His Little Demon

Chapter Nineteen

A/N:

Accidentally fell asleep before I could put this out. Sorry. 🫣🤦🏼‍♀️

It is a bit short, but I promise that the next one will be longer. Just getting back into the groove of things.

Enjoy!

-B.

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(Astraea's POV)

Ten.

That's how many minutes we've been apart. That's how long it's been since I've seen his face, since I've touched him. It's all because of this stupid lady named Cressida told him that we can't be together 24/7 365 days a year for the rest of our lives.

She said, "You're going to have to be apart for longer than the length of a shower eventually. Might as well do it willingly and practice instead of it being randomly and throwing her into an absolute panic."

He agreed for whatever reason so now I'm stuck in our bedroom with her between me and the door and he's out there somewhere. Unless he's not. Unless he's left or he was taken. Or something more terrible has happened to him. Tears rolled down my cheeks as thousands of thought filled my head.

"Astraea, take deep breaths for me." She spoke calmly, coming over to sit on the edge of the bed.

I scooted farther away from her and reached out for Ares. He climbed on the bed and laid himself across my legs, growling and snapping at her hand when she got within inches of touching me. She spoke to Ares sternly before trying to speak to me again, but I paid her no attention. My chest hurt, my heart was racing, my hands were trembling, and I was starting to sweat. She tried one last time to touch my arm which triggered a growl and a bark from Ares.

The bedroom door opened a moment later with Vas and Tak both walking in. I moved out from underneath Ares and scrambled to get to Vas. Only when I was wrapped around him with my face against his neck breathing him in did the panic subside.

"Based on everything I've seen and heard, I'm drifting close to an insecure attachment style with her. Clinginess can be related to it, but it can also come from other factors like low self-esteem, past trauma, or moment of personal crisis. It's a fear-driven behavior aimed at maintaining closeness. If she can't see or hear you then you've left her, disappeared, never existed in the first place, etc." Cressida spoke, coming over to stand close. "I'd recommended continuing to practice being apart. You got to it five minutes and today was ten minutes so I'd say keep going like that in 5 minutes intervals. It'll be worse for her in the long run to continue as she is with you."

"Thanks, Cress."

"Of course. Anytime." She smiled.

Tak gestured towards the door. "I'll walk you out."

Once we were alone, Vas sat on the edge of the bed and pried me out from my hiding spot against his neck. Cupping my face with both hands, he used his thumbs to brush away the tears that continued to escape my eyes.

"D-Don't l-like her." I cried.

Laughing softly with a smile, he pressed his forehead to mine. 
"I know you don't, Agápi mo.* However, there very well may be days that we cannot be with each other and we may need to be apart for more than 5 or 10 mins. In those cases, you will have Ares and Titan and possibly even Tak. We'll even get you your own phone so maybe if we can't physically be together we can at least video chat."
(*My Love)

"Not the same."

"I know, sweet girl. It will be a necessary evil though. We can-"

His sentence was cut off when Tak came back in the room with a strange look on his face.

"Lo has been trying to call you."

Reaching down, Vas felt his pockets for his phone. "It must be in the living room or kitchen somewhere."

"He needs to speak to you."

"Have Kastor-"

"He's already here. In the living room. He was on his way up when I walked Cress out."

Vas carried me into the living where Lo was moving around like he couldn't sit still. Pacing back and forth in front of the large fireplace while wringing his hands together and mumbling to himself.

"What have you got?" Vas asked, sitting on the couch.

"I found them. One of them at least."

"Found who?"

He met my eyes for a moment before he looked at Vas. "Her brother."

Vas gripped me a little bit tighter.

"Where?"

"You know where."

"Fuck." He growled.

"Already have them gassing up the plane. Unless you wanted to fly like normal people." Tak spoke up.

"He's going to know we're coming either way." Vas sighed.

"He wouldn't ambush us at the airfield though, would he?"

"Probably. Here's what we're gonna do. Have them get the plane ready and then have them fly over to the states. While they're doing that, we will be blending in with the normal folk under fake names. Need to at least try and surprise him first."

"I can dig around and see if I can find where he's going to be when you land. You can go to him and get it over with so you can focus on Anton. Hell, he may even offer to help you."

Vas scoffed. "Yeah right."

"W-Who he?" I asked softly.

"They call him many things. Too many things to list. He's practically the King of all organized crime."

"Why?"

"Because he's the first person to ever be head of the Cosa Nostra and the Bratva at the same time."

"Hurt y-you?" I asked, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt as fear rushed through my system.

"Probably. But I highly doubt he'll kill me. He knows I'm too stubborn to die. Especially by his hands."

"W-What did you d-do?"

A sinister smirk spread across his gorgeous face. "I had Ares eat his sister."