“You’re welcome.” I reply.
“God’s blessings on you, Evie,” Brenda says. “I have to go now, they’re calling me.”
I can hear the whispering voices of a multitude speaking in unison but in their Angelic language. It is a hum, just a light melody whose vibrations are so soft and sweet that it makes me feel light inside, as if I’m floating, rising and falling gently on the waves of sound. It is compelling and I want to reach out and gravitate to wherever the music is coming from, but it’s all around me, engulfing me in its cadence.
Brenda begins to flicker, as if she is a piece of film on a screen that isn’t threaded correctly, so that she shimmers in bright flashes of light, and then fades rapidly. Her body maintains the same image of her from the front angle, but I notice when I tilt my head, she seems to be flat; she is no longer three-dimensional, but is now two-dimensional. Her features are fading, but her silhouette remains; it’s as if she is made up of stars and galaxies all swirling around with pinpoints of light and dense darkness, like the night sky within the shape that used to be Brenda. The silhouette caves in on itself slowly, disappearing from sight in a pinpoint of darkness. There is no sound now, but I detect a lingering scent, if I can call it that. It’s more like the way the air smells after a lightning storm. The smell of energy floats in the air, like pollen on a spring evening.
With the absence of the beautiful melody that had just filled me with feelings of joy and contentment, I begin to feel crushed and broken. Desolation sweeps through me. I have been given the barest insight of what others have referred to as Paradise, and the loss of it is leaving me feeling as if I’m bleeding inside. I feel vulgar and unwanted as if I was passed over like a piece of garbage.
“Evie?” Reed whispers from the doorway of the employee lounge. I want to answer him, but I can hardly breathe from despair. In confusion, I realize I’m lying on the floor looking up at the ceiling. “Evie…” Reed says, lifting me up and holding me in his arms.
“Reed, you smell that?” Zephyr asks darkly, sniffing the air. “It smells of transcendence. Is that possible?” he asks.
“Anything is possible when Evie is around. Can you find water and some sugar?” Reed asks Zephyr just as darkly, placing me on the couch while holding my face, tipping it up so that he can look in my eyes.
In seconds, Zephyr is back with a glass of water and a sugar dispenser. “How much sugar?” he asks, pouring a generous amount of sugar into the water.
“Good,” Reed responds, propping my head up while holding the glass to my lips. “Drink this, Evie,” he says. I struggle a little to fend off the water glass. I feel hopeless and I just want to be left alone to bleed, maybe if I bleed enough, the voices will come back for me. “You have to drink it, love,” he insists before speaking to me in the lovely language he knows so well. I turn my head toward him as I drink the water he holds to my lips. “That’s it, drink all of it,” he says.
When I finish all of the water, Reed scoops me up again and we are outside under the starry night in a fraction of a second. Placing me gingerly in the front seat of the car, he belts me in. The heater vents are blasting out hot air and they are all pointed at me. Reed speaks briefly to Zephyr who gets into the car with Buns that is parked directly behind our vehicle. I barely notice when Reed pulls out of town, driving as fast as the car can go with no headlights on to alert others of our presence.
Feeling Reed’s eyes on me, I look over at him, reaching my hand to place it on his hand. He grasps it tightly, bringing it to his lips, and kissing it hard. “Did a soul transcend in that room?” Reed asks me tensely, watching my face for my answer.
I nod and he closes his eyes briefly, and then he opens them again. “How?” he asks and I shrug. “Evie, it’s not easy to be around a soul when it transcends. That is why Reaper angels are so bubbly and enthusiastic, so that when they are exposed to the loss of not going with the soul, it’s bearable. You were way too close to it. It’s like watching a black hole open up—it pulls energy into it as it prepares for the journey—it will take some of your energy with it if you get too near to it. Did you feel sad?” he asks me and I have to turn away from him, so he won’t see how wrecked I feel inside from being denied entrance to the bliss I had glimpsed. I nod because I can’t speak.
“Even I would feel sad, if I had been there. You feel left behind— unworthy to be called—that is normal, it just wasn’t your time to go… and I’m grateful that it was not your time,” Reed admits. I glance at him silently again. “I feel very selfish for saying that out loud, but I don’t know what I’d do if you had gone tonight.”
