by Apryl Baker
“I’m fine, Jake,” I tell him. “Eli may act like a Neanderthal, but he won’t hurt me.”
“If I were you, Jake, I’d back away slowly,” Dan says from behind me.
Jake glances over my shoulder, but he doesn’t look convinced. “Dan, this guy…”
“Won’t hurt her,” Dan interrupts. “Trust me, that’s the last thing my little brother will do. He knows I’ll beat the snot out of him if he does.”
“Your brother?” Jake gapes at us all.
“Long story,” I say, feeling much braver with Dan at my back.
Jake nods, still confused. “Can I call you sometime?”
Eli lunges but Dan catches him—barely. Jake’s eyebrows shoot up.
“Uh, Jake, I think you’d better go back to your friends.” It’s my turn to sound nervous. I hear Dan chuckle, which only serves to stroke my own anger. I glare at him and he only grins. Dan is enjoying this way too much.
“Sure, sure.” Jake nods. “Call me, Matts!”
Eli growls. It’s low and rumbling and it’s all Dan can do to hold him. I stare after Jake. The boy really has a death wish.
As soon as Jake is safely back with his friends, Dan lets Eli go.
Caleb jogs over. “What’s going on?” he demands.
“Later,” Eli barks, and before I realize what he’s up to, I’m lifted and thrown over his shoulder. “Hilda and I have some things to work out.”
“Put me DOWN!” I screech. People are laughing and my face burns in embarrassment. I pinch any reachable skin to get his attention. He only grunts and tightens his hold around my legs so I can’t kick him. I revel in the heat seeping into me for all of two seconds before I try again. “I mean it, Elijah Malone, put me down NOW!”
“Pipe down, Hilda,” he says with a laugh, but doesn’t break stride. “I’ll put you down when I’m good and ready.”
He moves toward the trees, his long strides eating up the distance. I grab his waist to keep from face-slamming his backside. I have no desire for a broken nose. I’m not sure how long it takes us to reach wherever it is he decides is a safe enough distance from everyone before he stops.
I’m sliding down his body and then pressed into a tree. This is exactly the position Addison was in when she died, I realize. Before I can struggle, Eli leans his forehead against mine. All I see are furious aqua eyes staring into mine. Behind the fury, though, is pain. Before I can say anything, his lips crush mine. Fire burns through me and I groan; my hands slip up to wrap around his neck, my fingers burrow into his hair. Dear God, but the boy can kiss.
He pulls his lips away and buries his face in the crook of my neck. I can hear his labored breathing, but then mine matches it. We stand there like that for a long time before he finally seems to get the strength to move. He simply sits down and pulls me along with him. I’m sitting with my back against the tree and he moves so that his legs are on either side of mine. Then he glares.
My temper flares right back up at the look. He has no right getting pissed. He’s not the one who just got carted off like he was a sack of potatoes!
“Not a word, Hilda,” he says again, in a controlled rumble. “You’re going to sit there and listen. Do you understand?”
“I don’t have to…”
He pushes forward, making me pull my knees up to my chest. He braces his hands on either side of me. His face is inches from mine in this position and I can’t move. I’m caged in by one very angry boy. I swallow. “Do. You. Understand?” he hisses.
I nod. He’s beyond pissed at me.
“Good. We are together, Hilda, you got it?”
“We never...you never…” I stutter.
“I’m saying it now,” he tells me, his eyes intense. “You’re mine, Hilda. No one else’s. Understand?”
All I can do is stare, frozen.
“I know your first instinct is to run,” he continues softly. “I get that, but Hilda, if you run from me, I will always find you. You can’t hide from me.”
“Eli,” I gasp. “You do know how stalkerish that sounded, right?”
He only stares, his eyes fierce. “I will find you when you run from me.”
“You said that before,” I say, looking down. “What did you mean by it? Is it something to do with the…the thing?”
He sighs. “You can’t even say it, can you?”
