Page 45 of Torn Between Two Worlds

Gina's question pulled her from her thoughts just in time to look up and see a man stalking toward her, knife drawn, Initiative suit on. Her stomach dropped, and she yelped. His eyes locked on hers, and he charged forward.

Fear coiled around her. Gina couldn't see him, but they'd never found out if others could be hurt. Based on the attack at the aquarium, she assumed not but didn't want to take a chance with her best friend in the line of fire.

Moving as quickly as she could in front of her friend, she screamed through her mind for Stryder and focused on the fire wrapping around her body. Seeing the flames lick around her fingers just as the knife slashed across her lower arm, she cried out and sent the fire flying. She could still hear the man's screams as it engulfed him, while Gina turned to look at her arm and frowned.

“What the fuck, Ci? What happened? How did you do that walking?”

She was still shaking as she watched and heard the man's demise. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she prayed Gina thought it was pain. Whipping her head around, she ignored the pain and focused on the shimmering doorway. There wasn't one. How long had that guy been creeping the building looking for her? Feeling the trickle of blood down her arm, she quickly tried to wipe it away, succeeding only in smearing it.

“I don't know, Gina. I must have something sticking out of my bag.”

“Um, yeah, no. That's pretty deep. Do you want to go get it looked at?”

She shook her head. No, she just wanted to go home and decide what to do next. “I'll be okay. Pass on the drinks, though. Sorry, I've got a sexy romance novel waiting for me.” The lie was easy to tell, and she wondered when she'd become so good at hurting and lying.

The car ride was quick because they both lived close to the school, and she thanked Gina as she got out. Her eyes looked around the area surrounding her building, and she sighed. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she climbed the stairs.

“I really can't do anything without a Guardian.” It wasn't the complete truth since she had taken the man down. However, it looked like, without a Guardian she, couldn't read, couldn't write maybe. She didn't know what to do.

Cleaning the wound, she took two natural sleep aides and climbed into bed. It was only about 9:30, but she needed to rest. She would be leaving for Derrick’s the next week, and she didn't know if Gina was right, or if she was just scared about what Stryder's absence meant, but she was going to put everything from her mind. Somehow. Maybe Stryder was really done with her? She knew she was right about him being alive because she could almost feel him. So, after a week, what else could she believe, since his parting words had been about how short it would be?

“Dammit. Why didn't I read the fucking book when I had the chance?” She grabbed her pillow and angrily plumped it. Had she read it, she would know how long those things really lasted, but now she couldn't read. No way. She may be able to kill, but that didn't mean she wanted too. For the time being, no reading. Maybe if she didn't hear from Stryder before she left to see Derrick and Italy, she could pick up a different book, maybe find a new Guardian. Pain sliced through, and that was the last real thought she remembered before the pills lulled her to sleep.

Stryder cursed as he heard her shout his name for the second time through whatever linked them together. His fist connected hard with the head of some idiot Parisian he was fighting. His connection with War was working overtime. Not just because of all the damage the bombers had caused, but because he was terrified what could have happened to her.

Growling, he kneed the idiot man in the stomach before picking him up, throwing him into a wall and turning to the next person. He was trapped, forced to submit to War and fight but dying to go to her, to know she was okay. They'd all been slowly split apart as the hell had broken loose. It was how it always was. They would be connected to their Horsemen until the damage ended. For Stryder and Demarcus, it was always longer than the other two. He'd wondered how they were doing. They were pretty damn impossible to kill, thanks to their breeding, but it didn't mean they couldn't feel shit or get taken by the enemy. Hearing his name a third time from his strange link with Ciara, he bellowed and used his knife to slit the assailant’s throat. It was time to fucking end his part and get to his female.

24

She steppedoff the plane and looked around. Never having been out of the country, she didn't know what she was looking for. The airport looked pretty much like any of the few she'd been in. She saw Derrick standing a few feet from the custom's gate when she walked past. He looked as good as she remembered, and when he smiled, she realized how much she missed seeing Stryder's smiles and hoped to forget about it a little for the short weekend.

She'd gone to his world the previous night. Just to his house. She couldn't see inside, so she didn't know if he was home or not, but the lawn was nice and it didn’t appear to look like a home abandoned for two weeks. It took a lot for her to not go to the bar to see if he'd been there, but she didn't want to know, didn’t want to feel the pain.

Regardless, when Derrick wrapped her in his arms after passing her a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses, she smiled. It felt good. It really did. However, he wasn't Stryder, and the pain and worry lingered. She had no idea how she'd wound up getting herself freaking connected to someone who technically wasn't real, but it seemed like she had.

She was distracted as Derrick gently kissed her cheek. She raised a brow at him as she took the roses and smelled them. “They're beautiful. Yellow roses for friendship. Perfect, but you shouldn't have.”

“Everyone kisses cheeks in Europe. So, my darling friend, care to explain why you look so upset when you're in beautiful Italy?”

Her hand twirled in her hair. “Busted, huh?”

“Mmm very. So, why don't we take a cab to a nice little café, and you can tell me what this is all about. I have something to tell you too, so it's good you came. I was getting impatient.”

She wanted to ask what it was but figured he'd make a joke about being patient, so she didn't. Instead, she let herself fall into step with him and didn't pull back as his hand slipped around her shoulders. She wasn't really sure what he was doing, but his smile was playful. She shrugged his arm off. Gina was right. She and Derrick needed to learn boundaries if they were going to try to be friends after so many years of more. He didn't try to do it again as they walked, so she figured it was just an old habit.

“Derrick this is adorable.” He'd taken her to a place called Trussardi Café. It was a quaint little cafe that she'd actually found in an article of where to eat before he'd even gone to Italy. It was in a square and was cute on the inside, but outside it was like a terrarium. A glass box encased the space, and it was draped with moss and ivy climbing up it. Modern black chairs and tables lined the sides. It was exactly how she had always thought a hip European coffee shop would look.

He smiled at her. She felt her heart do the little flip it always did when he looked at her like that, and she laughed. “Oh no, buddy, no smiling at me, I'm still weak to it. You could ask me to rob a bank with that smile, and I'd do it.”

He grinned wider. “Hey, we never said just what the plans were for the weekend.”

His look was strange, and it made her a little uncomfortable. She was just too wrapped up in thoughts of Stryder being missing to care what the plans were as long as they distracted her.

“But would you be here if he weren't missing?” She hadn't meant to grumble the question under her breath at all, but it was too late.

“What?” Derrick's smile turned into a frown fairly quickly, and he didn't thank the server who brought their coffee and croissants.

Fear leaked from her, and she wondered if there were predators present if they would be able to smell it. Chewing on her lower lip, she shook her head. She wouldn't do that to him there. “Sorry. Book thoughts.” Not a lie.

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