Divine Mortals (12 page)

“You can’t possibly understand how I feel right now Ava.” he sighed, finally meeting my eyes, my heart skipped and then sped up, “I’m so confused.”

I didn’t know how to answer this and my heart went out to him, I wanted to tell him I was as confused as he was, that he didn’t have to worry, that I wouldn’t tell anyone what I had seen.

He stood abruptly and I thought he was going to leave, to run from whatever he was trying to hide. But instead he was in front of me in a movement so fast my eyes didn’t even register it, I jumped in fright at his sudden closeness, he grabbed my hand, his grasp unusually warm reminding me of our trip in the pickup.

“Come with me.” he finally smiled, his eyes told me he had made a decision. We walked slowly hand in hand down the hallway and out onto the porch. At the top of the porch stairs he let go and looked me in the eyes, I felt my heart speed to an alarming rate, I was starting to lack control when I was around him.

“I can see you aren’t going to let this go,” his smile was both forgiving and patronizing, I couldn’t speak, I had no idea what was about to happen so I just nodded.

“So rather than tell you I’m going to show you,” his face brightened even further, “After all,” he added, his smile teasing, “You showed me so now I’ll show you. You can’t say I don’t play fair.”

“Hey!” I started to defend myself, I didn’t know he was going to turn up tonight.

But before I could finish he had disappeared, he was there and then he wasn’t, only the soft whoosh of air betrayed any movement. I stood alone in the dark, the only light came from behind me, through the open door to the house.

Turning slowly in a circle I tried not to panic, could he actually become invisible?

Was I actually losing it!

“Robert,” I spoke softly, barely voicing his name.

“Here…” his voice came from above, I jumped, my head flying up, he stood on the porch roof peering over the edge at me.

“How…” I started, and then he was gone again. I turned quickly, looking out from the porch, I found him bathed in moonlight, his blonde hair illuminated like a halo, standing on the top rail of the bull pen at least a hundred yards from the house, it had taken him just a few seconds.

He stared back, his own expression suddenly vulnerable and at the same time challenging, could I deal with this?

I was careful not to show any emotion, although my mind was going so fast I could barely keep up.

Could I deal with this? I didn’t know the answer to that myself.

Holding my gaze he leapt twenty feet into the air, slower this time, graceful, landing a full fifty yards away from the pens in front of Pops old pickup, the one the hands used on the ranch. I knew I should be afraid, a part of me was, he didn’t make me feel uneasy in person but his actions terrified me. Both he and I knew we were at some kind of turning point, a large fork in the road at which neither of us knew which way we would turn.

He held out his arm, pointing at a deep dent in the passenger door, giving me a wink, melting my heart just a little further, he lay a finger on the dent and I watched unbelieving as the tip began to glow blindingly white, the light seemed to envelop the door and when he moved his hand the dent was gone.

My legs begin to tremble, this was a bit to take in and I sank rather ungracefully to the ground.

“And for my next trick,” he grinned, trying to put me at ease with his tone, speaking like a circus performer. Flicking his hand in the direction of the door, it crumpled once more, into the same dent it had been only moments before.

“Easier to keep it the same then explain an overnight panel beating job,” he smiled.

In a blur of blonde moonlight he covered the distance between the truck and I in an instant, to stand in front of me smiling a little sheepishly.

“And you have already seen my amazing powers of natural destruction, killing trees and the likes.”

I took a deep breath feeling completely and utterly speechless, and then everything went black as I fainted.

I came around quickly, Roberts warm hands propping me against his chest.

“Sorry,” he murmured, his eyes searching mine, “I didn’t mean to frighten you, I guess it’s a bit to take in.”

I blinked up at him, still struggling to recover the power of speech.

“Ahhh,” he narrowed his gaze, “so is it just me or do you make a habit of fainting?” I could hear the smile in his voice, finding my legs I stood carefully, checking my balance before attempting an answer.

“It’s definitely you.” I smiled, turning from him so I could gather my thoughts. The nights here were cold in contrast to the day, I shivered wrapping my arms around myself.

