Carter stared at the other creature. Celestial side? What was that supposed to mean?
Before he could ask, he heard a voice, a different voice, entering the conversation.
“Carter?”
It was Ellie calling him. She didn’t sound panicked or scared, but she did sound nervous. Carter didn’t get a chance to call back, reassuring her that he was okay or informing her of his location before the winged shifter repeated,
“It is time for you to depart.” It held out its hand. Inside his pale palm was a Stone. A tiny Stone, a miniature of the ones Sean and Nosizwe warred over, complete with ancient runes carved across its face. “Use your blood. Sparingly this time,” the creature said. “Go home. Take your wife with you.”
He wasn’t sure he believed any of this hocus pocus, but Carter accepted the Stone anyway.
“Whatever gets me out of here,” he muttered.
He blinked, and the other shifter was gone.
“What—”
He twisted around, looking this way and that, but it had vanished faster than the snap of his fingers. An uneasy sensation crawled up his spine as he recalled Ellie’s claim of angels, but he shook it off, even as he jogged towards the sound of her voice.
It was just another shifter, he told himself. We all have different abilities.
Couldn’t say he’d seen one with that particular gift yet, but there was a first time for everything.
Chapter Eight
I hadn’t planned on waking up alone in that dark, chilly little house. I’d been scared to death when something jerked me from sleep—the fact that I was alone? No romantic afterglow, which would have been nice. No waking up to my husband next to me. No smiles, cuddles, and kisses. Nope. Instead, I’d sat up, patting the makeshift pallet next to me, whispering Carter’s name. No answer. A few seconds of searching the gloom, and I realized he was gone.
“Oh no, he didn’t,” I groaned, swiping my hair out of my face and putting on my glasses as I climbed to my feet.
He probably would’ve wanted me to stay put, but I was afraid for whatever misadventures he might run into out there alone. Which was a little stupid. Between the two of us, he was definitely better equipped to handle any physical altercations than I was, given his shapeshifter heritage. It wasn’t this that I was afraid of, though. It was all this talk about him that sounded eerily close to prophecies. This world was crazy, and I didn’t want him facing its mysteries alone.
I went outside after dressing, looked both ways, and didn’t see him. I had no idea which way he’d gone. It seemed best just to call him. I didn’t want to shout, for the same reason people don’t visit a graveyard at night and start shouting. It just felt wrong. Like you might wake the dead, even if you didn’t believe in waking the dead. I didn’t have a whole lot of options, however. After calling him once or twice, waiting a few seconds in-between, walking a few steps one direction then another, I was getting prepared to shout louder when I heard, “I’m coming, Ellie.”
I saw shadows moving down the street, the flickering of the oil lamp as he rounded a corner. My chest constricted with relief. He was okay. He hadn’t left me. Not that I really thought he would have, except to go off exploring, but it was nice to know I wasn’t alone again. I hurried toward him, not stopping until I could put my arms around him, hug him tightly.
“Where did you go?” I murmured. Until that moment, until I felt the security of his body against mine, I hadn’t realized how nervous I was.
“Why, Ellie, I didn’t know you cared,” he teased. He was making a joke of it, like he made a joke out of everything, but the way he hugged me back told me he wasn’t immune to separation anxiety, either.
“Shut up.” I straightened and slapped his shoulder. “That’s not funny. Where were you?”
“I couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d have a look around, try to find a way out here. And it worked.”
“It did?”
“Yeah, it did. I ran into some shifter. Some shifter I hadn’t seen before. He had wings and he, uh, he gave me something.”
I drew back. “Oh. It must’ve been the angel, the same one I met earlier.”
“It wasn’t an angel.”
I heard the impatience in Carter’s voice. He hated accepting the fact that there might be even more otherworldly beings and powers in existence than what he, himself dealt with on a daily basis. He probably also hated accepting the fact that I’d been right.
“Okay, it wasn’t an angel,” I soothed, in a tone of voice that said clearly I was humoring him. “What did the angel—I mean, the shifter—give you?”
I could see his frown despite the gloom, but he let the faux argument pass as he opened his palm. Inside was a replica of the magical Stones of Fire.
“Is that what I think it is?”
“I don’t know exactly.” He shoved it into the pocket of his slacks, the same ones he’d been wearing last night at the country club. That event felt like a lifetime ago. “The shifter told me it could take us home. That I’m supposed to use my blood—sparingly, this time—and the Stone to get us there. He also said it was time to get you out of here. You’re a mere human and you’re not supposed to be here at all, but since you came with me and you’ve been keeping me alive you were accepted.
“I don’t know what all this means,” he admitted, looking frustrated, “but I agree with him on one thing. It’s definitely time to go home.”
“I’m not going to argue with that,” I said softly.
Carter looped an arm around my shoulder and started us back toward the little house where we’d been staying, where we’d made love. My entire body flushed with a tidal wave of memories and sensations, heightened by him walking next to me.
