by Lisa Medley
A sofa table with ornately carved legs stood behind a red velvet couch in the living area. Two mahogany wing chairs squatted on the corners of a richly detailed Persian rug. An intense wallpaper pattern of ridiculously large velvet-embossed flowers covered two walls of the living room.
The entire apartment was such an incredible mishmash of patterns and dark colors it bordered on horrendous.
It reminded him of Hell.
At least it smelled better.
“It came furnished. And decorated,” Olivia said, acknowledging his look of abject horror. “None of the decor is mine. Only the books and clothes, really…and a few other things.”
He nodded. Speechless.
He caught a glimpse of the decoratively draped four-poster bed in her bedroom and broke out into a cold sweat. The room looked remarkably similar to the suite they’d rescued Deacon from in Hell.
“I have some housekeeping to do. There’s a club my friend from work told me about. Tonight is karaoke night, and I’d like to go. Will you take me?”
His head said no. But his heart said that this is what he’d signed on for. He’d agreed to help her, although against his better judgment. The sooner she got this ridiculous list finished the sooner he could get back to his job—his real job—and get her back to the safety of the compound.
“Yes.”
Her smile settled into his chest and pushed his heart down into his stomach.
This was a very bad idea.
Returning to the living area, he sat on one of the stiff wing chairs as Olivia went to her bedroom. When he heard the shower turn on, he got up to pace the room. He hated this place. It was impossible to secure and with only one door, the place was a fire hazard. Probably didn’t even have a fire escape.
Drawing back the dark burgundy drapes, he looked out the window. There was no fire escape and only the shallowest overhang, which slanted too severely off the roof to use for an escape.
He hated everything about the place.
Movement in the alley between homes caught his eye. Three imps sat hunched against the side of the neighboring house, staring up at him, waiting like jackals.
He found himself hoping he wouldn’t have anything to feed them tonight.
Kylen wasn’t sure how long her chores might take, but a crazy plan began to form in his own mind. If he was going to help her in this ridiculous quest, maybe he could help her to achieve at least two of her bucket list items in short order. As an added bonus, they’d take them far away from the dangers of Meridian…for the time being at least.#47 swim in the ocean and #49 fly over a volcano could both be accomplished in one place and within a few hours. It had been a long time since he’d been there. Too long. She’d love it.
When the shower stopped he called out to her before he lost his nerve.
“Olivia.”
The door opened and she peeked through the crack in the door, her hair dripping with water. “Yes.”
“Put on a swimsuit. We’re going to make a detour.”
When her face lit up with anticipation, Kylen’s heart cracked a little.
She was going to be the death of him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Winter meant nothing in Hawaii. While Meridian, Arkansas was in the 40s, Hawaii stayed a balmy mid-80s year round. It was the nearest place he’d been able to think of where Olivia could swim in the ocean and fly over a volcano in two hours.
They landed in a small cemetery on the island of Kauai. Not exactly secluded, but one of the most amazing sunrises Kylen had ever experienced had been at Shipwreck Beach. He hoped they’d have a chance to see one equally as spectacular.
“Where are we?”
“Hawaii.”
“What!” Olivia spun around in a circle, taking in the tropical foliage. The water was still well beyond their line of sight. The five-hour time difference and the short walk from the cemetery down the dirt path would put them on the beach just in time.
As they emerged from the forest and onto the edge of the pristine white beach, Olivia gasped. “Oh, Kylen. It’s…”
“Number 47. The sunrise is a bonus.”
Olivia sank to the sand on her bottom, wrapping her arms around her legs, and rested her chin on her drawn-up knees. She kicked off her shoes and dug her toes into the sand.
“I’ve always wanted to see the ocean. Where are we? Exactly?”
“Kauai.”
“You’ve been here before?”
“Yes.”
“You’re so lucky to be able to travel like you do. You must have been to thousands of places this lovely. Is this your favorite?”
“No.”
“Then where? I can’t even imagine anywhere better than this. Look at those colors!”
Kylen did look. But it had been too long since he’d last exchanged energy with Olivia. His color vision had faded again, and he would have to trust her assessment.
“Come. You can sit by me to watch it,” Olivia said.
This wasn’t a vacation, and they didn’t have time to be leisurely, but he couldn’t deny the appreciative sparkle in her eyes. She was practically glowing with happiness. It didn’t escape him that he was the cause, a fact that pleased him more than it should. But while he didn’t want to ruin this for her, they needed to knock these items off the bucket list and get back to Meridian to finish the rest.
He sat.
His scythe scabbard was rigid and unyielding against his back, so he was uncomfortable at first, but he soon found himself lost in the gray shades of the Shipwreck Beach sunrise. Olivia’s bright aura was almost a physical presence between them.
She reached for his hand, taking it into hers and held it without words.
He let her.
He watched as his electric blue energy leaped up her arm, turning her white aura a pale shade of blue. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the colors of the sky, and he watched in awe as the sun rose over the craggy rock projection that had given the beach its name.
