by Scott, Amber
Elijah shook his head. “I’ve no idea. But wherever we go, we need to go now. Someone’s coming, I assume whomever calls this place home.”
A car’s engine turned off outside. Exhaling in resignation, Elijah wasted no time and pushed them back to the safe house.
A blind stab in the dark felt like all he had left. There had to be more. He couldn’t fail her now.
“Elijah, we’ll find her,” Lyric said.
Monica rushed into the large anteroom where they’d transported. “Where is she?”
Elijah’s wings hung heavy with trepidation. He couldn’t face Monica.
“We don’t know.” Lyric stepped between them. “Elijah thinks an asylum.”
“Okay. Go to it then.”
Monica’s fervor didn’t surprise him. He had to wonder if Sadie realized her effect on the chameleon, if she would be surprised over the fierce loyalty she had inspired.
“It isn’t that easy,” Elijah managed, hating the words, hating himself for not having an answer.
“Yes,” she demanded. “It is. Don’t tell me you can’t trace her. Don’t give me that. She is depending on you, Elijah. She loves you, you idiot. So if she’s in some godforsaken place, go find her. Now.”
“He will,” Lyric interjected. “Once we isolate where to begin. If he goes off blind and frantic, he’ll drown in it.”
“Drown? Drown? While she dies?”
Elijah snapped his head up. “She will not die.”
“Crusoe won’t kill her?” Monica demanded. “Why wouldn’t he?”
Something hideous twanged inside of Elijah, down in his chest, deeper than his bones. In his very core, he heard her. He felt her. Anguish. He closed his eyes, and wrapped every grain of his attention on hearing her soul call to his. In the dead of winter on a moonless night, no lone wounded wolf’s howl sounded so mournful as Sadie’s vibration calling to his.
Elijah transported, blindly following the agonizing sound. Within moments, he drew close, slowed and teleported into the room. Fury beat in his veins. Crusoe hovered above Sadie’s prone form. He flicked a finger against her cheek. He laughed a twisted chuckle and Elijah lashed out. The air whined, bent, and Elijah snapped his heel against Crusoe’s face.
The seeker flipped back, tucked and thrust upward in retaliation. Elijah answered, kicking high. Crusoe’s fist connected with Elijah’s abdomen, sending him careening back. He tumbled into Sadie. She yelped. Elijah shielded her body, hovering between her and Crusoe.
“No, no, no,” Crusoe chuckled. “Don’t tell me, Elijah. You can’t have fallen for a human?”
Crusoe spun and kicked at Elijah’s groin. Elijah bent, blocked it, simultaneously protecting Sadie. Whatever retribution Crusoe deserved could wait. Safely transporting Sadie was his sole mission. He only needed Crusoe distracted for a fraction of a second in order to succeed.
“You know all about falling, don’t you Crusoe?” Elijah opened his wings and lunged at the man he used to call brother. “Or did you ever actually care for Holly?”
Crusoe’s eyes flashed with anger. He growled and attacked. Elijah met the charge with matching force.
“Not that she could reciprocate,” Elijah continued, flying at Crusoe again. He made contact, clamping his hands around his foe’s throat. “How could she when she always wanted me?”
Crusoe’s jaw line scars paled as his face reddened. He kicked Elijah’s midsection. “She never wanted you. How could she? Even now, you stoop to wallow in trash.”
Elijah laughed caustically. “Trash? Is that the best you can call her?” He hovered near Sadie. “Sadie is a treasure. But you already know that. Why else would you covet her so much?”
Crusoe spat. “Covet? She’s nothing more than an ignorant mortal with a gift she is too stupid to know how to use. She’s no better than an animal.”
The words sent Elijah over the edge. How could he never have seen this ugly prejudice in his brother? “Tell me something, Crusoe,” Elijah said, positioning himself. A simple fake, a trick of the eye, and he’d escape with Sadie in his arms. “When Holly lay in your arms in your stolen moments, did she whisper my name?”
