Celestials

“Rory,” a hushed voice woke me. “C’mon, Rory, get up.”

“Hmmm?” I rolled onto my back. It was pitch black in my room. The clock read 3:14. In the morning, I guessed. “What happened?”

Jude leaned over me, his face barely discernible in the moonlight. “You fell asleep after…we talked. Unfortunately, your Da is pretty sure we’re sleeping together now. He came to check on you at supper time and we were both passed out. When I woke up, he was at the door smiling at us. Sorry.”

I groaned. “It doesn’t matter at this point, I guess,” I mumbled. Sitting up, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “Did you sleep?”

“A little.” He looked at me, worried. “How do you feel?”

“Like I got run over by a Mac truck. But I’m guessing that’s about how I’m gonna feel from here on out,” I told him. I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself, just being honest.

He played with the tips of my hair. “We should probably go soon, unless you want to say goodbye in person.”

I shook my head vehemently. I could barely write those letters. If I saw my family in person, I would never leave. “Let’s go now. Are they sleeping?”

“I think so.”

As quietly as we could, we snuck downstairs. Everything was fine until we reached the back door. I opened it and Boreas was standing in the mud room, his hair mussed like he came from outside. He looked just as guilty as I did.

“Rory?” he asked. A hand raked nervously through his hair. What was he hiding? “What are you doing?”

“Just going out,” I answered vaguely. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“I, uh…was just out too.” And then I realized his hair wasn’t windblown. He was disheveled from a girl!

“Spill, Boreas Marquadt, who is she?” I demanded. His hands went back through his hair and a blush crept up his cheeks. Holy shit! He was into this girl. “Who is it?”

For the first time, Boreas’ eyes crept up to mine in panic. “Don’t tell Da. He’ll be on my case, like he’s on yars.”

I held up my thumb, like I was giving the thumbs-up sign. “Thumb wrestle swear.”

He smiled and held his thumb in the same way and then grabbed my hand. Our thumbs squared off like we were going to thumb wrestle. Instead, we moved them to either side of each other three times and then touched them at the end, both repeating, “One, two, three bear. I declare that I swear.”

Hey, we made it up when I was five and he was seven – what did you expect? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jude smiling.

“So who is this mystery girl that has you sneaking around and blushing?” I smiled, nudging my brother with my shoulder.

He smiled back, a small blush returning to his cheeks. “Sammi Asher,” he confessed.

My mouth gaped open. “Sammi Asher as in Benji’s older sister?” Boreas nodded and had the decency to look a little shameful. “And how long has this been going on?”

Boreas pushed his hand through his hair again. “Six months.”

“Six months. You must be serious.” My brother never dated anyone longer than a few weeks.

“Just don’t tell Da or Benji. We don’t want things to get weird until we…know what’s going on. Anyway, what are ya and Jude doing sneaking out? With a pack?” Boreas nodded to the bag by my leg, his voice indignant.

“Camping under the stars for tonight,” Jude jumped in and winked at Boreas. I threw a glare at Jude. Seriously? Sex is the excuse he came up with. My brother was going to kill him.

My brother paled and looked nauseous. “That’s my sister. Stop.” Then he shot me a laser look. “And be careful.”

Thankfully, he spared me any advice on using condoms or god-knows-what-else he wanted to say. I swallowed my dignity and nodded. It was better to let him think we were off on some romantic tryst.

“G’night then,” Boreas told us.

Before I could stop myself, I grabbed his wrist when he walked past me. I threw myself into his arms. “G’night, Boreas. I love you. Stay safe,” I babbled out.

“Love ya, too, Rory.” He let go of me and peered into my face, his deep blue eyes piercing me. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, trying to smile. “Just emotional.”

Boreas shook his head and smiled. “Ya’re pregnant. Da will be thrilled.”

“I am not-“ But Jude pulled me away before I could argue.

“Night, Boreas.”

“Night, Jude. Take care o’her,” Boreas instructed him.

Jude stopped and looked back at my brother. Their eyes met for a moment and I could hear the promise in Jude’s voice. “I will.”