As the colors finally faded to the brilliant blue of morning, he pulled his hand away.
“If you’re going to swim, now’s the time.”
Olivia smiled and rose to her feet. She pulled her sundress up and over her head, dropping it at his feet.
“Will you join me?”
“No.”
“Chicken.”
She ran to the surf and let the water roll in against her, wave after wave until she was properly drenched. He watched as she made her way out into the deeper water. With her white hair floating all around her and her head bobbing to the top of the waves as she made her way to the beach, he couldn’t help but think of Kara and their special place in Haiti. Which made him feel all the guiltier for the ridiculous position he now found himself in.
What was he doing here, flouncing around a tropical paradise with a human girl? No matter how much she needed him. What would Kara think if she could see him now? Betraying her this way.
It wasn’t long before tourists started to make their way down the long boardwalks to the very public beach. Kylen caught Olivia’s eye and motioned her in.
It was time to wrap this thing up.
One more quick stop, and then it was back to reality.
* * *
Olivia couldn’t believe she was in Hawaii, which was beautiful beyond words. She’d really had no hope of completing either of these items on her bucket list and had written them off as a lost cause.
She waited on the helipad as Kylen finished making arrangements inside the tiny little hut office. They were going to fly over not one but two volcanoes. K?lauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the world’s largest volcano. She was so excited she couldn’t even think straight.
Kylen approached her with a ticket in his hand. “You’ll be gone about an hour,” he said as he handed it to her. “We’ll leave when you get back.”
“You’re not going to come?”
“No.”
Olivia’s heart sank.
She’d accomplished all of her other list items alone, but this one? It didn’t seem right for him to go to all this trouble if he wasn’t going to enjoy the experience right along with her.
“You have to come with me.”
“No. I don’t.”
“But why? Is it the money? I can pay you back. I can pay for my own ticket.”
Kylen shifted uncomfortably, refusing to make eye contact with her.
“What is it, Kylen?”
“It’s not the money. I have plenty of money.”
“Then what?” She reached for his hand, imploring him to look at her.
“I’m afraid of flying.”
She almost laughed. Almost. But that would have put the nail in the coffin. There would be no talking him into it if she did that.
“You mean to tell me you travel all over the world, even to Purgatory and Hell and back, through an invisible consecrated subway that’s scary as hell, and you’re afraid to fly in a helicopter?”
Kylen’s jaw tightened. She could tell he was grinding his teeth together, considering his response.
“Yes.”
“Well, if you’re not going to go, neither will I.”
“I already bought your ticket. I brought you to a freaking volcano. You are going up in that helicopter.”
“Not without you. Your choice.”
She waited for his decision, wondering if at any moment cartoon steam might start blowing out of his ears. He was clearly furious.
After several long moments and a stare-down of epic proportions, he turned and headed back to the ticket office. He returned with two tickets.
The blades of the helicopter began to whirl behind them.
* * *
Kylen had a white-knuckle grip on the armrests in the back of the helicopter. Flying above the Earth in a man-made machine was just plain unnatural. He was starting to wish he was doing just about anything else as the death trap canted a hard right toward the rising plume of smoke belching from Mauna Loa. Massive was an understatement.
The pilot told them about the history of the volcano while they circled it. Olivia was sitting in the passenger seat in front of him, and she seemed to actually be listening to the pilot’s nonsense. Kylen decided to keep his attention locked on her instead of looking into the fiery crater and imagining his death, which suddenly wasn’t quite so appealing to him.
As they flew over the second volcano, K?lauea, he couldn’t help but notice how similar it looked to the pit of Hell and the Sea of the Dead.
Maybe it was actually an old portal of some sort. Or maybe he needed to stop thinking about demons so much.
Yeah, it was probably that.
Olivia continued to sneak excited looks his way, and he couldn’t help but feel his heart warm ever so slightly.
He was doing a good thing.
Him.
Surely there would be hell to pay for that.
What was that saying? No good deed goes unpunished?
He’d never really been a “carpe diem” sort of guy, but here he was facing a fear and making someone deliriously happy at the same time. All in all, it was oddly appealing.
God, he was glad Deacon wasn’t with them. He’d never let him hear the end of it.
As the tour wrapped up, the pilot flew them back to the helipad.
Taking off had been terrifying, but landing was so much worse. He had nearly jumped out of his skin by the time the chopper vibrated against the pad and settled to a stop. He’d never been so happy to be on solid ground in his life.
Although he’d never admit it, his knees were shaky as he made his way around to collect Olivia. They hunched down under the rush of wind created by the blades winding down, and he pulled her toward the car that was waiting to take them back to Shipwreck Beach. From there they would walk.
Kylen was more than ready to return to his element.
“Thank you, Kylen,” she said as they walked together toward the cemetery. “Thank you for the sunrise, thank you for the swim and thank you for going on the flight with me. It was amazing.”
“We need to get back.”
