Ivory Guard (11 page)

Lillian
stared as his words clicked into place, as their deeper meaning settled inside of her and made her heart ache.

TWELVE

Lillian stepped outside onto the porch. Night had settled turning the purgatory sky into a breathtaking star dusted canopy. Joshua was standing at the end of the porch, looking up as he took a pull from the cigarette between his fingers before releasing the smoke to let it mingle with the night. Since his profile was to her she took a moment to study him. Dark hair kept short in a faux-hawk style, a good face with a strong jaw and a sculpted body that he filled out with ease. The woman in her could appreciate the sight and knew that in a few more years he would be certain death to everything female.

The night was quiet
, the chirp of crickets and the soft whisper of chatter floating from the house the only sound around them. Abby and Matt were inside, tied down with kitchen duty, and Raz had taken off to run an errand.

Joshua had been quiet ever since their training session and had barely eaten. Lillian walked over to him. When he noticed her he stubbed out his smoke before flicking it away.

Lillian nearly sighed inwardly. The guy was a walking contradiction; one moment the cave-man macho and the next a gentleman who didn’t want to bother her with his cigarette smoke. She suspected his parents weren’t exactly the perfect role model for a healthy relationship and their different views obviously fought within him. Lillian could only hope that one day he would come out on the other side.

Coming to stand
beside him she leaned her head back to scan the sky. After a while she asked in a low voice, “You okay?”

“I should ask you that.
” He rammed his hands into his pockets, fumbling with something inside of them. “You took a hit for me.”

“Just a small cut, it will heal.”
She shot him a glance. “You know that Raz didn’t mean to hurt anyone, right?”

“
Yeah. I know he would have stopped the blade before…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it, and looked back at the stars. “But knowing that…it doesn’t change a thing. For one slow-motion moment, that took a fucking eternity, I only saw that flaming blade heading for me.” Joshua suddenly turned to face her, frowning at her as if at a total loss. “Why the hell did you do it? Why did you jump into that? Especially given the way I treated you.”

Lillian took her time to answer.
“Because, even if you were a stranger, I couldn’t just stand by. If there is the slightest possibility, the slightest chance to change things, or in this case to save someone, then why shouldn’t I take it? I cannot
not
take it. It has nothing to do with us being Ivorys or a team.” She shrugged, a small, helpless smile on her lips and in her eyes. “It’s just the way I am, I guess. It’s like helping a dog at the side of the road.” Grimacing she bit back a laugh. “Sorry, bad example. But you get what I mean.”

Joshua
nodded slowly, as if carefully taking it in, and then turned to gaze at the stars once more. He swallowed, licking his lips. “My father is an old-fashioned kind of guy. Regarding women. He’s all for survival of the fittest, which women really aren’t - in his world, I mean. So they need men to take care of them. Helping a dog on the road is female sentimentality and an utter weakness in his eyes.” His dark eyes flicked to her, a calmer twinkle now once again lighting them from within. “You’d drive him nuts.”

Lillian smiled back at him, taking it as the compliment and
flag of truce it was.

Later that same night,
she lay in her sleeping bag, with Abby tucked into her own facing her.

Abby asked
into the silence of their room, “How is Joshua doing?”

“Good.” Lillian filled her in on what had transpired on the porch, a warm happiness covering her like a blanket
at the memory.

“Ah, I’m glad to hear that.
He’s the typical Rocher…you know, hard and crunchy with a soft core and strong heart. Damn, I would kill for some Ferreros.”

Lillian
laughed. “You better not tell him that he reminds you of candy. That might be a little too much too soon.”

“Probably.”
Abby grinned and then moaned as she tried to roll into a comfortable position on her side. “I never knew I had so many muscles waiting to be tortured. Tell me again why we can’t just…close those damn hellholes?”

Lillian hid a yawn behind her hand.
She was exhausted, the day a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Whenever she had been thinking that everything was alright something had come along to knock her down. “I could say it’s against the rules but most importantly it’s all about balance. Hellholes are purgatory’s counterpart. You can’t close them, the same as they can’t stop souls going through purgatory. Both are needed.”

“
Which leaves us with no other possibility than keeping the demons in line and to make pickings as difficult as possible for them.”

“Exactly.”

Abby sighed and then started to giggle, but in a sleepy kind of way. “My brain still insists on telling me it’s weird to talk about stuff like that. I mean, demons and angels and souls. And yet, to me in general, it kind of seems almost…right, you know?”

Lillian snorted. “
Yeah, I know! We should be talking about college and classes and mixers and guys. But no, here we are once again talking about heaven and the fiery fires of hell instead. And I don’t feel exactly uncomfortable either. We are fucked-up.”

“Indeed. We are.” Abby wiggled a finger at her, “Though we still can talk about guys.” One perfect bow of
an eyebrow arched suggestively as her warm eyes twinkled with a little wicked mischief. For one frighteningly long heartbeat Lillian feared Abby would ask her about Raz but instead Abby wondered, “Did you break some guy’s heart by heading of to join the angel army?”

Lillian snorted.
“No, not really.” She frowned as she tried to explain, “The guys I hang out with at school were only ever just that. Guys I hang out with, never more than that. Boyfriend material? Just couldn’t see them that way. And regarding other boys. Well, I didn’t exactly chase them like other members of our sex, though I didn’t run away either, mind you. I just wanted…”

Abby snapped her fingers.
“Someone that
catches
your attention?”

“Exactly.
I wasn’t looking for true love and crying violins, just a connection, a little spark that would assure me he’d still respect and look at me the next day.”

“
And did you find him?”

