Chapter 57

BAZ

I wake in the night with a red hue over my eyes and it takes me a moment to realise what it is. Sometime in the night I must have turned again so my back is against Simon's chest, his broad shoulders swathing me in warmth. One of Simon's arms is slung over my side and his hand is resting on my stomach, his leathery wing is draped protectively over both of us. The appendage is soft and warm and I take hold of the corner and rub it absently between my fingers. I press back slightly against Simon, in part to seek out his warmth and in part for comfort, buy mostly because it feels so good. I realise I want him.

"Mmmm," Simon hums against my shoulder. I didn't mean to wake him, even if I desire him, so I lie still and wait for him to go back to sleep.

He doesn't, and his tail unfurls slightly from around my leg as I turn to face him. It moves instinctively to let me turn, and then it unwinds itself from my leg completely and wraps around my waist, pulling me towards him until we're flush against each other. That tail is going to be the death of me one day – Simon hasn't even opened his eyes and it already anticipates what I want.

I cup his cheek and touch his mouth, brushing my thumb lightly over his bottom lip. His lips part as he opens his eyes, he stares at me.

He can definitely feel my hardness against him now, thanks to his tail reeling me in nice and close. He can't see me because it's too dark for him but I can see him perfectly. He looks smug.

I don't wait. I press my mouth to his, picking up where we left off earlier and immediately taste the brioche and butter he had as a late night snack. He thinks I don't know he snacks in bed and I don't bother to bring it up. I don't see any reason to, even if his cleaning spells are like a first year student. I lick the last remnants of butter from his lips and kiss him again, hungrily this time. I must surprise him with my urgency because he gasps into my mouth. I swallow it down.

We kiss in the dark and well into the night, and when I slide our tongues together he moans a slow, breathy moan. I kiss his top lip, take his bottom lip between my own, press my mouth against his again and again. He kisses me back just as willing.

After hunting sex is always the best sex with Simon. I'm warm and flushed and full of blood, so there's absolutely no chance of biting. (No matter how much I love Simon, the urge will always be there.) Not that it stops Simon of course. I don't know if he does it to taunt me or if he thinks it's a great joke but he's always nipping and grazing my skin with his teeth, and always lifting his chin to give me unfettered access to his neck. He's dangerously blasé about my vampirism, and he knows it drives me wild.

Crowley I want him.

I move my mouth to his jaw, kiss the rough week old growth and smile to myself and think how easily I'm going to win this bet– there's no way Simon will put up with the itching again, it almost drove him insane last time and that was only eight days.

I move my lips to his neck and place a series of kisses just below his ear. I can just make out those two little moles there and he moans as I kiss them with an open mouth, my tongue licking at the skin where he's superbly sensitive. I trail some kisses down his throat until I reach the base, and when he tilts his head to one side I start sucking at that spot, my spot, where I can make him cry out in sheer fucking pleasure if I stay here long enough.

When I'm done, I make my way back to his mouth. He's panting up a storm as he crushes his mouth into mine, kissing me greedily. I trace my fingers across his chest – touch soft skin over firm muscle, trail slowly down past his stomach, his abdomen, further. I keep my eyes on him, I want to be near his face so I can kiss him and watch him and breathe in his scent as we take each other higher.

Simon skates his hand along my skin, down across my stomach, brushing his fingers lightly across my hip as he makes his way down. I let out an involuntary gasp when he wraps his fingers around me.

We start moving.

We don't use words tonight, there's no need. I've long ago memorized every moan and gasp I can elicit from Simon; what he likes and what he doesn't, what drives him to the brink and how to bring him back, just to take him higher again. I love that I can make him come undone with the touch of my hand, the stroke of my fingers, the lick of my tongue.

We take it slow because we've got all night. (And all day tomorrow if we like.) So we take our time to explore the planes and dips of each other's bodies, skin on skin, touching and tasting, taking each other higher with every touch, taking each other to the edge again and again until we finally let go.

