Devour (32 page)

“I was careless. I was wrapped up in paying Bengal and making sure you were ok and forgot about her. She’s long gone, back to the Horde headquarters I’m sure.”

“They’ll come back for us,” I guessed.

“With a vengeance,” he confirmed. “They’ll know we ambushed them with a Goblin. They hate Goblins. This will be a worse betrayal than a bond to them.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I should have be thorough. And I wasn’t blaming you,” he insisted and came to me. “They would have eventually heard of it anyway. I just hoped we’d have a little more time, that’s all.”

“What will they do? Just come back here and look for us?”

“I’m not sure. The Horde is in Amsterdam so we have some time. Don’t fret about it. I’ll figure something out.”

“Why did she join? I know you don’t view family like we do but how could she do that to you?”

“It wasn’t just me,” he said thoughtfully. “In order to join the Horde you have to prove you’re serious. The initiation ritual is to bring someone in to have tortured by the group, while you watch.”

“Angelina?” I guessed in horror. “You think she brought in Angelina?”

“I think so. Only Enoch was on my tail this morning. That was another reason I came back today.”

“You thought she was going to come at me, but instead she’s… Wow.”

“Ok, well there’s nothing else we can do now, not tonight anyway. And you were pretty adamant about some carnival you wanted to go to…”

He smirked and held his hand out for me like a gentleman.

“You want to go play and celebrate after everything that happened tonight?” I asked him and heard my voice reaching for incredulous.

“You have to live for today, CB.” He ran a finger across the length my jaw. “God forbid, there might not be a tomorrow.”

“You’re right,” I said and put my hand in his. I sighed to calm myself. “You’re right. Let’s go.” I looked at my clothes and was pretty clean for someone that had been dragged through the woods. The tall grass had helped I guess.

So, he walked me from the woods to the carnival. Once my feet hit pavement a calm settled over me. It was over, at least for right now. Eli was back and we were safe for the night.

We walked passed all the booths and a few rides before Pastor caught up with us.

“Clara. Eli, I thought you were out of town.”

“I was. I surprised Clara by coming back early.”

“Aw, how sweet,” Mrs. Ruth chimed. “We’re going to head back to the house. The kids have had enough.”

“Ok, I‘m going to stay, if that’s ok,” I said as I looked up at Eli. There was no way I was leaving him yet.

“Of course,” Pastor said, “just be sure to be home before-“

“Midnight,” we all chimed and then laughed.

“I guess I’ve said that a few times, huh?” Pastor said with a chuckle.

“A few, honey,” Mrs. Ruth answered and started towards the house. “Come on then, let’s go guys,” she said to the kids.

“Have a good night you two,” Pastor said over his shoulder. “And don’t get into any trouble.”

“We promise,” I answered and muttered under my breath, “at least not anymore.”

Eli chuckled as he pulled me to a hotdog stand, going on about how hungry he was. Which was impossible, Immortals didn’t need food. He bought himself two chili dogs and I got a plain with just ketchup.

“I don’t understand why you eat food if you don’t have to,” I mused and took a big bite as we sat at one of the picnic tables.

“Well, I started eating a few years ago when I began to go to schools. If I didn’t eat at lunch people would get suspicious, so I ate for my cover. But I liked it. My first food ever was a cheeseburger. So now, I just eat because I want to. It’s good.”

“So you can scarf all the food you want and never gain any weight?” He shrugged and grinned right before taking a monster bite and then groaning loudly at how good it was. “Oh, bite me.”

“It’s not my fault,” he said muffled through his bite. “I’m just lucky I guess.”

“Oh, you’re lucky alright,” I said and then laughed as he took my hands in his and took a big bite of my hotdog too. “Jeez! You’re such a pig!”

We laughed and wiped our faces before he asked me what I wanted to do next. I grinned.

“The crazy house, of course.”

“Of course.”

As we stood in line I discreetly and quietly asked him the question buzzing annoyingly in my brain.

“So…Goblins.” He nodded solemnly. “And witches and sorcerers.” He nodded again. “What else?”

“There’s many things out there, Clara. Sadly, I run into quite a few of them from time to time.”

“But what about-“

“Can we just be normal high school sweethearts on our way up the bouncing stairs to the crazy house and not worry about that, just for tonight?”

“I think-“ I laughed as I almost fell on the spinning wheel tunnel and he had to catch me. “I think I can do that.”

“Good. Go! Go!” he yelled and laughed as the pendulums were swinging and he timed them for me.

Once we made it through the shaking ground, the room of mirrors and the quicksand bridge, we burst through laughing out the other side.

“We’re alive!” I yelled.

“Where to next?”

“Thames!” We turned to see Patrick. They bumped fist, slapped hands…something. “I thought you were out of town, man?”

