by Shelly Crane
"We've established that, Pat." I grinned. "Now put some feet to the pavement."
He took off after her. Our other lunch buddies came and asked what was going on. I just waved them off and dragged Eli to the lunch line. It was pizza day, so I resorted to the salad bar.
It was when we were laughing about something later that I felt hands on my shoulders. Eli was sitting next to me, so it could only be one other person. "Tate, don't-" I started, but when I turned it wasn't Tate I saw, it was Finn…and Enoch was standing by the door.
"Hello again, lovely," he sneered at me and then looked at Eli, who was stunned silent, but still wrapping his arm around me in protection as he stared at him. "Come with us outside and nothing happens to the feelers. Just you though. The girl stays."
Six
"Finn, what are you doing?" Eli asked him.
"Saving your life."
Eli scoffed, but gulped as we stood and he pulled me behind him. "What's this about?"
"Hey," Dee interrupted. "Who's this?" she asked of Finn. No one answered her and she huffed. "Well? New guy? What's your name?"
"My name's get lost," he spouted.
She shrieked and Tate wasn't far behind. "What's going on?" He looked at me. "You ok? What's going on, Clara?"
"Nothing for you to worry about, buddy," Finn said and patted Tate on the arm. "Now run along."
"Watch it, buddy," Tate sneered. "Eli, this a friend of yours?"
"I'd use that term loosely."
"Come on, Clara." Tate held his hand out for me. "Let them settle whatever this is."
"Nope," I said, shaking my head. Tate still thought that after everything he could come over and order me around and I'd just go with him like a scared little girl. "I'm not leaving."
Tate's jaw tightened. "Don't be stupid, Clara. Come with me. Now."
Eli turned to him, but before anything could be done, Finn punched Tate in the jaw, letting him fall to the floor like a lump. Finn growled, "Outside."
"I'm not leaving Clara."
Finn laughed and ticked his head toward the door. "Enoch is coming with us. But it wouldn't matter, now would it? Since she's bound the Thames family to her like the evil succubus she is."
"Don't," Eli hummed low and inched closer to Finn. "Don't, Finn."
"Why not?" he laughed and got right in Eli's face. "That's what she is." He looked at me over Eli's shoulder, but Eli grabbed him by the collar.
"Don't even look at her if you're going to call her that."
Everybody else was looking at me though. They were looking at all of us and the spectacle we were making, though no one seemed too worried about Tate. I pulled gently on the back of Eli's shirt to let him in on it. He understood and eased his hands away from Finn's neck. "Let's take it outside-"
"That's what I wanted in the first place!" Finn yelled.
"-but I'm not leaving Clara."
Finn pushed away from Eli and huffed. "Whatever, Elijah."
"Don't call me that," Eli muttered and grabbed my bag from the table in one hand and my hand in the other. Finn was way ahead of us as he scooted down the hall, pausing a fraction of a second before leaving through the school front doors.
I was afraid to ask what was going on. He said Finn had been a friend of sorts, but that little encounter just now looked anything but friendly. We were almost to the doors when I saw it. That was what Finn had paused for; he felt their lust, passion, whatever.
Because outside of my math classroom, Patrick and Ariel were kissing in the most tender, sweet way I'd ever seen anyone kiss. She was leaning against the wall, he was leaning into her with a hand on her jaw as he kissed her. They didn't look up or even notice us as we followed Finn out the door. My joy for them was short lived as my own fear spiked when I saw Finn and Enoch leaning against the tree in the quad.
Finn took a deep breath to acknowledge my fear, but Enoch, being who he was, licked his lips and grinned. It made me even more scared that he looked so happy about what they had to tell us and I knew it was nothing good.
Eli picked up my fear then, which meant it was pretty intense. He sucked in a breath and leaned into my ear. "Don't be scared. I'm right here."
I nodded, but agreeing didn't make my fear go away.
Eli got right down to business. "What?
Enoch answered first. "The jig's up. The Horde is coming back and this time, they won't be pussy footing around."
"We've been hearing some things at the Consumed Clubs," Finn said.
"So, you two are buddies now, huh?" Eli asked and cocked his pierced brow.
"I went and found him," Enoch said. "I thought Finn could convince you to get rid of this…this…" he eyed our wrists with distain, "bond before anyone else could. That you'd listen to him and know that all this is going to do, brother, is cause problems for you and her. Don't you see that?"
"Touching," Eli rebutted. "Since when do you care?"
"Since she was attached to my bloody wrist!"
Eli looked down at me and then back at them. "You wasted a trip. We'll deal with the Horde."
"Eli, come on, man," Finn reasoned. "You can't win this."
"So your suggestion is what? Kill her?" Eli yelled.
"Hey!" I defended.
"Take her to The Wall and get it reversed!" Finn yelled back.
