Bind Our Loving Souls (2 page)

I tried slapping it away, but he grabbed one
of my hands and I forgot my fear completely. In fact, I forgot
everything—who I was, where I was, everything. I simply stared into
his luminous eyes, the growing intensity of their light making them
seem like two little suns burning into my soul, and lay against the
back wall. My body went absolutely limp as I slid down.

It felt like I was floating. And then my life
began to flash before my eyes. I saw childhood memories racing
through my mind, the greatest joys and heartaches I’d ever
experienced, the sleepless nights of studying and worrying over
this or that. Every so often a flash of blue would appear for a
moment and I could almost make out two creatures like the one still
holding my hand, his parents perhaps. Then there was this growing
attraction I felt for whatever it was that stood before me. The
all-consuming warmth that began spreading throughout my body was
amazing.

Finally, he let go of my hand. There was
suddenly a great deal of pressure in my head as everything came
rushing back at once. It felt weird to sit up.

The being’s skin looked as if shimmering
sun-kissed fish scales were creeping up over his arms as they went
from blue to ivory. It spread over his shoulders and then his
entire body until he looked as human as I did, aside from his
still-glowing eyes. No more claws. No more matted black hair, just
golden brown locks.

The sensation of being wet and cold and
having water fall all over me began to return as I shivered and
stared at him in amazement. “Who are you?” I asked, stepping out of
my cave.

“Eeee-knock—of the Halvandors,” the man said
in a ghostly voice, fading between human and what had come from his
mouth before.

“What did you do to me?”

“I have only seen your memories.”

My eyebrows drew closer together. I felt
naked and self-conscious at this, like he had just seen a part of
me that was forbidden.

But he put a hand on my cheek as his
overpowering eyes offered me a look of admiration. His voice became
low and perfectly human. “You have a very beautiful and
breathtaking soul, Sarafina.”

“It’s Sara,” I said softly, feeling too many
things at once to be sure of which one was the most prevailing. His
kind words put me at ease, though.

And with the intense attraction I felt to
him, I couldn’t help but reach one hand out to touch the skin
between his shoulders, just under his neck. I stared at this skin,
softer than anything I’d ever touched, as I rubbed my thumb over
it.

Enock put a hand behind my back and leaned
closer. “I’d like to kiss you,” he said.

I stared at him in surprise and mild
trepidation, but also realized I wanted the exact same thing. It
was impossible not to be fascinated and drawn to the dark
strangeness of this man. “All right.”

The way he stared at my lips and tilted his
head way too much to the side made it obvious that he had no idea
what he was doing and that he’d never experienced a kiss before. So
I slid my hand along his neck and onto his cheek, letting my
fingers guide his lips to mine. The curiosity and temptation I felt
were so much stronger than any of my reserves.

And then my mouth was tingling. As he held
and kissed me, the smell and taste of fire consumed me. My mind was
instantly filled with images of molten lava and wildfires bursting
around us, but the burning felt good. My free arm wrapped around
his waist. His arms felt like they were melting right into my body.
It felt so insanely wonderful.

And then a fiendishly shrill shrieking tore
through the air, ripping my hands away from Enock so I could cover
my ears. He held onto me still as he turned to look behind him.

At the top of the hill, in exactly the same
spot I’d first seen him, another creature stood. This one was
obviously a woman, with cloth and lit stones covering the front of
her torso as well as the top half of her legs. Her black dreadlocks
were fanned out in fury as she continued to screech and stare at me
with fiery orange eyes. As she began running at alarming speed down
the hill toward us, Enock’s form began to revert to what it was
before. He opened his mouth to let out a deafeningly malicious
roar, his teeth now long, pointed fangs, and then he let go of me
to take off and meet her halfway.

Somehow without him standing right in front
of me, all the fear returned. Even with Enock running right at her,
the she-creature’s eyes remained locked on me, and they were full
of murder.