“I was, but I couldn’t miss this. Where’s everybody at?”

“Well, the guys had some World Of Warcraft convention tonight and Ariel was here but, I guess she wasn’t feeling well so she went home.”

“Huh.”

“Well, you want to hang with us?” I asked though I really wanted Eli all to myself. But Patrick was alone.

“I’m gonna try to catch a ride on the Ferris Wheel. I’ve been waiting all night. Getting out of line probably doesn’t help the cause though,” he said and chuckled. “Wanna come?”

“Maybe later,” I said. “There’s something I want to do first.”

“Alright, I’ll save you a spot.”

I nodded to him and then peeked around and saw one of those photo booths, the ones that draw your picture instead of take it to make it look like an artist drew you. I grinned at finding my prize. I remembered throwing away all my pictures of my life up until then, especially the ones of Tate. All the memories that I thought meant something but were just a prelude to my real life; the one that mattered right now.

It was time to make some new memories.

I pulled Eli with me to it. There was no line so we climbed right in and Eli stuck some money in. It warmed up and counted down sixty seconds.

“I’m so glad you came here,” I told him.

“Where else would I be?” he answered.

“No, I don’t mean tonight. I mean…I’m glad you came to this town.” I looked at our wrists, the barbed string still right there where it had been for days now. “You saved me from my life.”

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, and do so with all your heart.” I gaped at him and he smiled. “
Marcus Aurelius said that, and he was right. I’m glad I came here too. I would have never met you.”

Although things weren’t solved and we were far from done with this whole Horde thing and lions and tigers and bears, oh my; I felt good. I knew things would be hard and dangerous in the days to come and I had no idea what to expect, but I knew if I was with Eli, we’d be ok.

“I feel like I…” I started but stopped.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I said. I was not going to tell him I loved him, not yet. I looked at the timer and smiled as I ran my hand up his arm to his neck. “It’s almost time. Are you going to kiss me?”

As the timer beeped for us to be still and pose, his lips fell onto mine. We remained still until it beeped again, signaling us that we could leave. But we didn’t.

In the booth, with a curtain covering us, Eli moved one of his hands to my cheek and one to my back to press me closer. He opened my mouth with his and ravished me in a tame and loving way that made me feel as safe as ever. And I let him. I let the emotions wash over me, so he’d feel the strength and truth behind them. I could tell when they were strong enough for him to pick up on. His grip tightened and he groaned the tiniest bit against my lips. I loved that I was the only thing he needed in the whole world, so I moved to sit sideways in his lap.

And I let him devour once again.

The End For Now…..

Oh, the thank you’s could go on for miles.
First off, thank you to my God and my family. To the readers who have picked up this book and my others as well, you are the reason I do this. It’s been SO much fun getting to know all different kinds of people from all over the world who have read something of mine. It’s humbling in every sense of the word and I thank you for allowing me to be a little piece of your world. You guys are the best and I love to hear from you! You rock!

Be sure to look for the second book in the Devour series, Consume, due out sometime in the Spring of 2012.

Be sure to find and follow Shelly on these avenues for updates and information regarding upcoming books and sneak peeks.

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~ P
laylist ~

The theme song for Devour is ‘Not Alone’ by Red

Song Title : Band Name

1. Time : Cute Is What We Aim For

2. A Daydream Away : All Time Low

3. Beautiful : Gary Jules

4. Lost in Paradise : Evanescence

5. Bright Young Thing : Albert Hammons Jr.

6. Sweet Dream Tonight : Tyler Ward

7. I Will Possess Your Heart : Death Cab For Cutie

8. All Night Doctors : Bush

9. Impossible : Band Of Skulls

10. Broken Drum : Beck

11. My Body : Young The Giant

12. Coming Up From Behind : Marcy Playground

13. Human : Civil Twilight

14. All The Same To Me : Anya Marina

15. Absolutely Zero : Jason Mraz

16. Kings and Queens : 30 Seconds To Mars

17. Sooner Or Later : Mat Kearney

18. The Lonely : Christina Perry

19. In My Veins : Andrew Belle

20. We’re Ok : The Rescues

21. Monster : Paramore

22. Panic Switch : Silversun Pickups

23. Not Alone : Red

Please enjoy an exclusive excerpt from debuting author, Melissa Andrea’s, novel Flutter
, expected release date December 2012. Will be available through Amazon and other avenues.

Chapter One: Blackout

Adan

I sat alone, sipping at my coffee slowly without really tasting the searing liquid.

The ordinary coffee shop was dimly lit and about to get dimmer as one of the hanging lamps bulb light pulsated, flickering like a mores code message. It was a 25 hour shop and at three in the morning there was a surprising amount of people scattered throughout the tables and bar stools on the counter. 7 including myself to be exact and it made me wonder what they were doing here at this time in the morning.