Keepers: A Timeless Novella (3 page)

“
She’s in the buff.” Jenna
guffawed. Gabriella rolled her eyes, beaming.

I rose. “Go back to the
bathroom. I’ll bring you a towel,” I ordered Lucia. She disappeared
down the hall.

“
You have naked angels
running around your house,” Jenna continued through her laughter.
Gabby laughed louder.

Seriously, it wasn’t that
funny. I turned to Gabriella and Jenna. “Put a sock in it, you
two.” I grinned at them and walked away.

Before I shut the door to
the garage where my washer and dryer were, Jenna shouted, “Elvis
has left the building.”

I chuckled. I knew I loved
that woman for a reason.

<>

The following morning, I
awoke to total chaos. Ever since we returned from Italy, we’d kept
a low profile. Now that the whole world knew angels existed, it was
only a matter of time before the press would discover Gabriella’s
location. Images and videos of her, Andrew, Ehno, and Lucia went
viral after the press conference announcing their
existence.

It started with a phone
call. Jenna grumpily poked my side until I answered it. The sun
wasn’t even up yet, and my alarm clock read 4:32 am.

“
Hello?” I mumbled. Whoever
was on the other line was lucky I didn’t start shouting because
five-year-old Jules was sleeping on the other side of
Jenna.

“
Is this Agent Joseph
Carter of the FBI?”

I didn’t recognize the
female voice and sat up. “Who’s asking?”

“
This is Rachelle Conway
from CNN.”

Before she had a chance to
say another word, I hung up. I got out of bed and dressed, cursing
the whole time. The phone rang again at the same time someone
pounded on my bedroom door.

I opened it a crack to see
Chris. The Empyrean Guard’s massive frame took up the width and
height of the hallway like the hulking beast he was. “There are
hundreds of people outside,” he murmured, looking over my shoulder
to the two sleeping forms.

“
Give me a second,” I
whispered to Chris. He nodded, and I shut the door. The phone
stopped ringing.

Jenna rubbed at her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Jules didn’t stir—she could sleep through a
gunfight.

I went to Jenna. “Nothing,
sweetie.” I kissed her and Jules on the forehead. “Go back to bed,”
I whispered. “I’ll handle this.”

The phone rang again, and I
unplugged it from the wall. That was when my cell phone started to
vibrate. I snatched it up and left the room. Everyone was awake and
in the living room, though they all appeared haphazard and half
asleep. On the coffee table were four phones that someone was smart
enough to unplug. My cell phone, on the other hand, continued to
vibrate. I glanced down to see my boss’s name.

I answered.
“Director?”

“
Why am I seeing your house
all over the news?” he barked. “I thought I told you to keep a low
profile.”

“
We have,” I insisted.
“Anyone who was seen on the news has stayed indoors. I don’t know
how anyone found out they were here.”

“
Well someone messed up,”
he snapped. I pulled the phone from my ear as he shouted, “This is
a disaster!”

“
I’ll take care of it,” I
promised, though I wasn’t sure how.

“
You better.” He hung
up.

I stared at the phone for a
second before I realized everyone was watching me. Director Morris
was right: this was a disaster.

CHAPTER 3: GET THE HELL
OUT OF DODGE

I spent the majority of the
morning on the phone with the FBI while everyone else made sure all
windows and doors were locked and covered. This whole situation
weirdly reminded me of a zombie apocalypse, except replace the
zombies with the media. I wasn’t exactly sure which one was
scarier. The sounds of a cartoon played in the background as Jules
and Firen watched TV in the living room. With how crazy we were all
acting, I had to find a way to distract Jules. The TV in my room,
however, continued to flip between news stations. And guess who was
the topic of conversation on every channel?

Firen sat with her back
ramrod straight, which was typical for the Fallen Angel. Jules had
the rest of the couch to herself, but she still sat as close as she
could to Firen. I didn’t understand their bizarre relationship, but
Firen had proven herself to all of us when Empyrean Guards broke
into my house and attacked any angel they could find.

