TheHealers

by Lynsie Buchanan

  “We need to get a statement from you and get you somewhere safe. Why are you being so difficult about this?” Officer Banks sounded like he was getting real comfortable real fast with ordering me around.

  “Layna, hang up the phone.” A demand from the man sitting next to me. I wanted to protest, but something said he was right.

  “I’m hanging up now. I just wanted to inform you of what happened and let you know I don’t know when I’ll be back.” My finger slid over the touch screen to hit the end button. Then I turned my body slightly to look at Alexander. He pulled the car off of the road and he placed the gear to break.

  “What just happened?” I wanted to be clear before I yelled at him for telling me what to do.

  “Your phone is traceable. Every time you use it you send out a signal. Even if you don’t use it, the same thing happens.” He looked at me with a solemn nod of his head. The caress of his hair against his face was a little distracting. “We need to get rid of your phone. You can program the important numbers in my phone and use it. My phone isn’t traceable.”

  A fuzzy haze started to take over in my head. It was dizzying and I pushed my hands to my temples to try and make it go away. I could see the two serpents in the car. A shriek came out of my mouth and I jumped into Alexander’s lap. I scrambled to get away. My hand immediately went to the door to escape the vehicle, eyes trained on the two snakes that came at me.

  Strong, safe arms gripped my hips to turn me around. It didn’t escape my notice that the warm spot between my legs was intimately on top of a hard, rough place on his body. Alexander’s eyes got deep and dark for a passionate minute and then he spoke.

  “We have to leave now. Give me the phone, we have to destroy it.” The phone slipped out of my fingers and into his. He set me down in the middle seat and stepped out of the vehicle with my phone in his hand. Looking in the rear-view mirror I was able to see him extract a heavy blunt tool from the back of the vehicle. His tall figure disappeared behind and I was suddenly turning my body around to see where the smash sound came from. A familiar face was visible as he stepped back around and to the driver side. No tool or phone was visible anymore.

  We sat in silence for the remainder of the drive. I had so many thoughts going through my head that it would actually inflict pain on me to attempt anything else, like talking. My body still perched in the middle seat, but our bodies no longer touched. Just when I felt as though my whole world would fall apart, something caught my eyes.

  It was more than just a something. It was hills everywhere. They were camouflaged with lots of willow green grass. The sunshine gave the grass an emerald glow that shimmered its reflection into the lake below it. Driving seventy miles an hour down the freeway was not conducive to admiring the scenery. But there, in that small moment, the reflection caught my eye and I looked up. This serene beauty was here. All my life I had lived in Texas, but had never ventured out to see this part of it. Even though chaotic circumstances had brought me here, I felt a little bit grateful. At the next glance I saw rocky cliffs. They were touched with bits of grass here and there along with the different colors in the leaves on the trees. Even though it was closer to winter some of the trees looked like fall. It was Nature’s reward to us for having such brutal summers. We almost never had brutal winters and they were kissed with some type of foliage all winter long.

  Red lights ahead drew my attention back to the freeway. We must have been in a really remote part of the state because you just did not see stop lights on a freeway. As we ventured closer I heard the blinking of our turn signal and gathered that we would be going left. I wondered silently how much further, but didn’t dare ask. What did it matter? I had left everything behind.

  Bumps and the crunchy rock sounds made it pretty clear that we were on back country roads. Butterflies danced a little in my stomach as I felt slightly intrigued about where we would end up.

  The road curved to the right and I saw a white barn house. The front of the property line was surrounded with a fence made of wooden sticks. Horses appeared on the land as we drove along this forgotten road. One was a fierce black color and almost seemed to have a disposition that matched it. It nudged a chocolate colored horse and shook its mane wildly. I could almost feel the emotions that danced along the horse’s body.

  As I turned to face Alexander, rows of what appeared to be mini trees became visible. The crooked appearance of some of the trunks led me to believe that these were not trees. As we got closer, I could see they were being supported by some sort of twig or ropes that held it horizontally across each row in two places. More rows of these little trees appeared than I could count. Looking ahead I saw what looked like the end of our road.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Alexander pulled the car in front of a stone covered house trimmed in dark wood all around. An oversized porch spilled out over the front of the house and appeared to stop at the edges on both sides. A narrow pond ran in a river-like pattern across the front of the house. It reminded me of moats and castles. In order to get over the moat, a small bridge was constructed of the same dark black metal that fenced in the porch. I scooted over to the passenger door and climbed out.

  “Can you tell me now? Our location?” The words cracked from my voice box since I had not spoken any words in awhile.

  “It’s a vineyard run by some friends of ours.” His voice caressed my body like honey. It wasn’t like he said anything provocative, but I could feel the intent. He wanted to be tender with me.

  “Are we here to drink?” I had no problem with that. Maybe it would take the edge off of my extremely dramatic last couple of days.

  Alexander walked over to my side of the truck and grabbed my hand as he laughed. “We’re definitely going to have a drink. I’ll teach you a little about the healing properties of wine.” His face was still creased with that tempting smile.

  That was a lesson I was up for learning.

