I Have an Invisible Stalker (Guardians #1)

Chapter 41

Samuel's POV

With a snarl, Lucien lowers his arm—the one with which he only a second ago threatened to punch me. We're still inside the side alley beside the café, and while Lucien slumps onto the asphalt, I lift my upper body into a sitting position.

"Can you remember the café owner's grandson?" I ask.

"What are you talking about?" Lucien shakes his head and then stands.

"I think the three of us—you, the boy's past self, and me—used to be friends."

"I don't know what you're up to, but stop." Lucien dusts his pants. "Nothing you say is going to change my mind. You're going to pay for what you did to me in our past life."

I'm about to explain what I just remembered when he curses.

"Damn charges," he hisses and then glares at me. "This isn't over." He closes his eyes and a second later vanishes into the morning air.

I continue to sit in the alley, trying to wrap my head around what I just remembered. Seconds pass, but because I'm unable to reach a conclusion, I rise into a standing position and close my eyes. 

A second later, I'm standing beside my usual stool at the counter. In her usual spot across the counter stands Olivia, who almost drops the tray she's holding when our eyes meet. She slams the tray down, somehow managing not to spill any coffee in the two cups on the tray, and then leans across the counter.

"Are you okay?" She scans me from the top of my head to the underside of my chest as I sit on my usual stool.

"Fine," I mutter and scan the café. No Guardians are present, but I notice Nick monitoring Olivia from where he's sitting at a table across the room. With one single look, he is back to being more annoying than useful.

"Put your headphones in." I turn back to Olivia.

She glances at Nick as well, pulls out the wireless earbuds from the pocket in her pants, and stuffs them into her ears.

"What happened? Did Lucien threaten to tell the Head Guardian about us?"

"Don't worry about it."

Despite Lucien not saying so, I'm certain he isn't going to tell the Head Guardian about us. His claim about me being the one who killed him and his promise to make me suffer tell me that he's not going to want the Head Guardian involved.

"What else can I do but worry about it?" Olivia's knuckles turn paler as she leans further across the counter. "Tell me what happened."

"It's nothing. I remembered something else about my human life, which makes me certain that Lucien, Hugo's past self, and I were friends."

"Lucien?" Olivia gasps. "Didn't you say that Lucien killed you? How can the two of you be friends?"

"I don't know." I rest my elbows on top of the counter and lean my head against my open palms. "It doesn't make sense, yet I still feel that both memories are true. Lucien and I were friends, but he's also the one who killed me."

"What a caring friend," Olivia scoffs.

As she lifts her hands off the counter, I notice a red patch staining her right palm—a patch that doesn't match the rest of her pale skin.

"What happened?" I ask.

She follows my gaze and shakes her head when her eyes land on her hand. "It's nothing. I was distracted thinking about what the two of you were doing in that alley, and I accidentally touched a boiling pitch of water."