Chapter 27 #2
Avery steps away and hugs Greer’s dad before she excuses herself to go to Josh. My gaze shifts to Greer, unsure of what I’ll see. She watched the interaction in silence, her body still. She didn’t attempt to get me to take her away or make any snide remarks; she simply observed.
The red anger and shame from her aura are gone, and in their place is more gold mixed with soft blue among the remaining gray.
My chest fills with hope for the future, not only because she’s healing but also that her gold matches the color of my aura and the blue matches Kai’s.
In all my years, I haven’t seen my gold color on a human let alone mixing with another guardian’s shade.
I’m not sure what exactly it all means, but I won’t deny I like it. It makes me feel connected to her in an even deeper way than I already do—especially after being intimate together.
“This is really real?” Greer asks after another long moment, a hint of acceptance I’ve been waiting for in her voice.
“It’s real, love.”
Her eyes find mine, wide and glassy with emotion.
She doesn’t speak, so I fill the silence. “Your family, Avery—despite what you may think, they not only think of you, they love you.”
She looks down at her hands, which are clasped in front of her. “They shouldn’t.”
I snap my fingers so we’re no longer in the house but instead outside in the cold and snowy night looking in.
“Why shouldn’t they?” I ask.
“You said you’re a magical being. Don’t you know the answer?”
“I’d rather hear it from you.”
She looks inside, her eyes finding her parents before settling on Avery, who’s smiling and laughing. “It’s not as if I’ve been kind to them,” she admits. “Josh was right when he said I don’t like him.”
“And why is that?”
She eyes the happy man who’s kissing the ring on Avery’s left finger. “I didn’t think he was good enough for her.”
I try to keep my eyebrows from lifting in surprise. “Why?”
“Avery is perfect. Beautiful, wealthy, smart, and funny. I think he takes advantage of that, of her. She deserves someone who isn’t like—”
“Like?” I push.
Her silence hangs between us, pressing into my skin like a dark cloud. It isn’t until the sharp bark of a dog in the distance breaks that she speaks. “Like me.”
Ah, now that makes sense. “And having someone in her life like you is bad because…?”
She snorts. “Please, you know why it’s bad.”
“I fail to see what you’re saying. I don’t think you’re bad, Greer.”
She shakes her head. “I just said he takes advantage of her, and you must know that I do, too. I have for years now.”
“That may have been unkind, but you can change it. I still don’t consider you a bad person.”
“You’ve only seen parts of who I am.” She stops to laugh. “I’m not usually like the woman you were with today. If today was even real!”
“Look into my eyes, love.” When she does, I continue. “What happened in Elysian Pines was real, and this is real now. I’ve told you this is real many times, and I’ll continue to tell you again and again until you fully believe it.”
She narrows her gaze, eyes strong on mine.
She studies me for several moments, blinking before she reaches out to trail a finger over my stubble.
Her touch leaves a path of fire, but I don’t move.
I let her figure out whatever she needs to in her mind.
When she pulls back, she looks at her fingers, rubbing them together like she still feels the prickle from my cheek.
Greer sighs on an exhale. “I think I need to see a therapist, because honestly, I’m really starting to believe you.”
I take the hand she used to touch my cheek and grip it. “That’s good, love.”
“Remi,” she says after another pause. “Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“If this is all real, then why? And how? I’ve never heard of Nephilim. I’ve never heard of or even seen Elysian Pines on a map until I found myself here. I don’t understand what it all means or why this is all happening to me.”
I tug her closer to me and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “I think you do. And if you don’t, you will.” Her mouth opens, but I snap my fingers, and I catch her as she falls into a deep sleep upon our return to her bedroom at the inn.
Malachi is waiting there for us with the bed sheets pulled back. I lay her down on the mattress, and he covers her up, tucking her in. “How did it go?” he asks quietly. “I let you have your privacy.”
I kiss her forehead, using my grace to further her visions of the present that will play in her dreams. All of them are filled with love, joy, and the Christmas spirit. They will help her see that the wealth of life and the beauty of the holiday season have nothing to do with money.
