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I grinned. “I can think of a few fun things.” I looked over, expecting to see a smile at my goading, but she wasn’t smiling. She was doing the opposite of smiling and it made me want to crawl into a hole.

“Like right now,” she admitted and turned to look out the window. “I don’t know what to do with you. I can’t tell if you’re real or not.”

“What do you mean?” I asked quickly, not letting the moment simmer for fear that I’d chicken out.

“I know you did something to me.” She lifted her legs up on the seat, rested her chin on her knee, and looked over. “I feel so okay with everything
and that doesn’t make any real sense.” She looked right in my eyes. “Are you going to deny it?”

I shook my head, glancing between her and the road. “No. I persuaded you to be accepting of the things going on, to protect your mind and sanity, so I could get you to your sister safely and quickly.”

“And that’s all?” she asked and there seemed to be an underlying question she wasn’t asking. I felt my brow lower in question. “You didn’t add anything else in there, some other addendum or agenda?”

I shook my head,
knowing that she no longer trusted me, no longer cared, and no longer wanted me to be near her. The afterglow was over. The short-lived dream I had of living some normal life was done. I had been stupid to think it could be true for even a morning.

“No, Fay,” I said and stared at the road
as steadily as I could muster, but it still came out gravely and tortured. “No, I just wanted to help you.”

She turned to look at my profile, but I didn’t look back at her. I drove a little faster than I should have, determined to get there faster. She didn’t want to be here with me any longer than necessary, not anymore anyway.

To find to a tortured soul, just follow the road littered with his own transgressions.

She fell asleep not long after that, slumped against her seat, but her face wasn’t peaceful. I felt guilt in my throat like a lump, pressing against me, not letting me breathe or think.
I hated it. I’d never felt guilt until that girl in the alley and now this girl was bringing me to my knees with it. I took her legs and brought them into my lap. She leaned back and stretched out, wiggling to get comfortable. When she sighed, my very soul sighed with her.

I hated it and loved it and prayed it wou
ld stop and would never go away. I drove the rest of the way with that aggravating, precious female’s feet in my lap and my mind in tumbles.

_______

             
We were so close, but I knew she was going to need to eat. I pulled into the restaurant off the interstate, our last stop for the day, and woke her gently, my hand brushing her knee. She woke as she always did—little moans and noises as she arched and pushed her chest up in stretches that would make any man insane. I averted my gaze to be honorable, because I’d done enough damage, but that was the absolute only reason. Otherwise the view was magnificent and could be watched for hours on end. I groaned a little and leaned my head back on the seat, pressing my fingers into my eyes.

             
She pulled her feet from my lap and I hissed. She gasped and halted before her breathing sped up noticeably.

“I wasn’t trying to take over the whole car. Sorry.” She pulled her feet away and put her shoes back on. She wasn’t looking at me and I didn’t blame her.

I was stacking up winning points left and right, wasn’t I? Did it even matter? I didn’t really want this girl, did I? Even after the insane conversation last night in alley where I had practically said that I did? And this morning?

I opened my door
, practically jumped from the car, and slammed it before I started analyzing my own questions. She got out and seemed puzzled with my outburst. She came to my side, but kept her distance. “Are we close?”

“What?” I asked, but it was a gruff growl.

She sighed and seemed even more disappointed. “Are we close? To Clara?”

“Oh. Yeah, a couple hours.”

“Good,” she answered and sighed again, licking her lips. “Then you’ll be able to get rid of me,” she muttered as she walked off.

I didn’t even
try to refute her words. There was no point. I was disappointing her left and right, and anything I said would just sound like I was lying or trying to cover. I just needed to get her there. If I could keep my promise to her and get her to her sister, then I could remove the persuasion and go from there. But until then, I just felt like a bastard no matter what I did.

The place was crawling with country bumpkins.
The hostess almost got a throat punch when she shouted, “Howdy, folks! Welcome to Cracker Barrel.”

“Um, howdy.” Fay looked back with a peculiarly intrigued look and smiled. “Two, please.”

As we followed her to the table past a roaring fire and people playing checkers, I leaned forward and whispered, “This place is strange.”

“I would think it would
be right up your alley.”

“Why?” I asked wryly and looked around at the black and white pictures of people. She gave me a coy smile. “Because I’m old?”

“That’s one way of looking at it.”
              “You don’t look old to me,” the older, plump waitress said and slammed some waters on the table. “What’ll you have?”

“What do you suggest?”

“The meatloaf is divine.”

“I somehow doubt that,” I remarked, which earned me a kick from
under the table, “but I’ll take a shot in the dark. Why not.”

“I’ll have the same, please, with the mashed potatoes and mac-n-cheese.”

“Same,” I remarked and handed her our menus.

“Can I just
say how much I love your accent? I bet you hear that all the time,” she said and smiled as she waited for some charming reply.

I looked at Fay and
smirked as I told the waitress, “You’re the first, sweetheart.”

She left with a giggle, her wrinkled cheeks rosy and
eyes shining as she scooted away. Fay stared at me for so long that I started to wonder if I’d once again done something wrong. The woman was old. Fay had to know there was no competition there. And then I remembered that Fay hated me now and wanted nothing to do with me. So it couldn’t be that.

“What, Fay?” I finally asked, my voice so soft and low I barely heard it. But
she
heard it. “What have I done now?”

“You made her night just now. Do you know that?”

I scoffed with a smile. “She’s a sweet old lady stuck in a crappy job. Nothing wrong with making her feel young a bit.”

