Genesis (36 page)

“
Sure,” I said, not knowing
what else to speak about. I should have brought his letter, but it
was back in Altasia with the rest of my things.

He laughed. “The last time I saw you, I
thought you acted rather odd, but it all makes sense to me
now.”

I smiled at him. “I should have kept
running.”

He frowned. “No. If you hadn’t helped
me, I would have never known what happened to Jessica. I know it
sounds weird, but I couldn’t stand the thought of living without
her. I blamed myself.”

Even though I would probably feel the
same way if I were in his shoes, he had to know it wasn’t his
fault. “There’s nothing you could have done.”

He took a healthy look at Jessica. “I
know, but they might have thought twice about taking her if I had
been with her as much as I wanted to. She came on so strong that
she scared me a little, and I was trying to take it
slow.”

His reaction to her the night of the
investigation made more sense to me now. “I still don’t think it
would have mattered. They wiped her memories; who’s to say they
wouldn’t have done the same to you?”

A slight moan came from my roommate,
and Adam rushed to her side.

“
Jessica?” he called, soft
at first, but then his voice filled the room. “Jessica, you have to
wake up.”

I twisted so I could see better. Her
eyes fluttered then closed. He shook her shoulders then called her
name again. She opened her eyes this time, staring into his. Her
eyes narrowed and she shook her head.

“
Adam?”

He crushed her to him. She pulled back.
“I had the weirdest dream ever.”

He laughed. We all did. Let her think
it was a dream for now. Once I was unplugged, I went over to Aunt
Grace.

She gave me a side hug. “I’m so proud
of you, Rayla.”

“
Will she need more
blood?”

She shrugged. “We can’t be sure just
yet. We’ll need some time to observe her, and keeping Adam here
will help.”

“
Is it okay for me to go,
then?”

“
Sure, honey, and thanks
again.”

I nodded and walked out of the room.
Relieved that was over with, I looked everywhere for Heath, but the
boy was MIA. What was it with fae men and disappearing? I stopped
in the hallway, thinking about Zach again. He was the hardest to
let go. I’d made some peace with him, but I would always wonder
what would have happened if I picked him. I couldn’t help it. He
held a special place in my heart and always would. If it wasn’t for
his secretive ways, and lying to me from the beginning, this would
have been a much tougher call. Heath’s secrets had blown me away.
I’d just never imagined him doing something like that for me. It
didn’t hurt matters that he had been trying to help my family when
no one else would. Even if I lived with Zach for millennia, I
doubted I would know everything about him. With Heath, I could see
myself growing old—

What a stupid thought.

I found my room after quite a bit of
searching. Heath wasn’t there, either, so I grabbed some clothes
that weren’t mine and headed for the bathroom.

One measly light bulb hung over the
chipped sink from a frayed wire. Where did they find this place? It
looked like a WWII reject, maybe a discarded bomb shelter? I
laughed. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

A clean enough looking towel and other
necessities were in a linen closet. The faucet handles were hard to
turn, but I finally managed a comfortable temperature. I stayed in
the shower longer than I probably should have, but I wanted to at
least have shaved legs when I saw Heath again.

My stomach flipped. I was barely able
to suppress a squeal. I thought I’d be nervous about bonding with
him. I mean, I was nervous, but now that I had chosen him, my
anxiety was gone.

I found a blow dryer in the cupboard
under the sink and went to work on my tangled mess of hair. A few
minutes later I thought I heard a knock. I shut off the rather
questionable appliance in my hand and inched open the
door.

Heath stood there, towel in hand. His
eyes went wide then narrowed, a lusty grin spreading along his
mouth. “I was about to tell the rude person in here to stop hogging
the only facility in this place, but since it’s you I’ve got a
better idea.” He pushed on the door trying to edge his way in; I
shoved back.

I didn’t want him to see me like this.
Not yet at least. “Wait your turn,” I squeaked.

He cocked his head and smiled wickedly,
shoving his foot between the door and the frame before I could slam
it in his face. “You’re supposed to invite me in.”

I stuck my foot against his boot.
“You’re supposed to be a gentleman.” He tried to peek in at me, so
I pushed his face. “Give me a minute to change.”

“
There’s no need for
that.”

“
Oh yeah there is, buddy,
and it’s called conviction. Now step back.”

He laughed and I shut the door, locking
it immediately. His thoughts swept into my mind as if he’d opened a
faucet. Images of him and me in slippery bliss. He was not getting
in here with me and that was all there was to it. “Stop that!” I
hissed through the door.

“
Hurry up,” he
countered.

I gave up on my hair and slid my
clothes on. This was ridiculous. I tried to blink myself into a
better outfit and hairdo. Wait a minute. My powers didn’t work
here. I yanked the door open. “Why don’t my powers work, I thought
you could feel them?”

He rested his arm on the doorframe. “Do
you think I’d be getting into a disgusting tub like that if I had
any other option?”

Good point. “But I can still hear your
thoughts.”

He grinned at me. “I already told you
nothing can keep me out of your mind.”

I frowned at him. “How is that
possible? Wait a minute. Is this new sanctuary of yours
broken?”

He shrugged. “It’s all I could come up
with considering how little time I had. It might have a few
glitches in the system.”

New possibilities tingled through me.
If we could fix the problems before anyone found us, we might be
able to make this work. “We could just stay here for good—you and
me and my family.”

His smile turned sad. “I wish we could,
Rayla, but there is still the matter of the Order and a princess
that has taken things too far.” He touched my chin. “Tell me you
could simply turn away from that. What about the Elementals you
fought so hard to protect? What will become of them?”

