Indebted: The Premonition Series (12 page)

“Reed, what are you doing?” I ask.

“I’m checking on you,” he replies in a gentle tone, his sexy voice touching me like a caress.

“Ah. And how do you find me?” I ask. He was angry with me when he left earlier, but he doesn’t appear to be angry now. A slow smile is creeping to the corners of his mouth.

“This part of you, right here…” he says, leaning forward as his mouth nears my shoulder, “I find to be very lonely.” He brushes his lips over the curve of my shoulder. “That’s better,” he breathes, while I exhale deeply, inching closer to him as my knees become weak. Lifting his lips from my shoulder, he brings them to the sensitive curve of my neck, saying, “And here, this spot, looks neglected, too.”

“It does?” I ask, feeling unsteady. I slip my arms around his neck.

“Yes,” he replies as his cheek grazes my sensitive skin, causing a shiver to escape me.

“What about this part, right here?” I ask him, touching my lips with my fingertips.

He responds by pressing his mouth to mine gently, savoring the feeling of the initial contact. When he pulls back to look into my eyes, I see the smoldering heat within his. “What happens to bad people when they die?” I whisper, feeling his lips tracing a path downward.

“Why?” he breathes against my skin.

“Because, what I want to do to you right now is very, vey, bad…” I trail off as he brushes his fingers lightly over my wings.

“This is not bad,” he smiles at me, his green eyes deepening in the soft lighting of the shower. “This is right. You are mine and we are one.”

“Ohh…that’s good…” I say as my eyes close briefly, savoring the feeling of his hands. “That’s very, very, good…” I sigh.

His hands weave through mine as he presses me back to the wet, marble-tiled wall. “
My
angel…” I hear him say against my skin. Neither of us speak again for quite some time.

Reed holds my languid body to his, turning off the water and wrapping me in a huge towel before he carries me back into the bedroom. He finds the extra sheets I left there. Spreading them out, he quickly makes the bed while I watch him.

“So, you’re not mad at me anymore?” I ask, leaning my head against the high back of the chair.

“No, I’m not angry with you at this particular moment,” Reed smiles at me and my heart skips a beat. “The Undines have agreed to protect you,” he explains.

“Really?” I ask, because I’m shocked to find that they will help after my conversation with Safira. “Your negotiations were successful?’

“Yes, Liv, their leader, agrees with us. She gave them all the order to defend you,” he replies.

“Liv? Which one was that?” I ask.

“Light blue hair, violet eyes…” he says, describing Liv for me.

“Hmm…blue hair, really? I must’ve missed her in the crowd. I guess I was focused on the one clinging to you,” I reply, watching the towel that Reed has wrapped around his narrow hips slip a little lower.

He nods, seeming to read my mind, he moves over to the chair, picking me up again and kissing me. He carries me to the bed, following me down onto it. Snuggling me to his side, he combs his fingers hypnotically through my hair. My eyes feel heavy and I’m struggling to stay awake because I have so many questions to ask him. “Reed, we need to talk,” I say as he pulls the covers tighter to me.

“Shh, Evie, it’s the middle of the night. You have to rest,” Reed replies.

“I need to know if you’ve heard anything from Phaedrus yet,” I say. Reed’s smile fades. “What have you heard?” I ask, pushing up to a sitting position.

Reed exhales heavily, saying, “I’m not going to tell you anything now.”

“Do you know something?” I ask.

“Sleep,” he says cajolingly. He holds me in his arms, spooning me as we lay together in bed.

“I can’t sleep. I have information I have to tell you,” I reply in a calm voice.

“Elan told me about Safira coming in here,” he says with a frown in his tone. “I’m sorry. I’ll make sure she doesn’t get near you again.”

“She is the least of my worries,” I exhale. “I spoke to him… to this Ifrit…” Reed’s hand, which has been gently stoking my side, stills. “He called me Alya…it means—”

“Heaven,” Reed interrupts.

“Yeah,” I murmer as a shiver rushes through me.

