Chapter Seven

It was awkward, being in the massive estate without Nathaniel. Keeping an eye on Howard Blake only proved to be so interesting for Caleb until the man settled into his study to read The Wall Street Journal. Caleb was resentful, being stuck here. He felt like Nathaniel had basically just put him in time out. His brother could be far too overprotective. Sure, it had saved his life more than once, but it still wasn’t right. Caleb could take care of himself…at least in situations where there weren’t witches and switchblades involved.

He felt a gut-wrenching ache at the sudden thought of Samantha. Caleb had tried not to think about her since that whole ordeal had happened (if he could call her attempt at murdering him an “ordeal”) because every time his mind went there it hurt like hell. If he was honest with himself, Caleb knew that was the biggest reason why he was resentful toward Nathaniel right now; because his leaving him here alone like this left Caleb in a situation that made it impossible for him not to face those prodding thoughts that had been trying to come up on him since the incident itself. So that was where Caleb was now, lying on his back in a bed that wasn’t his, waiting for his brother to come back so he could get out of this place and do something useful, like tracking Donovan and the other Nephilim bastards who had been conspiring to kill him.

Caleb sighed and looked around the room, his eyes falling to a bookshelf in the corner.

Nathaniel really needed to hurry.

Not wanting to think about Samantha Ross, he went over to it and scanned the titles, seeing if there was anything there that could distract him before Nathaniel got back. He recognized some of the books of famous poetry: Shakespeare, Hemmingway, Prust. Caleb had read them all and he hadn’t thought much of them. Nathaniel’s uncle must have really been into literature. And he really had no taste.

Setting his hand on the second shelf up, something caught Caleb’s eye. He saw a drawer that folded out of the shelf; a hidden drawer. Intrigued, he pulled on it, and inside he found a box that was covered in dust. It was an intricate box, cherry wood with scripted engravings. Caleb dusted it off to reveal the wooden carvings on the front of it; strange designs that he didn’t know the meaning of.

He tried to open it and saw that it was locked. Frowning, Caleb studied it more closely. That was when he saw an engraving on the keyhole, the initials: R.B.

Caleb was curious, but just as he started to finger the keyhole, he heard someone coming up the stairs and he put the box back in the drawer quickly. Running out of the room to see if Nathaniel had come back, he forgot about the box in the hidden drawer.

. . . . .

Internally, Matthew was freaking out when he and Kyla got back into the condo, but he didn’t let her see it. He didn’t understand the feeling himself yet, and he didn’t want to have to explain to her what he didn’t understand. Even if he knew what was going on, she wasn’t the one he would talk to about a thing like this. Maybe at one point she would have been, but not anymore.

He didn’t trust her enough.

“What do you need my help with?” Kyla asked him once they stepped inside.

Matthew hadn’t needed her help with anything, and looking at her, he could see that she knew that. He debated making something up and avoiding the oversized elephant in the room, but then decided against it and went straight for the truth instead.

“What is he doing here?” Matthew asked her. “I thought he left?”

Kyla looked confused. “How would you know that?” He gave her a look and she rolled her eyes. “Let me guess,” she said spitefully. “Alexa?”

“Don’t blame Lex,” Matthew said. “If you would ever tell me what’s going on with you anymore, I wouldn’t have to hear it from her.”

Kyla scratched her head nervously and then muttered, “I’m gonna take a shower.”

It frustrated Matthew, her directly avoiding him like that and not even making apologies for it, but he let her leave anyway. There was more that he was concerned about right now than that.

As soon as Kyla was upstairs and he heard the shower turn on, Matthew grabbed the kitchen phone and dialed the Howell’s number.

All of his internal freaking out came to the surface when Alexa answered, because he didn’t have to hide it anymore with Kyla upstairs and Loni passed out in the basement.

“What’s going on?” Alexa asked him. She didn’t sound worried, just calm and even like she normally did.

Matthew blurted out, “I met him. I met Nathaniel,” and he could tell he had her attention.

He was pacing in the kitchen as he talked to her and trying to keep his voice down, but he was so anxious it wasn’t easy.

