Relic (The Brethren Series) by Deena Remiel Read Free Book Online Page B

safe house. Michael, a Protector, had shielded it. His wife, Emma, the Great Savior Mother, could heal Serena’s injuries with one visit. During her stay, they’d find out why she looked and spoke like his Sirona, his dead wife. Yes, a plan like that was sure to work. Now, all he had to do was get her to agree to it.
     
    ***
     
    By the time everything calmed down, evening had settled in. Security hadn’t found the guy, but they posted a guard at Serena’s door and called the police to send out an APB using the nurse’s description. Raphael still wasn’t convinced she would be safe. Doctors were finishing up their evaluation. He heard them noting some bruising around her neck and a raspy voice, a condition they assured her would not be permanent. One of the nurses looked ready to send him home. He’d been pacing up and down the corridor for the past half hour. When the doctors finally left Serena’s room, he went in.
    “It seems I owe you another thank you, Raphael, for saving my life again,” Serena croaked. She took a sip of water and placed the cup on her bedside table with a trembling hand. “It’s the same guy, you know. The same guy who put me here in the first place. I think I really pissed him off when I fought back and head-butted him. He’s a lunatic. I don’t think he’ll stop until I’m dead.” Her lips quivered, and she said nothing more as she began to cry softly. Tears overflowed their shores and cascaded down her cheeks.
    “Hey.” Raphael swiftly came up next to her. “It’s going to be all right, Serena. I promise.” He reached out and lightly caressed her cheek, creating invisible threads of connection between them. Her eyes fluttered while he sent minute waves of comfort coursing down those threads. It was the least, and yet quite literally the most, he could do.
     
     
    Her crying slowly ebbed, and she looked at him, really, for the first time. What she saw took her breath away. Raphael stood solid. Quite a man, with broad shoulders that seemed to be able to hold the weight of the world and probably did, she guessed. His muscular arms stretched the black T-shirt he wore to its limits, and yet he had touched her tenderly. When Serena looked at his chiseled face, she lost herself in its symmetry and the beauty of his eyes. Two pools of brilliant blue, like the Aegean Sea, stared at her through long black lashes and made her cheeks flush. For a breathless moment, she dared to stare back only to retreat seconds later.
    “I…I’m so tired, Raphael.”
    “I should go then.” He dropped his hand from her cheek.
    “Please don’t,” she blurted out before she could stop herself. “I mean, I know I have a guard at my door. But they’re zero and one, and you’re two for two. I’d just…I’d feel more comfortable if you were here. Can you…would you…consider staying? Only until I fall asleep?” She felt an irrational need to have this man near. This stranger. But for some reason, the doctors and nurses felt more like strangers than he did.
    “Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “I’ll stay.”
    He stroked her hair softly, lulling her to calm. “Now close your eyes and sleep. Tomorrow will take care of itself. You’ve nothing to fear tonight.”
     
    ***
     
    Serena slept fitfully, at times calling out for his help while jerking and flailing her arms about and at others, having full-blown, one-sided conversations in Gaelic. He stayed right there to soothe her with shameless murmurings of love, and stolen feather-light kisses on her worried brow. Through it all, she never awoke. He knew he’d pay dearly for those indulgences later, but he could no more stop a tsunami from wiping out an entire village than stop the desire to touch who could somehow be his long-lost love.
    In the moments of calm, Raphael worked. He called Michael to get the safe-house ready, and Kemuel to help with locating the thug hell-bent on killing this enigmatic woman. He knew they would act first