“She’s never happy,” Erias said dryly. “What else is new?”
“What’s new is that she just gave me a new assignment.” He paused for effect. “Watching over you. Making sure you don’t get out of line with the female.”
Erias cursed under his breath, feeling like he wanted to put his fist through a wall. “What did you tell her?”
Behr choked on a laugh. “What was I supposed to tell her? Gee, no thanks, Sephy, I think I’ll pass on this one? Yeah right. Of course I told her I would.” He stepped back and put his hands up in surrender when Erias turned a lethal glare on him. “You know I won’t say anything, man. It’s just a job. I have to cover my ass too, you know. Nothing personal.”
“Yeah, I know,” he grumbled. Pacing back and forth through the corridor, Erias raked his fingers through his hair. “This is so not good.”
“Hey.” Behr came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “At least it’s me checking in on you and not the devil herself. Nobody said I had to deal in accuracies.”
Erias huffed. “Yeah, and we all know what a stickler for specifics the boss is. It seems she’s still learning.”
“And it’s a good thing we’re not.” The men shared a smile. “So, where’s the lady in question?”
Erias gave him a sidelong look. “She’s a little tied up at the moment.”
Behr punched him in the shoulder. “You dog! Damn, man, you are so going to hell.”
“Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Besides, look who’s talking.” Sobering, Erias studied the wall behind them where several hundred years ago all Hell had broken loose. Literally. “I can’t let her come back here, but I’m running out of options.”
Behr gave him a funny look. “Whatever it is, you’ll figure it out.”
“I’m glad you have so much faith in me. ‘Cause I sure as hell don’t.” Sighing, Erias flashed back to his room at the B & B and into utter chaos.
Chapter 14
Holding a plate with what appeared to be a steak with mashed potatoes and gravy and a tall glass of pop, though it was hard to tell from her inverted position, Cheyenne took in Erias’s deadpanned look.
Caught in the act, she knew what this must look like and, well...Yeah, it was exactly what it looked like.
Braced against the headboard, which was now resting against the floor, her ass was raised high in the air, aimed directly at him.
“Hey,” she said coyly from under her right bicep.
Erias took in the destruction of his room. How in the world…Never mind, he didn’t want to know. Setting the plate of steak and potatoes on what was left of the card table; he took time out to survey the room.
The bed was…no longer a bed. The mattress was halfway to the floor resting on top of a pile of porcelain that used to be a table lamp. The linens were torn to shreds and heaped in a pile on the carpet.
The artwork–and he used that term loosely– was dangling precariously by a single nail still stuck in the plaster. And there was a round hole punched through the center of it like she had driven her heel through it.
He looked around the room appreciatively. “I like what you’ve done to the place. It really has that warm, homey feel to it, doesn’t it?”
Cheyenne wanted to run. She really did. His calm demeanor wasn’t at all comforting. She, more than anyone, knew how overbearing he was. And he sure as hell wasn’t above manhandling her.
Though she had to give him credit, he hadn’t hit her…yet.
As it was, she was pretty much stuck here. The minute he had....well, done whatever it was that he did; she had fought viciously with her restraints, determined to get free, even if she died trying. She didn’t know what kind of freak he was, but she wasn’t about to stick around and find out.
Flipping the mobile part of her body off the bed, she had kicked the mattress to the side and gone to work on the wing nuts holding the headboard to the frame. It had taken forever and once she had it free; she quickly found that it had been the easiest part of all.
Next came getting out of the room with the damn thing still attached.
Made of solid iron, she nearly wrenched her back out trying to pull the headboard high enough off the floor to clear the frame. In the process, she had taken out the lamp and knocked into the painting on the wall, puncturing it with the bulbous finial on the ends of the headboard.
As if that wasn’t enough, she had fallen quite a few times, and not all of them ended in the position she was in now. No, it had been much more painful the time she had lost her balance and, in the process of trying to recover herself, had stumbled backward, tripped over the chair and landed on top of the chintzy table that promptly shattered under her weight.
She couldn’t even recount how many tries it had taken to get where she was now. Shifting to relieve the pressure on her back at having stood so long in this hunched over position, she looked up at Erias and couldn’t believe what she what came out of her own mouth.
“I think I got a splinter in my ass when I broke your table.”
For more than nine hundred years no one, not really, had ever made him laugh the way he was right now. Never touched that spot, deep down. What he felt right now was indescribable. Actually, it wasn’t. He was happy. For the first time in forever, he was truly happy.
What was it about this woman that made him so angry, and yet he couldn’t stay mad at her? How did she make him feel like he wanted to choke her one second and kiss her the next? It was insanity, plain and simple, and yet…he would take this craziness over his solitary life any day.
Reaching over, he helped her raise the headboard, so she could stand upright. “I see you managed to keep yourself busy while I was gone.” He smiled, brushing her fiery hair from her eyes. “Have fun?”
She stared up at him, not sure what to say. Should she say anything? Was this a trick?
