Indebted

by Amy A. Bartol

  Copyright © 2012 Amy A. Bartol

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 147000870X

  ISBN-13: 9781470008703

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-62111-385-0

  LCCN: 2012902463

  CreateSpace, North Charleston, SC

  Also By Amy A. Bartol

  Inescapable: The Premonition Series Volume 1

  Intuition: The Premonition Series Volume 2

  For Molly, my childhood friend and partner in trying to be

  And also for Max and Jack, my reasons to be

  Contents

  CHAPTER 1 JADE DRAGON MOUNTAIN

  CHAPTER 2 MISSING PIECES

  CHAPTER 3 THE ARMY

  CHAPTER 4 TORTURE

  CHAPTER 5 ECHOES

  CHAPTER 6 UNDINES AND IFRITS

  CHAPTER 7 WATER AND FIRE

  CHAPTER 8 THE STONE FOREST

  CHAPTER 9 THE UNHOLY CHURCH

  CHAPTER 10 SURVIVAL

  CHAPTER 11 THE BARGAIN

  CHAPTER 12 THE FELLAS

  CHAPTER 13 THE QUEEN

  CHAPTER 14 ANGEL AND SOUL MATE

  CHAPTER 15 FORGIVING MAGIC

  CHAPTER 16 CASIMIR

  CHAPTER 17 WAR OF HEARTS

  CHAPTER 18 MY ANGEL

  CHAPTER 19 NINETEEN

  CHAPTER 20 THE GIFTS

  CHAPTER 21 PLANS WITHIN PLANS

  CHAPTER 22 THE COMPACT

  CHAPTER 23 THE OCEAN

  CHAPTER 24 THE ISLAND

  CHAPTER 25 PERSEPHONE NO MORE

  CHAPTER 26 NO SUNSHINE

  Evie

  CHAPTER 1

  Jade Dragon Mountain

  He can’t hide from me. Not that he is ever trying to, but still, it’s impossible. I know where he is at all times. I’m attuned to his voice, his scent…the beat of his heart. It’s my favorite pastime these days—stalking Reed. It’s a game that I play without knowing that I’m playing it half the time. I hunt him…and he lets me.

  As I move through the stone-walled courtyard, my bare feet make almost no sound while I traverse the stone bridge that crosses a tranquil plunge pool in the middle of the Zen garden. A galaxy of stars reflects in the water beneath me, but they can’t hold my attention. Reed is ahead of me, in the bedroom of the Naxi-inspired pagoda that we have been sharing. He is poring over maps of the surrounding terrain. Reed studies these maps frequently, learning everything he can about Lijiang and the Jade Dragon Mountain that has been our base of operations since we arrived in China last week. He has been very busy—too busy.

  My eyes shift to the banyan trees in the courtyard that nestles just outside the wide doorway of the pagoda. Illuminated red-paper lanterns are strung within its weeping branches. The light from the lanterns turns my pale skin pink as I creep behind the twisted trunk. I scan the slate porch from my leafy position. The doors are open, allowing the breeze to pass freely through the room on either side. Reed hasn’t looked up from his seat at the desk, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know I’m here. I can’t tell if he has sensed that I’m stalking him; he never gives anything away.

  I study him for a moment. His dark brown hair has gotten longer than how he had been wearing it in Crestwood. But, I like it; it looks very sexy. His body is curved at sensual angles, making me want to touch him, to feel the raw power beneath his skin. His wings are in, so he looks completely human, well, as human as Reed can look. Since he is absolutely ethereal, I can’t see him as anything but angelic now.

  When I look up at the arcing, gray tiled roof of the pagoda, I try to see if there is another way in—a sneakier way because I want to take him by surprise—jolt him out of his tactical plotting. He has been singularly focused since our arrival: amassing an angelic army, one strong enough to match Brennus’ army.

