Chapter 38 Remiel
Chapter thirty-eight
Remiel
The air tightens and hums then snaps like a deer stepping on a twig in the forest. I stand from the couch in the inn, the same one where Greer rode my thigh, nearly throwing the whiskey from the tumbler in my hands into the fire.
Before I can call for Kai and Sam, they both appear in front of me.
“You all felt it?” Kai asks, excitement clear in his tone.
“Someone crossed the border,” Sam says in a calm tone. Though I know he’s not calm—I can see it in the way his jaw flexes as he clenches it.
“It’s her; it has to be,” Kai adds.
I use my connection as the leader of our guardianship to tap into the town’s energy. Someone has crossed the border as Sam said, and by the way it hums and builds in my being—just like it did the first time it made us aware of her—I know Greer is back.
“What are we waiting for?” Kai doesn’t hesitate. He steps around me and heads toward the front of the inn at lightning speed. I’m surprised he didn’t snap his fingers to appear there faster.
“Remiel,” Sam says before I can follow.
I meet his intense gaze. His pupils are as dark as the deepest depths of the ocean. “What is it?”
“If she chooses to stay with us, I don’t know how it will work, if she’ll age the same as us or…like I said, I can’t see our future with her.”
I step forward and grip his chin, holding it firm. “We’ll take whatever time is given to us, no matter what happens. I’ll reiterate with you what I told Kai: We’ll always have each other, until we take our final breath. No fear, remember?”
He stares at me another moment before he dips his chin sharply. I drop my hand and take his, keeping it in mine as we meet Kai in the front room.
The sound of snow under tires drags our attention to the SUV driving into the parking lot.
My heart thuds in my ears, and relief floods my system.
I knew it was Greer, but the confirmation of seeing her vehicle is soothing.
She may not have been gone long, but she didn’t forget us, and Elysian Pines let her find her way back like I think I always knew it would.
My lungs release the breath it trapped, and my shoulders lighten. I send a silent thank-you to the magic of the town, and to my surprise, a massive pulsing wave of energy floods through me in response. It feels like a thousand shock waves, awakening every nerve in my being.
“What was that?” Sam asks.
“I felt it, too,” Kai adds.
“The town, it bloody responded to me.”
“What?” Sam asks, eyes wide.
“I told it ‘thank you’ for bringing her back. That pulse was the response.”
The three of us stare at each other. This must mean that this is the future, our future. This is what is supposed to happen, and Elysian Pines is playing its role. Things will work out; we just have to let them.
Greer spots us before she even reaches the door, and Kai jumps out of his trance to open it for her.
The cold wind sweeps in, and she smiles at him as she passes by to meet Sam and I in the middle of the foyer.
I just saw that smile last night, but I was already missing it.
I want to see it every moment of every day.
“Hi,” she says breathlessly, clutching a small brown gift bag in her hands. Kai rejoins us so we’re standing in a semicircle around her.
“Hello, love. You found your way back, I see?”
“Believe it or not, it popped right up on the map before I could even try to come find it.” She looks just as surprised by this information as we all are.
“It what?” Sam asks, his eyes narrowed.
Greer meets his gaze, her cheeks turning a soft pink. “It was on the map in my car’s GPS.”
Another ripple of energy pulses through my being, as if the town is saying “you’re welcome” again. It’s reassurance that she’s meant to be here.
Kai steps closer to her, his fists clenched at his sides. He wants to touch her but isn’t sure if he should ask to or not. “However you got here, I’m glad you’re here, Princess.”
“I am as well, love,” I say.
Greer’s lips curve into a quiet smile before she looks at Sam once more.
He’s staring at her as if he’s seen a ghost, his black aura emanating around him.
Greer’s aura is shining as brilliant as ever, but as she looks at Sam, waiting for him to speak again, an echo of fear bleeds through its layered colors.
I’m about to smack my fellow guardian upside the head when he takes a step toward her and touches the side of her cheek.
“I’m happy you’re here, too.”
The fear leaves Greer, and her muscles ease, her smile back and brighter. Sam drops her hand, and she bites her lower lip, her eyes hooding as she holds up the small gift bag.
“I have to admit, I did kind of beg the town to let me in because I had something to give you.”