I watch him grip the steering wheel tensely, as if he truly does feel shame for thinking that thought. I click the button to release my seatbelt and crawl over the center console to sit in Reed’s lap. I rest my head next to his and kiss his cheek softly when I feel his arm wrap around me, pulling me to him.
“I don’t want to go anywhere without you,” I say honestly, and I feel selfish because I know that if I had gone tonight with Brenda, it would probably be the best thing for Reed. He wouldn’t be in danger anymore, well, no more danger than he usually is in while battling the Fallen. He wouldn’t be in danger from divine angels, too.
“Good,” Reed says in relief. “What do you want?” he asks me in a serious tone.
“You—and some French fries,” I say in an equally serious tone as my stomach growls. “And a chocolate milkshake,” I add. I want so much more than that. I want him to be safe. I want to be safe. I want the cottage in the woods with Reed and maybe some children and a life—or an eternity and I want Zephyr and Buns and Brownie to be with us always and I want… Russell. And, now that I have felt Paradise, I want that desperately, too. But, if I can only have one of those things, then I want Reed.
I think my answer is so unexpected that Reed can’t help but laugh. “You are hungry?” he asks, smiling. I nod. Reed pulls out my cell phone from his pocket and makes a call. “We have to make an unscheduled stop…French fries…” he says.
“And a chocolate milkshake,” I remind him and see him smile a little more.
“And a chocolate milkshake. We will park and you order,” Reed says. We find a fast food restaurant and Reed parks the car while Zephyr and Buns pull through the drive thru window. In typical angel excess, Zephyr delivers more than I asked for. There are several burgers, sandwiches, pies, and six large orders of fries. I also get my shake, which I am truly grateful for. We don’t wait to get back on the road, but are off as soon as Zephyr is back in the other car. I offer some fries to Reed who eyes them suspiciously before taking a few and eating them.
“Where are we going?” I ask, since I’m pretty sure we aren’t going to the champagne toast at the lodge.
“Home,” Reed says.
“Is that a good idea?” I ask, shivering a little when I think of the hostile Power that threatened to rip out my heart.
“They don’t know who we are. Zephyr and I planned for this and did not use plastic or our real identities. Everything was cash and alias identification.”
I think about that for a second, about what happened on the hill. Reed is being quiet about it, like he doesn’t want to talk about it or something. I eat some more fries, watching him, and then I ask him, “What’s a Nephilim?”
The car gently loses acceleration as Reed lifts his foot off the pedal. He doesn’t look at me, but straight ahead into the darkness and his face loses all color. He looks furious. “What did you say?” he asks me quietly. I stop chewing my fries and swallow hard because I didn’t mean to say the wrong thing, but apparently I have. When I don’t answer him, he asks, “Where did you hear that word?”
“The other Power called me a Nephilim right before she told me she was going to rip out my evil heart,” I reply, hoping I’m not going to make him angrier by telling him that.
“The other Power? There was one that followed you?” he asks. We are just drifting on the road now, decelerating rapidly. The phone star
ts ringing, but Reed doesn’t make a move to answer it. He pulls to the side of the road and puts the car in park.
I am beginning to get really afraid now. He is freaking out, in the quiet way that Reed freaks out, and it’s making me freak out. “Uh huh,” I manage. “That’s probably why I ran a hundred miles. I didn’t want her to rip out my evil heart.”
“Your heart is not evil!” he barks at me and I flinch. Then, I jump when I look past Reed’s window to see Zephyr standing outside it, looking at us.
Reed rolls down the window and Zephyr asks, “Problem?”
“Evie didn’t just run for a hundred miles, she was hunted,” Reed says in a quiet tone. Zephyr signals to Buns and she is in the backseat of our car in an instant along with Zephyr.
I turn to look at Buns, but she launches herself into my arms, hugging me fiercely before pulling back and saying, “Sweetie, you’re amazing. A hundred miles in the cold and snowy terrain—you’re my hero.”
“She is my hero, too. She was hunted. What hunted you, Evie?” Zephyr asks in an efficient way.
