Eternal Echoes, Emblem of Eternity Trilogy Book 2 (28 page)

“What do you mean your neighbors? This is your house! We even counted houses from the corner to make sure before we—” Oops. I clamped a hand over my mouth in case any other admissions tried to escape. I’d seen him come out of the house! I knew it was his! And I’d still walked right into his little trap. Stupid sugar.

Emil had his hands in his pockets and was looking very sexy as he grinned. Obviously, copious amounts of sugar also aggravate my overactive hormones.

“Okay, fine, so what if it was us?”

“You’re going to owe me. Big time,” Emil responded. I wasn’t sure if his tone was playful or dangerous. Probably both.

“We would have gotten away with it if we’d been a little faster,” I reasoned.

He grinned in a way that was part amusement, part coddling. “You two couldn’t have gotten away with it if you were both invisible with duct tape over your mouths.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Now you’re just being insulting.”

“Next time you want to toilet paper someone’s house, don’t park your very recognizable car one house away from your intended target. Not only did I know it was you, I also heard you drive up. Second, whispering is advisable. You two were so loud my neighbors called to ask why there was a party happening on my front lawn. Third, the point is to get in, throw the toilet paper, and get out as fast as possible. You were here for forty-five minutes. I finally had to stop you before the cops showed up.”

“If you knew we were here, why did you let us destroy your yard?”

“You and Jasmine were more entertaining than TV.”

I snorted, annoyed that our best plan ever hadn’t gone over as well as we’d hoped. Just then, the wind kicked up, a chill running through me. Gunnison is a cold place to be after sunset.

Emil noticed me shiver. “I have some hot chocolate waiting for you if you want to come inside.”

“What about Jasmine?”

Emil cocked a brow. “When I saw you two out here running around like chickens with your heads cut off, I figured you were either drunk or stoned and called Zach. He’s on his way to pick Jas up.”

I gave him the most indignant look I could manage. “We aren’t drunk, or stoned, we just had
a lot
of sugar. I can take her home.”

Emil gave me a long stare, shaking his head slowly. “I’m taking care of you.”

Huh. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. I was afraid of all the ways he would try to take care of me. My mind immediately went to the kiss on my front porch, accompanied by a vivid visual of Emil pushing me up against the side of my house, my legs wrapped around him, his shirt buttons flying… “I have to go back to my house now.”

Emil raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Are you scared to stay here?”

“No.” Absolutely. Afraid didn’t even cover it. I was almost peeing my pants right there. I would never get the monster size Slurpee again.

“I’m the last thing you need to be afraid of, Evie. You know I would never hurt you. After you warm up, you can drive home—or I’ll take you.”

“That’s not why I’m scared.” Our eyes locked. There was silent communication between us letting him know I wasn’t afraid he would hurt me; I was afraid he would do the exact opposite.

Zach pulled into the driveway, got out of the car, and surveyed the yard. Finally, still shaking his head, he turned to Emil. “You must have really pissed them off.”

I shook my head. “We weren’t mad, just bored.”

Zach’s forehead creased. “Remind me never to let you get bored at my house.”

Zach went over and helped Jasmine up. “What’s all the black crap on her face?” he asked, looking closer. “It’s glittery.”

“Camouflage,” I answered. “It was Jas’s idea.”

Jasmine looked like she was sleeping on her feet. She also looked like she was going to throw up. Zach helped her stagger to the car. She woke up a little and waved to me as he was helping her buckle her seatbelt. When Zach opened his door, Jasmine leaned over, gave me a thumbs-up, and yelled, “We did it! Wooooo!”

“In the future, I think you two need supervision to play together,” Zach said.

I stuck my tongue out at him because I figured my response should be at the same level of maturity as the rest of the night’s activities had been.

“Thanks for calling me, Emil. I’ll talk to you later.” Zach got in the car and drove away with my partner in crime.

“You owe me,” Emil grinned.

I exhaled, my mind racing with thoughts about the favors I was going to have to acquiesce to. I followed him in the house. He handed me a cup of the best hot chocolate I’d ever tasted. “Wow! What did you put in this?”

