Indebted: The Premonition Series (2 page)

“I don’t question your existence anymore. I’m just grateful you are here, in any form,” he says, picking me up off of my feet and carrying me back into the bedroom.

The bedroom is sparse by the standards of western culture. It contains only a rather large bed and a writing desk. The silk clad bed is centered in the room on a low wooden platform. Folding doors open up the entire room to the outdoors so that the room is exposed to the gardens and courtyard. High stone walls that allow for privacy from the other pagodas cluster around our own to shield the entire pagoda.

“Isn’t it your job to question my existence?” I ask him teasingly.

“No, my only job was to annihilate fallen angels and since you are not one of them, you do not fall under my job description,” he says, nuzzling my neck and placing me in the middle of the bed. Following me down, he brushes the hair back from my forehead with his strong fingers while gazing into my eyes. “But now that we are bound to one another, I have a new job description.”

“You do? What’s your new job?” I ask, fascinated by the sensual turn of his mouth. I trace his lips with the tip of my finger that has now returned to normal.

“To love Evie…” Reed says, holding each of my fingers to his lips, kissing them one by one, “to protect my brave girl from any evil that would dare to speak her name…” he continues, tracing a line from the palm of my hand to my wrist. “To make her enemies bow at her feet…” he murmurs before his lips find mine. I recognize his words as those that Buns had translated for me after Reed said his binding vow to me in his Angelic language. He had promised to protect me in the descriptive detail that only a Power angel can convey. It is a little overwhelming to hear the words, even when it may become necessary for him to actually do all of the things he is saying in order to protect me.

“Reed,” I whisper against his lips, “that’s kind of scary—”

“Thank you,” he replies smugly just before deepening the kiss as he completely misinterprets my words as a compliment. At the moment, I’m in no mood to correct the mistake. Kissing him back, I reach my hand up to gently stroke his wing. A soft groan escapes Reed at my touch.
I love that.

Slowly, Reed’s hands move over my body and the feel of his hands on my bare skin, although exquisite, is shocking because I just realize that I’m not wearing anything. I squeak in surprise, causing Reed to pull back a little so that he can look into my eyes again in question.

“My clothes?” I ask.

“Trees don’t wear clothes,” he replies. “That very pretty little sundress you were wearing is now shredded at the base of the tree outside.”

“Oh…and where are your clothes?” I ask as a smile forms in the corners of my mouth, allowing my eyes to rove over his perfect form.

“Panthers don’t wear clothes either,” he shrugs.

“How…convenient,” I sigh, wrapping my arms around his neck again and pulling him back down to me.

Just then, Reed’s cell phone rings annoyingly on the desk behind us. I tense, holding Reed tighter to me. “You are absolutely forbidden to answer that phone,” I whisper against his lips.

“What phone, love?” he says as his head dips lower, tracing my collarbone with his lips, causing shivers to course through me as desire ignites within me. I relax as the phone stops ringing and my hands slip to his hair, threading through it and feeling the softness of it.

I trace the line down his neck to the place just above his heart, the place where my wings have been symbolically branded into his skin. I’m still fascinated by the way in which it appeared, after the binding ceremony that linked Reed’s life to mine was performed. I can’t hide the smile of satisfaction that this mark on him makes me feel. It literally screams the word “mine.” Reed is mine and no one can take him away from me now. Our fates are connected and I know that I should feel guilty for tying him to me like this. My fate can turn on a dime because most angels, when they first see me, believe that I must be evil, since no angel before me has ever possessed a soul. But, in this moment, I can’t feel anything but happy that we are here together.

“What are you thinking right now?” Reed asks, searching my face.

“Umm, right now?” I ask, trying to stall because I just got caught reveling in the fact that he’s mine. “I was just thinking about how happy I am, about this,” I say, feeling myself blush as I trace the shape of my wings that are imprinted on his chest.

“This makes you happy?” he asks and when I nod he speaks to me in Angel as he tenderly kisses the symbol of his wings etched into my skin just above my heart.

“What did you say?” I whisper because I haven’t learned to speak his language yet. It still sounds like music to me, like a hypnotic lullaby.

“Me, too,” he replies, smiling broadly.