Usually when a prisoner tried to escape and got caught, the punishment was brutal. And after the throw downs they had had so far, she had to believe he would do something. Chop her foot off so she couldn’t run. String her up and whip her. Maybe cut out her tongue, so she couldn’t scream.
At least, that was what happened in the movies.
She did have a terrible time watching her mouth, though, but that was how she’d always been. Most days her thoughts just spewed out of her mouth before she could even think about what she was saying. It was a trait she had gotten from her mother. And it had always gotten her into trouble.
In this case, she decided to err on the side of self–preservation and keep her mouth shut before she put her foot in it and got her ass beat down…or turned into a crispy critter again.
Speaking of, when she thought about her having been fried, she knew, in the pit of her stomach, that whatever he was, he had caused that. It wasn’t some gadget that he had rigged up to keep her from leaving. He had done something to her.
Searching his eyes, she looked for some clue as to what he was.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Erias asked when she narrowed her eyes on him and began studying him like he was some sort of lab rat, and she was deciding where best to make the incision, so she could dig into his brain to see what made him tick.
“What are you?” she asked suspiciously.
Dropping his hold on her, Erias crossed the room and began picking up the mess. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m just a man.”
“The hell—” Cheyenne stumbled against the heavy weight of the frame. Catching her balance, she played it cool despite the overwhelming embarrassment and shook her head to clear the hair that had fallen into her eyes. “The hell you are. You disappeared. Poof. Gone. Since when does “just a man” ever do anything like that?”
Looking up at the ceiling in exasperation, Erias glanced briefly at her expectant face. “Would you believe me if I said I was a magician?”
“Are you?”
“No.” Damn him and his unfailing honesty. Why couldn’t he lie? Tossing the mattress ba
ck on the frame, he whipped the sheet off the floor and started smoothing it over the bed.
“Then what?”
Not wanting to answer her, but finding it impossible to lie, Erias tried to change the subject. “Aren’t you hungry?” he asked, motioning to the plate of food behind her.
“No,” she said, mocking his response to her.
“I get the feeling that you are a hard woman to dissuade.”
“I’m like a dog with a bone, or so I’ve been told.” Cheyenne wanted to slap herself. Had she really just likened herself to a dog? Jesus. “Come on, who am I going to tell?” When he looked like he still wasn’t going to tell her, she used the same voice that had melted the best of men at her feet. “Please, Erias?” she crooned. “You can trust me.”
Damn that woman was good. Batting her eyelashes through the wrought-iron bars, she had a devilish gleam in her eyes. The kind that said you could trust her…. About as far as you could throw her. However, knowing that he wasn’t the average guy, and she was a mere female, one that he had currently under his lock and key; he couldn’t really see that harm in telling her.
Besides, he was tired of always keeping himself hidden away. Tired of all the lies needed just to survive. It was why he never lied when he had a choice. It was hard to keep them all straight and, quite frankly, he felt like a lie himself.
He didn’t exist.
He should have died centuries ago, and yet he walked the earth like a zombie, only his body wasn’t dead.
Just his soul.
“Do you really want me to tell you?” She nodded her head excitedly. “Really? Because after I do, there is no going back. If you breathe a word of this to anyone…” He left the last part to her imagination.
“I swear I won’t say anything,” she said with a child–like glint in her eyes. “I’d cross my heart, but someone tied my hands.” She looked pointedly at him.
He shrugged. “Fine, but just remember, you asked for this.” Closing his eyes, Erias reached deep inside to connect with his powers. When Cheyenne let out a gasp, he opened his eyes.
One minute the room had been a total mess. The product of her destruction when she had launched her escape. Now…now it was spotless. It was as if nothing had happened.
The table was sitting upright, completely unmarred. It held no visible trace that it had ever been shattered at all. The picture was straight. Its hole completely repaired. The lamp was resting on the nightstand again, not a crack in sight. And the bed…it was completely put back together. The mattress was properly stacked, the bed perfectly made. The only thing that told her this hadn’t been some sort of delusion was the fact that she was still securely tied to the headboard in the center of the room with a fine sheen of sweat still coating her brow from her harrowing attempts.
“Um, I think you forgot something,” she said, tipping her head to the metal and bindings.
“Oh, yeah, almost forgot.”
She smiled briefly before a sudden dizziness overcame her. Pinching her eyes shut, she groaned. “I think I need to sit down.”
He laughed. “Sweetheart, you already are. Open your eyes.”
Cheyenne gasped. Somehow, she was back on the bed. Propped up with a few pillows, her back was to the headboard once again, and she was tucked under the sheets. How in the world….
Erias kicked off his boots and peeled of his shirt, then took the spot next to her. “Hungry?” Before she could respond, he had his hand held out in front of him and a second later, her dinner plate filled his palm.
“What are you?” she found herself asking again.
“That is the million-dollar question isn’t it?” Cutting off a piece of steak, he sighed in resignation. “Some people call us gods. I like to think of myself as a guardian, with a little extra something. If you know what I mean.” He winked at her as he lifted the fork to her mouth.
“Guardian of what?” Cheyenne asked, opening to accept the bite.