Without giving it a second thought, I took
off up the hill behind me. The horrendous sounds of both beasts
colliding pounded against my back all the way. I didn’t stop, but I
did look back when I was nearly to the top. Enock had his fangs
deep in the other one’s neck as she continued to screech in
outraged fury. Three more of them landed swiftly on the ground
beside them, and then they were lost to the other side of the hill
as I began my descent.

I turned my attention back to where I was
going just in time to see the misshapen boulder I should have known
was there. But in my horrified distraction, I ran right into it,
slamming my shin against it, which caused me to fall forward. I
screamed as I began rolling down the hill, my leg throbbing with
pain.

But I only rolled over a few times before I
felt something wrap itself around me. It went over once with me
before digging his feet into the loose dirt and skidding to a stop
as he held me securely against him. Before I could process anything
other than the fact that the blue form of Enock was holding me, he
was leaping through the air to the bottom of the hill. He veered to
his right, leaning over and using one arm to aid in running at
insane speed.

It was a completely new and different
experience, being cradled against his incredibly perfect chest and
skin. I wrapped my arms around his neck and made myself as close to
him as I possibly could.

I wanted to sink back into the nothingness,
aside from him. But it didn’t come. All I felt was being bounced
around and the confusion and shock of everything that had just
happened. Being in Enock’s arms, pressed against his heart, did
give me peace, though.

Whatever had happened when he took my hand
had done something to me. The heat of my body, the sweat mixed with
rain and anxiety, felt like it was all for him.

My thoughts skidded to a stop with Enock, my
body still held firmly against his. “Are you hurt?” he asked me in
a stricken voice, wiping black blood away from his face with his
free arm and moving both of us behind a massive tree trunk.

Before I could answer or ask what I really
wanted to know—
what was he, and had he killed the woman I’d seen
him attack?
—a mixture of ghostly hissing voices filled the air,
as if someone were shouting in a whisper.

“Stay here where you’re safe,” Enock said,
reverting partway to his serpent-like speech.

“Don’t leave me.” I grabbed his arm
desperately. I was nowhere near ready for this thing with him to
end. And the dark strangeness of Enock made me want so much
more.

“I do not wish to, but staying would put you
in danger. I will find you again—I promise.”

He grabbed my face and leaned closer, like he
was about to kiss me. But he stuck out his discolored tongue
instead and dragged it across my face from my chin to one
cheekbone. Then he turned and ran away, leaving me alone and even
more confused. I knew I should be disgusted, but the tingling skin
he’d left damp on my face felt too wonderful. As my fingertips
rested against my cheek and began to tingle also, I wondered if I’d
just been kissed the way “his people” did it.

As the feeling slowly wore away, I began to
worry about what he’d said. Was I in danger if the others found
me?

The rain had become a sprinkle, and suddenly
I really wanted to go home. I was beginning to come out of the
drowsy spell Enock had cast over me, and the whole experience was
exhausting to think about. I just wanted to go to my room and
think. But I sat motionless where I was for another twenty minutes
at least, just in case danger really was nearby.

And then slowly, cautiously, I leaned over to
look around the tree to make sure the coast was clear. Nothing out
of the ordinary. The two maple trees that always looked like they
were holding a hundred hands with their big leafy branches weren’t
too far behind me, so I knew exactly where I was.

As I stood up, I felt a sharp pain where I’d
kicked the rock on the hillside. Then I limped back toward my house
gingerly, thinking about the long walk I had ahead of me.

Chapter
Two

“You’re serious?” Jo Hanna asked me. “You’re
absolutely one hundred percent seriously serious?”

We were sitting halfway down my driveway at
midnight. She’d been my closest friend all through high school, and
our Friday night sleepovers were kind of a tradition.

I was telling her, my one and only designated
keeper of this secret, the story that had been plaguing me for
three days now. “Yes, I’m absolutely one hundred percent seriously
serious,” I said. “Look.” I rolled up my jeans and took my cell out
of my pocket to shine the light on my injured leg.

Jo Hanna gasped. “Oh, my gosh! That looks
bad.”

Somehow, I’d managed to hide it from everyone
else so far. “Yeah. That’s where I hit my leg and fell down the
hill before Enock stopped me.”

