“Thanks,” Ezra murmured, failing to hold off a full-blown blush. He was never so glad for his longish hair covering his eyes as he was in that moment, suddenly vulnerable. This was different, spending time with someone he found attractive in a non-club or bar setting, where the goal was sex, and both parties knew it. He had very limited experience—alright, no experience—in talking to someone he was so physically affected by and needing to talk about something else, something important. Having to talk to someone he was so powerfully attracted to was difficult.
He was also tired, so that was making his poor brain flail about even more than usual.
“Can it be physically destroyed? From what little I’ve read about curse-breaking, that seems to be a popular option?”Raum asked, noticeably careful in how he broached the subject. There was an unfortunate and vocal minority in academic communities that saw curse-breakers as vandals destroying history and historical objects for a paycheck, and Ezra hoped Raum wasn’t one of those academics.
“You’re not wrong,” Ezra shrugged one shoulder. “Sometimes that’s the best answer to a bad situation. Gets tricky when the cursed artifact is of historical value and an institution merely wants the curse deactivated instead of the whole thing burned down to carbon atoms. But yeah, I usually incinerate the artifact if I’m not being paid to do it the hard way, and the curse or hex won’t be sent out into the world if no longer bound to the object.”
Ezra paused and thought about it for a heavy moment before continuing. “The storm skull is incredibly powerful. I honestly don’t think I could incinerate it fast enough, or hot enough, to overcome the skull’s constant attempts at healing. Maybe? And the soul, what if it wakes and fights me off, or….I worry what will happen with the energy it contains—it may be explosive if it’s destroyed suddenly. All that energy has to go somewhere, and the mage, or mages, handling the destruction may not be enough to buffer it, even under shields and physical barriers. Chemical incineration may be an option, or there may be a mundane solution without magic involved at all, like an incendiary bomb. But then I’d worry about the magical energy releasing if the skull was literally blown up or thrown in a furnace.”
“Too many maybes, too many unknowns,” Raum said, with a worried pinch between his brows. “I always go for more research when faced with so much uncertainty.”
“Yeah,” Ezra agreed with a sigh, hugging Lilith to his chest, enjoying the soft rumble from her purrs. “At the moment, the storm skull is in a reliquary, and no one has called for me to come and shut it down again, and it’s not snowing outside, soI am making the assumption it’s safely contained for now while we learn more about it.”
“We’ve got some good places to start looking,” Raum said, and Ezra looked up at him when he walked over and held out a hand. “Time enough for you to get some real sleep in a real bed. I’ll see about having some answers waiting for you in the morning. And if you need another day to rest, I won’t mind.”
Ezra took the hand and let Raum pull him to his feet, holding Lilith with one arm to his chest. He wavered a bit, but Raum held him steady until he was certain he wasn’t going to fall over. “Sleep sounds great. Thank you for everything. Especially letting me vent. You went above and beyond.”
Raum held his hand, his grip firm but not at all one meant to intimidate or something equally silly that Ezra experienced from some men trying to soothe their insecurities with over the top displays of masculinity.
They stood in comfortable silence for a long moment, Ezra drinking in the warm clasp of Raum’s hand and the heat radiating off the bigger man. He smelled wonderful, and Ezra wanted to lean in and bury his face in the collar of Raum’s sweater and take a deep breath. He flushed a bit and mentally scolded himself, afraid in his exhausted state he might do something so rude as to blatantly sniff a near stranger. He wasn’t a werewolf who could explain away such a faux pas.
Raum gave him a soft smile, and Ezra couldn’t help the answering smile that bloomed on his lips, bright and silly and surely making him look goofy and ridiculous, not at all mysterious and sexy.
“I’d love to stay here all evening holding your hand, but you’re one yawn away from falling asleep on your feet,” Raum said softly, gently teasing, and his interest was so obvious Ezra had no trouble at all recognizing the heat in the sexy professor’s gaze.
“Will you catch me again if I fall over?” Ezra asked almost breathlessly, Lilith purring a bit louder, tail flicking.
“I would absolutely catch you,” Raum promised, his full mouth lifting in a sexy half-smile that did things to Ezra’s blood pressure. “Holding you in my arms was not at all a hardship, though perhaps this time you can be awake and consenting. More enjoyable for both of us that way.”
He was nodding before he even came up with words for a reply. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Maybe a date, later, when we aren’t dealing with the end of the world?” Raum asked, and he tilted his head to the side a bit, a thick strand of honey-brown hair slipping free from the gathered mass at the back of his head.
“A date?” Ezra squeaked, and he skipped past embarrassed when Raum gave him a brilliant smile at the noise. He coughed lightly and tried again. “I’d love a date, but I live in San Francisco. Once the storm skull is destroyed, I’m going home.”
Raum wasn’t at all deterred, and he somehow got even closer, forcing Ezra to tip his head back a smidge so he could keep his eyes on that expressive and handsome face. “I don’t mind long-distance relationships, but let’s just see if we fit first. A lunch date then, or an early dinner, while you’re here? Even curse-breakers must eat. In fact, I think making sure you get a good meal should be a priority. Keep your strength up so you can solve this problem.”
Ezra was nodding before Raum even finished his pitch, and he immediately replied. “I like lunch. Yes, please.”
If Raum didn’t mind the several thousand-mile distance between their two cities, then Ezra wasn’t going to hesitate.
“It’s a date, then.” Raum lifted Ezra’s hand to his lips and stole his breath with a soft and chaste kiss to the back of his knuckles, and Ezra lost the battle with his blushes, again,heat shimmering up his arm and sweeping across his body in response.
“Ready to go?” Harlan asked from the office door, and Ezra reluctantly withdrew his hand from Raum’s, wanting to stay in the office despite everything—screw saving the world. An intelligent, kind, caring, and handsome man just kissed his hand and liked his cat.
Reality intruding, Ezra nodded to Harlan and hugged Lilith to his chest, his familiar pressing the top of her head to the underside of his chin, purring loudly. His familiar approved.
Ezra slowly followed Harlan out of Raum’s office, and he only looked back a couple times, thrilled each time to see Raum watching him go. He had very little clue what he was doing, in terms of the flirtation with the sexy professor, but he liked it and wanted more.
He could flirt and save the world at the same time, right?
CHAPTER TWELVE
RAUM
Raum sank onto the couch in his office, staring at the doorway where Ezra and the MERS soldiers had stood only a few minutes ago. The library felt empty, too quiet, and for the first time since he started this job, that bothered him. He usually appreciated solitude, and yet he was off balance.
Ezra Redmayne was something of an enigma, but not in a bothersome way—his curiosity was piqued and he hesitated for all of a second before pulling out his phone and searching the internet. He’d already done a cursory search on Ezra, but curiosity had him searching Ezra’s name again and going deeper.
