Page 31 of High Noon

“How is Eve?” I yelled into the wind, hoping Enoch heard me.

I startled and screamed like a little girl when he appeared next to me, keeping my pace for a change.

“She’s fine.”

“Fine?” I asked.

“Yes.”

Eve was never just fine. “The impact didn’t hurt her?” I asked.

“I caught her,” he replied airily, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

“Did you catch Maru, too?”

He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Yes.”

Of course he did. If Enoch was in our time, well, the time before the vamps slaughtered the system of government and half the people in our country, he would’ve been a golden boy. An NFL player or a movie star, complete with that little sparkle on his pearly white teeth.

“I can’t believe Maru is actually here,” I mused.

Enoch didn’t respond. Running alongside him, I could see the tension in the set of his jaw. Huh. “They aren’t a thing, you know,” I offered.

“A thing?”

“They aren’t involved… romantically.”

“So she says,” he replied, his tone implying he wasn’t so sure. “But who would put his life on the line for someone he didn’t love?”

“Friendship is love, man, just a different kind. It’s sad you’ve lived this long and don’t know that.”

He didn’t respond.

“Don’t you have friends?”

“I do.”

“Wouldn’t you do anything to help them? If they were in trouble and you could help, wouldn’t you do what you could?”

He grunted. I assumed that was a yes, but in Enoch-speak, who knew?

“Well, that’s exactly what Maru’s doing. He was told we were going back in time seven days to the gala. He must have figured out that was a lie and stolen the tech to come find Eve. He probably thought she was lost in time and space, floating around aimlessly.”

“What do you think he’ll do now that he knows the truth? What do you think he’ll say about the way we feel about one another?” he asked.

Asa showed up on my left, scaring the bejeesus out of me once again. “Can you guys stop that?!” I shrieked. “I mean, make a warning noise or something.”

The sky seemed to lighten a tick with every step we took.

“Why do you care what anyone thinks about you and Eve, brother?” Asa asked. His tone was playful, but the way he carefully watched Enoch for an answer wasn’t.

“I don’t,” Enoch fired back.

“You could always kill him,” Asa suggested as if it was the next logical conclusion.

“No, you could not,” I butted in. “Not if you want Eve to keep loving you. Because if you killed Maru, she’d hate you. Instantly.”

Enoch growled. “I would not kill Maru.”

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