Page 41 of Sundowners
No one had offered to cook for me in so long. Roman was going to break through all of the barriers I’d so carefully constructed to keep others from getting too close. The fact was, I didn’t want to keep him out.
“That sounds heavenly. I’ve gotta go home first, but I could be over around eight?”
He grinned. “I don’t have class until one. Sounds like a do-over date to me.”
“I like that,” I said.
Several hours of uninterrupted Roman time, just the two of us…
“Oh, do you mind if I bring a friend?” I asked, knowing it would throw him off.
“A friend? Uh—”
“Of the non-human variety.”
“Oh, uh, sure. Do you or your friend have any dietary restriction?”
We both laughed, and the stiffness in his body subsided a bit.
“I mean, you can ask her, but I haven’t found any. Let me get back to work so it’ll be morning sooner. I can’t wait to have breakfast with you.”
He pulled me in for a kiss, just a tender gesture to seal our plans, but it was enough contact to have me trembling.
What is this? I don’ttremble.
One kiss from this man and I was ready to surrender, to forget everything and dive in with no safety rope.
There was no being careful with Roman. It was too late for that.
“I’ll text you the address. See you soon,” he said as I stood up and closed his door.
Goddess help me.
He waved and drove off, leaving me alone in the darkness to try and catch my breath.
Or so I thought.
“Finally I get you alone.”
I spun around, but all I could make out were shapes in the shadows.“What do you—”
“I have a message. Leave Santa Cruz and never come back.”
“And if I don’t?” I pulled all of the static electricity and energy I could gather from my surroundings into my being and readied myself for attack. There were four of them, and they were itching to get physical, but something held them back.
“We know who you are,LearnerCreed. You are no longer welcome here.”
Hearing that title broke something loose inside me and the energy I’d collected was pulled from me. Anyone who knew I’d become a Guardian no longer existed, so who could it be?
“Show yourself. If you know who I am, then you know of The Way. This is not how we behave.”
“We know why you’re here, and you will not succeed. Leave at once.”
I felt their signatures leave and I was alone once again, my heart pounding with the adrenaline rush, excess energy seeping out of my body, out of my control. I stumbled, the loss affecting me profoundly.
The attacks.It was them. Somehow these men had been trained in The Way, but they used their power unscrupulously. Draining someone’s energy as a threat was such a violation, it went against everything we were taught in the Gateway of the Sun.
1970
