Sun Catch Her (Book 1: Three Rivers Deep series) COMPLETE

Chapter Eighteen

"You're not accustomed to others attending to you." The rhythmic calm of Alex's voice hummed against me while he carried me to his car.

I leaned into it, hung my weariness upon it, after having given up on trying to persuade him to let me down. But that still didn't mean I had to like the idea of being so dysfunctional that I needed to be carried. "I'm not one for being coddled, no."

His gaze slid sideways to me. "There is a difference in allowing oneself to be helped when the need is genuine."

"Sure." I relented to the generality of the statement, though in my opinion it didn't apply to me. The look Alex gave me in response to my obstinacy was gentle, askance. "It's just..." I inhaled shallowly and pressed my lips, then exhaled a moment later. "It's just I'm not used to being—helped," I finished lamely.

Although it's proving to not be the worst thing in the world, I decided with my face beginning to warm, focusing on the smooth, sure gait with which he carried me. My thoughts then turned to Micah's arm going around me to help me off the mall bench. Okay, so maybe I could try to accept help when it was needed.

A brief smile touched my lips. Despite the injured side and swollen ankle, it was good being this close to him. His arms around me felt...right.

Shifting to place a hand on his shoulder in a more conversational position, I reminded him, "You said you would tell me what the danger was."

"I did," he answered shortly.

"Your wind devvis—they called what they were fighting a 'him'. So it wasn't one of those umbra creatures. It was a person."

"That is correct."

"Were they fighting another wind devvi?"

"Sun devvi, actually," Alex replied, adding, "judging from the flash."

"Oh?" Sun was another devvi type. The brilliant flash had nothing to do with lightning then. "But it's the middle of the night. Isn't it unusual for a person whose nature is the sun to be out and about after dark in a threatening manner?"

"Yes, in fact, it is very unusual. We don't know for certain if you were in any specific danger, but when Bettihemae alerted our guard that she detected a presence nearby who wasn't cooperating when asked to identify themselves, I went for you. I wasn't going to take the risk."

"Your cousin alerted the guard?" Surprised, my attention shifted from Alex to watch the fog that was beginning to roll back in, making it difficult to see ten feet beyond us. I hadn't seen the tall girl with the chestnut colored hair at the theater, but speaking of the devil...

Our conversation immediately cut off as the fog parted to reveal a sleek car—a silver corvette of the early sixties persuasion— and I shrank against his chest to let the blanket overshadow me at the unsettling sight of a lean silhouette spread across the trunk.

Head tilted back to spill chestnut hair over glass, she sumptuously lounged, her slim figure motionless against the back windshield in a fog-induced bask. I gulped as I took in the lanky, six- foot-plus female. His cousin, Bettihemae. If Alex was a water devvi, I would probably be right to assume she was one as well.

Spread out like a goddess in all her glory, her body was sparsely adorned in a charcoal, gossamer maxi dress, her skin glowing alabaster in the wet night. An air of predator wafted about her while she leaned back on bent elbows. Her provocative pose reminded me that Alex had said his mother was a siren, and I wondered if this was what she had been like.

Gaze returning to Alex, I glimpsed unease in his expression before it emptied. He came to a halt by the passenger side. Opening the door, he adjusted his careful hold to ease me onto the front seat. Our heads jerked up in unison when his cousin let out an animalistic hiss.