I had known he was different, had suspected after yesterday of course, but seeing just how different… I must have looked a little ill.

“Ava?” his voice was smooth, but sounded strangely distant as the world spun again, his hand was immediately on my back, balancing me, burning into the bruise he had left last night.

“Are you okay you look a bit… off?”

I stared up at him, I still couldn’t manage proper words, pushing myself from him I wandered towards the hammock at the far end of the porch, taking the opportunity to clear my mind, sitting gently the hammock swayed as it took my weight. Robert took a deep breath himself before slowly following me.

“Do you mind if I ahhhh…” He gestured towards the hammock.

“Sure.” I waved my hand towards the other side, he climbed in slowly trying not to tip me out, laying back against his side he stared intently at me, mirroring my own look I was guessing. Our legs bent in the middle touching gently from knee to ankle, I could feel the usual fire of his skin burning through his jeans where our legs touched.

The hammock swung slowly, the beam above groaning under our combined weight, I prayed we weren’t too heavy, I didn’t think I could handle falling down again.

“What are you thinking?” Robert was watching me, his expression curious as he looked for some clue as to what was going on in my head.

Surprisingly I laughed, sounding crazy even to my own ears, but I was so overwhelmed, Robert looked completely stunned, jumping at my outburst, he hadn’t been expecting it either. I was quietly smug that
I
had at least been able to surprise him in this one small unhinged act, even if it did throw up questions about my sanity.

“Sorry,” I choked, trying to cut off my giggles and form the questions I had swarming around my mind. I looked out to the sky, taking a deep breath, the night was stunning. One thing I did love about Huntington was that I could see the stars, so thick and numerous it was hard to believe that many existed. You couldn’t see them in Chicago, there was too much other light blocking them from view, here they almost took your breath away. I looked back at the person sharing the hammock with me, Robert did take your breath away. I still could not believe what I had seen but I knew I was going to have to because there was nothing else that I
could
do.

“Does anyone else know?” I asked quietly.

“No.”

“How long have you been able to do… that.”

“Forever.” he shrugged,

“Can you do anything else?”

“Like what?”

I had finally asked something he found amusing, his mouth threatening to lift in the corners.

“Do you mean can I read minds, or fly or something?”

“Yeah,” I nodded seriously, I couldn’t see why that would be so impossible if he could fix pickups with his crazy glowing hand.

“No.” he smiled “No, I can’t do either of those things, if I could read your mind answering these questions would be a lot easier, I would be more prepared.”

“Oh there’s plenty more questions coming don’t worry,” I smirked,

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” he grimaced, and he did look truly worried, was he scared I would expose him or reject him, was he scared for me? I began to wish that
I
could read minds.

“Okay,” I breathed, finally feeling my composure come back, I played my fingers gently along the edge of the hammock, pulling on the loose fibers that were poking out here and there. I didn’t want to make eye contact with him, my next question sounded stupid even in my own head, I was sure it wouldn’t sound any better out loud.

“So what are you?” my fingers dug into my knees as I asked, the sound of my breathing the only noise in the night around us.

“Well.” His smile was strained, “Would you believe it if I said I was Superman.” His eyes flashed with mirth, although his mouth and the lines of his face were tight.

“Almost.” I forced a smile. “But no. I don’t believe you’re Clark Kent.”

He let out a long breath, his eyes burrowing into mine, as he decided whether he could trust me. Swiping his fingers through his hair, making the blond lengths stand on end, he took another breath and wiped his hands down his pants before seemingly turning into a statue.

“We are guardians.” His voice was little more than a whisper.

“Ok,” I let my answer hang,

“We protect the human race from the unseen.”

“Unseen?” I echoed, “We?”

“We.” He repeated. “I honestly don’t know how many of us there are, we grow up amongst humans, our first 21 years spent just like you would and then we enter training for 3 years before returning to take up our posts as guardians.”

“I don’t understand what you guard against.” I breathed. “And where do you go, is it like ‘Hello Vegas I’m twenty one’ and the next day on board the train to Hogwarts.”

