Eternal Echoes, Emblem of Eternity Trilogy Book 2 (18 page)

I hated when Alex decided to launch into one of his lectures. Over the past few months, they’d become a staple of our relationship. Him telling me what I should do, me telling him not to tell me what to do. It was a cycle. Because of my experience, I knew there were two ways I could respond: fight him, or let it go. I wasn’t a “let it go” kind of girl. “Then I’ll die knowing I tried and wasn’t a coward. No one else is getting information about the shadows. I had one right here. I took advantage of the situation. Maybe what I learned will save a Tracker.”

The muscles at Alex’s jaw worked. Hard. “I hope something eventually scares you enough that you’ll stop thinking you’re indestructible.”

I met his eyes. “I know I’m not immune, Alex. But I’m not willing to sit back and let other people fight my battles. I’m also not willing to have you tell me what you
think
I should know, instead of the whole truth.” I held his gaze. “I’m sick of being lied to. I have to look out for myself. I realize your inherent overprotectiveness is a problem in this respect, but too bad. I won’t be kept in the dark, and I won’t hope someone else will be there to save me. In the cave, I saved myself
and
you. I’ll do it again.”

Alex stared. I stared. We both knew we’d reached an impasse, so arguing was pointless.

“You know, sometimes I miss the days when I thought you were just crazy.” I moved on to another topic before he could respond. “What’s with all these shadows?” Alex walked across the sidewalk, meeting me in front of my Mustang. “This is the second one I’ve seen in the last few weeks. Have you seen any others?”

He pulled his lips back, giving an almost imperceptible nod.

“Emil too?”

He nodded again.

“Did you know they were here even before I told you about the one I saw when I slid into the snow bank?”

He put his hands in his pockets. “I need you to come with me,” he said instead of answering my question. He walked to the passenger side of my car. That alone made me nervous. Alex hates my Mustang, and hates it even more when I drive. I always thought it had to do with his inane need to control things. The fact that he was voluntarily riding shotgun without even the hint of a snarky remark about my driving abilities, and without opening my door for me—something he usually insisted on—was disconcerting.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To my house.” He motioned for me to unlock the door.

I stared at him for a few beats before I got in the car, reaching over to unlock it. Alex got in immediately, buckled his seatbelt, and stared forward, impatiently waiting for me to start the engine. I narrowed my eyes, becoming even more suspicious.

“Why are we going to your house?” I rarely spent time at Alex’s or Emil’s homes. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe they were both trying to give me some sense of normalcy and thought hanging out at my own house, where I was comfortable, would help.

“Because I had an unexpected visitor right before you saw the shadow. I would have been here to take care of you a lot faster if he hadn’t shown up. I left him to help you, but he’s still at my house. I need to deal with the issues he’s causing.”

Issues? Someone besides me was giving Alex problems? That piqued my curiosity. “Who is this guy?” I asked, starting the car and pulling out of the parking spot.

“Another Protector. I’ve known him for a long time.”

“Why is he causing
issues
?”

Alex looked at me like I was asking a lot of questions he didn’t want to answer. He finally sighed and said, “I told you some Protectors were upset about the missing Trackers. They were restless before, now they’re restless and organized. He’s the leader of the group of Protectors who want to attack the Daevos.”

I turned onto the highway in the general direction of Alex’s ridiculous mountain-top mansion straight out of a Disney movie.

“I wasn’t aware anyone was planning to launch an attack.” I waited for Alex to respond. He didn’t. “So why is he talking to you?”

“Because I’m the person Protectors talk to when they have problems with the Amaranthine.”

I looked at him and laughed. “What? Were you elected “twenty-first century Protector class president”?”

“Funny, Evie.”

I’d been joking, but I kind of meant it. I had no idea how the Amaranthine hierarchy was organized, and didn’t know where Alex fit. “Seriously, what do you have to do with this?”

“I’m the intermediary right now between the Amaranthine leaders and the Rebel Protectors.”

I almost laughed again. Rebel seemed like such a silly description to be using for a group of people who, by training and job description, rarely broke the rules. I mean, obviously, they were breaking the rules now, but it still struck me as funny. I also thought it was hilarious that they considered him level-headed enough to be the intermediary.

