Travis let out a snort but didn’t say anything else.
After ten minutes, Emma drove up to a three-level brick building. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she said, “It’s just upstairs.”
Pleased to know she also had safe houses at the ready, I followed Emma into the building and up two flights of stairs, Travis trudging behind us. On the stairs, a mother in a long red coat passed us. She held the miniature hand of a child bundled up in a pink and purple coat and snow pants so that the child waddled more than walked down the stairs. I realized what Emma had done.
After we exited the stairs to a hallway, I grabbed Emma’s arm to slow her down, though a small part of me knew I was using any excuse to touch her. I harshly whispered, “We should also not be in a place crawling with civilians in case we come under attack.”
“Don’t worry.” Effortlessly shaking off my grasp, she stopped in front of an apartment door with the number 301 on it and unlocked the door.
“Emma, have you taken us to –” I didn’t get a chance to finish the question before I was interrupted.
“Who’s the stud, roomie?”
A young woman, Emma’s age, was sitting on a charcoal couch, her long, pale leg perched on a dark-wood coffee table. While she struggled to pull on a knee-high boot, her predatory eyes raked me up and down. From her cropped black hair to her revealing purple skirt and low-cut top, everything about her was downright indecent.
The living room she sat in was connected to a small galley kitchen with a large cutout so you could see between rooms. Paintings decorated the beige walls. They were strange, merely globs of color with little form and nothing recognizable to me. Multiple jars of lit candles filled the apartment with the smell of baked goods.
Travis pushed past me to get inside. “Didn’t know you thought I was a stud, Krystan.”
“Didn’t mean you, dick-head,” Krystan said flatly, her disappointment evident with his entry.
Travis put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Didn’t know you were still so obviously desperate for attention. Thought maybe it was just a high school phase.”
Krystan gave him a smile that was anything but friendly. “Better to be in the spotlight than stick to the shadows like some spineless little wallflower. By the way, who did you take to prom again, babyface?”
Travis ground his teeth, “We’ve been out of high school for four years Krystan.” Then he added in earnest, “My mom was a teacher so she was a chaperone. She wasn’t my date.”
Krystan went back to pulling up her boot as if disinterested now. “Sure, because all the teenagers took a turn dancing with the Prom chaperones.”
Having had enough of this interlude, I cut in. “Emma,” I said as neutrally as possible through my clenched jaw. “Could I speak with you in private?”
“Oooh, can I come?” Krystan asked, then shimmied her shoulders and licked her teeth.
Travis leaned toward me and nudged me in the ribs with an elbow. “Told ya the pretty ones will mess with you.”
I couldn’t get my brows to unfurrow or wipe the scowl off my face. None of this was helping my focus or calm so I could create a portal that would take us to my Masters.
“Come on Calan, we can talk in my room,” Emma said. I followed her to the room straight back from the entrance. She held the door open for me, so I went in first. She shut the door behind us.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Emma’s bedroom was a concentrated wave of her intoxicating scent. It rolled over me, nearly sweeping me away. It was a mixture of vanilla and the inviting salt of her skin. It instantly fogged my mind and made my mouth water, so I switched from breathing through my nose to shallow breaths with my mouth.
The walls were painted a shade darker than lavender and the bedspread was a light heather gray. The bed swallowed up most of the space so there was barely room for both her and me to stand with any comfortable room between us. A slim, white oak desk was pushed up against the far wall. Photos of Emma with Krystan were scattered about in ornate frames. Piles of books with broken spines were on the floor, on the desk, and bursting out of the seven-foot bookshelf in the corner by the small window. Almost all had pictures on the front of muscular men holding women in some kind of embrace.
“How could you?” I found my incredulity once more.
Emma shrugged. “You weren’t going to let me come home and I told you I needed to come back here before we went AWOL.”
I didn’t bother asking was AWOL was. “You lied to me.” For a moment I was at a loss for words.
