Lina 41
“Can I have this dance?” Telor asked. He didn’t wait for my answer; instead, he tugged me into his arms and began to sway us back and forth. I turned my head and looked up at his face. He looked so happy: his lips curled gently in the corners, his smile reflecting in his eyes, his breaths deep and even. He must have felt my stare because he gave me a sidelong glance.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked softly, as if to not disturb the sky and moon above us.
“Us. I was wondering what it would have been like if we met under different circumstances. If I was twenty years older or you were twenty years younger. I wonder what our lives would be like if we could just simply be together and be happy. Would we have ever found each other on our own?”
“We wouldn’t have to,” he said. “If we had another set of circumstances, Denny would still be there, guiding us together.”
“What of Luck?” Denny had mentioned that she existed. “She could have other things planned for us.”
“Sera is a mystery to me,” Telor admitted. “I don’t know exactly what she does or how her influence affects destiny.”
“I hope we get the chance to see what this life has in store for us,” I whispered, not able to voice my fears any louder less they get carried away by the wind.
“God, I hope so too,” he said more to himself than to me. “I don’t think I can ever go back to before you. I don’t regret any decision that has brought me to this moment right now. This makes getting shot worth it.”
Tears welled in my eyes and I felt his lips on my forehead. They stayed pressed there for a moment before he started softly humming. I leaned closer and listened to his deep voice, content to stay in his arms forever.
When he started to sing my song, I melted into him. His honey-like voice roamed over my heart and soul.
He finished his song, whispering the final line in my ear. The tremble that ran up my body had nothing to do with the cold evening air and everything to do with Telor. Just like when he kissed me for the first time, I was hit with the awareness that he was now an essential part of me. Telor was right; I could never go back to before him. Now that my soul had seen his, it was all or nothing for us.
“I could listen to you sing all day,” I murmured. “You sound like an angel.”
The sound of applause broke through the night. Telor tensed at something over my shoulder and quickly moved me behind him.
“So, this is what you’ve been up to,” a male voice said.
My breathing grew heavy as I buried my face into Telor’s back.
“It’s not your concern. Leave now.” Telor’s tone rang with authority.
“Boss knows something’s going on,” the man sneered.
He stepped into the light so I could see him clearly. Tall and assuming, with dark hair and dark eyes, his attractive features were fixed at menacing angles that made me want to shrink behind Telor and stay as invisible as possible. A small cut on his lip still oozed blood.
“What happened to your lip?” Telor asked, moving step for step with him, keeping me behind him with his protective stance.
“Cheyenne, the little bitch,” he growled. “I figured she would be a good starting point. However, I forgot how defensive she gets over you.”
Rage rolled off Telor like heat off asphalt in the summer. “If you hurt her, I will end you.”
“Relax, she’s fine. However, we do have some business to take care of here.”
Three more figures stepped out of the darkness and started toward us.
“Catalina is going to have to come with us.”
“The hell she is,” Telor snarled. Panic bloomed in my chest. This wasn’t going to end well.
“Don’t make us hurt you,” one of the nameless figures said.
Telor bent his head low, while still keeping his eyes on the men advancing toward us. “When I tell you to run, you run.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I whispered frantically. “I can’t.”
“You can and you will,” he answered, slowly shifting us off the dock and onto the surrounding ground.
“Don’t be stupid, Telor,” the first guy yelled. He was so close that if he wanted to, he could grab me.
The other three spread out into a wide semi-circle, coming at us and trapping us between them and the water. Telor tightened his hand on mine and attempted to turn us so our backs were toward the tree line rather than the water.
A hand came up and grabbed me from behind, and I let out a blood-curdling scream. The hand clasped over my mouth, and Telor spun, terror showing in his eyes.
“Make another move and I’ll snap her neck,” the woman said. “Three of you, stay here and detain this little puppy. One of you, come with me.”
“Marla, don’t do this. You don’t even work for Tori, you don’t have to do this,” Telor pleaded, his hands in the air in surrender, and his eyes glued to mine. I could feel his panic welling along with my own.
“We work for whoever we want to now.” Marla laughed manically. “We chose the winning team. You think Denny is going to save you guys? The tides are changing, Telor.”
“What are you talking about?” Telor asked her, taking a small step forward, toward Marla and me.
Marla curled her hands into my hair and yanked back hard, eliciting a small scream from me. “Did I tell you to move? Don’t take another step or I’ll leave a piece of her behind for you to remember her by. Tori only needs her alive, she didn’t mention anything about keeping her whole,” Marla said.
