High Noon - Casey Bond Page 0,15

I said slowly. “We can’t let Abram go home.”

“Why?” Maru asked, cupping my elbow. Enoch noticed the movement and his features turned to stone.

“Because Abram’s been turned, and Kael wants to use him to extract venom from the Nephilim who bit him,” I explained.

“Nephilim?” Maru breathed.

I nodded. “They aren’t what we thought. They’re so much more...”

Maru’s eyes bulged and his grip tightened on my elbow.

“I will find both of them,” Enoch proclaimed, crouching beside me. His green eyes bore into mine, a promise in his stare. “I’ll get Titus and find Abram.”

“How?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but for starters I can check Falling Branch and see if Titus might be there. Abram will land there if he’s still being drawn to Asa.”

“Hotah, could you guide them and follow me there?”

Hotah nodded his assent. “I will, but I’m not sure if Kohana will come.”

Enoch stood. “Since time is of the essence, I’ll leave now. Hotah will see that you’re fed and secure the horses and supplies you’ll need.”

I stammered, “But I just got here. I don’t want you to leave yet.”

He glanced between me and Maru. “I didn’t want you to leave the last time you did, but my wants didn’t matter.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Enoch interrupted gently. “It is to help you get home, Eve. If you need Titus, I will find him and bring him to you. If you tell me Abram shouldn’t make it home, I’ll see that he doesn’t. I love you, and I’ll do anything under the stars to prove it to you. I would do anything to make you safe. I see now that I can’t do that in any other time but yours, but I swear to you that it will be done.”

As he stepped outside the tipi and paused outside, I ducked under the flap and watched him face the darkness.

“Enoch, I’m sorry I left the way I did,” I offered, knowing as the words left my mouth how ridiculously small the comfort they offered was.

He hung his head. “I’m sorry I have to leave you. Especially now. You have to know that.”

Selfishly, I wanted to throw my arms around him and feel his lips on mine, on my skin, and tell him I knew this was killing him, because it was killing me, too.

“You’re doing it for me.”

He nodded. “For us.”

I stepped up behind him and laid my head on the space between his shoulders. Raking my fingers over his sides, I pulled him tight against my chest and listened to him breathe, taking in the cadence of his strong heartbeat. It beat for me. Even though he was still hurt by my hasty departure, it beat for me. Just like mine beat for him.

“Please hurry.”

“I promise,” he whispered.

And then he was gone. My hands were empty. All that was left of him was his scent in the air blowing my hair back. He said he would hurry, and Enoch was no liar. I’d never seen him run so fast.

My thoughts must have been plastered all over my face.

“He ran faster to catch you,” Hotah said from behind, startling me. He pointed to the tipi. “You should go inside; eat and rest while you can. This country can be unforgiving at times.” He began walking, bypassing Kohana’s tipi.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“To fetch the horses and supplies we’ll need. Kohana will stay with you until I return.” About that time, Kohana exited his tipi and moved to the one Maru still occupied.

Hotah faded into the darkness while Kohana opened the tipi flap. “Come inside, Eve.”

Half of me wanted to stay in place with my feet planted just to defy him, because who in the hell was he to tell me what to do? But, in the end, I realized he was trying to feed and help me. I went back in and sat beside Maru.

Traveling didn’t hit Maru like it had me the past few times, though he hadn’t experienced one of Kael’s true ‘landings’. I told him about those and watched him cringe. Kohana sat in silence, tearing meat from the squirrel’s legs and chewing the slivers up. He never took his eyes off the small animal, but he was listening. His features never changed, but once in a while, his breath would still or his back would straighten.

“How did you even manage to come here?”

Maru smiled. “Yarrow helped.”

I grinned. “The tech girl I’ve seen you talking to a few times?”

His cheeks flamed. Yep. He likes Yarrow.

“She