Chapter 20
Elijah
He stayed like he said he would, and I was glad I wasn’t alone, even if I wouldn’t quite admit that much.
I gave him a key so he could come and go as he pleased.
He usually met me at work or beat me home and had dinner started when I came back.
I wasn’t sure what he did all day while I was at work, but I was pretty sure he was snooping around for clues.
I’d seen him around town throughout my days, talking to people, trailing Tanner and Jaron, and generally being a pain in the ass to the police force because he was determined they weren’t doing their jobs properly.
Sometimes I stared at him in my house, because it felt like he belonged there, and I thought of all the times I’d dreamed of a life with him when I was younger.
I hated the reason he was back, but I was grateful that someone higher up was being merciful enough to let me know what happiness felt like.
To let me know what it was like to love someone who loved me back.
And I did love him. I always had. But I wasn’t going to tell him, even though a part of me wanted to.
It would complicate things and make it even harder on him in the end.
I woke up early on Friday morning, the sun barely rising.
I wasn’t sure what woke me, but I climbed out of bed to use the bathroom, and as I headed back to my bedroom to try to get a little more sleep, I glanced at the living room window.
The shades were up, which was strange, because I always pulled them at night.
I could see the corner of my porch swing and it was swaying slowly back and forth. I paused.
A look at the trees beyond my porch told me it wasn’t windy.
I looked into my room to see Mason and Enyo sleeping soundly on my bed, and though I wanted to go back to the warm safety the spot I’d vacated offered me, I crept over to the living room window and looked out.
There was a man sitting on the swing, methodically rocking it back and forth.
I swallowed hard as I recognized him from behind as the man who’d been standing in the woods, the man Mason couldn’t see.
He didn’t turn around, but his hand moved and he patted the seat beside him.
I glanced at the bedroom again. Nothing was telling me to run or panic, but I’d been wrong before.
I decided to trust my instinct and hope I was right, as I moved to the front door and unlocked it, stepping out onto my porch.
The light coming over the horizon was orange and red, casting everything in a warm but somehow eerie glow.
I looked over at the swing and he was still there, looking out at the sunrise.
Even though he still didn’t look at me, I walked over and sat down on the swing with him, moving my legs slowly in the rhythm he’d already set.
It felt like there was someone truly there, someone solid, swinging with me.
I could feel his weight in the pull of the swing, and that was probably the weirdest part, because I knew he wasn’t fucking real.
I dared to get a good look at him. He was maybe a little older than me, but not by much. He had sad brown eyes and blond hair.
“Are you the one who keeps talking to me?” I asked him, mainly because I was tired of all the weird shit going on around me and the things being said. If I was looking at him face-to-face, maybe he wouldn’t speak in fucking riddles.
Disappointingly, he just said, “No.” There was nothing ethereal about him. His voice was normal. He seemed like a regular person, just taking a rest on my porch. He paused for a moment but added. “That’s bigger than me.”
“Who are you, then?”
He smiled at the sunrise but turned to me, finally looking at me without losing the welcoming smile. His eyes had changed; the sadness had dimmed. “A friend.”
“What are you doing on my porch?”
“Trying to help you.”
I wasn’t sure how any of it was supposed to help, and I was growing frustrated. “Well, someone else told me I couldn’t be helped. That there was no hope. So which is it? What’s going on?”
He looked out at the sunrise again, the smile fading slightly. “You’re right. The ending is unavoidable. But other things can be stopped.”
I glanced at my house, pretty sure I knew where he was going with it. “You mean other people can be helped.”
He looked back at me. “Everyone is important when it comes to fate. Your own is set, but it can affect others.” Fucking riddles. They all had them.
“Elijah? Hey! Elijah!” I opened my eyes in my own bed. Mason was hovering over me, shaking me gently.
I rubbed my eyes and looked around. The sun was up and my room was bright, my alarm going off beside me. “You were sleeping through your alarm,” he said. “I didn’t want you to be late.”
I groaned and stretched, grabbing my phone and turning off the alarm.
“Yeah, thanks. That’s weird, it usually wakes me right away.
” So I’d been dreaming, then. But it had seemed real enough that it unnerved me.
