He warily inched closer.
“You should also really give Veronica a raise and—”
Levi crashed his mouth on mine. I wrapped my arms around his waist, relaxing as his scent enveloped me.
“I believe you,” he whispered and kissed me again. Sweet and slow, it lit me up like a thousand fairy lights riding through my veins.
Somewhere in the distance, shouts and thudding feet got louder. Miles sprinted into the room and we broke apart, just before he crushed us all back together in a bear hug.
“Okay. That’s… Yeah, no.” I wriggled out of it, but Levi held fast on to my hand, while he proceeded to apologize to Miles for the trouble he’d caused him.
“Shut up, Levi, and let your girlfriend take you to the infirmary.”
“Lovah,” I said.
Both men grimaced.
“Jonah has been secured,” Miles said. “I trust you’ll leave him in my care now?”
“He’s all yours,” Levi said, holding tightly to my hand. “I’ve got everything I need.”
We ended up with two paramedics as escorts, asking Levi all kinds of questions as we went to the infirmary. He was remarkably lucid, though he moved slowly, wincing every now and again.
I sat quietly by his side while he was given scary shots and vision tests and hooked to a heart monitor.
Levi didn’t say much, nodding abashedly while the House medic admonished him that he was going to do permanent damage if he ever invested that much of his power into a single illusion again. I’d have chalked it up to post-illusion fatigue if the expression on his face hadn’t grown more and more pensive.
The doctor finally finished all the tests. He gave Levi some pain meds for his fractured ribs and a couple of sports drinks to combat mild dehydration, but at last Levi was told that he was good to go home and rest.
“I want someone to stay with you,” the doctor said.
I raised my hand. “That would be me.”
Levi gave a wan smile.
I waited until the man was gone and Levi was putting his suit jacket on with slow, careful movements. “What’s on your mind, Leviticus?”
“Nothing.” He wrapped his tie around his neck, tying it tightly. Oh boy. Locked-down mode in full force again.
“Bullshit. You thought I was dead. I’d have been miffed if you hadn’t gone all dark side.”
“It isn’t funny.”
“My darling Levi, you’re a monster. This is not news to either of us.”
“Not this monstrous,” he said. “How can you be okay with this? I didn’t even think twice about what I was doing. Jonah had killed you and I wanted him to pay. No matter how I came off or what it cost me. All my years of being in control and I threw it away in a heartbeat.”
“Because of me.” I took a step back. “You’re worried I’ll do something and make you lose control again when I get hurt.”
Not if.
“No. Ash. Fuck, I’m making a mess of this.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I’ve always known exactly how deep my darkness runs. That’s why I’ve always kept the worst of it in check. No one who truly mattered was ever supposed to see it.”
“You’re forgetting how bright your light is. You only have this darkness because you care so much. What we have might be new, but if our positions were reversed? I’d have ripped that fucker’s magic out in the most painful way possible. We are who we are, and you’re the only one I trust to see it.”
The tension drained out of his body and he hugged me, burrowing his face in my neck.
“Do you want to still come home with me?” Levi said, and handed me my jacket.
“Yes. So long as we can stop by my place to get clean clothes, because I need a shower like nobody’s business. Then you have to feed me.”
“You know, most women would want to take care of me after the ordeal I just went through.”
“The one of your own making?”
Levi tugged on my hair. “Be nice.”
“I’m always nice. Also,” I said, “as we’ve established, I am not most women.”
“No,” Levi said. “Most women induce ninety-seven percent less heart attacks in me.”
“Where’s the fun in that? Hey, Leviticus?” I caught his hand, swinging ours together.
“Yeah?”
“Dead people, psycho illusions, I don’t care. I’m happy.”
His eyes danced and his smile was sweet and all-mine. “Me too.”
Rafael sent me a text ordering me to meet him immediately at the library.
I got a sour taste in the back of my throat.
Me: Unconscious. Sorry. Try back tomorrow.
I’d promised to stay with Levi. Moreover, I’d only barely convinced him that he could share all sides of himself with me and I wasn’t going anywhere. I couldn’t run out on him now.
I wasn’t going to add another scar to the ones he bore.
Attendant mine: Your Jezebel duties come first.
The words sat there, heavy, black, and immutable, reminding me that before Levi, I’d made a promise to serve the greater good. I’d accepted all of Levi. Would he do the same and not get tired of a girlfriend who couldn’t take one night to put him first?
“I have to go,” I said, my voice heavy with regret. “Rafael wants to see me in the library. A.S.A.P.” I tried to slide my hand from Levi’s, but I couldn’t make myself let go.
A tightness flashed over Levi’s face and he pulled free of my grasp. “I’ll ask Miles to stay with me.”
Fuck it. I pulled out my phone to tell Rafael to wait until morning, but another text came in before I could.
Attendant mine: Now, Ashira!
Rafael was not an exclamation point kind of guy. Maybe an ellipsis in extreme circumstances, or in the event of the zombie apocalypse he’d forgo a period, but such profuse emotion? In a text? Horror.
“Rafael must have…” My legs gave out on me and I dropped heavily onto a chair.
“Must have?” Levi prompted.
“He must have cracked the codename.”
I still harbored revenge fantasies around this person for ordering my dad’s execution, but this interlude with Levi had dampened