“So you’re having clandestine meetings at your house?” I lifted my brow. Alex was usually the rule-book follower type. “That’s very rebellious of you. Next thing you know, you’ll be getting up to use the bathroom on an airplane even though the fasten seatbelt sign is still lit.”

Alex glared at me. “They aren’t clandestine. The Amaranthine leaders know about them. I keep both sides informed, and aid the negotiations.”

“Oh.” I was slightly disappointed. Something in me liked the thought of Alex breaking the rules. It made him feel…less perfect. Don’t get me wrong, Alex has faults—I had a journal full of them. But his arrogance somehow turned those faults—being overprotective because he wanted to take care of me; not respecting my opinions because he thought he knew more; and acting like he knew me better than I did even though he clearly didn’t understand this incarnation of me—into something that made him even more unattainable. If he’d done something even remotely against the rules, I’d feel more like he was normal and on my level in some way. Plus, there’s something inexplicably attractive about bad boys.

Alex caught my tone. “Why did you say “oh” like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you acted when you were five and got the pink and yellow country kitchen playset for Christmas instead of the black battery-powered two-seater kids Corvette you asked for.”

I stared at him for a second. I sometimes forget how long he’s been in my life watching me. It’s a bit unsettling. “How do you remember that?”

He shrugged. “You were also upset because you’d specifically asked for blue and red Wonder Woman pinstripes and the words “Wonder Evie” to be painted across the back of the car.” He laughed. “Your dad thought it was a great idea and lobbied for it. Your mom opted for the more traditional route.”

Huh. I didn’t know it had happened like that. It made sense though. My mom was ever hopeful I’d find and embrace my homemaking gene. I’d found the one fueled by Detroit instead.

“Seriously,” Alex said. “Why the disappointed tone?”

We were almost out of town so I increased my speed. “I just thought it would be nice if you broke the rules once in a while.”

He stared at me, eyes narrowed in thought. “I do break the rules. Remember me appearing to you in the mountains last summer and then dating you? That was definitely not in the Protector handbook. I was only supposed to be a presence in your life. A friend—not a love interest.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t really count. You did it because I was lost and needed to find a way back to my car. The Amaranthine told all the Protectors to be part of their Trackers lives. You had ulterior motives, but your main reason for the infraction was to keep me safe, which
is
in your handbook.” I paused. “Do you really have a handbook?”

He ignored the question. “You rationalize everything.” He stewed about it for a minute. “And there was your living room floor.” He paused deliberately; I could feel his eyes on me, burning. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat at the memory. “That,” he said, “was completely against the rules.”

“
That
,” I said, my tone clipped, “was also over before it really started. And you were the one to end it
because
it was against the rules. You don’t break rules; you make what you think are mistakes, and immediately rectify them.”

Alex pushed his brows together in frustration. “Trust me. I break plenty of rules.”

“Not that I’ve seen. You’re practically an angel. I’m surprised your Protector vows didn’t come with wings.”

I could tell by the muscle twitching at his temple that my assessment didn’t please him. “I’ve done plenty of things I’m not proud of. I am definitely
not
angelic.”

I lifted my shoulder. “Prove me wrong.”

He stared at me in reply.

“Seriously,” I said. “Prove it. Do something bad.”

A smirk formed at the corner of his lips. “You couldn’t handle bad.”

I snorted a laugh. “Oh, I’m pretty sure I could, since “bad” would consist of you eating a grape at the grocery store before you bought the whole bunch.”

As I turned into his driveway and started the climb to his house on the hill, I glanced over at him. His smirk held a hint of indignant anger now. He slowly unfolded his arms and pressed the button releasing his seatbelt. I was about to comment that prematurely unbuttoning his seatbelt when we were less than a thousand feet from his house didn’t count as bad when he leaned across his seat, tilting his head slightly, arrogantly. His eyes had darkened to a deep green, and his lips looked fuller than usual. His expression was the kind a man wore when they knew what they wanted and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’d seen it in movies. “Stop the car.”