Boreas nodded and we went our separate ways.

I threw my pack into the back seat of my car. Jude took the keys from my shaking hands and shuffled me into the passenger seat. I was glad. I didn’t think I could handle driving right now. We only drove a mile or two when Jude stopped in front a shabby apartment building. He grabbed my pack from the backseat and motioned me to follow him. We stopped in front of small black SUV.

Jude unlocked the door and threw my pack in the back next to another one. I imagined it was his.

“My car,” he told me, climbing into the passenger seat.

I motioned to the pack that was already in the car. “Do you always keep that in the car?”

He nodded. “You never know when you’ll have to make a quick getaway.”

“Oh.” Suddenly, the situation seemed real. This was going to be my life from now on. Running away and moving at a moment’s notice was how I was going to have to live. Quietly, I buckled myself in, trying not to freak out.

“You okay?” Jude asked.

I nodded.

“You’re not. What is it?” He took his hands off the wheel and looked at me. I couldn’t handle the gentle sympathy that was reflecting in his eyes.

“I’m fine,” I told him, lifting my chin defiantly. Ha, take that.

Jude sighed. “I can feel you panicking.” When I stared at him, he just looked innocently back. “Protector bond. I know when you’re not okay.”

“But I will be,” I said. “Let’s just get moving.”

He nodded and turned the car on. Jude pulled out onto the street.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered. “We’ve got company.”

I flung myself around in the seat but couldn’t see anything. Checking the rearview mirrors, I could make out several beings with white wings descending on us from the sky.

“What do we do?” My heart raced. Was this going to be it?

Jude gave my hand a quick squeeze. “We drive. Fast.”

I slammed back in my seat as Jude stomped on the gas. We peeled around the corner of the streets, heading in the direction of the shore. Why were heading to the water? Shouldn’t we be heading out of town?

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“People. They can’t show themselves in their…natural states to humans,” he explained. “If we can get near people we’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Gabe had said that to me. Get near people. People were safe. Just what I wanted to do. Hide in my least favorite thing – a crowd.

Jude shot the car down another street, narrowly avoiding a lightning bolt from the sky and a truck parked on the street. He peeled around another corner and I could see the lights from boats in the harbor. Lights on meant people on board and people were safe for us!

A bolt of lightning shot in front of the car. Jude twisted the wheel to avoid it and the car swerved, jumping a curb. He tried to keep a handle on the wheel, but the car was out of control. We had been going too fast.

Oh, god, this was how it was going to end. We were going to get in a car crash and someone else would have to deal with this craziness.

Houses and yards rushed passed us as Jude struggled for control. His knuckles were white and there was sweat running down his face. I was clutching the dashboard for some sort of support as my heart tried to beat its way out of my body.

Jude would have gotten control of the car, but a swarm of fireballs lit up in front of us. He jerked the car to the left, landing us back on the street. However, the wheel bounced out of his hand when we hit the asphalt. The SUV struck a telephone poll and my head snapped against the headrest and then the window. Dizzy waves filled my skull and something warm ran down my face.

A hand fiddled with my seat belt. A moment later the passenger door was yanked open and Jude wretched my arm, pulling me out. He shoved his pack onto his back and helped me into mine.

“We have to go,” he told me urgently. “Now!”

I stumbled after him, clutching his hand for dear life. In the sky I could see blurs of white and red following us. Shit. They were both after us.

Jude kept heading toward the water. His arm was protectively around me and he was now dodging lightning and fireballs. There was no way we were going to make it out of this fiery hell. I looked up to the sky. The only saving grace is that the beings seemed to be fighting with each other just as much as they were trying to kill us.

We ran down a dock, moving quickly around nets and buoys. Because people were around, I was hoping the beings would leave us alone. Of course, it was three in the morning so all the people were most likely sleeping. One glance behind me was enough to say the beings were still with us.

Everyone’s wings were now tucked securely back wherever they tuck them. However, two distinct and scary looking factions were heading toward us. They all looked human enough. They also looked really pissed off.

Jude grabbed my hand and pulled me around the side of one of the shacks located at the end of the dock.

