“That was you!” I accuse him as my skin begins to take on its normal hue and I start to change back to my original form. “You changed into a panther!”
A chuckle escapes Reed then as he hugs me tighter. “I thought for sure you knew it was me, but you didn’t, did you?” he asks.
“I probably should’ve known. Your eyes were the exact same color as the cat’s eyes. I’ve always thought that you move just like a cat,” I say, gazing up into his perfect face that is mere inches from my own. “Is that the only shape you can take or will I be running from a bear next time?”
“Oh, I can take many, many forms, but I cannot do what you can do—my forms have to be animate. I have to change into an animal, but you—do you think you can do other forms?” he asks with excitement. “Do you think that it has to be just a solid form—can you be liquid…air?”
“I don’t know.” I reply honestly.
“What were you thinking right before you changed?” he asks. “Were you thinking ‘tree?’”
“No…I was thinking ‘hide,’” I reply.
“Of course!” Reed exclaims. “I have someone I want you to meet. His name is Wook and he is a Virtue angel, like Phaedrus, who has lived near the Naxi for several centuries. He has studied the Tibetan monks and the Naxi mystics and has seen some of their abilities. Perhaps, he can instruct you to hone your human capabilities. I will not be much help to you in that, as I have little insight into the human side of your nature.”
“You think this is a human trait?” I ask Reed with a skeptical look, “Because I can’t think of any human that I know of who can change herself into a tree.”
Reed’s eyebrow arches in a cunning way. “I don’t know, maybe it’s a hybrid trait. No angel I know of can do what you just did. It is very unique,” he says, and awe is back in his voice again.
“I don’t even know if I can do it again, Reed,” I reply, feeling strange about what just happened. This evolution into a stronger being is really disturbing. It takes the awkwardness of puberty to a whole new level, I think. “And maybe we shouldn’t tell anybody about it.”
“Why not?” Reed asks, frowning now while scanning my face.
“Because it’s unnatural and…freakish,” I reply as casually as I can, but I’m a little too stiff just yet to pull off the casual shrug.
“Evie, you don’t understand, this is ‘mad cool’ to use your words. It makes you even more dangerous!” Reed breathes and I can see he is really charged up about this. Searching his face for signs of disgust, I can find none. He is truly happy that I can now turn into something else. He must be worried that he will not be able to defend me. He must see this as one more evasion technique.
“You think a tree is great? Just wait until I can turn into an avalanche and come pouring down the mountain,” I smile as my arms creep around his neck, pulling his face closer to mine.
“Yes…that would be excellent,” he exhales near my ear, causing shivers to run through me.
“So you don’t think this is sketchy?” I ask, feeling relief that he is not repulsed by me.
“I don’t question your existence anymore. I’m just grateful you are here, in any form,” he says, picking me up off of my feet and carrying me back into the bedroom.
The bedroom is sparse by the standards of western culture. It contains only a rather large bed and a writing desk. The silk clad bed is centered in the room on a low wooden platform. Folding doors open up the entire room to the outdoors so that the room is exposed to the gardens and courtyard. High stone walls that allow for privacy from the other pagodas cluster around our own to shield the entire pagoda.
“Isn’t it your job to question my existence?” I ask him teasingly.
“No, my only job was to annihilate fallen angels and since you are not one of them, you do not fall under my job description,” he says, nuzzling my neck and placing me in the middle of the bed. Following me down, he brushes the hair back from my forehead with his strong fingers while gazing into my eyes. “But now that we are bound to one another, I have a new job description.”
“You do? What’s your new job?” I ask, fascinated by the sensual turn of his mouth. I trace his lips with the tip of my finger that has now returned to normal.
“To love Evie…” Reed says, holding each of my fingers to his lips, kissing them one by one, “to protect my brave girl from any evil that would dare to speak her name…” he continues, tracing a line from the palm of my hand to my wrist. “To make her enemies bow at her feet…” he murmurs before his lips find mine. I recognize his words as those that Buns had translated for me after Reed said his binding vow to me in his Angelic language. He had promised to protect me in the descriptive detail that only a Power angel can convey. It is a little overwhelming to hear the words, even when it may become necessary for him to actually do all of the things he is saying in order to protect me.
“Reed,” I whisper against his lips, “that’s kind of scary—”
“Thank you,” he replies smugly just before deepening the kiss as he completely misinterprets my words as a compliment. At the moment, I’m in no mood to correct the mistake. Kissing him back, I reach my hand up to gently stroke his wing. A soft groan escapes Reed at my touch. I love that.
Slowly, Reed’s hands move over my body and the feel of his hands on my bare skin, although exquisite, is shocking because I just realize that I’m not wearing anything. I squeak in surprise, causing Reed to pull back a little so that he can look into my eyes again in question.
“My clothes?” I ask.
“Trees don’t wear clothes,” he replies. “That very pretty little sundress you were wearing is now shredded at the base of the tree outside.”
“Oh…and where are your clothes?” I ask as a smile forms in the corners of my mouth, allowing my eyes to rove over his perfect form.
“Panthers don’t wear clothes either,” he shrugs.
“How…convenient,” I sigh, wrapping my arms around his neck again and pulling him back down to me.
Just then, Reed’s cell phone rings annoyingly on the desk behind us. I tense, holding Reed tighter to me. “You are absolutely forbidden to answer that phone,” I whisper against his lips.
“What phone, love?” he says as his head dips lower, tracing my collarbone with his lips, causing shivers to course through me as desire ignites within me. I relax as the phone stops ringing and my hands slip to his hair, threading through it and feeling the softness of it.
I trace the line down his neck to the place just above his heart, the place where my wings have been symbolically branded into his skin. I’m still fascinated by the way in which it appeared, after the binding ceremony that linked Reed’s life to mine was performed. I can’t hide the smile of satisfaction that this mark on him makes me feel. It literally screams the word “mine.” Reed is mine and no one can take him away from me now. Our fates are connected and I know that I should feel guilty for tying him to me like this. My fate can turn on a dime because most angels, when they first see me, believe that I must be evil, since no angel before me has ever possessed a soul. But, in this moment, I can’t feel anything but happy that we are here together.