No Time to Cry (Nine While Nine Legacy Book 1) (4 page)

~
Chapter Four ~

I
woke up to the sound of rain spattering on the windshield and to find that Liam
had covered me with his leather jacket. I let my eyelids drift back down.

“Hey, Isabelle…we’re here.” He brushed
some hair away from my face, gently shook my shoulder. “Let’s get you inside.”

What a bizarre thing. To be in Long
Beach one night, to die, to be whisked away to another state, to be locked away
in a car for nearly twenty hours with, well…okay, I had to admit it, a very hot
Irish/Scottish guy.

The more my mind tried to wrap around
it, the more surreal I felt, fantastically dreamlike, so therefore my eyes
should remain closed.

“Isabelle,” He spoke so softly, so
deeply.

I turned away from the passenger window
and looked at him, blinking the heavy sleep from my eyes.

Waking up to Liam leaning over me wasn’t
so bad. Nice consolation prize.

His face was scruffy from lack of
shaving, his hair even more disheveled…I could imagine how bad I must look.

 I stared out the windshield,
watched the rivulets of rain traversing down. It was evening and the street
lamps had already come on. “Seattle,” I said blandly.

“Capitol Hill.” He just sat there,
waiting, looking at me.

“I know the area. It’s been a long
time,” I said with a small sardonic smile on my lips, a diminutive shake of my head.
“There was a time when I wanted to live here…long time ago. Kind of ironic
that’s it’s here…your place, I mean.”

“Yeah?”

“Long story. Ancient history.” I rubbed
under my eyes, hoping—ridiculously—that I looked halfway decent.

“You look beautiful still,” he said
softly, his eyes moving over my face. “You alright?”

I shrugged. I should just say no. Now
that we were here, all the reality came crashing back down. I couldn’t pretend
anymore, somewhere in my mind, that I was on a fun, absolutely normal road
trip. But I guess ‘ok’ was as close as I was getting. “Sure, I guess.”

Liam stroked my cheek, and I felt that
mysterious ‘otherness’ of him. Did
I
feel that way too now?

I touched his stubble-rough cheek.
“You’re all scruffy,” I said simply, drowsy still.

“Yeah, well…” He shrugged.

I didn’t want to leave the car; the
closed in safeness, and sameness, and warmth of his car. Once I set foot out of
it, the next step to this new life—
unlife
—would
begin. And for now I was still me, the old me…sort of.

He was still leaning over me, across the
center console, still looking at me, as if her were trying to read my thoughts
through my face, my eyes.

And then I was kissing him, kissing
Death—or Death’s assistant—or an employee from Death’s office—or whatever! I’d
gone from touching his cheek, to running my hand into the spiky mess of his
hair, to the back of his head…pulling him to me. And his mouth was wonderful.
And he kissed me back with no hesitation. It had been so long, way too long, since
I’d kissed. And it made me remember long ago crazy fun nights. Music and
laughter; concerts and parties with friends. Care free, wild, and spontaneous.

And then he broke the kiss.

Smiling.

There was only the sound of our
breathing and the rain hitting the car.

“I’ve wanted to do that for at least the
last five hundred miles.” He breathed into my hair, and then rested his
forehead to mine. “Let’s get you inside,” he spoke softly.

I shook my head.

“You planning on sleeping in here?” he
grinned.

“I don’t want to sleep.”

He retreated to his side of the car,
took the keys, and stepped out into the rain.

I sighed. What was I doing? I put the
seat back upright and pulled his coat off of me. It was so warm, and now I
really felt the chill of the Seattle evening as he opened my door, offering his
hand to help me out. I shook my head again. “What happens next?” I asked.

“We go upstairs. I take your things, and
you, and we go up to my apartment. Maybe have some tea,” he looked at his
watch, “or maybe an ale.”

 I shook my head, not taking his
hand, not moving from the spot. He merely looked at me, questioningly.

“It just seems to me that once I get out
of this car, nothing will ever be the same, I’ll be gone for good? I don’t
know…”

He reached both arms in around me and
pulled me out. I stumbled, unbalanced, and fell against him. He held me there
to him.

“See…still here. Nothing to be afraid
of.” He released me and went to pull my belongings from the trunk. My body
missed the heat of his, and I shivered.

Liam’s apartment was on the second floor
of a converted Queen Anne style house. It was nicer than I had imagined he’d
have, I don’t know why. I somehow thought he’d have something more modern and
perhaps in downtown, a high-rise perhaps. I liked this better. It was a little
cluttered, but in a good way; lived in and full of warmth.

After dropping my things at the entry he
took my hand and led me to the living room. He settled me on a comfy monster of
a couch. “Be right back.”

 I ran my hand over the plush
upholstery. It was dark green and so wonderfully soft that I found myself
wanting to nestle down into it for another nap. But I felt agitated, fidgety.
Too much broken up sleep maybe? I didn’t want to sleep.

I left the sofa and made my way to the
window, looking out to watch the rain and the people down below making their
way to somewhere. 

Liam found me at the window and handed
me a bottle of Guinness, then plopped down onto the ottoman in front of me.

I looked at the bottle, felt the wet
coldness in my hand, and thought briefly that a nice steaming cup of tea would
better suit me, but shrugged and took a drink. I’d never had ale before; I was
more a cocktail kind of girl. It only took a few sips to go straight to my
head. Lightweight much?

He was quiet.

I was quiet.

Thankfully the room was not. He’d turned
on music on his way back from the kitchen and now
OneRepublic
filled in the emptiness.

“So…” I broke the stillness. “Is this
the part where you tell me everything? Explain it all to me?”