She didn’t wait for anyone else to say anything and neither did the others. She starting dissolving into the air, and so did I. My body was dissolving into nothing more than mist. Frantically, I searched for Telor. The three who were ordered to stay behind immediately advanced on him, pinning him between them and the water. He seemed calm as they came toward him. I tried to scream but couldn’t figure out how to work my mouth anymore. Instead, all I could do was watch as one man swung and connected with Telor’s jaw. Then the other two moved in quickly to hold his arms behind his back as the punches kept coming.
Our mist became a funnel, and we were sucked into an invisible drain, only to materialize in solid form on the other side. As soon as we were there, Marla threw me from her arms, wiping her hands on her pants and backing against the wall. I stayed a crumpled heap on the floor for a moment as the scream I was building earlier finally tore from my throat. Taking in my surroundings, I gathered we were in a garage or a storage unit. A single hanging light bulb in the center of the room illuminated the space.
Fear was the predominate emotion swirling through my mind. Not fear for me, but fear for Telor. Could he really take on three of them? As I was distracted worrying about his safety, an icy chill settled over the room until I was lifted into the air by an invisible force and tossed into a chair. My limbs were glued to the arms and legs, and my brief struggle only left me exhausted.
A dark figure emerged from the shadows and into the light. She was tall and beautiful. Her pale heart-shaped face had sharp features, which only added to the coldness of her solid green eyes. Her auburn hair blew with a breeze that I didn’t feel. In her floor-length emerald green gown, she looked like she’d just stepped off a runway. Her face showed nothing friendly about it, just flat-out contempt and annoyance. Fear for me started to creep into my body, pausing my movements from the ice spreading through my veins. There was no doubt in my mind that this was Tori. A foreboding that I had always imagined the Grim Reaper would elicit permeated the air.
“Hmm,” Tori said, grabbing my face roughly in her hand. “What is it about you that got Telor, the best Guide I have—had—have—” she deliberated with herself for a moment, her condescending voice like a snake ready to pounce “—so distracted from his job?”
I knew better than to answer, but couldn’t bring myself to stay silent.
“Bite me,” I spat. Instead of looking angry, she seemed rather amused.
“Well, it can’t be your charm,” she mused, giving me a once-over again. “You’re a bit of an oddity, aren’t you? I’ve never quite seen a gray human.” She tapped her finger against her mouth. “Regardless, your services are no longer needed.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, even though I knew.
“None of your concern, darling.” Tori walked toward me, placing her hands on either side of my face, and pressed her mouth against my ear as she whispered, “I’ll take good care of him. He won’t feel a thing.”
Please be happy with just me, please don’t take Telor, I chanted over and over again to myself. Awaiting the sharp twist that would break my neck, I held my breath. As she twisted my head to the side, a sharp crack sounded in the air around us. For a brief second, I thought it was my neck, until I heard a sharp scream from Tori. She had been knocked a good ten feet away.
She wasn’t moving and the invisible bindings holding me to the chair were released. Not wasting time, I scrambled to my feet and fled to the door in the corner of the room. Locked. Dammit. Just as I opened my mouth to call for help, a scuffle outside the doors stopped me. My Telor alarm sounded quietly in my head and loudly in my heart. Telor was here, did he get away from those guys? Or did they bring him here? I’d barely moved away from the door before it went flying against the wall.
Telor, I thought with relief, thank God.
I’d never seen him look so…so fierce. Telor’s face and shirt were covered in blood, and I swore his eyes were flickering with red. His jaw was set at a determined angle as he scanned the room. My breath caught in my chest and I backed against the wall, away from him. For the first time, I was a little afraid of him. When his eyes found me, he did a quick once-over of me before pulling me roughly into his arms.
“Did she hurt you, Cariad?” he asked into my hair. I shook my head, and he let out a visible sigh of relief. “We need to go... now.”
“Tori—she…” My words cut off as I scanned the empty room. “She was here, Telor. Right there!” I pointed to the space she had landed. “She, she was unconscious or something.”
“We need to go now. “ He gave me a rough kiss. “Now, Catalina.”
There was something seriously wrong with me. My adrenaline rush had worn off far too quickly. My body was sore and unwilling to do what I said. Telor noticed my sluggishness and half carried me down the hall that he’d come in through. It was quiet; the only sounds were our steps on the ground and our heavy breathing. I was fairly sure no one else could hear the blood pounding in my ears or my heart attempting to beat its way out of my chest.
We made it to the door of the mostly dark hallway, and it was locked, of course. Telor let out a string of curses that made sailors sound like kindergarteners. We almost made it to another set of doors perpendicular to the first ones when Telor was pulled to the ground. I screamed as he pushed me back the way we came. I stumbled backward over my feet, falling against the wall.
He struggled with a dark figure, neither seeming to gain the upper hand. They descended deeper into the hall, away from me as they traded blow after blow. I was rooted in my spot, wondering if I stood a chance to help him without getting him hurt more. Not caring, I took off at a run, colliding with a hard figure midway there.
