by Kristie Cook
“She won’t know I did it until it’s too late. Friends count under casualties of war.” Her pretty face turned hateful once more and she boomed her words. “She’ll pay for your crimes and it will be on your newfound conscience, Eli! This is all your fault! If only you’d given into me. Is it such a big thing to ask?”
“I’d rather burn in hell,” he barked.
“Well, it looks like you’ll get your chance.”
Suddenly, Eli turned to me quickly and kissed my lips. I gasped at the quickness of it. Then we were somehow in the brush and thick bushes, he had his hand over my mouth as we knelt on the ground. He’d carried me here.
“Don’t make a sound. Stay down,” he whispered. I nodded but he must have seen my indecision in my eyes as he took his hand away. “CB, I am the most serious I have ever been in my entire life,” he said, his words rough. “You stay here and wait for me, no matter what you hear or see, you got me?” I tried to nod but it apparently wasn’t good enough. He jerked my chin up so I had to look directly into his face. “Answer me,” he commanded.
“What’s going on?”
“Trouble, that’s what. They will not hesitate to … hurt you, Clara. Answer me,” he almost growled.
“Ok,” I whispered in response.
He kissed me roughly and then put his thumb over my lips. His violet eyes begged me to obey him. “I can’t lose you,” he mouthed, but I still heard. “Please.”
I understood. I couldn’t lose him either, not now. I nodded. “I promise,” I replied as strong as I could.
“I’m immortal. They can’t hurt me,” he assured quietly. “They only way they can get to me is through you. Say it.”
“I understand, I’ll stay.”
“I have no idea what’s going to happen but you must not come out for any reason. We have to do this the right way, and them meeting you here like this is not.”
“Ok.”
“I …” He gulped. “You’re all I have.”
“I won’t move a muscle, I won’t come out, I’ll be quiet, I promise. Besides, I’m not the hero type.“
He chuckled uneasily and chided me, “Clara, not the time.”
“Be careful,” I said, my voice grating and cracking.
“One more thing,” he edged and it seemed like he didn’t want to say it. “They’ll see the string so you have to hide it. Only you can hide it,” he continued when I opened my mouth to argue. “It might be uncomfortable, but it’s the only way. You have to pull it back in your mind and hold it. It’ll push against you, it’ll want to get back to me but you have to hold on tight.”
I nodded, what else could I do, and said, “Show me what to do.”
He told me to mentally pull it in my mind, like I was using my fingers to yank it toward me. I did that and felt it tugging back. It was true, it didn’t want to leave Eli. I felt angry for no apparent reason. Eli pulled my face up.
“It’s ok. I know it sucks, just do it. Hurry.”
I did it again and saw it detaching itself from his wrist. Eli’s face grimaced and he groaned. At first I thought it was because he was picking up my emotion but no … his skin bloomed a blue spot that grew the more I pulled. His blood. I looked horrified up to him.
“Hold it,” he hissed. “Don’t let go or we’ll have to do it again.”
I kept my mental hold on the string and watched as it pulled and raced from his wrist up his arm, like pulling a cord from a wall, all the way to his chest. I felt it yank all of a sudden and enter my wrist and a zing shot up my arm to my chest. Eli fell back from the force of it and grunted. The pressure of it, pushing and pressing against my ribs, was uncomfortable as he had said, but it was more than that. It felt wrong. I looked back to his shirt.
“Is that your blood? Why are you bleeding?” I asked him as he sat back up. “Your chest … your arm …”
“Well …” he groaned a little as he took off his now destroyed white shirt and pulled back on his black button up, rolling down the sleeves, “it was attached.” As he buttoned the sleeve I saw the angry black skin around the hole as it still oozed blue.
“Then why did we do it?” I said angrily. “I wouldn’t have done that to you had you told me-“
“And that is why,” he interrupted, “I didn’t tell you. I knew you would never have been able to hurt me but we needed it done so they won’t follow the string back to you.”