"No! Even if there was a way to reverse it, which there isn't, I wouldn't! You and Enoch don't get it. She didn't trap me into this. I…" He looked back at me and I knew what he had been going to say. "I'm…happy right where I am," he said instead.
"As someone who was trapped by a succubus would say," Finn spouted sarcastically.
"Enough! I'm not having this conversation." Eli started to pull me away from them, but Finn stopped him.
"The Horde is planning retribution for you."
Eli stopped, but didn't turn. "Well…they'll have to catch me first."
"You have to leave," Enoch spouted gruffly. "And yes, this is the bond talking. Even if I'm not here, it's constantly on my mind that you're here and she's possibly in danger. That's why I went to Finn; to talk some sense into you!"
"We'll leave," Eli conceded. "We've been prepared for this to happen." He turned to look at him. "So I'm to believe you both just came here to talk sense into me?"
"I've always been soft," Finn said and laughed humorlessly. "Soft is good to get what I want from the feelers, but what you are is…I'm Charmin, you're a frigging down feather pillow, Eli! Too soft, man, and it's gonna get you strung up to a tree and branded."
"Again?" Eli growled.
Finn pulled on his hair. "Geez, Eli." It sounded like an apology, but I was sure that was about as apologetic as a Devourer got.
"We're out of here tonight," Eli told them. "Happy?"
"Is this thing still around my wrist?" Enoch asked rhetorically. "Then I'm not happy."
Eli turned without another word and took me across the street to my house. I knew exactly what he was doing and I just let him do it. We went straight down the hall to my room and he threw my backpack on the bed, dumping out everything. I just watched him as he went to my dresser and grabbed two pairs of jeans and a few shirts, throwing them inside the bag.
When he opened my top drawer, I opened my mouth to protest, but nothing came out. He grabbed a handful of my underwear without really looking at them and stuffed them into the bag, only barely glancing at me.
"Toothbrush, Clara," he commanded softly.
I obeyed in a daze. I was about to get my wish. I was leaving this town, albeit not the way I had imagined. But I was leaving and there was something thrilling in that even though my life was in danger. But it also made me feel guilty in a way I never had before. That Finn guy was right. Eli was tied to me because I had bound us and I slowed him down, put him in danger, and forced him to look after me. A wretched balloon of regret began to bloom in my chest.
I brought him my toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, along with my small makeup bag from the bathroom. He stuffed all that
into the bag and then took my hand again to lead me down the hall. He stopped and hovered outside the kitchen. Mrs. Ruth was chopping something. The babies must've been down for a nap because the house was quiet.
He looked back at me as if asking for permission. My mind ran. What was I going to tell Pastor and Mrs. Ruth? Then I saw the way he was looking at me; a shameful way. I knew then what he wanted.
"It's ok, Eli. It'll be easier on them if you persuade them to let me go."
"But I hate it," he admitted and sagged even more. "I hate it so much for you to see me like that."
"I'm sorry. I can talk them into it," I suggested and rubbed his arm. "We never really discussed what I was going to do after graduation, but they had to know it wasn't going to be forever, right?"
"I hate it, Clara, but it has to be done." He kissed my forehead. "And the fact that I'd do anything for you is there, too. Just stay here, ok?"
I nodded and leaned on the wall as I heard a surprised Mrs. Ruth say hello to Eli. I heard him murmuring and her agreeing. About a minute and a half later, he came around the corner and grabbed my hand.
We made a swift getaway from my house. I didn't ask him what was said. It was obvious he didn't want to talk about it. I'd ask him later. We passed the bird on the way to his bedroom. He started packing up some of his stuff as well.
"I only have four thousand in emergency cash," he explained. "We'll buy whatever we need, but we need to lay low for a while and not use any bank cards or anything. The cash needs to last for as long as possible."
"I wish I could help in that department."
He shook his head at me. "That's not what I meant."
"I know, but my parents didn't have life insurance. It was just one of those things that didn't get done before they died. So we lost the house and everything. My sister and I split the money from all the stuff in the house that got sold, but it was only a couple thousand dollars. I've blown through that on school stuff."
"I'm sorry," he said as he took his uniform shirt off and threw on a Ramones t-shirt over his wife beater. "That sucks, CB."
"Hey, how come you got to change out of your uniform?"
"Because I don't look as cute as you do in it." He smiled. "You mind going to the kitchen and grabbing something to snack on? Just in case we can't get something tonight."
"Sure. I can play domesticated housewife for a few minutes."
He grinned wider. "Thank you, darling," he said all husband like.
"I could get used to that," I muttered to myself.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, darling!" I yelled back. I heard him chuckling as I went. I passed the bird, who stayed silent, but watchful, as I made my way through the living room. I'd never been in his kitchen before, but it was pretty much in the same spot in every house, right?