“Thank you,” I say when I stand. “It went well. Greer claims to not understand everything yet, but she’s starting to see.”
I touch his shoulder and show him the vision of how I see Greer’s aura and the ways it’s changed.
He gasps as he places his hand over mine. “More gold and blue.”
“Yes.”
I turn off the lights and the tree, beckoning Kai to follow me. I quietly shut the door and take his hand, walking us back downstairs to Sam’s room. While we walk, I show my time with Greer and our experience together.
He exhales. “She accepted the present better than the past.”
“They usually do,” I say.
“True. After our time with her today and her experience with me yesterday, she was surprisingly docile, especially for her.”
I mull over what he’s saying as we enter Sam’s room. I don’t bother knocking, and I’m not surprised to find him sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for us. “Everything go well?”
I sit next to him and pull Kai down beside me. “You tell me, Samael. I could feel you snooping, and I didn’t close down the link. I’m surprised Kai stayed away,” I say, gripping his knee.
Kai shrugs. “Like I said, I wanted to give you some privacy, and I knew you would show me.”
“Is that the only reason?” I ask. Kai enjoys snooping more than Sam does. In fact, Sam is usually not the one to snoop.
“I just needed time to think,” he replies.
“A lot has happened in less than forty-eight hours. I took a walk and asked Elysian Pines what was happening, why Greer has us reacting differently. When that didn’t work, I looked through the past and didn’t find anything that would lead me to answers, either. ”
“Interesting.” I pause. “The past is one thing, but I’m surprised you asked the town. You know it never responds to questions; it never has.”
“I know, but I thought maybe…”
I take his hand and squeeze, picking up Sam’s as well.
We’ve been here a long time, and what’s happening has never happened before.
We’ve never had a human make us feel as if we’ll crawl out of our skin if we don’t have them.
Nor have we had someone’s aura appear gold, much less the colors of our auras together.
It makes me wonder if Sam’s will appear as well after Greer has spent more time with him.
“How are you both feeling?” I ask. The hunger inside me that was briefly sated after being inside Greer is returning full force. An invisible tug is telling me to go to her or bring her down here with us. If I did, maybe the sensation would go away. But it may only make it stronger.
“Like we should talk,” Sam says.
Kai shifts on the bed so he can look at Sam better. Clear surprise is on his face. “You’re ready to address whatever is happening here with Greer?”
Sam’s aura feels heavier than usual, the strength of it expanding out of him at Kai’s question. He turns his head, his near-black eyes connecting with Kai’s earthy ones. “There shouldn’t be anything happening—”
Kai stands. “Don’t do that, Sam. Don’t deny that you want her as much as we do, that your soul doesn’t call to her. I was standing right there when your aura exploded out of you to get to her at the rink.”
“That was an accident.”
“It wasn’t,” he says with a low, joyless chuckle.
“It was your angelic grace, the part that makes you Nephilim, the part that knows more than you do. It sensed what you’re denying and reacted.
It’s still reacting. No matter what you tell yourself, you want her.
You yearn for her, the same way you do for me and Remi.
You wouldn’t have sought us out at dinner or watched earlier if you didn’t.
And you sure as hell wouldn’t have let her into this room.
What I’m trying to figure out, Sam, is why?
Why work so hard to deny her, to deny yourself? ”
Sam stands to meet Kai so that they’re toe to toe. Their anger flows from their auras, a pulsing crimson red that reminds me of blood.
“I’m looking out for you, Malachi,” Sam says. “And for Remiel.”
“You’re not,” Kai argues. “You only think you are.”
“You’re wrong.”
Kai leans in so that their noses are almost touching. “Did you stop to think that Elysian Pines sent Greer here for more than the usual routine?”
“That doesn’t make any sense, and you know it.”
He scoffs. “Only because you’re not allowing yourself to look at the entire picture.