I held back my tears at his sacrifice. He was trying to keep me safe, apparently at all cost. Instead, I told him a half truth.
“I’m going to be mad at you about this later,” I told him quietly and too softly for the threat to be credible.
He nodded and kissed me again, but this time it wasn’t rough. In fact, it was creamy and fluid as he pressed his lips to mine. I gripped his arm to convey the thought that I didn’t want him to go. He lingered in my space for a second before moving away and shooting through the woods behind us. When I looked for him in the park I saw him emerge from the other side. He was trying to divert someone from my location. But who?
“Mr. Thames,” a gruff male accented voice called, “I’m delighted to have you join us.”
“Everyone here knows that’s not true, Hatch. Let’s get right down to the matter, if you don’t mind.” I saw Angelina come up near Eli but he gave her a look that said to keep her distance. Surprisingly, she did. I still couldn’t see anyone else in the field as Eli went on. “Angelina called you unnecessarily. We don’t have a problem here.”
“Really? My dear Angelina, tell a lie?” Hatch laughed gravelly. “If we’re playing the honest card, I assumed that she was spouting lies since it was concerning you. I knew she was just trying to end whatever it was that you started in this town.”
“And yet you came,” Eli muttered quietly. “Why?”
“Because they have to,” Angelina interrupted smartly and grinned. “What would our people say if the Horde plays pick and choose instead of following credible leads?”
“Bite your tongue, wench,” one of Hatch’s men growled.
“Whoa, Miles. We’ll have our turn with her,” Hatch said and looked back to her face that had suddenly gone white, “in the mean time, we need to determine what’s going on here. Eli, care to elaborate?”
“I mated with a human here and Angelina can’t handle rejection.”
Everyone laughed and it echoed and bounced around me. It sounded like there were lots of them out there. Then one of them stepped forward and the trees were no longer in my line of sight. I assumed it was Hatch. He was a large man with cannonballs in the arms of his jacket. Or I guess it was just his arms. I tried to tamp down on my fright so they wouldn’t feel me there.
He crossed his arms and cocked his head looking at the ground. Enoch’s prone form still lay there and he kicked Enoch’s head with his boot to make it roll to the other side. I felt bile rise but held it together. The pressure in my chest was almost painful now.
“And poor, Enoch,” he laughed and nudged him once more in the shoulder for good measure. “Not playing nice was he?”
“He was trying to save a feeler girl from me,” Angelina explained. “Eli is the one telling lies. A human bonded herself to him,” she shrieked.
Everyone stilled. I knew that was it, the thing that Eli had been so afraid of. Mating was ok, it even seemed to be well looked upon, but for some reason bonding was not. I watched in frightful anticipation as Hatch’s men gathered closer around them.
“Where is my connection then?” Eli held his arms wide. “Where is she?”
“She was here earlier,” Angelina insisted frantically. “I saw the string myself!”
“I took her home to sleep,” Eli said as if bored. “Can’t have my plaything getting too tired to play, now can I?”
Hatch laughed and looked Eli over closely. “I heard you were in the capitol.”
“I was,” Eli replied, “but country bumpkins suit me.”
Another round of laughter that had Angelina’s veins becoming bold
in her arms and wrists. “He had her here and they are bloody bonded! I saw it with my own eyes!”
“Eli’s right. If they were bonded, there would be a string,” Hatch said smoothly.
“But you can pull back the string,” she rebutted. “You can hide it.”
“From what I hear it’s agonizing. Are you in agony, Eli?” Hatch asked slyly.
“Yes, but not from a bond. From red heads with too much time on their hands.”
Hatch came forward then and clapped Eli on the shoulder before saying, “Besides, I think Eli is too smart to let something so stupid happen to him. Keeping our mate unhappily satisfied is the whole point, right? Gratitude in painful pleasure and all that?”
Eli stayed silent. Angelina puffed her ragged breaths into the air between them. I was so focused on the string I barely felt the cold. It pressed harder every time I thought about it. I felt a thud against my chest that resounded down my arm and realized I was about to be losing my battle with it. It wanted Eli as much as I did.
