by Eden Robins
“What!” Manuel said, rising to his feet.
“Mama, it’s okay. Papa, please sit down. I’m fine. Let Eric explain. He’ll tell you the whole story.”
Manuel didn’t sit. Instead he glared at Eric.
“I want to hear it all, right now, Eric,” her father demanded.
Eric understood Manuel’s protectiveness and tried to calmly explain the situation. As he spoke, Sabrina’s parents became more and more concerned. They waited for him to finish speaking, but once he had they shot the questions at him fast and furiously.
“Why haven’t the police caught this man? Don’t they have any clues as to who he is?” Manuel asked.
“Aren’t there specialists on the police force that handle cases like this?” Helaina added.
Eric answered as many of their questions as he could. He referred them to the detective handling the case for any questions he wasn’t sure how to answer. His answers seemed to calm her parents down somewhat. But then they turned to Sabrina. Concern and worry crossed their features.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner, mi hija?” her father asked.
Sabrina looked embarrassed.
“I’m sorry. I know I should have told you, but I was hoping the police and Sundown Security would clear things up before I had to. I didn’t want to worry you.”
“We’re your parents, ’Brina. It’s our job to be worried,” her mother said, glancing at Manuel and smiling sadly.
“I know, Mama. Again, I’m sorry. But now you know. And you also can see that Eric is doing everything possible to protect me until the stalker is found.”
Sabrina’s father narrowed his eyes at Eric. “He better, or he’ll have to answer to me.”
Eric stood up at that point and walked over to Manuel. He admired Sabrina’s father and respected his protectiveness toward his daughter, but he would not be bullied or threatened by anyone.
“Your daughter is in the best hands possible, Manuel. If you doubt that, why don’t we step outside and discuss this further.”
The two men glared at each other a moment longer before Sabrina stepped in between them.
“Enough! You two are acting like a couple of school boys instead of adults,” she said, placing a hand on both of their chests and pushing them back.
Both men could have stood their ground against the pressure, but instead conceded. They backed away from each other but kept their gazes locked.
Helaina walked in front of her husband, grasped his face gently with two hands and tilted his head down. “Look at me, Manuel. Stop this foolishness at once.”
The older man reluctantly pulled his stare from Eric and looked into his wife’s eyes.
“It’s enough, mi amor,” Helaina said softly. “He is doing all he can. This is his specialty. This is what he does. You know that. The past doesn’t matter right now. Our daughter’s safety is the most important thing.”
Manuel nodded his head.
Eric glanced at Sabrina and caught her staring at him. The look on her face was sad and wistful. He wondered what she was thinking, but before he could decide she quickly turned away from him.
“If you’d like to stay for dinner, I can make something up for us in about a half hour,” Sabrina offered.
“No, ’Brina. We won’t stay,” her father said, turning toward them and placing his arm around his wife’s waist.
Eric could tell the two of them loved each other very much. Though he wasn’t into that for himself, he appreciated the fact that Sabrina’s parents had such strong feelings for each other. If he were going to be with a woman, it would have to be like that. Both of them intensely, seriously and fully into each other. Nothing less would do.
Again his gaze slid to Sabrina. She was that type of woman. The kind a man could love with everything he had for the rest of his life and be damn happy about it. He just wasn’t that man.
“No, don’t worry about it, ’Brina. Your father and I won’t stay. We’re just glad we know what’s going on. Please keep us updated on everything. Both of you,” Helaina said, glancing briefly at Eric before returning her gaze to Sabrina. “We’re going to check in with you every day to make sure you don’t need anything. And please call me tomorrow. I’d like to talk to you more about this.”
“Okay, Mama. I will,” she said, giving her mother and father a kiss and walking them to the door.
“Good night, Eric,” Helaina said before leaving.
“Good night,” Eric replied with a reassuring smile. He could tell Sabrina’s mother was very concerned but trying to put on a brave front.
“Take good care of my daughter, Eric,” Manuel demanded, glancing back at Eric before leaving.
“You have my word that I will.”
The two men stared at each other a moment longer, then with a curt nod of his head, Sabrina’s father walked out the door.
Chapter Eight
Sabrina stood in the doorway, watching her parents leave.
Eric watched her.
She was so beautiful, so special and so precious. She took his breath away. He thought about her father and how protective he was. It was easy to feel that way toward Sabrina. He understood that feeling of protectiveness, especially when it came to family. He thought about something he hadn’t pondered for a very long time.
His own family.
And he remembered how he had failed to protect them.
Flames filled his vision as the memories flooded through him. He remembered back, back to the time when he was still mortal. Back to A.D. 732, back to the village where he had grown up in Southern Germany.
Everything was on fire. What had happened? Eric had been out checking on his father’s fields for the last time that day, more because he had had another argument with his father than because they needed checking. The sun was setting as he walked back home. He had seen a glow reaching up to the sky ahead. Though he hadn’t known what it was, a sense of urgency had filled him. He began to run and didn’t stop until he stood on the outskirts of his village.
