Chapter Twenty-Eight
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brIA’S SLEEP WAS DEEP and she didn’t remember her dreams when she woke up at dawn. Urzra lay on the floor right next to the couch like a huge guard dog. He woke up as soon as she moved. “How did you sleep?” she asked, stretching her arms up over her head.
“Like the dead,” he joked, rising to his feet to offer her his hand.
She took it and allowed him to pull her upwards. Her head tilted back and she was reminded all over again how tall he was. “Are all of the knights as tall as you are?” she asked.
“I’m only six foot four,” he said. “Some of my brothers are several inches taller than me. Some are a bit shorter.”
“You’re only six foot four,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re fourteen inches taller than me,” she said, stepping around him. “Can you raid the pantry while I use the john?” she requested.
“What’s a john?” the warrior asked in confusion.
“It’s one of our names for a toilet,” she said in amusement.
He nodded, then ambled to the kitchen. Bria found a half-bath just down the hallway and used it, then washed her hands.
Urzra had taken everything edible out of the pantry and was stuffing them into the canvas bags.
“Ew, not prunes,” she said, snagging a can of the horrible things out of the bag.
“Only old people eat these,” she told him, then smirked.
“I’d give them to you if you needed to eat, since you’re so incredibly ancient. ”
Urzra grinned rather than taking offense. “I’d be grateful for any gifts you gave me, female,” he said silkily.
Snickering at him, she sorted through the bags, but there was nothing else she wanted to reject. They split the bags between them, then she ate a hasty meal. Urzra had perused the map while she’d been eating. “Have you worked out which roads we’ll be taking?” she asked.
“I have a tentative route planned,” he said, opening the front door for her. “We’ll need to be on the lookout for bandits, so we can steal their vehicle.”
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” she said, then preceded him outside. It was cloudy, so she hopefully wouldn’t get sunburnt today. She always healed overnight, thanks to her freaky genes.
Urzra kept his pace to a speed she could keep up with, rather than making her run alongside him. She was walking as quickly as she could without wearing herself out. “Tell me about the female who took you in,” the warrior requested.
“Ethel?” Bria asked, startled by the question. “What do you want to know about her?”
“Why did she take in a stranger?” he asked.
“She was lonely, I guess,” Bria said. “I was kind to her when she needed some help and she could see I was in trouble. We needed each other and she opened her home to me. Ethel never got married or had kids, so she didn’t have anyone to look after her in her old age.
I told her my story about my mom kicking me out.
She decided then and there that I’d live with her instead. ”
“It worked out well for you both?” he figured.
Bria smiled in fond remembrance. “Ethel was a lovely person who didn’t hate a single human being. It was peaceful living with her because she was always in a good mood.”
“What happened to her?” he asked next.
“Ethel passed away painlessly in her sleep,” Bria said.
“I didn’t realize she’d left everything to me until her lawyer told me,” she added.
“The police were suspicious, but the autopsy proved she died of natural causes. I’d just turned eighteen and was suddenly a homeowner.
It was weird staying in her house without her, so I searched for somewhere I’d feel safe that didn’t have any close neighbors.
The house on Block Island was available, so I sold Ethel’s place, bought my new home and moved there as soon as everything was settled. ”
“You lived there all alone the whole time?” he asked.
“It was heaven,” Bria said wistfully. “It was a bit lonely at first, but every time I had to go to town, or one of my idiotic neighbors disturbed me, it made me remember why I wanted to be isolated from everyone.”
“Their emotions annoyed you that much?” Urzra asked skeptically.
“None of them were nice people,” she said defensively. “No one can hide their true personalities from me,” she reminded him. “Someone could be smiling to my face and saying really nice things, but I can feel what they’re feeling.”
“What am I feeling, cambion?” the knight challenged her.
Bria cast a look at him and rolled her eyes. “You’re perpetually horny, Urzra,” she said.
He grinned and didn’t deny it. “Only when I’m around you, female,” he said smoothly. “No other woman has ever affected me like this before.”
“Blame Fate,” she joked. “I’m fairly ordinary, so there’s no reason for a hot guy like you to be so enamored with me.”
He gave her a heated look for calling him hot, which she ignored. “How can you possibly think you’re ordinary?” he demanded. “You have gorgeous dark blonde hair, amazing gray-green eyes, a perfect complexion and a body that keeps me awake at night.”
Bria rolled her eyes. “Fate really did a number on you,” she teased him. “You can’t see me clearly, thanks to her putting the whammy on you.”
“I see you, Bria Janke,” Urzra said solemnly and she could feel his sincerity. “Fate isn’t clouding my eyes or my thoughts. I see you for who and what you are.”
“And what’s that?” she asked uneasily.
“My perfect match,” was his response.
“Remember when I told you how Kale was obsessed with me?” she reminded him wryly. “He wasn’t even crazy enough to make that claim.”
“What sort of males are you usually attracted to?” he asked.
Bria split off when they reached a bunch of vehicles that were blocking the road. She had time to think of a response as they navigated their way around it from opposite sides. Long dead corpses were trapped inside two of the cars. They’d burned to death after their vehicles had caught on fire.
“Well?” Urzra asked when they met up again.
“I like athletic men,” Bria said. “Height isn’t a factor for me, since I’m so short. But I’ve always been attracted to men with dark hair and light-colored eyes.”
“My hair is dark brown, but my eyes are dark blue, rather than light blue,” her companion said with a frown. “Does that make me less appealing to you?”
“I just meant I prefer men with blue, green or gray eyes rather than brown eyes,” she clarified. “Your eyes are beautiful.”
He beamed at her as if she’d paid him the most amazing compliment he’d ever heard.
She felt his joy and couldn’t detect the sense of obsession Kale had suffered from.
The longer she spent in Urzra’s company, the easier it was to be around him.
Like Ethel, his emotions were usually stable.
It was only when he was around people who meant them harm that he changed.
When he did, he became protective of her.
The static from the ham radio in Urzra’s backpack crackled, snapping them out of their locked gazes.
“This is Xathan, speaking to you from Manhattan,” the soldier said in his smooth voice.
He went through his usual spiel reminding people to bring food with them if they were heading to the city.
His final message was chilling. “Enemies infiltrated Manhattan last night,” Xathan said in a darker tone.
“They murdered some of our militants. They got away, but they will face retribution if they dare show their faces here again.”
Urzra had stopped walking when the radio had come to life. “They’re talking about the chaos we caused last night,” he figured.
“Are they warning us that they’ll kill us if we return?” she asked uneasily.
“It sounds more like they’re blaming Amaros and my brothers for the attack,” her companion said as he resumed walking. “They’re shifting the blame so none of their allies will realize a cambion is responsible for starting the battle.”
“I wonder if any of the soldiers were killed?” she mused.
“Let’s hope so,” Urzra said with a fierce grin. “The fewer foes we have to fight, the quicker we’ll win this war.”
“Then you and your brothers can return to the Void and I’ll stay here where I belong,” Bria said. His grin withered and she sensed deep sorrow at the thought of losing her. They walked in uneasy silence, unable to think of anything to say.