Elixxir (The Brethren Series)

by Remiel, Deena

  Oh, my freakin’ God! Who…what in God’s name were those guys? And steroids couldn’t possibly make Nathanael react so quickly. So what the hell is up with him? Callie white-knuckled the strap of her seat, not wanting to touch his body on the trip home. He’d frightened her, although he hadn’t hurt her. He’d stopped as soon as he heard her voice. That proved interesting and piqued her curiosity even more.

  Who was this man who had swooped into her life and promised to help her? A bounty hunter with a lust for violence, to be sure. Did she really want to be entangled with him given all the turmoil right now? A loose cannon could be her demise. What to do? What to do?

  The sudden stillness, rather than vibration, roused her from her musings. They were back at their hotel, and not quite sure what to do next, she remained sitting, staring off into nowhere.

  “We’re here, you know. You can get up. I’m sure you’re interested in seeing what’s inside here.” He waved the envelope in front of her.

  “I am. But what I’m more curious about at the moment, Nathanael,” she said while crossing her arms over her chest, “is what was wrong with those guys back there, and what exactly is going on with you.” Being a pro at hiding fear behind bravado came in handy now. He shuffled his feet awkwardly and frowned while rubbing his chin with his hand.

  And he remained silent.

  “Well? You obviously know something and you’re not telling me. We don’t go one step further in this quest until you tell me what’s happening here. Who are those freakish guys with the wacked-out eyes? And who are you, really?”

  “Can we take this inside? I really don’t want to do this in public.”

  “Fine. Let’s go.”

  Shit. Why can’t anything be simple? Why did I have to be so God-damned observant and see those flaming red eyes?

  She stomped past him and through the sliding-glass doors, waving off a too-friendly doorman. The elevator ride lasted an eternity. Callie chose to brood while he refused to speak or even look at her.

  What is that man thinking? Oh! He’s insufferable!

  She had her key out, ready to open the door before he could, and barreled through. Heading straight for a chair by the window, she tried to calm the growing trepidation inside as she sat down.

  “Okay, mister, something really freaky is going on and it’s time you let me in on it.”

  He kneeled, steadied her shaking knees, and took her trembling hands in his. Her fear and a desire to flee permeated his senses the longer he held them, yet she didn’t move. Looking at Callie with all the seriousness this moment required, he opened up to her, a human. A first for him in his eternal life.

  “I need to know something. Can you accept that there are things in this world beyond the human? That when people do horrible things to each other, and you think to yourself that they’re evil, they really are? And that when someone should have died and didn’t, through some miracle, that there really were angels at work? Can you accept these ideas as truth, Callie?” He stared steadily into her eyes, and for a few moments, he wondered if she’d ever respond.

  She gave him a cold, hard glare. “My parents were brutally murdered by vicious, sadistic men. I was raped repeatedly by a psycho for a fake brother. Oh yes, yes, I believe people are evil. But that’s where it ends.” She tore her hands away from his and flitted them in the air. “Where were these supposed angels of yours to save my father, my mother, to save me? Hmmm?”

  He stood and slunk over to the dresser, turning to lean on it for support. “They do exist.”

  “Oh, really?” She scoffed. “And how do you know this?”

  He took a deep breath. “I’m one of them.”

  Silence and a look of incredulity smacked him in the face.

  “Oh, my God! You’re a total whack job!” She sprang up and thrust her hand out. “Just give me the envelope and leave. Right now!”

  “Callie, I’m an angel and immortal. So is the entire Brethren Security team.” He pulled the edge of his T-shirt over his head. She had to see his wings or she wouldn’t trust him.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Put your shirt back on!” She’d skirted over to the desk and grabbed the lamp like a baseball bat.

  “Easy. I want to show you my wings.” He thought about them for a fraction of a second and with the grace of a butterfly, they unfurled from shoulder to ankle.

  First, she dropped the lamp, and then she dropped herself.