I fidget. Just the idea of being linked to Eli in a way that binds me even tighter to him terrifies me. “Will you explain it to me?”
“Not until you tell me you understand the simple fact you’re mine, that you belong to me.”
I frown. “Eli, I can’t tell you anything until I feel like you’re not hiding things from me.”
“I knew you’d run and I was right. You heard Caleb and me talking and you ran faster than Ava does when she hears the words Vera Wang and clearance sale.”
“Vera who?”
He gives me an incredulous look. “You don’t know who Vera Wang is?”
“Do I look like I know who that is?” I ask. “I shop at Walmart, Eli.”
A slow smile spreads across his face. “How do you feel about shopping in general?”
“Detest it, why?”
“Thank God.” He grins. “I dreaded more mall days spent dying of boredom while you shopped for clothes and other junk.”
“Don’t avoid the question.” I lean back against the tree. “All this dominant male crap only makes me want to run faster. If you don’t explain soon, I will get up and I will leave.”
He presses closer and my stomach does a funny flip. That old familiar nauseous feeling returns. I want him to kiss me again. He sees the way my eyes flirt with his lips and it only makes him smirk. It makes me want to hit him.
“I am a dominant male and you’re going to have to get used to it, Mattie Hathaway, because you do belong to me even if you refuse to admit it.”
“Too bad for you there’s not a submissive bone in my body,” I snark.
“That’s why I like you so much, Hilda.” He grins. “You aren’t afraid to stand up to me.”
“I’m still waiting on the explanation,” I remind him. Too much more of this and we’ll end up kissing instead of talking. And we need to talk.
“I’m still waiting on you to admit you’re mine.”
“Then we’ll be here all day. I’m not budging.”
His nostrils flare with impatience. I know my admitting this to him is important. I can see it in his eyes, but I refuse to budge. If he wants me to go against every ingrained instinct I have, he has to give me a reason to trust him. I can’t trust someone who keeps secrets from me. No matter how much I might want to.
“Swear to me you aren’t going to make me chase you across five states.”
“It can’t be that bad…”
“You’re a runner, Mattie. Swear it.”
It’s that bad? “Really, Eli—”
“Dan’ll be pissed if he has to issue an all-points bulletin for you,” Eli interrupts me.
“Come on…”
“Promise, Mattie.”
“Fine, I promise.”
“Are you cold?” he asks suddenly. “You’re shivering.” Then he hauls me into his lap, and presses my face against his skin. Oh. My. God. Does he smell good! It’s so earthy, but soooo Eli. I could breathe him in all day. “Better?” he whispers against my ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin. I shudder again, but this time with pleasure, not from cold.
“Yes,” I whisper, my voice breathy. And I am. I can already feel the warmth invading my body, chasing away the mind-numbing cold. “Now talk.”
He shifts so his back is against the tree before settling me. I wrap my arms around him and snuggle, content for a minute to just relax in his arms, safe and warm.
“You heard some of it earlier,” he begins. “It’s not a bad thing, not really. Mom is excited about it. There hasn’t been anything like this in our family for a very long time. Did Doc explain to you about our family? Where we came from?”
I nod. His family were descendants of the Knights Templar, blessed by the Angels to see evil so they could, in turn, destroy it. The church had created the Knights and then tried to destroy them when the order gained more power than the church itself.
You already know how I felt about all that, too,” he continues. “I didn’t believe any of it. I’ve never even seen anything that looks like an Angel.”
“But you do now?” I ask. Eli had been a devout non-believer. He thought maybe their genes had mutated, an explanation based in science. He believed only in what he could see and touch—very much like Dan in that respect. They both need proof before they can believe in something.
“I know you’ve always believed in God and everything that goes with it, Mattie, but it’s just taking me a little longer to wrap my head around all this. How could I explain something to you that was so hard for me to admit was true?”
I want to soothe him, but I don’t want to distract him, either. I won’t be any closer to the answers I need.
