There was a chopped piece of tree trunk close to a very old looking furnace that the old man was currently using as a seat as he took out a blackened teapot.
“Tea?” He offered.
“No, I'm good.” Kennedy declined the beverage. God knows what he had in there.
He motioned for her to sit on the small cot that lined the only wall with a window in the room and she gratefully accepted. Damien opted to stand by the door.
“He's been injured. Do you have something we can use to stich or cauterize a wound?” She asked the old man as she pointed at her own stomach, signaling where Damien had been hurt.
“I am fine.” Damien protested, she was about to refute when he held up the end of his shirt.
“See for yourself.” He showed her that it was true. What had once been a deep cut was now a fading red line. It probably wouldn't even leave a mark. “It stopped bleeding a while ago.”
Okay, so she already knew that he didn't age. Now she had to add super healing abilities to the ongoing list of reasons for Damien's perfection?
“If ye need to go to the tinkler, it's right through that there door.” The old man said directly to her as he pointed a long crooked finger to the small door that she had correctly identified as the bathroom's, assuming that's what a tinkler was.
She pounced on the opportunity to get away from Damien's scrutinizing stares for a while. He'd been looking at her funny ever since the incident with Tyler in the alley. He had gaped at her as if she'd suddenly turned into damned Criss Angel and had just freaked his mind.
It wasn't as if she could actually give him any answers about why that happened. He knew as much as she did. She was a normal human girl with a dead mother and a missing nerdy father. Her grandparents where regular people and so was she. At least, she had always thought that she was.
She wasn't so sure anymore after her unexpected magic trick. She could still hear the echo of the Cougar Lady's words in her mind. She had called her a witch before any of it happened. What if the woman wasn't a crock after all?
Kennedy splashed some water on her face and tried to chase unwanted images of ugly women with black teeth, warts and pointy hats from her brain.
It was working, right up until she heard a hushed slurping noise. A flash of lime caught her eye. She totally forgot her previous thoughts as she turned her head slowly to face the green lizard that stood on the shower pole. It gave her the evil eye.
The creature's slimy tongue darted out and stuck to her forearm.
“Aah!” She ran from the room. Damien blocked the entryway ready to tackle whatever had made her scream.
“There's a thing in there!” She said hurriedly while pointing back into the bathroom. He looked between her and the malevolent gecko. Damien snorted and moved away shaking his head.
“Oh, ye met Cuca!” The old man exclaimed happily, as if meeting the little green monster was the greatest thing.
“You named that thing?” She asked incredulously.
“One day I was walking home from scaring some fool tourists away and Cuca jumped onto me shoulder from up a tree and there ye have it, she lives with me.” The man declared proudly as he beamed at her.
“You're insane.” Her spine still shuddered in disgust at having been tasted by the lizard.
“So people say, but I like to view meself as an eccentric.” He replied in a snit.
“You're not rich enough for that – Kennedy told him, looking around the small house with it's lonely trinkets – trust me, Sir.” The man's eyes popped out and for a second she thought that he would attack.
“Excuse me blasted manners! Puck's the name, gate keeping's the trade.” He waved a hand energetically as if he were seeing her for the very first time.
“The gate to where?” Damien interjected, having retaken his spot by the door.
“Well, to the Golden Archer, of course!” Puck said as if it were the ultimate obvious thing.
“Wow, so we actually found it. Where is it?” Kennedy was afraid to believe anything anymore until she could see it with her own eyes and even then she wouldn't be sure.
“Aye, ye found the gate, ye just have to follow the rocky trail behind the big oak tree at the back and ye'll find the place. The barrier will let ye in. No work. But, 'tis I that decide who can or can't go through.” He answered while looking seriously at her companion instead of her.
“So can we?” She asked, wanting to remind him that she had been the one to ask and not Damien.
“Ye can – he pointed at Kennedy and then moved his arthritic index finger to Damien as he spoke – he can't.”
“Why?” Kennedy exclaimed a little to forcefully.