“How did he contact you?” Reed asks in a low tone.

“He spoke to me in my dream. He wants me to come to him,” I admit.

Reed’s body becomes rigid against mine. “What did he say?” he asks.

As I tell Reed everything that the Ifrit had said to me, as well as my responses to him, he doesn’t interrupt. The more I explain, however, the tighter his arms around me become. When I describe the windmills and the little whitewashed house that was shown to me, I turn to look in Reed’s green eyes.

“I think the Ifrit was leading me beyond the little house,” I say, trying to remember the building, “to a little rustic church. The building is in three sections. The middle section is the tallest and two smaller sections flank it. Each section is made from vertically placed rough, tree trunks. A bronze-toned roof covers all three sections with the highest roofline in the center section and lower rooflines on each side. In each section, there is a tall spire with an oblong, bronze cap set upon it. Each cap holds a bronze cross above it. The tallest spire is in the center and it is flanked on either side by shorter versions of the same.”

Reed’s voice is gentle as he says, “That sounds like a fairly detailed description, given that it was in the distance, beyond the white house.”

“It seems familiar to me. Like déjà vu…like I’ve been there already,” I reply, meeting his eyes.

“In a premonition,” he says, not at all like a question.

“Yeah…I think so. I can’t remember it, though. I think it’s too…ugly,” I admit, trying to pull off a casual shrug. “So, have you heard from Phaedrus?” I ask.

I wait for Reed to answer me, but he remains silent.

“Reed,” I sigh, “I told you everything. Now it’s your turn.”

“No, it’s not. I’m prepared to protect you, even if that means protecting you from yourself,” Reed says firmly, meeting my eyes.

“What does that
even
mean?” I frown in exasperation.

“It means that you’re no longer involved in this mission. I’m not going to allow you to martyr yourself,” he replies firmly.

“Martyr myself? You’re being unreasonable. I can help Brownie and Russell,” I say in a pleading tone.

“At what expense, Evie? At the risk of your life?” he asks as his eyebrows draw together. “You’ve already agreed to go to the Ifrit, which is unacceptable,” he replies, finally losing some of his cool.

“We’re not even sure what this Irfit wants from me,” I say in what I hope is a reasonable tone.

“It is an Ifrit, Evie,” Reed says in a way that makes the hair on my arms rise. “He will not ask you what you are willing to give. He will take whatever he wants.”

“But—” I begin.

Reed interrupts me. “I’m not going to let you trade your life for theirs,” he says with finality.

“I will survive this,” I say with conviction I don’t really feel, “I have to protect Russell. He’s my family.”

“And you are my family,” Reed replies. “I will do everything I can to get him back for you. Trust me.”

“I can help,” I say, wringing my hands.

Reed groans. “Evie, you are not in this alone.”

I’m just about to tell him all the ways I can help find Russell when I hear the sound of crying coming from somewhere outside. It isn’t just one cry; it is like weeping from a crowd of women. “What’s that?” I ask Reed.

“I don’t know. Stay here. Don’t leave this room,” he orders, and then he moves supernaturally fast and is gone in a fraction of a second.

I get up quickly from bed and put on a pair of jeans and a top from my closet. Going to the door of my room, I look out into the courtyard to see every angel that we have here amassing. They are flying around the high walls that run the perimeter of the compound. I hear wailing coming from outside the walls, like a mass of people all crying and shouting at once. Turning to see Sorin and Elan standing on the porch outside my door, I ask, “What is that?”

Sorin looks grim when he says, “Humans.”

“What?” I ask, searching his face for an answer.

“It is thousands of humans. They are all throwing themselves at the gates, trying to get in.” Elan replies as we watch the gates rattle from being pressed from without.

“Why?” I ask in shock.

“They said they want their queen,” Sorin replies.

I close my eyes and ask, “Who is their queen?”

“You are their queen,” Elan answers me, watching me flinch even though I already knew the answer to my own question.