He would have rushed in if he could have, but all that was in front of him was fire, waves and waves of fire, crackling, roaring and undulating in a dance that held him in its horrific thrall for several moments. A sound broke the spell. It was little more than a whimper, but it caught his attention. He glanced to his right and saw a small body crumpled on the ground. The form was so small it had to be a child, maybe no more than five or six. Eric knelt down but couldn’t make out who it was. The child was burned from head to toe, and little was recognizable other than light blue eyes that stared at him with utter pain and horror.
He wanted to touch the child, but he knew that would only cause more pain.
“What happened, little one? What happened here?”
The response was little more than a high-pitched whisper.
“Drache, drache, drache, dra—”
The child repeated the same word over and over again in a voice filled with terror.
Eric’s heart turned to ice. “Drache” was a term that brought fear to all who heard it.
Dragon.
The child spoke as if he had just woken up from a nightmare and told his parents about it in a fearful whisper, as if by saying it aloud would make it real. But as the child breathed out his last word and died, in this case, Eric knew the nightmare had been very, very real.
He wanted to gather the boy in his arms and somehow bring him back to life. He wanted to save him. But it was too late. He was gone. And with a sickening sense of dread, he knew that his family probably had endured the same fate. Few if any ever survived a full-fledged dragon attack. And from the look of what little remained of his village, this dragon had aimed for complete and unequivocal destruction.
“Eric? Are you all right?”
The sound of Sabrina’s concerned voice brought him back from the past. Orange and red flames turned into beautiful green eyes. Her expression was worried and Eric’s first instinct was to comfort her.
He laid his
hand gently on her cheek.
“I’m fine, gatita. I was just remembering something very unpleasant.”
Sabrina didn’t shrink from his touch. Instead she laid her hand over his and gave him a gentle smile.
“Do you want to tell me about it?” she asked.
Eric pulled away, sliding his hand from her cheek and stepping back. He tried to ignore the pained expression that filled Sabrina’s face. She attempted to keep up her gentle smile, but her bottom lip trembled from the effort.
He wanted to take her in his arms. He wanted to comfort her and tell her how he felt about her. But he couldn’t, he wouldn’t, let her in. She was rainbows and summer days. He was gray clouds and endless death. They were not meant to be together, now, or ever.
Turning away from her, he called gruffly over his shoulder, “Come sit back down in here. We need to go over your schedule for the next few days.”
Eric didn’t wait for her to follow. He needed to get himself back under control. Sabrina’s eyes, so sad and full of yearning, tore at him. But he couldn’t let that stop him. He would do his job. Nothing more, nothing less. He would protect her, then they would say goodbye. End of story.
Sabrina tried to stop the pain. She tried to shield herself from its inevitable stabbing, but it was no use. As Eric pulled away from her touch, her heart ached in a way she remembered all too well. She tried to remember her anger. She tried to recall the spirit she had built up since their separation. She struggled to look at Eric in a logical way.
It was no use. All the barricades she had built up around her heart and all the pep talks others had given her, and she had given herself, cracked and crumbled to the ground like Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.
That part of the nursery rhyme kept playing over and over again in her mind. As she fought the tears welling up in her eyes, Sabrina felt herself losing control. The image of him saying goodbye and leaving her two years ago filled her head as she watched him walk into the other room.
The tears silently overflowed and slid down her cheeks. Why had she tried to comfort him? Why had she left herself open and vulnerable to his callous cruelty again? Damn it, she knew better. She wasn’t an idiot. She held her Ph.D. in anthropology. Surely that counted for something? Surely that meant that she had sense in her head. Didn’t it?
Deep breaths. Take deep breaths. That would help. Good, hold on, you can do it.
Sabrina heeded her thoughts, breathing in deeply and struggling to tamp down the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. After a few moments, the tears stopped. A sense of calm filled her. She could do this. She could handle it. What choice did she have? She would just have to remember the facts.
Only the facts, ma’am. Only the facts, that voice in her head cracked in typical Dragnet fashion.
Walking to the bathroom, she concentrated on the known, not the hoped for. Eric had told her the way it was when they parted last.
He just wasn’t that into her.
Period.
End of story.
Looking in the bathroom mirror, she saw that her mascara had already begun to run. Wiping her eyes clean with a tissue, she admitted that she needed to accept the truth and get over it. Just because she’d thought what they had was special. Just because she had felt they had connected in a way she had with no one else. And just because she had fallen utterly and completely in love with him didn’t mean he had to feel the same way.
With a last look in the mirror to make sure she looked okay, Sabrina squared her shoulders and left the bathroom. Walking into the living room, she found Eric standing with his back turned to her, staring out the window. Her gaze ran hungrily over him as his attention was elsewhere. She couldn’t help herself. He was so beautiful to look at.
Knowing that she might lose it again if she didn’t stop ogling him, she cleared her throat loudly.
