I staggered back, holding my jaw where she'd almost dislocated it. She shoved me and I flipped over a vinyl chair, knocking over the flimsy table next to it. The door slammed. I looked up into blazing violet eyes.
"Whatever you're doing to me, stop it." Her voice was low and dangerous.
"Doing to you?"
She grabbed my shirt and pulled me to my feet. "Don't even try to lie your way out of it. I can't be feeling this. You're doing something to me."
I took in a hopeful breath. "Feeling what?"
Her grip on my shirt tightened and her eyes grew larger with anger. "You know very well what I'm talking about." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "You're doing it again. What my dad said you did to me the first time."
"I'm not doing anything, I swear!"
She growled. "As if I'd ever get the truth from you. If only—" Her mouth went slack as if something had suddenly occurred to her. Her hand went toward a bulge in my pants—and pulled my phone out of the front pocket. Another shove sent me somersaulting backwards over the bed. "You might lie to me, but your texts won't."
My texts? I had no texts on my phone. After my embarrassing drunk texting incident with Katie, I'd erased them all. All except for a few Elyssa and I had exchanged. I didn't bother trying to stop her. There was nothing on my phone to vindicate or condemn me that I knew of.
She stared at the screen, all the while keeping half an eye on me. I just took a seat on the bed and let her have at it. "What's this?" she said after a few moments. "A file with my name?" A voice crackled in my phone speaker and the glow of the phone reflected in her eyes.
"This is Elyssa Borathen. I am of sound mind. You may think I'm crazy, but I'm not. Elyssa, hopefully you've found this. The story I'm about to tell you may seem insane, but it's true. Your father wiped your mind, not because you did anything wrong, but because he couldn't control you. Because he couldn't stop you from falling in love."
Elyssa stared in horror as her past self told her current self everything she'd forgotten.
"Justin looks harmless," said the voice from the past. "In fact, I felt sorry for him the first time I saw him. But then he showed me an inner strength I didn't know he had. Before he ever came into his supernatural abilities, he was standing up to bullies and making friends with Ash and Nyte." She continued, her sad voice making a complete outline of our relationship from her perspective. So much of what she said mystified me. I'd never heard what I was like from someone else's perspective, especially in such an open and brutally honest way.
"I asked myself a million times how I could let some guy do this to me," her voice continued. "Make me feel this way. Then I stopped fighting it. The war was over because Justin had already won my heart."
Elyssa clicked off the recording a moment later. Tears clouded her big violet eyes. She looked at me with an almost amazed expression. "I've heard enough," she said, voice trembling.
My heart melted under her gaze. I wanted so badly to kiss those lips and taste the salt of her tears. To hug her and tell her it was true. I loved her. She used to love me. "Maybe you should watch the whole thing."
She shook her head and stood up. Left the phone on the bed and walked my way. "No. I really don't need to." She sat down next to me, leaned in, and kissed me gently on the lips. "I already know it's the truth. I can feel it."
I pulled her tight against me. Kissed her hard. I tasted her tears and maybe one or two of my own. She gasped as I ran a string of kisses up her neck. Nipped her ear. Pulled her down on the bed with me.
Our breathing grew heavier, our movements frantic with need. She ripped my shirt over my head. I fumbled with hers, tugging it off and running kisses down her bare skin and around the curve of her bra. She shuddered. Gasped. Grabbed my back and pulled me against her, fingernails digging into my skin. We tore at each other's remaining clothes until we were naked, our bodies pressed tight. Heat radiated from her bare skin, filling me with electric desire. It seemed I could sense everything right down to the very molecules of her delicious curves while my pulse seemed to pound in my ears.
My inner demon, the incubus, practically slavered with desire. The elemental force clawed with fury as I fought to keep it in check. As I fought to keep it from reaching for the shimmering halo of essence emanating from Elyssa's form. My physical body was more than ready. Every part of me begged for sweet release. I felt drunk with desire for her.
I stopped. Took several deep breaths to clear my head before I took the irrevocable step, which would leave us both deflowered.
"What's wrong?" she asked, as breathless as I was. "Justin?"
I ran a hand through the hair on her temple, reaching my hand to the back of her head and leaning in for another delicious kiss. My inner demon surged against the wall of my will. "I've wanted this for so long," I said at last. "Are you sure you want this? I mean, you don't even remember—"
She pressed a finger to my lips. Smiled. Her full lips parted to show straight white teeth and the tips of her fangs as they extended ever so slightly. "I feel as though I've loved you since forever was born. I don't know why. I don't know how. All I know is I want you in the here and now. I want to be with you, body and soul."
