The Four Protectors

Forty

1st Person POV

I left the room the second I heard him pick up. Theo snickered at that and I heard Maia whack the back of his head in response. I drowned out the bickering that soon followed as I entered my room and shut the door.

"Catherine? Are you okay? Is something wrong," Azriel asked.

I sunk to the floor. My voice was refusing to work. I clutched on to the phone as I desperately tried to make some kind of noise.

"Sweetheart you're scaring me," he whispered.

That finally had my brain rebooting and I replied in a shaky voice.

"Annabelle, Annabelle came by. She has information about the operation that she thinks can end them for good. I need to see all of you. I mean, we need to meet to discuss what to do next," I explained.

He was silent for a second and I waited with bated breath. Maybe he'd moved on with his life. Maybe I was ruining everything by calling him again, forcing him to break the law.

"You don't have to say yes," I whispered.

But I did need him to though.

"Of course I'm saying yes. Whatever you ask of me, the answer will always be yes. I was just processing all you'd said," he said firmly.

I let out a breath that I didn't realize I'd been holding. Another minute passed before he finally replied. He sounded so calm and collected that it instantly put my own nerves at bay over all of this.

I was breaking laws, the consequences of which I should be afraid of but wasn't. I was nervous that I was getting him into trouble but breaking the law didn't scare me. I'd seen so much worse. Hell, I'd already been to jail anyway.

"I'll send you an address. We'll all meet there. It's a safe place. I'll contact Cassius and Desmond as well," he said.

My phone pinged indicating a text had been received. He was about to cut the call. That had the words bubbling out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"Azriel."

He remained silent but I heard his breathing, a bit labored like he'd been holding it back all this time.

"I missed you," I said softly.

A beat later, his hushed voice replied.

"I missed you too."

By safe place, I hadn't really thought that Azriel meant his own home. Theo had reached out to Annabelle, and she'd agreed to come with us. The five of us had taken three different buses to get near the place, followed by a short walk.

Theo complained bitterly about the exercise but I knew it was just so he could distract himself from the obvious tension between him and his sister. Annabelle shot him nervous, longing looks once in a while, begging for a chance to explain, but he ignored them all. Some wounds would take more than an apology to heal.

And she'd turned on him when he'd needed her the most.

I still didn't know if she could be trusted, and a part of me felt repulsed by the thought of bringing her into Azriel's home. I kept a careful eye on her, never leaving her alone with any of the others. If she noticed my constant hovering and suspicious glances, she didn't comment.

The house finally appeared in sight. It looked cozy and warm from the outside, with its brick, moss-covered walls, small garden and the smell of the countryside that it seemed to be wrapped in. It was still a big house but it had clearly been built with comfort in mind rather than luxury.