“That sounded a bit more than ‘me, too,’” I counter, but Reed’s smile only broadens. “And I wasn’t just thinking that, I was also wondering what I can call you.” At his look of confusion, I go on, “I mean, you’re not my ‘husband’ because you’re much, much, more than that…” I trail off, waiting for him to say the word for what we are to each other, now that we both swore a vow to be united for eternity.

He responds immediately in Angel and I smile because I should’ve known that it wouldn’t be English. It sounds like he said
aspire
, but in a way that is so beautiful that it makes tears form in my eyes. My voice is thick when I ask, “Translation?”

Groaning, Reed’s brow creases in a frown. He is struggling with the limitations of the human language, so I wait patiently for him to answer me. “It means…‘beloved above all others’… ‘most revered, venerated’…but it’s more than that. It means ‘essential to me’ and ‘a part of me.’”

I can’t help the tears that slide from my eyes. “
Aspire
,” I whisper to him as my hand cups his cheek. His eyes close briefly, savoring the contact.

Feeling Reed tense against me, his eyes snap open as he begins scowling right before he says, “We are busy right now, Zephyr. Come back later.” Quickly, Reed covers me with a silk sheet.

“I cannot. This is important,” Zephyr replies from somewhere outside of our room. From the distance, it sounds like he is standing near the stone bridge that traverses the jade-tiled pool in the courtyard. “You should answer your phone.”

“He was kind of in the middle of something, Zee. He still is—how important is it?” I ask, trying to hide the irritation in my voice.

“Very,” Zephyr replies and at the sternness of his voice, dread seeps through my senses. It causes my arms to tighten on Reed, pulling him nearer to me.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, hearing panic in my own voice.

A growl comes from Reed then as he leans his forehead to mine. “Evie, it’s okay, whatever it is, I’ll take care of it,” Reed says soothingly, trying to calm me down. But I have seen too much lately to be reassured by his words.

“Is it Dominion?” I ask Zephyr with my heartbeat drumming rapidly in my chest. I look over at Reed, seeing that he is already dressed. Startled by the fact that I hadn’t even seen him move, I sit up in the large bed, pulling the sheet up with me and wrapping it securely around me. Zephyr steps into our room then, keeping his eyes averted from me as he speaks directly to Reed, but he is using their Angelic language that I can’t understand. My panic increases. Zephyr never does that. He never speaks in anything but English when I’m around because he knows I can’t understand them. Something is wrong—something big—something he doesn’t want me to know about.

“What’s going on, Zee? What’s happening?” I ask them, looking between their two faces as they debate something important. If it has to do with Dominion, it can’t be good for me. The military headquarters that acts as the high court for Power angels put me on trial for my life only days ago, which wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t also told me at the time that the only right I possess, in their eyes, is the right to pray for death.

The next thought has all of the blood draining out of my face as I whisper, “Brennus—”

“No, it is not Dominion or the Gancanagh,” Zephyr says rapidly, trying to reassure me, but still, his face looks grim.

There is only one other thing that can be severe enough to warrant a look like that from Zephyr and my brain can’t even move past the name that it keeps repeating over and over like a prayer.
Russell.
Something inside my heart recoils painfully.

“Where are Brownie and Russell?” I ask them, watching their faces closely. They both have blank expressions, like they are deliberately trying to hide something from me.

“They are still in the Ukraine,” Zephyr replies in a calm, soothing voice. “They are being very cautious and they are moving slowly. Many, many kingdoms have risen and fallen in that part of the world. Many beings still like to call it home,” Zephyr explains with patience.

I exhale a breath that I didn’t know I was holding as his words register with me. I know I won’t be able to completely relax until they are both safely with us. I still have no idea yet what I will tell Russell about Reed and me. I made Buns and Zephyr promise that they wouldn’t breathe a word of the binding vows to either Brownie or Russell. I have to be the one to tell Russell and it has to be face to face. No matter what I say to him, he’s going to have a hard time understanding why his soul mate has chosen to bind her life to someone else, after all of the lifetimes we have shared together. I don’t think I’m going to be able to explain it to him, my need for Reed. I don’t even understand it. All I know is I tried to live without Reed and it was impossible. I was dying inside every day.