The demon inside me suddenly stopped its struggles and vanished, leaving me alone with my own feelings. It understood carnal lust. It didn't seem to understand true love. I nodded, unable, at first, to speak. "Too much has tried to keep us apart. This is right. We're right." I ran my hand along her bare skin, marveling at the beauty in every inch. Kissed her soft lips. Felt the sting of her fang on my lip. Not a shred of doubt remained. "I love you."
She was mine. I was hers. And this was right.
Sometime later as we lay beneath the covers, snuggled in each other's arms, she pressed a hand to my cheek and gave a sad little smile. "I wish I could remember, Justin. I want to remember."
"I want you to remember, too." My brain was working overtime on that problem. "If Daelissa is actually the Templar Divinity and the crazy angel behind all this, I don't know how we can make her fix it."
"I don't either." She ran a hand down my bare chest, her eyes following her fingers. Her eyes jerked back up, as if she'd been caught doing something naughty. Which she had—we both had. Several times. "I keep having these dreams. I'm trapped in a house while a dark-haired girl tries to get inside through a foggy glass door. Out the front door, everything is sunshine and flowers. But the backyard is cloudy and rainy. The girl in back could be the twin of that blonde woman in El Dorado."
"The huge mosaic?" I said.
She nodded.
I told her about my dream with Nightliss and the blonde woman, aka Daelissa.
"What is it with those two?" she asked.
"All I know is Nightliss seems to be the good one, even if she doesn't have such a great grasp of the English language." A sudden thought hit me. "Maybe she can fix your erased memories. Maybe that's why you keep having that dream."
Her eyes went wide. "Do you think?"
I almost jumped out of bed from excitement, but realized I had no idea how to find my guardian angel who sometimes turned into a little black cat. "I have to figure out how to contact her though."
A familiar noise penetrated the wall opposite our bed and for the third time that night, we heard my female neighbor shout the same exact words over and over again in a slightly less than enthusiastic voice.
Elyssa giggled. Her eyes went wide and nose wrinkled. She sat up, holding the sheets against her chest. "I just thought of something really gross."
"Even more gross than that?" I jerked my head toward the noises next door.
"At least." She took two fingers and gingerly pulled at the bed's coverlet.
I grimaced when I realized what she was thinking. "I'll bet that comforter looks like a warzone under an ultraviolet lamp."
She made a gagging noise. "Will you take it off?"
I grinned. "Sure thing, love." I'd just slipped out of the covers when our neighbor yelled, "That's it baby!" one last time and went silent. I heard the sounds of several car doors clicking shut and the rustle of numerous feet on the pavement outside.
Police raid? I wondered. I blurred to the window, ignoring my nakedness and peeked outside. What I saw froze my heart solid. I backed away as panic took flight up my throat.
"What's wrong?" Elyssa said, hopping out of bed and slipping into her clothes at light speed.
"Your dad is here!" I hissed back, and raced to put on my own clothes. Sure, I'd wanted to hand-deliver Vadaemos to him, but I sure as heck didn't want him showing up right after his daughter and I had just deflowered each other. Perfect timing as usual. "Did Michael call him?"
She shook her head. "No, he specifically told me he'd escort us both to the ranch tomorrow."
"Then how—" the question died on my lips as I peeked out the window to see Beck standing outside with the intimidating form of Thomas Borathen and pointing approximately at Meghan's door. I had to go out there. "Wait here a few minutes, and see if you can get out without them realizing—"
Elyssa put a finger on my lips. "Already planned to, hot shot. Just in reverse order." She kissed me hard before slipping out of the room and vanishing.
I squinted through the blinds again. None of the arriving Templars seemed to have spotted her. Taking a few deep breaths, and loosening up my clenched butt cheeks, I stepped outside and walked with bold purpose toward a man who probably wouldn't hesitate to kill me, so long as he had a lawful reason to do so. I prayed he didn't have sufficient cause to execute me in front of the others.
Meghan and Adam stood outside their door blocking the way to Vadaemos while Thomas Borathen glared at them.
"What's wrong with you people?" Beck said. "Let him in and we'll be out of your hair."