  “Shit,” he muttered as he crossed the floor to her crumpled body. He scooped her up, laid her on the bed, and fanned her face with a hotel room service menu while sitting on the edge, waiting for her to come to. Being a Warrior, not a Savior, there wasn’t a whole lot more he could do. She’d awaken when she awakened.

  He watched intently until her eyes fluttered open and rested upon him…and his wings. He shifted uneasily where he sat. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as the seconds passed. She shoved her body to an upright position, never taking her eyes off of him.

  “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

  “You…you’re an angel.”

  “Yup.” He sure wished he knew what she planned to do about it.

  “Kemuel?” She ran shaky fingers through her hair.

  “He’s one, too. And so is Raphael.”

  “Huh.” She shook her head and a slight pink flush crept up her neck to her cheeks. “I…I can’t deny what I’m seeing right in front of me. But at the same time I can’t believe it. This is the last thing I expected you to say or show me. Where do I begin to understand your existence? How many of you are there?”

  “Nine at the moment. Two Warriors, like me, three Saviors, and three Protectors. And there’s Emma, who’s our Great Savior Mother.”

  “Huh. I bet Kemuel is probably a Warrior, right? Raphael, a Savior? Oh, my God! Does Serena know?”

  “Yes, on all counts, and Serena is actually immortal as well.”

  “Dear Lord,” she murmured, and covered her face with her hands.

  He moved toward her and placed a tentative hand on hers. “Are you okay?”

  She shoved it off and looked at him with angry eyes laden with resentment.

  Here it comes. Hold steady, man.

  Years of hurt, anger, and bitterness engulfed Callie, and welled up like a dormant volcano come back to life. With a wail rivaling the banshees of folklore, she leapt from the bed and let loose with a sharp smack across his face.

  Hard.

  Her hand vibrated with the pain and sting of it.

  “Where were all of you? Why didn’t you save my parents? Why didn’t you save me? My life is so screwed up! I hate you! You hear me?” With each word she pounded upon his chest, nailing into him all the anguish and rage she’d suppressed over the years. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” Tears streamed down her cheeks in a torrent as sobs poured from her mouth.

  He hugged her to him, restricting her arms and hands. “I’m so sorry, Callie. We didn’t know. We didn’t know. Shh….” He kissed her head and rubbed her back. She struggled to free herself, but with no energy left, her legs gave way.

  The pair crumpled to the bed and as he rocked her, she cried in a small, childlike voice, “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you….”

  “I’m so sorry. I’m here for you now, though. I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere. We’ll fix things now.” She whimpered as his fingers slid through her hair and massaged her scalp. “Let me fix things. Let me fix you.”

  His words were a soothing tonic, a hypnotizing mantra in her head that she didn’t want to stop. She sniffled and hiccupped. One minute blended into another as she held on to him, the only lifeline in a world spinning out of control.

  “I don’t really hate you.” She spoke softly after minutes of silence. “I…couldn’t….” She hiccupped again. “Hate you. You’re too freakin’ nice.” She shook her head gently and looked up into his beautiful green eyes, seeking unspoken forgiveness for her abrasive words. She rubbed her lips toget
her and moistened them with her tongue.

  Nathanael cupped her cheek and caressed it with the pad of his thumb. He leaned in slowly until he was but a hair’s breadth away from her face, and then closed the distance to kiss her oh-so-gently. She lost herself in the warmth and pressure of his lips, and tears started anew as her heart skipped a beat from the simplicity of it all. As they parted, he looked bewildered. Her own shock met his. But she couldn’t help herself. She needed him desperately, man and angel. She needed to replace her scarred memories with something as beautiful and wondrous as an angel’s kiss. So she touched her hands to his face and guided him back to her lips.