“We can’t hide here,” I told him, panic squeaking in my voice. I’m surprised my heart hadn’t exploded with fear. “They’ll find us here. We have to keep moving.”

Jude stilled me by pulling both my hands into his chest. He grabbed my chin and made me focus on him. “We will move, but we have to wait for the right time. And it’s not yet.”

“H-how about if a giant w-wave is c-coming at u-us?” I stuttered. Jude had me backed against the shack and behind him an enormous wave was rising out of the harbor. That’s impossible.

Jude spun and watched the wave in horror. “Damn it. They’re showing their hand to people.”

“What are we going to do?” My voice shook. The wave had to be five or six stories tall. Oh my god, this wasn’t just about me. It was going to kill everyone on shore and ruin a lot of the harbor. “I have to turn myself in. Make the wave stop.”

I turned toward the two groups still moving toward us. Jude’s hand shot out.

“No!”

“They’re going to kill people, my people with that wave. They want me, they can have me.” I turned again, but Jude held onto my wrist. He pulled me back against him.

“If they get you they will kill a lot more people than those located around the harbor. Besides, the wave is aiming for us. I think they have control so it will only harm us. Most people are sleeping on boats and they’re farther back,” he explained quickly.

He was right. The wave was huge but thin, as if it was aiming straight for us. Boats were still going to get caught in its wake though. How could they not? Jude watched the wave roll in. It was going to crash at any moment.

“Jude, I-“ I started. If this was our last moment I didn’t want us to be fighting.

He pulled me into his arms and locked eyes with me. “No matter what happens, no matter what you feel, you don’t let go of me. Okay?”

“Yeah.” We were going to die. He couldn’t swim us out of tidal wave. Jude tugged me, making me focus on his eyes again.

“Don’t let go of me. Promise,” he ardently pleaded with me.

I squeezed him harder to prove myself. “I promise.”

The wave moved closer. It towered over us and I could feel the icy spray on my face. I squeezed myself as close to Jude as I could. I knew it wouldn’t save me but I needed to feel his solid strength.

I’m coming, Mom.

The giant wave curled over on itself and the drops raining down on us grew bigger. Any second now the water would crash over us. I looked to Jude. His eyes were closed. I followed his lead, with one exception.

I launched myself at him, attaching my lips to his. If I was going to die, I was going to die happy.

His warm mouth sealed over mine and his eyes flickered open in surprise. Then he tightened his grip and pulled me closer. Our bodies were so close, it was like they melded into one. His mouth opened wider and mine followed suit. Daringly, I darted my tongue into his mouth.

And then the douse of icy sea water crashed over us.

But it was like I didn’t feel anything anymore. We must be dead because all I could feel at the moment was the incredible sensations that Jude’s kiss had moving through my body. Heat coursed through me, traveling to all of my erogenous zones. Could souls jump each other if we were both dead? God, I hoped so.

I pulled Jude closer, his wet shirt clinging to the hard muscles in his back. My hands were tangled between his backpack and the wet shirt. I tried to lift it, wanting to touch him. I could feel his arousal against my stomach and again I wondered if this was possible if we were dead.

Suddenly Jude pulled away and held me at arm’s length. Or tried to. My hands were now tangled worse in his shirt and backpack straps. A chill swept over me and I blinked my eyes open.

Jude had a tight grip on my shoulders and he was breathing heavy. The smug feeling at doing that to him didn’t last long, when I realized I was breathing just as heavy. I looked up and met Jude’s furious eyes.

“Holy hell, what was that, Rory?” he blasted me. Maybe it wasn’t my kiss that had him breathing hard, but his anger.

“I-“ I looked around. We were in a park or forest – a hot, muggy, bug filled forest. It was hard to tell because it was dark. Sweat and salt water had my clothes clinging to me uncomfortably and the pack on my back was weighed down with sea water. Then it hit me. “We aren’t dead, are we?”

“What?” The man couldn’t be more exasperated with me.

“We aren’t dead,” I told him again. There was a tsunami rushing towards us, it’s natural to assume death.

