“I don’t know,” Razr said in a quietly ominous voice, “but Igive you my word that I’ll protect you as much as I can.Ifyou giveme your word that Jedda can alwayslocateyou.”
For way too long, Reina considered Razr’s deal, and finally,just as Jedda began to sweat beads of sillimanite, Reina agreed.
“Just know this, angel,” she warned.“If anything happens toJedda, you’ll never find me again.I can hide here literally forever.”
Razr inclined his head in acknowledgement and then, toJedda’s surprise, Reina came over and embraced her.
“Let’s not lose each other again,” she murmured.“Losing ourparents and Manda was enough.”
Jedda didn’t point out that Manda was responsible for theirparents’ deaths—over a stupid ruby—or that Reina had defended Manda until theend.Which was why Jedda and Reina had gone their separate ways after Mandadied.But maybe now was the time to put all of that to bed.Or to at least openthe door for it to happen.
“Agreed,” Jedda said as she pulled away.“Someday...let’stalk.”
Reina smiled.And then, in a gesture of goodwill, she openedher fist and offered Jedda a shiny round moonstone.Jedda’s hand shook as shetook it and held it in her palm.It vibrated with Reina’s energy, a trackingdevice of sorts that would allow Jedda to locate her sister at any time, in anyplace.
Summoning her own moonstone took a little effort; Jedda hadnever been as skilled as her sisters at producing gems at will.Still, a fewseconds and a few silent curse words later, she offered Reina a rough ovalmoonstone containing her own energy signature.
Reina took the stone, gave Jedda another hug, anddisappeared inside a tree-formed archway to the elf grand hall where everyonewould be gathering for supper soon.
Razr squeezed her hand, a comfort she was learning shedidn’t want to live without.“What was that about?”
“Healing,” she said with a faint smile.“It was abouthealing.I think my sister is finally embracing her life-stone.”
ChapterTwelve
It was dark when Razr and Jedda arrived at herapartment.At first, the time of day didn’t seem important.It wasn’t until sheturned on the TV that he realized they’d beengonethree days.
Her eyes, which had been bright with hope when they left theelvenrealm, were bloodshot now, and her face seemed alittle drawn, hints of shadow in the hollows under her high cheekbones.Hewondered if travel between the realms took more effort than angelic travel,sort of like jet lag for humans.
With a heavy sigh, she tossed her keys into a basket filledwith gemstones near the door.“I hate how time runs differently in the elvenrealm.”
He was familiar with the concept since parts of Heaven andSheouloperated with similar time anomalies, but hegenerally avoided those places.They always made him feel like he’d missed outon something, as if he’d wasted his life, and if there was one thing he’dlearned in his centuries of existence, it was that every minute was precious,even for immortals.After all, immunity to natural aging didn’t mean onecouldn’t be killed, and no matter what, everything changed.He didn’t want tomiss the changes.
“Okay, so.”Rallying with squared shoulders and head heldhigh, she headed to the kitchen, her long hair brushing against the swell ofher fine ass with every step.He could watch that all day.“What’s this bondthing Reina was talking about?”
“Ah.That.”Yeah, this could get a little sticky.Repressinga groan, he scrubbed his hand over his face, partly because damn, he was tiredtoo, and partly to buy a little time to figure out how to explain this withoutfreaking Jedda out too much.Finally, he dropped his hands and got on with it.“The human custodians of the Gems of Enoch went through a ritual that bondedthem to the gems.Then Darlah, Ebel, and I bonded ourselves to the humans.”
Halting mid-step, she looked back over her shoulder at him.“You had sex with them?Isn’t sex between angels and humans forbidden?”
“Ah...yeah.I mean, no.We didn’t have sex with them.”Well,Ebel had fallen in love with hishuman, but to thisday Razr didn’t know how intimate they’d been.“We exchanged blood.Butobviously, there are a lot of ways to bond to someone.”
“Can we break it?”
Razr flinched, inexplicably stung.Hers was a reasonablequestion.Who in their right mind would want to be tethered to someone else forlife?For centuries.For all eternity, even.The idea should bother him, too.
But for some reason, he couldn’t dredge up an ounce ofgive-a-shit.He’d been intensely attracted to Jedda before the sex, andafterward, nothing had felt different.He’d known almost from the beginningthat he couldn’t harm her to get his gem back, and that had nothing to do withany mystical bond.She’d been unique.Special.Decent.She’d proved as muchwhen she’d gotten him away from Shrike and helped him recover.
Shehadn’t neededto do that.Truly, ithadn’t beenthe smartest of decisions.Hadhe been, say, Ebel, he’d have slaughtered her without a second thought themoment he knew that doing so would release the gem.
“Razr?”Jedda turned fully around.“Can we break the bond?”
“Not while both of us are alive.”
Grief swirled in her remarkable eyes, sending another spearof hurt right through him.“Well, that sucks,” she muttered, and his hurtabruptly veered to anger.
“Don’t worry,” he snapped.“Once I tell my superiors thatthe two remaining Gems of Enoch are unrecoverable without destroying you andyour sister and that I refuse to kill you or give up your locations, I’llprobably be executed.Problem solved.The bond will be broken.”
Her eyes flared in horror, making him regret his show oftemper.Nabebehad taught him how easy it was toneedlessly cause pain with words, a lesson he seemed to have forgotten in theyears since the human’s death.
