A Man of Honor (A Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (The Honor Trilogy) (18 page)

She shakes her head, and then totally starts nodding. “I think.” Her words come out in tiny breaths.

The man glides forward, rustling nothing beneath his feet.

When he opens his mouth, no words come out. Until finally, he says, “Sweetheart.”

Honor drops in my arms. Noticing she’s still conscious, I sit her down against a rock and hold onto her.

The man steps forward again, this time kneeling down in front of her and placing his ghostly hand on her knee. “It’s me, Honor,” he says softly. “Gramps.”

Every single one of us gasps this time, excluding Honor.

“Gramps?” she whispers.

“Yes, baby. Oh how I’ve missed you.”

As I watch Honor’s frown turn into a huge bright smile, she leaves my embrace and hugs her grandfather – which is odd to watch, because though he looks solid, he really isn’t. Honor ends up falling forward. I catch her before she falls flat on her face, and her grandfather apologizes.

“How?” she asks.

Her grandfather raises his eyebrows. “He killed me.”

“Mr. Moore?” she asks incredulously.

Nodding his head, he says, “But he’s not all bad. He listened to me these past few months.”

“I…I don’t understand,” she says.

“Some souls are persistent. They refuse to die within their host body. They wait it out until it’s time to finally flee…when their host is finally put to rest.”

I look around and I’m amazed that everyone, including the two armed strange men, are speechless and intent on listening to this dead man speak.

“So,” Seth, I believe Moore said was his name, continues. “I refused to rest. I knew that eventually you’d be in danger and I wouldn’t allow it. I willed my thoughts and feelings onto that man and insisted he help save you.”

“Hmm,” I utter, despite trying to remain silent.

Seth looks at me. “The doubting Thomas.”

I point to myself.

“Yeah, you. You insisted Honor was crazy for trusting Moore. But she knew. Her empathic powers never lie. She felt me inside that man. Yes, Moore was evil…but I wouldn’t let him act on any evil plans. Not where Honor was involved.”

“Can I ask you a question?” I inquire.

“Certainly. I’m not sure how much time I have, so make it quick.”

“Why did he kill you?”

Seth smiles. “Sibling rivalry.”

Instead of responding to that, I look at Ethan and then back at Seth.

“When we were in our thirties, the three of us – Jared, Asa, and I – worked tirelessly on the immortal elixir. I finally got the formula right when we realized that I had all this power that they did not possess. We had worked on every ingredient together…until one night when I decided to add a couple pints of my own blood to it. I was about to tell them what it was – they were my best friends for goodness sake. I thought I could trust them. Until the two of them turned violent against each other, claiming one or the other had the idea first and that they each earned the rights to it over the other. No. I earned the rights to it. I created it.”

Seth stands from his kneeling position, holding on to Honor’s hand in hopes she’ll stand beside him. I help her up but don’t loosen my hold on her.

“I decided to run off without giving them access to the elixir. I ran clear across the country from out west to New Jersey. I had hid the elixir in my house, but I figured they’d find it eventually if they ever caught hold of me. Instead, I found the old schoolhouse in Hardyston and figured I could hide it away there. Class was not in session since it was summer, so I thought I could hide it without consequence. The basement was so deep underground that even if they knocked the building down, the elixir would probably remain.”

He runs a hand through his
phantasmal thick head of blond hair and smirks. “It stayed hidden for many years. I was always on the run, flitting from one place to the next –even after I married and had children. My poor kids barely saw me. Then one of my great-granddaughters gave birth to her own daughter and I met my Honor. I’m not sure what it was, but Honor made me want to be a better person.”

“I know the feeling,” I interject.

Seth laughs. “That’s when I decided to leave a clue for her…just in case she ever needed it. I told her mother to give her the box I left as soon as she was old enough to understand what a keepsake was.”

Seth starts fading away.

“Gramps,” Honor cries.

“
I think it’s time, sweetheart.”

He hugs her this time, and it hurts me to see the tears spill from her eyes.

“I love you, baby. Always will.”

“I love you too, Grandpa.”

When he fades, Honor turns into my chest and cries.

Seth rises up in a puff of smoke and the two men lying on the ground are nothing but dead men. Possessing no more innocent souls.

After the shock of watching hundreds of dead souls vanish into thin air, not to mention one of them stopping to chat, I realize we are
still standing in front of two very armed large men. Turning to face them, and positioning Honor behind me, I look them in the eye and hold my gun back out.

They laugh.

“Put that thing away,” the larger one of the two says. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To get Honor.”

Without taking my eyes off of the men, I motion with my hands for my brothers to build a wall around Honor. “You’re not getting her.”

“We don’t need her now,” they laugh. “Asa’s not around to pay us to hand her over.”

“So…you don’t want Honor?” Ethan asks.

“No. We wouldn’t even know what to do with her. We just worked for the guy…got him what he wanted. We’re not empaths or anything like that. Asa just paid us a ton of money to do his dirty work. As you just saw, he’s not the largest of men.”