“No, we aren’t dead,” he snapped. “Is that what you thought?”

“Yes!” I shouted at him. “Yes! There was tidal wave coming at us with no escape. What else was I supposed to think?”

“Holy hell, Rory, I can vanish, remember?” His voice was ragged and angry.

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry that I forgot all of your supernatural powers. It’s been a shitty week, Jude,” I roared back at him. I was having trouble controlling my temper. “Ever think that maybe at some point when the wave was rushing toward us that you could’ve mentioned that we weren’t going to die?”

“I thought you remembered,” he answered glaring at me.

I stripped off my pack and started pacing in the trees. His answers weren’t tempering my anger a bit. “How about instead of hold on tight, you could have said, ‘Hey, Rory, I’m gonna save our lives by vanishing. Remember that trick that I only used once when you were under duress so there’s no real way that I would expect you to remember what happened especially since you’ve had the most ridiculously hallucinatory week in history?’ How about that?” I shot back at him.

“You talk in run-on sentences when you’re emotional,” Jude commented.

My head almost exploded. Now was not the time to harp on my English skills. “I know!” I shouted. “Thank you, Lancelot, for pointing out that small and completely insignificant detail while avoiding the issue of you not telling me we were going to live! God! What in the hell is wrong with you?”

“Me? At least I didn’t throw myself at you,” he raged.

“I thought we were going to die! It seemed like a good way to go,” I growled, throwing my arms in the air while I paced. I really wanted to punch him but seeing we were in a random, dark forest, I figured at least that cooler head had to prevail. The sun was trying to peek over the horizon, but I still had no idea where we were.

“Oh, so you liked it?” Suddenly, he wasn’t pissed anymore. Just curious. And that infuriated me beyond reason.

“Ha! Liked it! It was either focus on kissing you or focus on dying an icy cold death from a crushing wave. It was the lesser of two evils,” I threw back at him. Thankfully, my back was to him so he couldn’t tell I was just speaking out of anger. Part of that anger coming from the fact that I liked his kiss a little too much. “So screw you!”

“You wish!” he countered.

I turned around and threw him a withered look. “What are we in, like, seventh grade?”

“You started it,” he pouted, the early morning light warming his face. I couldn’t help it. He looked like a four year old, with his lip petulantly stuck out. I burst out laughing – so hard that I sunk to the ground. He glared at me again. “What?”

“We’re…not dead,” I told him between laughter. “In…fucking…trees…somewhere. And…this fight…is stupid.”

Jude tried to remain stoic but a small smile crept onto his face. Finally, he shucked off his pack and sank into the muddy ground with me, chuckling. “Adrenalin is a dangerous thing,” he said.

I nodded, wiping at the tears streaming down my face, trying to control my giggling. “Where are we?”

Jude looked around. “Nebraska. Winnebago Nebraska. We’re in the trees behind my friends’ house.”

“Winnebago? As in, those trailer-on-wheels type things?” I asked.

He shook his head. “As in the Native American Winnebago Tribe.”

“Hm.” I looked around and only saw trees and dark shadows. I thought Nebraska was cornfields – way to be ignorant, Rory. “So, Lancelot, why are we here?”

Jude stood up and brushed his pants off, which was futile since everything stuck to them. “You’re false identity is being shipped here. Not for a few days though. I thought it would take us a little longer to get here.”

He put his pack on, so I stood up and started readying myself to leave the trees. “Why didn’t you just vanish us wherever we needed to go in the first place?”

“Because they can sense both of our energies,” he said helping me put the pack on my back. “When I vanish, it causes a spike of my anima and they can follow that. For that reason I preferred to travel by car or bus. Electricity messes with sensing anima and makes it harder to find.”

I nodded but inside I was panicking. They could find us anywhere, except maybe under power lines. Jude turned me around to fiddle with the front straps of my pack. “So won’t they be here any minute?”

“To this spot, maybe,” he told me, frustratingly calm. His focus was on tightening my pack straps. “But the reservation is a place of high energetic concentration to begin with, so that will make us hard to find. Besides, I have us staying at place with so much electricity running all the time, it will make us nearly impossible to find.” He smiled at me brightly and I almost melted. Then his lips formed a scowl. “Your head.”

