Chapter Twenty-Six
––––––––
CATERINA’S HANDS WERE still shaking slightly from the battle they’d fought and won.
Ramiel’s body was a flawless masterwork of muscle and flesh.
It hadn’t been easy to concentrate while digging the bullets out of him.
Now that they’d decided on a plan of action, the knight crossed to his belongings.
She watched from the corner of her eye as he changed his t-shirt to a clean one, then tossed the ruined one onto a pile of backpacks.
“I’d better look for some supplies before we leave,” she said, glad her voice didn’t sound husky. Being around the warrior was doing things to her that she’d rather he didn’t pick up on.
“I’ll choose one of the trucks to use during our journey,” Ramiel said. “It will be far faster if we use a vehicle.”
She nodded, then began searching the town hall.
Opening a few doors, she hit paydirt on her third try.
“Bingo,” the cambion said, eyeing the boxes of jars and canned food that were crammed into the office.
She emptied a cardboard box that was full of tissue boxes and filled it with a selection of food.
Carrying her pilfered goods outside, she heard an engine start.
“I guess he knows how to drive,” she murmured and headed towards the street two blocks away.
Ramiel was behind the steering wheel of a weathered looking pickup truck. He put it in idle, then got out to open the back door for her. His gear was already on the seat, so she put the box next to it. “Are you ready to leave?” he asked.
“I just need to grab my stuff that I hid near the barren field,” Caterina replied. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
She took off before he could argue that it wasn’t safe for her to be alone. She’d made it this far intact. It was doubtful there was anyone left in the nearby area to cause her any problems. Her belongings were still where she left them, so she grabbed her gear, then returned to her companion.
“You should have let me go with you, female,” Ramiel chided her.
“Someone could have come along and stolen our truck,” she said as he opened the back door for her again. She put her gear inside, then shut the door. He opened the passenger door like a gentleman, then closed it when she climbed in. “You do know how to drive, right?” she asked nervously.
“Fate imbues us with all the knowledge we require to function in each new era,” Ramiel told her confidently. Still, he examined everything carefully before buckling himself in, then he smoothly took off.
“This must be so strange for you,” Caterina mused. “I couldn’t imagine waking up every five thousand years to find the entire world has changed over and over again.”
“Technology has advanced beyond anything my brothers and I have ever seen this time around,” the knight agreed, then patted the dashboard. “I’m quite fond of some of the features.” He drove with the headlights off, probably to draw less attention to them.
“Men and their trucks,” she joked. “Tell me about your brothers. What are they like?”
Ramiel glanced at her for a moment before returning his attention to the freeway.
“Amaros is our commander. He’s the glue that holds us together.
We’d all sacrifice our own lives for him.
Our focus is to keep him alive for as long as possible.
Once our leader falls, our morale is decimated and we inevitably lose our war.
Camriel is his second in charge and he’s a fierce fighter.
We’re all loyal to our commander, but Camriel’s faithfulness is beyond par. ”
Caterina listened to Ramiel listing the attributes of his fellow knights.
It was obvious he loved his brothers even though they weren’t related by blood.
Their bonds had lasted for billions of years.
She had the strong impression that they could never be broken.
“I can’t wait to meet them,” she said when he was done.
His wounds had finished healing and she no longer felt any pain.
“I just hope we can find Amaros soon,” Ramiel said. “If Manhattan is as dangerous as I’ve been told, we should probably wait until tomorrow to scout it.”
“Good idea,” she agreed. “We should find somewhere to sleep for the night, then head to the city during daylight when it’s less dangerous.” She was feeling tired enough to sleep already after the hectic day she’d had.
Ramiel had driven for an hour by now. They were far enough away from the town full of cannibals to be safe. He pulled into the long driveway of a house and eased to a stop. “I’ll check to make sure the building is vacant,” he said, then climbed out, leaving the keys in the ignition.
Caterina watched the warrior sprint to the distant house. He turned and motioned to her that it was safe, so she unbuckled herself and climbed into the driver’s seat. Moving the seat forward, she drove closer to the house, then parked facing the driveway.
Ramiel entered through the front door, which had been left unlocked. Caterina left her supplies in the truck, but carried her belongings inside. “The house is completely empty,” he reported. “I didn’t find any clothing or other remains in the beds upstairs.”
“They probably headed to their local church and were raptured,” she figured, glad she didn’t have to sleep in a bed someone had vanished from.
Ramiel retrieved his gear, then locked the truck. He shut the door when he stepped inside, then locked it. “I’ll sleep down here and keep guard,” he decided.
Dust covered everything, as usual. Caterina found a feather duster in a cupboard beneath the kitchen sink.
She dusted the couch, then the dining table and a couple of chairs.
“You really don’t need to eat or drink anything?
” she asked. Ramiel had given her a brief breakdown of how different the knights and soldiers were to humans.
“Nope,” he confirmed, sinking down onto the couch.
Opening an energy bar, she bit into it and the knight shifted on his seat.
She cut a look at him to see he was staring at her raptly as she chewed and swallowed.
It took everything she had not to burst into snickers.
Just the act of her putting food into her mouth was enough to make his body react.
Spending five thousand years in stasis and going without sex had obviously made him as horny as hell.
“Is something wrong, female?” Ramiel asked when she made a choking noise as she tried to stifle her giggles.
“Nope,” she replied, then took a swig of water. “I just swallowed my food the wrong way,” she lied.
Ramiel got up, angling his body away before she could spy the erection she knew he was hiding. “I’m going to do a perimeter check,” he said, then unlocked the door and left.
Waiting until he was out of earshot, Caterina finally snickered out loud. “That poor guy needs to get laid real bad,” she murmured.
Rising, she tossed her trash in the bin in the kitchen, then ambled over to the knight’s belongings.
Her curiosity was too strong to ignore, so she knelt down and opened the duffle bags.
“Oh, my God!” she exclaimed quietly in delight.
“He’s into paranormal romance books!” Laughing hard, she muffled the noise with one hand, while checking out the blurb on the back cover.
“This is priceless!” the cambion said in mirth, then put the book back.
“He’s got all twenty books in the series stashed in here,” Caterina said, breath beginning to hitch with the need to howl in laughter.
Zipping the bag shut again, she retrieved her gear, then climbed the stairs. Stripping the pillowcase off a pillow in the main bedroom, she pressed her face into the bare pillow and succumbed to hysterical laughter.