  We left all our stuff in the car and just walked hand in hand. I stopped when we crossed the bridge to admire the little mock river below. Or was that called a creek? This was all new to a girl who had never been in such a remote area. Both sides of the creek were lined with rocks. They were jagged and not symmetrical in any way, but they looked as though they framed the creek. I noticed a small sign on the left side of a large wood door that said Winery. I took a deep breath in and walked with Alexander to the door. Excitement licked on the edge of my emotions. This was a first for me, which may be shocking, since I loved wine. He must have sensed it because his next words as he opened the door for me were,” Are you a virgin?”

  “What?” I spat out in complete shock.

  He actually had the decency to look embarrassed. “I meant a virgin to coming to a vineyard…a vineyard virgin?”

  “Yes.” I walked in ahead of him while he held the door.

  Once we were side by side again, I leaned over and attempted to reach his face. He obliged me by leaning over so I could kiss his cheek. “Thank you for bringing me here.” I started to tell him I meant thank you for everything. Protecting me, bringing me to this dream-like place, but I didn’t have a chance. His hand ran through my hair and brought our faces back together. Except this time, our lips were a breath apart.

  “You’re welcome.” The closeness melted me right then and there. He leaned down that small distance and touched his lips to mine. It was so warm and gentle. I wanted to run my hands all over his face and feel every inch. My hand started to reach up and fondle his hair. I wanted to feel it brushing over my legs and chest. It ran smoothly through my fingers. Our lips separated and I brought my head down on his chest. That small kiss had taken my breath away. Would I ever become used to touching this gorgeous man? His eyes seemed to be wishful. I knew what he felt in that moment. I wished we were alone, too. Tiny little smiles kissed my lips as we continued in.

  Inside there were wood floors everywhere that echoed as we walked across the room to find that the entire back wall of this room was bay
windows. Through the windows, patrons could see the hills that held the rows and rows of grapevines. Just in the center of the two large windows was a stone fireplace. I was suddenly being tugged to the couches in front of the fireplace. There were two brown leather furniture pieces. One was a sofa and the other was the matching loveseat. They were facing each other and at first I thought Alexander would leave me on one side and him on the other. He didn’t, of course. He sat down right next to me on the loveseat. The room was also filled with a handful of tall circular tables that had barstools under them.

  “Welcome to our little piece of heaven,” a voice from behind me was saying. I turned to see a young guy, probably early twenties, standing there with menus. He started to walk around to the front of the sofa next to the antique ottoman that was directly in front of us. The ottoman had a solid wood top that I supposed served as our table.

  “Is this your first time?”

  I must have vineyard virgin stamped all over my forehead.

  “It’s been a long time, Alexander.” His hand went out to Alexander to shake hands. Both pairs of eyes then turned to me.

  “Garrett, this is Layna.”

  I stood up to shake his hand.

  “Hi, Layna.” Garrett still smiled at me when Alexander slid his arm around my waist in a possessive way. I almost laughed out loud.

  “Really nice to meet you. Do you want to start off with a wine tasting and then go from there?”

  A wine tasting sounded wonderful to me. I looked up at Alexander.

  “Yes. We want to do the food pairing with our tasting.”

  I didn’t think I would ever want to leave this place.

  As soon as Garrett left I turned around to fully look at Alexander.

  “Do you know how in love I am with this place? I’m thinking since I can’t go home, I want to stay here.” We were sitting close enough that our legs touched and his arm was still wrapped around my waist. The buzz I had was addictive. It was hard not to smile. Just then a man and a woman sat down across from us on the sofa. The woman had straight brown hair that went just past her shoulders. She had to be in her fifties, but her body didn’t look a day over thirty-five and she had a unique ring on her wedding finger. She glanced over at me with warm hazel eyes. Green and gold glimmered all around them. Then I looked over to what seemed to be her husband—they were holding hands. He had short blond hair and all the laugh lines that made me think he was about the same age as her. When our eyes met, I was stunned with the arctic blue that was hidden there. He leaned over the ottoman in between us to touch my hand. I was willing to bet my life that these two were Healers.

  “It is truly a pleasure to meet you, Layna.” His voice was tinged with awe and a little of an expectance. He rose and continued speaking, “I’m Trevor, and this is my wife Irena. Alexander has told us about you and we’re happy to have you here in our home.” Trevor sat back down with Irena and she started rubbing her hand up and down the length of her husband’s arm. It was a touch filled with love and intimacy. It brought an ache to my heart. Being in their presence, I could feel the warmth that filled their souls. As if he was reading my mind, Alexander reached over to touch. His strong masculine fingers stroked up and down the soft creamy skin on my arm. Little goose bumps threatened to come out from the contact.

  Irena’s eyebrows rose in a small bit of surprise, but she leaned over to touch me as well. “Very nice to meet you, Layna. I’m so happy you’ve come.”

  “It’s good that you made it safely. I see you took care of the tracking device.” Trevor was looking at both of us, but I was pretty confident he was speaking exclusively to Alexander.

  “I made sure that no one tracked us here. I think I can help her build up some shields, at least temporarily, until we get her to the Conservatory for a more thorough training.”