“Me, of course,” Hatch continued and made his way around Eli to Angelina’s side, “I prefer a different treat every night. I’m not the mating type, but to each his own.”
“Until it comes to bonding,” Angelina spouted.
“Yes,” he drawled, “until it comes to bonding. I’m doing our race a favor by getting rid of the traitors who threaten to pollute our young with human blood.”
Pollute with human blood? Devourers and humans could have children? The string yanked in my chest and I actually fell forward to the ground with the force. Luckily, I landed in dirt, not crunchy leaves, and my fall was silent. I glanced back up and held a hand to my chest as if that would help.
Eli visibly looked shaken for a second. He gripped his chest and grit his teeth prompting Hatch to ask, “Something wrong?”
“No. I’m just ready to be done with this,” he answered steadily.
“As am I. Angelina, I see no cause for your summons of the Horde. We are busy people, what with dealing with humans who find out about us, the few and far between traitors, the ones who wish to change our ways. I resent this waste of my time.”
“But, Hatch,” she yelled and stepped forward a little, “they are bonded. They’re … hiding it somehow.”
“I see no evidence to that and I don’t take lives lightly. If he was bonded with a feeler and can hide is this well, then kudos to him.” He moved forward and trailed a finger down her arm. “As for you however, I say we have more to discuss. Bring her,” he snapped to someone and she was snatched into big arms. They carried her off as she screamed and bucked against them, but they held steady. Hatch started to follow them but stopped. “I’d leave this town, Elijah. It’s never good to stay in one place for too long.”
“I’ve been thinking that myself,” Eli answered easily and crossed his arms. “See you around, Hatch.”
“Yeah … around.”
And then he, too, moved towards his men at a pace that was swift and too quick to be normal. As soon as they were gone, I waited. I knew Eli was making sure they were gone. I counted the seconds …1…2…3 … 4…5…6…7. The bond jerked, and this time I couldn’t contain my grunt. It hurt. I looked up to Eli at the exact second that his resolve ended … or maybe it was mine.
He came careening toward me through the air; upright, but his feet were dragging the ground. He tried to stop, slow down, something, but even as he swatted limbs away from him, he plowed into me and we toppled to the ground. The bond wound itself around his wrist and I felt almost as if my insides sighed.
“Oh, Clara, I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop,” he pleaded and raked my hair back from my face. “Are you all right?”
“I am now,” I answered truthfully.
“I am so sorry,“ he said vehemently and kissed my forehead. “I hate that you had to go through that, but it was the only way to keep you safe.”
“It’s ok. I see now. That Hatch guy isn’t a fan.”
“No,” he agreed and once again his hand moved across my face and neck, my arm, my stomach and side. “You’re all right? Did it hurt?”
“Not at first, but the longer we held out the worst it was.”
“That was incredible,” he told me, the awe evident in his voice. “The stories of this kind of thing are skewed and fairy taled, but I’ve never heard of a bond being held back that long.”
“Well, I’m not a normal human. Or should I say feeler.”
“Don’t say that word,” he said. “I’ve always hated it and I wanted to punch every person out there that said it about you.”
I touched his cheek, my middle finger rubbing across his eyebrow ring. He closed his eyes and exhaled. I felt his whole body relax from its tense position. I felt his weight on me as he let me help to relax him. The ground beneath was surprisingly comfortable, though cold, and I continued to reassure him with my touch for a few more moments before he lifted his head once more.
“I’m so glad you’re ok,” he said, but the words barely made a sound. “I was aching with worry for you, thinking the bond was hurting you. I thought that was better than death, though.”
“It’s ok now. It’s over,” I assured, but thought. “Isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid to think so.” His nose was almost touching mine as he gazed down at me. “I’ll keep watch outside your house tonight, just to be sure.” He let his thumb run the length of my eyebrow and then down my cheek. “Clara, we have a lot of things to talk about.”
