Haunted Hearts

17

Rufus clutched Elphi to his chest as a choking cloud of dust and soot settled around them.

Elphi's panicked shout, mixing with what he'd thought to be a banshee scream until he saw the roof collapsing, still echoed in his brain.

His alarmed and horrified gaze traveled from his wife laying atop him to the broken and charred rafters on the ground where he'd been standing seconds earlier.

"Are you hurt?"

She shook her head, "You're the one who got knocked to the ground."

His hand trembled as he tucked an errant lock of dusty auburn hair behind her left ear. "In that case, you're welcome for breaking your fall."

Elphi's throat convulsed on a swallow, and she couldn't stop touching him, not that Rufus was complaining. "Is that what you think happened? Not that I saved you?"

"Isn't it?" He tried to tease as she scooted off and sat beside him on the dirty floor.

Rubbing his sore right shoulder, he stood with a groan and helped her to her feet. "What else should I believe when one minute I'm investigating the paranormal, and the next my wife is doing an unexpected—and rather impressive, I might add—impression of a charging bull, with me as her target?"

"Well, this is a quandary I never expected to find myself in," Elphi chortled, brushing at the thick smears of dust and cobwebs stuck to her torn left sleeve.

He pulled a twig and what very well might be the femur of a rodent from her hair. Rufus's stomach clenched, and his heart thumped against his ribs as visions filled his mind of what could have happened if her timing had been even a fraction slower. "What quandary is that?"

She watched him flick the small bone aside and shuddered. "Shall I be offended at being compared to a bull or take it as a compliment that you thought my impression of one was impressive?"

He wanted to laugh, or at the very least, chuckle. Elphi's sense of humor was one of the many qualities he liked best about her. But all it took was one look at her bedraggled state, and the tiny bubble of mirth fizzled out into nothingness.

Forcing his lips into the semblance of a smile to hide his inner turmoil, he tried to keep his tone playful. "Perhaps the question I should have asked is how did you become so fast and powerful?"

"Years of sibling rivalry against Roderick," she grinned. But as she continued to look at him, the teasing light dimmed from her eyes, and the smile faded. "What's wrong? Did I hurt you?"

He shook his head and stared at her, determined to hold his tongue even as he opened his mouth and said, "You could have been killed, Elphi."

Elphi took his hand in hers and gave his fingers a reassuring squeeze. "I wasn't—"

"But you might have been—"

"So might have you, Rufus."

"If anything had—" He shook his head, unable to finish the sentence. She was right, but it didn't make the thought of her in danger any easier to bear. Gripping Elphi by the upper arms, he gently shook her, "Why?"

A wealth of feeling and meaning was loaded into that single, tiny word. For several heartbeats, Elphi stared at Rufus, her eyes shining with a tangle of emotions he recognized but refused to put names to this early in their relationship.

She was quiet for so long that he didn't think she would answer, and never in a million years did he expect her to say, "Because Bradford told me to save you."

"What?"

Rufus glanced at the ghost in question, but Bradford refused to acknowledge his presence and kept his gaze trained on Elphi.