CHAPTER 8

The Stone Forest

As I inch closer to Elan on the porch that overlooks the courtyard outside my room, I listen to the crowds of people outside our compound. They are clawing the gates and walls demanding to get in to see me. “The Gancanagh have been busy.” Elan observes. “They have managed to enthrall many of the locals here. They must have been here for several days because their victims look like they have had a substantial amount of toxin administered to them. Some look like they haven’t eaten or slept in a while. They have orders to come and fetch you.”

“Show me,” I whisper, turning to Sorin because he seems to like me more than Elan does.

“We have orders to keep you in your room,” Sorin replies apologetically.

I frown, “Then fly me to the roof of my room. I have to see what’s going on outside,” I say with exasperation. Sorin considers this compromise for a second before taking me in his arms and flying me quickly to the pitched rooftop of the pagoda. Elan follows us up, unwilling to let us go alone. Hovering in the air, my view stretches for several miles outside of the compound. The roads and outlying areas, as far as I can see, are filled with people…or maybe a more accurate description for them would be enthralled junkies.

I feel myself paling. “There are so many of them,” I say, my heart breaking for all of Brennus’ victims. Even in the darkness of the night sky, their numbers look frightening, like a legion of zombies, throwing themselves at the walls of our sanctuary in despair. Their clothing is shredded and in disarray. I can’t understand what any of them is saying because they’re speaking a Chinese dialect, but I feel like I have to try to do something to help them. “I have to talk to them. Maybe I can make them go away.”

“No,” Sorin replies, “you can’t help them. Most of them will die. They will refuse to eat unless told to do so by the Gancanagh—they will perish. It is fortunate they have not been turned fully; they still retain their souls. None of the Gancanagh has shared their blood with them. They are collateral damage—weapons.”

I see the worn-out faces of the victims. Their cries are torturing me. Brennus had said that if I made him come for me, I wouldn’t like his methods of getting me back. He is building his empire of violence that I can feel in the collective sorrow of the crowd. “Are the Gancanagh out there?” I ask Sorin with calm that I don’t feel. I feel like cowering and pleading for them to hide me from Brennus, while there is another part of me that is burning to see him again.

“We haven’t seen them. This is their first wave—perhaps a distraction from what they are really planning. That is why you are not to leave your room. The humans are a great distraction for us. We are unwilling to harm them, even though we know there is little hope for them until they die,” Sorin says. “The Gancanagh have limited our options. His humans are drawing attention to our position, so we’ll need to leave our sanctuary or eliminate the humans.”

“Could you take them somewhere else?” I ask.

“Brennus will only make more,” Elan says.

“We must take you somewhere else, Evie,” Sorin adds. “Then we can go on the offensive. We have already called for more Powers. We have to take out their army.”

“Unless I surrender,” I say to myself. “Brennus is knocking at the door. Soon, he will be kicking it in.”

Elan and Sorin both growl at me before Sorin flies me to my room, setting me down gently. “You will stay here,” Sorin says in tone of authority, crossing his arms over his chest.

Elan looks equally determined to make me stay in my room. In seconds, Reed and Zephyr materialize beside Elan and Sorin, startling me. They’re dressed in black body armor that covers all of their skin. Hoods are attached to their collars so that they can be pulled over their faces, protecting them from the touch of the Gancanagh. Their wings are exposed in the back, but since their feathers aren’t susceptible to the toxic skin of the Gancanagh, it will not affect them if they’re touched.

“Reed, I have to talk to Brennus. Maybe I can reason with him. Why does he have to come now? I have to find Russell and Brownie. Can we slip out and leave for the Ukraine now? Has Phaedrus called?” I ask in a stream of words.

Reed frowns. “One thing at a time, Evie. Brennus has pushed himself to the top of the list,” Reed says with a grim twist of his lips. “You’re not speaking to Brennus. You’re staying here.”

“Where is Buns, we can’t leave her alone,” I say, panicking because I don’t know where my friend is at the moment.