High Noon - Casey Bond Page 0,13
disturbing. Something that shook me to the core.
My heartrate spiked. My breathing threatened to become ragged and my fingers began to quiver again at the memory.
Maru surprised me with a tight hug. “I’m so sorry, Eve. I… I’m so sorry.”
When his voice broke, I clung tighter to him, a knot the size of a boulder forming in my throat. He knew. He remembered what I’d forgotten from my time in the Compound. I didn’t want him to remember. I wanted to keep him safe from all this.
“I don’t know how I could have possibly forgotten it happened, let alone everything I witnessed. But I’m afraid you endured a lot that I didn’t witness,” he said. “I mean, I know Kael wiped our memories, but damn it. I can’t believe something didn’t trigger them before now.”
“What did he do to wipe our memories?” I asked, my skin already crawling at the thought of Kael.
Maru scoffed, “He developed a gas that affects short term memory.”
“Do you know if he can manipulate long term memory, too?”
Maru’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know for certain, but I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
Kohana continued to stare at me, the intensity of his look making me uncomfortable. “We can talk later,” I told Maru.
In private. Where a stranger wasn’t watching our every gesture and listening to our every word. And where Enoch wouldn’t be able to hear us. Not that I was sure where that would be. His hearing was more sensitive than mine.
Maru agreed. “I have so much to tell you.”
Enoch and Hotah returned soon after with arms laden with dead limbs and tufts of dried pine needles for kindling. Hotah busied himself by building a fire with a hand drill. He was so skilled, we had a fire in only a few minutes.
The brothers brought fire into the tipis and invited us inside one of them. Enoch held the door flap open. “What now?” I asked as I ducked inside.
“They will cook something and then settle down to sleep.”
“But I scared away the buffalo,” I told him.
He smiled. “Kohana set snares all through the woodland. Hopefully, he’ll have caught something by now.”
Maru slithered in before Enoch let the flap fall and sat beside me on the right, earning a harsh glance from the Nephilim. Hotah laughed from his place across the fire. Kohana had disappeared before we entered, I assumed to check the snares.
Hotah said something to Enoch, who quirked a brow at him.
“What?” I asked, looking between them. Hotah just chuckled in response.
Enoch gave a tight smile. “He thinks I have competition.”
Maru sat up straighter beside me but remained quiet.
“I’m glad he sees me as a worthy opponent,” I quipped, giving Hotah a wink. Enoch finally relaxed and sat down on my left side. I was sandwiched between two men who meant the world to me, but who didn’t care for each other. It wasn’t a fun place to be. Enoch would eventually have to understand that Maru and I weren’t and had never been attracted to one another. But he was important to me. He was an integral part of my life and would always have a part in it.
Not to mention the fact that he risked his to come find me.
Tension in the tipi was thick until Kohana returned carrying two small squirrels, one red and the other brown. Outside, he and Enoch prepared the animals and reentered the tipi with the carcasses secured to sticks. It was disgusting to see the little animals trussed up like that, but once the meat began to sizzle and the aroma filled the air, I realized just how hungry I was. Suddenly, it wasn’t repulsive at all. Eating hurriedly, Kohana abruptly stood and announced he would return soon.
Hotah chewed on squirrel meat, tossing the delicate bones into the fire when he was finished.
“Enoch, where is Terah?”
His eyes fluttered. “I’m not sure.”
That made no sense. The two had been near each other in every time before. “What happened after we left?”
“I almost killed her,” he answered. “I would have if Asa hadn’t stopped me.”
A gasp spilled from my lips.
“You can’t be surprised…” he answered ruefully. “You mean everything to me, Eve, and she tried to kill you. I was – am – afraid of what she would do if she saw you again.”
“In the future, you come back together,” Maru spoke up. “I’ve seen her in broadcasts with you. Asa is with you, too. But while I know you and your brother were present in the