Samuel's POV
Olivia and Mina watch the police car until it disappears around the corner, while I continue to keep my eyes on my charge. We are still standing at the edge of their front-drive, surrounded by the warm darkness of a summer night.
"Are you sure you're not hurt?" Mina turns to Olivia.
"Just my knees. But it's only a few scrapes, so don't worry."
"Good." Without missing a beat Mina smacks Olivia over her upper arm. "How many times have I told you to stop being so impulsive?"
"Weren't you listening? Someone pushed me onto the road."
"But you probably did something to deserve to be pushed," Mina says.
"I agree with her," Eliza pitches in from where she's standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the house.
I find myself nodding along, which causes Olivia to shoot all of us a glare.
"It wasn't my fault." She turns back to her mother and then pauses. "Are you okay? I've never seen the bags underneath your eyes look so dark before."
"It was a long day at work." With a wave in dismissal, Mina turns in the direction of the house. "Let's just go in."
I follow the three females into the house to where they stop in the narrow hallway. While Olivia pauses at the door of her room, Mina and Eliza stop at Mina's bedroom door further down the hallway.
"Get some sleep, Mom." Olivia motions for her mother to enter her room.
"I will if you promise not to do anything stupid for the rest of the night. Otherwise, I'll lock you into your room."
"I promise I won't set a single foot out of the house."
Because I have already experienced first-hand that Olivia can do stupid things even inside the houseâlike insist on someone smacking her over the head with a heavy bookâI find her promise meaningless. Mina, however, seems to find the promise enough as she wishes Olivia a good night and then slips into her bedroom.
The moment Mina and Eliza are out of the hallway, I fold my arms in front of my chest and turn to Olivia. "Tell me what happened."
She straight-out ignores me and enters her bedroom. I'm about to follow her inside when she spins around and finally meets my eyes.
"I'm going to change my clothes, so you need to stay out here. Got it?"
The thought of her undressing makes me want to enter her room even more, but I sink my teeth into my tongue to keep myself from voicing it aloud. While Olivia closes the door in my face, I continue to glare at it for another moment. So close.
With a sigh, I move down the dim hallway until I reach the kitchen. There I flip on the lights and sit at the table. At the sound of approaching footsteps, I turn to the open doorway, but instead of Olivia, Eliza enters the room. She shuffles to the chair Olivia usually occupies and sits down.
"Where's the mother?" I ask.
"Where's the daughter?" she asks.
"Changing."
"Mine took two sleeping pills, so she'll be knocked out in a moment or two."
"Two? What happened?" Despite Mina having never been my charge, I picked up a few of her habits along the way. And two sleeping pills at once screams of something being wrong.
"Her boss at the hair salon is being a pain in the ass." Eliza shrugs.
"Olivia knows?"
"I have no idea. You ask her." Eliza glances at the watch wrapped around her left wrist and lets out a long sigh. "Since Mina will be knocked out soon, I'll take my leave."
"Wait." I stop her before she can close her eyes. "What schedule are you on?"
I've tried to see a pattern in her visits with Mina, but so far I haven't been able to find one. It makes me curious about how she rotates between her charges.
"Do I look like I'd ever stick to a schedule?"
"You don't have a schedule?" I can't believe what I'm hearing. "As in you pop up with each charge whenever you want? And then stay for as long as you like?"
"Is that judgment I'm hearing? As far as I know, you're the only Guardian who sticks to such a structured schedule. Most of us just float around our charges, and only when we feel one of them being in danger do we intervene."
"What?" And here I thought that everyone was smart enough to divide their time between their charges equally.
Before I can get anything else out of Eliza, she closes her eyes and vanishes. I'm left staring at the empty chair while trying to absorb her words. A routine without a fixed schedule? Would that work?
A moment later, Olivia enters the kitchen. My eyes are drawn to her bare legs which are peeking from underneath the pair of shorts she's wearing. Instead of enjoying the view, I find myself glancing at her knees. They are covered in a bright red color, while the fresh scrapes are still oozing drops of blood.
"You said you were fine." I bolt off the chair and grab her hand. I drag her into the bathroom next door and guide her to sit on the closed toilet seat. Then I open the wooden cupboard underneath the sink and pull out the first aid kit.
"I can do that myself," Olivia says.
I, however, ignore her and kneel onto the ground in front of her. I begin to wipe the blood off her scraped knees while making sure not to apply too much pressure. "Explain."
"You already heard everything. Someone pushed me onto the road, where I landed on my knees. Luckily, officer Wright stopped the car before he could hit me. End of story."
"Where?"
"At the intersection from the accident."
Despite already suspecting what she was going to say, I can't stop the flash of anger that spreads through my blood. "Why were you there?"
"I didn't know Guardians are also skilled at taking care of wounds," Olivia says instead and I can feel her watching my every move. "Were you a doctor in your previous life?"
"Why did you go back there?" I lower the now blood-covered wipe and look up into her dark eyes.
She stares at me for a second and then sighs. "I thought that the darkness combined with the familiar sight would help me bring back my memories."
"How dense are you?"
She narrows her eyes. "I don't understand why everyone keeps saying that. For your information, I was right. I remembered that I was hurrying down a street and that someone called me just before the car hit me. I don't know yet who called me, but I'm sure he or she will know why I was in that part of town." With each word, her voice becomes lighter and lighter until she sounds downright excited.
Once she finishes I force myself to wait for another second before I move. I plant my hands on the toilet seat on either side of her and straighten up until my eyes are on the same level as hers.
"Do you have any idea what a stupid risk you took?" I push out through gritted teeth. "Scratch that. Of course, you don't."
"There is no need for you to sound so patronizing." She meets my glare with her own. "Or did you forget why I'm doing all of this? I'm trying to help you clear your name."
"You think I don't know that?" I move closer, which causes her to lean further backward. "I want to find out who the Guardian is too, but it's not worth losing your life over it."
"Losing my life? Isn't that a little too dramatic?"
"You could've been seriously hurt." I lean another inch closer. "From now on you aren't allowed to either hurt yourself or to put yourself in danger. You hear me?"
"As if you can stop me," she scoffs. "You're here only for six hours every three days."
"That's going to change." I'm close enough to feel her sweet breath brush against my skin every time she speaks, but I don't let it distract me. I can't let her win. "Until we figure out what happened, I'm dividing my time differently. From now on you're my priority."
***
Please, remember to vote and comment if you like the chapter.
Much love
- E