This finally earned me another of his smiles.

“Something like that.”

“And what do you mean you protect humans, so… you’re not human?”

“I’m human enough, but we are something extra. We have other talents and gifts.” His expression hardened, “If that’s what you choose to call them.”

“Doesn’t Superman have supersonic hearing or something, he hears the damsels in distress call when villains are harassing them?”

“I’m not Superman and besides I wouldn’t say my hearings
that
good. But I can hear people from quite a distance,”

“What sort of distance?” I pressed, I had only been joking about his hearing.

A look of guilt flashed across his face, he quickly replaced it with a lopsided smile.

“About three miles.”

“What!” I was shocked and tried quickly to think of everything I had said lately that he may have heard.

“Don’t worry,” he laughed out loud, seeing the look on my face. “I don’t hear you all the time, normally I kind of ‘tune out’ like when you are trying to read with the television on, you can ignore the sound of the TV until it’s like you are in the room alone.”

“But you can ‘Tune In’? Have you heard me? You only live a couple of miles from here, you could listen in all the time.”

I didn’t know why I was so upset by this, shouldn’t the fact that I was sharing a hammock with a… well a super human, inhuman, Guardian, whatever he was, be a little more important, and besides I didn’t think I’d said anything too embarrassing.

He looked down at me carefully, perhaps trying to judge whether telling me had been the right thing to do, he started again, a little more cautious this time.

“I have heard you a couple of times,” he admitted, looking like the kid who had been caught stealing candy.

I frowned waiting for him to continue.

“But only over the last few days,” he hurried on, “I never paid much attention to you before that, I thought you were some snobby rich girl from the city, here to play farmer for a few months.”

“Well thanks Superman, you tell me you listen to my conversations and then you insult me.” I spoke brusquely, Robert cringed at the word Superman, but he let it slide.

“What I’m trying to say is I haven’t heard you very much, trust me most the time it’s better not to know what someone is saying.”

I could imagine it was, I was thanking any gods that may be listening for the small mercy that meant he couldn’t read my mind.

Roberts eyes continued to search mine, their dark brown depths troubled,

“Thank God I can’t hear what you’re thinking,” he muttered, I paused and narrowed my eyes at him, maybe he
could
read minds?

“That guy yesterday,” I asked, “The one in the top paddock that you fought with, was he Superma……, was he a Guardian too?”

“Yes.” Robert shrugged, I could see this was still going to be a hard topic to broach.

“What did he want?”

“I won’t tell you about that Ava, I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t, who was he?” I demanded,

“Ava,” My name sounded so nice when he spoke it,

“It might not be safe for you to know,” he spoke gently, his dark eyes pleading with me, he needed me to understand, to accept it and leave it alone, I decided quickly that I would, for now.

“I can’t put you in any more danger then you’re probably already in just by knowing about me.” He added.

I paused, could I be in danger? I hadn’t considered that, not seriously.

“Okay,” I conceded deciding on another angle.

“How did you know where I was yesterday, after I fell off Beaut? I was so quiet.”

His smug smile returned once more, the corner of his mouth pulling up, I was happy to see that the seriousness of his last words were not going to taint the rest of our conversation.

“Damsel in distress right? Isn’t that what you said?”

A thrill went through me at his words, I was really going to have to pull myself together instead of being left breathless by his smiles.

“Seriously Robert,”

“Okay, I heard you,” he admitted, “you said, and I quote,” His smile grew further, “‘Oh Crap’ right before you passed out, I was next to you by the time you hit the deck, I sat you up against the tree,” He gave me a mocking look.

“Not very lady like I have to say, most damsels normally hold the back of their hand to their forehead and drop slowly, you dropped like a rock, covered in lumps and bruises.”

“Well elegance has never really been my thing.” I laughed, I couldn’t believe that I was accepting this all so easily, perhaps I hadn’t accepted it, maybe it would hit me like a steam train later.

Robert must have been thinking the same thing, he was watching me like a hawk, as though waiting for me to go into shock at any moment.