“What?” I was a little taken aback at his forceful tone. I usually only heard that voice from him when I was in big trouble. As I took in his flexed biceps and posture that looked ready to pounce, I realized I might be in big trouble right now.

“I said,” he slowed his voice, carefully enunciating each word, “Stop. The. Damn. Car.”

I leaned into my door. Alex leaned closer to me. Maybe it was the anger from me confronting the shadow alone; or the sex talk I’d had with Jasmine that he hadn’t discussed with me yet; or me basically calling him a pansy; or the sexual tension that, for me, had been building for months, and for Alex, centuries. Hell, maybe it was a combination of all of the above, but the atmosphere in the car had definitely shifted from static, to electric.

“We’re almost to your house,” I said, my elbow pushing into the narrow door handle. “I’ll stop when I get there.”

Truly though, I’d taken my foot off the gas pedal when Alex had started being commanding. I had it poised over the brake pedal in case he did something even more out of character and I needed to make a sudden stop. Alex glanced at where my foot was and pressed his left hand down on my knee, which made my foot push down until we came to a complete stop. Keeping one hand on my leg, he used the other to shove the gear shift into park. I didn’t take my eyes off him the whole time. Then the hand that had been resting around my knee started a slow climb up my thigh. And Alex leaned across the console, pushing even closer.

I managed a breathless, “What are you doing?”

He held my gaze as he leaned over, reached under my seat, and lifted the adjustor with one hand. His other hand went to the backrest behind my shoulder. With a powerful surge, the seat shifted back and I was horizontal. Alex was on top of me instantly, straddling me, his eyes blazing. “Proving it,” he said, then leaned down and took my mouth with his. The kiss was heady and hard, his large, solid chest pressed into mine.

I kissed him back, one hand holding the back of his neck while the other grasped at his shirt. His hand ran down my arm, over my stomach, and into the waistband of my jeans. I gasped, eyes wide. He looked at me in a way that was almost feral, and slowly lifted his lips as his hand moved toward my belly button. I felt a slight tug on the button and my jeans loosened. He looked at me like he’d won a dare before he claimed my mouth again. I responded immediately, my nails digging into his back. He inhaled a quick breath, kissing me harder, biting my bottom lip, as his hand teased the edge of my pants, threatening to go lower. I lifted the leg that wasn’t pinned between the door and steering wheel, wrapping it around him, and held him tighter. It didn’t matter that I’d forgotten to breathe long ago. I was completely lost in the moment.

He pressed into my mouth one last time before pushing up on his forearms, a proud smile curving his lips. Now that I’d remembered I needed air, I decided to inhale again, and lay beneath him, panting. That seemed to make him even more pleased with himself.

He reached to my left, unlocked the car door, and lifted the handle. Before he got out, he met my eyes and held them. “That definitely wasn’t in the handbook.”

I imagined it wasn’t.

He stepped out of the car, stretching his legs before bending down to look at me, his amused eyes sparkling. “Come inside,” he paused and smirked again, “when you’ve had some time to compose yourself.”

He shut the door, walking the rest of the distance to his house. I watched him go, taking long strides that didn’t hide the tight muscles of his legs, or powerful arms, back, and shoulders—all of which I’d just become intimately reacquainted with. That’s when the heat warmed my back and I started to fall.

I ran through the house, my head swiveling as I searched rooms while I moved. I almost collided with Sinclair. He’d been a servant with Alex’s family for as long as I could remember.

“Slow down, my lady!”

I paused to catch my breath. “Where’s Alex?”

“He is at the lake, my lady.”

I grinned and pushed past him, running out the back door and through the terraced gardens to the gate. I saw him in a little boat about twenty yards out. A fishing rod hung over the edge. His hair had lightened slightly from the summer sun, and his skin looked a bit darker. He must have been spending a lot of time outside at his boarding school. I hadn’t seen him for months! We wrote to each other, but I desperately missed my best friend.

“Alex!” I called, waving.

He looked in my direction, smiling wide. He stood and waved back. “There you are! I thought you must have forgotten I came home.”