Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,14
too.”
Eva bit back a smile. Ares and Marek groaned. Cal sighed.
“What?” Valen looked at them all in turn, shrugging his shoulders as he raised his hands at his sides. “Not good enough?”
Valen huffed.
“Fine.” He grabbed Eva’s wrist, pulled her into his arms and brought his lips to her ear as he closed his eyes. He whispered, “I fucking love you. You know that, right?”
Eva wrapped her arms around him and ploughed her fingers into the choppy sides of his hair. “I do. Fucking love you too.”
Valen kissed her hard and disappeared in a swirl of black smoke.
Cal waved his hand through the vapour trail of the teleport and grinned. “That’s him gone for two minutes. I say we eat it all before he gets back.”
Daimon sank into his seat that almost resembled a western dining chair with the legs cut off, the wooden seat sitting directly on the tatami mats with a cushion on top of it, and the low back offering him some comfort. It had taken months to convince Esher to switch from just cushions to this more modern type of Japanese dining chair, but every one of his brothers had thanked him when Daimon had succeeded.
He crossed his legs and tried to shut out the crazy that was his family as he ate.
Valen actually took close to seven minutes to reappear, his cheeks flushed and eyes glowing gold. He settled Eva onto his lap, ran his tongue up her neck which had her murmuring something about the stud that pierced it, and then fed her, all of which Daimon also chose to ignore.
Keras arrived just as the meal was finishing, a distant edge to his emerald eyes.
“What’s up?” Ares came out of the kitchen with a fresh glass of water and set it down in front of Megan.
“I want to test something.” Keras idly spun the silver ring on his thumb with his index finger.
Not a good sign. Keras had a bad habit of doing that when he was troubled by something. Was that why he had disappeared on them, going AWOL again? Ares had told them all not to worry, but it was hard not to when the enemy could attack at any moment, targeting the gates.
Or one of them.
Keras was powerful, but he was vulnerable when alone.
It was about time his brother realised that.
Before something bad happened to him.
“What do you want to test?” Ares said.
Not a single ounce of emotion touched Keras’s eyes as he lowered them to Marinda. “Her.”
Marinda didn’t hesitate. She stood, neatened her mulberry woollen sweater, nervously smoothing it over her blue jeans, and met Keras’s gaze. “What do you want me to do?”
“We’ll take you to the Tokyo gate and see if you can open it. If you can, then we’ll come back here and wait another few days before trying again.” Keras finally stopped playing with his ring, drew the two sides of his long black coat back and slipped his hands into the pockets of his pressed black slacks.
“I’ll go with you.” Cal stood and his blond eyebrows knitted hard above stormy blue eyes when Keras shook his head.
“No. Both you and Valen will stay here. Eva too.” Keras didn’t budge an inch when Valen growled at him.
“You’re benching me?” Valen barked.
“You’re still recovering,” Ares said, a sharp edge to his voice. “And someone has to stay here to protect Megan and Aiko.”
Valen’s golden eyes lost their spark as he leaned back in his seat, folded his arms across his chest and grunted, “Fine.”
His older brother could pretend he was in a mood about being told to stay put, but Daimon could see straight through it to the truth—Valen was honoured that Ares wanted him to protect Megan and Aiko.
“I need to go too.” Air swirled around Cal, teasing the tips of his blond ponytail.
“You need to stay here.” Keras placed a hand on his shoulder and gently gripped it as he looked down into Cal’s eyes. “We are only going to do a little testing. We shall not be long.”
That didn’t allay the fear building in Cal, shining in his stormy irises.
Daimon nodded towards Marinda. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”
Cass stood, brushed down her dress and tipped her shoulders back. “Nothing will happen to Mari on my watch. You have my word on that, Calistos.”
It grated that Cal hadn’t looked relieved when Daimon had sworn to keep an eye on the woman he loved, but he had when Cass had made her promise.