“A secret ingredient,” he answered.

I gave him a wary stare. “Secret ingredient like I’m going to wake up in a field somewhere in a few days?”

He laughed. “No. It’s caramel sauce with a little salt. The caramel makes it sweet and the salt gives it a kick.”

I nodded and kept drinking.

“Where’s Alex?” Emil asked. “He was supposed to be with you.”

“Researching something.”

Emil’s eyes widened. “He left you alone?”

“I was pretty shocked myself.” I took another drink, holding the mug with both hands to keep warm.

“So, you remembered you were the Duchess of Blackwood?”

I choked on my chocolate, caught off guard by his question. I nodded once. “Probably the only time I’ve ever been someone important, I imagine. And judging by the fencing lesson you were giving me, I wasn’t very good at following the rules even then.”

He laughed. “No, you weren’t.” He paused like he was remembering the memory as well, “but it’s one of the things I loved—and still love—about you.”

“Did you always encourage me to create scandals?”

He grinned. “As often as possible.”

“How did TT feel about that?” Emil gave me a strange look. “Temperamental Tate,” I explained. “Did he encourage you to encourage me to break the rules, as well?” Based on the flashback of Cassandra overhearing Tate and Emil discussing our relationship, I didn’t think Tate would have been fond of potential scandal-making activities.

Emil smiled. “You should call him that and see what he does.” He paused to take a sip of his own hot chocolate. “He felt like we should stay as far off the radar as possible, but it’s not like the Daevos are known for following rules. He dealt with it.”

“Yeah, well, imagine my surprise when I found out you had a
twin
brother you actually got along with. When you first told me about him last summer, it seemed like your relationship was strained.” Actually, it hadn’t seemed like he had a relationship with his brother at all.

“We have our moments,” Emil said. “He’s always had issues with my feelings for you. He’s never been able to understand why I want to be with you so much.”

“Because he doesn’t believe in love?” I asked. “Or because he’s never felt it himself?”

Emil considered the question. “The Daevos don’t believe soul mates should be together. It’s ingrained in their heads from the moment they agree to take the Daevos vows. So, even when those feelings come along, it’s hard to accept them, or even understand and recognize them.”

“You didn’t have a problem,” I said.

“I also didn’t want to be a Daevos member,” Emil answered. “And I’d fallen in love with you long before I was forced to take the Daevos vows.”

He had? This was new information. I eyed him suspiciously. “How long?”

He slid his eyes slowly back to mine, like he was still processing the question. “A long time.” He answered. “Tate will come around,” he said, changing the subject. “He did when you were Cassandra, he will now. He’s just overprotective and doesn’t want me to get hurt again.”

“Speaking of TT, where is he?”

“He said he had some things to do and would be back later. It’s probably a good thing. We needed a break from each other.”

I got the feeling they’d had quite the argument after they left my house last night. “He said you got along, but disagreed on some things.”

Emil tilted his head in acknowledgment. “I would say that’s accurate.”

“How much of your argument had to do with me?”

Emil smiled, but didn’t answer.

“I get the feeling Tate and Cassandra weren’t the best of friends and he’s harboring some resentment.”

Emil shook his head, thinking about it. “No. That’s not it. Tate has always been protective of me, and thought you’d broken my heart when you left. He was incensed. It was years later before I trusted him enough to tell him I’d arranged for you to leave and had to force you to do it. He can’t help but remember how devastated I was. Plus, he’s watched me watch you ever since. He’s seen my heart break a little more each lifetime I couldn’t be with you. He’s always believed that loving you makes me weak. He doesn’t understand I’m strongest when I’m with you.”

Strongest because our bond made him more powerful somehow, or strongest because our love made us strong and together we could do anything? That seemed like a question I should ask when I was less strung-out on sugar. “So he’s holding something against me that happened centuries ago and wasn’t even my idea? Makes sense.”

Emil smiled. “He’ll get over it. He knows you make me happy.”