Crusoe’s hands fisted together, his wings flexed wide and as his shrill cry filled the air, Elijah spun downward. He transported to the left, circled back inward and caught Sadie into his arms. Crusoe’s launch blurred, the scene wobbled and dissolved.
Certain his enemy would follow, Elijah pressed his body to its limits, praying that Sadie hold on. That she’d sense him there, protecting her, and never let him go.
*
The faint lapping sound of water filled Sadie’s ears. She imagined herself floating, wet and quiet, a body adrift in low waves at the center of a dark blue sea, the night sky twinkling above her, the world muted beyond the water’s lull.
Sadie, please, open your eyes.
But her eyes were open. Stars sparkled above. The waves buoyed beneath. Warmth cocooned her. Security. Sadie could stay here until the end of time.
The warmth and wetness tickled her skin and comforted her. Sadie, please. I need you to see me. Come back to me. Such suffering in the words and they made no sense. See who? Come back to where? Everything was already okay. Nothing more to fear.
She tasted salt on her tongue, the soothing kiss of a wave against her face. Weightlessness. The sense that she’d come home. That her life was exactly as it was meant to be all along. Free and pure and sweet.
Alone but not lonely.
“Sadie,” a deep timber said, insistent now. “Sadie, open your eyes.”
Elijah? His voice was like a shimmer over the sky and water.
What was he doing here? She tried to locate him. But the dark night made it difficult to see and if she turned her neck the water would get on her face.
“There, that’s it. All the way now. Come back to me.”
She rapidly blinked her eyes. The water disappeared. Sharp reality flooded in and pain followed on its heels. She groaned. The effort scraped at her throat. She focused her eyes on the darkness and saw stars above and city lights far below, warm wind tangled her hair and soothed her cheeks. Strong, perfect arms around her, his miraculous voice soothed in her ear. “That’s it. Relax. You’re safe.”
“Elijah?” Not that she needed to verify what her heart knew. His arms squeezed the air from her lungs. She smacked at his shoulder and with a low chuckle; he loosened his grip. “How did you find me?”
“I’ll always find you, Sadie. I’ll never forgive myself for how long it took me to. But I promise you, I will always find you.”
~ ~ ~
Chapter Twenty-nine
The fragrant, balmy air told Sadie they were somewhere tropical, but the night concealed any other clues until Elijah brought them down. Her toes sank into cold, soft sand. Sulfur and sea smells met her nostrils. The ocean roared behind them and tall palms dotted the wide expanse, gray under the moon’s light.
“Tell me what hurts, love,” Elijah said, his gaze intent.
Everything hurt. Except her heart. “I like it when you call me that.”
“Of course you like it.” With a grin, he sat and pulled her down onto his lap. “Because you think you love me.”
“Yes. I do. I don’t even care if you believe me any more. It doesn’t change how I feel. And I don’t know that I can ever prove it to you, but I do.”
“I know.”
She felt so beat up, but at the same time needed to explain herself. “I realized today, lying in a ball, wishing for you that it’s okay if you never call what you feel for me love. In the end, it isn’t what I’m after. I don’t need you to love me. It will be enough that I still love you.” She paused, watched his face. “I don’t know if that makes any sense but when I realized it, it was really freeing.”
His eyes crinkled with his smile. “Freeing? How so?”
“Crusoe took me to the darkest place in my soul, to my deepest fear and coming back from it, I can sort of see that nothing in this world is tan
gible or real or permanent. I’m still me whether I’m human and insane or immortal or in love. I’m free. I’m me no matter how you or anyone else feels about me.”
He regarded her silently, staring into her eyes. Sadie kissed the tip of his nose, wishing she had better words to explain her heart. How did she tell him she was setting him free yet never letting him go, all at once? He’d only take it wrong and assume she was thinking in human terms. “Love is more than me. It’s more than you. It’s a gift. And I’m giving it to you to do with as you wish.”
“As I wish, huh?”
She nodded and looked out at the endless water to the glowing horizon. Her breath stole away. The day was dawning. She’d never seen anything so lovely, so surreal, and that was saying a lot considering the last few weeks. The sun glowed molten as it rose, inch by effortless inch, into a cloudless sky, above the cerulean water.
