His lips were gentle and warm, and that glow that lit up his skin transferred from his mouth to mine and traveled down inside me. Suddenly, I was ignited with the fire that had always burned within him.
When we broke apart, Uriel and I were breathing heavily. “Where did that come from?” I smiled.
Uriel’s voice was at its purest and flowed like honey as he said, “It has always been there.” I about died right then- happily. “But I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder.”
In that case… “Oh. Well then, perhaps I should leave now and see what you do tomorrow.”
“Don’t joke.” His expression was pained, and he looked away from me but still held on. “I’m so sorry for the things I said to you.”
I waved his apology away. “I’m sorry I called you an ass.”
His face showed his obvious surprise. “You didn’t.”
“Yeah, I did,” I informed him.
Uriel shrugged indifferently. “I’m sure I deserved it after all that’s happened.” He continued, “I thought I was doing what was best. I thought that you couldn’t love a being like me so I decided to make it easy for you and just leave you alone. When my mission here was over, I was going to leave for good so you wouldn’t have to be reminded of the mistake you’d made by being with my kind. You wouldn’t have to handle the bad memories.”
“You are no mistake.” For all of his years, he could be so stupid sometimes. “Promise me something.”
He looked back at me and immediately replied in earnest, “Anything.”
“Let me decide what I can do and can handle.”
“I swear it.”
“And,” I added, “don’t ever think about leaving me again.”
He cupped the side of my face in his pleasantly warm palm. “Hell’s hounds could not drag me away from you now.”
Uriel was smiling but was he serious? Hell’s hounds? I gulped audibly and Uriel began laughing. My mood instantly soared back up to its previous level of rapture. He’d been joking. Good, because I didn’t think I could take any more weirdness right then. For that moment, I just wanted to be there, in his loving embrace.
Notwithstanding the heat being shared between our two bodies, it was late November and raining and I hadn’t thought to bring a jacket to school that morning when the sun had been shining. So I started shivering.
When Uriel realized the small tremors I was trying to suppress, he held me tighter and looked down at me to ask, “Do you want to sit in the car? Or we could go back to my place if it isn’t a problem. I know that the guild would love to see you.”
“The guild?”
“My family. For us, family and guild are interchangeable.”
“Then, yes. I’d very much like to see the guild.”
Uriel’s white, perfect teeth flashed in a smile. “They’ve missed you almost as much as I have,” he told me.
“Really?” This was surprising. “Even Azra and Dagan?”
“Yes, even those two. Zev has recently taken to playing against Dagan in those videogames and he’s actually won a few times, so Dagan’s missing you was intensified; he wants his amusingly horrible competitor back-”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I am an excellent gamester.”
“- and Azra always liked you Keira. He’s just naturally prudent and worried about our life-long secret becoming exposed.”
“He wasn’t the only one who worried, was he?” I asked pointedly.
“No, he wasn’t; I worried too. However, it was Azra who helped me understand how important you are to me and who made me realize that my feelings could not be deadened by space and time. Once he saw how much I love you, he understood our situation even before I did.”
My heart gave a flutter at him saying those three little words again- I’m such a dork. The wind blew and the rain started coming down harder and colder. Now, it was officially a storm. After my largest shiver yet, Uriel ushered me to a car with its headlights still on that was parked a couple rows down from my Wrangler. When he opened the passenger door for me, I sounded so stupid when I stated, “That’s not the Escalade.” See, I told you- dork.
The car he wanted me to get into could never be mistaken as an SUV. It was sleek-looking, a two-door, and very low to the ground. It appeared to be built for speed. With a double-colored paint job, it was bright red on the hood and the doors with black running from a streak in the middle of the hood, up on the roof, and down, covering the back portion of the vehicle. It had black leather seats and when Uriel opened the door for me, the temperature raised a couple of degrees in the space I was standing in between the door and the interior.
“No, the Escalade’s the family car; we all share it. This one’s mine.”
I slid into the blessedly warm automobile. Uriel closed my door and went around to take the driver’s seat. He turned the heat up to full blast but didn’t take the car out of park. He claimed my curiosity and he knew I’d have to ask him, so I did. “What kind of car is it?”
I got another smile. It was amazing how much I’d missed seeing that smile on his face. “It’s a Bugatti Veyron 16.4.”
“I’m gonna need more than that.”
Then Uriel happily spent six whole minutes describing in detail the car’s origin and make and model and the important sounding parts that made up its engine. I like cars, but I am no expert and after he stopped, had no idea what he’d said. “Impressive,” I faked. “So, how fast does it go?”
“Four-hundred eight kilometers per hour.”
“Whoa.”
Uriel studied my face as I made an honest effort to look shocked and in awe. He didn’t buy it. “Your Aston has only three hundred seven kilometers per hour.”
“Hey,” I got defensive, “don’t go comparing your car to mine.” Uriel shrugged his shoulders indifferently. “What’s four-hundred eight kilometers in miles anyway?”
“Almost two-hundred fifty-four,” he answered without a second’s pause.
I had to admit- that was pretty fast. With my ego wounded slightly, I murmured, “What are you? Some kind of math egg-head? A living, breathing converter?”
