“Ok, it’s finished,” Nerissa said, serious again. “Now let’s see what kind of magic we’re dealing with.”
On the plus side, as soon as the machine was done, Nerissa was so busy with the slew of other tests she wanted to perform on the residue that she didn’t have time to talk about me and Nero doing the horizontal tango. On the not-so-plus side, those tests took hours. By the time we were done, not only was the canteen closed, but all of the kitchen staff were done for the day too. There would be no late night munchies for me.
I headed for Nero’s office, hoping that my hunger wouldn’t make me snap at him. The least he could have done was let me swing by Demeter for some food before I’d headed to the lab. But no, soldiers of the Legion could go days without eating, so how about we test that?
By the time I made it to Nero’s office, I was bitter, angry, and famished—and I let the door know it. When he didn’t respond to my hard knocks, I tried again. Nothing. I pulled on the handle, but it was locked.
“Nero isn’t here.”
I turned around. Across the hall from Nero’s office, Captain Somerset stood in the doorway of her own office. It was a good thing she wasn’t telepathic because the curses that blared through my head would have made her ears bleed. My hands shook so hard that I nearly lost a grip on the folder in my hands. He’d made me sit through all of that while starving, and he couldn’t even be bothered to wait for my report? He’d probably gone off to satisfy his own late night munchies.
“Nero is in his apartment. Take that up to him,” she said, nodding at the folder in my hands.
“Can’t I just give it to you?” I asked. I was afraid that if I saw Nero right now, I wouldn’t be able to hold my tongue.
She chuckled and closed her door. Well, that was answer enough. Up to the angel’s lair it was.
The top-ranked Legion officers in New York had their apartments on the highest floor of the building. I spent the seemingly endless climb up the stairs trying to concentrate on what Nerissa had told me about the residue. She’d used a lot of weird science-y words I didn’t know the meaning of, so replaying what she’d said confused my brain. I’d take it. Better to meet Nero in a state of confusion than in a state of rage.
I knocked on his apartment door and waited. I considered the consequences of giving Nero a lecture about cruel and unusual punishment. I decided it was worth the risk—but the words evaporated from my tongue the moment he answered the door. He was wearing a pair of running pants. His complementary black tank top was cut low in the front and on the sides, showing off his arms and chest. Ok, I admit it. I stopped and stared. Gaped even. My eyes traced the damp sheen that coated his body, like he’d just been working out.
“Yes?”
I tore my eyes off of—well, everything—and settled my gaze on an empty patch of air over his right shoulder. Nerissa’s confident lilt, that promise that I’d be Nero’s lover, sang in my mind. I silenced that song by dropping a mountain of sheer stubbornness onto it.
“I have the lab report,” I said, my voice uneven. Damn it.
“Come in,” he said, stepping aside to allow me to pass.
I did, my gaze flickering to the new addition to his apartment as he closed the door. He’d installed a salmon ladder just like the one in Captain Somerset’s obstacle course. Last week, I’d walked into the gym to find him tackling that obstacle. He’d done it topless too, much to the appreciation of his admiring female audience. Just thinking back on it still gave me goosebumps. His fierce fluidity. The way beads of sweat had slid between the ridges of his muscles. I slammed down a big barrier, blocking out those images.
Nero stood opposite me, hopefully completely unaware of my wicked fantasies. I pressed my thighs together and clutched the folder. He held out his hand. I took an immediate step forward, then froze, realizing that he wasn’t beckoning me forward. He just wanted the lab report. Blushing, I handed it to him.
Pull yourself together, I chided myself as Nero opened the folder and began to read. I considered leaving, but he hadn’t dismissed me yet, so I had a feeling I was expected to just stand there. While I waited, the hungry part of me wondered if the kitchen was unlocked. Maybe I could sneak some food from the pantry.
Nero looked up from the page. “What did you learn about the residue?”
I blinked, confused. “The report is right there.”
He stiffened. Oops. He must have thought I was talking back. Again.
“I just meant, I thought you wanted the official report,” I said quickly.
“I have Dr. Harding’s report. Now I want to hear yours.”
Great. “Dr. Harding found traces of Sunset Pollen and Snapdragon Venom in the residue. They are, uh, substances recently engineered by witches,” I said.
“Go on.”
I babbled for a minute, trying to talk my way through some of the stuff Nerissa had told me, but I didn’t really understand most of it, so I probably got half of the terms wrong. The ordeal was made even more difficult by the fact that Nero was watching me the whole time.
He continued to stare at me for a few silent seconds after I was done talking, then he said, “I will get you some books so you can read up on magic forensics. And chemistry. And magical science in general.”
“How big will this stack of books be?”
“Only as big as it needs to be,” he told me.
Knowing Nero, that meant a ten-foot stack of books. I hoped my roommates didn’t mind that I’d soon have to use their beds as bookshelves. I sighed.