I wasn’t sure if any part of it had been real, but if it wasn’t just made up in my mind, what would he have been trying to say?
Was he saying that Mason could die trying to save me?
Everyone had told me he couldn’t stop my fate, but would his protectiveness cause his own end too?
Is that what could be stopped? The thought that his path crossing mine right now could cause his death was too much for me.
I could not let him die for me. There was no reason for him to die too, and I wouldn’t allow it.
Mason was looking at me with his brow furrowed. “You okay?” I just nodded. He relaxed and kissed my forehead with a smile. “I’ll go start some breakfast while you get ready, okay?” God, he was spoiling me.
I got up to get my clothes and he headed to the kitchen. On his way out he said, “Weird. The shade is up. It was down last night, wasn’t it?”
I hesitated, but just said, “Yeah, I thought so.” I headed into the bathroom to get ready.
◆◆◆
Mason drove me to work that day. He said he had to go to his parents’ house, and he wanted to pick me up. The shade in the living room was still up when we left, and Enyo watched us out the window.
Work went by normally. I had to go to the basement, which unnerved me, but there were no electricity issues or my world disappearing around me, so I called it a win, and Mason was waiting for me when I stepped outside in the afternoon. Rory smiled and waved as she got in her car, giving me a wink.
“Hey,” he said, giving me a kiss right in the parking lot like he didn’t care who saw.
“I want to take you out tonight, alright?” I just looked at him.
I was sure people were already starting to talk, because there was no way no one had noticed, especially with his scene in the police station, but I still wasn’t sure how he felt about being all the way out of the closet.
Rory was grinning at us as she pulled away.
I was still a little flustered at the public kiss. “What do you mean?” It was a stupid question, but it came right out of my mouth anyway.
He chuckled. “It’s Friday night. You’re off work tomorrow. I know I’m practically living with you right now because of everything, and we’re doing this ass-backwards, but I’d like to take you out on a proper date. Can I take you out?”
“Uh . . .” I glanced down at my scrubs, covered in god knew what. I was pretty sure I saw a streak of anal gland material, and there was a smudge of earwax on my pocket. Definitely a splatter of blood near my shoulder. “Yeah, sure, okay. Can I go get cleaned up first?”
He grinned and opened the passenger door for me, which felt weird, but I allowed it. “Of course.”
◆◆◆
Enyo ran to greet me when I walked in the door, rubbing up against my legs.
When Mason followed me in, she ran over to him too, as though to her, he belonged here.
I really hoped she’d be okay when everything went down.
She loved Mason so much, and I could tell he liked her by the way he scratched behind her ears as he shut the door, so maybe he’d take her.
Maybe having her there would help him through it all.
If he couldn’t take her, I knew Rory would. Enyo would be okay.
I opened a can of cat food and put it down for her, and she abandoned her affection session and ran to eat. I headed to my room to find some clothes so I could take a shower. “What do you want to do?” I called out to him.
He followed me in and started rummaging in his bag. “The only thing there is to do around here, I guess,” he said with a laugh. “Let’s go out to dinner then see a movie and go to the bar.” He put a hand over his mouth with a dramatic gasp. “I heard the movie playing is rated R.”
I laughed, because I’d heard a few complaints about this week’s choice at the single-screen theater downtown as well. But I looked at him. “Really? You’re settling for what the town has to offer at face value? No sense of adventure?”
“Excuse me, I have plenty of adventure in me,” he said indignantly. “Fine. Let’s break into your ex-hookup’s mansion and search for clues. After we’re done, we can raid his fridge and Netflix and chill in one of his guest rooms.” He waggled his eyebrows for effect, eyeing me in challenge.
Fuck every single bit of that. I wasn’t about to have another vengeful asshole watching me in his house like at Brandon’s place.
“Dinner and a movie sound pretty good,” I sighed.
I found some clothes that looked decent, then turned to him.
“Are you sure you want to go out in public, Mason?” There were a few reasons I was uncertain about it.
“We don’t have to be so open if you aren’t ready for it, especially here.
People are sometimes . . . not nice about it.
I’m good with dinner and a movie right here. ” And some chill, of course.