Uriel laughed. “Come on. Don’t be a sore loser, Keira. Your Aston’s speed of one ninety-one mph’s isn’t too slow.”
I was not putting up with his mockery of my wondrous bribe. “You’re acting like this is some kind of competition- a mine’s bigger than yours contest.”
His laugh this time was deep and made my heart skip a beat. His voice matched his laugh as he said, “Over the years, I have learned to pick my battles, so believe me when I say,” he paused and leaned in close to me, “I can take you- anytime, anywhere, anyway.”
I shortened the space between us and asked, “Is that a threat- or a promise?”
“Mmm… a promise.”
Uriel brushed his lips over mine, and I couldn’t help the smile that forced itself upon my face out of pure happiness. “One small make-out session in the rain and you’re emboldened all of a sudden.”
He returned my smile and spoke against my lips. “Would you have me any other way?”
I feigned pondering his question before answering, “Nope.”
After a few minutes of just sitting together, soaking in the moment- you know that gooey scene in all of those romantic movies where the two lovebirds do nothing but stare at each other? That’s what this was like, but it was pleasantly gooey, like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie- I started thinking about what had caused our separation and all of the questions that remained unanswered. “Are we going to your house now?”
Uriel looked at the clock on his tricked-out dashboard. “What time do you have to be home? It’s kind of late. Maybe we should wait until tomorrow.”
“No. No way,” I protested. “I just need my cell from my gym bag.” I looked out the window and saw where it had fallen out of my hands. I reached for the car door handle, but Uriel switched gears and pulled up beside the thing before I knew what was happen
ing. He got out and retrieved my stuff. After handing my phone to me, he set the bag down in the very small space between our two seats.
I dialed the number for home and Maria answered on the second ring. “Fairchild residence.”
“Hey, Maria, I’m going to be getting in a little late tonight, okay?”
“How late were you thinking, honey?”
“I don’t know exactly. But Uriel can probably bring me home.” I paused to check with him. He nodded, and I went on, “Yeah, Uriel can drop me off tonight and pick me up for school tomorrow.”
“Uriel?” Maria’s voice was thick with uncertainty.
“Yes- Uriel. I’ll tell you later. Don’t wait up. Okay, Maria?” She reluctantly said okay and I hung up after thanking her. I turned to Uriel. “We’re all good. Let’s go.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He glided out of the parking lot and onto the main road. The car was amazing. Uriel asked casually, “Do you want to start grilling me now or would you rather wait until we get there so you can interrogate all of us at once?”
“I’ll wait to ask most of my questions, but there is one that I think only you can answer.”
Undaunted, he easily said, “I will keep no secrets from you, ask me anything.”
“I remember you saying that the first day we really talked. ‘Ask me anything.’” Uriel gave an appropriately chagrined expression. “Are you being truthful now?”
We pulled up to a stop light, and Uriel faced me. Looking me straight in the eye, he swore, “From this day forward I will never lie to you again.”
His gaze was so powerful and sincere I believed him unconditionally. “’Kay,” I accepted readily. “My question is: what’s your code of honor?”
He gave me a blank look and I pointed to the light that had just turned green. We started moving forward again, and he replied, “I don’t understand.”
“When that Amir guy was taunting everyone he said something about your code of honor. What is it?” It sounded fascinating. Maybe I wanted some kind of code.
Uriel replied, “The truth: Amir has been on this earth since before my existence, and he knows more about me than I like. He knows that for the majority of my life, I have lived by a self-imposed code of honor.”
He stopped explaining and turned my way with an expression that told me he was having some trouble revealing this. “No more lies,” I gently reminded.
“No more lies,” he sighed but threw me another uncertain look. “I guess you haven’t run away so far…”
“And I’m not going to.”
He conceded. “I created a code that I have lived by for centuries. And while I might attempt to do what is honorable, I never coined the term code of honor; people who have heard of it started using the phrase a long time ago.”
“You sound pretty popular in the supernatural being circles,” I interrupted.
Uriel nodded frankly. “Having a father like mine can really boost a person’s recognition.” I shrugged my understanding. He continued, “Another side-effect of the family genes is a certain weakness for temptation. Ergo, I created my code.”
“So, it’s like a set of guidelines to help you deal?”
He nodded. “My personal system is meant to remove all temptation and keep me on the correct path, the honorable path. Over the years, I found that it is easier to resist temptation by simply not being caught in compromising situations. I can’t succumb to anything if there’s nothing to succumb to.”
“Makes sense.”
“Yes, well, it’s easier said than done.”
“Isn’t everything?” I interjected lightly.
“You, in particular, are a very difficult temptation I’ve encountered recently.”
“Moi?” I pointed to myself. “How am I possibly a temptation?”
Uriel smiled impishly.
“Are you blushing?” I asked, very pleased at the turn of events.
“No,” he immediately denied.
“We said no more lies.”
His adorable blush grew deeper.
“Tell me, tell me, tell me.”
“You… test my personal boundaries.”
I stopped smiling. “That- doesn’t sound good.”
