and realised I had no idea where the gym was.
"Level four," Void said, reading my mind.1
"Oh," I replied, not sure how to work my body now it was cold and no one was touching me. "Thank you."
I wanted to go to Void and hug him too, wanted to reach up for a kiss, but my uncertainty swallowed all my confidence, and instead I headed out to the hallway and the lift.
I pressed the silver button, wondering how I'd ever get to level four when I'd only been allowed on this floor before, but I'd figure that out when the lift arrived.
"Hala," Void called, drawing my attention. He marched down the hallway, dressed in his usual sharp suit and taking my breath away for a second. There was something about seeing someone as big and dangerous as God of the Void moving, like he was a cyclone that would wreck everyone in his close vicinity. Like he reallywasa god.
"I think you've forgotten something," he said, lifting an eyebrow as he came closer.
I tilted my head back to look at him, frowning in confusion. "What did I forget?"
"This," he said in a raspy growl, and kissed me fiercely enough to drag a groan up my throat.
My fingers twisted in the lapel of his black suit jacket, and heat swept through me as well as a slow wave of relief. I really had needed to kiss him.
His claws slid through my hair, his palm cradling the back of my head as our kiss slowed, turning sweet enough to make my heart soar.
"There," he said, drawing back when I was breathless. "Muchbetter."
"Void, can you read my mind?" I asked. Panted, really.
The side of his mouth kicked up in a crooked smile, and he kissed me again. "Perhaps."
I tried to scowl. "That's a serious invasion of privacy, and you really shouldn't listen to other people's thoughts when you might hear something secret. But thank you." I grinned. "For the kiss and—for paying attention. You're sweet."
"Last week, I tore a man apart with my bare hands, and left him in a pile of bloody, ragged limbs," he countered, black eyes narrowing slightly.
"Andyou're sweet," I added, rolling onto my tiptoes to kiss him while I could still reach.
The lift doors swept apart with a ding and Void gave me a true, genuine smile. "Sweet for you, brave girl. Only you."
He let go of me, kissed the top of my head, and gave me a solid nudge towards the lift. "I'll be here when you get back if you need more kisses."
"Always," I replied fiercely, hurrying into the lift before the doors closed. I met Void’s eyes, him on the outside and me inside the giant, monster-sized lift. "I'll always need kisses."
"And I'll always be here to give them to you," he swore in the moment before the doors closed and carried me upwards.
"And you say you're not sweet?" I said to the empty lift, shaking my head with a smile.
But it fell off my face when I remembered Mav was upset. And with everything I told him this morning,plusthe decimation of the pub, it didn't take a genius to figure out why.
21
Void was right. Once I found the huge, open gym on the fourth floor, it was easy to find Mav.
Glass walls covered the whole back wall of the long, narrow room, framing the red sky. Gym equipment was outlined in the eerie, hellish glow that came from the crack in the ground outside, and so was the tall, broad-shouldered man beating the ever-loving crap out of a punching bag with the coiled tips of his tentacles.
What broke my heart was that only two tentacles punched the bag; the other two were wrapped around his middle, as if they could hold him together.