I reached up to touch where the blood had dried on my right temple. “I hit it in the car.”

In seconds, his pack was off and he was stripping out of his shirt. Jude balled it up and gently wiped the side of my face. Don’t look at his perfectly sculpted chest, Rory. Don’t notice the way the morning sun bronzes his skin. I snapped my eyes shut and balled my hands into fists, resisting the urge to run my hands through the dark hair that peppered his chest and trailed down into the waistband of his jeans. Dammit, Rory, the guy was pissed you kissed him. Clearly not interested.

“You okay?” he asked, misinterpreting my discomfort.

“Mm-hmm. It’s a little tender.” It wasn’t a complete lie. The cut was a little tender.

“Sorry,” he muttered and then leaned in closer to my forehead. “It’s closed up. It looks worse than it is.”

Jude turned and shoved his soiled shirt in his pack and then put the whole thing on his shoulders. We walked a fifth of a mile and emerged at the edge of a property. There was a white ranch style house with black shudders and flood lights illuminating the yard. The backyard was predominately a vegetable garden and there were lush plants and flowers everywhere.

“Sandy, Jim’s wife, has a green thumb,” Jude explained. He stopped me before we exited the tree line. “Jim and Sandy know that I’m…very spiritual, that there’s something different about me. I’ve never really explained all of this.” He waved his hand distractedly in the air. “And they’ve never asked about it.”

Knowing he meant for me to keep my mouth shut, I nodded. He grasped my hand and started walking forward.

“We’re going to knock on their door at…whatever ridiculously early time it is here?” I asked.

“It’s after six, maybe almost seven here,” Jude told me. “Besides, they’re early risers and will be able to tell when I get here.”

“Oh.” I didn’t even want to know how they knew that.

Without looking at me he continued. “I also called and told them that my girlfriend and I were travelling cross country and wanted to visit for a few days.”

“Girlfriend?” I asked, my voice rising. He wanted to go with that excuse after the whole kissing debacle?

Jude stopped and looked at me. “How else was I supposed to explain us?”

I shrugged angrily, trying unsuccessfully to take my hand back. “Friends? Cousins? Travelling companions?” I shot at him.

“Rory, girlfriend is a lot easier to explain,” he sighed and kept walking. He half dragged me as I was still trying to release my hand. “Just go with me on this? Please?”

It was the exhaustion in his voice that got me. We were both tired and irritable and well, scared – at least, I was. So I cut him some slack. “Fine. How long have we been dating and where did we meet?”

Jude raised our hands in exasperation. “Just try to stick to the truth as much as possible.”

“So we met a week ago, you sucked some poison out of my arm, making you my protector and now we’re travelling the country seeing how the dating thing is working out for us?” I asked sarcastically.

We were almost to the back door and Jude’s frustration was rolling off him in waves. “We met because I work for your Da on his boat when you came home to take care of him…two months ago,” he told me improvising. “You’re doing an article about interesting, out-of-the-way travel spots for The Exit and I decided to tag along. Now smile and pretend you like me,” he ordered.

Jude rapped on the black door and waited. When it swung open a Native American man in his fifties with a salt and pepper ponytail down to his waist, smiled widely. Jude’s smile was the warmest and most open I had ever seen it. He was completely transformed from a guy who carried the world on his shoulders to a carefree boy. It was incredible.

“Jude!” the man bellowed, laughing and swinging the screen door open. Jude released me in time for the man to catch him in an enormous bear hug.

“Jim!” Jude returned, clapping the man affectionately on the back. His eyes travelled over the man’s shoulder. “Sandy!”

Quickly, he released Jim and scooped up a small, Native American woman with dark hair and dark eyes. She seemed around the same age as Jim but more subdued than he.

“Jude, it’s been too long,” she said when he finally released her. The affection between the three of them was almost tangible, fueled by mutual respect and love. The woman’s hazel eyes turned to me. “And this must be Rory.”

