Taking Angels (The Angel Crusades) (16 page)

“I’m sorry I made you feel uncomfortable,”
Kendal said as he walked in and then stood with his
hands on his hips, staring with disbelief at the phone in
my hand. He strode over, took the phone and threw it
against the wall sending pieces scattering everywhere. He
looked back at me with a hurt expression and walked out
again, slamming the door behind him.
I threw myself back onto the bed with a hopeless
groan. My only chance to contact Allister, gone.

I lay in bed the rest of the day and into the night,
staring at the plank ceiling and contemplating my next
move. I came back to the same realization over and again.
I didn’t have a next move. My options consisted of nil,
nada, and nothing. Kendal held all the cards and he
wasn’t dealing me in.

Would the Eternals coming from Greece be a
better option? I doubted it. They wanted Allister and the
Parks destroyed with me being the final nail in their
coffin.

The sun shone in the window the next morning
and I pulled myself from the bed. I opened the door and
Kendal looked up from staring at the fire.

“Hungry?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I conceded.
“Some food on the table.” He motioned to the

next room and turned back to the fire.
He didn’t seem too worried about me running.
Guess I didn’t have anywhere to run.
I walked into the room to find an assortment of
fruits and pastries. I pulled a banana from a bunch and
peeled it, looking out the window at the lake as the sun
shimmered off its rippled surface. I glanced at Kendal
with his back to me and then walked out the door. I
walked casually down the path to the dock, feeling
Kendal’s eyes on my back, and then out onto the wooden
planks as the structure shook under my weight.
Reaching the end I plopped down, hanging my
feet over the edge, dangling them just above the water. I
took a bite of banana and moaned. It tasted so good. I
took another before finishing the first, my cheek puffing
out with the fruit stuffed into it.
The dock shook and I looked back to see Kendal
coming my way. He stopped next to me, looking out over
the water as I stared up at him. He then looked down and
sat next to me. Turning his eyes to the water once more,
he sighed.
“I’m sorry you have to be in the middle of this,”
he said, still looking out across the lake.
“Uh huh,” I mumbled with my mouth still full. I
took another bite, not wanting to converse with my
captor.
“You seem like a really nice person,” he said,
looking down at his hands folded in his lap and then up at
me.
I stopped chewing, my mouth hanging open, filled
with banana. I stared at him in disbelief.
“I know, I know. I don’t believe it either, but if
things were different, I would like to get to know you.”
He turned away from my gaze.
I choked on the soft fruit, forcing it down. “I, I…”
I stammered.
“I want you to know, I’m sorry,” he said. He got
to his feet, glanced down at my upturned face, and
walked back to the cabin.
I stared out at the lake. “Holy shit.” I looked back
at the cabin. Did that actually happen? Kendal? No…no
way. He didn’t say he…
I took the last bite of banana and sat chewing it
shaking my head trying to process what just happened,
grasping the hint of a chance to get out of this mess.
Swallowing the banana, I got to my feet and hurried back
to the cabin. I tossed the peel into the woods near the
door and strode into the cabin.
Kendal sat in front of the fire, not looking up
when I came in and sat in a chair.
“Kendal,” I drew his attention back to me. “I
don’t know what you want me to say. The only thing
you’ve shown me is evil. How am I supposed to think
anything other than that of you?”
“I understand,” he said turning away, his
expression looked like he just tasted something bitter. “I
don’t match up to someone like Allister. Never did. But if
someone like you got to know the real me, maybe, just
maybe, there’d be a chance.”
I hesitated as my initial feelings of repulsiveness
threatened to leap out and rant on him. I clamped my
mouth shut until the urge passed. “I guess stranger things
have happened. But until you try, how would you know?”
He looked at me, shock registering on his face,
my response taking him aback.
“Can we start over?” he asked, hope, begging in
his eyes.
“I…suppose we could try,” I forced out trying to
keep the disgust out of my voice and off my face.
A grin twisted his lips and he turned back to the
fire. His humming broke the uneasy silence.
We sat and talked the rest of the day. Kendal
explained the history of the Eternals and I told him about
me, as much as I trusted him to know. By evening I
understood how the council, once controlled by Victor,
now saw him as a threat. Certain members and their
