TheHealers (14 page)

“Welcome to our little piece of heaven,” a voice from behind me was saying. I turned to see a young guy, probably early twenties, standing there with menus. He started to walk around to the front of the sofa next to the antique ottoman that was directly in front of us. The ottoman had a solid wood top that I supposed served as our table.

“Is this your first time?”

I must have vineyard virgin stamped all over my forehead.

“It’s been a long time, Alexander.” His hand went out to Alexander to shake hands. Both pairs of eyes then turned to me.

“Garrett, this is Layna.”

I stood up to shake his hand.

“Hi, Layna.” Garrett still smiled at me when Alexander slid his arm around my waist in a possessive way. I almost laughed out loud.

“Really nice to meet you. Do you want to start off with a wine tasting and then go from there?”

A wine tasting sounded wonderful to me. I looked up at Alexander.

“Yes. We want to do the food pairing with our tasting.”

I didn’t think I would ever want to leave this place.

As soon as Garrett left I turned around to fully look at Alexander.

“Do you know how in love I am with this place? I’m thinking since I can’t go home, I want to stay here.” We were sitting close enough that our legs touched and his arm was still wrapped around my waist. The buzz I had was addictive. It was hard not to smile. Just then a man and a woman sat down across from us on the sofa. The woman had straight brown hair that went just past her shoulders. She had to be in her fifties, but her body didn’t look a day over thirty-five and she had a unique ring on her wedding finger. She glanced over at me with warm hazel eyes. Green and gold glimmered all around them. Then I looked over to what seemed to be her husband
—
they were holding hands. He had short blond hair and all the laugh lines that made me think he was about the same age as her. When our eyes met, I was stunned with the arctic blue that was hidden there. He leaned over the ottoman in between us to touch my hand. I was willing to bet my life that these two were Healers.

“It is truly a pleasure to meet you, Layna.” His voice was tinged with awe and a little of an expectance. He rose and continued speaking, “I’m Trevor, and this is my wife Irena. Alexander has told us about you and we’re happy to have you here in our home.” Trevor sat back down with Irena and she started rubbing her hand up and down the length of her husband’s arm. It was a touch filled with love and intimacy. It brought an ache to my heart. Being in their presence, I could feel the warmth that filled their souls. As if he was reading my mind, Alexander reached over to touch. His strong masculine fingers stroked up and down the soft creamy skin on my arm. Little goose bumps threatened to come out from the contact.

Irena’s eyebrows rose in a small bit of surprise, but she leaned over to touch me as well. “Very nice to meet you, Layna. I’m so happy you’ve come.”

“It’s good that you made it safely. I see you took care of the tracking device.” Trevor was looking at both of us, but I was pretty confident he was speaking exclusively to Alexander.

“I made sure that no one tracked us here. I think I can help her build up some shields, at least temporarily, until we get her to the Conservatory for a more thorough training.”

What? I did not want to appear lost in front of these people so I filed away the words that were about to come off of my lips for later.

A wine glass was being placed in front of me on the ottoman and I looked up to see Garrett.

“Thank you.” I could not quite decide what color his eyes were. At a first glance, they appeared gold. I knew that wasn’t possible, so looking closer I convinced myself they were really a shade of brown. Looking around I saw that Garrett had only set down wine glasses for me and Alexander.

Irena and Trevor stood. Irena came to sit by me for just a moment with anticipation in her eyes. Finally, she leaned over to embrace me and handed Alexander a key.

“The cottage is set up for you. Join us for dinner and we can talk more.” She stood and joined Trevor and they walked off to visit with some others in the room.

I turned to pick up my wine glass and noticed a white card on the table between our glasses. Quickly scanning the sheet, I saw the list of wines we would be sampling.

The glass came quickly to my lips as the aromas touched my nose and soon fell into my mouth. It was a nice dry white wine. My senses liked everything about it immediately. I looked up at Alexander as my tongue caressed my lips, savoring apples and honey coming from the wine.

His gaze followed my lips.

“Are you ready to go back to the room already?” There was a hint of teasing in his voice, but mostly, I believed him to be serious. There was something about the room that bothered me a little.

“What exactly do you do?” I was curious about his part in all of this. I knew he was a Healer, but how had he ended up as my neighbor and protector?

“I’m a Guard.” He casually lifted his glass to his lips as I continued watching. So he was a superhuman bodyguard. He wasn’t just hopelessly attracted to me after all.

“What does that mean?” I wanted to be clear in understanding. Did he run around rescuing women all over?

He paused and looked up. Garrett was on his way over with some little appetizer that I assumed was paired with our wine.

“Did you like the wine? This crab and avocado salad does an outstanding job of bringing out the clean and crisp flavor of this chenin blanc.” His mouth seemed about to open and speak again, but something in Alexander’s face must have indicated otherwise. Garrett disappeared quickly and I glanced down at the artistic creation next to my wine glass. The plate was small and white but it was touched with color from the mixture that was the salad.

My fingers touched the fork when another hand depressed down and released my hand from the utensil. I watched as Alexander scooped some of the salad onto my fork and proceeded to bring the fork to my lips. His eyes begged me silently to comply. It was in my nature to throw a fit and refuse to be fed, but for him, I gave in. Something clicked in my head as I swallowed the scrumptious bite.

I want to please him. In so many ways.

That realization threatened my ability to think clearly about anything for a moment.

