A Step Away (The Wanderer Book 2)

by Jocelyn Stover

  “Towel please,” I ask as I turn the water off. Wrapped in fluffy softness I contemplate his words. “Won’t that upset Himyar?”

  “That’s the intent. We’re hoping it’ll draw him out.” It sounds like a decent plan and as much as I don’t want him to go, I admit there are things I need to take care of in San Diego, stuff I need to do on my own. Leaving the humid sanctuary of the shower I shiver in the cool air of the bathroom. Seeing my chill, Kade attempts to rub warmth back into my shoulders with his hands. “I want you to stay at my place until I get back. It’s spelled, you’ll be safe there.”

  Shaking my head I step back. “No, there are things I need to take care of at home first.” His gaze becomes brittle while he makes his own assumptions about what I mean. “The ruse Hal created hasn’t just been protecting me. It’s going to take a little time to reorder my life there,” I explain. Crossing his arms over his chest, he continues to glower at me. “Kade, I can’t not go back! No, I’m going to make this right, like I should have.” Stepping forward I corner him against the vanity. “Will you trust me?”

  Growling, he nods. His unease over my decision is palatable but he lets the matter drop, for now. “Get dressed, I want to feed you.”

  * * *

  Shoving the last of my toiletries into my overnight bag, I then locate my sneakers and wiggle my feet into them. Kade waits at the door and accepts my things when I’m ready to go. Holding my hand, he leads me through the compound to the kitchen. The riot of activity that is going on when we get there startles us both. I get the impression that Kade expected the place to be deserted, but it’s fruitless to go on pretending we’re the only two souls around. Personal time is over.

  Dropping my hand, Kade moves to place my bag on a table in the dining room. Zafir is standing over the stove wearing a kiss the cook apron and a shit eating grin. Hal stands off to one side chatting with Basal while a sullen Rashid sits alone sipping his coffee. Through the doorframe to the dining hall I can see Adil and several of the other Wanderers enjoying breakfast.

  “Good morning,” Z chuckles, overemphasizing the gesture of checking his watch to note the time. Yeah, it’s almost eleven, I think and roll my eyes at him. With a wink, he sets a plate of heart shaped pancakes down in front of me. Grumbling, Rashid winks out of his seat and reappears in front of the sink just long enough to dump his mug before poofing out again.

  “What was that about?” I ask, surprised by his rude behavior. Looking back at me Z smirks then says, “Nothing, jack ass is probably still sore about those cupcakes.” Funny, it’s odd to be that worked up over dessert, I think.

  “Did you have something to do with that?” I ask.

  “Maybe, don’t worry he’ll get over it,” he tacks on at the end as he reads my concerned expression. The incident skips my mind though when Kade returns sporting that smile, the one that proclaims to everyone he’s master of the universe. Z hands me another plate of food which I assume is for Kade. I glance down and laugh: the sausage and bacon on this plate are all engaged in questionable behavior with his pancakes.

  “Hey, why didn’t I get bacon?” I tease Z, completely ignoring the breakfast orgy. Handing the disgusting plate off to Kade I snatch a couple strips of bacon from Z on our way to the dining hall.

  “This isn’t what I had in mind,” Kade whispers, sitting down beside me.

  “This is perfect,” I smile. “I’m sure it would have been more difficult to leave after whatever you had planned,” I add, not wanting to hurt his feelings. Our stolen season is over, real life is calling, and we both have jobs to do and tasks that can’t wait.

  Chapter 14

  “You’re humming that song again,” Hal says, poking me in the arm to get my attention.

  “Oh sorry,” I shrug and remove my ear buds. I’d been thinking about Kade again and what had transpired behind his closed door, to be specific. Hal had been right. I’d been afraid of the dark, of what would happen. Feigning ignorance and dancing around the shadows had been easier then but now I find the dark is all I want. Sighing, I give up on music before I annoy Hal. Unlike Zafir, he’s made no effort to embarrass me over what may or may not have happened last night. There’ve been no crude jokes or sexual innuendos cleverly worked into our conversations this morning. I love Z to death but the frat guy wink and smile routine was getting on my nerves. Pulling the keys to Kade’s apartment out of my pocket, I twirl them around on my finger, happy to be in possession of a keepsake of sorts. He’d insisted I take them, even after our conversation about my plans this morning, just in case.

