Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (71 page)

“I love you,” I whisper softly in his ear,
wrapping my arms around h
im again
.
“You’re worth any price to me.”

“And you are priceless,”
he states.

“You’
ll fight to stay with me?”
I ask, feeling his lips slip lower. I bite my bottom lip as my eyes close.

“
There is nothing
more important to me than you,”
he says with his lips hovering just above my skin. Then he kisses me again and I gasp softly.

A loud rap on
the wooden door of our room mak
e
s
me jump
before Russel
l’s voice co
me
s
through it.

“R
eed, you
in there?” Russell asks
with a strained tone.

A growl comes from
R
eed before he rises from our bed. He
waits while I wrap the blanket
around me before he opens
the door.

Russell continues
rapidly
, “They lost Evie. Xa
vier is having a complete hissy fit lookin’ for her…” he trails off when
Reed
reluctantly
opens the door wider and
he sees
me sit up on the bed
. “AHH, RED!” he
exclaims
with a mix
ture of relief and
irritati
on. “What the hell?”

“Long story. You
can tell them I’m okay,” I say
.

“Naw, y
ou
can tell him,” Russell says
, shaking his head
in disgust
. “I’ve already got one angel pissed off at me at the moment and that’s all I can handle.”

“Anya?” I ask
.

“Who else?”
he responds
sullenly. “All’s I wanted her to do was share my bedroom, ‘cuz there’s no way I’m lettin’ her stay
here
in a room all by herself and she
started cus
sin’ me out in Angel—
and before
you
ask me how I know she was cus
sin’, let
me just say that
all
y’all have cuss
ed me out enough
for me
to know,” Russell says
while glaring at Reed.

“Russell,” I cut
off
his rant,
“where is Xavier now?”

“Oh, you
mean
where’d he go
after
he tosse
d my room around lookin’ for you
?” he asks
with a sarcastic twist of his lip
.

I pale before I nod
.

“Zee told him
tha
t Reed was in the
North Tower and hinted that y
ou
probably went there
, too
. T
hen
,
he sent me
here
to
get Reed,” Russell replies
with a cheeky grin.

“Remind me to thank
Zee
,” I remark
to Reed.

Re
ed
nods in agreement and says
, “I’ll go and tell Tau that you’re here. Russell, can you stay
with Evie until I return?”

Russell gla
nces at my worried face and relents
.
“
Sure
, Zee’s watchin’ Anya for me. She probably prefers him to m
e right now. I’ll babysit ‘til you
get back.”

Walking to the beautiful
,
mahogany chest, Reed sifts through it and pulls
out a long, deep-red nightgo
wn. Coming to my side, he hands
it to me. Eyeing it like it’
s a cold, dead cr
eature, I arch
my
eye
brow at him.

“Woul
d you prefer a corset?” he asks
me with a smile.

“No,” I sigh. “This is fine.” I lift
it above my head and let the silky fabric slip over my body under the blanket.

“Please stay here until I return,” he requ
ests
.

“Okay,” I answer
.
But, when he turns to go I bound out of the bed
saying, “Wait!”

Turni
ng back towards me, he catches me in his arms when I throw
mine around him. Reed’
s kiss makes me forget about Russell
until Russell clears
his throat behind us.

“I’m still here,” Russell
says
sourly.

Reed, eyeing the nightgown hugging every curve I possess
on its
way to the floor says,
“I’ll be right back.”

“Hurry,” I reply
,
and in a second, he’
s gone.

Closing the door, I slip
back to the bed, pulling a blanket off it and wrapping it around me like a shawl.

“Your
room’
s nice,” Russell remarks,
looking around it.

It i
s
nice. It has a rustic-cott
age feel to it. The large bed i
s somewhat imposing, but the onl
y other furniture in the room i
s the simple chest
and a couple of soft chairs near
the stone fireplace. In the corner of the room, near the
fire, a door le
a
d
s
out to a
walled
garden
I had seen before I came in
. I walk
to the door, opening the top portion of it
that swi
ng
s
i
n leaving
the bottom in place. Cold sea
air
lifts
my hair
.

