Her cat let out a low rumble.
Serenity chuckled. "Yeah, he gets my motor running too. But paws off, I don"t care which way you swing, that immortal is spoken for."
Chapter 5.
"To dream of a snail signifies a long and arduous journey is ahead of you. Beware of starting too quickly. Patience and preparation will be rewarded. However, it could also mean that you have recently stepped in something slimy."
Dair wrapped the shadows of the night around him as he stepped back into the trees that surrounded the house where Serenity was now sleeping. He had left her room abruptly because, had he not, he might have stayed all night just to listen to her voice. He knew that she needed rest. Serenity had a life, regardless of whether or not he wanted to monopolize her nights, and he needed to be sensitive to that. He"d nearly gone back to her several times in the two hours that it took her to finally fall asleep. He could have simply put her to sleep himself, but of course, such actions were outside of his purpose, and he was already crossing the line with the Creator. She tossed and turned and talked to her cat until finally her breathing grew slow and steady. It was then that he finally allowed himself to think about the fact that he had spoken to her, and she had seen him and had not asked him to leave. Sarah Serenity Tillman wanted to know him.
His lips spread into a wide smile and his head fell back as his eyes closed. The crisp winter air flowed over him and rustled his hair. He didn"t even shiver in the cold mountain air. All his thoughts were on the brunette who had stolen his heart.
"She wants you to stay?" Raphael"s voice intruded on his moment but still the smile didn"t falter.
He turned to look at the angel. "She does."
"How long?"
Dair shrugged. "Until she wants me to leave."
"And when she begins to age and you stay the same?"
"I"ll love her still."
"But how will she feel about looking like your mother instead of your mate?"
Dair knew that Raphael wasn"t trying to be cruel. But that didn"t stop the frustration that gripped him. Being reminded that he could not truly have a life with Serenity, not a human one, was painful.
"I don"t know what then," he finally admitted.
"Perhaps, it is something you need to bring to her attention," Raphael recommended.
Dair knew his old friend was right, and he would talk to her about it, but it might be later rather than sooner.
Emma tried to be as quiet as she could. She opened the door to her room and looked down the hall to the bathroom and then back in the direction of the living room where she could hear the yelling. If she didn"t have to pee so badly, she wouldn"t even consider leaving the safety of her hovel. But she knew if she didn"t make a run for it very soon, things were going to get messy. She bit her bottom lip as she fidgeted from foot to foot, building her courage internally.
All she had to do was push open the door a little further, hope it didn"t creak, hurry soundlessly to the bathroom, shut the door, hope it didn"t creak, pee, wash her hands, and then return just as quietly. She could do that right? She jumped when she heard a loud crash against the wall. Maybe I can hold it until whoever that is leaves, she thought as she began to close the door.
"You can go; I"ll keep you safe."
Emma turned at the sound of Dair"s voice. He was in his usual black: black pants, black long sleeve shirt, and black jacket and boots. She had told him that his clothes were a tad over the top, considering his job. He didn"t seem to care.
"It sounds bad out there," she said and pointed out the door just as another loud crash erupted followed by some cursing.
"Nothing is going to happen to you," Dair told her as he walked over and pulled the door quietly open. "Go do what you need to and I"ll be here keeping watch."
Emma didn"t know if Dair could really do anything to protect her or not. He was, after all, just the Sandman, not a guardian angel. But something in his dark eyes told her to trust him. And she had to pee so badly by that point that there really was no other option. She darted out the door and made it to the bathroom and closed the door as quietly as she could behind her.
Business done and hands washed, she peeked out the bathroom door to find Dair standing in the hall with his huge frame nearly taking up the entire s.p.a.ce. His arms were folded against his chest as he stared in the direction of the noise. He made a motion for her to come on with his hand, but his eyes never left the front of the hall. She dashed back and leapt onto the bed turning in the same motion so that she landed facing Dair who was closing the door behind them.
"How long has that been going on?" he asked her gently as he knelt down on the floor across the room from her.
"Since early this morning," Emma told him.
"Has anyone come in here?"
She shook her head. "My aunt stuck her head in just after the banging on the door started. She said, don"t you leave this room for nothing; if you do I"ll take a switch to your backside. But that was at least a couple of hours ago. Since then there"s been nothing but screaming, cursing, and things. .h.i.tting the wall. I would have obeyed had I not had to go to the bathroom, but I haven"t had an accident since I was knee high to a gra.s.shopper, that"s what my mama always said, and I wasn"t about to have one just to keep from getting a switch to my b.u.t.t."