Alexa’s response was strange. “Did anything abnormal happen?” she asked him.

Matthew wasn’t sure what she meant. “I don’t know,” he said. “I felt really weird, like I didn’t know what to think. I thought I knew what it would feel like when I came face to face with him, but it was different. I don’t know what’s going on, Lex, but I feel like something…happened to me.”

He felt crazy even saying it like that, but Alexa didn’t seem surprised. Disturbed maybe, but not surprised.

“What happened?” she asked him.

Matthew shook his head. “I don’t know. It was just something I felt. Like…he wasn’t the bad guy.”

Alexa told him, “He’s not,” and Matthew scowled.

“I know you say that now, but at first you told me he was, and now you won’t explain anything to me! All I know is that ever since he showed up, my sister randomly disappears at night without telling me where she is, and when she gets back she doesn’t act like Kyla. She looks like she’s falling apart half the time and she won’t tell me why. And now you won’t either and it’s really starting to get on my nerves!”

Alexa stayed silent and let him vent.

“Then I meet the guy and everything feels off,” Matthew said. “I feel like everyone knows something I don’t and no one will tell me what it is.”

Alexa paused before she spoke to him again. “I want you to do something for me,” she said.

Matthew held his frustration long enough to listen to her.

“Pay attention to everything that happens with you,” she said. “And if something changes, call me immediately.”

Matthew didn’t like the sound of that.

. . . . .

The early rising sun that hit the ridge above the mountains sent cascading arcs of light down on the rocks in a splash of color. It was an image few to none had ever seen up here, because few to none could physically make it to the point Nathaniel and Caleb were at on the mountain right now.

They had been on watch for half the night, and also making good on their story to Uncle Howard and doing some ridiculously precarious climbing while they talked. Things were surprisingly relaxed and laid back, far more human than they normally were with them, and Caleb was surprised at how much different Nathaniel was here than he was in London. He liked it and he let him know it.

“I think this place is good for you,” Caleb said.

While they climbed and jumped from rock to rock, leaping in arcs that they made look absolutely effortless, Nathaniel vented his frustration to Caleb. It had been wearing on him, the way he kept getting interrupted every time he tried to be alone with Kyla; first by Caden and then by her little brother, Matthew, who was more than suspicious of him.

“I saw things in him last night,” Nathaniel said. “Things I’m not even sure what to think about.”

Caleb hung from an overhang by his fingertips. “What did you see?” he asked.

Nathaniel shook his head. “I couldn’t peg it,” he said. “I can’t tell if he’s one of them or not.”

Caleb swung his free arm around so that he grabbed the rock backwards behind him. He didn’t even break a sweat. “He could be,” Caleb offered. “It wouldn’t be weird with Kyla as his sister. At least if what you say about her is true…”

“It is,” Nathaniel said.

Caleb pulled himself up one-handed onto the semi-flat surface of the rocks above him.

“If he isn’t now,” Nathaniel said, “then maybe soon. There’s something locked up in him, and I can’t help but feel that we might begin to see it released. I just don’t know if that will help or hurt us.”

Caleb stood with his hands on his hips and looked out over the mountainous valley toward the Howell’s home. “You said he’s close to the seer?”

Nathaniel nodded. “I think so, yes. From what I’ve picked up on it seems that way.”

“If that’s true, than anything that happens with him will probably end up benefitting us,” Caleb said.

Nathaniel mumbled, “I hope you’re right,” knowing Caleb was going to pry about Caden again before the words even left his brother’s mouth.

“So how much of a threat is this Caden Howell?” Caleb asked him.

Right on cue.

Nathaniel kept his eyes on the rocks and tried not to sound uncomfortable as he answered him. “Depends how you mean the question,” he said.

Caleb shrugged. “You tell me.”

Nathaniel didn’t like that. “We know he’s a threat to Donovan,” he spouted off mechanically. “We know that we need him to…”

Caleb cut him off. “That’s not what I mean and you know it.”

Nathaniel made a face. He knew that wasn’t what Caleb meant; he just didn’t want to answer the question.