Eric turned slowly toward her and she thought she caught a glimpse of something in his eyes. Was it sorrow, was it regret? She couldn’t tell for sure, because in the next minute he shuttered his expression and there was nothing, nothing but emotionless golden eyes staring back at her.
Lifting her chin proudly, she met his cold gaze with her own unwavering one.
“What did you want to discuss?” she asked.
He silently stared at her a few moments before answering, and she almost fell into his golden world yet again. He had a way of caressing her with his eyes. It was as if he didn’t realize he was doing it, because though his stare remained cold, his gaze lingered over her features before returning to her eyes.
“Your appearance schedule.”
Sabrina had to keep a handle on things, on herself. Clearing her throat again, she said the first sentences that came to mind.
“I thought we already discussed this, Eric. You made yourself quite clear, as did I.”
“That’s the problem,” he explained, running his fingers through his hair with a frustrated sigh. “We both know what we need to do, but we don’t agree on what that is.”
“That’s true,” she allowed.
“We have to work together on this, gatita. I won’t allow you to put yourself in danger.”
Sabrina somehow managed to ignore his use of her pet name.
“I don’t want to be in danger either, Eric. So what do you suggest?”
They spent the next hour discussing various ways for her to make her appearances and remain safe.
Listening to him, she understood why Eric was thought of so highly in the security community. He didn’t hesitate to lay out myriad plans for her to consider, going over the pluses and minuses of each before getting her opinion. Once she agreed on one, he clarified his needs.
“I’ll need to speak to the public relations people organizing your event at each location, get together with some of the other guys at Sundown for assistance and run everything by Vlad,” he explained. “I think we can do this, but no matter who else is involved, I need one thing that only you can give, or none of this will work.”
“What?” Sabrina asked. She was curious. How could she help him with security?
“Your complete and unquestionable trust.”
Whoa, back up. Did he just say trust?
Of all the things Eric could have said, in Sabrina’s mind that was the worst. Was he kidding? Trust him? Trust him? After what he did? After the way he’d treated her? He’d broken her heart and disappeared from her life without a backward glance.
Disregarding the little voice inside her head that reminded her she had been unable to open up fully to Eric, that she had been unwilling to give him her complete trust, Sabrina blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “What in the hell makes you think I’d ever trust you again?”
The words left her mouth without thought. But once they were out there, she couldn’t—wouldn’t call them back. They needed to be said because they were undeniably and indisputably the absolute truth. She knew it, and he knew it.
So she met Eric’s inscrutable gaze unflinchingly, letting her words hang in the air between them.
Eric’s heart twisted in his chest as Sabrina’s words sank in. And he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. She was right. Why should she trust him after he’d walked away from her, from everything they had as if it hadn’t mattered at all?
Steeling himself against the pain and accusation in her eyes, Eric prepared to do battle with her. He knew she would fight it. He understood that she would have a hard time accepting it. But she would. She would accept the situation and him because she had little choice. Her life was in danger. His job was to protect her. That was all that mattered right now.
“You don’t have many options, Sabrina. You must trust me.”
“Why must I, Eric? Who made up that rule? Is this another one of those ‘my world, my rules’ things you were so fond of dictating to me when we were together?” Sabrina asked, practically spitting each ang
ry word out while her eyes shot daggers of fury at him. “And by the way, your controlling attitude makes me think you’re confusing me with someone you’re fucking. We both know that isn’t, and never has been, the case.”
Eric barely held his anger in check. Sabrina could be so frustrating. She was one of the few women in his life who stood up to him. Although he admired that about her, he needed to get her to understand his point. They were talking about her life.
“Why must you trust me?” he asked in a deceptively quiet voice. “Because your life depends on it. Because in this case it is my world and my rules. And as much as I’d like to fuck you, this has nothing to do with sex. So get over that obsession, would you? Again, I’m the security specialist. I’ve handled cases similar to this. I know what I’m talking about. I’m just trying to do my job, protect you. But the only way I can do that is if you trust me to take care of you.”
Eric tried to carefully explain his position, trying to keep his voice calm and his face neutral.
He didn’t want her to see how much her words had affected him. He hadn’t meant to bring up the part about wanting to make love to her but couldn’t seem to stop himself. He wanted her, as much or more than he had when they were dating.
Sabrina’s eyes had widened as he mentioned making love to her. She opened her mouth as if she were going to argue more then abruptly closed it again and slowly nodded her head.
“Fine. I’m willing to trust you in this, but only this, Eric. I’ll trust you to protect me in the way you think best. And I’ll try, to the best of my ability, to take your advice and follow your instruction.”
“Without arguing?”
Her eyes narrowed angrily. “Don’t push it. I promised what I could. Take it or leave it.”
Eric studied Sabrina for a minute. This was probably the best he was going to get from her. She would trust him to protect him. It was enough, for now.
“I’ll take it.”
“Good,” Sabrina said, rising from the couch. “Then on that note, I think I’ll go to bed. I’m exhausted.”
Eric stood up also.
“Good night.”