“Ye do know what he is don't ye, Missy?”
“A hero and my friend. He's helped me out a lot!” He'd saved her life.
“What's to say he wasn't helping himself to the location of the place.” Puck asked her with great hand gestures.
“No, he's good.” That was what she felt in her gut, but her mind told her to think about it. What Puck was saying did make a lot of sense.
No. Just, no.
Damien had only been thinking of her when he'd brought her – or directed her – there. He'd almost died to protect her. How much more proof could she ask for?
“He may be good to you, Miss Riser, but one good deed doesn't make up for a thousand wrong doings.” The elderly man said, his voice suddenly stripped of the weird dialect that he'd been using.
“What happened to the nice old man that invited me in for tea?” It was clear that the whole cooky old man act was just that, a clever act that he put up to fool strangers that ventured into that part of the forest.
“Smoke and mirrors.” Damien said bitterly. “You can rest easy – he told Puck – I have no intention of going in. I just wanted to see her here safely.” He turned around and walked out of the house.
“What are you talking about?” Kennedy jumped and followed him out. She caught up to him before he could reach the car.
He couldn't actually be thinking of walking out on her after all that they had gone through to get there.
“I have to go back and face the Brethren.” He confirmed her worst fear, he'd never intended to stay with her.
“But, they're after you too. They tried to kill you!”
“All the more reason, they will be so busy chasing after me that they will forget about you and your father for the time being.” He reasoned.
“No, you can't leave me – and she meant it, she would die if he left now, but she covered it for both their sakes – alone in that place.” Damien hadn't missed her hesitation.
“I must–” He started to say, but she cut him off.
“No!” She launched herself at him and held on as if she were drowning and he were a lifeline.
She had been adrift ever since Steven had left. Damien was the only thing that had kept her from going under more times that she could count and now he was going to leave her too.
“Let go of me, girl.” His voice had gone cold. It was as if her touch disgusted him and she wondered if maybe she had crossed a boundary that she shouldn't have.
He pulled her arms from his waist and she let them fall nimbly at her sides. Kennedy tried hard to think of something, but she didn't know what to say after that. Actions spoke louder than words and his actions had finally told her that he didn't want her to touch him.
“Good bye.” His words betrayed nothing of what he felt inside.
Kennedy's whole body shook as she fought against the need to go after him again. Her hands clasped tightly around the silver key that hung from her neck.
Her hero was going away and there was nothing that she could do to stop him.
Damien took one step, then another.
He hesitated for a second before he turned back abruptly to take her face in his hands. He pulled her to him none too gently and kissed her, taking her lips with his own like a man starved.
The kiss was rough at first. I
t could be the only chance that they had. His hands were everywhere. Every single one of his senses overrode the thoughts of how wrong that was. His brain weighed the long list of reasons he'd made up for not doing it:
- She was too young, but he would soon be too old for any human woman.
- He wasn't supposed to want a human that way and still, he had never wanted anyone more than he wanted her.
-They would kill her if they found out, but they wanted to kill her already.
Everything slowed down. His mind went blank as the faint tingling sensation that he'd been experiencing at the begining spread throughout his entire body. It made him shudder.
The intensity of it all was something that he'd never encountered before and those treacherous frenzied hands of his went into little spasms as he tried to settle them somewhere in between the start of her waist and the small of her back.
Damien's lips had been hard on hers, almost bruising. He slowly let the pressure go until they were just touching, waiting for her to make a move. She didn't, so he began to pull back.
She pushed her lips just slightly against his.
Shy. Hesitant. Testing.
All was lost again as he felt her unsure response. He nibbled lightly at her lower lip and felt her body tremble. Surprisingly, it made Kennedy grow confident and she finally gave in. She kissed him back in earnest. A strong current of heat traveled throughout every nerve in his already scorching body.
Her hands sought refuge within the soft strands of his hair at the back of his neck and he marveled at how a simple human girl could do all of that to him with just one kiss. But, Kennedy had already proven