“He’s a problem,” Nathaniel admitted. He hesitated, debating if he should go where he was about to go, then he told him, “He fought me for her.”

Caleb snapped his head up. “Woah, woah, hold up…” he said. He jumped to a ridge where he was able to look at Nathaniel directly. “The boy fought you and you didn’t tell me?”

Nathaniel was quick to point out, “Caden didn’t know I wasn’t human. He still doesn’t know.” As if that would somehow make the whole thing less heroic. “He found us in the woods after Donovan and Seth were gone,” Nathaniel explained. “When he saw Kyla…he…well, he thought I did that to her.”

Caleb was stunned. “How did that go over?” he asked.

Nathaniel winced at the memory. “Not well,” he admitted. “I almost killed him.”

Caleb’s eyes were huge. “Yeah, that would have been slightly counterproductive,” he said. He looked back down the valley and out toward Woodland in the direction of the condo and the estate and Kyla James. “This girl must really be something,” he said.

Nathaniel mumbled, “You have no idea.”

Caleb asked him, “Do I get to meet her yet?” and Nathaniel frowned.

“No,” he said. “She’s still not ready.”

Caleb looked like he was thinking again, just like he had been the other night, only this time he voiced it. “You know what you need to do?” he asked him.

“No telling,” Nathaniel muttered.

Caleb smirked at him. “You need to drop the cloak and dagger act for a night and make her feel safe with you,” he said. “You need to take her out on a date.”

Nathaniel looked at him like he was either crazy or joking. “A date?” he laughed.

He saw that Caleb was serious. He should have known.

“You want to compete with the best friend?” Caleb asked him. “You’re gonna have to show her you can be what he is to her.”

Nathaniel sneered at the thought.

“She needs to know you can be a man, Nate. That’s the only way she’s ever gonna feel safe with you.”

“I know nothing about being a man,” Nathaniel said as if the word were laced with poison.

Caleb grinned. “That’s what you’ve got me for.”

. . . . .

Kyla spent the next afternoon working with her least favorite person on earth. Cody wasn’t there, thankfully, so Kyla didn’t have the headache of having to do two people’s jobs at once, but she still had to deal directly with Val Linley without a buffer there to keep them from killing each other. That coupled with the stress she was already under trying to cope with Nathaniel and Caden’s confrontation at Red Rock Canyon (and the fact that she and Nathaniel could never seem to be alone together for more than two seconds at a time) did not make for a pleasant shift. It didn’t help that Caden was angry with her, that she couldn’t fix it and she couldn’t even blame him; just made the process of making people their coffee that much more frustrating.

Kyla shook her head as she mopped up the caramel macchiato a customer had spilled in front of the register, wondering what had become of her life. Everything about it had gotten so ridiculous, and here she was thinking about it like these things were actually normal.

Kyla took the mop to the back and pulled out her phone to call Caden in the back room, but he didn’t answer. She tried again about ten minutes later, and that time (as her luck would have it) Val was right there to catch her.

“Who are you calling?” Val tried to pry.

Kyla didn’t bother responding to her and Val reached for her phone.

“What is wrong with you?!” Kyla exclaimed, grabbing it back from her psychotic coworker. But she didn’t grab it back before Val saw the name and number on the screen.

Val was smiling smugly. “You two still fighting?” she asked.

Kyla was about to haul off and backhand her when something distracted her from the move which surely would have been asinine and most likely gotten her fired. It was about the only thing that could have.

A tall, gorgeous blonde walked into the front of the coffee shop, and at the sight of him, Val’s face completely dropped. It was a strange expression for the girl to wear; she seemed a lot more surprised to see Nathaniel than she should have. It made Kyla curious and also forget about backhanding her for the moment.

Val covered her reaction up quickly and acted as if a light had just gone off in her head. “Is that why you two are fighting?” she asked. “Caden doesn’t approve of the new boyfriend?”