“Like what?”
“Like whether it’s safe to stay here now.”
“I can’t leave at the end of Senior year,” I said.
“Will it even matter if you’re not alive to enjoy it?” he countered.
“Ok, point taken. But for the record, I want to stay here until then.”
“We’ll talk about it later.”
I nodded and rubbed his shirt front, but didn’t let my fingers press into his skin just in case. I let my fingers almost skim the length of his arm to his wrist.
“How’s this doing?”
“All better,” he said low and rumbling. “I just needed you.”
I pulled him down by his collar and kissed him gratefully. He was alive, I was alive, we’d made it through whoever those guys were, his evil twin, me binding myself to him and his crazy stalker semi-ex. It had been quite a night. I felt his knees lift until he was kneeling over me, but he didn’t leave me. He put an arm under my back and lifted me to be closer to him.
His warmth and the warmth my body was creating on its own from being completely affected by him was enough to make me comfortable again. He eased away gently and sighed against my skin. Then he kissed my forehead and put a hand out to steady himself, but he jerked back with a hiss.
“What?” I asked.
“Thorns.”
I took his hand and looked at it. A thorn had pricked his thumb, barely, big baby. I smiled and without even thinking, put it in my mouth to make it feel better. What in the world made me do that? He watched me, enthralled by my actions, and sucked in a breath as I ran my tongue along his skin. I released him and then kissed it. He looked at it and then back to me. The look on his face was hard to decipher. Was he grossed out? Was he perplexed by my human behavior and need to comfort?
“Stop,” he whispered. “I don’t ever want to feel your insecurity around me again.” He pushed me back down to the ground and followed me on his knees like before. “I’m fascinated by you, that’s all. You’re unlike any human I’ve ever come across before. The things you say and do … the way you react to things … It’s all I can do to keep up with you. I think you are going to be very entertaining in the days to come.”
“Hey,” I muttered.
He smiled that smirk that made me first wonder how I was ever going to resist him. And now I didn’t have to. He pulled me up again, just like before, and his mouth found mine easily. He held me so effortlessly and didn’t need my help, but I gripped his arms anyway just to feel him real and the
re under my fingertips.
We heard a grunt and froze, his lips still on mine. We waited for another noise, another clue. Then we heard it again and Eli put a finger to my lips to remind me to stay quiet. I nodded as he raised himself up to stand. Then he rolled his eyes and sighed before pulling me up with him.
“My idiotic brother is awake. We better scram before he remembers what happened and takes it out on us,” he said, but he laughed as he pulled me along, easing my fears.
Chapter Fifteen
Eli took me to his house first. Luckily, somehow, it wasn’t time for my curfew yet.
He said he wanted to clean both of us up before taking me home.
He opened the door and I took a good look around as he ushered me in. It looked the same as before, plain and old fashioned. He took my hand and pulled me through the house, right passed that bird. I swear its eyes followed us across the room.
“What’s up with the bird?”
“I told you, it’s a nasty vile creature. I hate that bird,” he explained as he opened a door to a long line down of dark stairs. “My room.”
“So,” I asked as I braved the stairs ahead of him, “if you hate the bird so much, why do you keep it?”
“It’s immortal,” he sneered as if that idea upset him.
“What?” I asked and turned on the stairs to look at him. He grabbed a pull string above his head and the area around us illuminated. You’d think a basement would be dank and dusty, but it looked just like any other room, although huge. The walls were black stucco and the floor was white tile. It was so clean I was afraid to walk on it. A huge wooden post bed sat in the middle of the room against the wall. The room was freakishly sterile and organized, as if no one lived there at all. The bed was smooth and clean like a hotel bed-make job. I looked at him and quirked a brow.
“What?” he asked smoothly as his eyes followed me from his perch on the back wall.
“Anal much?”
He laughed that delicious deep chuckle that gave me goose bumps just hearing it … letting alone feeling it rumble as he was suddenly at my back.
“I have to say, I like you in my room.”