Secret Birthday Gift

Chapter Seventy Eight

Bella’s POV

We’d been living in Hades for two months now. I was starting to feel at home, more at home than I’d felt in Nirvana since I’d given birth to my twins. I kept sending Nathan messages, but they became less frequent because of his lack of reaction.

Every week I’d send him a short note telling him I was well and a photo of the twins and me. He hadn’t replied so far, but I knew he’d read them and even that was a small victory. He hadn’t blocked me. He still wanted to know how I was doing even though I was practically the enemy now. The war between the Hades and the Heavesn wouldn’t end anytime soon, even if things had calmed down for the moment. Dante was probably planning something, and I was fairly certain Ibash and Erik wouldn’t ease down on the Outfit either.

Erik ’s birthday was tomorrow and even if he didn’t celebrate it, I wanted to give him something special. It was difficult to come up with a present for someone who ruled over the West Coast and could buy anything he wanted because money wasn’t an issue.

It had taken me a long time to come up with something that held meaning and showed Erik what he meant to me. Early in the morning, after another sleepless night with the twins, I approached Ibash who was swimming his usual laps in the pool. Nina was keeping watch over the babies since they were both rather needy at the moment due to their teething.

Ibash noticed me standing beside the pool and swam toward the edge. “Is something the matter?”

“I have a favor to ask of you.”

Ibash hoisted himself out of the water. My eyes scanned the myriad of tattoos on his upper body and thighs. Ibash regarded me curiously, and I realized I’d been staring. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to gawk, but I was wondering where you’ve had your tattoos done.”

Ibash walked over to the lounge chair and picked up his towel. “Some of them I did myself. The ones in places I can’t reach I had done in a tattoo studio not too far away.

”

“You do tattoos?”

“I can do them, yes,” he said. “Why?”

I hesitated. “Because I want to get a tattoo. Can you do it for me?” “That depends what exactly you want.”

“I want angel wings on the back of my neck,” I said, a flush spreading on my cheeks under Ibash ’s scrutiny. I wasn’t sure if he knew Erik ’s nickname for me, but it felt like something personal I was sharing.

“Wings, I can do ... if you have a design in mind. Can you show me where exactly you want the tattoo?”

He came up to me and I pushed my hair to the side, baring the nape of my neck and touching the spot. “Here.”

“It will be painful,” Ibash warne.I sent him a look. “I gave birth to twins. I think I can handle a needle.” Ibash inclined his head. “That is true. While I can’t assess the force of labor pain since I’ve never experienced it, I assume it’s excruciating.”

“It is,” I said. “So you will do it?”

“If it’s your wish, then yes. When?”

“As soon as possible. The tattoo is Erik ’s birthday present.”

Again Ibash gave me a mildly curious look. “We can do it later in the afternoon. I can set up everything in one of the guestrooms.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Thank me once it’s done and you’re happy with the outcome.” He paused. “I assume you don’t want Erik to find out for now.”

I nodded. “If possible.”

“It’s a secret I don’t mind keeping from my brother.”As promised, Ibash had set up everything in a guest bedroom in his wing. I was nervous despite my best intentions not to be.

Ibash oozed calm as I stretched out on my stomach on the bed. He disinfected my neck before he touched the tattoo needle to the skin, and I winced at the first sting.

I soon got used to the burning sensation. Ibash moved quickly, meticulously, and I didn’t speak as he worked, not wanting to distract him. When he was finally done, I sat up and accepted the mirror Ibash held out to me. He held a second mirror behind my neck.

The outcome was more stunning than I could have ever imagined. I didn’t know it was possible to paint such intricate artwork with a needle. The feathers of the wings looked so real I expected them to flutter in the wind.

“It’s beautiful,” I admitted.

Ibash nodded. “Erik will appreciate the message.”

“You know that he calls me Angel?”

“I overheard him saying it, yes, and you are the counterpart to his fallen angel on his back.”

“Did you tattoo it as well?”

“I did,” Ibash murmured.

“Why the broken, singed wings? The fallen angel is kneeling, and the tips of the feathers are crooked and burning.”

Ibash regarded me closely. “What did Erik tell you about our past?” “He told me your mother tried to kill you and that you almost burned to

death.” Ibash ’s face tightened and he nodded. “Erik burned to save us. I never

asked Erik about the details why he wanted to get the tattoo, but I think it has something to do with that day.”

“Thank you, Ibash .”

Ibash gave a small shake of his head. “No, thank you.” Hiding my tattoo from Erik proved difficult. I had it covered with my hair, but when I moved my head, I often had to stop myself from wincing.

That evening, after bringing the twins to bed, Erik pulled me against him in our bedroom, his hands squeezing my butt before they moved higher. He kissed me and touched my neck. I drew back with a wince before I could stop myself. His eyes narrowed.

“What’s wrong?”