“And that’s exactly what I mean.” She leaned on the table to be closer to be me. “But you didn’
t have to do that. You could have just let her walk away and not said a word. But instead, you, Enoch,” her voice cracked like she might cry and I was so confused, “made an old woman try to have a good night. You’re amazing sometimes.”

I stared into those gorgeous green eyes of hers and brought my hand up to cup her chin
, letting my thumb brush over her jaw. “Fay…I don’t know what you want from me,” I said softly. “And even if I did, I don’t know if I could give it to you.”

“Neither do I,” she
replied just as softly and wrapped her hand around my wrist. “I don’t know anything anymore.”

“Ah,” I said in understanding and leaned back. “And that’s my fault, is it?”

“Is it? You put the persuasion on me. I don’t know what’s real anymore. I don’t know if what I…feel is real.”

I got it. I shook my head. She thought I made her feelings for me out of thin air, that they were fabricated and not real. I opened my mouth to tell her that I hadn’t done that when there was a noise behind me. I turned to see
the commotion when I saw our waitress running from the kitchen. The terrified look on her face told me all I needed to know. The Horde had found us.

I gripped Fay’s hand and took off toward the back door, shoving her in front of me to shield her. “What about those people?” she asked in a shriek.

“I don’t care about them, I care about you.”

She yanked her arm away from me and stared up at me in the middle of the parking lot. I went to grab her again and she moved away. “Fay,” I growled.
              “Enoch, those people are going to be hurt, or worse, because of us.”

“Not us,” I made the epic mistake of saying with a sc
off. Her lips parted and she looked hurt more than appalled. “Fay,” I sighed her name and wanted to just throw her over my shoulder and drag her away. The old me would have done just that. I tightened my fist as I watched her back away toward the door of the restaurant, feeling the old feelings bubbling up in me. Why shouldn’t I? She’d be mad, but she’d eventually forgive me.

I pressed my lips in a thin line and blurred to her, but
when I reached her, something in her face made me change my mind. Instead of lifting her, I just stood there. She must have known what had been on my mind though, because the determination on her face was evident.

“Don’t you dare,” she begged. She didn’t order me, she begged, knowing that I was stronger and could make her if I really wanted to. “Please, Enoch. They didn’t do anything wrong but come into work and go out to
lunch and go about their day as usual.” I heard the door open and knew they were coming. Our time had run out. She knew it, too, and her eyes danced between my eyes and the restaurant. “I know I ask a lot of you, but it’s not too much.”

I laughed once without humor. “It is though. In every scenario of this trip, you’ve asked me to go against what I am, what I was made to do. It’s not natural. A devourer doesn’t save people and run around being the hero.”

She didn’t smile as she put her hand on my cheek and pressed her chest to mine. “You’ve been my hero since I met you. And I never once asked you to save me. You did that all on your own.”

I swallowed, my mouth felt dry and useless. “Fay,” I groaned—a plea. She was murdering the man I used to be with her acceptance. It didn’
t make any sense for her to be so kind and generous to me when I did nothing to deserve it.

I looked at the restaurant. I could hear them and knew from t
he noises I heard that there were about ten men present. “Stay here.”

“No way. I’m—”

“You’re staying.” I glared at her and dared her to argue. “If I’m going in there and doing this for you, then I’m doing it my way.” She sighed, relieved, and then she tensed and seemed upset for an entirely new reason. I groaned. “I can’t keep up with you. I can’t seem to make you happy no matter what I do.”

“I just didn’t think it through. I don’t want them to get h
urt for us,” she yelled quickly. “But you…” Her gaze bounced back and forth. “I don’t want to lose you either.”

“Lose me?” I bent down to find her line of sight. “How would you lose me?”

“You can die, can’t you?” she asked angrily.

“Hardly. It’s very hard to kill a devourer.
Especially since I have the advantage and know that they’re here.”

She sighed harshly and gripped her shirt over her heart.                 “Really?”

“Yes, really.” I put the keys in her palm and gave her what I hoped was a stern look. “You leave that car and I’ll…” I gulped and said, “I’ll be very angry with you, Fay.”

             
“I won’t,” she promised breathily and stared, hesitating, before she reached around my neck and gripped tightly.

My hands went straight to her perfect hips. I groaned in my min
d and was shocked that it hadn’t come out of my mouth, needing an outlet. “I need to go,” I said into her hair. “We need to get back on the road as soon as possible. They’ll try to stop us from reaching the camp, so we need to hurry.”

“Okay,” she mumbled against my shoulder. She leaned back and looked up at me. “Be careful.” It wasn’t a request.

I nodded and walked backward to watch her climb in the car and lock the door before I turned to s
print to the back door of the restaurant. I took out the one who was keeping watch out the back door, and doing an appalling job. I snapped his neck before he even knew I was there.

When I opened the door slowly
and peeked in, I saw they had herded most of the workers and diners into the back and were questioning them one by one. They didn’t seem to be hurting them. I tapped the one in the back on the shoulder and nodded my head at him. He got the attention of the others and they all filed out single file, quietly. I shook my head at how idiotically easy that had been.

             
I inched forward toward the men asking the questions and listened in as they showed them pictures and asked if they’d seen us. I cursed under my breath when I realized the person left behind was our fragile old waitress. If it had been anyone else, I’d had left and been happy that we saved all those people, but I wouldn’t leave her. I waited until things quieted and I knew that she was only in the room with one or two men and then moved in. When I moved in, I grimaced at being wrong.