Elysian Pines answered her, too. I hear Kai and Sam thinking the same thought. My pulse beats hard in my throat, and for me, I need no further evidence that Greer will stay here with us, in whatever capacity she chooses to for as long as she wants. It’s not a feeling I have—it’s that knowing again.
My aura pulses in answer, my skin prickling. If I didn’t have control over it, I think it would have burst forth from my being like Sam’s did at the rink and Greer’s did yesterday in the bedroom.
“You got us a gift, love?”
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Sort of—more something I wanted to replace.”
I take the bag from her, our fingers brushing as I do. Sparks skitter up my arm, and by the clearing of her throat, she felt them, too.
I open it up and gently take out the present wrapped in tissue paper, handing the bag to Sam. I unwrap the small item and find an angel ornament with a cherub face and delicate wings. My brow rises as I hold it up by its ribbon.
“You got us an angel, Princess?” Kai asks, his lips twitching.
She ducks her chin. “To replace the one I broke in my room. It’s not the same, but it was the best I could find the day after Christmas. Everything was pretty picked over.”
I’d nearly forgotten about the broken ornament. When I went to her room like a lost puppy shortly after she left, I saw the broken angel and thought it was an accident. I’d mended it with my grace, and that was that. The fact that she replaced it shows her growth.
I also find it sweet that she believes this gift is the reason Elysian Pines let her find it again. Find us again.
I hold the angel in my hand like a cherished prize that I know the three of us will keep forever. My gaze locks with Greer’s, her once-cold glare now warm and gentle.
“Thank you, love. It’s perfect.”
“Really?”
Kai holds out his hand, and I give him the gift. He looks at it, the boyish grin I love tugging at his lips. “I like it. It kind of looks like Sam.”
Sam narrows his eyes at him, and Greer giggles—not a laugh, a giggle. The three of us turn our attention to her, and she smiles a smile that’s wide and real. It’s more beautiful than any gift she could ever give to us.
When she sees how we’re looking at her, though, she erases it from her features.
“No.” I move closer to her. “Do that again.”
Her eyes widen at the commanding tone of my voice. “Do what?”
I trace over her lips with my pointer finger, the air between us pulling tight with delicious tension at my touch. “Smile like that again.”
Her lip quirks, and one of her brows rises smartly. “Did you really just tell a woman to smile?”
Kai and Sam chuckle. This woman is yet again proving how perfect she is for us. “I did, didn’t I?”
She fights her lips from curving higher, and I move my fingers to lightly grip her chin. “You did.”
We stare into each other’s eyes, the air between us tightening with a natural, undeniable pull.
Sexual tension builds with every second we stand here.
My hand stays firm beneath her chin, and Greer’s breath shortens.
At my sides, my Nephilim lovers press close, their bodies humming with the same voracious need we all feel.
“Would you rather we earn your smile, love?” I ask.
She shifts in my grip, swallowing hard as passion pulses through her aura. I love that all it takes is a few simple touches and our presence to turn her on. She does the same to us—even without being here, we’ve felt our desire and need for her.
“And how would you all earn it, Remiel?”
I hum and drop her chin, stepping back from her warmth. I immediately miss the touch of her skin and the cinnamon-vanilla scent of her. It takes all of my resolve not to pounce on her right here in the foyer, but she’ll need to be comfortable for what I’m planning next.
I briefly look at Kai and Sam to make sure they’re on the same page, sending them a vision of what I’d like us to do, of how I’d like us to worship her, to show Greer all we can be—together.
I don’t need their answers verbally or in our bond—the simmering desire in their eyes and the way Kai’s pants are already growing a prominent bulge are enough confirmation. The only thing I need to be sure of is Sam’s commitment to Greer.
I’m here, Remiel. I’m not running this time.
My chest expands at his reassurance, and I feel Kai’s love for him grow as mine does. I didn’t think it was possible to love either of them more than I already do, but I’ve seen in the last few days that anything can happen.
“Do you trust us?” I ask.
Greer’s gaze sweeps over us, her aura pulsing with desire and a feeling I liken to relief. “I do.”
Her words buzz through my being like hundreds of honeybees, and I do the only thing that feels right: I hold out my hand for Greer to take.
“Then let us show you, love.”