“Shhh, it’s me,” Telor whispered in my ear. “I need to go find Tori and talk to her.”
“The hell you do. We’ll go together, okay?” I asked, running through different scenarios in my mind, hoping for a sane one to make its way through. “I have the ring.”
“It won’t matter now, we need time.”
“I’m staying with you.” I stood my ground.
“No. Absolutely not,” he said, shaking his head. Grabbing his cell phone out of his pocket, he switched it with mine. “Call Denny. Tell him Tori is here, and I’m with her. He’ll give you directions from there and make sure you get to him safely. If you run into anyone, if you see someone, you run.” Pulling me toward him, he kissed me passionately and unrestrained in the middle of the hallway, where who knows who was watching and Death loomed nearby. “I love you, Catalina Rose Franklin, in this life and the next, where we shall meet, remember, and love again.”
His words sounded too close to a goodbye for me. I grappled with his hands in a vain attempt to drag him with me, but Telor detangled himself quickly. Giving me a final shove, he took off in the direction of the apparently knocked-out figure. Holding Telor’s phone, my hand shook slightly. I looked toward the direction Telor had run, wondering if I could catch up with him. A slow jog was the fastest pace I could manage, and I had only made it about a hundred feet when his phone vibrated in my hand. I clicked on the text icon.
TURN AROUND NOW! GO CALL DENNY.
Huffing out a sigh, I stopped running, trying to catch my breath. I wanted to chase after him and find him. He shouldn’t be going to talk to her, and definitely not alone. That sick feeling in my stomach was back in full force and my head swam with every step I took away from him. A red sign to my right caught my attention. Emergency exit. I barreled through it, setting the alarm off in the process.
Then I ran—just ran—turning when I had to, swerving when I had to. Finally, I came to a place that I knew. Not that it was the best part of town to be in. I pried the phone from my rigid hand and scrolled through the contacts, clicking on Denny’s name. It rang and rang and fucking rang. I had almost hung up when a voice came on the line.
“What’s the matter? Did they find you?” she said in a single breath.
“Umm. There was an—I mean he’s—Who is this?” I asked, slightly confused.
“This is Cheyenne. Where is Telor?” she asked.
“I didn’t recognize your voice. This is sort of an emergency, so can you please get Denny for me?” I asked around the flurry of emotions trying to force their way to the forefront of my mind. I was trying not to sound rude, but I was sure I would start to hyperventilate at any minute.
“Emergency? What kind of emergency?” she asked, sounding panicked.
“Umm…there were other people, and Tori. Telor—”
“Oh, cheese and rice!” she said breathlessly “Denny! Denny! She’s here!” Cheyenne called shrilly.
There was a loud thump followed by muffled voices. Cheyenne must have put her hand over the receiver while she was talking. A third male voice interrupted, laughing something loudly, only to be shut down quickly—by whom, I assume, was Denny—with a sharp bark.
“Where are you at?” Cheyenne asked, returning to the phone.
“North Limestone by Eddy Street,” I said, trying my damnedest to melt into the scenery around me. Of all the places in town to be stranded, this was not even on my top ten. “There is a coffee shop near here.”
“Okay, he knows where you are,” she said, her voice morphing into an all-business tone. The formality mixed with her country twang was adorable, and under different circumstances, I would have smiled at the way she was taking charge. “Stay where you are, we are going to come to you.” She clicked the phone off without saying goodbye.
I stood inside the door of Paradise Coffee, shaking half-melted pieces of snow from my hair. It was late, and the place was pretty much empty. I ordered a Chai Latte, thankful for the wad of dollar bills I found in my pocket, and made my way to the table farthest from the register. Sliding into the booth, I glanced at the screen of Telor’s phone. I wondered briefly if I should call him to make sure he was okay, but reluctantly decided that it might cause more harm than good.
It had started snowing more since my arrival. The white crystalline flakes swirled in the wind, and a dark shadow passed over the ground. Was that an owl? I kneeled on my booth seat, straining to see the bird through the heavy snowfall. I had my nose pressed against the glass, following the bird’s flight across the sky. A voice sounded from behind me, causing me to jump a mile.
“It’s just a bird, my dear,” Denny said, sliding into the booth next to me. Cheyenne sat across from us, flashing me a blinding smile.
“Sorry. I’m a little freaked out. Have you heard anything from him?” I was almost sure of the answer but needed to ask anyway.
“I haven’t heard anything, no,” he said, sounding genuinely apologetic. “But I do have someone looking into his whereabouts for us. We should be hearing back from him soon.”
“Wh—” I started and stopped. “Can other people see and hear you two, or do I look like a crazy person?”
“They can see me, but not Cheyenne,” Denny said. “So, why don’t you start from the beginning and tell us what happened to Telor.”