Read Indebted: The Premonition Series Online
Authors: Amy Bartol
“I was thanking God for giving you back to me,” he replies, tightening his grip on me.
Laying my cheek against Reed’s heart, I decide that being near him is an assault on my senses. His voice is like hearing the first incredible notes of my favorite song; the way it excites my mind while my body yearns to move closer to the source of its soft timbre. The solid muscle of his chest beneath my fingers has my face flushing with heat. “Breathe,” Reed whispers near my ear, his warm breath sending shivers through my body as he does things to me with one word that no one else can do.
Inhaling shallowly, I raise my head from his chest and see desire in his eyes. His cheek tilts softly towards mine, brushing the plane of my face with the sensual scruff of his male skin. I exhale at the caress while my fingers curl involuntarily against his chest, wanting to hold onto him as tight as I can. My cheek moves against his again until I turn my lips slowly to his skin. Kissing him softly, I close my eyes. Tentatively, Reed turns his face to cover my lips with his own as if afraid that I’m not real. His arms pull me closer to him, like he would keep me here even if I object. But there is no chance that I will object.
I slip my hands up to wrap around the back of his neck and press my body closer to his while deepening our kiss. Reed groans softly. In an instant, my wings unfold, arching out boldly around me with a loud
snap
.
“Evie,” Reed groans my name, kissing me feverishly while his lips turn up in the corners, “that’s…” he trails off, not completing the thought as his hand reaches back to touch my wing.
“What?” I breathe against his mouth, feeling wildness inside of me growing with each caress from Reed.
“So incredibly hot,” he breathes, stroking my wing gently.
“I missed you…” I whisper against his ear. His arms tighten around me painfully. “Ah…” I breathe, and he eases up immediately. Reed reaches for the seat next to us and tears it from the bolts with his bare hand.
“I burned for you,” he says in a soft tone, nuzzling my neck.
The train begins to slow down when we enter the next underground station. I continue to kiss Reed until I hear the doors of our car being pried open and a soft, musical voice say, “Uh, sweetie, this is your stop, but we can meet you at the next one if this is a bad time.”
“Is she okay?” Buns directs her question to Reed as he stands up with me in his arms and walks to the doors of the subway car. We exit onto an underground platform where Brownie and Buns stand together looking concerned. “Sweetie, are you hurt?” Buns asks me. She rests her hand gently on my arm, her eyes clouding when I nod my head to her question.
“She has been shot, among other things,” Reed says in a low tone, holding me closer to his body.
“She’s not ‘coma girl!’” Buns says, looking surprised and confused.
“No, she was released from the contract,” Reed says, rubbing my wing soothingly.
When my eyes move to Brownie next to Buns, I see her eyes filling up with tears, too. “Thank you, Evie,” Brownie says with a tight voice, referring to the deal I made with Brennus to save her from Valentine.
I nod again, not being able to speak about any of that right now. Brownie moves to me, hugging me while I remain in Reed’s arms. She smells incredible, like cocoa butter, and both the girls have exotic, hothouse flowers tucked behind their ears. In fact, they are not dressed for the London Underground Transit system in early November. They are hardly dressed at all. Buns is wearing a bold, flower-print, string bikini top with matching sarong skirt and Brownie has on a soft-yellow bikini top with matching sarong skirt and sandals.
“Here,” Buns says, touching Reed’s arm lightly to move him forward, “we need to leave now. They should have all their surveillance cameras running again soon and we don’t want to freak out the humans.”
Brownie pulls back from me, wiping her hand against her tears and asking, “Did you have any trouble with the portal?”
“The London Tube, Brownie?” Reed asks skeptically, looking around the platform of the subway station, assessing their choice of destinations critically. “What to you denotes ‘safety’ here?”
“No Fallen?” Brownie asks, like it has to be a trick question. “Buns and I thought it was brilliant because no angels seem to use it. It’s not very ‘playa’ squeezing into a train with humans when we can fly faster than the trains. Plus, you don’t know how hard it was to shake the Dominion Powers following us,” Brownie continues. “We had to go lingerie shopping with some other Reaper friends to distract them. Our friends modeled the new holiday line by the storefront window while we slipped out the back.”
“And that worked?” Reed asks, like he is having a hard time believing it.
“Let’s just say that some of those Powers like it more naughty than nice,” Brownie replies.