"Knee high to a gra.s.shopper, huh?" He smiled at her.
"I know, I"m not much taller now, but believe me, I used to be shorter." Another crash had them both looking at the door.
"Emma you need to get out of the house for a little while," Dair told her as he stood. "Raphael," he called out as he looked up at the ceiling.
Her eyes widened as the angel appeared out of nowhere standing next to Dair.
"You shouted?" The angel"s brow rose when he too heard the screaming. He looked back at her and his lips tightened.
"Can you take Emma to the library?" Dair asked him. "I have a feeling Darla would love her." He didn"t mention that meeting Darla had been a part of the dream he"d given Emma.
"Yes," was all Raphael said.
Emma stood on her bed and put her hands on her hips. "Wait just a second; I don"t need a babysitter." She pointed at Dair. "My mama raised me to take care of myself."
Raphael held up his hand when Dair started to respond. "Ms. Emma, you are mistaken. Dair is not sending me with you as your babysitter. He is sending me as your guide. You have only been in town for a day so he a.s.sumed you did not know where the library was located. Furthermore, you will not know who Darla is and I can be of a.s.sistance there as well."
Emma studied the angel briefly and though she knew he was just humoring her, he was most definitely a babysitter, she appreciated it none the less. "Alright then, you can walk me to the library. How am I going to let my aunt know?"
"I"ll take care of it," Dair said quickly. "You two just go." He handed her the coat lying on the end of the bed. Emma had already gotten dressed and put on her shoes. She"d done that when the pounding on the front door had started.
Raphael took her hand and smiled warmly. "Close your eyes." She did as she was told. "Okay, you can open them."
Emma"s blinked several times as the sunlight made her eyes water. The cold morning air swirled around her, and she pulled her coat closer against her. She and Raphael were standing on the sidewalk in front of the small house her aunt called home. It wasn"t an ugly house, just an unloved one. The paint was peeling off of the trim and several of the windows had foil over them from the inside. It looked like a sad clown, complete with a faded red door as the nose. A fine layer of snow blanketed the ground and sprinkled the trees, and it was the only thing that could be called beautiful in regards to the house.
"Are you ready?" Raphael asked her.
Emma looked away from the house to the angel. He looked like a regular person in jeans and a sweater and coat. His wings were gone as was the glory that seemed to encircle him. She nodded at him and fell into step beside him. But then she stopped as her head tilted and she looked up at him.
"Won"t people find it a little strange that we just suddenly appeared on the side walk out of thin air?"
Raphael gave her a sly smile. "Being an angelic being does give one a few powers you know?"
Emma looked up at him waiting for him to elaborate.
"Why don"t we begin walking so you do not freeze and I will explain it?"
"While you"re at it, you can tell me what people, in a town where everyone seems to know everyone, will think about some huge, strange man walking with a little orphan girl down the street."
"I, like Dair, am only seen when I want to be seen. And even then I can control how much people perceive. For example, right now as we walk down the street when people look at us they see what they would expect to see. Maybe a big brother walking with his younger sister, or a mother with her daughter. Complete with the same skin tones and attributes. However, once we are out of sight they simply forget that they ever saw us."
Emma thought about this for a moment, her eyes roaming over the people getting in and out of their cars in the parking lots. A few glanced their way, but for the most part they were engrossed in their own comings and goings. "That"s a handy trick." She paused and puckered her lips, still considering the myriad of dilemmas that could result from being accompanied by a huge celestial being.
"So when we get in this library, if someone asks me who you are, what am I supposed to tell them?" she asked.
"Just tell them I"m your guardian angel." Raphael smiled.
"Really?"
He nodded. "I"ll take care of the rest."
Emma wanted to ask more questions but held her tongue as they continued down the street. If Raphael said he could handle it then she would trust him. It wasn"t like she had a whole lot of people to rely on since her parents had died, she couldn"t really afford to go turning away the ones she did have. She remembered one day she and her mama had been at the park and Emma had been asking question after question to her mother, and after answering them each, finally her mama had smiled and said, child, sometimes the question is formed in our mind not so we can ask someone else the answer but so that we can find the answer our self. Of course, Emma had pointed out that by asking she was indeed trying to find the answer. But now that she was older, because eight is indeed much older and wiser than six, she understood that her mama was just looking for some peace and quiet.