And boy was it huge! I searched the cabinets and found them stocked with chips, granola bars, pop tarts, cereal and beef jerky. Beef jerky? I grabbed the box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the granola bars box, a couple bottles of water from the counter and went back down into Eli's basement.
I almost stumbled on the stairs, my legs seeming to go numb out of nowhere. I shook my leg and then my head to clear it. Weird.
"Why do you have so much food?" I asked when I hit the last step. "I know you like to eat, but some of that is definitely chick food."
"Well, I thought you might start hanging out over here more," he said quietly as he tied his boot strings. He was now in jeans, boots and a grey Ramones t-shirt that was a little tight on his arms. He looked up at me as he finished.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"That's really sweet," I said as I put my plunders in the bag with my clothes. I turned to him, but he was right up against me. "Really sweet."
"The fact that I have a strange hankering for beef jerky had no affect on the decision, though."
I laughed. "I'm sure."
He wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in my neck. "Are you sure this is ok?" he said, suddenly serious.
"We have to go," I said. "We knew they'd come back. It was just wishful thinking to think we could stay here until graduation."
He pulled back to look at me. "I can't believe how cavalier you're being about this. You pitched a fit - a fit, I remind you - about us staying until graduation. Remember?"
"That was before." I looked away.
"Before what?" he said and maneuvered to catch my eye. "Before what, Clara?"
"Before I realized that even though you can't be killed, that doesn't mean that you can't suffer." I put my hand over the spot on his heart, the raised circle from the brand where his parents had him tortured. "They can still hurt you and it was selfish of me to tell you we had to stay." I sighed and let him see all the emotion in me and feel it, too, if he wanted to. "I did this to you. I," I grabbed his wrist, "put this on you, like some leash. You couldn't leave me if you wanted to. So to tell you that we have to stay here is pretty darn selfish when I've really given you no choice in the matter."
"You can't really think that," he said incredulously. "Is this because of what Finn said?"
"No, it's because it's the truth."
He sighed and watched me. "This is where the leading lady tries to save the guy from himself. He is willing to give up everything for her and she, in her misguided attempt to save him, tells him that she's at fault for all of their troubles and he has to beg her to realize that's not true. That the guy wants to be bound to her more than he's ever wanted anything his whole life. That she saved him that day, not condemned him, and he has to convince her that his love is real and that he is sound of mind.”
I bit my lip to stop the smile as he spouted my speech back at me. I'd said that almost verbatim to him not a few days ago when he said he should never have let me stay with him. That he should leave or…something. He was right. Technically, Eli could leave, couldn't he? And he stayed…he stayed through all of my drama with Tate. He stayed for me.
I pulled him to me and hugged his midsection, which was quickly becoming my favorite part of him. It was strong, but gentle. Always right there within reach, protecting me, guarding me, warm, loving, open arms and comfort. He pressed his lips to my forehead and hugged me to him. "No more talk of leaving or regrets. Do you hear me, Clara Belle Hopkins?"
"Mmhmm. I hear you," I sighed. "I just…"
Gah!! 'I love you' was on the tip of my tongue every second! It was bursting to come out. I bit my lip again, locking it inside.
"I just…too," he said and smiled. "So much, Clara."
That was as close as we'd ever been to saying it and it made my heart beat hard in my chest. He picked up on my happiness immediately and groaned against my hair as he hugged me tighter. I smiled my secret smile. I was the only one who could ever give him this again. I was the only one who could give him what he needed, or make him feel. He really was mine.
"We better go," I said, but he held me tighter.
"Just wait another minute," he said gruffly. "I just need to feel you for another minute."
So I let everything go. I wished in that moment that I knew what love felt like. Eli was feeling my love for him right now, and I wondered what it actually felt like, to not just be told, but to know, without a shadow of doubt because you could literally feel it.
After a few minutes he took a deep breath and leaned my head back. He kissed my lips once and then got our bags, taking them to the living room upstairs.
The bird took that moment as we were passing to go into a fit. He squawked and screeched. I covered my ears it was so loud and Eli dropped our bags to the floor. He looked at the bird and tapped the cage with his finger. "What is wrong with you?"
The bird answered, "A Goblin's tooth is all you need."
We looked at each other. What? What did that mean?
"A Goblin's tooth?" Eli asked it.
"A Goblin's tooth is all you need," Cavuto repeated.
Eli sighed and lifted his hands in a 'whatever' motio
n. He opened the bird's cage and held out a smaller one with a handle. The bird went right into it. Crap. We had to take the bird with us.
When Eli walked passed his car, I stopped. "We aren't taking your car?"
He shook his head. "We can't. We need to be inconspicuous and my car is definitely not that."
"So what is inconspicuous then?"
He smirked and jerked his head for me to follow him. We walked a few blocks before I got the drift. "A train? We're taking the train? To where?"