“Hi,” I nodded, sticking out my hand to her. She clasped it warmly with both of hers.

“Welcome,” she greeted me.

Jim used my handshake to snake me into a bear hug. “Good to meet you. Jude has told us a lot about you.”

Over Jim’s shoulder I raised my eyes to Jude. What had he told them? Jude just smiled and turned away.

“You look like you need a bath,” Sandy said, looping her arm through Jude’s, “and some food.”

“Check-in isn’t until three, so you can stay here until then,” Jim told us. “Though I already told you you’re welcome to sleep here.”

Sandy nodded leading us into a tidy house, decorated with a flower theme. Pictures of children and what I assumed were grandchildren peppered the walls and tables. “We’d love for you to stay here.”

Jude shrugged. “We have to try out the hotels for Rory’s article.” He looked over at me.

Article? Oh, right. The one I was supposed to be writing for the magazine I just resigned from. “Yeah,” I told them. I wonder if Jude realized I’m a pretty terrible liar. “I have to rate them and stuff.”

Both Jim and Sandy looked at me a little quizzically. Yes, my amazing powers of deception have failed me again. Thankfully, they were both too polite to say anything.

“Why don’t you two head into the guest room and shower and change,” Sandy suggested. “We added a guest bathroom last year.”

“Thanks, Sandy,” Jude said, and grabbed my hand. He dragged me down a hallway and into a room covered in roses. The walls were a light rose with a border that had various colored roses winding through it. The curtains, bedspread and lamp shade all matched the border pattern. There were rose shaped pillows on the bed and a green carpet that had roses the same colors as the wall on it. I stopped so abruptly to stare at the room, Jude practically yanked my arm off when he kept walking.

“What?” Jude asked, still annoyed at me.

“There are tremendous amounts of roses in here,” I said in wonder.

Jude smiled indulgently at me. “Sandy really likes flowers. Their bedroom is all orchids and the kitchen is sunflowers.”

“What’s the bathroom? Tulips?”

“The other bathroom is forget-me-nots. I only know that because she told me,” he added. Then he went to the door at the opposite side of the room and turned on the light inside the doorway. “This one is…light pink petal filled things.”

I followed him to the bathroom and looked around. It was similar to the bedroom except the pink was lighter and the flowers were different. I looked up at Jude skeptically. “Peonies? Maybe?”

He nodded. “Sure. Why don’t you take first shower?”

I took off my pack and gathered what I needed out of it. I thought maybe if I reached into the center, things wouldn’t be as wet. Pulling out clean jeans and a t-shirt, I realized how wrong I was. This day sucked.

“What’s wrong?” Jude asked. His voice was filled with concern. Stupid protector sensor power.

“My clothes are still wet,” I sighed. The thought of putting on damp jeans wasn’t one I relished.

“Give me what you want to put on. I’ll put our stuff we need now in the dryer and we can do the rest later,” Jude told me.

Gratefully, I handed everything over and took my toiletries into the bathroom. The hot water warmed the chill lingering in my skin and melted some of my tension. We were still running for our lives and I was still going to die, but at least I wasn’t alone. And what about that kiss? That was a kiss. There was no way in hell I would ever admit it to Jude, but that kiss did things to my body I only read about. It was just lust, I got that. Besides, I couldn’t fall for him. I was going to die and I still didn’t really know what he was.

Fall for him? Where did that come from? We drove each other crazy. And there was no point. My time was limited here. I sighed. But I had never really been in love, not that I was now. I had never let myself fall for anyone. Once they found out about my past, I knew they would be running for the hills or trying to get me to see another psychiatrist. I hated psychiatrists. I couldn’t go through that again.

So what was the harm in letting myself be interested in Jude? What harm could it do? None, really. He wasn’t interested in me, in fact, I’m pretty sure I repelled him. If I fell for him, I would be the only one hurt and I was going to die anyway. Did I really want to die with a broken heart? Probably not. But then again, I would never get the chance to try again anyway.

This was stupid. I got out of the shower and applied deodorant and lotion. Wrapping a towel around myself, I grabbed my brush, and sat on the bed waiting. Hopefully, my dry clothes would be back soon. Brushing my wet hair, I chastised myself.