They crossed a somewhat busy street and made a left onto another road. The snow crunched nosily under their feet and Emma found herself fascinated with the different designs the tires made in the snow. Had Raphael not grabbed her jacket a couple of times and directed her in the right route, she just might have walked off into the street to follow the patterns and swirls.
"We are here." His deep voice pulled her eyes up from the pavement. There was a red brick building with a sign that said Marion County Library. What the sign actually read to Emma was Safe Haven. She"d never needed a safe haven before; her home had always been safe before. But she"d never appreciated a public library so much as she did that moment.
She followed Raphael to the door and walked inside when he held it open for her. The warmth swathed her immediately. She smiled as she walked further into the building. The smell of books rushed into her nose and right behind that the smell of cookies followed.
"You just missed story time, but you made it in time for treats." A cheerful voice called out from around the corner of one of the many bookshelves. Raphael pushed her gently in the direction of the voice, and as they rounded the rows of books, Emma found a group of children sitting on a large carpeted area. Each hovered over a small white paper plate containing a cookie and some grapes next to a juice box.
"Hi." That same cheerful voice grabbed Emma"s attention from the room full of children. "I"m Darla."
The woman held out her hand to her. Emma took it and returned the warm smile given to her by the woman named Darla. "I"m Emma and this is my guardian angel." She motioned to the huge form next to her. Raphael bowed his head slightly to Darla who didn"t even flinch at the words, guardian angel.
"It"s very nice to meet you and we are honored to have a guardian angel in our library," Darla said to Raphael, not missing a beat, with the same warm smile. "Please come in and have some snacks with us." She motioned for them to follow her. As they walked up to the carpeted area, all of the children stopped what they were doing and looked up at Raphael with wide, curious eyes. He gave them a nod and a smile and that was all it took for them to accept him.
"Kids, this is Emma. This is her first time here at story time so please give her a warm welcome," Darla announced to the group.
Emma took a seat on the carpet with the other kids while Raphael sat in the offered chair. Immediately Emma was bombarded by questions from the others and in no time she was swapping stories with the group. They wanted to know everything about her, but Emma wasn"t ready to share her pain with others yet so she gave them a watered down version of how she ended up in Yellville. After their snacks, Darla and another librarian set up tables for them with craft supplies. Darla explained that they would be making Christmas ornaments for their trees using duct tape and proceeded to show them how it was done.
An hour and a half, ten rolls of duct tape, and many torn strips stuck to the table later, they finally finished their craft. As the kids began to leave with their parents, Emma found herself extremely hesitant to go. She wasn"t ready to leave the safety of the library and return to the sad clown house that seemed weighed down with the hard life her aunt had lived. As she stared at the ornament she"d made, Emma"s heart broke a little more because it was Christmas. There should be a tree to hang the ornament on, but for her there wasn"t. It should be a time of joy and happiness and yet, instead, only grief filled her.
"If you"re constantly waiting around for your circ.u.mstances to change so you can be happy, then you will lead a miserable life, Emma Whitmore," her mother"s voice echoed in her mind. Emma"s mom was big on finding joy in every circ.u.mstance. She didn"t like complainers because she believed that each person was master of their own destiny. You were either happy or not happy because you chose it.
"You"re thinking awfully hard," Darla"s voice interrupted her thoughts.
She looked up at the librarian and nodded. "Yes ma"am. It seems lately I have a lot of hard thinking to do."
"Well, you"re welcome to come here and do that thinking anytime you want."
"Thank you," Emma smiled. "I suppose I better be getting home."
"And where is home, exactly?" Darla asked.
"I live with my aunt Mildred just a few blocks over," Emma told her.
"Mildred Jones?"
"Yes ma"am." The alarm on Darla"s face did not go unnoticed by the eight-year-old. Emma realized that in a town this small there weren"t many secrets. Darla seemed to be thinking something over as she looked at Emma, and finallyseeming to come to a decisionshe nodded.
"My niece, Serenity, does mentoring for the elementary schools. I don"t think she has a student right now. Would you be interested in that? Basically she can pick you up, bring you here, and help you with your homework; also she"ll do crafts with you and sort of be like a big sister."