Buns chimes in, “And, we had to create a diversion near the turnstiles above the stop where you came through so there wouldn’t be anyone on the platform when you arrived.”
“What did you do?” Reed asks with curiosity in his tone.
“Well, it was kind of like belly dancing, wouldn’t you say, Brownie?” Buns asks, looking for help from Brownie.
“More or less,” Brownie agrees with a shrug.
“Our Reaper friends are still working this terminal’s entrances, but we can’t hang here all night,” Buns continues. Buns ushers Reed forward and we move to the end of the platform. She steps ahead of us, opening the door to the woman’s bathroom and holding it for us to enter.
Confused, I wrinkle my brow. I want to get out of here and get to somewhere warm, preferably with a bed where I can crash for as long as it takes not to feel terrible. As I glance at the florescent-lighted ceiling and rows of stall doors, I say, “I’m good, Buns, we don’t have to stop here for me.” I indicate the stalls with a weak flick of my wrist.
Buns and Brownie both grin. “Sweetie, we hadn’t even thought about that. This will take us to Zee’s island,” Buns smiles, pulling out an onyx compact inlaid with mother-of-pearl so that it looks like the night sky. My stomach does a flip inside of me as I pale, remembering how it felt to go through the last portal to get here. I shift in Reed’s arms as I look around for a way out of this.
My eyebrows draw together in a concerned expression. “Uhh, that’s okay, Buns,” I say as my mouth goes dry. “I can probably walk now. We can catch a cab—or they have those red, double-decker buses here, right? I’ve never been to London. It must be pretty in the winter—magical.”
“London is too dangerous right now, love,” Reed says near my ear. “Everyone will be looking for you. We just needed a stop before heading to the island to make sure we are not followed.”
Everyone is looking for me, and if Brennus escaped, he’ll be the most determined to find me. If he survived
, my mind whispers and the air suddenly becomes very thin. The Fallen could’ve gotten him after I left. I feel cold inside, thinking of the Fallen torturing a member of my family…a member of my…Confusion grips me, making me feel tired, sad, and drained. I drop my head against Reed’s chest and I can’t seem to sort it all out. A part of me is still lost in their Faerie world—still fighting for air.
How do I rescue that part of me that they still own?
I wonder.
“Sweetie?” Buns says with concern.
Reed turns my chin so that he can look into my eyes. “I’m here, Evie,” Reed says, using his sexy voice. “The current is shifting—can you feel it? It’s bringing you back to me. Hold on to the thread, love. Don’t let go,” he says with sultry tone that makes me want to do anything for him.
I nod, gazing at his perfect face as Buns opens the portal.
I distort and twist into forms that no one should ever have to take as I rocket through the portal. It spews me out on the other side, feeling like I have been half digested by an enormous earthworm.
Daylight hits me like an anvil, shining so brightly on my face that I’m almost grateful for the need to turn over and vomit again. The softest, whitest sand cushions my hands and knees, and with the warm, fragrant breeze blowing, it helps to ebb my nausea.
“You get used to it, sweetie,” Buns says while Reed rubs my back as I heave.
“No, thanks,” I mutter when I can speak. “Let’s not do that again.”
I open my eyes, getting my first glimpse of Zephyr’s island. Off in the distance on a hill, there is a sweeping plantation estate, spanning a large area of the plateau. It faces the beach, overlooking the bluest water I have ever seen. Beautiful, teak bungalows built off the ground on stilts with thatched roofs are scattered along the beach, nestling among the lush palm trees. Reed scoops me up off the sand and moves supernaturally fast towards the nearest bungalow, which has a little veranda with teak furniture.
Reed traverses the wooden veranda and opens the shuttered, folding doors, so that the breeze from off the ocean sweeps in with us. He turns immediately to the left. We enter a bedroom containing a large bed covered in snowy white linens and fat pillows beneath whimsical, mosquito netting. Reed places me in the bed before moving to close the shutters on the windows, dimming the room. As I look up at the ceiling, a lazy, teak fan turns tranquilly amid the pitched roofline.
Buns enters the room with a pitcher of ice water and some soft rolls on a primitive wooden tray. She sets it on the bedside table, pouring some water into a delicate glass and holding it out to me. “Drink this. You look like you’re getting dehydrated,” she says in a soothing voice, sitting on the side of the bed and waiting for me as I push myself up on the pillows. “Do you think you can hold down some aspirin?” Buns asks, and I shake my head slowly, trying to swallow the water.