Stop thinking about Jude. It’s stupid. It’s not something I even need to worry about. I mean, I’ve only known him a week and-

“Rory?” a guilty voice on the other side of the bed called me.

I jumped and whipped my head around. Quickly, I checked to make sure my towel continued to cover all the important bits.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, his gaze never wavering from my eyes. “I called your name a couple times.”

I shrugged and then realized doing that in a towel was a bad idea. I thought I caught a ghost of a smile on Jude’s lips. “Just daydreaming, I guess. Are those my clothes, Lancelot?”

He nodded and put them on the bed. Alarm rose in his eyes as he looked at me.

“Are they back?” I asked.

“What?” Then Jude shook his head. “No. You’re head. Hold on.”

He ran for the bathroom and came back with a handful of tissues and some band-aids. Gently, he started mopping my forehead. The tissues came back bloody.

“It must have opened in the shower,” I told him. “I didn’t even realize.”

He stood over me, his long legs straddling on either side of mine. Jude’s breath warmed my head as he mopped and bandaged my cut. I was acutely aware that I was sitting in nothing but a towel. Couldn’t he make it a little easier to stay mad at him?

Gently, Jude put a bandage over the cut, his hand lingering on my face. I resisted the urge to lean into his comforting warmth and instead held onto my towel like a lifeline. Finally, I gathered my courage and looked at him. He was staring down at me, deep in thought.

“Jude?”

His eyes widened and he shook his head, like I had woken him from a dream. I could have sworn a faint blush touched his cheeks. His mouth set in a grim line. “Sorry. Just thinking.”

Quickly, he moved away from me. I started brushing my hair again, like there wasn’t any weirdness between us. “Thanks for bandaging my head,” I said.

Jude nodded and backed into the bathroom. “I’m just going to shower. Sandy and Jim wanted me to let you know they had breakfast out.”

I nodded and he closed the door. Dressing in record time, I made my way out to the kitchen. Sandy and Jim were drinking coffee and eating pancakes. They both looked at me when I came in.

“Well, that’s better,” Sandy acknowledged looking me up and down. “Now how about some breakfast?”

My stomach growled at the sight of pancakes. When was the last time I had eaten? It must have been during my stunning performance with Malthus and Gabe. “That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

Jim patted my hand in a fatherly way when I sat down. “Any friend of Jude’s is a friend of ours.”

“How do you know Jude?” I asked. Quickly, I tried to cover my ignorance. This is probably something Jude would have told me. “He just said you’ve known each other for a while. You know how tight lipped he can be sometimes.”

Sandy smiled indulgently and slid a plate of fluffy pancakes towards me. “He’s like that at first. But he’ll open up. I can see the way he looks at you.”

Jim raised his fork at Sandy, making his point. “He’s never brought a girl here before.”

Before I let myself get excited, I had to remind myself he wasn’t really ‘bringing’ me here. We were hiding. You’re being stupid, Rory. I inwardly rolled my eyes at myself and asked them, “So how long have you known him?”

“’Bout twenty years now,” Sandy answered. And then she smiled in wonder. “Hasn’t aged a day since we met him.”

Hasn’t aged a day? But he was my age or around it. That means they would have met him when he was ten. He couldn’t have looked like a full grown man when he was ten. I covered my confusion by shoving pancakes in my mouth. Was this something to do with his supernatural powers?

Jim nodded and looked at me. I focused on putting milk and sugar in my coffee so he wouldn’t see my distress. “Came looking for work. He seemed like a good kid, so we hired him in the store. We run a dry goods store ’bout a mile away. Our daughter, Jenny, runs it now.”

“She had such a crush on him then,” Sandy reminisced. “She would follow him around like a puppy. He was sweet with her. She was only twelve then.”

“He stayed on for a year or so, but he’s always come back,” Jim told me.

“He’s like another son,” Sandy chimed in. Then she looked at me. “He’s a good boy. You’re a lucky girl.”

