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My hands are shaking and my stomach churns when I climb into my vehicle and start the ignition. I drive two miles away and park in a shop’s lot. It only takes a few minutes to do a one-way-flight search. It’s already after dark, but I’m hoping I can get A
No such luck. Damn it. I slam my palm on the steering wheel. I don’t want to chance another night with her, but I also feel ill at the thought of having her out of my sight. I book her for the earliest flight back to Atlanta in the morning, and then my gut twists as I make a more difficult call.
“Miss Patti?” I say when she answers. “It’s Kaidan Rowe—before you ask, everything is all right.” She lets out a huge breath. “Erm, have you spoken to A
“Yes, we just got off the phone. Are you okay, Kaidan?”
“Well . . .” I clear my throat and gather my wits. “I’ve just run into some issues and I won’t be able to drive A
“Issues? Are you in danger?” Her concern makes the back of my throat burn.
“No,” I lie. We’re always in danger. “Nothing like that. Let me give you her flight information.”
She takes it down, and when we hang up I get out, keeping a constant watch for demon whisperers. Remembering A
It’s a busy street with two nightclubs and a bar. I must be giving off pheromones like a champ because heads are swiveling my direction as we pass and red auras are popping up, even through the haze of drunke
I need to walk it off. Or run. Or pound something with my fists. Because for once in my life I want something—truly want something—that I ca
“Hey, you,” murmurs a girl in a black dress who’s getting out of a car with her friends. She touches my arm, but I keep walking, slipping right past her. I pinch the bridge of my nose.
Lust is the groveling cousin of love. It’s the house made of straw and sticks. It ca
I walk and walk until I’m craving A
I run up to the room and am blasted with A
I set the alarm for four thirty, but there’s no hope of sleep for me. This could be my last time with A
Four thirty is a right bitch. A
Like the good girl she is, A
“Where are we going?” she asks sleepily.
My heart picks up speed with nervousness.
“You’re going home today. Everything’s been arranged. Patti will be waiting for you when your flight arrives in Atlanta.”
“Why?” She sits forward a bit so she can look at me.
“Things have gotten too complicated.”
“Do you mean because of the sword or because of me?” she asks. She doesn’t sound happy, and I’m afraid this will get ugly. Why must I constantly explain the danger we’re in? Why is she unable to grasp these facts?
“It’s you,” I say. It’s everything about you. Everything I’m not. Everything I can’t have. Anger at the injustice of it all rises up to suffocate me.
“Is it so unbearable to be around someone who cares for you?” she asks.
Let’s not beat about the bush.
“I’d say you’re feeling a bit more than ‘care’ for me, A
“So what?!” she yells. “I haven’t tried to say it to you. I’m sorry I lost focus for a second and let you see it!”
I grit my teeth and take the airport exit. This entire situation is driving me mad. The sooner she’s away from me, the better. “Don’t be dramatic about this.”
“You don’t call this dramatic? Abandoning me at the airport before daylight?”
Abandoning? As if I’d leave her in an unsafe situation.
“I’ll see that you’re in safe hands before I leave.”
“Don’t bother!” She’s seething, and her angry passion stirs me. But then everything shifts as her chin trembles. “I’ve never even been on a plane before.”
I desperately hope she doesn’t cry. I prefer her anger to her tears.
“You’ll be fine,” I say.
“I want to stay with you.”
Don’t cling, A
“You can’t,” I say. “Your father was right. You should get home as soon as possible. I don’t trust myself with you.”
“Don’t trust yourself? Or don’t trust me?”
I’d thought about this all night. I’d imagined dozens of scenarios where we’d run away together. I imagined what it would’ve been like if I’d ignored that intuition and kept going when A
In our early deaths. Watching A
This is clearly not what A
Frustration ignites. I explode. “I don’t trust either of us! We can’t be together in any capacity ever again. It’s a damn-near miracle you’re still a virgin now. If that Sword of Righteousness is intended for you to use, then you should want to stay away from me, too, because I promise I could not resist if you told me to pull the car into that parking garage right now.” I inch closer, daring her. “Could you resist a drug if I repeatedly placed it on the tip of your tongue, A
Her eyes are wide and filled with realization. She now sees how hard last night was for me, but pity isn’t what I want. Nothing I say has the effect I need it to have. I glance up at the outdoor check-in desk, which blessedly has no line.
“So, what are you going to do now?” she asks. “Go back to doing your father’s work and pretend you never knew me?”
That’s exactly what I’d intended, though it sounds so pathetically depressing when she says it. I sigh and let my head hit the headrest. “What would you have me do?”
She pauses a long while. “You have to work.” A
“Do you know what my father said when I came home the night after he met you?” I say quietly. “He said God was a fool to put you in my path. And he was right.”
“No. Your father was wrong! And how do you know it wasn’t you who was put in my path? There’s a purpose for you in all of this, too.”