The Alien's Equal (Drixonian Warrior #7) - Ella Maven Page 0,50

my head. I screamed as a body flew past my window. “Nero!” I shrieked as I scrambled to the side to peer down.

A upside-down head appeared right at my window. Blue. Bloody. Horned. He smiled; fangs stained with black blood. “Right here,” he panted.

“Get in the car!” I hollered at him. I wasn’t sure my heart could take anymore. As Nero pulled himself into the car through the small backseat window, I yelled to Mags. “Please tell me we’re getting out of this city.”

“Absolutely,” she answered, and her hands tightened on the wheel. We zoomed over the tall buildings of Alazar, heading toward a back gate. As Mags and her passenger discussed the best route to take, Nero collapsed into the back seat. I reached for him, running my hands over his body to assess if he had any new mortal wounds. Just when I thought my adrenaline had crashed, relief washed over me, sending another wave of endorphins zinging through me. “Are you okay?”

He winced as he stretched out his injured leg as best as he could in the confined space. “I’m alive. Remind me never to do that again.”

“That wasn’t what I meant by wanting to fly,” I muttered.

He barked out a harsh laugh, which ended in coughing fit.

I slapped his back. “Let’s have a boring life here on out.”

Nero grinned as he caught his breath, and I noticed his left fang was chipped. “Boring sounds great.” His smile faded and his eyes warmed. “I’m so proud of you.”

My heart pulsed happily. “I need to say this now, in case something happens, and I don’t get a chance. You were right. Every bit of it. When you hit your head and passed out, the only thing that kept me going was remembering what I was fighting for. I thought fighting for my friends was enough, but back there, I realized I wanted to fight for me too.” I jabbed my thumb at my chest as I fought back tears. “I wanted to fight for us. Our future. And that was why I kept going when all I wanted to do was curl in a ball and cry.”

Nero pulled me against him and shoved my face into his neck. God, he was filthy and sticky, but I didn’t care. He was whole, and we completed our mission. My wrists tingled, and I glanced down at them as black marks began to appear like an invisible tattoo gun.

“Nero!” I jerked up and grabbed for his wrists. The marks appeared there too, running in two parallel lines around his wrists. Between the bands, a few jagged lines appeared, looking like heartbeat lines circling our wrists.

The Uldani had scratched me, drawn my blood, and when Nero sent him sailing off the car to his death, Fatas awarded us with our loks. I touched the claw marks on the side of my face, and his hands covered mine. “I felt this when he marked you,” Nero said quietly.

“I heard you roar.”

He swallowed. “I could feel your pain.”

“Just a few scratches.” I smiled.

“I knew you were my mate,” he said. “It didn’t matter to me if I was blessed with a cora-eternal. Knowing Fatas honors our union makes it that much sweeter.”

I leaned into his touch just as my head felt like it swelled. A tree rose from the ground in my mind, its roots digging deep and implanting themselves in the soil of myself. The leaves spread open, soaking up the sun and rain. I leaned on the steady branches and inhaled the fresh oxygen. Yes, this was Nero’s aura, a steady oak that would never waver. Never fall. I could lean on it when I needed or stray from its trunk when I felt steady on my own. Nothing about his aura controlled or dominated.

“I can feel you,” I whispered. “Like a strong tree setting down roots in my mind.”

“You’re a brigger, chirping around and picking out dead twigs and rearranging my branches.”

I choked out a laugh amid my happy tears. “I guess you needed a little maintenance.”

“I’ll always let you fly, my mate.” He smoothed my hair off my forehead with gentle fingers. “And I’ll always be a firm, permanent place for you to land.”

Home. That was what Nero was. Home. I’d searched all my life for a place I belonged, but I was never satisfied. Probably because home would never be a place. It would always be a person—Nero. No matter where I was, on this planet or any other,