Tell me she’s not different from the others, Sam, that you don’t feel drawn to her.
That her aura changing to Remi’s gold and my blue isn’t strange.
In the hundreds of years we’ve been doing this, have you ever seen what you’ve seen with Greer or felt the way you feel now? ”
“Everything is different, which is why I told you that getting involved with her was a bad idea. You should have all just let her be, done your jobs, and that’s it.”
“You’re only saying that because you’re thinking of the future, Samael. Because you won’t see past it!”
“That’s my job!”
“Yes, but you’re not looking at the whole picture. We ask the people who come here to do that, to look at their past, present, and future and make a choice to change or not. So why can’t you do the same?”
“Are you forgetting that we’re not human? Greer is.”
“We’re part human.”
“Maybe so, but how do you expect to allow Greer into our lives if we all develop feelings for one another? Do you think she’ll move here, forget her job that she’s worked hard for?
On top of that, humans don’t live in Elysian Pines—they never have.
We don’t even know what that would look like, not that she’d want that, anyway, given she doesn’t even like this place.
Greer is meant to learn her lesson and return to her life, not stay with us. ”
Kai’s face falls, and I know he doesn’t have an answer to any of Sam’s questions. I don’t have the answers, either. I’ve been living in the present, and like Sam said, I haven’t been seeing the whole picture. But I do know one thing: After today, I can’t just walk away from Greer.
I stand from the bed and clasp my lovers’ shoulders. “These are heavy conversations, ones none of us have the answers to.”
“Maybe not,” Kai says, looking between us. “But I can’t stop wanting Greer; it feels wrong. Like walking away would mean the end of something I don’t yet understand the full importance of.”
He grips his stomach, and I feel my own turn with need as I speak.
“But I do think that she has to at least be given the opportunity to know we’re interested.
Beyond just the sex, but in her as a person.
I know that’s why she ran out today. She believes she doesn’t deserve more than just one-night stands and shallow relationships.
I can say that with certainty, even if she didn’t say it out loud. ”
“I agree,” Kai adds. “And she needs to know what we are and what this place is.”
“Whatever you say or do, she’ll forget it all when she leaves,” Sam warns. “And when that happens, you’ll both be hurt. We’ll long for her, and what then? Pursuing anything with her is a bad idea.”
Kai and I once again don’t miss how he included himself in that statement. We’ll long for her…
“Is that why you’re keeping your distance?” Kai asks.
“Part of it. And because of what I said before. Her future does not include us, and even if it did, there are so many unanswered questions.”
Kai’s anger dissipates, and he takes Sam’s hand and brings it upward, gently brushing his lips over his knuckles. “Don’t let your fear get in the way of what could be. You know better than us that futures can change, and since you can’t see ours, there’s hope, Sam.”
“Malachi.” He sighs, the tendrils of his aura turning from red to black, wrapping around Kai’s ankles, gripping him tight like he might leave. But I know Kai would never run from him. Neither would I.
Kai sweeps his lips over Sam’s knuckles once more. “Please, Samael. Live here in the present with us, with Greer. We’ll get the answers. I don’t know how, but we will. I have to believe that, given the way we’re all feeling.”
There’s a long pause of silence. Sam stares at Kai’s hand holding his, and eventually his aura calms, the tendrils releasing Kai’s ankles and fading to the normal black halo that emanates around his being.
“I make no promises.” Sam exhales.
Kai’s mouth lifts at the corner. “But you’ll try?”
“I can’t say I fully agree with it given what I’ve said, but for you, Kai, I will.” He looks to me with sincerity in his dark eyes. “And for you, Remi.”
“And for you,” Kai insists. “It has to be for you, too.”
Sam stares up at the ceiling as if he can see Greer’s bedroom above us before he nods. “Alright. But only because I love you both.”
Kai’s lips curl into a full smile before he kisses Sam’s knuckles again and pulls him toward the bed while gesturing with his chin for me to follow. “Let’s get some rest. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be interesting.”
I have no doubt that he’s right.