“Mom’s not a Hunter, but she’s taken it upon herself to chronicle our past, to make sure who we were and who we are isn’t forgotten by future generations. She was the one who figured it out. Our lore is steeped in yours.”
“Mine?”
“Reapers have been a part of our history for as long as there have been Knights or Hunters, as we call ourselves. I think we should go with Knights. Sounds way cooler.”
“Wait…your books talk about Reapers?” My mind starts to twist around that simple fact. This might be the way for me to figure everything out without having to trust my father.
“Yeah, it’s another reason Mom wants you to visit, just because you need to learn more about your heritage. She might be able to help you.”
“Tell her I’d like that,” I murmur, my lips inadvertently brushing his bare skin.
He lets out a shaky laugh. “You have to stop that, Hilda, if you want me to finish telling you all this.”
“Sorry.” I try to sit up and he pushes me back down.
“Just be more careful,” he says gruffly. “Anyway, living Reapers have always been guardians to the lost souls on this earth, making sure they cross over safely. They’re rare, though, so you won’t find a lot of references on them. My family only has books about them because throughout history, it has been my family’s duty to protect them. Mom called those in my family with that duty a Guardian Angel.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” I wiggle free enough to look into his eyes. He’s dead serious.
“Nope, Mattie, I’m not kidding,” he says. “Everyone in my family who met you has this insane urge to protect you, starting with Dan and ending with me. It’s hardwired into our DNA to protect living Reapers. Think about how Caleb and I reacted the first time we met Dan. We’d heard you talking in your sleep about how he’d hurt you and we wouldn’t let him near you. Even we questioned how bizarre it was that we had to keep you from any kind of pain.”
“You never did tell me what I said.” I really want to know.
“It doesn’t really matter.” Eli shakes his head. “You could have just said ‘he hurt me’ and that would have been enough for our instincts to kick in.”
“So, all of you share this…this thing with me?”
He sighs and I feel it go through his whole body. “No. They just want to protect you, but they aren’t your Guardian Angel. Very few living Reapers get one of those. Records show only two in the last four hundred years. Reapers who get assigned a Guardian Angel are ones meant for something very important. It’s the Guardian’s job to make sure they stay alive long enough to accomplish whatever it is they’re supposed to do.”
“And you’re mine?” I whisper, every muscle in my body tensing. Eli’s arms tighten around me in response.
“Don’t freak out,” he soothes. “You promised me no running.”
“I lied,” I reply. “It’s what I do best.”
“I know,” he says softly. “Here’s the thing, Mattie, it’s not that big of a deal. There’s just a few extra perks to the whole protection thing is all.”
“Like what?”
“Like I always know where you are,” he says. “I just think about you and the bond leads me to you. It’s that simple. You could fly around the world, and I’d find you. I know if you’re in trouble. That’s how I got to your house so fast the other day. I sensed something was wrong and drove like crazy. Thank God I did or you’d be dead now.” He shudders and so do I.
“When did the…the thing start?” I ask him. “You said it wasn’t when we first met?”
“The first time I felt it was when you disappeared in the library in New Orleans. Everyone else searched the house, but I ran outside. I felt you. Dan was right behind me. Mom thinks he may have a similar bond with you—not as strong as mine, but there’s definitely something there. She’s started researching it.”
“Dan has always made me feel safe,” I say. “I trust him.”
“And it could be that simple.” Eli sighs. “You might have forged a bond with him for those precise reasons. It’s almost as rare as that of a Guardian Angel. The Reaper usually instigates the bond, but in those cases, it’s been a direct bloodline connection. You and Dan aren’t related, so Mom’s in full research mode. She loves a good mystery.”
“So how’s it different between you and Dan?” I ask.
“Dan will get a general idea of where you are, but can’t go straight to you. He can also get a flash of how you feel, but not all the time. If you’re in danger, the bond won’t let me ignore it. I have to find you or it causes me physical pain. Dan feels a little uneasy, but that’s about it. He doesn’t have the driving force to save you that I do.”