“Maybe we should go to them. We can pick them up and bring them back here,” I say, because I’m extremely worried about them. Brownie is a Reaper angel, and although she’s immensely stronger than a human, she does not possess the brute strength of a Power angel. Russell is part Seraphim angel and part human, like me. His strength will soon rival that of Reed and Zephyr, and all other Power angels, but he has not fully evolved yet, so he is at a disadvantage should he run into a fallen angel…or Brennus.

“Zee and Buns are going to go to the Ukraine. They are leaving within the hour,” Reed says softly and I bounce out of the big bed and head to the bathroom wrapped in a sheet. After I retrieve some clothing on the way, it only takes me seconds to change before I am back in the room, searching for a bag to pack some of my clothes.

When I look up, I see Zephyr and Reed studying me. “How long will it take us to get there?” I ask, trying to gauge what I will need to take for the trip. Buns has done some shopping for us, but Zephyr has been attempting to lock her down. He has been trying to explain to her that she is a target for the Gancanagh, too, since she is my friend, but she doesn’t want to listen to him. She has never really had to take any of this into consideration before because she is a divine Reaper angel. Since her job is to negotiate for human souls, she has essentially been immune to the fighting taking place between divine Power angels and the Fallen. As for other beings, they too, leave her alone because of her divine status. But the Gancanagh have vowed to get me back. They have even gone so far as to attack Dominion’s compound while I was there to “rescue me.” It would be nothing to them to use Buns to get to me and I can’t have that.

“You are safer here for now, love,” Reed says and he uses his sexy voice when he says it.

My eyes narrow because I’m onto his attempts to soothe me, I say, “I want to go, too. I can help, if there’s trouble.”

“No, you cannot, not right now, Evie,” Zephyr replies in a low tone, like he is talking to a child. “You are too emotional right now.”

“I can handle whatever comes, Zee, I promise. I’ll be fine, trust me.” I reply, not looking at him and continuing to pack my clothes into the bag.

“Evie, listen to me,” Zephyr insists as he moves nearer to me in order to make me look at him. “I can see that you believe that, but I can prove to you, right now, that you are unable to separate yourself from your emotions.”

“Zee, I’m fine—really. Let’s go,” I insist, crossing my arms in front of me in defiance.

“Brennus has Russell,” Zephyr says quietly.

Panic hits me and I struggle to take the next breath. My heart twists and pounds in my chest as my hands shoot out to grasp Zephyr’s forearm so I won’t fall down. Flashes of Russell’s smile, his face, the way he looks at me when I enter the room come to my mind in an instant. “How?” I breathe, searching his face. “We have to go now! I have to talk to Brennus—he will listen to me—”

“Shh…Evie, it’s okay. The Gancanagh don’t have Russell,” Zephyr says with a soft tone, putting his warm hand over mine to comfort me. “I said that to emphasize my point. Right now, you will do anything, agree to anything, in order to keep the ones you love safe.
We
can’t have
that
.”

“That was mean, Zee,” I accuse him with a grimace as my hand trembles underneath his. Reed hovers near me and I can tell by the look on his face that he wants to jump in and comfort me, but he is trying really hard to hold himself back from doing it.

“I am sorry you think so,” Zephyr replies with an even tone; his amazing blue eyes reflect his regret. “I have decided that I need to take a different approach with you from now on.”

“Oh yeah, have you decided on the scare-me-half-to-death approach?” I ask with a salty tone in my voice as I look at him.

“No. My approach will be to emphasize what is best for you. I will be your mentor and the first thing that you will learn is that we will protect you from now on, not the other way around,” Zephyr says. “The word is out about you, Evie, and it is trickling down like rain to even the lowest level of demons. Many will come for you and they will die. We are organized and well equipped to deal with them, but you must listen to us and believe that we have your best interests in mind.

“I already know that, Zee,” I reply rapidly. “But, you have to understand that I have
your
best interest in mind as well.”

Some of the sternness leaves his face then as he glances over at Reed and then he looks back to me again. “Evie, you are a Seraph and it is in your nature to guard and protect, but we are ancient warriors while you are still very young and have had little training. You have been born on the front line of a battle that you are still ill prepared to fight. I will train you so that, one day, you may fight at my side. I promise that I will teach you all that I know so you will become very powerful, like me.”