excerpt from
FADING AMBER
CHAPTER SIX (continued)
…I left the two downstairs and followed the sound of banging to my room. It was the first time I’d entered the room since the attack, and though the place was a wreck, I was relieved to find no blood or chalk outlines on my floor. In the middle of a pile of shredded cardboard, Caleb stood, wielding a box cutter in his hand.
“What’s up?” I called out.
“Boarding up your window,” he mumbled and ripped off a strip of duct tape with his teeth. “It’s all I could find, but it should keep the cold out until you can get a replacement.”
“That’s fine. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping here for a while.” I leaned against the wall and watched him work.
He seemed completely engrossed in his task to the point of obsession, but his emotions were too jumbled to read. Our link was growing stronger with each passing day, becoming more physical. I could feel his excitement, his pain, his fear, which were all turned on full blast right now.
Maybe he would finally take the threat of our meansome threesome more seriously. Tobias wasn’t playing around when he said he had unfinished business. He was a demon, and by profession human life meant little to him, and Caleb’s meant even less. This feud wouldn’t end until one of them stopped breathing and the winner claimed me as the prized trophy piece.
I drew deeper into the room, searching Caleb’s face for answers, but he kept his back to me. “You okay?” I asked.
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be okay?” He placed the final sheet of cardboard over the window frame. “I should be used to dead people popping up and being helpless to stop it.”
“Helpless? Why?”
It took a long beat for Caleb to answer. He was too busy taking his anger out on the board that kept slipping from his hand. He bit off another strip of tape and slapped it over the border, almost pounding the adhesive through the wall. “I try to protect you, but it never works out, does it? No matter what I do, you always get hurt; you’re always left to fend for yourself.”
I just stared at him and struggled to piece together his scattered logic. “So… you’re mad because you weren’t around to rush in and save the day? I’m sorry, what century are we in?”
He stopped moving and braced himself against the wall. “I can’t afford to have something happen to you. If he hurt you…”
“He didn’t. Tobias won’t hurt me. I’m too valuable to him.”
“You’re valuable to me!” His sudden outburst made me jump. “I couldn’t help my mom, or my dad. I couldn’t save Nadine. I’ve lost too many people in my life and I…I can’t lose any more. When I heard you on the phone and felt your fear; I lost it. I’ve had too many close calls with you already. I-I can’t…”
I touched his shoulder, then drew my hand away when he flinched at the contact. “Hey, I’m all right. I’m not going anywhere. Whatever game Tobias is playing, we won’t let him win. You. Are. Not. Weak.”
Caleb didn’t seem to hear me, but stared at the wall ahead of him. I recognized the blank expression, the deadened look in his eyes. It was his coping device, an escape hatch for when emotions got too big to handle. Bad things always followed that detachment, and this would give Capone the perfect opportunity to take over.
“No. Don’t do that. Hey, stop. Don’t shut down on me, not now. I need you with me. Come back, please?” I hugged his waist and rested my head against his back, which felt as solid as a brick wall from all the tension. “It takes strength to cope with loss. I envy you, because I haven’t dealt with my grief at all, and I’m due for a psychotic break any minute now. I saw how you fought Tobias on Thanksgiving night and it was all kinds of awesome. I could never do that. I’m too small.”
“That was Capone. He fought Tobias, not me.” He took a deep breath and spun around to look at me. “And you’re not that small, Sam, and from what I hear, size doesn’t matter. But I wouldn’t know anything about that, though.”
That made me snort, and we broke into a hearty laugh that we both needed. This was a good thing. Caleb’s ego demanded some inflating, and I needed to remember what it was like to laugh until my eyes watered.
We locked eyes for a long moment as the humor began to die and something wicked in the air came to life. There came the heaviness again, gravity pulling us together, a force that had become second nature. He leaned into me and brushed away the tear from my cheek with his thumb. His finger moved lower and traced the outline of my bottom lip.
“Anyway, I’m saying it’s not a crime to be scared.”
“I’m not scared of Tobias or anyone else. I’m afraid of what I’d do if anyone tried to take you from me. There’d be no stopping me.” His expression darkened, his eyes taking me in with a fierce heat that could burn right through my skin. “I will keep you safe.”
Under different circumstances, I could’ve walked out of the room and gone to sleep without any problems. But the night’s excitement had lowered my guard, heightened my senses, making me painfully aware of his scent, his warmth, his presence…
