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The archaeologist had been relieved to see us arriving back late last night after we’d finally emerged from the Dead Sea and made it back to camp. I’d delivered the good news - that we’d taken care of his hellion problem and scheduled this debrief for this afternoon to give my team time to rest and plan for our departure. Dr Taylor had been under the impression we’d been up in the mountains, and Cole had managed to organise the transport of our dive gear back to storage at the airport before Dr Taylor or his team had spotted it. Apparently though, our adventures below the city had stirred things up a bit on the surface.
"Minor earthquake," Dr Taylor continued, oblivious to my distraction. "Quite common around here, but this one caused a bit of a landslide on one side. And voila! A stash of these beauties just waiting for us."
He laid the ones he was holding out on his desk, placing each one just so and stroking a finger gently over each shard.
"Simply fascinating!"
"Absolutely," I agreed, a smile briefly surfacing on my face.
It was a damn shame, really. Even with the reveal of the supernatural world five years previously, Heaven, Hell and the Concordia still hadn’t managed to come to a decision about how much to tell the human race. Heaven had been adamant they knew nothing, and that they must rely on their faith in orderto deal with what had happened. Hell had been unsure of the way to proceed, and the Concordia had wanted to act as an intercessor between humanity and the supernatural, helping to educate and enlighten them. Heaven had immediately smacked that idea down, arguing that faith was the only way, and humans weren’t supposed to have proof of the divine. They had painted convincing pictures of planet wide chaos and anarchy, mass suicides and war that would inevitably be brought about by the large portion of humanity who only sought power and control. Considering my own experience of humanity, I almost agreed with them, but when I met people like Dr Taylor, with that spark of genuine curiosity and reverence for the past, I felt that maybe we might be underestimating them. For this man to get so excited about some pottery shards, how inspired might he be if I were to enable him to discover the city only a few hundred feet below where we were standing. Sadly, that decision was way above my paygrade.
I looked up as Cole rolled into the tent. The pathways between tents had been cleared pretty well to allow for his wheelchair, and he moved over to me, glancing at Dr Taylor’s desk in interest. He looked up at me and gave me that half smile that had my blood heating.
“Nearly all set for tomorrow’s departure,” he said. "Last few vans are being loaded, and our flight's on schedule for nine am."
"Good to hear," I said. “This place is stunning, but I’m ready for home, and my own bed.”
Cole grinned up at me, and my stomach flipped at the sight of the wicked gleam in his eyes. “Your own bed, huh?”
Dr Taylor’s phone rang, saving me from replying, and he answered it quickly, before covering it over and glancing at me. “It’s the museum… they want to… I just need to...”
“Go,” I said, waving him out of the tent, and he scurried out.
Cole moved over to the spare desk, setting his laptop down and opening it up. "I thought you might bunk in my trailer last night," he said, his voice carrying a thread of something that sounded a lot like disappointment. "Even if it was just for the superior shower."
"Seriously, Cole," I said while stretching out my arms, feigning a yawn for good measure, "I was dead on my feet. You wouldn't have gotten a wink of sleep with my snoring."
Cole chuckled, the sound rich and warm in the confines of Dr Taylor's office tent. "As if I'd mind. Just glad you're back safe, Alastor."
