Intuition: The Premonition Series (59 page)

I want to believe everything he’s saying. But after what I have been through with the Gancanagh, I know that we can’t afford to be wrong. Being wrong makes Russell and Brownie very, very dead.

“When can we leave?” I ask, giving up on my search for clothing and sitting on the edge of the bed wrapped in the sheet.

“That is what we have to talk about, Evie,” Reed says, sitting next to me. A look of confusion shows on his brow, like he doesn’t know how to say the next part of what he needs to say to me.

My panic increases. “Oh, my God! What’s wrong, Reed?” I ask, losing color.

He immediately grasps my hand and clasps it tight in his own. “The council ruled that Zephyr and I acted in accordance with all of our laws. They have agreed to release us immediately,” he says in a soothing tone as he studies my smaller hand in his.

I exhale in relief.
They’re letting him go. He’s free,
I think, and then suddenly, the reality of what he is saying to me hits me.
He is free, but he didn’t say that I am free, too.

“When will you leave?” I ask in an even voice that makes me feel a little bit proud of myself because it doesn’t break or crack, but I can’t look at him.

“That depends on you,” he replies in his sexy voice.

My head snaps up as I gaze into his beautiful green eyes.
He wants something from me. He used his sexy voice on me.
I hear the waves hitting against the breaker in the gulf beneath my open balcony doors while I inhale the scent of water and Reed as they mingle together to entice and entrap me.

Reed continues in a soft tone, “Right now, I cannot act in your defense. I have no influence with the war council on how they treat you, or what they do with you.” He squeezes my hand tighter in an unconscious way.

“How will they treat me?” I ask as my lips twist in a sad smile. He hesitates as anger enters his eyes. “Please tell me,” I whisper.

“They are a war council—they wage war. They have found a new weapon and it makes some of them anxious to test it. Some want to know just how attracted the Fallen are to you,” he explains.

I turn white in an instant.
Am I to be an enticing lure? Will they hold me out as bait for all the evil out there?

“Oh,” I say, trying to keep my hand steady in his so that he won’t feel it shaking. He has been through enough with me. He doesn’t deserve me making him feel guilty for having to go on without me.
What else can he do?

“You will have to stay here with them and I will have to leave. I’m not a part of Dominion, I will not be allowed to stay,” he explains.

“So, how long do we have until we have to say goodbye?” I ask, angry with the war council for their interference in my life. I should have the right to go if they don’t believe that I’m evil enough to destroy me.

“I cannot leave you,” Reed says.

“You just said they won’t let you stay,” I state as my eyes search his.

“Yes, but I cannot leave you here,” he replies with his jaw tensing.

“But…they won’t let me go,” I murmur, wondering what I’m missing.

“They might not have a choice in that,” he replies with a seductive smile.

“What are you saying? Have you figured out another loophole?” I ask as a glimmer of hope pulses through me like electricity.

“Yes,” he purrs in my ear.

A sigh of relief issues from me. “Oh, thank God! You are so brilliant! What is it? Whatever it is, I’m in,” I say gratefully, seeing his eyes light up with hope and desire.

“Bind to me and they cannot keep us apart,” he says as he nuzzles my neck in a seductive way, making me feel weak and languid.

“What do you mean?” I ask, fascinated by the way he is looking at me—possessive and protective. “Are you saying that we need to get married or something?” I ask, feeling a little foolish because he already told me once that angels don’t marry.

“No. Humans marry; it is a sacrament that we do not engage in because it’s only for their lifetime on Earth. Binding is older and different—angelic…a little more intense,” Reed explains, studying me as his finger traces my collarbone just above my sheet.

“How is it more intense?” I ask in a whisper, trying to focus on what he is saying instead of what he is doing.

“When we swear a binding vow to each other, making us one, then I can act on your behalf with the war council. They will lose their authority over you because your fortune will be tied to mine so whatever fate exists for you, exists for me,” he informs me as his finger moves over my shoulder and down my arm, tracing the veins and artery that run down the inside of my arm to my palm. “They will not be able to do to me what they are planning to do to you because I’m not half-human. So if we are one, they have to treat you like they would treat me.”

