Broken (Book 1, The Watcher Chronicles, Paranormal Romance) (30 page)

“The men Mason let wallow in debauchery,” Lucifer chuckles.  “Isn’t that right, Mason?”

Mason remains stoically silent.

I look up at him just to make sure he’s all right.

The cold hard look in his eyes tells me that he’s not.

“What are you planning Lucifer?
”  Mason asks. 

“Eventually you will figure it out,” Lucifer says, coming to stand closer to us.  “Until that time, you’ll just have to wonder.”

Lucifer comes to stand in front of me and smiles.

“You look rather ravishing
this evening,” he says.  “I do wish I could see the rest of the dress.”

Before I know it, Mason has phased us back to headquarters.

Joshua is back in his usual seat with Malcolm standing behind him watching the scene we just left.  I stare at it as Lucifer looks up into the sky like he knows exactly where the satellite is and winks.  He walks back to Asmodeus and they phase away together.

Malcolm turns to us.

“So, how was your evening?” Malcolm asks sarcastically.

Mason let
s go of my hand and I have an odd feeling the gesture has a deeper meaning from the stiff way Mason is just standing next to me.

I look up at him but can’t seem to read his expression.  He looks completely closed off and he doesn’t even act like he knows I’m still there.
 

“Not as pleasant as I had hoped it to
be,” Mason answers, walking away from my side to stand by Malcolm.

Becoming warm in Mason’s coat I unbutton it and s
lip it off, setting it down in a nearby chair.

I feel someone staring at me and look up to see Malcolm’s leer.

“Well, you clean up rather nicely,” he says looking me up and down, not even trying to hide the fact he finds me desirable.

“I didn’t do it for you,” I tell him, wanting to wipe the smirk off his face.

“Lucky man, Mason,” Malcolm says appreciatively, grinning at me.

“Would you mind taking Jess home for me, Malcolm?” Mason says, not even bothering to look back at me as he says the words.
  “I have a lot to do here.”

“Maybe I can help
.” I take a step forward.

Mason shakes his head, still not looking at me.  “No, it would be better if you left so I can concentrate.  I’ll call you
later.”

“But…”

“Please, Jess,” Mason almost shouts, half turning his face so all I can see of him is his left side.  The scar seems to be pulsing red for some reason, almost like it was freshly made.  “I need you to go.  I don’t want you here.”

An ice pick to the heart would have hurt less than his words.

Malcolm walks to me and places one of his hands on my shoulder.  Before I know it, we are standing on my front porch.

I stand there trying to figure out what just happened.  How did one of the best night
s of my life instantly turn into one of the worst?

“Don’t take what he said to heart.”

I look up at Malcolm and see compassion in his eyes for me.

“I don’t understand what just happened
,” I say, feeling completely lost.

“Lucifer reminded Mason that there are still Watchers who butcher humans for their own pleasure.  He wanted to make sure Mason didn’t forget his part in our fall
so it keeps him unbalanced and easier to manipulate.  But you should know one thing,” Malcolm says so earnestly I find myself holding my breath to hear his next words.  “Mason would have never taken you to meet his son if he didn’t care for you a great deal.  As far as I know, he has never allowed Jonathan to meet any of the women he….how do I put this to a virgin so you’re not offended….”

“How do you know I’m a virgin?” I question.

“I’ve intimately known a lot of women in my life,” Malcolm says with no shame in the fact.  “And you remind me of the one virgin I once tried to seduce, simple deduction really.  Anyway, as I was saying, as far as I know Jonathan has never met any of the women Mason has been with.  Give him some time to regain himself.  He’s never let go of the guilt he feels.  Lucifer just reopened an old wound, one we all hoped Mason had found a reason to stop using as an excuse to hide from the world.  Don’t give up on him if you really care for him.  He needs you, but he’ll probably act like an ass to you for a while just to push you away.”

“How do I help him?”

“Just be there for him when he finally realizes how much he needs you.  Listen when he’s ready to speak to you about things that have happened in his life.  They won’t be pleasant memories for him to relive, so prepare yourself to hear the worst.”

“How long do you think it will take before he
wants to be around me again?”

“I don’t know.  Only he knows that.”

“Why are you being so nice?”

Malcolm looks surprised by my question then busts out laughing.

“I guess I deserve that after the way I treated you concerning Lilly’s safety.”

I smile.  “Yeah
, you kind of do.”