Elijah cradled her in his lap, kissed her neck and shoulders as they watched the sun rise. With it came light. The small bay they sat at was banked by chunky lava rock.
“Are we in Hawaii?”
He nodded against her neck, his nose tickling the sensitive part behind her ear. A shiver ran down her arms and back. Sadie didn’t know why he was being so quiet but decided not to push. After her ordeal, this moment was beyond enough.
She took the moment in. The roaring waves, the chill in the wind off the water that swayed the palms in a leaning dance. The sun in the sky, the hole filled rock. The smells. And him. His soft hum. Her seeker. Her angel.
She couldn’t help the wetness in her eyes or the wave of gratitude washing over her. As though he sensed it, and he likely did, Elijah wrapped her tightly to him and held her close.
“Shhh,” he whispered. “It’s over now. It’s all over. You’re safe.”
“You don’t understand. It isn’t over. And I’m not scared. Not anymore.”
“I suppose you’re right. Crusoe won’t give up. And I can’t help but wonder what will happen to Holly.”
Sadie hiccupped. She hated crying and took a steadying breath to get her emotions under control. She would not become some simpering waif. “I know he won’t. And I couldn’t care less what happens to Holly except that she gets what she deserves in life.”
He half grinned. “He’ll be back for you, you know.”
“I know.”
Sadie leaned her head against his chest and sighed, all signs of tearful dramatics gone. She listened to his heartbeat and realized how tired she was. “Holly, too?”
“I don’t know. She’s gone but I couldn’t tell you where to, maybe back to Crusoe or off on her own. I’m leaning toward the latter.”
“Why?”
“Because she wasn’t in it for the cause.”
No. She was in it for Elijah. Sadie couldn’t really blame her. She might beg, borrow and betray for a chance at this, too, and thanked heaven she hadn’t had to.
“We’ll be ready when Crusoe comes back.”
She grinned up at him. “We will?”
“Absolutely. We’ll train, go to High Council, expose him, train some more.”
“You make training sound so sexy. Or is that the magnetism luring me in again?”
Elijah nibbled her ear lobe. “With you, training is definitely sexy. We’re going to need many, many private, in-depth lessons.”
His mouth met hers and the tingle in her cells let her know he was taking her somewhere. The sensation of the transport evolved into shivers of delight when her limbs recognized the unmistakable cushion of bedding beneath her. Elijah’s kiss deepened, obliviating Sadie’s coherent thought process. Where’d he taken her now? He could have taken her to the moon. She didn’t care. A soft sweet hum filled her ears, a lullaby of sorts, except she felt it deep in her bones as much as heard it in her ears.
“Open your eyes, love,” Elijah said against her hungry lips.
She obeyed his tender command. “Do you hear that?” she asked.
Elijah’s lips curved into her favorite smile, the one that disarmed her every last inhibition and reminded her that, even alone in these feelings for him, she loved to love him.
“I can’t hear what you do, but I suspect I know the song.”
Sadie cocked her head.
“You’re a seeker, love. What you hear comes with your nature. What you hear now, is me. As I hear you. What you hear, is love.”
She slowly blinked. “Love?”
“Yes, silly girl. Love.” He cupped her face and looked deeply into her eyes. “Do I need to say the words? Can’t you feel it? Can’t you hear it singing from every fiber of my being, right down to my soul?”
Sadie smiled. “You’re going to make me cry.”
“I’ll kiss away each tear, love.”
“You love me.”
“I love you. I fought it and denied it and wouldn’t trust that what you felt was real. But as you said, I loved you anyhow. It stopped mattering whether or not your feelings were fleeting or human fancy. I love you for your courage and your hope and your tenacity and a million other reasons. I love you, Sadie.”
Though she struggled to hold them back, a tear escaped. Elijah kissed the wet spot along her temple. A rush of ocean air gusted in through the open window, pushing the bamboo blinds. The cool breeze soothed over her body.
