“I could help.”
“Absolutely not. You’ve already caused enough chaos in the library.”
“Wait,” I said. “The hellhounds… are they going to keep chasing me?”
Nat glanced back; his expression unreadable. “They’re guardians. They respond to threat and anomaly. You, Jude, have just made yourself both.”
57
ANGEL
You’re doing great…
The song broke through the haze of sleep. My eyes snapped open.
Light bled through unfamiliar curtains. Daytime, late. I catalogued the room. Borrowed. Bland, but upscale. Xavier’s safehouse.
The phone kept ringing, Jude’s ringtone. He’d set it himself, that silly boyish grin on his face.
Wait.
I jerked upright, fumbling for the phone on the side table. The ringing stopped just as my fingers closed around it.
I hit redial. It rang. Once. Twice. Five times. Voicemail. The sound of Jude’s no-nonsense voice made my heart ache:Leave a message after the beep.
I tried again. Nothing.
I stared at the screen, at the missed call with Jude’s name attached, and wondered if I was going crazy. My heart hammered, a frantic drum against the silence where the bond should be. I slumped back against the pillows. The fight drained out of me.
A weight landed on my chest. “Oof,” I choked, and opened my eyes. Nox, in cat form, filled my vision, his nose an inch from mine, purple gaze narrowed. “Uh, hi?”
He gave a low, chidingmerow.
“What? Do you need out? Aren’t you magic or something?” I glanced around him, finding the door cracked open just enough for a cat.
I should get up and face the world, be the leader they expected, but the pillow beneath my head smelled like Jude. Someone must have taken it from my apartment and given it to me.
Any other time, I’d have been embarrassed about clinging to a scent, but my heart ached. The beast of shadow and rage slept, burrowed in my soul. I knew it wouldn’t take much to awaken it, but the quiet gave me a long breath of mental clarity. Which, of course, added more questions.
Nox purred, a soft, grounding vibration against my sternum. My hand moved automatically to stroke his back. Nox nipped my chin.
“Ouch. Dammit.”
He began to knead my collarbone, claws digging in. Making biscuits. It hurt with a clarifying sharp, and physical pain. I focused on it. Nox leaned in, bumping his forehead hard against my jaw. A demand. When I didn’t move, he did it again, more insistent.
“I’m up,” I grunted, though I wasn’t. What was the point?
He trilled, hopped off my chest, paused, then jumped back up, landing with that brutal thousand-pound cat-paw stand.
“Are you trying to break my ribs?” I raised a brow at him. We stared at each other. Sharing a moment of understanding. He missed Jude too.
“I need to find him,” I said and swung my legs over the side of the bed, and sitting up, knocking Nox off my chest. He grumbledat me as I pushed myself up to take a step toward the door. Nox batted at my ankle.
I glared down at the fae-cat-dragon. “What?”
He hopped off the bed, leaned against the bedroom door to nudge it shut, then trotted to the open bathroom doorway. He sat, waiting.
“Is this your way of saying I stink?”