  I shiver at the thought of Brennus. With a little luck, Brennus and his army of Gancanagh are half a world away. Reed is going to great lengths to protect me from Brennus. He has literally gone to the other end of the Earth to accomplish it, bringing me to China, to the secluded base of an enormous snow-capped mountain. Reed and Zephyr have been working on little else other than keeping me safe from the Gancanagh leader who wants to make me his queen…his undead lover. I cannot allow that to happen. If he gets me back and bites me, there is little chance that I will not succumb to his venom and become one of them. Now that I’m reunited with Reed, I’m desperate to remain with him, no matter what.

  A deep, primal growl, coming from the room ahead of me, makes me freeze where I am. I glance back towards the room and every hair on my arms rises. Another low, rumbling growl drifts to me on the gentle breeze that stirs wisps of my auburn hair around my face. The sound is terrifying in its intensity, and every instinct within me urges me to run from it as my eyes connect with the animal making it. Fierce green irises peer at me from the enormous, sleek cat crouching before me near the doorway to the pagoda. A shiver of pure fear shakes me as I involuntarily take a step back from the massive, black killer.

  “Nice kitty…” I whisper to it, taking another shaky step backward and feeling the rough bark of the tree at my back, impeding my retreat. “Reed!” I whisper urgently as I cast a glance into the room, but he is no longer seated at the desk. My eyes fly back to the aggressive animal in front of me that is stalking me like I’m a luscious morsel. The panther’s muscles tense, looking as if it will pounce on me at any moment. I look wildly around for an exit strategy while several killing scenarios pulse in my mind, but I would rather try to run than try to engage it.

  “Stay!” I command the panther, watching its tail swish as it deepens its crouch. It’s not listening to me—it looks like it’s enjoying itself immensely, the way its tail is swishing back and forth like it’s toying with a mouse or something. Hide, I think when the hackles rise on its sleek, black pelt.

  “Reed!” I squeak, watching the cat bound up and lunge in my direction. I squeeze my eyes closed, holding my breath and pressing deeper into the tree, waiting to feel its sharp teeth sink into my skin.

  “Evie!” Reed says from directly in front of me. I open my eyes to find that Reed is no more than inches from my face, looking at me with panic in his eyes. His powerful, charcoalgray wings are arcing out around him, shielding us. His hand reaches out, cupping my cheek.

  I try to answer him, but I find that my entire body has gone rigid, so much so that I cannot even move my mouth to speak his name. Reed braces his hands on my shoulders, running his hands up and down me as if he cannot see me. “Evie?” he says again, but this time he is leaning into me, inhaling the air near my face. I try again to speak, but I feel stiff.

  It takes several seconds for some of the rigidity in my limbs to ease, allowing me to inhale a breath as I look up into the face that I love above all others. “Big cat!” I utter as I attempt to pull away from the tree at my back only to find that I am entangled in vines that are holding me to the trunk. Looking at my arms, they have taken on the rough texture of the mossy bark of the tree. When I raise my hand to my eyes, my fingers appear twig-like as I wave them in fascination and horror. “What the—” I inhale a sharp breath, my eyes move to Reed who is observing me now with a mixture of pleasure and awe on his face.

  “You can relax, Evie, it’s not permanent,” Reed says to reassure me. “You are evolving. It appears, you can change your shape now,” he says, smiling and raising one of his brows.

  “But—I’m a tree,” I whisper to him, feeling appalled by my current shape. I have taken on the mossy exterior of the banyan tree that I’m near.

  “Yes, but you are not really a tree—you are more like a chameleon,” he says as he leans his face closer to my ear, brushing his cheek to mine. I feel the suppleness of his skin against the course roughness of my current bark-like exterior, which causes a small mea
sure of my fear to melt away.

  “Buns said that when this shapeshifting thing evolved I would be able to turn into butterflies or something, like she can.” I respond, remembering how Buns had shapeshifted before my eyes into a swarm of butterflies to demonstrate her angelic ability to me. I’m beginning to feel disappointed over my current predicament of looking like some sort of woodland sprite. I was really hoping to be more like my friends, the angels, when I evolve, not less like them. I’m already too different from them, being only half angel and the rest of me human that this is just one more thing that will separate me from being seen as one of them.

  “This is so much better than that, don’t you see? he asks me, grinning.

