Telor 14
The place was crawling with Guides when I headed in to work. They passed right by me like I wasn’t there. They were looking for something. Had Tori noticed that Catalina was still alive? Or had she noticed I was missing? Both scenarios were equally possible.
The Guides weren’t aggressively searching, like they would if they were sent to retrieve a wayward soul. They mostly seemed curious, just standing on the sidewalks outside the museum. Some even ventured to look in the windows, though not a single one entered the building.
I planned on skipping out on the rest of the day, telling Seline I didn’t feel well and watching from afar. My head needed to stay clear and in the game, which was impossible around her. I was constantly fighting myself from trying to find a reason to touch her, be near her. A feat that was proving easier said than done since Seline seemed to want us working together. And with all these Guides loitering, I needed to keep her close, regardless of how hard it was to stay outwardly indifferent toward her. With my original plan out the window, my new one was more of a learn-as-you-go. I dodged a bullet with her not going out for lunch today. Now I just had to tackle the walk home. Looked like I was going to be verging on stalker tonight. Again. Though, unlike most stalkers, I tended not to peer into her windows. I just kept watch outside.
Realistically speaking, sleeping outside her house should have been a huge pain in my arse. While I tried to think I only liked it because it gave me something to do, I wasn’t even kidding myself with that rubbish. I liked it because I was protecting something. Something that mattered more to me than anything had in a long time, maybe even ever.
“What cologne do you wear?” she asked, switching out my notebook for hers so she could enter my information into the computer.
What a good protector I was, I didn’t even realize she was next to me until she spoke. I stood by my earlier statement: she messed with my head.
“I don’t wear cologne,” I replied, curious as to what I smelled like. “Maybe it’s my detergent,” I suggested.
“No, that’s not it,” she said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. The asshole side of me wanted to do it for her, and my mind briefly wandered to what it would be like to take her lip between my teeth, if she’d taste as sweet as I imagined she would. “It smells like smoke, leather, and cinnamon, maybe?”
Pulling my sleeve to my face, I took a deep breath. Definitely no smoke, leather or cinnamon. “I just smell soap.”
“Oh. Maybe it’s just me. It reminded me of something. I’m not sure what,” she said. Rather than moving back to her seat, she lingered beside me, staring at the notebook in her hands. “Say ‘Fancy your biscuits in the closet, love?’”
The crate I was holding went crashing onto my foot, and I let out a low grunt, leaning my forehead against the wall. Where did she hear that? My mum’s voice echoed in my mind.
“Oh, no!” Catalina yelled. “Your foot.”
“It’s fine,” I said sliding it out of her reach. While my body ached for even the smallest of contact with her, my mind knew better. “Where did you hear that phrase?”
“I don’t really know,” she said, seeming confused and embarrassed. “A dream, maybe?”
“Fancy your biscuits in the closet, love?” I whispered. It hurt in ways I didn’t think imaginable. My parents were something I hadn’t had the luxury to think about in a while. I was dead, and it had been easier to just let them go. Like they’d let me go.
“Dammit,” she said, rubbing her palms hard against her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve been a little off since my accident.”
“I can tell,” I replied. I needed to remember my plan. She needed to stay in the dark, and the dark meant away from me.
“Thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes and walking back to her desk, looking sufficiently annoyed with me. I hated that I was causing her to feel that.
Catalina sank into her chair, her forehead creasing in the middle. She gave me a few questioning glances that I ignored, before she resigned herself to whatever internal debate she was having.
This had become our norm: I started the day off pleasant enough, and every time she tried to start a non-work-related conversation, I took a step back, putting a brick in the wall between us. What I didn’t count on was the fact that she knew how to use a sledgehammer. For every brick that went up, she knocked two down. I feared that soon she would start asking questions I couldn’t answer. Well, not the answers she was looking for, at least.
It had been about a week since I started working with her, and Guides were becoming more and more abundant. They swarmed around her like moths to a flame. Only, it was more like she was bright as the sun—there were that many. Having to sleep was putting a damper on my nighttime vigils outside her house. I could usually make it until two or three a.m. before I had to find somewhere to crash so I could get a few hours in. At first, I’d felt comfortable enough to sleep in her yard, but I wasn’t as confident in my abilities to remain unseen lately.
My body and my mind were feeling the effects of being human. Sleep deprivation is not something I’d missed.
Last night was a bad night. Not only had the Guides congregated outside her house, but Meddlers appeared as well. Meddlers worked for Chaos and thrived on causing things to go haywire. Their presence here made me uneasy. Well, more so than I already was. It meant that it wouldn’t be long before Tori and Max, Chaos incarnate, were speaking. If they weren’t already. It was only a matter of time before she summoned me for questioning.
Finally, around six a.m., when her light came on, I headed off to take a shower and change.
Catalina was in her office when I dragged my protesting body through the doors and sagged into Seline’s chair. Her eyes lifted from her screen, momentarily widening, before she went back to her computer.
“You look like shit.”
“You sure know the way to a man’s heart, don’t you?” I asked, knowing my sarcasm was weak at best.
“The quickest way to a man’s heart is a sharp knife.” She rolled her eyes and smiled a little.
Involuntarily, I grinned a little—the things she said sometimes made me forget myself.
“Rough night?”
“You could say that. Didn’t get a lot of sleep.”
She appraised me for a second, looking torn. What I wouldn’t give to hear her thoughts.
“I think I slept awkwardly,” I added.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, and left the room.
Attempting to relieve some of the muscle pain, I massaged my neck and lower back. I needed an ally—that was what I needed. I couldn’t do twenty-four-seven security detail on my own. Not outside her house, at least. I already had one bullet hole in my body; I didn’t need Gavin to give me another.
Catalina returned with a steaming mug of hot coffee. She set it on the desk in front of me, along with a tube of ointment, and two blue pills.
“The coffee is to wake you up, the pills are Aleve, and the tube is Icy Hot,” she informed when I raised my eyebrows in question. “They will help with your muscle pains. Do you want me to help you with the Icy Hot on your back?”
“No, I got it. Thanks,” I replied. I wanted her to help me, there were few things that I wanted more than to have her hands all over me. It’d been a long time since someone tried to take care of me, and—being my luck—I had to decline it.
Her face held a little hurt. It was still early in the day; I could afford to be a little nicer now.
I grabbed her hand before she got too far away. “Thank you, really.”
“Yep,” she said, giving my hand a little squeeze and walking quickly out the door.
Ah, it was gonna be a deliciously hellish day.