“I think she is a Power—she looked like a warrior, but she was definitely female. Let’s see, she was hot in that androgynous model kind of way: short dark brown hair, hazel eyes, dark brown wings, super strong. She ripped out a tree and chucked it at me like it was a weed,” I explain, remembering the sound it made as it crashed and splintered into the trees around me. Reed makes a sound from his seat, but doesn’t look at me. He is facing forward, looking out the window. “You can’t accuse her of throwing like a girl,” I add, trying to get Reed to smile. He’s not smiling.
Buns looks pale as she speaks to me. “Sweetie, how did you get away?” she asks me like she doesn’t understand.
“I ran and I didn’t stop. I stayed in the thickest part of the woods I could find so that she wouldn’t be able to see me easily from the sky. I just kept going until I had to stop. I was really cold.”
“But, even if you outran her, which I have no doubt you did, since you made it to town, why are you still alive?” Zephyr asks.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” I say in confusion.
“She wouldn’t have stopped. She would’ve kept going, following your tracks. What else was open in town?” Reed asks in a quiet tone. “Did you notice?”
I try to remember my route into town. “The convenience store was open, but I couldn’t make myself go in there,” I say, looking down because I’m embarrassed that I can’t get over my fear of places like that. “I think there was a bar open on the corner—a country western thing, but my wings were out so I couldn’t go in, and then there is that rule about no bars or taverns.”
“She does not act like normal prey,” Zephyr says suddenly, smiling at me proudly.
“Yes. We would have searched for her in the bar because we would have assumed that she would act like all of the other Fallen. But, she doesn’t, so, if the other Power made it to town, she would have gone directly to the tavern looking for Evie,” Reed surmises. “How far away was the bar from the diner?” Reed asks.
“I think the back of the bar would’ve been attached to the parking lot of the diner. They shared the parking lot at opposite ends,” I answer, trying to remember the layout, but it’s a little sketchy because I was sort of out of it at that point.
Reed turns toward the back seat of the car and speaks to Buns, “Do you think a Power would have felt a resistant soul transcend from that distance?”
“Sweetie, you did help a soul, didn’t you?” Buns asks me proudly. I nod. She turns back to Reed and answers his question, “Yes.” Then, she asks, “Would a Power investigate something like that, if she was hunting?”
Both Zephyr and Reed look at each other, and then say together, “No.”
Buns looks irritated when she asks, “What, is it beneath you or something?” Neither one answers, so the question is answered by default. “So, are we gambling here? Do we hope she didn’t see us and that she can’t contact her buddies? How many were there on that hill?” Buns asks a little bit pissy, probably because of how Powers act toward Reapers.
Reed ignores her attitude when he answers her questions. “There were at least seven other Powers on the hill when Evie and I got there. They were together. If she contacted them, they would follow her orders, since it’s her mission. We operate like she saw us load Evie in the car and head out. We assume she had a phone or was prepared to fly any distance to follow us. We need new vehicles Zephyr. What kind of car would you pick to evade an angel, Evie?” Reed asks me, studying me from his seat and I am surprised he asked me my opinion on strategy. They are experts at this.
Not wanting to disappoint him, I think about all the options, but one just sticks in my head, so I blurt out, “Minivan.”
“What?” Zephyr asks me as if he hadn’t heard me correctly.
“Get a minivan,” I repeat.
“Why?” he retorts, like I have suggested he steal a tricycle.
“Because you guys wouldn’t be caught dead in one. It’s the perfect camouflage,” I reply.
“Yes, but if we are spotted, we have almost no chance of escaping. It will act like fatal terrain. We will have to fight because to not do so would be to die,” he explains, and I see the dilemma for them. They wouldn’t be fighting Fallen, they would be fighting their own. But somehow, I know I’m right, so I have to argue my case.
“That’s why it will work, because everything you do is about performance—how to make something perform to your standards, be angelic—but a minivan is very human. You guys never look twice at them. You see boring human existence, so we will be invisible to them in it,” I explain. I have learned a thing or two about Powers over the last few months of living with them. “You’re a really good driver, Zee, you’ll manage and maybe you’ll enjoy it,” I stop short of calling him a soccer mom because I know my limits.
