Page 56 of High Noon

He nodded, accepting my decision. “Walk with me? I want to spend time with you alone.”

“I don’t want to go far without Maru and Titus.”

“We will keep Falling Branch in sight, I promise. There’s a spot where I like to go and think.”

I nodded, secure in my love for him, and placed my hand in his. It sounded like a small slice of perfection in an imperfect world. “Lead the way.”

Enoch headed for the kitchen, where he grabbed a basket, loaded a napkin with steaming chicken, potatoes, and a few tomatoes, and grabbed a cup of water, then pulled me out the back door. He led me to the base of a small hill to a place where a tumble of enormous boulders had come to a stop together. We sat on the largest, looking back toward the saloon.

“Can you hear them?” he asked.

I listened closely to the sound of forks scraping across ceramic. They were eating dinner. A woman who seemed to enjoy Titus – his looks and attention – had not only prepared a whole hen and five different side dishes, she’d stayed to serve the dishes as well. The guys wasted no time in digging in. I didn’t even get a “Bye, Eve.” Each merely flung a hand up and went back to their meals.

Enoch grabbed the basket and unfolded the napkin, offering the food to me. “Are you hungry?” I asked, pulling a piece of chicken off the bone.

“You should eat.”

“You should eat with me,” I said with a smile.

“I’d rather memorize your every motion.”

I laughed. “That’s not necessary.”

A playful glint entered his eyes. “You miss you for a hundred years and see how necessary it feels!”

Guilt peppered my insides. “So, you come here to think?” I diverted.

“To think, and to keep an eye on Asa while he was building this place.”

“Ah. I get it.”

Enoch rolled the tension from his neck. Sweat glistened on the column of his throat and trickled down into his shirt. The top two buttons were undone. A smile spread over his full lips, and I realized then that I was memorizing him as much as he was me.

We ate in companionable silence, until I asked him to tell me about his fight with Terah when I jumped the last time. He tensed beside me and took a long moment to choose his words.

“What I am about to tell you, I’d like for you to keep to yourself. I want you to promise not to tell anyone. Not Maru. Not Titus. No one.”

I couldn’t imagine what would be so secret, but agreed. “I’ll keep your secret.”

“I don’t know whether the stakes you carry would actually kill one of us, but there is something that will. Something we knew before the flood…”

I swallowed and waited for him to say it. I almost didn’t want him to trust me with something so important, but curiosity prevented me from stopping him.

“The venom of another Nephilim is deadly to us. I almost bit Terah. I would have, if Asa hadn’t interceded.”

My mouth gaped open, at a loss for words.

Enoch was strong, but that meant Terah could bite him and kill him. Or Asa could. “Have you bitten another Nephilim before?”

He nodded once. “I have.”

Comprehension finally dawned, and I breathed, “The woman Asa loved?”

He gave another nod.

“Has Asa or Terah ever tried to bite you?”

“Asa has, plenty of times. But Terah would never allow us to destroy one another. She’s always tried to keep our familial bond strong.”

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