~~Young~~

Chapter Seventeen

   She didn’t have to utter a word when she looked back to him, the question was there in her eyes.

   “I want you to be my…um…well…I don’t even know what to call it. I just want you to pick me to be with I guess. Just me,” he grinned, “if you couldn’t tell I’ve got kind of a thing for you.”

   “Thing?”

   “Yeah, I…I don’t even know why or what to call it, but from the second I met you I knew I wanted you to be mine. At first I thought it was just curiosity, then my ego talking after you gave me the brush off, repeatedly,” he chuckled, “but…” his expression softened, “but then something changed.”

   Frowning she pulled in a deep breath through her nose, like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to believe him or not.

   “Tell me, did the something change before or after you realized I was the one responsible for the break in?” ooo, he really didn’t like that spite that was laced into her words. This wasn’t going the way he wanted it to at all.

   “Well first, I never really knew who the guilty party was, its why I was brought in for exactly that, to find who was accountable.”

   “And second?”

   It was Gage’s turn to heft a deep breath, “and second, yes, it was after I knew it was you. The clues came together for me at the party at your sorority house.”

   Sera shook both her head and him off, pushing off the bed and putting much more space between him then he liked, “no wonder you kept showing up, you were just looking for the right time to take me in weren’t you?”

   “Actually…I was waiting for a confession from you. Even immortal trials require confessions before a death sentence can be granted, before even I could’ve killed you.”

   “Killed me?” she shot around, “how can you say that as if it’s no big deal?”

   “Because it’s not…not anymore at least. I told you beauty, everything changed for me on that train.”

   “Why do you keep saying beauty?” she snapped, “You’ve been calling me that since the train…”

    “Would you prefer something else? Oh what do mortals call their significant others in these times…hunny?” she shook her head, “baby?” that had her face twisting into disgust, “sweetie?” and that one earned him a roll of the eyes, “angel?”

   He felt his heart skip before he could even finish the word, angel. For some reason the thought of her as an angel stirred something indefinable inside him. Fear maybe? Because Sera as an angel would be forced to hunt him, force him to raise a hand against her to protect himself. Ah, well there you go, now that would truly be hell for him. He couldn’t- wouldn’t- imagine having to fight Sera in the way he and Michael had battled over the millennia.

   “I think we should save that one for you, no?” Sera cocked her head to the side and considered his wings.

   He shook out of his own thoughts at that, at hearing her refer to him as an angel again, “we need to talk about that Sera.”

   “Oh so now it’s just Sera?” she chuckled, “really, I wasn’t implying that I didn’t like beauty, I just wanted to know where it came from.”

    “Sleeping Beauty,” he murmured, “when I found you curled up in that booth it was the first thing that came to mind,” which reminded him about what else he discovered while she was sleeping, “now I’m pretty sure I’ve already been privy to this in the alley, but could you please explain this darkness to me?”