The car rolled to a stop. “We’re here.” I glanced out of the windshield. We had arrived at Uriel’s beautiful house, the building that held in it, at that very moment, his entire wonderful family. But before I could appreciate the much-awaited reunion that would take place inside, I took off my seatbelt and shifted to face Uriel more completely.
“Before we go in, you have to tell me how I’ve been endangering your boundaries.” The more I thought about it, the worse it and I sounded. What kind of girlfriend puts her boyfriend’s honor at risk? And without even knowing it?
Uriel shut off the ignition and laid his head back against the leather headrest. He didn’t appear to be irritated- thank goodness- only thoughtful. “One of my rules is that while I am cohabiting with mortals, I remain distant, carefully indifferent to their personal lives- unless their personal lives affect the guild’s mission. And you,” he said, finally looking at me, “made it impossible for me to subsist with my indifference intact from the first day of school.”
That didn’t sound so horrific. “I’m… sorry?”
“Don’t be. As of today, in addition to no more lies, I will also abolish my old rules when it comes to you.”
“And you do so happily?”
He reached over and brushed the back of his fingers against my cheek. “Entirely happily.” I beamed. “Now can we go inside? If Odeda and the others find out I’ve been keeping you to myself for this long, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
In response, I opened my door and got out. Still smiling, I walked hand-in-hand with Uriel up to the wooden front door and into his house.
Once the door was closed, Uriel called out to the house, “Everyone come look what I found in the rain.”
Three people-sized blurs came swooshing into the room. A fourth figure- Azra- entered at a normal pace. Bless him. When my eyes caught up with the others, and I stopped feeling slightly disoriented by their abrupt motion, I saw that they had been the blurs of Dagan, Odeda, and Zev. “Keira!” The three of them exclaimed.
“Hey!”
“We missed you so much!” Odeda squealed as she lifted me off the ground and almost squeezed the life out of me.
“I missed you guys too,” I exhaled as my breath got knocked out of me.
Uriel stepped forward and put a hand on Odeda’s arm. “Hurting her isn’t the best way to prove you missed her.”
“Oh, right, sorry.” Odeda dropped me so I could collapse into Uriel’s side.
“That’s fine,” I told her. “If you combine your strength with the super-speedy entrances, then it makes it clear that I won’t be broken in gently to this new fantasy world.”
“I knew you’d take everything well,” Zev smiled as he stepped forward for a bear hug. He engulfed me completely, but with him I could still breathe easily. Again, I was painfully aware that I hadn’t fully realized how much I had missed my make-shift big brother and the others until that moment. Zev quietly told me, “I’m glad your back.”
“Me too,” I said softly as we broke apart.
“You look stronger, Keira,” Odeda told me. “Have you been working out more?”
“Yeah,” I replied sheepishly, “I’ve had a lot more free time lately.”
Dagan spoke before an uneasy silence could fill the room. “Forget working out, you have to play this new game I just got the other day.”
“Definitely,” I agreed.
Only one more family member left. I didn’t know what to expect from Azra as he stepped in front of the others. I recalled Uriel explaining how influential his hazel and wise-eyed brother had been in him accepting his feelings for me. I wanted to thank Azra; I wanted to jump up and down; I wanted to cry, but instead of doing all those things at once- which I’m sure I could have done at that moment, and I’m also su
re that doing so would have made me too embarrassed to look any of the people in that room in the eye for weeks- I just stood there, planted in the ground, unable to do anything except wait and see what his reaction to me was going to be.
Azra, looking as solemn as ever, stopped within a few inches of me. His eyes were so unreadable that for all I knew he could have been about to pull out a knife and thrust it into my gut or kiss me the same way Uriel had just done in the car. I realized that neither was likely, but you get my point- Azra wasn’t portraying any of his emotions or thoughts. I hate not knowing what the other person, whoever he or she is whom I am presently fixated on, is thinking. Uriel can hide emotions pretty well every now and then, but nothing like Azra. At least with the former, I am able to tell by the passions that can be seen through his animated eyes.
So I was standing there, in what felt like a stare-down, with Azra’s indecipherable face peering down at me. Man, I wish I was taller.
And while I was longing for height, Azra placed his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. I tensed up, thinking that this action was much closer to the kiss than the kill I had imagined- unless he had that knife now poised at me back- and I had no idea what to do. Luckily, my body responded before my brain could screw anything up, and I returned Azra’s gesture of friendship.
He whispered in my ear, “Thank you for coming back, Keira. You make this place better and more joyous than you know.”
I hugged him tighter. “Thank you so much, Azra, for everything.”
We parted, and for the first time, I felt a connection with the last member of that family who I hadn’t before. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”
Uriel stepped to my side and intertwined his fingers with mine before we walked further into the house and sat down on the tan, comfy couch that sat parallel to the TV. Dagan and Zev remained standing, but Odeda and Azra settled into two chairs that were on one side of Uriel and me. No one wanted to start the conversation, but I had been aching for almost a month to have my questions answered. “Are the pleasantries over, now? Is it time to get down to business and do what I’m assuming you have never done before?”
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