By the time we're done, the sun is starting to make its way into our room, casting its soft buttery hue across the duvet and Simon's skin. Simon's already snoring softly against my shoulder and I'm not far behind. The world is drifting peacefully away as I sink towards sleep, wrapped in Simon's strong arms, exhausted, exquisitely sated, spent.

SIMON

Yeah, so we've been shagging pretty much non-stop since Baz came back to Paris, which has been, you know, pretty fucking brilliant. In between all that shagging though, we've done other things. One day he beat me at cards so many times I ended up throwing the cards in the rubbish. We had a film marathon another day.

And we have gone out a few times. Baz got it in his head that I need to practice my French so he dragged me to the cinema one night. I tried to argue it was a stupid idea because I won't understand any of it, but he said I spent enough years studying the language at school so surely some of it sunk in. Then I said he could just speak French to me right here in the apartment if he wants me to practice but he said no. I think he just wanted to get us out for a bit, and out of our trackies, so he found a film that had English subtitles and I had no choice but to go. The film was all right, I guess, but I spent all my time reading the subtitles that I missed most of it.

Our meetings still happen every week, but there's really not much else to discuss these days, so we usually just have a quick video chat to talk about the upcoming Coven meeting and whatever story The Magickal Record is running. Professor Bunce does another round of measuring the holes, ready for the Coven meeting and the results, (still no change) get leaked to the paper via our slightly convoluted and not strictly legal process. (Professor Bunce sends them to me, I leave them lying around for Baz to stumble across and read, he may or may not mention them to Fiona in passing, she hands them over to her contact at the paper.)

Everything really hangs on the next meeting. Penny says her mum is going to table a late agenda item to review my banishment in the light of the latest data from Penny's dad. She's going to add it to the agenda just before the meeting. She says that since that's what Reggie did when he pushed the Coven to vote to get me banished, so two can play at that game. Baz has the upmost respect for Mitali these days, doubly so when she comes up with these sort of plans.

Penny calls me all the time and she and Micah are always positive and confident that this will all be sorted really soon. I like her optimism but I'm not as certain as she is. I have her on my laptop now because she skyped me a few minutes ago.

"Are you going to go back to work as soon as you get back home?" Penny's voice comes out shrill through the speaker and I turn the volume down a little. She's sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of tea and research notes all around her. Micah is working next to her.

"I suppose," I shrug. I need to get back to doing something – and earning something. The doing something and earning something part is important to me, but I haven't actually thought about my day to day job since all this started.

"Dad says you have a whole year off if you want it," she pushes. "But I suppose it would be good for you to get straight back into it. Don't you think, Simon?"

Trust Penny to already be thinking about the future. She's always on at me to sort out what to do next. What to do after Watford, what to do after I finished uni, what to do when Alex left. I wouldn't be surprised if she already had a ten year plan mapped out for her and Micah. She's relentless.

"I suppose," I say again. I can see Baz looking at me sideways, we haven't discussed when I'll return to work yet with all that's been going on. "I dunno."

"It would be good for you to do something when you get back," Micah suggests.

"Yeah I know. But I haven't really thought about my job in a while," I tell them truthfully.

"There's no hurry, Simon," Baz says, taking my hand in his. "You don't have to decide straight away." He says this even though he knows how important it is to me.

"Yeah I know."

I've hardly thought about my job at all, but I think about the wand the Mage gave me all the time. I'm still trying to work out how to get it snapped by the Coven without them finding out it was the Mage that gave me all that power, and that he's my dad, but somehow believing that the wand was used for dark magic. (Maybe used for dark magic.)

And I've started to think about what I'd do if the holes do close one day. I only studied Environmental Science because I wanted to help close them, and if they do end up closing there won't be a magickal job for me with Professor Bunce in the future. I don't actually know what else I could do – there aren't a lot of career choices out there, magickal or otherwise, for an ex-Chosen One – but I have a feeling it's not going to be what studied at uni.

I know it's probably going to take a long time for the holes to close, but I've started to think about it.