I hit his arm. “Killjoy. You couldn’t
even give me a day to breathe.” I leaned away from him. “I can’t
believe you actually care this much. You told me yourself you don’t
care for the council or politics.”

He gave me his cocky grin. “That
doesn’t mean I don’t care about the people. Besides, I have to act
a certain way; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to con my way
into a position of being able to help the resistance.”

I shook my head. Who knew Heath was a
closet thespian?

He frowned at me. I grinned
back.

Despite all the things that needed
solving, I was absolutely burned out. I needed some space to think,
to be able to come up with a plan that had a chance of
working.

He edged in nearer. “I completely
intend on spending a few uninterrupted days with you before we
charge in to save the day.”

My throat stuck when I swallowed. I
glided out the door and past him. “All right, lover boy, shower’s
all yours.”

He shrugged and went into the dim
space. “You better be in your room when I get out of
here.”

I blanched. “Why?”

He waggled his eyebrows at me. What a
card.

I tried to tidy up my room, but somehow
my heart wasn’t in it. I kept wondering if this was right. Besides,
how could Heath and I bond in a sanctuary? I still had so many
questions about the fae and the Order and the resistance, yet no
one wanted to give me specifics on anything.

Once bonded, I hoped Heath would work
to get me caught up on everything important. The one thing that had
me worried most of all was if we bonded without the council’s
approval, would they send someone to steal me from Heath? He wasn’t
exactly popular, and I knew we were in for some resistance. That’s
why I wanted to do this without having anyone else
involved.

Even with his added strength, how was I
going to be able to bring the warring nations together? How was
I—

He crossed the room and took me into
his arms, cutting off my mental ramble with a kiss. After a minute
of scrambling my brains he pulled away. His eyes softened when they
met mine. “You’re not alone. So many people care about you.” He
tugged on my hand. “Come on.”

I leaned away from him, fighting to
extricate myself from his grasp. “I don’t feel like going anywhere.
I thought we were going to have some time alone.”

He gave me a huge smile. “I have a
surprise for you.”

I pressed my lips together in a half
smile. A surprise sounded good. Without another word I jumped up
next to him and tugged on his hand. “Well?”

He laughed and led me forward. The
halls in this place were as dreary as any I could imagine. After a
few minutes of walking through endless tunnels, I glanced at him.
“Just where are we, anyway?”

He shrugged. “This is a little known
facility the Order abandoned in the Fifties.”

I stiffened. “Yeah, that’s a safe place
to bring my family.”

His warm hand brushed my arm and
traveled down to mine. I breathed in deep, attempting to slow my
heart. “Lambert thinks it was destroyed, so what better place could
I have chosen?”

I glanced at him sidelong. “How did you
get involved with the resistance in the first place? What did you
do?”

He shrugged. “I’ve been asking myself
that same question for centuries now. I’m not exactly sure when it
started, but every act to help one random couple stay together
increased my conviction that what we have done is
wrong.”

Hope pooled in my belly. “Have you been
bonded before?”

“
Of course.”

I gritted my teeth. Yeah, great answer.
How could I have forgotten that Zach had said Heath had never given
himself completely in a bonding? It was ridiculous, but it made me
feel better to know he hadn’t been into the Elementals before
me.

“
Think of it as a job,” he
said casually. “I have to maintain a certain façade in the realms,
Rayla. I’m known for being impulsive and at times rebellious, but I
always do what I am told.”

I laughed. “Oh right, who told you to
become a lord?”

He didn’t even flinch.
“Ainessa.”

I stopped short and he came back to me.
“Why would you do anything she wanted?”

“
Intel, for one thing. I
haven’t had the luxury of being in the upper circles, so I’ve
improvised.”

“
Improvised!” What a thing
to say. “She’s evil. Consorting with the devil might be good for
your rep, but this…this complicates things.”

His hands fell to my shoulders in a
heavy thud. “I’ve kept a safe distance.”

My mind raced with images of him
tackling me in the snow. It was her. It was all her.

“
You are so infuriating.
Stop jumping to conclusions.”

“
You told me she had control
of you. What makes you think she won’t be able to do that
again?”

He tilted my chin back until I looked
up at him. “Once I knew she was there, I couldn’t evict her without
raising suspicion. She has to think she can manipulate
me.”

Zach and Luke had said the same thing.
Look what happened to Luke. “What if you don’t realize she’s in
your head again? What if she’s able to control you? If we were
bonded—”

He sighed. “Aren’t you forgetting one
very important point?”

I didn’t think so. “Go ahead. Tell me
your great words of wisdom.”

He smirked. “She had control of you
too.”

My cheeks flamed. That was true. Why
was I worried so much anyway? It wasn’t like anyone knew where we
were. Heath could give me a crash-course in fire manipulation, and
I would be fine. The only other element I needed training in was
space. I was pretty sure I could handle the others.

Heath snapped his fingers in front of
my eyes. “Mind staying in the present for a minute, or have you
already forgotten your surprise?”

I laughed. “Fine. I’ll worry about the
fate of the world after you rock mine.”

“
That’s my girl.”

Tingles rippled through the
anticipation in my belly. What was he up to?

He finally stopped after what had to
have been a couple of miles and stood in front of an ordinary door.
“I’ve been planning this for a while. I had hoped we would have a
different venue, but this will have to do.”

“
Well?” I said after he just
stared at me.

He chuckled and opened the door. Soft
music floated into the hall inviting me to enter the small
room.