I Am an Invisible Stalker (Guardians #2)

Chapter 11

Vincent's POV

"I thought their house would be bigger," Charlie says as we step underneath an extension of the roof of a two-story family house.

A three feet wide front porch shields us from the soft drizzle tapping against the roof of Denise's home. While it's already late in the afternoon, Denise claimed that this is the only time she had available to work on the project with my charge.

As the only human, Charlie takes a step forward and knocks on the white front door. Not even thirty seconds later the door flies open. Instead of either Denise's unwelcoming scowl or Eliza's unimpressed shrug, we are met with a wide-open smile. The beauty, who appears in the doorway, leaves me with no doubt about whom Denise inherited her looks from.

"You must be my daughter's classmate. I'm Denise's mother, Julie." The woman greets Charlie and then moves to the side. "Do come in."

I follow half a step behind my charge to ensure Julie doesn't slam the door in my face. Then once we are both inside, Julie leads us to what I assume is the living room. I can't be sure, though. Not with the number of piles of stacked cardboard boxes the room is quivering under. The only indications of the former purpose of the room are the three untouched surfaces: a white plush couch, a yellow armchair, and a glass coffee table set in between them.

"Denise, your friend is here!" Julie shouts up the stairs, which are positioned at the right edge of the room, and then turns back to Charlie. "I'm sorry for the mayhem, but as you can see we're in the process of moving."

"It's no problem," Charlie assures her and then upon her invitation sits on the yellow armchair.

His choice is in contradiction to Julie's offer, as she first motioned for him to take the couch. What the woman doesn't know, though, is that apart from her and Charlie, four other creatures, including me, are also present inside the room. And two of them—Eliza and a black-clad Guardian—are already occupying the couch.

"I'm sure Denise will be right down, so go ahead and make yourself comfortable." With that Julie strolls out of the room.

"Hello," I greet my fellow Guardians. Despite there being three of them, my eyes are drawn only to Eliza. She is supposed to look like every other day, especially because she is dressed in the same clothes as throughout all of our interactions, yet for some reason, she doesn't. Maybe it's because of the gloomy light coming from the window behind her, or the cold glow of the lamp hanging from above the ceiling. All I know is that my eyes keep lingering on her loose curls as if begging me to reach forward and tug them behind her ears.

"Welcome." Instead of Eliza, the black-clad Guardian returns my greeting. "You must be the boy's Guardian. I'm Xenia, and this is Eliza. Over there is Tim."

At the mention of the third Guardian, I turn to the array of boxes across the room, where a Guardian with ginger hair is sitting. He has one leg perched on a pile beside the one he is sitting on, while his other leg is dangling above the ground. The moment our eyes connect I forget all about his aloof posture, though. The air that had been filling my lungs a second ago squeezes out of my chest and my vision blurs. Instead of standing at the edge of the supposed living room, I find myself kneeling on what feels like a pile of rocks.

"Tim!" I call out, my voice laced with the agony pulsing through my ankle and biting into my knees.

Despite the pain, I shoot with my arm forward and grab the edge of the trousers of the person standing in front of me. With hissing determination, I lift my eyes from the foot I'm holding onto, to the guy to whom the foot belongs to. I'm met with a head full of ginger hair and dark blue eyes peering back at me.