  She whispered against him, “I need you, Nathanael.” Her mouth laid siege upon his, and he retaliated with all the fervor of a man who’d been swept away. He pulled her impossibly closer as she slid her hands up his well-defined chest and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  She was tired of the hurt, through with being scared, and knew, with him, having sex would be very different. It would be making love. Something she personally didn’t know a thing about. The capacity to hope for something as pure as that had been stolen from her a very long time ago. It had been replaced with a driving need to prove she was alive and could feel and have all the control. And that, she decided while kissing the brains out of an angel, was exactly what she would rely on right now.

  He released her lips to make a trail of kisses around her jaw line to right behind her ear. And shivering, she let him. She let him kiss the sweet spot where her neck and shoulder met. She let him caress her breasts with the gentlest of touches. And she let him stop.

  Breathing heavily, he dropped his hands and looked at her with apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…I…well, yes. Yes, I did mean to. But this is no time to be distracted by temptation. And it certainly isn’t the right time or place for how I’d like it to be for you, with you.”

  She chuckled, straightened her shirt, and sighed ruefully. “You really are an angel, ain’tcha? It’s a shame.” She tapped him on the cheek and smiled. “Well, I guess we all have some crazy shit about us.” She rose and padded over to the window to peer out at the bright lights. Figures he’d pull the gentleman card.

  “Wow. Not quite the reaction I thought I’d receive. I mean, you fainted, you got angry. I expected that. But now, you’re acting as though who I am is nothing unusual.”

  “I only fainted because you took me by surprise.” She paused, not ready to give up her tough-girl persona quite yet. “What more do you want from me? A couple of intense kisses, as much as I wanted and needed them, doesn’t change who I am. I’m still a fucked-up, hard-assed woman in a lot of danger, and you…you’re still Nate, the bounty hunter. Only with wings.”

  “Don’t you have any questions for me?” He approached her. She noticed he took a deep breath, and his wings receded. He put his shirt on and tucked it back in his pants.

  “I already know you can beat the shit out of anyone, and that you probably can’t get hurt. So, as a bodyguard, you pretty well rock.” She turned to face him. “Oh wait, I do have one question. How do you keep those things so white?”

  “You know, you’re really something.”

  “I told you. Now if you’ll excuse me, my little breakdown did nothing for my makeup.” She pushed past him, picked up her bag, and went to the bathroom.

  “Well, when you get out, I need to share something else with you.”

  “Sure, sure,” she called out from behind the door. She leaned against it and took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Oh, my God! He’s a true-blue angel! And so are my friends! What on earth do I do with that? I don’t have a freakin’ clue. One thing I do know, Serena and I are having a long chat when this mess is all over. I wonder, though. Maybe I should tell him about the Elixxir now.

  Chapter Nine

  Holy shit! For having revealed himself to a human woman for the first time in his immortal life, it went pretty strangely. He’d never asked Michael or Raphael how it had gone for them when they’d shared who they were to Emma and Serena. He’d flown by the seat of his pants, and prayed he hadn’t made the worst mistake in his eternal life. Traversing the jungles of Vietnam seemed easier than dealing with this woman he’d just shackled himself to. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to predict who’d be walking out of the bathroom in a few minutes—sweet-and-vulnerable Callie or snarky Callie.

  Either way, she tested him like no other. And he liked it. When he’d kissed her earlier, he’d gotten a glimpse into her psyche and found she’d played him through every part of their romantic exchange. Had he been human, he would have thought he’d been the dominant one throughout the entire situation. But his warrior senses allowed him unprecedented access to the minds of the people he connected with, and hers was undeniably secured by threads of control he would take pleasure in slowly unwinding. She needed to know there were some men in this world that weren’t looking to victimize her. He would undoubtedly be her first.

  Now that she knew about him, he also decided he would tell her his true mission: to secure the Elixxir of Life back to the Beyond. Maybe, if she knew the implications of it falling into the wrong hands, she’d be more willing to open up and share whatever information she had. The way he figured, she already knew she didn’t want the bad guys to get it, but she had no clue that the Elixxir was real. Her motivations ran along the lines that it belonged to her parents and now her, and it could be stolen away forever.