“I am yours now,” Elijah said. “Forever yours. And you are mine. We’re joined.”
Sadie forced back a sob. “Joined?”
Elijah gave her a sheepish grin. “In the tent, at Bryce Canyon.”
Inhaling sharply, she said. “That’s what that was?”
She wrapped her arms and legs around him and vowed to God and the universe and to him, “I’ll never let go.”
Elijah sealed her promise with a kiss, covering her body with his own. The heat of arousal spread through her body. Combined with the heady effect of knowing he loved her, hearing it for herself, feeling its reverberation, intensified her desire.
“I want you,” Sadie said, pulling at his shirt.
“Yes, love.” He kissed her cheek, her jaw line, nuzzled her ear, her neck.
She yanked his shirt off; hers soon followed. Next went her bra. The feel of his warm skin on her bare breasts sent new shivers of need through her. Elijah’s mouth found one hard nipple. His hands found her jeans and tugged them off. Sadie was blind to how he was able to get out of his. Then a thought struck her. Every sensation went on hold and she nudged him back so she could see his face.
“What is it?” Elijah asked, concern showing in his eyes. “Tell me.”
“You didn’t believe me before. Because you couldn’t hear it? Because I hadn’t transformed enough?”
He looked away for a moment. The breeze pushed back his hair. “Maybe it was the change. Maybe it was that I simply refused to listen. I don’t know. All I know is, when your hum was gone, when you left, I felt the absence all the way down to my soul.”
The last of her worries dissolved. “I know exactly what you mean,” she said. “And just so you know, I’ll be taking full bragging rights over figuring the love thing out first.”
Elijah let out a deep chuckle that jostled their bodies on the mattress. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Sadie. By all means, to every last soul in two realms, love, brag away.”
He rolled her on top of him, kissing her so thoroughly that she remembered what they were not talking about before her last little doubt so rudely interrupted.
~ ~ ~
Epilogue
Heather looked beautiful, standing there holding her bulging, pregnant belly. She also looked about to collapse under the stress of eyeing so many books.
“Do you want to sit, Heather?”
“They should put a couch in this aisle. I’m okay, though.”
Funny how time shifts alongside enormous change. For Heather, the last six months had passed at a slow, grinding pace that she bemoaned often. “When will this baby get here already?” Heather felt every minute. Maybe it was the nature of pregnancy.
Sadie didn’t want to understand firsthand for a long time to come. But then, time itself had changed for her.
Heather’s rounding belly, five months along now, peeked out from her t-shirt’s edge. “What’s the one everyone always talks about?” Heather asked. “You know the one in that movie?”
Sadie grinned. It was the fourth time Heather had asked and now, finally at the bookstore after a short lunch, had again forgotten. “What To Expect When You’re Expecting.” Sadie expected her sister to eventually bring up that day six months back, the day she’d transported her. But Heather never did.
Heather reached to the shelf and pulled out two different volumes. “These look good.” She handed one over. “Get both. I’ll return what I don’t want.”
“Are you sure? There are a lot to choose from here. Why don’t we find a seat and page through a couple?”
“Elijah won’t get antsy?”
Sadie laughed. “No. He’ll keep himself busy.” Circling the parking lot was good practice. His mediocre driving skills needed polishing if they were going to stay this side of realm lines for long. Transporting too much would draw attention. She’d learned how to drive in a parking lot. So could he. “What about the baby manual one Jen mentioned? Her co-worker recommended it?”
Heather yawned. “I can’t remember. I swear if Remy wasn’t with me each morning, I’d forget to leave the house dressed. I like these for now.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. Besides, I need a nap.” Her second yawn proved it.
They got in line.
“Your make-up job is pitiful, by the way.”
Sadie automatically fingered the area under her eye. There might not be enough cover up on the planet to hide the results of the kick during sparring last night. Elijah felt terrible. “He isn’t beating me, if that’s what you think.”
A smile spread over her sister’s face. The new freckles the pregnancy brought on made her look so wholesome. “You’re probably beating him,” Heather said. “Poor guy’s finally fighting back, right?”