  “No, from this angle, it kind of sucks, Reed.” I reply, stepping forward as my knees become less rigid, enough to bend them as I pull away from the tree that I had become a part of only moments ago. Reed wraps his arms around me, steadying me by pulling me tight against him.

  “No, what you can do is so much better. We have to change into something animate, like butterflies or a panther, but you can change your shape to reflect your surroundings…camouflaging yourself. It’s a huge asset—” Reed says with excitement until I cut him off.

  “That was you!” I accuse him as my skin begins to take on its normal hue and I start to change back to my original form. “You changed into a panther!”

  A chuckle escapes Reed then as he hugs me tighter. “I thought for sure you knew it was me, but you didn’t, did you?” he asks.

  “I probably should’ve known. Your eyes were the exact same color as the cat’s eyes. I’ve always thought that you move just like a cat,” I say, gazing up into his perfect face that is mere inches from my own. “Is that the only shape you can take or will I be running from a bear next time?”

  “Oh, I can take many, many forms, but I cannot do what you can do—my forms have to be animate. I have to change into an animal, but you—do you think you can do other forms?” he asks with excitement. “Do you think that it has to be just a solid form—can you be liquid…air?”

  “I don’t know.” I reply honestly.

  “What were you thinking right before you changed?” he asks. “Were you thinking ‘tree?’”

  “No…I was thinking ‘hide,’” I reply.

  “Of course!” Reed exclaims. “I have someone I want you to meet. His name is Wook and he is a Virtue angel, like Phaedrus, who has lived near the Naxi for several centuries. He has studied the Tibetan monks and the Naxi mystics and has seen some of their abilities. Perhaps, he can instruct you to hone your human capabilities. I will not be much help to you in that, as I have little insight into the human side of your nature.”

  “You think this is a human trait?” I ask Reed with a skeptical look, “Because I can’t think of any human that I know of who can change herself into a tree.”

  Reed’s eyebrow arches in a cunning way. “I don’t know, maybe it’s a hybrid trait. No angel I know of can do what you just did. It is very unique,” he says, and awe is back in his voice again.

  “I don’t even know if I can do it again, Reed,” I reply, feeling strange about what just happened. This evolution into a stronger being is really disturbing. It takes the awkwardness of puberty to a whole new level, I think. “And maybe we shouldn’t tell anybody about it.”

  “Why not?” Reed asks, frowning now while scanning my face.

  “Because it’s unnatural and…freakish,” I reply as casually as I can, but I’m a little too stiff just yet to pull off the casual shrug.

  “Evie, you don’t understand, this is ‘mad cool’ to use your words. It makes you even more dangerous!” Reed breathes and I can see he is really charged up about this. Searching his face for signs of disgust, I can find none. He is truly happy that I can now turn into something else. He must be worried that he will not be able to defend me. He must see this as one more evasion technique.

  “You think a tree is great? Just wait until I can turn into an avalanche and come pouring down the mountain,” I smile as my arms creep around his neck, pulling his face closer to mine.

  “Yes…that would be excellent,” he exhales near my ear, causing shivers to run through me.

  “So you don’t think this is sketchy?” I ask, feeling relief that he is not repulsed by me.

  “I don’t question your existence anymore. I’m just grateful you are here, in any form,” he says, picking me up off of my feet and carrying me back into the bedroom.

  The bedroom is sparse by the standards of western culture. It contains only a rather large bed and a writing desk. The silk clad bed is centered in the room on a low wooden platform. Folding doors open up the entire room to the outdoors so that the room is exposed to the gardens and courtyard. High stone walls that allow for privacy from the other pagodas cluster around our own to shield the entire pagoda.

  “Isn’t it your job to question my existence?” I ask him teasingly.

  “No, my only job was to annihilate fallen angels and since you are not one of them, you do not fall under my job description,” he says, nuzzling my neck and placing me in the middle of the bed. Following me down, he brushes the hair back from my forehead with his strong fingers while gazing into my eyes. “But now that we are bound to one another, I have a new job description.”

  “You do? What’s your new job?” I ask, fascinated by the sensual turn of his mouth. I trace his lips with the tip of my finger that has now returned to normal.