Seeing how upset I was, Emma stepped in and put a hand on my arm. Her face was now full of regret and sorrow. “Calan, I’m sorry. I just knew it was the only way –”
I brushed off her touch, stepping back. My voice was cold to my own ears. “No, it wasn’t the only way. I believed you. I believed you, Emma.”
She threw her hands up in surrender. “Calan, I get it. Lying is a big deal to you, I see that now. I’ll never do it again. But I’m having a hard time believing a pit stop is the worst thing to happen. For crying out loud, you act like no one has ever lied to you before me,” she said, resting her hands on her hips.
My lips tightened of their own accord and I kept my hands fast against my sides.
“Oh my god,” her mouth fell open. “This is the first time anyone has lied to you.”
I didn’t respond.
“No, that can’t be. Someone has surely lied to you. You’re something like twenty-two, right?”
“I am twenty-five-years old,” I said, not dignifying the rest with an answer. The way Emma was reacting made me feel out of place again. It was more evident than ever I’d been fostered in a gap between worlds.
“But surely you were at least lied to about Santa Claus, or the Easter bunny? Or someone told that you did a good job on something when you were really awful at it? It’s how people operate.”
“I wasn’t brought up observing such celebrations, and where I’m from, honesty is the most important construct and gift one can give. I built my faith from the bricks of truth my Masters gave me. Their word is my bond.”
Emma didn’t respond right away, seeming to absorb what I just said. She still didn’t understand the severity of her error, so I had to explain. “Emma, because of your lie, I am responsible for not only yours and Travis’s lives, but the lives of everyone in this building. I am at a complete disadvantage. The soul eater becoming corporeal is something I’ve never encountered before. I can’t ensure the safety of those around us.”
Emma’s face cleared of expression. “You’re right. It was selfish. I wish I could say it wasn’t, but I wanted a change of clothes… and this.” She reached to her desk and grabbed a pocket-sized black, leather-bound journal. She opened the book and out slid a silver necklace. The thin chain coiled messily into her palm. “The necklace was my mother’s. My dad gave it to me after she died.” She slipped the necklace over her head and I caught sight of the charm on the end of it. “Five years old, and I was petrified to wear it. Even as I got older, I was always afraid I might break the chain or lose it, like I do with all the rest of my jewelry.” Emma’s cheeks flushed, and she avoided my gaze. It took a moment to recognize she was embarrassed.
“How did she die?”
From the way her eyes fluttered up in surprise, I realized I had asked the question too brusquely. I’d observed before that when people spoke of the dead, they often spoke quieter, softer, and more slowly. I wasn’t sure why they did so, but I knew I did it wrong.
She toyed with the pendant and studied the design as if she hadn’t laid her eyes on it in a long time and was re-familiarizing herself with its curves using the pad of her thumbs. “Car crash.”
I didn’t know what to say but I stepped in so close that I couldn’t help but inhale her scent. I suppressed the shudder that swept through my body. Emma shivered too but it wasn’t cold in here. With my index finger, I lifted the ornate pendant off her breastbone and my fingers warmed at its
touch. It was in excellent condition, but it felt old. The silver circle was divided in half horizontally by metal bar, a crystalline white gem stone sat just above where it was divided. The bottom of the charm had four more little bars separated the lower portion of the charm into five segments.
“It carries power,” I said. Though I didn’t recognize the design, there was something familiar about it and the energy humming from it.
“Oh,” she said softly, but I wasn’t sure she heard me. Her eyes moved back and forth between mine and I felt the warmth of her breath through my shirt. I suddenly wanted to slide those glasses off her face. Emma’s pink tongue slid out and licked her lips, leaving a sheen across them.
My heart tightened, and my blood rushed downward. It was like my body was preparing itself for a fight, but nothing like that at the same time. Until a week ago, I’d never known these sensations.
Emma reached up and pulled her glasses off. Blinking up at me, Emma’s hand drifted up to the side of my face but hovered just above my jaw. Lightning bolts of sizzling sensation shot down my body into a coil of electricity at the base of my stomach. She gave a small gasp then her fingers clenched into her palm, and she dropped her hand. I almost groaned in frustration but kept still.