An unpleasant thought occurred to me. “And what if I don’t choose you? Do I need to be prepared for a Tate attack?”

Emil gave a sad smile. “He’ll respect your choice, we both will.” He paused, gnawing on his bottom lip, his eyebrows pushed together. After a few seconds, he looked up at me. “I’ve tried hard not to say anything bad about Alex to you. I want you to make this choice on your own, and my opinion could interfere. But in this case, I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I think I’m the better choice, Evie.”

“Why?” I was really curious. I knew Alex and Emil both wanted me to choose them, but while Alex had given me an itemized list of why Emil was wrong for me—most of which included Emil being evil—Emil had never done the same.

Emil ran a hand through his hair, leaving it in messy, sexy pieces. “You and Alex were friends for years. Your families used to spend a lot of time socializing and the two of you grew up together. I’m not sure when he started to fall in love with you, but you were younger than he was and weren’t as interested in romance. By the time you were interested, Alex’s parents had died and he only came home from school occasionally for short visits. He was completely enamored with you. Eventually, you started to have feelings for him, too, but you had other suitors—me included—at that point. Had he been around instead of at school, who knows what would have happened?

“You had chemistry. It was as undeniable then as it is now. But you’re far too similar; you always have been. You butt heads like crazy. I think if you were in any sort of long term relationship with him, you’d start making plans for how to kill each other after a few months. I don’t think it would have lasted centuries ago, and I don’t think it would last now.”

“I thought the whole point of reincarnation was to grow and change. Maybe we’ve both changed enough that it would work.”

“It takes time for soul mates to get to a place where they can be together for eternity. You’ve changed, because you’ve been living different lives. Alex is very much the man he was two hundred and fifty years ago. He’s used to getting his way. A relationship without compromise isn’t a relationship, and that’s what you’d get with him. You’d be the one doing all the compromising, and you’re so stubborn, I’m not sure you would compromise if he didn’t. It would be a disaster. Maybe if he stopped being your Protector and continued the reincarnation process and you both grew, you’d be better together in a life somewhere in the future. But he’s not going to do that. I don’t think you’d want to live in your current relationship with Alex for the rest of eternity.”

It was interesting to see my relationship with Alex from another perspective, even if the source was a bit biased. Still, it was nice to hear more about what my relationships and life had been like as Cassandra. A thought struck me though. “Aren’t you in the same position as Alex?”

Emil thinned his eyes. “The situations might seem similar, but they’re not.”

“How is it any different?” I asked. “You haven’t been evolving either.”

Emil pursed his lips in thought, and then seemed to decide on an answer. “Daevos members have more freedom than Protectors. I haven’t been evolving through separate lives for the past two hundred and fifty years, but I’ve still been learning and growing. A Protector like Alex is stuck wherever you are. He may not be watching you twenty-four-seven, especially if there’s not a threat, but his life revolves around you. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. I’ve had the chance to travel, meet new people, have different life experiences. Alex has had some of that, but regardless of the experience he’s had, it’s always connected to you and an experience you’re having.

“I’ve watched you both for centuries, through many of your lives. While each soul’s human experience is all about evolution, there are other things—aspects of a soul rooted deep in their being—that stay constant. You and Alex are consistently stubborn. Could you really live with that for eternity? Could he?”

That was a good point. It would be like living with myself. I wasn’t sure if I could handle it.

“That’s the difference—one of many—between Alex and I, Evie. Alex thinks you’re his other half because you’re both the same. You share interests, you think alike, and you’re so similar, you argue constantly. That makes for good foreplay, but not a relationship. I know you’re my other half
because
we’re not exactly the same. I believe soul mates bring out the best in each other. They show each other how to improve. You make me a better person. So the question you have to answer is whether you think your soul mate is your twin, or your missing pieces.”

Emil’s perspective was interesting, and not one I’d considered before. I knew there was more to soul mates than hormones and attraction. Finding your soul mate gave you balance and made you a better soul. So the question was whether I was a better soul with someone exactly like me, or with someone whose strengths were my weaknesses and vice versa.

“I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I’m just giving you my opinion.”