I close my eyes, savoring his touch for a moment. Then, I open them when what he says registers in my mind. “Are you sure that they will treat me like they treat you? Or, will you be treated like they treat me?” I ask, countering what he is saying.

What if it doesn’t work out the way he wants and he then is subject to whatever fate I’m given?
The thought of that makes me ill. I can take what happens to me, but if he has to suffer because of what I am, it will cause me more pain than I can conceivable endure.

“I’m certain,” he says, unwavering, but he is really good at tricking me when it comes to things he’s afraid will hurt me.

“So, this vow… what does it mean?” I ask, seeing pleasure growing in his eyes as I probe his plan. It’s so strange to see him look like this when we are discussing such a serious subject. He looks happy.

Reed gives me a sublime smile. “It means that you are mine and I am yours and no one will come between us. It means we become one and it’s irrevocable.”

“So, if you are essentially me, and I am essentially you… what happens when someone decides I’m evil and that I need to be destroyed? I ask in confusion.

“Then I can fight for us,” he says, sounding smug and satisfied.

This loophole is sounding frighteningly like he is jumping in the frying pan with me. I bite my lower lip, and then I ask, “But what if there is no way to fight it? What if it’s some kind of ruling and they decide to execute me?”

His answer is simple and absolute. “Then, I die too. We will share the same fate.”

I shoot to my feet.
“No!
Absolutely no! No way,” I say, shaking my head. He is psychotic if he thinks I’m going to let him go down with me.

“Genevieve,” he sighs.

“Reed!” I counter.

“What is it that you object to?” he asks me in a solemn tone.

“All of it,” I say emphatically, pacing the floor in front of him, wringing my hands together that have become sweaty all of a sudden.

“You don’t want to be mine?” he asks in a low tone, and there is something in his
eyes
…
he’s hurt.
“I’m sure that Zephyr will bind with you, if that is your wish, but you might consider Buns for a second,” he says with a taut quality to his voice that I hadn’t expected at all when I had responded. I stop my pacing to look at him.

“Reed, you can’t be serious. I would never consider binding with anyone but you,” I say, and his eyes shine as the corners of his lips pull upward. “I just can’t let you do something like that for me. I can’t do that to you.”

“Genevieve, I am already bound to you…I’m not afraid of anything in this world. There is nothing the Fallen could throw at me that I haven’t already seen, but I can tell you that when it comes to you…” he says, standing up and catching me in his arms, hugging me to him. “You don’t even know our language and you are so young and you don’t even expect justice for yourself.”

His face is very serious when he says, “I’m sure that Pagan had many friends here that didn’t enjoy watching her die. I have encountered a few who, although are not openly hostile to me, may not hold back their hostility with you if I were to leave,” he says, and I understand what he is saying. They wouldn’t pick a fight with him because he is an elite fighter, but I’m not. “Preben and his men are assigned to protect you now, but I don’t trust all of them either. We have made a powerful enemy in Gunnar. I think he has some plans that include you because he is anxious to have me gone, along with Zephyr.”

A shiver runs through me. Just because the council have ruled not to kill me openly doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. If someone here wants me dead, there are ways to accomplish that without much fuss. These Powers may not be the elite caliber of assassin as Reed and Zephyr are, but they are all probably highly effective killers.

“Would you stop being noble?” I ask with a sigh. “I should’ve done what you asked me to do when we first met. I should’ve left, like you told me to. I didn’t know—I wouldn’t listen and now you are trying to protect me, but I know right from wrong and this is wrong. You don’t make the person that you love the most a target. If you love someone, then you have to do what’s best for him, not what’s best for yourself.”

“This is best for me. No one can save me but you. I can’t walk away from you, so I will have to stay and fight them all to remain with you. If that is what I must do, then I will do it. Do you believe that I lied when I said I love you? I will prove to you that I did not,” he says as his lips form a grim line, and there is no doubt in my mind that he is serious.