Cutting off a bite of his own, he ate silently as he mulled over his response. In the end, how could he tell her the truth without freaking her out? He realized he couldn’t.
Scooping up a pile of potatoes, he made sure her mouth was full before he told her the truth of his existence. “I’m a guardian to the gates of Hell.”
Chapter 15
“Crap.” Erias tossed the tray away and tried to wrench Cheyenne into his arms. Her face was quickly turning blue as she choked on her food. He cursed himself for packing her mouth so full before he threw his revelation down on her.
He should have known better, but it seemed innocent enough at the time. Besides, he’d been looking forward to seeing the look on her face when he told her.
Just not this look. Bulging eyes and blue skin didn’t become her.
He tried again to tug her to him, so he could beat her senseless and save her life, but the restraints held her too tight.
CRAP! Looking into her panic-stricken bloodshot eyes his heart plummeted with the knowledge that she was going to die right here before his eyes.
Just as Helena had. He hadn’t been able to save his wife, and now Cheyenne was going to die because of him too.
No. That had been different, he told himself next. What had happened to Helena and his son was beyond him. There was nothing he could have done for them.
However, saving Cheyenne was totally within his power.
Cheyenne saw the determined glint in his eyes as her own welled with terrified tears.
“Look at me,” Erias commanded, planting himself in her line of sight. “You’re going to be okay. Do you believe me?”
She nodded.
She didn’t want to die. There was still so much she wanted to do with her life. So much she wanted to experience.
She’d had dreams and goals that she wanted to accomplish, but even as she thought it, her head became light and airy and her life flashed before her eyes. Her past, a collage of wonderful memories skimming through her head in a blur, the first time she had fallen from her bike and skinned her knee. The first time she had kissed a boy–Bobby Jenner. Her first dance, when she got her license, her first concert, her first heartbreak, everything. All the good, all the bad, it was all there, and she longed to reach out and touch it. To appreciate it, but the hardest part of all was what hadn’t happened yet.
She saw herself, standing in front of a full-length mirror with a crown of colorful flowers in her long flowing hair. A white dress made of the finest silk skimming her body and pooling on the floor where her bare toes peeked out.
What broke her heart most was when the little girl with the dark curly hair came running into the room and latched onto her leg, squeezing with all of her might.
Reaching down to run her fingers through her hair, she stopped short when the girl looked up at her with brilliant blue eyes filled with love and adoration.
And in that moment, she knew, this was her daughter. The daughter she would never get to meet.
A second later the child was whisked up into a strong pair of arms. Dressed in a black tuxedo with a black bow tie and crisp white shirt, Erias beamed a smile down at her as he crushed the little girl to his chest.
And he was beautiful. With everything she had in her; Cheyenne wanted to reach out and touch him. To kiss him. To hold him as close to her as he was to their daughter.
In that moment, she knew this wasn’t some prediction of a future loss. This was a hallucination brought on by lack of oxygen to the brain. The man might have been devastatingly handsome, but he was the vilest creature she had ever had the misfortune of interacting with, and he was going to be the death of her, right here and now. She would never, ever have a child with him. Ever. There just wasn’t enough money in the world.
Suddenly, a flood of air rushed into her lungs. Cheyenne frantically sucked it in, greedily gasping for every drop of oxygen she could get. Her chest burned and her throat was dry, but she was alive and that was the best feeling she could have asked for.
Warmth surrounded h
er, closed in from every direction making her never want to move from that spot. Peeling her eyes open, she found herself looking right into Erias’s relief filled electric blue eyes and felt a surge of emotion that she couldn’t explain.
Wrapped in his arms, he cradled her in his lap and held her tightly to his chest, much as he had done with the little girl in her dream. Petting her hair back, he looked at her as if she were something precious. Something to be treasured. And she realized it wasn’t the first time she had felt that way around him.
The intensity of the moment made Cheyenne step back and take notice. No one had ever truly looked at her that way. Kris had come close but there was always something lacking that she could never quite put her finger on. Maybe that was why she was never willing to take that extra step.
She had always listened to that nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach, the one that told her to wait, that it would be a mistake to take things to another level. Now, lying in Erias’s arms, feeling his frantic heartbeat beginning to slow under her fingertips, that voice was oddly absent. There wasn’t a single thing telling her to back off. To wait another day.
In fact, the only voice she heard belonged to her mother. She could still remember sitting at her bedside holding one hand while her father sat opposite her holding the other. As the Leukemia ate away at the last moments of her life, her mother had turned her warm brown eyes on her told her the words she would live her life by.
“My sweet child, the light of my life, you are the reason my days have seen so much sunshine. Don’t live your life in fear of the unknown as I have. Promise me that when the time comes you will grab onto life with both hands and never let it go.”
It brought tears to her eyes to this very day, but she could hear those words as clear as the day they had been spoken, and they were ringing so loud in her ears that it was impossible to ignore them.
Staring deep into his eyes now, Cheyenne could see the longing, the desperation and most importantly, the emotion shining there. He may have been a hard ass, but he felt something for her.
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