  What? I did not want to appear lost in front of these people so I filed away the words that were about to come off of my lips for later.

  A wine glass was being placed in front of me on the ottoman and I looked up to see Garrett.

  “Thank you.” I could not quite decide what color his eyes were. At a first glance, they appeared gold. I knew that wasn’t possible, so looking closer I convinced myself they were really a shade of brown. Looking around I saw that Garrett had only set down wine glasses for me and Alexander.

  Irena and Trevor stood. Irena came to sit by me for just a moment with anticipation in her eyes. Finally, she leaned over to embrace me and handed Alexander a key.

  “The cottage is set up for you. Join us for dinner and we can talk more.” She stood and joined Trevor and they walked off to visit with some others in the room.

  I turned to pick up my wine glass and noticed a white card on the table between our glasses. Quickly scanning the sheet, I saw the list of wines we would be sampling.

  The glass came quickly to my lips as the aromas touched my nose and soon fell into my mouth. It was a nice dry white wine. My senses liked everything about it immediately. I looked up at Alexander as my tongue caressed my lips, savoring apples and honey coming from the wine.

  His gaze followed my lips.

  “Are you ready to go back to the room already?” There was a hint of teasing in his voice, but mostly, I believed him to be serious. There was something about the room that bothered me a little.

  “What exactly do you do?” I was curious about his part in all of this. I knew he was a Healer, but how had he ended up as my neighbor and protector?

  “I’m a Guard.” He casually lifted his glass to his lips as I continued watching. So he was a superhuman bodyguard. He wasn’t just hopelessly attracted to me after all.

  “What does that mean?” I wanted to be clear in understanding. Did he run around rescuing women all over?

  He paused and looked up. Garrett was on his way over with some little appetizer that I assumed was paired with our wine.

  “Did you like the wine? This crab and avocado salad does an outstanding job of bringing out the clean and crisp flavor of this chenin blanc.” His mouth seemed about to open and speak again, but something in Alexander’s face must have indicated otherwise. Garrett disappeared quickly and I glanced down at the artistic creation next to my wine glass. The plate was small and white but it was touched with color from the mixture that was the salad.

  My fingers touched the fork when another hand depressed down and released my hand from the utensil. I watched as Alexander scooped some of the salad onto my fork and proceeded to bring the fork to my lips. His eyes begged me silently to comply. It was in my nature to throw a fit and refuse to be fed, but for him, I gave in. Something clicked in my head as I swallowed the scrumptious bite.

  I want to please him. In so many ways.

  That realization threatened my ability to think clearly about anything for a moment.

  “When it became apparent that our people would need protection, some of the Healers worked to hone their craft into something defensive for the others. It is said that this all began with a mother trying to protect her child. The woman was called Aceso. She witnessed the brutal slaying of one of her children by a Hunter. This child had been extremely gifted. It was believed by many that he could actually sense the Hunters. The child was still too young and not able to understand what his ability was trying to tell him so he did not succeed in getting away. It was through Aceso’s anger that she bestowed a superhuman strength into her other child, Alexious. People say she healed his inability to protect himself. He was the beginning of our Guard. Those Healers became more gifted in speed, agility, and strength. Once that ability was manifested, it seemed that their DNA was altered to reflect it. Those protectors started having children, and the same traits were present in them also. It’s from those people that I descended. I’m a Healer, but my strength lies in protection.” The far away gaze in his eyes indicated that this was a story that had been retold for unaccounted years.

  “Does every Healer have a Guard?” I listened eagerly as a child does at sto
ry time. My lifetime was not filled with stories of my history, so I reveled in this opportunity. My mouth was also busy with the drinking and eating of the appetizers and wine.

  “It’s not possible to assign one Guard to each Healer, so we try to keep the Healers close together. We then assign ourselves to clusters.” His hand reached up to linger through my strawberry strands.

  “How did you end up with me? I’m not a group. What am I considered?”

  Those lines on his face went serious with thought.

  “You are one of the lost. There are several therapeftís that have become hidden from our society and it has become necessary to find them before they are hunted.” He set down his wine glass and pushed his hand around my waist to tug me closer.

  “My senses allow me to track down Healers and Hunters with uncanny precision. This allows me to provide great assistance in finding our people.”

  “What did you sense when you found me?” I wanted to see myself through his dark, rich eyes. I snuggled back at his chest while we both gazed out of the window. His deep tone echoed words in my ear.

  “I think that you called me. It was a call I couldn’t ignore…I didn’t want to. We’re connected in an indescribable way.” As his words sounded in my ear, I felt like I floated. Somewhere far away, but here. And always with him. Now that it had been verbalized, I could sense the connection more clearly.

  Garrett had cleared away our plates and our bodies were still locked together on the sofa. The silence was not uncomfortable, but it was electrically charged. The particles of our chemistry were like a buzzing bee surrounding us. It was complicated to believe that everyone could not see it. There were some people that did see. I had noticed the adoring looks from some onlookers and the smiles we were given.

  “Is there anything else you need?” A simple question from my Guard, but it provoked some tangible need that had been stirring in my body since the first time we touched.