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“Does it bother you?” he asked as he watched my eyes travel over his new form.
“I didn’t fall in love with your body,” I said.
He looked slightly relieved.
“This is going on the list for a while,” I said, shaking my head. “I just can’t process this.
Can we go in and look at the building?”
As I walked past him and through the door, I heard him say to Alice “The list?”
I didn’t stay close to hear if she explained it or not, I just started wandering around the
lower level of the warehouse.
It was very clean and well lit. Sunlight poured through the dozens of windows that lined
the walls. There was carpeting that looked relatively new and nice light fixtures hanging from the
ceiling.
My heart was hammering in my chest. My arms wanted to be thrown around Elijah, to
hold him and confirm that he really was here, but my legs seemed to want to carry me as far
from him as I could get. My mind reeled. I wanted to kick his ass and fuck his brains out at the
same time. I’d missed him so much, and now, here he was and I had no idea what to say to him.
I tried to stay focused on the light fixtures in an attempt to keep from thinking about the
fact that Elijah was standing outside. But it wasn’t working. My Elijah. My lover I’d killed and
who had come back to me in the strangest way possible.
Wasn’t this what I wanted? I shook my head. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. I
needed an apartment and an office. That was what I needed to focus on now. That was real. The
rest…I wasn’t so sure.
Alice and Elijah stayed by the entrance as I opened doors and examined bathrooms and
closets. It looked much nicer than our old office. Very open. We’d have to build a few walls if
we took it. I still wanted an office with a door I could shut.
Thoughts continued to intrude where they weren’t welcome. I didn’t want to think about
Elijah. My heart ached, and it was all I could do to keep wandering through these rooms I was
barely seeing rather than to throw myself at my former lover and kiss him until the rest of the
world disappeared.
Where had he been for the last month? All those dreams about him, had he really been
there all along? Why hadn’t he told me then that he was back? Had he gone to Heaven or did he
take weekend passes from torture in Hell to make sure I was able to feed? Did I even want to ask
him?
There was an elevator and a set of stairs off to the side of the main entrance. I chose the
stairs and climbed up to the second level, my hands clenched into fists and my tongue firmly bit
between my teeth to keep from turning around to talk to Elijah. I wasn’t ready. I thought I might
never be ready as I stepped out onto the second floor. This had obviously been used for storage.
There were busted pallets on the ground and a few empty boxes still littered the room.
For a minute, I was transported back to that warehouse in Detroit where I had lost
everything I held dear to me. I had to grab the wall to keep from collapsing under the weight of
the memory.
“Drake,” Alice said softly. She took my face in her hands and forced me to look down at
her. “They can’t hurt us anymore.”
That had become our mantra during our middle of the night conversations. When we had
nightmares or memories threatened to overtake us, one of us would remind the other that Gareth
and Tomas were dead, and they could never hurt us again.
Elijah had been cut to shreds before we’d managed to kill the bad guys. His beautiful pale
face, the one that wasn’t even his anymore, had been mutilated. What was this form he was in
now? Was this what he would look like when he was on Earth? Had he chosen it or had it been
given to him to use?
I nodded and let her take my hand to lead me up to the third floor. This looked like an
actual warehouse. The top three floors of the building were actually one floor open to the ceiling
with shelving that would require boom trucks to reach.
“Alice this is going to take some major construction to turn into apartments,” I said as I
stared up at the metal units lining all of the walls, the thought of all the work that would need to
be done temporarily clearing my head of emotion.
“But it will be so worth it,” she said squeezing my hand. “A little happiness isn’t a bad
thing you know. This emo shit is getting kind of old. I know you want this. We deserve this,
don’t we?”
I knew she wasn’t really talking about the building. I turned to look at Elijah. Did I
deserve this? I’d killed the only man who had ever truly loved me. And here he was, back again.
Would I hurt him again? What if the fate of the world depended on us again, and I couldn’t do it
next time? Or refused? Could I even let him back into my life after what he’d made me do?
“I’m going to go outside and…well, I’m leaving,” Alice said as she let go of my hand.
“Talk nice and no punching.”
She walked down the stairs and left Elijah and me alone. After staring at him for a few
minutes, I turned and followed her down. I was too close to either telling him I loved him or
telling him to fuck off. I was afraid if I opened my mouth I wouldn’t be sure which would spew
out. It was safest to say nothing for a few more minutes.
“Drake, wait,” he called, thundering down the stairs after me. He caught me on the
second floor and pushed me into the room, blocking the staircase so I couldn’t run away.
“What?” I asked, crossing my arms across my chest.
“You’re not even going to talk to me?” he asked.
“What the fuck am I supposed to say?”
“How about you’re glad to see me? Or you hate me? Or anything? Say something to me,
please.”
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