“I’m sorry I lied to you, Calan.”
I gulped a deep breath of air and broke my gaze with her. What was I doing? I was a Knight of the Light and was simply not worthy to touch such an angel, much less think of doing so. I needed to remember my mission. Protect those from the darkness and the Propheros above all else.
This time she did grab my chin and brought my gaze to her, though she was almost six inches shorter. “I mean it. I’m so sorry to break your trust when obviously it’s something you value so much. Especially when you are trying to protect us. I promise to never lie to you again.”
A lump formed in my throat where there hadn’t been one a moment ago. “Thank you.” The words came out hoarse. Her eyes were drawing me in like the wave of an ocean until my body wanted to drown in her. Gravity begged me to fall upon her with all the hunger I possessed.
Stepping back, I said, “You might as well change into more appropriate clothes since we are here.”
It was hard not to notice the rapid rise and fall of Emma’s chest as she tried to blink away the glassiness in her eyes. “Okay.”
“I’ll be just outside,” and gave a slight bow of my head, dismissing myself. Getting past her back to the main room required body contact to squeeze by her as there was so little room. In a moment, her entire body was pressed against mine and my manhood, which was already stiff, my head was dizzy from the blood rushing away from it. Emma’s hand instinctually fell to my chest. Her face was so close, I saw flecks of gold around her irises.
“Calan, I meant to thank you.”
I could only mutely nod. Emma’s head lifted up and as if in slow motion she pressed her lips against mine. My thoughts scattered while reality came into sharp focus. Though I’d never kissed anyone before, I matched the pressure and suction she gave.
It was one thing to speculate what kissing was like, but I hadn’t considered what it would be like to swallow her breath, to discover the curvature of her lips, to know flesh on flesh. The already hot hum of my blood exploded into a fury of desire I’d never known. It demanded I wrap her in my arms, grasp and touch every part of her, and taste every corner of her delicious, sensual mouth.
I didn’t, of course. I was more disciplined than to give into base urges. For the first time in my existence, I resented my position, my duties, my mission.
My fingers firmly wrapped around Emma’s shoulders to gently pull her away from me. When we broke apart, she was panting, her lips already fuller, and wetter than they’d been a moment ago.
“Emma, I can’t.” Though I was certain I was only telling myself, trying to command myself into listening to reason. “I am a Chevalier. I am a servant, not a man.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand. Of course you’re a man.” Then she looked me up and down hotly. My skin broke out in goosebumps wherever her eyes landed. “More man than I’ve ever seen before, that’s for damn sure.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not. My only purpose is to protect life from the dark. I can’t….” I didn’t know how to finish.
Before she could say or do anything else, I moved past her and out of her bedroom, shutting the door behind me, feeling both frustrated and relieved to have a physical barrier between us so I could focus. I ran my hands up over my flushed face and smoothed back the hair dipping over my forehead.
I have no soul.
That’s what I should have told her. Emma would understand why I couldn’t continue to kiss and touch her, if I’d explained. I was a servant, repenting for the soul I lost. In my last life, I had done something so heinous and unforgivable that the gods took my soul. Until I atoned through service to the Light and earned it back, I would be forever damned. But another part of me didn’t want to tell her. I wanted to pretend I was ordinary and that I could bring my fantasy to life. I was ashamed to tell her I was a soulless being and why.
“Now that’s what I call a quickie.”
I looked up, startled. I’d forgotten my surroundings, another blunder. Travis had thrown his legs up on the coffee table and had his head back, letting out a slight snore from where he dozed on the couch. Krystan, however, was in the kitchen, pouring a glass of something clear that smelled sharply like something I used to disinfect wounds with. She looked at me pointedly through the cutout of the wall.
“Might want to wipe off your face there, sport,” she said again in that deadpan manner. “That shade of rose really isn’t your color.”