  “What are you doing with those? Please don’t tell me you’re planning to do what those suggest.”

  “What? No, of course not,” I say, looking from the keys to Hal. “These are just a precaution, a safe haven of sorts in case things get bad.” Hal frowns. Since he’s the man in charge of my protection I can only guess that he sees those keys as a lack of confidence in his abilities.

  “Oh no Hal, it isn’t that, Kade trusts you. We both do. This is...well, I refused to go live at Kade’s place but he forced the keys on me anyway.” Hal sits on my words as the voice of the stewardess chimes in over the loudspeaker to inform us that the captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt signs and that we are making our final approach into San Diego.

  “When you make a decision you move fast, you know that? Do you even stop to consider the details or do you just work everything out as it comes up after the fact?”

  “Total commitment, remember? It’s one of things you love about me.” I smile.

  “Maybe I need to take my own advice and revise my thinking.” Rubbing the bridge of his nose he leans forward and rests on his elbows. “So what are you planning to do when we get back?”

  “Ben deserves better than a wife who can’t share her life with him,” I say as an answer.

  “Okay, but he loves you, and he doesn’t know you’re not that person.”

  I look at Hal with astonishment. “You think I should tell him the truth?” The idea is mind blowing and I’ll admit it’s not something I’d considered.

  “It’s an option, but no, that’s not what I’m getting at,” he says, chuckling over my outburst. “Telling him would only widen the chasm between the two of you I fear.”

  “How so?” I ask as my brows furrow. I’m not following him.

  “Come on Gwen, what do you think will happen if you tell him?”

  The obvious answer is that he wouldn’t believe me. Getting him to accept that the supernatural exists would be difficult, but I’m not naïve enough to believe that even if I could convince him of that fact we could live happily ever after. I’m not saying that scenario wouldn’t be possible for some couples, but in my heart I know it’s not possible with my Ben. My job has been the other woman in our relationship for years. First it was Preston-Ward, then the bakery when we actually started to turn a profit. He puts on a good face, but it bothers him nonetheless. This world he would never understand and we could never share.

  “He would grow to resent me, and the further I got pulled into your world the deeper the wedge between us would become,” I finally answer.

  “That’s what I was afraid would be your answer.”

  “Wait, I thought you knew, you said...”

  “I suspected, but you know him better than I,” he explains, cutting me off. “Back to my original point - you don’t know what you’re going to do when we get home, do you?”

  I stare at him speechlessly, hating the fact he’s right all the time. How do I tell Ben something’s wrong when the something that’s wrong isn’t something I can tell him about? And even if I did tell him, it wouldn’t make sense to him. Dang it! Nothing is ever easy.

  “I have no idea, but I have some time to figure it out.” Kade and Zafir could be away for months digging up that old alter, if I’m lucky.

  “And I will be here to help you.”

  Squeezing his hand in thanks I turn away. “And I’ll never understand why, I’m n
othing but trouble.”

  “Trouble is my middle name.”

  * * *

  The bump of the tire against the curb rouses me. While Hal’s truck comes to a complete stop I sit up, apparently having dozed off against the window. I’m exhausted after the whirlwind of events that were packed into the last 72 hours. I climb down from the cab and stretch. Has it really been only three days since the world flip-flopped on me, again? Retrieving my overnight bag from the bed of the truck, I then shuffle along the drive in a daze.

  “Hey!” Hal yells to get my attention. Facing the truck, I wait for whatever it is he forgot to say. “Make sure you work the fact that you are starting to notice gray hairs into your next conversation with Ben.” Sporting that school boy grin I adore, he rolls up the window and drives off without further explanation. What the hell is he talking about? What gray hair? I ponder Hal’s parting request, but my brain is too foggy to make heads or tails of this latest puzzle. I grip my bag and head inside.

