Just Bite Me Already

Chapter 18

Alec let his eyes travel over Magnus' sleeping face, trying to memorize every pore and line. The time would have been approaching dawn back in their own realm. The sky outside should be that shadowy predawn gray. Instead, the usual orange glow of the Edom atmosphere broke through the windows and lit Magnus' face up.

All of the times Magnus had watched him walk out of the door, heading for patrol, flitted through Alec's head. Is this how Magnus had felt? Scared, anxious about whether I would return? He wondered. He knew that he couldn't afford the fear that crept through his gut but he couldn't stop its passage.

While he and Cain had their marks, protection that made them pretty much indestructible, Magnus didn't. Yes, Magnus' magic was formidable. Magnus was a force to be reckoned with. But Magnus didn't have the same guarantees that he and Cain did. He wanted to ask Magnus to sit it out, even if he knew that would never happen.

Alec's grip on Magnus' shoulder, where Magnus rested on his chest, tightened infinitesimally when he looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost time for them to leave. The sounds, from outside, of a gathering army, had been reaching him for the last half hour but he had wanted Magnus to have a little more sleep. So instead of waking Magnus, he had watched him.

Time, however, stood still for no man. Alec watched as Magnus' eyes rolled under his eyelids, Magnus' breathing pattern changing, and knew that his husband was on the brink of waking. Without saying a word when Magnus' eyes blinked open, he pressed his lips to his husband's forehead.

"Are you overthinking things, Alexander?" Magnus asked croakily, looking up into Alec's eyes. The worry he saw there was plain as day, even if Alec pulled a small, tight smile onto his face. It didn't quite reach his eyes.

"It's almost time," Alec replied, unable to stop his eyes from sweeping over Magnus' face once more. They had made love for hours before exhaustion had claimed them both, falling asleep wrapped around each other, clinging desperately to each other. Even while they slept. It wasn't enough.

"I have something for you," Magnus said, untangling himself from Alec's cool embrace. The heat wasn't as stifling in the loft as it was outside but it was still warm enough for him to miss the cool touch of Alec's skin. He pressed his lips to Alec's when his husband's grip tightened slightly before Alec let him go.

Alec sat up when Magnus climbed from their bed and disappeared into his closet. Magnus appeared a moment later, clutching three hangers and a small gift box. Intrigued, he took and opened the box when Magnus handed it over. A small red silk package rested inside. An Onamouri Charm, he realized, his still heart aching.

"You made this, for me?" Alec asked, lifting the beautiful charm out of the box, relinquishing it to Magnus when Magnus reached for it.

"I want you to have every protection possible today," Magnus said, taking the charm in his hand and raising his left hand so that Alec could see his own charm, secured to a bracelet around his wrist. Everything in the loft was a replica of their stuff, except for this. It had been in his pocket when he had left for Alicante, the day he had come to Edom.

"I have my mark," Alec said, implying that Magnus didn't.

"You do..." Magnus said, his eyes sweeping over Alec's body. Raising his hand, he curled his fingers and focussed his magic on Alec, silently uttering a complicated spell that he never thought he would ever use on his husband. On anybody, ever again, for that matter. But he needed to test a theory.

A strange sensation overcame Alec, a deep desire to spring from the bed. That was exactly what he did, his limbs feeling heavy, as though they didn't belong to him. Jumping up, he performed a series of perfect pirouettes, albeit slowly, silently asking himself why he was doing it but unable to stop himself. It was like his brain was telling his reluctant body to move without his permission.