It took a moment for my mind to process what she was saying, then I brought my hand up to wipe away at my lips. Sure enough, a rose color now tinted my fist. I looked back up at Krystan, embarrassed. She threw me a wink.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“So you aren’t coming with me to Denver to go clubbing tonight?” Krystan asked Emma. Her arms were crossed and her toe rhythmically tapped the floor. Her boots were ridiculously tall, both up her leg and at the heel. I wasn’t sure it was safe for her to be wearing such things, but she strutted around the apartment as if they were an extension to her already long legs.
“Krystan,” Emma said, trying to shove more clothes in a messenger bag. “We have some baddies coming after us, and I’ll be gone for a while, but I’ll be alright.”
Emma didn’t look at me. Since she reappeared from her bedroom, she kept her gaze diverted, focused on her small pack for the trip. She now wore thick leggings and an oversized cream turtleneck sweater. Her hair was pulled back in a short pony-tail and her glasses were gone.
Krystan looked first at the still-snoring Travis then at me with an arched eyebrow. “With these two yahoos?” She uncrossed her arms. “And what do you mean baddies? You make it sound like the Russian mafia is coming after you.”
“Something like that,” Emma said under her breath. Having clipped her pack shut, she threw the strap over her shoulder so the satchel lay at her hip. “Just do me a favor and if anyone asks, tell them I had to leave town for a family emergency.”
Krystan’s long arms began to flail in agitation. “That’s great, and what if they ask me –”
Emma had walked over to Krystan and put her hands on Krystan’s shoulders, though her roommate was considerably taller. “I have absolutely no doubt in your ability to fabricate stories, Krystan.”
A smile quirked the side of Krystan’s mouth but refused to fully express. “I suppose that’s not wrong. Though I still think you should drop these crazy dudes, come with me to Denver for the weekend and crash at my cousin’s till whatever sitch has blown over.”
“Another time,” Emma said, and gave Krystan a hug. Then she turned to me. “Okay, I’m ready.” She looked over my shoulder rather than right at me as she held out the coat I’d lent her.
A spike of pain needled at my heart. I took back m
y coat and slowly put it back on, realizing it now smelled like her. I tried to resist, but I couldn’t help but inhale deeply. Her scent was both sweet and deeply intoxicating, like a ripened peach.
“Travis,” I addressed the still-sleeping man, trying to forget about forbidden fruits. “We need to go.”
He didn’t stir, just kept on his sawing snore.
Krystan smiled too brightly. “Allow me.” She walked over next to Travis and used her booted foot to kick the coffee table out and away from his feet as she screamed, “Fire, fire, fire.”
Travis’s legs dropped to the floor hard and his body jackknifed up as he screamed. When he realized there was no fire, Krystan leaned over and pinched his cheek. “Hey haircut, time to get out of my apartment.”
I did not understand why she referred to Travis as haircut, when he looked rather in desperate need of one.
He jerked away from her pinch with a deadly scowl. “Thank god for that. I’m scared I’ll catch one of your skanky diseases.”
She tsked then said, “You wish you were that lucky.”
“It’s time to go,” I said, my voice coming out rough. I wasn’t sure if it was because their friction made me uncomfortable or because I was too aware of Emma keeping her distance from me.
When exited to the parking lot, Travis was still insisting that since Emma got to retrieve things from her home, he should get to do the same.
“Seriously, she gets what she wants because she lies to you and has a pretty face? How is that fair?”
He couldn’t see me send my eyes toward the heavens in silent prayer. Long had I been told of the great Propheros that would save the world, but never in my dreams did I imagine the Propheros to be so whiny.
“We will acquire new clothes for you on the way,” I said. “For now, we will go to one of my safe houses. It is a farther distance than I would like but security is imperative. I have objects there to help rejuvenate my magic, so we can travel to the Temple.” I didn’t bring up the fact I’d never had to ‘recharge’ my magic before. However, in a truly safe place I could delve into my deep meditations without fear of Travis or Emma being under attack. It was the best way I knew to train my will.
Prophecy Girl (The Five Orders Book 1) Page 4