I offered a smile, but it didn't quite reach my eyes. Inside, my mind whirred and I bit down on my lip, feeling the emotions come rushing back, as Cole’s eyes fixed on me. Theo’s words came back to me from our fight, that Cole wanted more than friendship and an occasional hard fuck. With everything going on with Sariel, and the mission, I hadn’t even thought about it, but now it all came rushing back. Was Theo right? Cole had definitely seemed very relieved to see us arrive back last night, but did that mean there were actual feelings there? It didn’t seem possible to me. Cole had known me for centuries, and not only that, heknewme to an extent that very few did. It took a lot to earn my trust, and so far, it was only him, Carlisle and Theo that I would trust with my life. I’d admit, the idea of fucking Cole on a more regular occurrence certainly appealed to me, and it would need to be regular. Cole needed sex to live, but would I be enough to meet those needs? I wasn’t sure. I enjoyed his company, even when we weren’t working together, and I admired and respected the man greatly. Did that mean I would want a relationship with him? Relationships weren’t my thing, but if I’d been considering one with Sariel, then why wouldn’t I consider one with Cole? And would Sariel be ok with that if she agreed to be my mate? Angels were not known for approving ofsame sex relationships. What if she made me choose between them? It wasn’t a hard choice, it would be her. She was my mate, it couldn’t not be her. But to never see Cole again, to never see that smile or his eyes on me, to never feel his mouth pressed on mine or his long lithe hard body pressed against mine… I wasn’t sure I could give that up.
"Everything okay?" Cole asked, catching my distant look.
"Fine, just... thinking," I replied, forcing a half-smile.
"About?"
"Potential. Opportunities. What’s next," I answered, being deliberately vague. “We might have the scroll, but there was no sign of the ring.”
Cole rolled over to me, and slid his hands up my thighs, causing my breath to catch in my throat. “Really? Because you had that look on your face that gets me hot and you were giving off a serious fuck me vibe.” He slid his hand over my cock, which was already starting to harden, and I bit down on my lip as he rubbed me slowly. “Oh yes, I’d definitely say that has potential.” He rolled his eyes. “But we might have to wait till later for the opportunity.”
He pulled back, moving back behind the desk and grinning at me as Theo strode noisily into the tent. I took a deep breath, hoping my hard dick wasn’t too obvious, and made a show of bending down over Cole’s desk to look at the screen of his laptop. Cole's fingers danced across the laptop keyboard, a symphony of clicks and taps as he pulled up grainy images captured from high above.
"The drone coverage is extensive," he said, with a wicked grin in my direction.
"Uh-huh," I muttered, my gaze fixed on the display. Bastard knew exactly what he did to me. My little pet was going to pay for that later. After I’d spoken to Sariel.
"Alastor?" Theo's voice snapped me back to reality.
I stood up, confident I was no longer giving myself away, and my eyes fell on the rest of the team as they entered the tent, already searching their faces until I found the one I needed to see. Sariel came in last with Lily, smiling at something my apprentice had said. The full night’s sleep had definitely helped. There was colour in her face again, and the dark circles under her eyes were nearly gone. I caught the faint scent of blood from under the bandages around her shoulders, and realised she wasn’t fully healed yet, but the way she now moved without flinching told me her wounds were well on the way. I could scent her from here, that clear jasmine and musk scent that drove my hound crazy with desire. She’d showered recently, and washed her hair too, pulling it up away from her face and pinning it back even though it was still damp. I wanted to bury my face into the smooth pale skin of her neck and breathe her in.
Taking a deep breath, I dragged my eyes away from her before she caught me staring and gestured for them all to take a seat. Dr Taylor reappeared just as everyone was sitting down.
“Ok guys let’s get this wrapped up quick,” I said. “Dr Taylor, as I informed you last night, your little hellion problem has been sorted. Theo left two teams behind to provide security for the camp - they’ve been rotating shifts to make sure your people were safe, while I took a further team on deep reconnaissance to track down the nest that we suspected was somewhere in the mountains. Thanks to Cole’s drones we were able to find the nest entrance. The nest ran deep underground through some tunnels, but we’re fairly certain we’ve cleared them all out. A few hellions might have got through the net, but we have plans in place for that.”
Dr Taylor smiled up at me. “That’s such a relief,” he said. “With this new find, we’ve managed to secure additional funding and staff from the university, and knowing the attacks are going to stop, it means more researchers are less worried aboutcoming to work on site. Thank you so much, Mr Hawke, and all of you. I appreciate what you’ve done for us more than you can imagine.”
“Dr Taylor, this is our job. We are just happy that we’ve sorted the problem for you and your staff can now work in relative safety.”