supporters searched for any way to take his power.
My existence gave Victor’s rivals the opportunity
they needed to disgrace the entire Parks family forever.
Over the years, Allister’s status had risen steadily in the
Eternal world, being known as a great healer and a great
fighter. Many of the younger Eternals, if you can call two
hundred year olds younger, turned to Allister as the leader
of the future. This troubled the traditional Eternals and
they plotted the entire family’s demise.
Kendal wasn’t happy about the role they forced
him into, but his sense of self-preservation drove him to
comply.
“I’m not strong enough to resist them,” he sighed.
“I’m only one and they are many.”
“But you could leave, hide, avoid contact like you
did for so many years until now,” I told him.
“They have my family.” He put his head in his
hands. “If I don’t cooperate they’ll kill my entire family;
all my uncles, aunts, cousins, brother, sister, parents and
grandparents. They said they’d erase my family’s
existence as if we never were.”
I tried to feel sympathy only it wouldn’t come.
The images of him killing people forced all other feelings
aside. I sat silently looking at him.
“I’m sorry,” the words came hard.
He looked at me with gratitude in his eyes. He
gave a little smile and reached for my hand. I drew back
defensively and he turned back to the fire.
Mentally exhausted, I stood and walked to the
bedroom, pausing in the doorway to turn back to him.
“Good night, Kendal.”
“Good night, Britt.” He glanced up at me briefly.
I closed the door, leaning my back against it,
letting out a heavy breath. I didn’t realize acting took so
much energy. Climbing into bed, staring at the dark
ceiling, wondering if Allister still searched for me. Two
days since Duluth, and I didn’t have any idea how much
time before the other Eternals arrived. My thoughts
turned to the three amigos and, despite the potential
danger I’d put them in, fell asleep with a smile as their
memories filled me with happiness.
The next morning I showered, getting into my
own clothes and out of the horrendous tourist-wear
purchased from the convenience store.
I walked into the living room. Kendal sat in the
same place as last night. He looked up as the door
opened. Sadness rimmed his eyes and it appeared he
hadn’t slept.
I stared for a moment, and then moved to the
kitchen. More fruit and pastries covered the table, he’d
replaced what I consumed yesterday. I grabbed a danish
today, figuring one wouldn’t hurt and took the walk out to
the dock again and sat down. Ducks swam nearby and
water bugs strode across the glassy smooth surface.
The dock began to rock and Kendal sat down
beside me without a word. I didn’t look over,
concentrating on the activity of wildlife on the water. I
felt his eyes on me, but refused to look up. I gathered the
resolve to begin another day of pretending, not sure I
possessed the strength.
I forced a smile to my lips and turned to him. He
frowned as my eyes met his.
“You really love him, don’t you?” he asked.
I hesitated, caught off guard by the directness.
“Uh, yeah, yeah I do.” I nodded.
“Is it because he created you?”
I stopped to think, staring out at the sun glistening
on the calm lake. Was that why I loved Allister so much?
Because he saved me? Numerous times? Could it be as
simple as that?
“No, well, yes maybe partly. And because he
loves me so completely. And I feel something when I’m
with him I’ve never felt before. And I yearn for him when
we’re apart.” I stopped, realizing I rambled on, and
looked back at Kendal.
His face went slack, even more than before, and
he looked down at his hands in his lap. A sour grin curled
his lips as he looked back at me. “So a guy like me
doesn’t stand a chance. No matter how hard I try, no
matter how much I care. I don’t stand a chance as long as
you have Allister Parks in your life.”
Chills ran up my spine and the hair on the back of
my neck tingled. His words, a statement of sad fact,
resigned.
“Kendal, what are you thinking?” I whispered,
realization dawning I might have done something terrible.
“As long as you have Allister, you will never be
mine.” He looked at me, his expression blank.
“Kendal.” I stared intensely into his eyes hoping
to project the strength of my emotions. I wasn’t sure what
would come of it, but I needed to try. One thing I knew
for certain; I couldn’t forsake my love for Allister even to
help me escape Kendal. “I love Allister. If he were
beyond my reach, gone from me forever, I would still
love him. My heart belongs to him and nothing will ever
change that.”
“Thank you for being honest.” He nodded slow
and deliberate as he got to his feet.
“What are you going to do?” My eyes followed