“I thought it w
ould be different in this tower—
t
he Harem,” I say
over my shoulder.

Russell walks to the fire and picks
up the poker, stoking it
before laying another log on
.

“It’s not
all
like this…most of it looks like a brothel, except for this
room. This room was…” he trails
off.

“Brennus’,” I finish
for him, knowing that this i
s his style—
simple elegance. Everything else
i
s
for show: to display wealth and power. But,
this is more to his taste: quiet
beauty.

“Yeah,” he says
. “Are you
gonna tel
l me what’s goin’ on?” Russell asks
.

Taking my last look at the
wintry garden outside, I close the door and turn
to face Russell.
“This is all my fault,” I say
while wringing my hands.

“Don’t sweat it, Red.
Xavie
r is a…” he trails
off, seeing me shaking my head.

“No, I mean, this mess—
w
hy we’re here,” I choke
.

“Ah
,
yeah, no shit, Red,” he says
with his crooked smile. “I already figured out it
wasn’t me. I like stuff simple—
y
ou’
re
the one that’s always gotta prove the world isn’t flat.”

“
No, Russell…
I’m sorry,” I say
with
remorse
, “I think it was all me—
what went wrong between
us
.
”

Russell
stills
. “Why, what did you
find out
?” he ask
s
, losing his smile.

“Xavier said…some stuff about being my guardian ange
l for centuries…” I swallow hard, before continuing, “a
nd, he said that I sort of asked to do this so that I could have the ultimate free
will.”

“The ultimate free
will, Red, what’s that?” he questions
in a quiet tone.

“Uhh, I feel sick,” I murmur
, stumbling to a chair and sitting in it.

“What’s the ultimate free
will?” Russell
asks
again
,
taking the seat next to mine
.

“I
t’s the ability to choose
…I asked to choose my own love—
one that wasn’t cre
ated for me,” I admit
as insane
guilt hit
s
me in waves.
“S
oul mates are created for one anothe
r—
no
t really much
free
will
there
.
”

“Why would you
do
something like
that?
” he asks
, sounding confused
.

“I don’t know,” I say
, shaking my head and staring into his brown eyes.
“
Xavier said I did it for him, that we were in love…
”

“N
AH! NO WAY!” Russell says
angrily.
“You
wouldn’t come here just ‘cuz of him. Y
ou
would’
ve come, but not for him.
I know
you
,” Russell says
, pointing at his chest. “Y
ou’
d
accept this
and make the best of it, but you
wouldn’t have done it at my expense.”

“What if I’m that
selfish, Russell,” I ask
him sadly.

“You’
re
not,” he says
adamantly.
“We need to talk to Anya. She’ll know.”

“Do you th
ink she’ll tell us?” I ask
.

“Yeah
, I thi
nk she will. She’s not a player. S
he’ll either tell us or she won’t, but she won’t distort the information in her favor.”

“Why do you
say that?” I ask
.

“‘Cuz
they ha
ve an agenda, Red,” Russell says
. “
Xavier obviously wants you
and y
our
dad
want
s
control. Our tea
m threatens both those things
.
”

I blink
, seeing his point. “H
ow
d
o
you know that?”
I ask.

“‘Cuz I’ve lived thousands of times and I’ve been a parent in almost every
one of th
em. We
’ve had daughters
, you
and me
…many, many daughters
.
Y
ou’
d be surprised
‘bout what you’
ll say to get your
daughter
to do what you
want
—
to protect her
.”

I think
about
what he just said for a moment before a small smile twists
my lips.
“Those angels are out-
gunned with that kind of arsenal,
Russell,
” I say
.

“T
hey should s
tart takin’ notes,” Russell replies
wi
th a cocky l
i
ft of his eyebrow. “Now, if you’
re
done eatin’ that shame sandwich, y
ou
can tell me what else they said.”

I tell
him about dinner with Tau and then my confrontation with Xavier.
He shakes
his head grimly. “They w
ant to break us up?” he asks
.

“I don’t know. They’re really only interested in me…everyone el
se is ancillary to them,” I admit
.
“Tau wants t
o school me on being a Seraphim—
r
ank, position,
blah, blah, blah.”