Celestial Heartbeat (Book One) COMPLETE

Chapter Thirty Seven - Last Kiss

"Do you know what Rebecca said?" I asked Ren suddenly, playing with the material of his shirt. My eyes were already wet, but I didn't want to really start sobbing in front of Ren right now, so I held the tears back. I had been thinking about how my world always seemed full of loss and misguided hope. I'd lost dad and when the hope came along that he might come back, it was false. I'd lost Ren, too and just when I got him back I was going to lose him again.

"No. I try to block most memories of her from my mind," Ren grumbled, drawing himself back from me to look at what I was doing. As he took in my fingers clutched to his shirt he raised his eyebrows with a smirk. "Are you trying to undo my shirt there? Because I can offer some assistance to speed up the process."

My hands paused their fumbling over his shirt and I flushed bright red.

"No, I-I wasn't..."

"You want me to start on yours then?" his hands slipped down my back and curled under my top, they were warm but I still trembled under his touch out of nervous anticipation.

"No, that's not what I meant." I laughed shakily, already feeling the tingling sensation burning in my feet. If I wasn't careful, I'd wind up sending a shock through him again. Ren sighed, but didn't remove his hands from my top. He simply held them still there. I didn't mind.

"Okay, I'll bite. What did you Rebecca say?" he said grudgingly.

"She said she couldn't bring back my dad."

"Because she didn't want to. She's a manipulative witch," Ren said quickly and then shot me an apologetic smile. "No offense. I mean that in the least literal sense possible."

"But... she said that she couldn't. That he wasn't there to take him back."

"She probably lied."

"I know... but... what if she wasn't lying? What if she really couldn't bring him back because he wasn't there?"

"Seriously?" Ren sighed. "A couple of weeks back you were accusing my family of killing your father... and now you're asking me to entertain the thought that he might still be alive?"

He was right. I was being stupid. There was nothing that Rebecca had ever done that should have made me willing to begin to trust what she said. But that didn't stop the part of me that wanted to believe it.

"You're right," I finally said in a hushed tone.

"I usually am. But..." His hands traced their way further up my back and he pulled me in closer, the tingling stretched across my body. "I don't care about Rebecca right now. I care about you."

I could feel my powers slowly rising through the veins in my arms and I closed my hands into tight fists to attempt to block it from rising any further. I could not afford to lose control during our last moments together with Ren in his human body.

"Are you scared, Ren?" I asked quietly.

Ren took in a deep breath and did not answer straight away. His arms squeezed me a little bit tighter. He shook his head ever so slightly, but I knew it was a lie. Ren was much too still, much too serious for me to believe that he was not being affected by it.

"You know I'll look after you though, right?" I whispered in Ren's ear. He was doing his best to keep calm, but I could feel his arms shaking around me, despite how tightly he was holding me against him. I let my hand slide over his chest and slip around his back.

"I know you will," he replied softly. "But that's part of the problem. You shouldn't have to. You've got a life to live, Evie."

"And what's so wrong about keeping you in it?" I demanded.