  “To love Evie…” Reed says, holding each of my fingers to his lips, kissing them one by one, “to protect my brave girl from any evil that would dare to speak her name…” he continues, tracing a line from the palm of my hand to my wrist. “To make her enemies bow at her feet…” he murmurs before his lips find mine. I recognize his words as those that Buns had translated for me after Reed said his binding vow to me in his Angelic language. He had promised to protect me in the descriptive detail that only a Power angel can convey. It is a little overwhelming to hear the words, even when it may become necessary for him to actually do all of the things he is saying in order to protect me.

  “Reed,” I whisper against his lips, “that’s kind of scary—”

  “Thank you,” he replies smugly just before deepening the kiss as he completely misinterprets my words as a compliment. At the moment, I’m in no mood to correct the mistake. Kissing him back, I reach my hand up to gently stroke his wing. A soft groan escapes Reed at my touch. I love that.

  Slowly, Reed’s hands move over my body and the feel of his hands on my bare skin, although exquisite, is shocking because I just realize that I’m not wearing anything. I squeak in surprise, causing Reed to pull back a little so that he can look into my eyes again in question.

  “My clothes?” I ask.

  “Trees don’t wear clothes,” he replies. “That very pretty little sundress you were wearing is now shredded at the base of the tree outside.”

  “Oh…and where are your clothes?” I ask as a smile forms in the corners of my mouth, allowing my eyes to rove over his perfect form.

  “Panthers don’t wear clothes either,” he shrugs.

  “How…convenient,” I sigh, wrapping my arms around his neck again and pulling him back down to me.

  Just then, Reed’s cell phone rings annoyingly on the desk behind us. I tense, holding Reed tighter to me. “You are absolutely forbidden to answer that phone,” I whisper against his lips.

  “What phone, love?” he says as his head dips lower, tracing my collarbone with his lips, causing shivers to course through me as desire ignites within me. I relax as the phone stops ringing and my hands slip to his hair, threading through it and feeling the softness of it.

  I trace the line down his neck to the place just above his heart, the place where my wings have been symbolically branded into his skin. I’m still fascinated by the way in which it appeared, after the binding ceremony that linked Reed’s life to mine was performed. I can’t hide the smile of satisfaction that this
mark on him makes me feel. It literally screams the word “mine.” Reed is mine and no one can take him away from me now. Our fates are connected and I know that I should feel guilty for tying him to me like this. My fate can turn on a dime because most angels, when they first see me, believe that I must be evil, since no angel before me has ever possessed a soul. But, in this moment, I can’t feel anything but happy that we are here together.

  “What are you thinking right now?” Reed asks, searching my face.

  “Umm, right now?” I ask, trying to stall because I just got caught reveling in the fact that he’s mine. “I was just thinking about how happy I am, about this,” I say, feeling myself blush as I trace the shape of my wings that are imprinted on his chest.

  “This makes you happy?” he asks and when I nod he speaks to me in Angel as he tenderly kisses the symbol of his wings etched into my skin just above my heart.

  “What did you say?” I whisper because I haven’t learned to speak his language yet. It still sounds like music to me, like a hypnotic lullaby.

  “Me, too,” he replies, smiling broadly.

  “That sounded a bit more than ‘me, too,’” I counter, but Reed’s smile only broadens. “And I wasn’t just thinking that, I was also wondering what I can call you.” At his look of confusion, I go on, “I mean, you’re not my ‘husband’ because you’re much, much, more than that…” I trail off, waiting for him to say the word for what we are to each other, now that we both swore a vow to be united for eternity.

  He responds immediately in Angel and I smile because I should’ve known that it wouldn’t be English. It sounds like he said aspire, but in a way that is so beautiful that it makes tears form in my eyes. My voice is thick when I ask, “Translation?”

  Groaning, Reed’s brow creases in a frown. He is struggling with the limitations of the human language, so I wait patiently for him to answer me. “It means…‘beloved above all others’… ‘most revered, venerated’…but it’s more than that. It means ‘essential to me’ and ‘a part of me.’”