“No.” He shook his head.

He was close to me.

 I wanted to kiss him again. He was
standing
so
close to me.

Was it him or was it because of what he
was?

Or did I want to stall the inevitable,
escape it as much as I could for as long as I could?

“You’re going to go freshen up. We have
somewhere to go. There are clean towels for you in the bathroom. I’ll put your
things in my room and I’ll be sleeping out here tonight.”

“Where do we have to go?” I asked in a
low tone, wanting to know…and not wanting that information as well.

“Elysium, it’s a coffee house. Gideon’s
meeting us there at nine.”

Gideon. I remembered that name. Liam had
said it before, when we were looting my apartment; Gideon was going to have his
ass. Gideon was the one who told him he could not tell me anything.

“Is he the one who did this to me?”

“I already told you…that was the guy at
your party.”

“But Gideon…he’s what? Your boss?”

“Yeah. Of sorts.”

“So what does he want?” I moved in
closer to him.

“He’ll tell you everything.” His eyes
had that look again. I leaned in a little more, and then further still. My face
so near to his.

“I want
you
to tell me,” I
whispered against his mouth.

And then he kissed me.

Bliss. Ah, blissful, wonderful kisses
that erased any other thoughts.

And then he was pushing me back gently,
and down into the softness of the couch, his hands caught up in my hair, his
mouth crushed against mine. Hard, deep kisses that made everything seem normal.
Because Death doesn’t have make-out sessions, right? He came up for air,
pushing my hair from my face, kissing my neck.

“Liam,” I exhaled somewhere between a
sigh and a moan, and wrapped a leg over him. “You make it all go away.” His
mouth came back to mine. Hot and full of need and want. And I felt nineteen
again. Joy Division playing in the background, hot and heavy kisses with a sexy
wonderful boy. So alive and new.

“You are new,” He breathed against my
neck where he had been nibbling. Then he abruptly stopped, pushing up, looking
at me. “What?” he asked. He looked bewildered.

“What?” I was confused and slightly
delirious.

“You said you felt so alive, new.”

“No I didn’t.” I hadn’t said it…I’d only
thought it. Somewhere deep, lost in passion and the wildness of the moment.

“I heard you.”

“No, really, I didn’t. Why wouldn’t I
tell you if I did?”

Sadly he seemed to be coming to his
senses.

 I had a feeling making out was
just as taboo as raiding my apartment. But it felt so damn good after everything
that had happened over the past twenty four hours; so brilliantly, delightfully
normal. I wanted more.

 I wanted to stay here all night
just kissing him, and kissing him more, losing myself in his arms. To stay here
and not go to Elysium. To not meet this Gideon person—was he a person?

“I was thinking it Liam. I was kissing
you and thinking how amazing it felt, how normal and real and unlike the past
hours.” I leaned up with my body, pushing against him, reaching my hands up,
twining them behind his head, pulling him back down into the couch with me. I
was abandoning myself to the kisses and the desire and that
whatever
feeling that clung to him. The kisses went on for countless time. He was as
lost to this as I was…until his cell phone chimed.

A text message. He ignored it twice, but
then on the third notification he disentangled himself from me, our clothes
rumpled, our breathing ragged

He picked up his phone and read the
messages. “
Shite
.” He ran a hand over his face,
through his even messier than before hair. “Time’s up.”

I covered my face with my hands. He
pulled them away and tugged me to a sitting position.

“I’d stay here like this with you all
night if I could.”

That thought made me shiver deliciously.
All night with Liam. No Elysium. No Gideon.

“But reality time. If we don’t go he’ll
simply come find us here. And I’d like to keep my job, and keep breathing,
while keeping this as affable as possible.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to talk here
anyway? A coffee house isn’t very private, seems like this sort of discussion
might need some privacy.”

“Gideon has a private room there, it’s
his place.”

“Oh…”

“It’s going to be alright, you’re going
to be fine.” He pulled me off the couch, and with his hands on my back, pushed
me from behind, down the hallway. He was back in charge now, resisting me, not
looking at me.

“You. In the shower. Everything you’ll
need is in there.” He pushed me gently into the tidy room and closed the door.
“I’ll put your things in my room. Try not to take too long, we need to get
moving along,” he called through the door.

I looked at myself in the framed mirror
over the sink, touched my lips. They were hot to the touch and kiss-plumped
from the hour or so of
snogging
Liam.

I found myself in awe of the perfection
of my new skin and radiance of my hair, truly a crowning glory now. The past
hours had only improved things.

I took a steaming hot shower, not good
for the hair, but wonderful for my unsettled spirit.

I wrapped his robe around me before
leaving the bathroom and making my way to his room to dress. It smelled like
him. The warm spiciness and vanilla of his skin. I craved another kiss. Now. If
only he’d be in the room waiting for me…but I knew that was only a fanciful
thought.

I had a very distinct, dreadful feeling
that washed over me from out of nowhere, or somewhere, that he’d be avoiding
any closeness. It didn’t feel good at all.

I wasn’t going to be able to avoid this
meeting with Gideon. Well fine. I had a lot to say to him. I mean, since when
is this how it’s done anyway?

Who’d ever heard of any of this? A
Coimhdeacht? A La…I couldn’t pronounce that one either. Who’d heard of any of
it? When had those rules changed? I’d studied so many mythologies and never
heard these names before. I threw on some skinny jeans, brown leather boots and
along asphalt colored alpaca sweater. After a quick application of some
makeup—it certainly didn’t take much now, just a little eye enhancement and lip
gloss—I grabbed my leather pea coat and strode to the living room.