“So…”

“So…” the larger man interrupts. “If you’d like help disposing of the bodies, we can help. We’ll take them to where Asa had us dump all his bodies.”

“Where’s that?”

“Now we won’t be giving that away, will we? No. Then you can implicate us. Though we can implicate you, too, for murdering Asa. But we never liked the guy, so just help us drag them out.”

The other large man speaks up. “I’ll go get the bags, but we’ll have to watch. We’re lucky no one was around today. We should probably stick around ‘til dark before carrying them out.”

Yeah, we are lucky.
All the time thinking about saving Honor, I forgot that it was daylight. “Okay, let’s drag them into some bushes until we can get them out,” I offer.

“How ‘bout all this blood?” Tamlin asks out of the blue.

“He’ll get stuff for that with the bags,” the larger man says.

“Um…Tam…” I say slowly, forgetting who brought Honor here in the first place. “Why the hell didn’t you take Honor to your house like I’d asked?”

“Storm.” Honor puts her hand on my arm. “I forced her to take me. There was no way I could stay away. I wasn’t going to sit back and drink lemonade while you all were fighting to keep me safe.”

“And you listened to her?” I’m still talking to Tamlin.

“Uh, well,…”

“Stop, Storm,” Honor reprimands. “She could have taken me to her house, but I just would’ve jogged home and got my car. Stop protecting me like that. I mean, I appreciate it, and I certainly couldn’t fight my way out of the Gaffer’s hold, but…”

“But what, Honor? If you’d listened to me in the first place, you wouldn’t have had to fight your way out of his hold now, would you?”

Honor sighs, and I inwardly chastise myself for getting angry.

“Okay, can we just stop this now?” Elijah says, not really asking us to stop, but demanding that we do.

“Fine. It’s dropped,” I say. Softening my resolve, I hug Honor. “Now that you’re safe, why don’t you and Tam go home? We don’t need you to help clean up. Go put some normalcy back in your life, and be glad it’s done.”

Honor and Tamlin look at each other and shrug.

“What do you think, Honor?” Tamlin asks. “You want to get going
? I need to have me a big piece of chocolate cake.”

Honor chuckles. “You have cake?”

“Of course. Then you can help me dye my hair. I’m thinking of trying green this time.”

“Green?” Honor and Elijah cry in horror.

“Yeah, like a mint green,” Tamlin says.

“Why don’t you two go,” I suggest again.

“C’mon, Hon,” Tamlin grabs her by the arm.

“Yeah,” Honor says. “Thank you,” she looks at me, “for getting me away from that man…and…killing him.”

Hugging her again, I kiss her on top of the head. “That was my only goal, princess – to save you from that man. Now you’re safe. It’s over.”

Her head leans against my chest, and she tightens her arms around my waist.

“It’s over,” she whispers, and I know exactly what she’s thinking.
Now that it’s over, we need to take that break.

“I’ll still
stay with you tonight, babe. We’ll talk about it later.”

I give her a soft kiss goodbye, Elijah and Tamlin break their embrace, and the girls walk away. The man with the bags and the clean-up material comes walking back around the lake, a backpack on his back.

After gruelingly stuffing the dead bodies into the bags while Hunter stands guard, we drag them up the hill and behind some torn down huge tree trunk. Then we proceed to clean up the blood on the dirt with some bleach and some brushes Asa’s men had packed away.

All the while cleaning up our fatal mess,
I think about how tonight would be my last night with Honor for a while. And if she realizes that her feelings for me are only rebounded feelings of mine, then it’d be my last night with her forever.

I silently pray that I could handle
it if that were the case, but I doubt I would. A life on the run would be my fate again…if Honor doesn’t choose me.

“Hey, princess, I’m home.” I greet Honor in her bedroom about nine at night.

It seems that though
Mahlon Dickerson by Saffin pond is not a popular place to be during after school hours, it certainly is a hopping place for the after work crowd. It is necessary to wait until all the walkers and runners leave the reservation before carrying the dead guys out.

“Hey, Storm,” Honor says with sleepy eyes.

“Were you sleeping already?”

She holds up the book in her hands. “No, reading, but I may have dozed off a little.” Putting her book aside and sitting up against her headboard, she pats the bed for me to sit. “How’d it go?”

“It went. There were just all these after work exercisers getting their miles in that we had to wait until they left.”

“Oh my god, did they see you?”

“Well, we didn’t hide. We just…acted like we were supposed to be there. Eli and Hunter went walking up some trails while Tom and the big guys hung out talking near where we hid Asa and Moore.”

“What about you? Where were you?”

“I just sat on a rock nearby.”

“You weren’t up for talking with anyone?”

I settle myself more comfortably on Honor’s bed by sitting next to her and holding her in my arms. “Nah. Wasn’t in the mood.” All I had been able to think about was what would happen to Honor and me if she decided she wasn’t in love with me.

“Oh,” she says with a sigh. “Storm,” she says after a long pause. “Do we have to take that break?”

