The Everlasting

Eleven: Part One

A/N: Originally, part 1 and 2 were separate chapters, but they're so short, it wouldn't make sense to make them separate. So here's part 1.

Part 1

Eli was busy cooking by the time Rose came downstairs. He didn’t look up as he shoveled some eggs on to a plate already occupied with bacon and toast.

    “Good morning,” he said, finally looking up. His golden hair hung wet on his forehead, almost falling in his eyes.

    “Morning,” she replied, sitting at one of the stools at the breakfast bar.

    “How’d you sleep?” he asked.

    “Well, and you?”

    A faint blush spread over his cheeks. “I didn’t.”

    Rose’s fork stopped mid-air. For someone who hadn’t slept all night, he didn’t let it show. In fact, he looked dazzling.

    “What kept you up?”

    He didn’t look up as he placed the dishes in the sink, and she wondered vaguely if he had already eaten.

    “I don’t sleep. I use to, at one time. But now, I rarely find it.”

    She placed her fork down and stitched her fingers together, leaning toward him.

    “Eli, are you sure you’re human?”

    He laughed at her joke, but he realized he should be more careful about the things he revealed of himself.

    He let her finish eating in silence. He took her plate as she handed it to him.

    “Your clothes have been washed and dried. There in the living room.”

    Rose found them on the sofa, folded neatly on the arm.

    Hmm, she thought, glancing up at the blown light bulbs. She glanced back at Eli, who continued to clean dishes, before grabbing her clothes and heading back upstairs.

    She didn’t know much about him that was for sure.

    Her clothes were wrinkle free, but her hair was a bird’s nest, ad her face was splotchy.

    She rubbed at her face, and then pulled her hair up. She glanced again in the mirror, but was unimpressed.

    Eli was waiting for her downstairs, and she followed him out to his car.

    As if a switch had been flipped on, Eli was suddenly cold and distant. The car ride to the library parking garage was awkward at best, and very silent.

    As he pulled into a parking space next to her little car, she turned to look at him, but he kept his gaze straight ahead, waiting for her to get out.

    She couldn’t deny the way her heart clenched at his dismissive behavior.

    “Well, thank you . . . for everything. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come.”

    He looked in her direction, but not directly at her, as she’d wished. She began to get out when he stopped her with a hand on her arm.

    Blue met piercing gold, and she was frozen in place by their intensity.

    “Don’t come back to my house. I mean it, Rose. Don’t ever go there.”

    She nodded, because that was all she could do, and he let her go. She hurried out, almost falling in her haste.

    She was barely to her car when he backed out of the parking space, and skidded out of the parking garage.

    Eli hated the way she had looked at him, but he couldn’t tell her why it wasn’t safe for her there, not yet.

    But now that she was gone, and safe, he couldn’t hold back his rage anymore.

    Her boss had to pay for what he had done to her, or what he was going to do if he hadn’t stepped in.

    He knew he wouldn’t be home until the evening, and he was willing to wait the time it would take for him to show.

    He parked a few houses away and waited.

    Eventually, Shawn pulled into his drive. Eli waited for him to enter before exiting his car and following him inside.