“When it became apparent that our people would need protection, some of the Healers worked to hone their craft into something defensive for the others. It is said that this all began with a mother trying to protect her child. The woman was called Aceso. She witnessed the brutal slaying of one of her children by a Hunter. This child had been extremely gifted. It was believed by many that he could actually sense the Hunters. The child was still too young and not able to understand what his ability was trying to tell him so he did not succeed in getting away. It was through Aceso’s anger that she bestowed a superhuman strength into her other child, Alexious. People say she healed his inability to protect himself. He was the beginning of our Guard. Those Healers became more gifted in speed, agility, and strength. Once that ability was manifested, it seemed that their DNA was altered to reflect it. Those protectors started having children, and the same traits were present in them also. It’s from those people that I descended. I’m a Healer, but my strength lies in protection.” The far away gaze in his eyes indicated that this was a story that had been retold for unaccounted years.

“Does every Healer have a Guard?” I listened eagerly as a child does at story time. My lifetime was not filled with stories of my history, so I reveled in this opportunity. My mouth was also busy with the drinking and eating of the appetizers and wine.

“It’s not possible to assign one Guard to each Healer, so we try to keep the Healers close together. We then assign ourselves to clusters.” His hand reached up to linger through my strawberry strands.

“How did you end up with me? I’m not a group. What am I considered?”

Those lines on his face went serious with thought.

“You are one of the lost. There are several therapeftís that have become hidden from our society and it has become necessary to find them before they are hunted.” He set down his wine glass and pushed his hand around my waist to tug me closer.

“My senses allow me to track down Healers and Hunters with uncanny precision. This allows me to provide great assistance in finding our people.”

“What did you sense when you found me?” I wanted to see myself through his dark, rich eyes. I snuggled back at his chest while we both gazed out of the window. His deep tone echoed words in my ear.

“I think that you called me. It was a call I couldn’t ignore…I didn’t want to. We’re connected in an indescribable way.” As his words sounded in my ear, I felt like I floated. Somewhere far away, but here. And always with him. Now that it had been verbalized, I could sense the connection more clearly.

Garrett had cleared away our plates and our bodies were still locked together on the sofa. The silence was not uncomfortable, but it was electrically charged. The particles of our chemistry were like a buzzing bee surrounding us. It was complicated to believe that everyone could not see it. There were some people that did see. I had noticed the adoring looks from some onlookers and the smiles we were given.

“Is there anything else you need?” A simple question from my Guard, but it provoked some tangible need that had been stirring in my body since the first time we touched.

He didn’t even wait for a response, but instead read it in my face.

“Let’s go get settled in the cottage where we can rest before dinner.” I made no attempt to put up any kind of a fight. I wanted to be alone with him. We walked back outside and I waited on the bridge while Alexander collected our things from his truck. It shocked me to notice how clear the water was below. My reflection was just visible.

I looked up to watch Alexander pull out all of the bags. There was a soft murmur I heard on the breeze and I noticed his mouth moved over his cell phone. The muscles on his arms and chest were still visible with the t-shirt he wore. Cravings to lick and bite my way across all that luscious skin affected my ability to stand. The iron poles of the bridge suddenly provided my support while I continued to watch him. One hand rose up to brush strands of hair out of his face. Deep dravite eyes looked my way and stopped.

The phone was being put back in his pocket and he began walking back over to me with our bags.

“You ready?”

Oh yes. My head nodded in response instead of the very hungry words in my mind. “Who was on the phone?” I followed him on the twisted cement walkway away from the main house where we had done the wine tasting.

“Scyrus was giving me the run down on your house and all of your stuff. They moved it to storage and are in the process of cleaning up the house.” His voice was quiet, but the tremor in his tone let me hear his anger.

“That’s amazing that people I don’t even know would do all of this for me. Why are they all taking care of me?” Slowing down on the walking path, I took a look around at where we were headed. The trees were more plentiful in this area than they had been closer to the vineyard. In fact, the vineyard was pretty much hidden from our view. Waterfall sounds quickly drew my attention towards the cottage. I continued to follow Alexander and there we stopped to admire the waterfall from the front of our cottage.

“They protect you because of who you are. Your life is important to our Order. I protect you because of…” His hands suddenly put down the bags on our doorstep and then reached to grab me the next. Hot, strong lips caressed mine, inviting, begging for me to open up. Softly, gently my lips barely opened, but it was enough for him to take over. Our tongues were suddenly tangled together in a dance that I wanted to go on forever. The slow way his tongue wandered around discovering my mouth scrambled every part of my ability to think. Instinct took over. Arms that had lain in shock at my side soon began to grab at that hard chest. I wanted to rip off his clothes right there. I needed skin. I wanted to feel his warm skin on top of me.

That intense tongue of his soon found another place to explore on my neck. I whimpered when he left my lips. It was bittersweet. The sweet designs he marked on me with his tongue were beyond erotic. Then he bit. It was hard and wild and filled with every emotion I had ever wanted to feel. I knew I could never be with another man. Not when this one sang to my soul.

Ferocious bites slowly became lazy licking and soon our lips touched again. It was delicate, but I knew it was only the calm before the storm. I met his gaze and felt our souls align. Nothing in life could ever separate me from him. He turned my head to the waterfall that had originally caught my attention.

“Do you think you might be ready for a swim? I’d want you naked first.” His hands were back now to fiercely clutch my hips.

“I think it might be worth it.” I smiled. It was pure and real. Fear was still present in my mind but a night with this fierce protector tempted too much to pass up. Alexander turned to pick up our bags and opened the door with the key from Irena. I walked into the room and wanted to pinch myself. It was much too beautiful to be real. It did not escape my notice that he locked the door with the deadbolt after I walked in.

Chapter Sixteen