The Demon's Song - By Kendra Leigh Castle Page 0,36
given, left him with a strange and somehow pleasurable ache deep in his chest. He hadn’t wanted to speak about his work in a very long time. Once his ability to compose had gone, even thinking too deeply about it had brought on either blind rage or black despair. Why didn’t it hurt to talk about it with Sofia?
“I was the Angel of Song,” he said, testing his own reaction as much as hers. And still, he felt none of the searing pain he expected. Sofia only smiled, gently.
“I’m not surprised,” was all she said. Despite the curiosity in her eyes, she didn’t press further, and he appreciated it. He had said enough for today. Enough for centuries, probably. They walked away from the snake exhibit in a silence that was warm and comfortable. Sofia’s presence seemed to be a balm to all the darkness that roiled inside of him. Phenex knew he’d be up puzzling over it later, but for now, he tried to just accept it.
“You’re awfully interested in that snake for somebody who doesn’t like them,” he said. They walked a bit more slowly than they had been. Even for an immortal, Phenex decided, two hours with an excited tour guide was tiring. They’d seen the Hope Diamond and woolly mammoths, fossils, and insects. None of it would have been anything more than mildly interesting to him but for Sofia’s reactions.
“Well, I don’t mind snakes, as long as they’re not in my apartment and I’m not in danger of being eaten by one. I like animals in general. Birds, things with fur, things with fins…I probably should have been a zookeeper, not a nurse. But I like people pretty well, too, and I wanted to make sure I could get a job right out of college, so nursing it was. I get my fix this way, or I watch the Discovery Channel. It works.”
Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and she reached up to brush some of it back. He liked the way she looked today, in tight jeans and brown boots that came up to her knees, and a long cream sweater that hung loosely and yet still managed to hint tantalizingly at the curves beneath it. She had her coat draped over one arm, while the other, closer to him, swung loose. He had a sudden, strange urge to grab her hand. Phenex turned his head away and frowned, clenching his fist instead of reaching for her. Maybe he needed sleep or something. He hadn’t bothered in days.
“I’m surprised you don’t have any pets, then,” Phenex said, trying to distract himself.
Sofia seemed oblivious to the turmoil she was causing him. She smiled and shrugged, watching a family walk past with a child who was proudly carrying a large, new, and very purple stuffed lizard.
“I wish. The building has a no-pet policy. Besides, Amy’s allergic to cats, which is about all I could handle with my hours right now. I might be able to manage a hamster or something, but with my luck it would escape and stick around to gnaw holes in the cereal boxes. So, no pets. Yet.” She glanced at him. “What about you? No pet hellhound or anything?”
He hesitated, then offered another small fragment of himself up for scrutiny. “No. But most of my brothers have an animal form. Birds, mainly. One snake. A griffin. Meresin just has one form, which is dangerous enough. And then there’s Levi.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Ah. That’s the one who got you all out, right? Gadreel said he was...well, what is Levi, exactly?”
Phenex tried to come up with a good way to describe what Leviathan was when he didn’t look like a man.
“You’re right,” Sofia said. “I don’t want to know.” They walked in companionable silence for another minute. Then she said, “So you can really turn into a phoenix?”
He hunched his shoulders a little as he nodded, expecting yet another joke in what seemed to be an endless stream of Harry Potter jokes since the books had come out. Instead, Sofia simply said, a little shyly, “I’ve always loved that myth. Maybe you’ll show me sometime.”
Phenex looked at her, surprised. “Yeah, maybe.” He hadn’t assumed his avian form in a very long time, finding it an unpleasant reminder of things lost. But for her, he found he might actually consider it.
She smiled her pleasure, and he felt a weird, not entirely comfortable sensation start