Eros

Chapter Twenty-Seven

A violent shaking to her arms woke her up abruptly. I swear to God...

All she wanted was one full night of sleep. Was that too much to ask for?

"Angie?" His body was looming over hers. There was no gentleness this morning. His face was dead set with determination. "Come on. Wake up baby."

She fanned his hand away and turned over. "Five minutes. That's all I'm asking for. Go away."

"No. No listen to me. You'll want to hear this."

He kept pulling, tugging at the duvet until she'd had enough. "Oh for the love of God—what? This had better be worth my time otherwise I'll strangle your god forsaken—"

"We're sneaking out."

"What?"

A grin swallowed the expanse of his face. "Ares has gone out, so me and you are sneaking out."

"Sneaking—what? You're not making any sense."

What were they? Fifteen?

"You don't trust him. You don't feel safe with him around. I want you to feel safe. So let's go."

Oh God—it was too early for this. She needed a shower, a cup of coffee, something sugary and time to digest. "But—what?"

"We'll take everything we need whilst he's gone. He's taken his portal jumper with him, but that doesn't stop us from stealing supplies. We'll be gone before he's back. Come on Ange. Let's do this." He hung from her arm, pulling her up and out of bed. "There're hundreds of places around here we can go to and get a portal jumper. We just have to do it before he gets back."

More of those damned portal jumpers. God, Angie didn't like them. Especially since, apparently, a few hours of uninterrupted sleep were too much to ask for.

"Won't he be angry with you?"

"He'll be fuming."

Then why—?

"He's your best friend," She deadpanned. "Don't you—don't you want to stay with him? Catch up? Figure this out together?"

She'd seen the dreams. Those idiots were as thick as thieves.

Eros had never left Ares out of a plan before.

What are you up to?

"We'll have plenty of time to catch up when I'm alive. Right now, he's more of a bother than a help. Come on. Any more of this and you'll have me thinking you want to keep him around." He took both of her hands, lifting them to his mouth to kiss the backs of them. "Give this a chance. Give me a chance."

It was a win-win. Eros got what he wanted and she didn't have to deal with Ares.

She tried to match his smile. "You mean give being a team a chance."

"You took the words right out of my mouth. Come on. I know you want to."

"You know what. Fuck it. We don't need Ares anyway."

"Atta girl. Up you get. Come on. We're on borrowed time here."

"And you're sure you want to do this? Ares went to the trouble of tracking and—"

"Ares will get his time when I come back to life. Right now, I want my Angie time. Do you have a problem with that?"

She held her breath.

Angie time. Time when he came back to life.

Why did everything feel like it was ending already? Like there was already a deadline on their time together.