I swallowed the lump of guilt over our deception. “I know,” I told her. It wasn’t a lie, I was lucky he was helping. I just hope it didn’t get him killed in the process. He should be here with these people.

“Spreading lies again?” Jude asked with a smile, swinging his arm around Sandy’s shoulders. He gave her an affectionate kiss on the forehead and scooped pancakes off the plate like he did, indeed, grow up here.

“Figure you can use all the help you can get,” Jim winked at him.

Jude laughed loudly, his face breaking into an enormous grin. “Well, old man, even with your help, I’m hopeless.”

“I seem to remember more than a few ladies who have been interested over the years,” Sandy piped up, her eyes twinkling.

“Jenny and her teenage friends don’t count,” Jude countered, smiling. “If I recall, they were in love with anything male and under thirty.”

“Speaking of Jenny,” Jim jumped in, “she’s made us all reservations tonight at the casino. Jenny said she didn’t want to cook for everyone but she wanted us all to be together.”

Jude beamed, actually beamed. Who was this carefree, warm, loving guy? And then his facedarkened with guilt and he swiveled his head toward me. “Is that okay?”

It wasn’t okay. We were running for our lives and he wanted to subject me to a bunch of strangers who thought I was his girlfriend. The idea of it was enough to give me a panic attack. But I found that I couldn’t say no. I liked this open, happy side of Jude. The thought of spending a few hours with him like this warmed me all over.

“Sure,” I found myself saying.

He smiled warmly at me and plunked a grateful kiss on the top of my head. “Great.” Then he looked back at Sandy and Jim and I reeled from his unconscious affection. “Is everyone going to be there?”

Jim nodded. “Not the kids.” Then he turned to me to explain. “Jenny and her husband, Bill; and our two sons, Ed and Will, and their wives, Sarah and Chris.”

“We were hoping you two would stop by tomorrow. We were going to have everyone over for a barbeque. The kids were really excited you were here,” Sandy added a little sheepishly. She turned to me. “Sorry to throw all of this family at you. But we don’t get to see Jude as often as we like, so when he’s here we try to take advantage of it.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. It’s great to meet so many people who care about Jude.” That’s what a girlfriend would say right? Besides, it was amazing to find this loner of a man had a whole adopted family that loved him. It was fascinating and it filled my heart to know that. No matter what happened now, even if we failed, I knew Jude would have a place to go back to.

Jude smiled at me again. I couldn’t help but smile back. He put his hand over mine and I felt the tingles all the way up my arm when he squeezed it.

We finished eating and Jude led me out of the house, under the pretense of a walk. I noticed he kept us walking under power lines.

“I’m sorry,” Jude apologized. “I didn’t think about the fact that you would be ambushed with everyone. Are you okay with this?”

I nodded, trying to smile. “It’s fine.”

He stopped and looked at me, shaking his head. “It’s not fine. You’re not fine.”

I shrugged. “I’m not good with people. I’ll get over it. Don’t worry about me.”

“It’s my job,” Jude sighed. “I’m sorry. We can cancel.”

“No.” My voice was strong and emphatic. I softened. “You’re different with them Lancelot.”

He smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.”

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye as we continued to walk. “It’s nice.”

“Yeah?” His eyes slid to me.

I smiled. “Yeah.”

We walked in silence for a while. There was a topic I wanted to broach; I just wasn’t sure how to bring it up. ‘What are you?’ seemed a little vague and rude. We were finally able to spend time without wanting to kill each other and I wanted to keep it that way. But the things that Sandy and Jim had said, I needed answers. I sighed deeply, how to ask.

“What’s going on?” he demanded. That protector-sixth-sense thing really needed to be turned off.

“Sandy and Jim told me about when you met them,” I started.

“Yeah?”

I nodded. “And they said you haven’t aged a day since they met you. Twenty years ago.”

“Right.” He looked at me quizzically.

I sighed. “So unless I’m a terrible judge of age, you would have been ten at the time. You certainly don’t look ten. How is that possible?”

He ran a hand over his face. “I thought you realized when I said I was part of their world.”

“Understood what?”

“Rory, I’m immortal.”