Lillian nodded. “
Aaron. He was visiting family in town over Christmas since his own parents were off to South America.” With a grin she added. “He came back during the summer.” Then she moved her elbow under her head and smiled, probably the same glint in her eyes that Abby had had. “What about you?”

“
Me? Well.” Abby sighed, her big, expressive eyes sad for a moment before gaining an angry edge. “I had a boyfriend back home.” Back home for Abby was a small town near Chicago. “I knew him since I was twelve years old. We’ve always hung out together, and with his brother who was only a year older than us. One afternoon, we were sixteen, the status quo changed. Out of the blue.” She frowned, a sweet frown as memories sucked her in. “And yet it felt so
obvious
and natural. We’d been lying on my bed, just like we always did, and watching
Troy
. He picked the movie that day or otherwise we would have been watching
Dirty Dancing 2
. Anyway, the love scene?”

Lillian nodded
, not quite able to hide the grin from spreading across her face.

“Suddenly there was all this
sexual energy not just in the movie but all around us, between us.” Abby burst out laughing, rubbing a hand over her face. “God, that first time…was a fumbling disaster.”

Lillian joined in the laughter.

“But then…the next times? Not bad at all. Not bad at all! Two years, we’d been together.” Then Abby looked at her, the room a quiet cocoon around them. “A couple of days before I ran into Maion, I found out he was seeing another girl. Behind my back.”

“Ah, shit.”

“Yeah.” Then Abby frowned. “But the thing is, although I felt betrayed and hurt, ‘cause yeah, it fucking hurts, I didn’t mind that much. It had me wondering. A lot.” She was silent for a moment, as if searching for the right words. “I realized that I hadn’t loved him as much as I had always thought. As a lover, that is. I felt more betrayed by my
best friend
, than by my boyfriend. Does that make sense?”

“It does.” Lillian
assured softly. “So how did it go? Did you say good bye?”

“As much as I could.
But what was there to say? I didn’t want to lie to him but couldn’t tell him the truth either. In the end I told him I was going to travel. It’s weird and hurts not to be able to talk to him suddenly, not to be able to tell him about all of this.”

Lillian rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.
“Yeah. I’m sorry. I know I can’t compete with what you two had, but whenever you need to talk, or just someone who listens?” She turned her head to look at Abby. “I’m here.”

“I know.
And same here.” When Abby moved to brace herself on her elbows, Lillian somehow knew she was in trouble. “And that’s why I think you really should talk to me. You know, for your own emotional well-being.”

“
Uhu. Right.”

Abby laughed.
“Oh, come on. I think I showed some freaking amazing self-control this last week and earned some major points for not having brought this up earlier, but now the gloves are off, girl. So…what’s up between you and Raz?”

Breathe.
Casual face. “Not a thing.”

“Liar.”

That girl was entirely too good with the reading between lines and Lillian hadn’t even offered her that many. Damn, was she that obvious?

When she didn’t answer Abby
simply said, “He calls you Stargazer.”

Lillian frowned. “There’s a reason for it. He found me staring off into the sky one night, so lost in thought that any enemy could have cleared my head right of my neck. It’s his
way of reminding me to focus. Besides, he’s done so before so what makes you think there’s more to it all of a sudden?”

“
Uh-uh. Not out on the porch today, after training. I heard you guys, but don’t worry, that’s all I heard. I didn’t hang out or anything.” She looked directly at Lillian, a small smile curving her lush lips. “Today, that wasn’t his usual silk-wrapped rebuke. That was just silk. The kind that gives you pleasant shivers. The kind that sent shivers down
my
spine which wasn’t even targeted…so yours must be dust. I’m actually surprised you can still move.”

Lillian chuckled but as soon as she let herself remember she had to swallow as her mouth went dry and a real shiver ran down her spine. Yeah, his voice had been dark and deep and soft like silk alright.
And then dull sadness smothered her, knowing that that beautiful promise of something more between them could be his downfall.

She was about to
tell Abby, to lay bare her pain, when her body went on full alert.

Something felt off.

Peeling
herself out of her sleeping bag as silently as possible she motioned for Abby to do the same. No time to put on clothes, the panties and large shirts they both were dressed in would have to be enough.

Since her sword wouldn’t do her any good in the close confines of the house,
Lillian grabbed the dagger she had stashed beside her bag and was comforted by its weight as she closed her fist around the leather-bound hilt. Abby summoned her crossbow. Lillian knew she would have her back.

Slowly, quietly she tiptoed to the doorway planning to get a glimpse of the hallway and then to warn the guys.
Before she could get a look, a demon appeared right in front of her blocking her view and pushing her back into the room as she took a step back. The guy leered at her. In a swift move Lillian’s dagger sneaked between ribs to find the soft heart hidden behind them. The demon fell to the ground, the hint of an evil grin still there. As another one showed up in the doorway Lillian ducked, and satisfaction mingled with adrenaline when she heard the wet gasp that said Abby’s arrow hit home. That girl was incredible with a crossbow.

Noises, grunts and the sound of clashing metal, reached her ears. It came from the room down the hallway
that Matt and Joshua occupied. Lillian and Abby were running towards it when suddenly a bundle of flying limbs practically flew out of the boys’ room and crashed into the wall facing it. Dust exploded in the air around them, mingling with the scents of blood and sulfur.

A glance and she took it all in. Joshua
, only in his boxers, was fighting an Ebony in the bathroom, his daggers faster than her eyes could see, while Matt was wearing the same attire and very busy with a demon in their room. Since he couldn’t shoot arrows in the confines of the house he improvised by using his bow as a staff, and Lillian imagined the more flexible curved ends of it to be a real pain in the ass. A smile lit up her face while she made way for Abby to do her job. Matt’s demon had trouble breathing through the arrow suddenly piercing his neck.