him.
“I think I have feelings for you, Britt. I don’t
know when it happened, but you have this power over
me, drawing me to you like a moth to a flame. No, maybe
love is too weak a word. I need you. I don’t want to live
without you. That pull you have on me is driving me
crazy. I think about you every minute of every day and,
for an Eternal, that is a damn long time. Since your heart
belongs and will always belong to Allister Parks, you
leave me no choice.” He sighed and began walking down
the dock, shoulders slumped from the weight of his
decision.
I sprang to my feet, racing to catch up with him.
“What choice, what are you going to do?”
“What I’ve been told to do.” He stopped and
stared down at me. “Hand you over to condemn Allister.”
Fear flickered in my guts. “You were considering
something else?”
“I considered running away; just you and I
leaving all of this behind, letting Allister live in peace as
long as I had you.”
“We still can. We can go right now before the
others come. I’ll do it, Kendal. Let’s leave and not look
back,” I pleaded for Allister’s life, willing to sacrifice my
own happiness to be with Kendal in order to save his.
“No, not now.” His smile was tinged with disgust.
“Now I know the truth that the only way you may come
to love me is if Allister is gone from your life.”
“But if we go now he’ll never find us,” I cried,
trying to reason with him.
“You would always have the hope that he might
come back to you.” He shook his head, a twisted smile on
his lips. “If the council takes care of him, you will some
day realize I’m worthy of your love.”
He strode off as I stood watching, tears blurring
my vision, realizing my love for Allister had just
condemned him.
I ran back to the cabin, rushing past Kendal as he
walked through the door, running into the bedroom and
slamming the door behind me. I threw myself on the bed,
sobbing into the pillows.
“Allister, I love you,” I gasped into the pillows.
“I’m so sorry.”
I lay in bed, the hours passing unnoticed in the
small bedroom. Light faded outside and soon shadows
filled the space.
My eyes popped open at the sound of slamming
car doors. My heart stuttered. They’re here. I jumped
from bed, creeping to the door and opening it just enough
to peer through the crack.
Several men stood in the living room, movement
behind them alerted me to others in the kitchen. A small
man, no taller than Angelina, with his back to me
exposing a black pony tail reaching his waist, stood in
front of Kendal.
“She’s here?” the man asked.
“Yes.” Kendal nodded towards the door I peered
out of.
“Excellent,” the man said. He turned and his
silver tooth shone as he smiled and ran his tongue over it.
“You have done well my vile friend.”
“What are you going to do with her?” Kendal
asked.
“She will stand as evidence of Allister’s crime,”
the man said.
“After, what will happen to her after?” Kendal
pressed.
“Her fate will be at the discretion of the council. I,
for one, hope they dispose of her,” the man replied coolly.
“What if she escaped capture?” Kendal asked.
“The order stood at capture, dead or alive. Her
corpse will serve the same function as her breathing body.
In some ways, I’d prefer if she were a corpse; fewer
complications. If she gives us any trouble, we will kill her
to ease the transport.”
Kendal’s body tensed.
“I will get her ready to leave.” Kendal nodded.
The man stepped aside and Kendal moved
towards the door. I slipped back, leaning against the bed;
the knowledge of my fate slowing my thinking as panic
overwhelmed me.
Kendal opened the door, stepped into the room,
and shut it behind him. He leaned against the door,
staring at me without saying a word as I looked back at
him, fear coursing through my body.
“You must run,” he said coming over to me,
taking me by my shoulders and leading me to the
window. He slid the window open and turned to me,
unsnapped the bracelet from my wrist and handed me
something small and black.
My passport. I looked up in shock. “Where?” I
whispered slipping the passport into my jeans pocket.
“I don’t know, but you mustn’t let them catch you.
You heard Bastion. They’ll kill you. Run, and keep
running until you’re safe. I’ll try to slow them, but you
must stay ahead of them.”
I slipped a leg out the window and stopped,
turning back to him, wanting to thank him, but the words
wouldn’t come.
He looked at me, curious for a moment, and then
pushed me out the rest of the way. I landed in a heap on
the ground covered in leaves and sticks. I pulled myself
to my feet and leaned into the window as he slid it closed.
“Thank you,” I whispered as he stopped to look.
He nodded, pushed me out of the way, and then
shut the window and pulled the shade.