  Callie opened the bathroom door feeling more determined than ever. “Okay, Nate, let’s open up Pandora’s Box. It’s now or never.”

  “Here, you open it. It’s only right.” He handed the envelope to her and she sat on the unfamiliar bed, wishing it were her own. Crossing her legs, she tried to get comfortable.

  She slid a finger under the glued flap, stuffed her hand inside, and pulled out a paper. “Jesus Christ. It’s a letter. From my father. It’s dated. Lord, this letter’s twenty years old.” Taking a calming breath, she began reading aloud.

  “Dearest Ariana, if you are reading this letter, then my first attempt to conceal the Elixxir has failed and something terrible has happened to your mother and me. But I have two more safeguards and pray they work. I am so sorry to have put you in this horrible position. I didn’t think at the time it could get this bad. The Elixxir’s appeal has grown since I’ve acquired it, and it has become too dangerous to keep. I never thought people would actually believe in its powers like I do, but they do and have become crazed with hunger for its gift. For this reason, I’ve hidden it rather than put it on display in the shop. You won’t be able to see it now, but right below this letter, I’ve written directions to where it can be found. I hope you remember how we used to write notes to each other. When you find the Elixxir, get rid of it! It will surely cause you nothing but more pain. And then hide. Evil people are circling and will not rest until they get their hands on it and kill everyone connected to it. Your life, I’m afraid, has forever been altered by my foolish greed. Instead of living forever, I am probably damned to Hell. I am so sorry, my dearest child. So very sorry. Dad.”

  She sat stone still for a few minutes, rolling his message over and over in her mind.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. And now you know what someone’s willing to blow up an apartment and kill for.”

  He nodded. “The Elixxir of Life.”

  “Yes, do you know anything about it?”

  “It is known to bring immortality to anyone who drinks it.”

  “It’s a bunch of bullshit, if you ask me. It’s probably a flask filled with tap water.”

  “It’s true. The Elixxir is real, and if it falls into the wrong hands it will be disastrous on so many levels. Evil will grow rampant and overtake the Good.”

  She scoffed. “Come on, Nate. My father’s shop had some cool knick-knacks and oddities in it, but something as far-fetched as this is…is…just that! Far-fetched! A bunch of hooey.”

&nb
sp; “I’m on a mission to retrieve this hooey and bring it back into secure hands.”

  “What? Are you serious?”

  “Totally.”

  “This whole situation gets more outrageous the longer I’m in it. Wait a minute. You came to my apartment looking for it, didn’t you? Your visit had nothing to do with Kemuel’s apology at all, did it?”

  “Yes, he really asked me to apologize for him. And yes, I’d already been assigned my mission to find the Elixxir when I came knocking at your door.”

  Overwhelmed by his disclosure, she ran out of the room.

  She ran down hall after hall until she knew what the hell she wanted to do next. Next turned out to be finding a stairwell and sitting on a step to clear her muddled head.

  He could have caught up with her easily. But he chose to let her go. Her world had spun out of her control, and if running and hiding for a while would bring things back into balance for her, he would give that to her. He laughed at her attempt to get away from him as he sauntered down the hallway. She’d stopped in Stairwell B, Floor 19. Warrior tracking senses came in so handy for many purposes, not only for hunting criminals. They were great for keeping a distant eye on the people he cared about. And he cared about her. Keeping her safe wasn’t strictly business. It had become a personal mission, as well. He couldn’t deny that. But securing the Elixxir had to be top priority for the safety of the world.

  He lightly pushed open the door to the stairwell. Rather than simply floating down to her, he decided instead to walk each step, giving her a little time and space. He found her sitting on one, leaning against the wall between the twentieth and nineteenth floors.

  Nathanael lowered himself onto the one above her and stretched his legs. She didn’t so much as even flinch. “Hey.” He rubbed her back and kneaded the knots of tension bunched beneath his fingers.