The clear, cloudless night allowed me to see
the solemnity on Jo Hanna’s face as she finally began to consider
the fact that what I’d been saying might actually be true. “So this
is for real? You swear?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die. Why would I
lie about this?”

“You
have
been pretty spaced-out
lately, I guess...and you haven’t seen or heard from any of these
blue people since Tuesday?”

I shook my head. “I even went back to the
crash site and couldn’t find anything.”

“Well, I did see a light shoot across the sky
right before I moved out here, all the way from one end to the
other. It left a tracer in the sky for like two seconds and then it
was gone. I always told myself it was a shooting star, but I never
really thought it was. After what you just told me...” She shivered
and looked at the sky. “So you’re in love with an alien?” She
smiled at me teasingly, even though I was pretty sure she believed
me.

“I’m not in love,” I said. “I just wish I
could see him again.”

“But you have no idea when that’ll
happen?”

“Right.”

“Too bad. There is a bright side,
though.”

“What’s that?”

“I hear Phillip’s coming to graduation.”

“Really?” My spirits lifted at hearing that.
Phillip is Cassidy’s big brother, and I’d had a crush on him since
the day I laid eyes on him five years ago. A junior in high school
then, he was always too old and too cool for me. He’d moved to
Seattle to go to college a couple of years ago, and I’d only seen
him a few times since. But his appeal never diminished. And all
three of my best friends knew it. “Are you sure he’s coming, or is
it just a maybe?”

“His only sister’s graduating. Of course I’m
sure. Cassidy could still set you up with him, you know.”

As always, I was tempted. But since he’d
never expressed interest in me before, I knew it would just be
uncomfortable. Assuming he would even go out on a date with me,
that is. So I shook my head.

Jo Hanna lay back in our dusty gravel
driveway to look at the stars. That’s one of the things I love
about her, and it’s probably why she’s my number one closest
friend. She’s not afraid to get dirty, and she’s so super easy to
be around.

I admired her fine strawberry-colored tresses
as I lay down next to her. I used to be jealous of her beautiful
hair, but I’ve learned to love mine as I’ve gotten better at
styling it.

We lay there in comfortable silence for a few
minutes, listening to the peaceful chirping of crickets. A coyote
howled at the almost-full moon, and Jo Hanna and I howled back.
We’d been doing it forever and it always made us laugh.

Jo Hanna rolled over on her side. “You know
you’re my best friend in the whole world, right?”

“Duh. You know you’re mine, too, right?”

“So maybe we should take a bus down to South
America and backpack around. We could find odd jobs to pay for food
and sleep in a waterproof tent and worry about being responsible
grown-ups in a year or two.”

“I wish,” I laughed. “That’d be a lot more
fun...” I got quiet when I realized she was smiling at me and
waiting for a real response. “You’re not serious? Doesn’t that
sound a little dangerous to you?”

“No, it sounds like an adventure. We go get
the best tan of our lives. Maybe find a little romance. And come
back full of stories that’ll make Cassidy and Carlotta green with
envy.”

“What about your job? You’d have to
quit.”

“I could probably put it on hold.”

Another long silence.

It did sound like fun, kind of like the
simple life of that rabbit I’d been so covetous of a few days
before, but I’d never left the country. And honestly, although I’d
never tell anyone this, I was kind of scared to leave it without my
parents. “I’ll think about it,” I said, pretty sure it wasn’t
happening.

My phone went off then and we heard the theme
song for
How the Grinch Stole Christmas,
which was one of my
favorite movies of all time. “Who in the world could be calling me
this late?” I asked, sitting up and reaching for my phone.

“Maybe it’s your alien boyfriend,” Jo Hanna
joked, still lying down.

I wanted to argue—I could see that it was my
sister, Julianna, anyway—but it did kind of feel like he was my
boyfriend. We shared a sort of bond I’d never shared with anyone
else before, and the insane amount of love and attraction I’d felt
for him was so real. It left me thinking about him constantly.