“Where are we?” I ask as Brownie sits on the foot of my bed.
“South Pacific, sort of near Tahiti,” Brownie answers, watching as Reed comes up on my other side, sitting near me and gently unwrapping the bandage on one of my thighs. I don’t look at it when he takes it off, but I see Brownie pale a little before she glances up at my face.
“It looks like its noon here,” I say, trying to think of something else while Reed starts examining my legs again. My body is still shaking from trauma, making me appear cold.
“I think it’s something like a ten hour time difference from where you were, sweetie,” Buns says, trying her best to help keep me focused on something else. “It’s protected…safe,” she adds. I keep my face blank, trying not to give away the fact that this world is too small to ever be safe for me.
I attempt to hide my sense of unreality as I ask with a smile that is not reaching my eyes, “What do you call this kind of jet lag?”
“Jump fatigue,” Reed answers. “You have surge sickness, too,” he adds gently.
“That sounds serious,” I murmur, giving him a real smile that seems to spark something in his eyes.
“It’s minor,” he says, pausing for a second and then looking down, like he forgot what he is doing.
Buns takes the glass from my hand and she and Brownie keep up a steady stream of conversation. They outline all the things that the island has to offer: sailing, snorkeling, scuba diving, surfing, hiking, horseback riding—like we are just on vacation and not hiding out from the Fallen and the Gancanagh, Werree and Ifrits, Inikwi and Kevev.
I nod mutely, not asking any questions or commenting on what they are saying. As I lean back against the pillows, Reed finishes rewrapping my wounds with gauze, securing the ends with clips.
“Do you think you can eat something,” Reed asks me hopefully, but I shake my head, feeling my eyelids droop.
“Sweetie, Brownie and I are going out to wait by the other portal now,” she pauses, looking at Reed. There seems to be some kind of silent communication going on between them. I quirk my eyebrow in question, looking between their two faces.
“Full disclosure on everything, Buns, like we all agreed. We are a team. No one gets shut out,” Reed says gravely and I watch Buns nod.
Buns smiles. “We’re waiting for Zee and Russell to return from Operation Armpit,” Buns says.
“I thought we were calling it Operation I-HOS, the International House of Stink,” Brownie says, rolling her eyes.
“No, I’m pretty sure it’s Armpit,” Buns replies. “Anyway, they should be here soon. The plan has been executed. Do they know that you have Evie?” Buns asks. Reed nods, watching my reaction to what they’re saying. “Good, then they’ll be here.”
“Russell was there, too?” I ask, feeling sweaty all of a sudden.
“Yeah,” Buns says, “he took his lucky Louisville Slugger with him. He said he would see if he could improve his RBI.” I give her a frown thinking that they promised me that they would protect Russell for me, not let him go out to a fierce battle like it’s batting practice.
“Russell is really freaking strong,” Brownie says, seeing my expression. “He’s gaining strength like we have never seen before, Evie. Russell is like—super evolving and some of the things he can do are amazing. He’s stronger than Buns and me put together and then some, and he can shapeshift into just about anything you can imagine,” she says with awe.
“He has the ability to adapt like a chameleon, too, and his complete understanding of the human realm makes him confusing to the Powers. They all want to be around him—study him, because to them he’s unpredictable–unfathomable,” Buns adds.
“It’s total bromance, Evie,” Brownie smiles. “The Powers want to hang with him, like he’s completely killa and they want to try to emulate him.”
“Yeah, he’s a balla,” Buns agrees, nodding adamantly.
“What language are you speaking?” Reed asks sourly.
“Balla means someone who has skills—athletic ability,” I explain absently. “You’re a balla, Reed.”
Brownie nods. “Preben keeps trailing him everywhere, like he wants to figure him out or something,” Brownie says.
“Sweetie, Preben follows him because you’re with Russell most of the time and Preben can’t seem to take his eyes off you,” Buns says, smiling.
Brownie blushes, rolling her eyes, “Shut up, Buns, you’re being ridiculous.”
“Oh, please, he
so
wants you,” Buns teases her. “I wonder what will upset him more: the fact that we’re giving Dominion the slip or the fact that he won’t know where you are, Brownie.”