  “Hey babe, how was work?” Ben asks from the couch.

  “Fine,” I mumble as I drag myself to the laundry room and start to unload my luggage.

  “You don’t sound fine.” That’s because I’m not. I’m exhausted from travel, there’s a vengeful Sylph on the loose, and leading a double life isn’t as much fun as the movies portray.

  “I’m getting gray hairs,” I blurt out, at a loss for anything better to say.

  “What? No!” Ben teases, jumping up and running down the hallway with an expression of mock horror on his face. “I don’t see anything,” he admits, fingering my red strands.

  “Oh they’re there,” I insist, batting his hands away. Marching back down the hallway I help myself to the pizza sitting on the stove and grab a Coke from the fridge. Ben returns to the TV in the living room, none the wiser about my absence thanks to Hal’s spell that was cast before we left. The fact that Ben was working the last few days made my disappearance even less likely to be noticed. Still, picking back up with him like absolutely nothing happened is awkward. Ha! What about my life isn’t awkward at the moment? Concerning myself with picking the mushrooms off my pizza, I pay no attention to Ben’s channel surfing.

  “Gwen, did you see this?” he calls from the other room. “They found that missing cruise ship.”

  Almost choking on a bite of sausage, a fit of coughing prevents me from responding right away. “Everything alright?” Ben asks.

  “Yes,” I croak, coughing again. “I just tried to inhale pizza.” I finish my Coke and pull another one from the fridge. “What happened?” I ask, setting my face in stone before joining him in the living room. The footage on the screen is similar to the breaking news report I saw the other day in the airport.

  “It’s all anyone can talk about. The whole ship sank somewhere off the coast of Florida. Can you believe that?” he exclaims, pointing at the screen.

  “How did it sink?”

  “They say it must have hit something, and whatever it was punched a huge hole in the side. There was footage from some divers on earlier.”

  “I wonder what it hit.”

  “That’s the weird part: no one seems to know. The so-called experts they keep interviewing say there’s nothing in that part of the ocean large enough to cause the type of damage the divers are describing,” Ben explains.

  “Huh, that’s weird,” I say while thinking if only the experts knew what I know.

  “Tragic, is more like it.”

  “Yes,” I whisper, on that much we can agree. Squeezing my eyes shut I try not to think about the slaughtered passengers or Himyar’s olive branch to Zafir.

  “Are you okay? You’re shaking.” Firm hands grasp me by the shoulders, steadying me.

  “Thanks,” I say looking up at Ben. “I’m not sure what came over me.”

  “Why don’t you lay down for a bit?” he says as his cool blue eyes appraise me, looking for some sign of sickness or physical ailment. Finding none, he insists on supporting me all the way to the bedroom despite my assurances that I’m fine but just a little tired. I rest on the edge of the bed and remove my shoes.

  “I’ll be on the couch if you need anything, babe,” he says as he leaves the room.

  Flopping back on the bed, I close my eyes and try to hang on to all of the good reasons I’d come up with for breaking that man’s heart. Would it be so hard just to live out the lie for the next forty or fifty years? At least then I’d only be hurting myself, right? I’ve become the queen of self torture over the years, I can take it. After thinking along those lines for several moments, I shake myself. No, this dysfunctional triangle we’ve got going isn’t working for any of us, but damn, this isn’t going to be as easy as I’d thought.

  Chapter 15

  “Again,” Hal barks like a drill sergeant. Wiping the sweat from my brow, I glare at him. “This time try to concentrate,” he adds. I know he’s exasperated but the snide insinuation that I haven’t been trying or doing my best irks me. We’ve been practicing all morning. Since returning from Utah, Hal’s hammered me every day with training exercises designed to improve my defensive powers, like deflection and shielding. Normally a little bit of angst is beneficial during these training sessions but not today. Sheer exhaustion is making it hard to stand, let alone to focus.