I considered making up something, but Erik was too good at detecting lies, and his birthday was only two more hours away. “This was supposed to be your birthday present,” I said softly as I lifted my hair and turned so he could see my neck.

Erik was quiet and I risked a look at him over my shoulder.Slowly he raised his eyes from my wings with a strange smile. “Wings.” I smiled. “Because you gave me wings.”

He shook his head, his dark eyes softening. “Angel,” he said quietly,brushing his fingers over my tender skin. “You had wings all along. You only needed a little push to spread them and fly.”

I turned back to face him. “Maybe, but I wouldn’t have done it on my own.”

We kissed slowly at first, but Erik quickly deepened our kiss, and suddenly we were on the bed tugging at our clothes and stroking every inch of naked skin we could reach. I pushed Erik onto his back, smiling, and his answering smile, all desire and dominance, sent a stab of arousal through me.

Leaning forward to claim his mouth for a kiss, I lowered myself on his erection, groaning at the feeling of fullness. Erik pushed up into a sitting position, bringing us chest to chest, racing heartbeat to racing heartbeat. I gasped at the shift of him inside of me, at the feel of his strength as his arms slung around my back. I rolled my hips, driving him deeply into me as we kissed.

We held each other’s gaze as we always did, and those dark eyes captivated me as they’d done from the very start. So often cruel and merciless but passionate and reverent when they rested on me, tender and caring when they regarded our twins.

When we’d both found our release, we stayed wrapped up in each other like that, our breathing ragged, bodies slick with sweat. I ran my fingertips over Erik ’s back, tracing the spot where the wings of his fallen angel spread out.

He trailed his own fingertips upwards, along my spine until he reached my new tattoo. I winced slightly and Erik ’s touch turned even softer. My heart was ready to burst out of my ribcage from the look in his eyes.Erik scanned my expression, his brows drawing together.

I sighed. “Sorry. Since my pregnancy I’m more emotional. I hope it’ll go away soon.” I cleared my throat then rested my palm over his shoulder blade. “What’s the meaning of your tattoo? You know why I got mine, but I wonder why you got yours.”

A hint of wariness flashed in Erik ’s eyes, the walls he was used to keeping up wanting to lock back in place. “Ibash did it. About seven years ago.”

I nodded to show him I was listening.

“It’s a fallen angel, like you said. It represents the fall Ibash and I took on the day our mother tried to kill us.”

My brows snapped together. “Fall? You saved your brothers. How’s that falling?”

Erik ’s expression was dark and twisted, his eyes far away, haunted, angry. “Until that day Ibash and I were innocent. After that we weren’t. We’d already experienced our fair share of violence from our father, but it never affected us like that day did.

The flames of that day they singed our wings and our fall into darkness began. We became who we are today. That’s why the fallen angel is kneeling in pools of blood.”

I’d noticed that the fallen angel knelt in pools of some kind of liquid, that a few of its singed feathered dipped into it, but I hadn’t realized it was blood. For a moment I wasn’t sure what to say, how to console Erik . Could words ever be enough to make the horrors of his past better?

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

Erik ’s gaze focused on me, tore away from the images of the past. “You aren’t the one who should be sorry. And I won’t forgive her no matter how often she’d apologize. Not that she ever did.”

I froze. “Your mother didn’t die that day?”

“No. Even though I wanted her dead, I’m glad she survived that day or Adamo wouldn’t be here. She was heavily pregnant with him.”

I shook my head, completely at a loss over what Erik ’s mother had done. “Where is she?”

“In a mental facility.” Erik ’s voice dipped and turned vicious. “We are paying for it so she can live and breathe and exist, when she shouldn’t be doing either.”

“Why haven’t you killed her?” With anyone else I would have never asked something like that, but this was Erik . Killing was in his nature, and his words made it clear that he hated his mother.

Erik pressed his mouth to the crook of my neck.

“Because,” he growled. “For some fucking messed up reason Ibash and I are too weak to kill her. We haven’t seen her in over five years ...”

“Do Ades and your youngest brother now what happened?”

“Ades has known for a while. And we talked to our kid brother a few months after he got initiated.”

I stroked Erik ’s neck. “Have you thought about visiting her again to try and find closure?”

Erik looked up, his expression harsh. “There won’t be any closure until she’s dead. I don’t want to waste another second of my life on her. She’s already fucking dead to me. You and Jemim and Jordan are what matters now. My brothers are what matters. That’s it.”

I kissed him to show him I understood. I didn’t think it was as easy as that. Their mother still dominated part of their existence, but I respected that Erik wasn’t ready to seek a solution now. It wasn’t my place to meddle. He and his brothers would have to face their mother one day, and maybe then they could move past their demons.

All I could do was show Erik a better future.

A future with a family that loved him. He’d always only had his brothers, but now he had us as well.