“I think we do, princess. I wouldn’t be comfortable not knowing whether you really are into me or if you’re just into me because I’m into you. Does that make any sense at all?”

She shrugs beneath my shoulders. “I guess.”

“Besides, you still have feelings for Ethan. I want to know for sure that you’re done with him before you and I make any commitments to each other.”

“Yeah.” She sighs and rests her head against my chest.

I kick off my shoes and grab the pillow beneath us. Placing it behind my head, I settle back and enjoy holding Honor for what may be our last night together.

“I’ll still see you at school, right? And at lunch?” Her voice breaks.

“Well, I’ve been thinking of withdrawing from school.”

She whips her head up to look at me. “You can’t. Please don’t leave school.”

“Baby, I finished high school like five years ago. They just have my fake school records which say I’m eighteen anyway. I can just sign myself out.”

She leans her head back against my chest. “But I like having you there.”

“Sweetheart, in June I’d be graduating anyway. There is no way I’m sticking around for that. Besides, I was only here to watch over you. That job is done.”

“No,” she cries. And after a few seconds her tears seep through my shirt and onto my chest.

Gliding my hands through her long hair, I whisper, “Don’t worry, princess, I’m not leaving Jefferson…not until I know what
you
want.”

The sweet scent of Honor right beneath my nose lulls me to sleep. I’
m not sure who falls asleep first, but when I wake up, the sun is rising and Honor is still in my arms.

“Good morning, Storm.” Honor surprises me by being awake. She was lying so still in my arms.

“Good morning, princess.”

“Storm…I was thinking. What is everyone going to think about Mr. Moore not showing up at school?”

“Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that. I don’t know.” Now that it’s on my mind, I’m worried about it. Plus, withdrawing from school will probably not be the best thing for me, especially since everyone knows how much Moore annoyed me. Not that jumping to the thought that I’d killed him because of my dislike for him would be the natural conclusion. I can’t take that chance. “You know…I think I’m going to stay in school until graduation.”

“Why? What changed your mind?” She looks up at me with wide violet eyes.

“I guess I’d like to see how this whole Moore thing plays out.”

“Oh,” she says. “That’s a good idea…I still feel bad. He was a nice guy.”

“I don’t know about that, but at least he tried to help us.”

“Yeah…and…I’m glad I got to see my grandpa.”

I squeeze her hard. “Yeah. That was pretty cool.”

While Honor gets ready for school, I pack up all my things and run it to my car, feeling sad about moving out already. When I return, Honor is sitting at the counter with her mom.

“Storm, coffee?” her mother offers.

“Sure. Thanks, Mrs. Stevens,” I say, taking the already poured mug from her hand.

“Honor filled me in last night about yesterday.”

“Oh. Well…I’m happy to say, she’s safe now. No one will be out looking for her blood or that elixir anymore.”

Mrs. S.
smiles, but a frown follows. “She also told me about the three of you all needing a break from each other.”

I just nod.

“She said it was your idea,” Mrs. S. continues.

“Yup,” I say with a frown.

“I think that was very admirable, young man. It takes a real grown up to face the truth like that.” She smiles again and whispers in my ear, “I’m pulling for you.”

I chuckle.

“I told Mom about my vacation idea. She said she’ll talk to Dad, but she likes the idea too. She said maybe an island or something,” Honor says with half a smile.

“Sweet.” I find it hard to be happy that she’s going away. What if she finds her feelings for me have totally disappeared? I’ll just have to deal with it.

“Anyway,” Honor says. “We should get to school.”

“Yeah, uh…just let me brush my teeth. Be right back.”

“Mom really likes you,” Honor says in the car on the way to school.

“Yeah? Well that’s good.” My heart is just too sad to get excited about it.

“I’m nervous about going to school. How are we going to hide what we know about Mr. Moore?” When I take a side glance at Honor,
she’s biting her lip.

“
Princess,” I say while rubbing her thigh. “Just act natural. It’s only suspicious to us. No one else would have any idea what to think, so c’mon…just act like normal.”

“I’m not feeling well all of a sudden.”

“You know what, babe. I’m gonna drive you home. I think you need the day off.”

“But…”

“No buts. You and your mom can plan that vacation, and you won’t have to deal with this today.”

“Okay,” she says, and I can see the relief pass her face.

We turn around, I take he
r home, and I kiss her goodbye at the front door.

“So…I’ll see you soon, I guess,” I say, giving her a long hug after the kiss.

“Oh. Oh. Does our break…start…now?” she asks, her hands still around my waist.

“I think it does.”

I kiss her forehead and look into her violet eyes. “Call me when you’ve made your decision.”

She nods.

“I’ll be here waiting.” My voice comes out hoarse, because I’m trying hard to hold back tears. Tears that I don’t usually shed.

When I see a few tears drop from Honor’s eyes, my own tears come out to meet hers.

I don’t cry.

I hate crying.

But here I am…crying.

Giving Honor one last
strong hug, I turn and walk away.

Not even bothering to wipe away her tears.