“Wait, you know how I’m feeling?” I ask, alarmed. He knows how he makes me feel? My face flames.
He chuckles. “Not the way you’re imagining, Hilda. I have a general idea if you’re happy, sad, in danger. That sort of thing. I can’t tell if you’re having hot fantasies about me or not.”
A wave of relief washes through me. Maybe some of my secrets are safe.
“So you see, it’s not as bad you thought now, is it?”
“I don’t know.” I lean back. “Does this thing make me feel the way I do about you?”
“How do you feel about me, Hilda?” he asks curiously.
“Aggravated enough to wring your neck over that blasted nickname.” His only response is to smile wider. “I ran because you scare me, Eli,” I confess. “You scare me even more than Dan did.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t get close to people or let them in because it’ll hurt when they leave. Everyone always leaves me—or did. I’ve spent my entire life very closed off and couldn’t recognize the love I had standing in front of me. I don’t know how to love or…to be loved.”
“I know all that, Hilda.” Eli pulls me closer. “Dan and I had a long conversation about you last night. He explained all your hang-ups and then threatened to beat me bloody if I ever hurt you.”
“I don’t know if I can explain to you how I feel,” I say after a minute. “I can’t even explain it to myself.”
“Well, let me explain it for you. I’m not going to say we’re in love. We haven’t known each other long enough for that. I think we have a lot of very deep feelings, made even stronger by the bond between us. I think if we give it half a chance, it will develop into something really beautiful. You have to give it a chance, though, Mattie. You can’t run from the emotions between us no matter how much you’re hardwired to do that because of your past. You have to make a stand and fight for what’s looking you in the face.”
“I might mess it up,” I whisper.
He laughs. “Sweetheart, I have a temper, do stupid stuff on a regular basis, and say all the wrong things. Trust me, there’s going to be more than enough messing up on both our parts to be able to fill the pages of a hundred romance novels. We just have to remember to forgive each other. So what do you
say? Are you willing to try? To see where this can go?”
I look up into those eyes of his and nearly swallow my tongue. They are full of warmth, vulnerability, and are beseeching me to try. How can I say no when he’s staring at me like that?
“I’ll try, Elijah Malone.”
That’s all that needed to be said.
Chapter Nineteen
By the time we emerge from the woods, the others are all waiting by the boat. I can feel everyone’s stares as we walk over to Dan. Snickers follow us and I want to turn and glare, but Eli squeezes my hand. He doesn’t care about it, so why should I? It’s not like I’m going to see these people again, anyway. I don’t even live in Mooresville.
“Everything okay now?” Dan asks, eyes on me. Before, he’d have given Eli a death-glare for holding my hand. Since our heart-to-heart, though, things have gone back to the way they were before I got my feelings mixed up and confused us both. Dan and I are friends. Period. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s nice to have my friend back, no strings attached. I’m even flirting with the idea of forgiving Meg because I know how important it is to Officer Dan and he’s that important to me.
“Not sure yet,” Eli says, surprising me. His face shows a mixture of hope and wariness. “If you haven’t issued an all-points bulletin for her by tomorrow, then I’ll be more confident of where we are.”
Dan laughs outright. “I was thinking the same thing.”
I glower at them both and try to disentangle myself from Eli. He only grins at me and pulls me closer. “You’re still shivering, Hilda. Get warm before you flounce off in a huff.”
“I do not flounce!” I seethe.
“Okay, so Caleb explained the whole Guardian Angel bond to me,” Dan says, still laughing, “but why is she only warm when you’re around? I don’t get that.”
Ohhhh, I’d forgotten to ask that.
“Yeah, why is that?” I demand.
“Well, I’m your Guardian Angel, Hilda,” Eli winks. “That means whatever you need from me, I’ll give, even unconsciously. What you need most is heat, so my body automatically generates enough heat to warm the cold from your bones.”