Emma knew what she was doing. Darla was worried about her and trying to find a way to help without being too obvious about it. She appreciated it, though she hated feeling helpless. "That would be nice." Darla beamed, obviously pleased and relieved. "Great! I"ll let her know and she can pick you up from school on Monday. If your aunt has a problem with it, I"ll be happy to talk with her." Darla"s voice had taken on a stern tone, and Emma realized that this sweet woman was no pushover despite her easy going disposition. She had mama bear written all over her face.
"I doubt she will care, if she even notices," Emma admitted. She stood to go and Raphael was immediately by her side. Just as she reached the door she turned and looked back at Darla. "What"s your niece"s name again?"
"Serenity. Serenity Tillman," Darla answered.
Emma felt her stomach drop as the name registered with her brain. Serenity Tillman was the girl from her dream. She also had realized that the library she was standing had been the one from her dream the night Dair had come to see her. Looked like she was right on track to fulfill her destiny. Now if she could just not be too human and screw it up.
Serenity would like to say that she didn"t look at the clock every five minutes as she went about her mundane tasks at the clinic. She would like to say that her foot didn"t tap impatiently and that she didn"t keep looking out the window wondering if Dair would show up early, or how he would show up even. Would he just pop up or would he use the door like a normal customer? Or would he just wait for her in the parking lot? (She really hoped he would just wait outside).
"You seem anxious today," Jackson said as he finished drying a golden retriever he"d just bathed. "Everything okay?"
How to answer that? Did she simply say, yes, everything is fine? Or did she go for honesty and bust out with, nope, not okay because I met an immortal legend last night who admitted to being "in like" with me and wants to pursue a relationship, and I said yes and now I can"t wait to see him again? That probably wouldn"t go over too well. "I"m fine, just a little distracted with some stuff." Okay, so that wasn"t lying, it was just veering from the real issue. Veering was okay, right? At first she didn"t think Jackson was going to leave it alone but finally he just shrugged.
To her relief, the end of her shift came without any tall dark strangers popping out of thin air into the middle of the veterinary clinic waiting room. Serenity wrote down her hours on her time card as she clocked out, her hands practically shaking. Part of her wanted to run to the parking lot, but the other part, the one with some dignity left, wouldn"t let her feet go faster than a normal walk.
When she reached the front door, Serenity took a deep breath and let it out slow before pushing it open. Jackson had said he would lock up so she didn"t have to do anything other than walk out to her car. True to his word, Dair was waiting for her. His huge frame was leaning against her car with his arms crossed over his chest. The black clothing and dark hair and eyes made him look dangerous. His legs were crossed at the ankles and he looked for all the world that he had nothing better to be doing than standing there waiting on her.
Serenity"s steps nearly faltered as her eyes met his. The smoldering look he had zeroed in on her had her heart speeding up and her palms growing clammy. She attempted to rub them inconspicuously on her jeans, but the crooked smile he shot her told her that the move did not go unnoticed.
"Hey," she said once she was standing a few feet from him. His masculine scent blew in her direction as the winter wind kicked up, and she wanted to get closer, but again her dignity kept her in place.
"h.e.l.lo, Serenity." Dair"s smooth voice reminded her of those Dove chocolate commercials where they showed the melted chocolate being stirred making her want to dip her whole hand in and not just a finger. It was dark and rich and quite possibly made him as lickable as a spoon covered in the stuff. Don"t think about any licking of any kind Sarah, she chastised herself.
"How was your morning?" he asked her.
"Long," Serenity answered honestly, which seemed to be a recurring theme when it came to his absence. This brought a chuckle from him which had her blushing.
"As was mine," he admitted completely unashamed.
Needing to look away from his intense stare, Serenity glanced down at the frozen ground. The snow that had fallen the previous night was quickly being turned to brown slush as people and cars continually mucked it up. After a few minutes of awkward silence, she decided she was being ridiculous. So what if she embarra.s.sed herself, she wasn"t going to change who she was to impress Dair, s.e.xy immortal or not.
"So what do you want to do today?" she asked him as she once again met his dark eyes. He had pushed off of the car and was now standing at his full height, causing her to have to tilt her head up to look at him.
He shrugged his muscular shoulders. "I"ll go with whatever you want to do."
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but there isn"t a whole lot of exciting things to do in the quaint little town of Yellville. So our options are limited. We could grab a pizza and head back to my aunt and uncle"s house."
"Pizza sounds good. Will your aunt and uncle be home?"