Kyla resisted the urge to hit her and instead turned and walked to the counter to get away from her (not that putting herself closer in proximity to Nathaniel made her feel any more comfortable.) Things were a little nerve-racking between them right now, but to be fair, things had been nerve-racking between them since the day they met.

“Hi,” Kyla said nervously.

He smiled at her in the way that never failed to make her weak. Kyla’s heart beat unevenly and she tried to ignore the fact that she could feel Val positioning herself behind her in a way that she could watch them.

“What are you doing here?” Kyla asked him.

She wasn’t sure what kind of answer she expected Nathaniel to give her, but when he told her, “I just wanted to see your face,” it was all she could do to keep herself from jumping the counter and throwing herself in his arms.

“I went too many nights without being able to,” he told her.

Kyla closed her eyes and clutched at the edge of the counter to keep herself upright. How could he say things like that and expect her to remain standing?

“Nathaniel, really…” she said, opening her eyes again. “What are you doing here?”

He looked up at the menu board. “I’ll take a small black tea,” he said.

Kyla tilted her head curiously, but then decided to play along. She glanced at him every once in a while as she fixed his tea, trying to figure out his angle.

Nathaniel didn’t respond to the questioning look she gave him. He simply told her, “Thank you,” as he took his tea and set a red rose with a note tied to it on the table behind him. Giving Kyla a look, he walked out the door with a sideways glance and a smile.

Kyla’s heart skipped more than one beat that time. As soon as Nathaniel was gone, she ran out from behind the counter and over to the table with the rose on it, scrambling to read the note that was tied to the stem.

Be ready at eight o’clock.

That was all that it said. Kyla looked up at where Nathaniel had left, completely confused. She didn’t know what on earth she was supposed to be ready for, but she was still smiling. It disturbed her when she turned around and saw Val smiling smugly. Kyla’s own smile dropped at the sight.

She didn’t like the idea of smiling over the same thing Val was. Something was just wrong about that.

. . . . .

It was dark and eerily still. The woods held an iridescent green glow to them that Matthew James knew wasn’t normal and certainly wasn’t safe. As he walked through them, the soft pine needles were crushed under his feet, wet with the recent rain. It sent a pungent aroma into the air; the cool mountain breeze, the pine trees on every side…and something burning in the distance.

Matthew saw smoke spilling out through the trees and he became afraid. But even though he was afraid of what was ahead of him, he also knew that was where he needed to get to. He was walking straight into the danger his instinct told him to run from, and he knew there were only two things that could do that to him, two people he would walk into that for without a second’s hesitation; Alexa Howell…or his big sister.

Right now, Matthew didn’t know which of them he was trying to get to, he only knew it was one of them. Possibly both. But those woods, there was something wrong with them. He knew that he was deep into them, far behind the Howell’s home, deeper than he had ever been. The Howell’s didn’t like the kids coming back here. Matthew and Alexa had been warned harshly against it growing up and they had never thought much of it.

Right now, he was thinking much of it.

Matthew didn’t know why Alexa would be back here, considering that that would set her in direct disobedience to her parents…which was something she just didn’t do. But he could feel it in the depth of his fear: She was out here.

Kyla was too.

The smoke billowed more and more until it reached at Matthew’s ankles in serpentine wisps. It was green now, like the woods, pulsating with fear itself. Matthew started to panic and back up, but he stopped himself forcefully from taking another step backwards.

You have to keep going, he told himself. You have to get to them.

Taking a deep breath, Matthew looked up and determined to go forward again, and it was when he looked up that he saw a strange symbol carved into the trunk of an aspen tree. The symbol appeared as if it had been carved years ago. He stared at it, mesmerized, memorizing its every detail without knowing why he was.

And then he woke up.

Jolting awake, Matthew sprang forward in his bed, breathing hard and trying to take in his surroundings to figure out whether or not he was safe. He pushed his mess of dark stringy hair out of his eyes with one hand and tried to breathe in, but he couldn’t shake the dream. It had been so vivid, so real.

He had never had one like it before.