  “What is with you this week?” I ask, trying to make sense of the brutal new regimen he’s instituted.

  “Nothing. Are you ready?”

  “Yes,” I answer, although truthfully I feel anything but. Taking a deep breath I try to mentally prepare myself so I’m ready to deflect whatever object Hal throws at me next. When I manage to send a spoon glancing off towards the window instead of smacking me in the head I earn a little praise, which is great because honestly I’m still terrible at this.

  “Seriously, why are you riding me this hard all of the sudden?” I know learning to use my powers is important but Hal’s never forced the process before. Massaging his brow, he reflects on my question.

  “We don’t know when or where Himyar will strike next, and I want you to be as prepared as possible to defend yourself.”

  “I get it,” I say, and I do, but pushing me like this isn’t helping and it won’t make me learn any faster. “I need a break.” Sitting down on my stool, I watch the wheels spinning in Hal’s head as he weighs the possibility of an all-out mutiny occurring if he asks me to continue.

  “Okay, let’s switch gears. There’s something I’ve been meaning to discuss with you anyway.” I’m surprised he’s decided to give up on defensive training so easily, but I latch onto whatever he wants to discuss gratefully. “Gwen, how old are you?”

  “32,” I reply enthusiastically. No more birthdays is one of the best things about my immortality.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say.” Chuckling, he folds his arms over his chest and leans back against the counter. “Technically yes, you were frozen in time at the age of thirty-two. Let me ask my question in a different way. How old does everyone else believe you are?”

  “Almost 38,” I answer and wrinkle my nose in distaste. Even in my ageless state I’m not excited about crossing the forty threshold.

  “This is going to be more fun than I thought,” Hal says, and something about his sarcastic reply makes me think I should be worried. “It was brought to my attention in Utah that you don’t really look your age.”

  Crossing my arms I glare at Hal. “So,” I state.

  “Well, we need to do something about that. You need to look like you’re almost forty.”

  “What... why... who?” I gasp.

  “The who would be Adil and I agree. The why should be obvious even to you and the what, well we’ll get to that in a minute.”

  “Obvious, huh? I look great, and every woman should be so lucky.”

  “Don’t make this about vanity please. Your life may be a ruse but for the present it’s keeping you safe. The people in your life will expect you to age like they do.”

  “Is this
why you made me tell Ben I was getting gray hairs?” I ask, finally making the connection.

  “Yes,” Hal admits with a sheepish grin on his face.

  “You’re good.” It sucks that Hal is right all the time, and this one time in particular I’d like him to be wrong.

  “Wait!” I blurt out, getting excited when I realize something. “I’m done with my cover, so we don’t have to do this.”

  Shaking his head in disagreement Hal sighs. “How’s that going by the way?”

  “I’m working on it.” Hal’s look of loving concern makes me regret my surly retort; I know aggravating me wasn’t his intent. “It’s just that it isn’t an easy thing to bring up.”

  “I know, and I’m not trying to pressure you, but as you know these things take time so you really shouldn’t delay too long.”

  “What do you mean?” I cock my head to the side and look at Hal with confusion.

  “Umm, I assumed you were planning to go the divorce route, as opposed to the other alternatives.”

  “Yeah. Wait, what do you mean by other alternatives?” I ask.

  “You realize that with a divorce there will be paperwork and legal proceedings. The entire process will take awhile.”

  Oh crap! I hadn’t really thought about any of the logistics. “Are the alternatives easier?”

  “Uh no.”

  “Well, what are they?” I demand as my hands wave around emphatically.

  “Magic or death,” Hal answers.

  Duh, of course magic. “Could you do that? Could you spell Ben into forgetting all about me?” So many things about that option don’t sit well with me, but I’m still curious to know if it could actually be done.

  “No, I’m afraid there are too many people involved. Remember, Ben isn’t the only person I’d have to spell. Friends, family, co-workers...the list of people who know you are married is endless. It would be nearly impossible to track down everyone.”