I turn my face into his chest, shaking it back and forth, picturing him fighting to remain here with me. I wait several agonizing seconds before I turn my face up to look at his. “If I bind with you, then you won’t have to fight them all to stay with me?” I ask, because I need to be sure.

“They will be unable to stop me from taking you away because I’m free and we are one. You are not Fallen because you are not stained, like the Fallen are all marked,” he says, and he is as still as a statue. “You are also not a Nephilim… you may have a similar parentage, but you have a soul and that means you have redemption.”

“So, you will have to love me for eternity or something?” I ask, because I know that I have no concept of the infinite space of time he will be promising to me. Reed, on the other hand, probably knows just how long we are talking about and he doesn’t seem phased by it.

“Yes,” he says like a meditation, “and then, it will be you and me. You will never be alone in this again because you will have me…always,” he breathes.

Every cell in my body responds to what he says and before I can stop myself I say, “Okay, I’m in.” I smile, feeling euphoria spreading through me.

I am only allowed a few moments of pure bliss before the image of Russell enters my mind. A part of me feels really guilty and there is another part of me, my soul that wants to resist again because Reed is not Russell; he is not my soul mate. The deep burden of what this will do to Russell enters my mind then, sending a slicing pain straight through me. Russell begged me to come back and this is the only way that I can conceivably do that now. If I don’t bind with Reed, I will have to stay here with the Powers because they will not willingly let me go. It probably won’t be long before I annoy one of them with the simple fact that I’m still breathing air. Russell said that his love for me is unconditional. We will see if that is true.

“What do I need to do to bind with you?” I ask, looking up at him. His face changes from grim to one of pure pleasure. Reed lifts me off my feet and kisses me with a passion that I don’t expect. I’m lightheaded and wobbly when he finally sets me back down. The shape of his lips still echoes on mine as he goes directly to the balcony. After signaling someone, he steps back in the room. In an instant, Buns and Zephyr are on the balcony with someone else that I have never met.

“Sweetie, I knew you would say yes!” Buns says, flying at me and embracing me in a tight hug. “Reed thought we might have to make you bind to him because of how overprotective you are of all of us, but I told him that you would see reason,” she smiles, ushering me to the bathroom and closing the door. “But, just in case, we took away all of your clothes so that you wouldn’t go anywhere.” She hugs me again and says, “Thank you—for Zee, I mean. He told me what you did for them and I—I’m really mad at you—and I’m really grateful, too. I knew you had moxie, I just didn’t know you had that much.”

“It wouldn’t have worked without your help. Thank you for everything you did to get us here,” I say, squeezing her tight. “You were right about the outfit. They couldn’t kill me because of it.”

Buns gives me a knowing grin. “I told you. We just had to remind them of what they were missing, but we have to hurry with this. We don’t have much time because we don’t know when the council will decide they need to see you again,” she says, pulling away from me. She disappears out the door, and an instant later, she is back with a bag full of things. Buns pulls out a protein bar from her bag, along with some water and insists that I eat. After I’m done, she shoves me in the shower. When I finish, she sets to work on my hair, sweeping it back from my face with a gold clip and letting the length flow down my back.

Buns frowns. “I’m sorry that you have to wear a borrowed dress for an occasion like this, but Zee says we can’t afford to wait. We have to leave as soon as possible to catch up with Brownie and Russell,” she says. She helps me put on the gown; it’s a silk chiffon tunic-style dress with a rounded collar that slips off of my shoulder, baring it on one side in an innocently daring kind of way. The color of the gown is a beautiful sage green that has an iridescent quality to it and it’s belted at the waist with golden cord that flows the length of the dress as it reaches to just below my mid thigh. When I see my reflection in the mirror, I frown because, although the dress is beautiful, it makes me look fay. Since I don’t care for the faeries I have met, I don’t like the effect.