Throwing off his covers, he crept downstairs quietly so as not to wake his mom if she happened to be in her bedroom. He heard her snoring loudly and saw that the door was open, and he scampered down the stairs to the kitchen after determining he was safe for the moment. Glancing at the clock in the kitchen, he saw that Kyla was already at work (which was much to his benefit at the present moment.)

Calling the Howell’s home number, Matthew was polite when Melissa picked up, despite his rattled nerves. Just like he always was.

“Do you want to talk to Alexa, honey?” Melissa asked him.

“Yes, please,” he said.

It was a very normal instance that was about to become anything but normal.

The second Alexa got on the line, Matthew blurted out to her, “I know what changed. I had a dream.”

Silence. Not the uninterested kind, but the heavy kind; the kind Alexa was known for that told him she was thinking.

“I need to see you, Lex,” Matthew said. “I need to talk to you.”

She still didn’t speak.

Matthew sighed and closed his eyes. “You know more than you’re telling me and it’s time you let me in on it.”

Granted, he knew that was always true, but there was even more truth to it now than there had been before. Right now, he had the feeling she knew things that he needed to know.

“I know,” Alexa admitted quietly. She didn’t sound surprised or afraid, but like she had expected this to come at some point and she was trying to figure out how to handle it.

Matthew didn’t know what she was going to do.

After another moment of contemplative silence, Alexa finally told him, “Mom and I are going into town in a few hours to do some grocery shopping. We’ll pick you up.”

“Okay?” Matthew said uncertainly.

“And Matthew,” she added before he hung up, “bring your toothbrush. I have a feeling you won’t be going home tonight.”

. . . . .

Kyla’s heart pounded when she saw the black and red Ducati pull up outside of the condo. She had been on edge since the moment she’d read the note on the rose Nathaniel left her, and she wasn’t sure that was going to lessen. Slinging the strap of her purse over her shoulder, she slipped into the bright red pumps she had bought six months ago (and had yet to wear) then she glanced in the mirror one last time before she headed for the door, adjusting her hair and her tan button-up jacket on the way. By some miracle, she even managed to get out to Nathaniel without being spotted by Matthew or the shrew.

Nathaniel was sitting on his bike when Kyla walked over to him (which she did very carefully.) He swallowed hard when he caught sight of her heels.

“What?” she asked him teasingly. Nathaniel was beaming.

“Nothing,” he said, still not taking his eyes off of her. “It’s just a shame that you are so dreadfully unattractive.”

Kyla gave him a look and straddled the back of his bike, shaking out her hair before she slipped the helmet over her head. “I’m sorry,” she apologized insincerely. “I guess I’ll just have to work harder to keep up my appearance.”

Nathaniel gave her a smirk. “I would appreciate it.”

She flipped up the visor so he could hear her. “So where are we going, exactly?”

He smiled, still holding the clutch. “I’m taking you to dinner.”

Kyla looked at him curiously. “Do Nephilim even eat?”

Nathaniel laughed.

“It isn’t that ridiculous of a question!” she insisted.

Nathaniel answered her dramatically, “When I am forced into the confines of humanity, I have to eat, sleep and do everything humans do. My body requires it.”

Kyla hesitated. “And when you’re…not human?” The concept was still difficult for her to grasp.

“Life is easier in some ways,” he said thoughtfully, “more difficult in others.”

Kyla was feeling slightly uncomfortable with the way this conversation was going. “So what’s tonight all about?” she asked him.

Nathaniel seemed every bit as anxious to change the subject as she was. Smiling at her in a way that was intended to make her nervous, he told her, “It’s about me showing you just how human I can be.”

Then before Kyla could question him on what he meant, he released the clutch and they were off.

He has got to stop doing that, Kyla thought.

As they tore down Highway 24 and she clung to Nathaniel fiercely, Kyla ran through every scenario in her mind of what he might possibly be up to. She determined in the end that she could no less predict the behavior of Nathaniel Blake than she could wrap her mind around his not being human. So she filed it away in the same place she had filed the more disturbing elements of their present relationship…or whatever word could be used to define what they had; the “I don’t have a clue what to think about this so I’m not gonna” category that far too many things had been occupying lately.