Jagged Embrace

Chapter 14 - Maeve

Maeve sat on a log with Ander and waited in silence for Will to return. He hadn't said a word for thirty minutes. Night had fallen, but it wasn't much relief from the heat. She smacked another mosquito on her arm. That was probably why she didn't enjoy hiking. Will had gone back to the motel to pick up supplies. Much to his dismay, she'd chosen to stay and wait with Ander.

"I know you're angry with me," she began. She'd been trying to figure out a way to talk to him and realized there wasn't a way to diffuse the conversation.

"I am not angry at you," he replied in a clipped tone.

"You sound angry."

"I sound irritated and frustrated, both of which I am," he replied, but didn't look at her.

"Irritated with me and frustrated in general?" she guessed.

"Does it matter?" He raked his hair back.

"Yes, it does to me."

He laughed, but it was bitter. "Of course, when you are not coherent."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Had she done something else those few days that she still couldn't totally recall?

He sighed. "Nothing, it means nothing." He stared at the ground and pulled his legs up so his knees rested near his chin.

"Ander, I-" she began her voice contrite.

"Do not. It will resolve nothing," he said, his voice now resigned.

"But-"

He turned his head toward her. "Please do not. It will only create more conflict." His voice seized at the end, and he looked away.

"Do you hate me?" she whispered.

"I told you before, I could never hate you," he answered, his voice tight with emotion.

"Do you want me to sit somewhere away from you?" she asked with a tremble in her voice.

"No, I never want you distant from me, even if it is painful," he explained, and put his arm around her.

She leaned into him and realized she never wanted to be away from him, either. It was how Will found them several minutes later... sitting together on the log, gazing at the night sky.

"Guess it's good this all happened now and not during the middle of the day," Will commented as he unloaded equipment from the back. Ander squeezed her before he stood.

"Are you going to tell me about the angel now?" Maeve asked, and stood beside them.

Will hesitated before he spread the tarp on the ground.

"Is that why you didn't want to tell me? Because you thought an angel was involved?" she crossed her arms.

"We didn't know what was killing things until it showed up. What we knew was that it'd killed two angels. It was need to know, and you didn't need to know," he told her very matter of fact.

"You don't think I needed to be aware, considering at least one angel recognized me?"

"That doesn't mean they're all in the same club and sit around and talk about you. They don't think us humans are all that important," he quipped.

Ander had put a bag over the creature's head and signaled to Will to help him lift the body on the tarp. They were taking the body with them? Would they take the angel, too?

"Did you kill the angel, or did it?" she asked, pointing to the body as her curiosity got the better of her.

"It softened the angel up, and we finished the job, but we aren't taking the whole body of the angel. Just the head," Will told her.