Reed pulls out the road map, pointing to a spot on it. “We’ll meet here in a half-hour. Torch the car and remove the plate and VIN number,” he says to Zephyr.
“See you in a half-hour, sweetie,” Buns says, hugging me again and she disappears with Zephyr in the black Range Rover. Reed starts our car and begins to drive evasively, watching the rearview mirror as he makes turns to see if anyone follows us.
I am silent, thinking about what a Nephilim could possibly be to elicit such a violent response from Reed. Glancing at his profile, he is still having trouble with something. His jaw is set and his fingers are leaving dents in the steering wheel. I can guess what it is, but I don’t know how to talk to him about it.
“You didn’t tell me what a Nephilim is,” I say quietly, as he drives very fast down a deserted stretch of road.
“You don’t need to know,” he says, checking his auxiliary mirror before peering out the sunroof at the sky above us.
I sigh heavily, “Please?”
“You are not a Nephilim so it doesn’t matter,” he says in a stern tone.
“Okay, I’m not a Nephilim—what’s a Nephilim again?” I ask cajolingly, because I don’t want to let it go. When someone calls me a name, I, at least, want to know why I should be offended.
“Evie,” Reed sighs, too. “Why do you insist on knowing everything?”
He is dug in on this one. He really doesn’t want to talk about it. It must be really bad, I think as I watch him rub his brow with his hand. I am quiet then. Maybe now is not the time to explore this subject. Perhaps just living through the day to see the New Year is enough. I close my eyes and thank God because it is enough for me. I’m here with Reed and he’s safe and that is enough for me in this moment. Reed is watching me with concern when I open my eyes.
“You are right. I don’t need to know right now. I should just be grateful that your plan worked so well,” I reply in a tender voice as I rest my hand on his shoulder.
“What plan are you referring to, because my plan did not involve you being hunted by a Power without aid from anyone,” he asks evenly. “I missed her and I don
’t know how that happened. You are alive because you are incredibly fast, cunning, and brave—and a maverick who confuses us—not because you had help,” he replies in an angry tone.
“Reed, I didn’t pick myself up off the ground in Ames. You did that. If it weren’t for you, I would still be there and she probably would have found me sooner or later. No, scratch that, if it weren’t for you, I would have walked right into them on the hill and that would have been the end of it. Come to think of it, if it weren’t for you, Alfred would have a bright, shiny new soul to play with right now when the shadow man was done with me. Shall I go on because I can, you know?” I ask, thinking about Sebastian and formal. “I owe you everything and maybe you should be looking at this from another angle.”
“What angle is that?” he asks, sounding irritated with me.
“Maybe you should just be grateful that we get to have this conversation right now. I’m grateful. I’m so grateful that I get to see you—to touch you,” I say, putting my hand on the back of his neck lightly. “I get another chance to be with you and I know how selfish that is because you are as big a target as I am when I’m with you. I’m ashamed of myself, but I can’t stop wanting you.”
Pulling the car over in a deserted parking lot and slamming it into park, Reed reaches over and unbuckles my seatbelt, pulling me effortlessly onto his lap. “I am grateful,” he breathes against my mouth before he crushes his lips to mine with an unrestrained passion that is making me cling to him as I straddle his hips. Reed reaches around me, pulling the steering wheel right off the dashboard and tossing it in the back seat.
Reed tears the handle off of the driver’s side door, crushing it in his hand. I press my lips to his neck, and then further to his earlobe, nibbling on it teasingly. My fingers dig into the skin near his waist as I try to pull him nearer.
“I love you,” I whisper by his ear and hear him groan like he is in pain as he reaches his hand behind the passenger seat, ripping it from the bolts that hold it in place.
“And I, you. You are mine, Evie,” Reed says in a voice that sounds like he has lost control of the restraint he normally holds. I ignore the destruction he is doing to the car as I continue kissing him. His hand reaches up and pushes against the ceiling of the car. The sunroof shatters and cold air and glass cascade down on us from above.
Intuition: The Premonition Series Page 11