In my bedroom, I heard the
channel change again. The news reporter was interviewing someone
outside my house. I recognized the voice, but I couldn’t place it.
That’s when I heard Gabriella shout, “It’s your nosy neighbor. Get
in here!”

I ran to my room in time to
see my neighbor confess to a worldwide audience that he was the one
to call the media.

“
I told you,” Gabriella
said. “He’s nosier than an FBI agent.” That last part was
muttered.

My phone vibrated again.
“Agent Carter,” I answered.

“
Turn on CNN,” Director Tom
Morris responded, sounding tired.

“
Already there.”

“
I had this guy’s file
pulled this morning, along with the rest of your neighbors. His
name is Desperado.”

Pause. A few seconds
passed. He was waiting for my reaction.

“
Did you say Desperado?” I
couldn’t stop the snort of laughter that bubbled to the
surface.

“
Yeah,” the Director
confirmed. “He changed his name when he turned eighteen. It was
Melvin.”

I was still laughing.
“’Cause Desperado is so much better than Melvin.”

Gabriella’s eyebrows flew
up at that, and Andrew’s lips twitched. I gave them an ironic smile
and left the room. Tom remained quiet as I reigned in my
laughter.

“
What do you want me to
do?” I asked Tom.

“
Legally there’s nothing we
can do, but maybe you could talk some sense into him.”

“
And say what?” I asked.
“Could you not call the media? It’s a little late for that, don’t
you think?”

The Director cleared his
throat. “True, but you could ask him not to give any details—” His
words were abruptly cut off.

“
Joseph?” Gabriella called,
her tone a mixture of anger and disbelief.

Whatever she saw on the TV,
so had the Director. Great. What now? Phone still against my ear, I
went back into my bedroom. Photos were displayed on the TV screen.
I sunk to the bed beside Jenna, and she took my hand. The Director
said something in my ear, but my mind was focused on the TV.
Gabriella plucked the phone from my hand and spoke quietly to the
Director, then hung up.

Gabby had been right all
along. A story unfolded before my eyes in the form of photos, dates
and times, and even a few videos. My neighbor wasn’t nosy, he was
an intruder in our lives, a leeching insect who’d crawled under my
windows to sneak a peek. He had recorded everything he ever saw
like a spy with the NSA would. My stomach churned at the images.
The media outside had gone quiet, and I’d bet every person capable
was watching. My life, Jenna’s life, along with so many things that
had gone on here was displayed for the world to see. My private
life was now public.

“
How many are watching
this?” Andrew whispered.

I didn’t have an answer,
and I honestly didn’t want to know.

Firen and Jules came in
then. Jules ran to the TV, grinning. “That’s Uncle Ehno!” she
exclaimed.

Firen took in our
expressions and understood with a single glance that we were upset.
She stood in the doorway to watch as more and more of our personal
lives were displayed on the TV. I was sick. I wanted to turn it off
or look away, but it was like a train wreck; I couldn’t. I didn’t
want to confront my nosy neighbor—I wanted to bury him under six
feet of dirt and pee on it.

Images of Chris, who looked
like a giant, were compared to fuzzy ones taken after the Empyrean
Guard attacked Avella, Italy in a battle that shook the core
beliefs of many religious followers across the world. I knew where
this story was leading, and seconds later a newscaster said the
dreadful words.

“
What isn’t the government
telling us? They say they were fighting to protect us, but maybe
they have another agenda. Why is an FBI agent harboring one of
these giants? We want answers—we deserve answers.”

A few quiet seconds passed
as they compared more images, as if the silence would be what
hammered the last nail into the proverbial coffin. The media
outside my house went wild.