“I know. I just want you to know that I’ll never forget this day. Ever.” Olivia stretched up and kissed his cheek. Blue sparks like static elicited a startled squeal from her but didn’t stop her from giving him another soft kiss.
“Come on. We’re running out of time.”
He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her slim body, reminded ever so clearly that time was the one thing they didn’t have.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was nearly 2:30 p.m. by the time they got back to Olivia’s apartment. Their trip to Hawaii had only taken a couple of hours, but exhaustion hit him like an anvil. He’d expended a lot of energy, between sharing it with Olivia and traveling so far with a passenger. He needed to refuel or rest or both.
“I need a couple of hours to finish up here. Can I get you anything?”
Kylen eyed the couch longingly. “Ten minutes of shuteye. I’ll be right over there.”
Heading straight to the couch, he stretched out on his side, resting his head on the overstuffed arm. He closed his eyes, hoping for a quick nap. He didn’t really know what Olivia needed or intended to do in her apartment, but she didn’t appear to need his help with any of it.
Ten minutes. Maybe twenty and I’ll be as good as new.
The sooner this day was over, the better. Then he could get back to his real work.
* * *
Kylen awoke in Olivia’s dark apartment. He fumbled for the lamp on the sofa table behind him and turned it on. The light cast the room in a red haze, adding to his unease.
“Olivia?” he called. “Olivia!”
He’d been out for much longer than twenty minutes. The books that had been on shelves earlier were now in boxes stacked three high between the dormers. Other boxes were stacked along the walls of the suite. How had he slept through all of that? He’d only had three beers this morning for God’s sake.
“Olivia!” he called louder, turning on lamps as he made his way around the horrible apartment.
She lay sprawled across her bed atop the thick dark floral quilt, her arm slanted across her eyes. For a moment, he feared she was gone. She was still and pale, her face soft and relaxed. Relief flooded through him—dread fast on its heels—when he realized she still exuded an aura: a bright, white aura.
He crossed over to the bed and sat, looking down on her. Her hair was fanned across the dark reds of the quilt like a drift of snow. Without thinking, he reached for her and stroked his thumb across her face, blue flames sparking along the line he traced. When he palmed her cheek in his hand, the blue sparks sizzled like lightning, spidering through the veins beneath the surface of her face. Each time he touched her, her body pulled in his energy like drought-stricken ground soaking up an unexpected downpour.
How long could he keep her alive this way? The more time he spent with her, the more he knew it wouldn’t be long enough. What god could be cruel enough to send him not one, but two condemned women?
Heaven…Hell? It didn’t really matter which side was running the show. They were both heartless masters as far as he could tell. One side was just more overt than the other. Hell didn’t bother trying to hide its intentions behind fallacies like free will. He knew better.
Maybe he wouldn’t give either side the satisfaction of his death. Maybe he would serve no master but himself.
He was tired of playing their games. Tired of being their puppet. He’d seen what good and evil had to offer and had been unimpressed with either.
But this woman?
Something about her reminded him that living on this Earth had its perks after all, if you took advantage of your opportunities. He’d spent way too many years at the mercy of one side or the other, doing their bidding and little else.
Maybe now was the time to be done with all of that. Let them destroy each other in fiery battles for all he cared. Maybe he could still find a place far
from the fight, far from the troubles of yet another Armageddon. A place where he could be invisible.
A place he could take Olivia?
He could do that. He could.
His free will was intact; he was still in possession of his soul in spite of both sides’ efforts to extinguish him.
Leaning over her, he pressed his lips to Olivia’s forehead and a trickle of energy leached out on contact. Her eyes snapped open, electric-blue energy sparkling behind her ice-blue gaze. He was about to pull away, but Olivia clutched his arm, tugging him toward her. When he looked into her eyes, he noticed something new there: desire.
He hesitated—conflicted—but was unable to resist his own desire. He took her mouth with his, his blue light flooding into her, satiating her parched landscape, seeping down into the long-dying crevasses of her being and filling her empty spaces with his energy—his life. Her lips pressed against his as her hands clutched at his arms, sliding up his shoulders and into his hair, pulling him down to her, demanding more from him than he had to give.
Responding despite his inner turmoil, his body hardened, pulsating against the constricting fabric of his fatigues. As she arched into him, her body pressing against his, it was all he could do to keep from ripping her clothes free and burying himself inside her.
His hand slid beneath the arch of her back and held her to him, blue energy and cloth the only barriers between them.
Blood pounded through his chest and blue light pulsated through both of them with each throb of his long-underutilized heart. He lost himself in the feel of her skin, her lips, her hands on his body. A low, desperate groan escaped from deep inside him.
His own.
He wanted her. Needed her.
But while his flesh was willing, his mind refused to get with the program. It kept flashing him images of Kara’s body on that long-ago battlefield. It didn’t take long for his flesh to follow his brain’s lead, and after a while he tore himself from her hold.
He wasn’t sure who he was protecting, Olivia or himself, but he couldn’t take the chance that history would repeat itself. He couldn’t open his heart to someone else who might be stolen from him.
