"There's no way you're still in pain," Nix said.
I had been lying on my back for over twenty minutes, groaning and taking slow deep breaths.
"You're right, I'm totally fine," I said in a strangled voice.
She laid her head on my left shoulder and placed her hand on my chest. She fit perfectly against me. I rested my arm on her lower back. I was simultaneously experiencing the best and worst feelings.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to cause you this much pain."
Her warm breath on my chin and her hand on my chest had me quickly forgetting about how badly my crotch was hurting.
"It was an accident, remember," I said, rubbing small circles against her back.
She closed her eyes and let out a soft moan as my hand moved.
"Yep, and as long as your hand doesn't move any lower, it won't happen again," she said in a voice that made me wanna bite her on the neck.
My hand froze. Every impulse I had urged me to move my hand lower and see what happened. Her sky-blue eyes narrowed on mine.
"You better not, Stormie. I won't show you any mercy."
My hand hovered over her back pocket, trembling. I wanted to do it so badly.
"Do it. She can't hurt you worse than she already has," Typhon said, making way too much sense.
I flexed my fingers.
"Stormie, I will kill you. Do you understand that?" Nix said with an amused smile.
That was it. I had to go for it. I brought my hand down in a short, quick motion.
Smack!
I smacked her on the butt, and she immediately started scrambling to climb on top of me. All I could envision her doing was mounting me and pummeling me with punches like an MMA fighter. That wouldn't do at all. As she tried to climb on top of me, I threw my body to the side and flipped her onto her back. Her eyes got as wide as dinner plates when I landed on her. Beneath me, I felt her left leg moving into position for a strike. I threw myself to the right as she thrust her knee upward and ended up with her legs spread around me.
Our positioning shocked both of us, and we lay there motionless until she placed a trembling hand on my face.
"You make it way too hard to control myself," she whispered.
"Then don't," I said before lowering my mouth toward hers.
She took short, rapid breaths with her hand still resting on my face. I could feel her heart pounding beneath me. She wanted me to kiss her as badly as I wanted to. When i was close enough to taste her breath, I stopped moving. There was a reason Nix had said we didn't have time to focus on romance. It was dangerous for us to get distracted. With a groan, I rolled sideways and lay in the grass beside her. She sat up, looking flustered.
"What happened? Why'd you stop?"
I closed my eyes and punched the ground at my sides. All I wanted was to feel her lips on mine again, and I couldn't. I wanted to kick Zeus's ass just for messing this up for me.
"You said we couldn't do that again."
I couldn't believe I had said the words that had come out of my mouth. I shook my head, mentally scolding myself. Nix sat up beside me.
"Oh yeah, I did say that, damn," she said.
She plucked several blades of grass out of the ground as we sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Wanna go get some ice cream?" She asked suddenly.
I shrugged. It didn't sound nearly as good as making out but it was better than this.
"Fine," I said and got up off the ground.
We walked out of my backyard and headed toward an ice cream shop we had visited a few times before.
"So tell me again why we can't date?" I said as we walked down the crowded avenue.
Nix scrunched up her nose.
"Who said anything about dating? I just wanted to make out," she said, giggling as she smacked me on the butt. "Now we're even."
I jerked forward, surprised by the smack.
"Seriously, what's stopping us?" I asked.
There were too many people out on a random Thursday afternoon for my liking. I slid my hand into hers just to keep connected while we were moving through the crowd of people.
"Okay, all jokes aside, you're marked for death by two different groups of powerful beings. And now that I've sided with you over them, I am too. Any moment could be our last."
I thought about that. She had a point. There was a lot against us. Didn't that mean we should make the most of every moment, though? What was the point of living if you had to do it in misery?
"I feel like we should act on our feelings since our time might be limited," I said.
Saying that out loud gave me a stinging feeling in my chest. It was beyond unfair that I was being targeted because I was of Typhon's bloodline. Nix shook her head slowly.
"No, because those kinds of feelings can cloud your judgement. That might actually lead to one of us dying in a situation we might've survived otherwise."
She rubbed the tips of her fingers against the back of my hand as we walked. I didn't say anything else as we approached the pink and white-colored ice cream shop. I opened the door for her to walk in. A bell mounted at the top of the door announced our arrival with a metallic ding, as the smell of milk and sugar welcomed us inside.
Before she could step inside, a guy with long brown ringlets covering most of his face stepped out. His shoulder slammed into hers, and she stumbled back half a step.
"Hey, watch where the he…."
Nix's voice trailed off when she realized who had bumped her. He brushed the curls out of his face and stared at her with a wide grin on his face. Nix stepped sideways so that she was directly between him and me. I let go of the door and started to step around and stand beside her, but I couldn't move. My legs had become so heavy I couldn't lift them. I looked down and saw what looked like solid water binding my legs to the pavement. Nix reached back and gripped my shirt. Whoever this guy was, he had her rattled.
"Phoenix, what a coincidence running into you here. Long time no see," he said. His raspy voice reminded me of a serpent's.
"I'm sure it was. What do you want, Joul?" Nix said without any humor in her voice.
He placed a hand over his white t-shirt covered chest, pretending to be offended. It was then that I saw the necklace hanging around his neck. I remembered the eye with the slash across it from the night Nix crushed hers in my room. Was he in the organization that raised her?
"I heard you quit because you fell for your assignment. Is that true? Is that him behind you?"
He rattled off so many questions I wanted to punch him in the face myself. None of that was any of his damn business.
"Why I left is my business alone," Nix answered. Impatience gave her words a sharp edge.
"So that's a yes. Too bad, you know what the penalty for betrayal is."
He ran his thumb across his throat to symbolize someone being killed. Nix let go of my shirt and stepped closer to him.
"Are you threatening me, Joul?"
Black electricity danced from her fingertips and up her arms. Her hair stood up as electricity arced through it. Bolts of black lightning started striking the ground between the two of them. I stood frozen in place, both horrified and impressed. Joul threw up his hands in surrender.
"Calm down, Phoenix. I'm not here to fight. You and the Stormblood are safe," he said, looking past her at me until she stepped back in front of him. "Until the order comes down. Then all bets are off."
He walked past her and away from the store. Nix watched him until he vanished, leaving behind several dozen bubbles. Once he was gone, the water holding me in place vanished, and I was free to move again.
"Sorry about that, I hoped he hadn't seen you already," she said as we entered the store and took a seat in the back.
"Please tell me he's not one of the people I should be afraid of. He's a walking bubble bath," I said as a server approached our table carrying two menus.
Nix snorted and threw her hands over her face.
"Welcome to Sprinkles. I'll just leave these here and give you two a few minutes," the server said in a voice too high-pitched and jolly to be authentic.
She walked away after handing me the menus. I gave one of them to Nix. She covered her face with it and laughed quietly. Her shoulders bobbed as she did. I read over my menu as she collected herself. After a few seconds, she lowered her menu as well.
"I can't believe you called him that," Nix said, shaking her head as she scanned the menu.
"Speaking of name-calling, what was that name he called me?" I asked, laying my menu down. I always ordered a chocolate shake. Today wouldn't be any different.
"He called you Stormblooded. That's what Typhon's bloodline is known as," she said before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and staring out the window beside her. She tapped her index finger on the table rapidly.
There was more to this story that she wasn't saying. I placed my hand on hers. She stopped tapping and looked over at me.
"What aren't you telling me?" I asked.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before answering.
"I never confirmed or even told them what bloodline I thought you were from. They've been following us."