When I was a teenager, I
had a serious temper problem. I could go from cool to enraged in
two seconds flat. It wasn’t something I was proud of, but there it
is. There were two things I did regularly to reduce my stress: run
and swim. After my first year of college on a swimming scholarship,
I rarely felt anger, and usually any emotion I felt was mild to
downright cheerful. I chalked my temper up to teenage hormones and
left it in the past. After graduating college and joining the FBI,
there’d been little to spark my ire. Even after everything that had
happened since I met Gabby, I was still able to handle it all with
a joke or some witty quip. Then Jenna and Jules entered my life,
and I fell for them, hard. How could I not? And because of that,
the wild temper I thought I’d put in the past had come back with a
vengeance.

After watching CNN, my
blood was boiling. My muscles were wound so tight that at any
moment they would recoil like springs. The image of my fist
connecting with my neighbor’s face played over and over in my mind
like a broken film of sweet pain. The idea became more and more
appealing. Jenna carefully watched as a slew of feelings went
through me. Usually I liked to keep a passive expression when
intense emotions were involved, but I failed around Gabby and
completely crumbled when it came to Jenna. Though I had an inkling
it didn’t matter who I was around right then. My anger had shone
through like a beacon of light in the dead of night.

Jenna, trying to lighten
the mood, said, “Guess we need to get the hell out of
dodge?”

This time the idiom didn’t
do anything to alleviate how furious I was. I was going to have a
talk with my neighbor, all right. I was going to kill him. My fists
clenched, and I rose to my feet. Jenna’s half-smile
disappeared.

CHAPTER 4: BITE OFF MORE
THAN YOU CAN CHEW

My neighbor should count
his lucky stars because Jenna saved mister Desperado’s life. I was
about to wring the guy’s neck like a farmer would a chicken. That
image in my mind was still rather clear and appealing, but I’d
promised Jenna I wouldn’t kill the twerp. That was the nicest name
I could come up with while Jules was in hearing range. Jenna
didn’t, however, rule out a nasty and thorough tongue-lashing, even
though I thought the guy deserved a lot worse. Missiles all aimed
at his house might have crossed my mind, or at least a good tire
slashing. Now that I thought about it, she didn’t forbid me from
damaging his property. That did open a door to a whole slew of
possibilities.

Gabby sat creepily still,
eyes unblinking, in a state of shock. She hadn’t reacted to our
conversation in any way and continued to stare blankly at the TV,
even though it was turned off. Andrew’s hand was on her knee, and
the intensity in his gaze let me know he was mentally communicating
with her. Lucia and Ehno looked stressed, and Firen had a look on
her face that made me actually worry for my neighbor. The violet in
her eyes seemed to ominously swirl, and the silver markings on her
face accented the fierce emotions sparkling in her eyes.

“
I’m going next door,” I
announced, my tone seething. I almost asked if Firen wanted to tag
along.

My abrupt statement was
greeted with silence. Jenna stared warily at me but nodded ascent.
She knew I couldn’t—and wouldn’t—let this go. I’d reached my limit
on patience and understanding.

No one stopped me when I
left the room, and I didn’t think any of them really wanted to
anyway.

For the first time in days
my house appeared absent of people, though I knew they were all
crammed into my room, trying to process this new development in
their reality. Before this, we all understood revealing the angels
would cause some wild responses, but we’d hoped there would be more
praying than pitchforking. We should have known better—prepared
ourselves for this possibility. But how could we have known my
neighbor thought he was some super secret spy watching our
neighborhood. I mean, was watching Mrs. Jones across the street
watering her flowers every day at sunset
that
interesting? Who knew how long
he’d been spying on everyone on the street. Before the angels, my
life had been downright yawnful. When had he taken such an interest
in my life? Surely we weren’t the only people upset about this guy.
Some of the families on my street had teenage sons and daughters.
If Melvin—Desperado, whatever—had been this intrusive with all of
them, he’d been more than nosy. I shivered at the thought of the
creepy peeping tom, because that was exactly what he was. What else
had he seen through my blinds that wasn’t shown on TV? My thoughts
fueled every step I made.