“I will leave you now so you can get some rest.  Let Mason make the first move.  Don’t try to call him or you’ll just push him further away. 
He has to realize how much he needs you himself.  It’s the only way you’ll have a chance of making it.”

Malcolm squeezes
my arm reassuringly before phasing away.

I stand on my porch for a while letting Malcolm’s words act like a healing balm on the
hole Mason made in the middle of my heart.  Malcolm didn’t seem like someone who would say what he did to me if he didn’t truly mean it.  I make a promise to myself then and there that I won’t contact Mason.  I will flush my phone down the toilet if my fingers even twitch to write a text message.  I vow to remain resolute in allowing him to make the first move no matter what.

“Oh for Heaven’s sake, would you just call the man already?”

I look at Faison
sitting across from me at the table in my kitchen and scrunch my nose up at her.

“I can’t.  He has to make the first move.
  I’ve already explained this to you.”

“Why
does he have to be the one who makes the first move?”

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Just because!” I say in complete frustration.

“Now don’t get mad at Faison,” Mama Lynn says, bringing over a plate filled with scrambled eggs and Polk sausage.  “She just doesn’t like seeing you so sad.”

I sigh.  “I know.  And I’m sorry Fai, but you badgering me doesn’t make me feel any better.  Don’t you think I want to call him?  My fingers are itching to text him
just to make sure he’s still alive but I can’t.  He’s got issues he needs to work out and I just have to be patient.”

“Patience is overrated if you ask me,” Faison says before stuffing her mouth with
a forkful Mama Lynn’s scrambled eggs.

Mama Lynn pats me on the back.  “He’ll call, baby.  Don’t you worry your pretty little head about t
hat.  Now, how much longer are you supposed to be working at the Tunica station anyway?”

“Until Mason calls,” I say.

The day after the Tear opened Isaiah
came to me in person and asked if I could come into work to help them out.  I didn’t ask how he knew I would be free because I felt pretty sure Mason had arranged the request.  If I wasn’t going to be working with the Colorado team for a while, he probably thought it would be a good idea to keep me busy here at home.  I assumed Mason thought if he kept me occupied, I wouldn’t have time to dwell on what went wrong New Year’s Eve. 

How did we go from almost sharing our first kiss to completely ignoring one another?  I say ignoring.  I still
ended up thinking about him almost every minute of the last six days, going on seven.  Unfortunately, it was Friday which meant I would have two days off to do nothing but think about Mason.  I let out a heavy sigh.

“Oh, Jess,” Mama Lynn sa
ys as she stands by the sink cleaning the pan she used to make my and Faison’s breakfast in.  “I just hate seeing you like this.”

“I’ll be fine,” I say, standing to covertly throw away
my half uneaten breakfast before Mama Lynn has a chance to chastise me for wasting food.

“You want a ride to the hospital?” I ask Faison as she gets up to put her dish in the sink.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind.  That’ll save me from having to bring my car back home.  John Austin can just meet me at the hospital for our date.”

I kiss Mama Lynn goodbye.

As Faison and I are driving in my car, she insists on changing the station to one playing the latest pop rock.  As usual, Faison seems to know the words to all the songs and serenades me along the drive.  Even her God awful singing doesn’t make me want to smile. 

As I pull into the hospital
’s parking lot, a song comes on that I vaguely recognize.  A vision of a man standing in a blue spot light with swirls of smoke surrounding him flashes in my mind.

“Who sings this song?” I ask Faison, my personal encyclopedia of useless information.

“Geez, Jess, get with it.  That’s just the one and only Chandler Cain.  The song’s been number one on the charts for weeks.”

“Thanks Faison,” I say
, my heart thumping so hard I fear it might bruise the inside of my chest.

Faison says goodbye and gets out of the car.

I immediately call Isaiah and tell him I may know who one of the other six archangel vessels is.

“Ok Jess, I’ll get in touch with Mason and see what he wants you to do next.”

After I hang up, I realize how depressed I feel.  I had hoped Isaiah would just tell me to call Mason myself considering the importance of the news.  It would have been the perfect excuse to call him first.  Why hadn’t I just called Mason instead of Isaiah in the first place?

I bang my forehead on the top of the steering wheel three times. Stupid, stupid, stupid…..

The phone buzzes in my hand and I look down at it expecting it to be Isaiah calling me back.  It isn’t.  It’s Mason.

I take a deep breath and answer.

“Hello?”

“Isaiah says you know who the vessel you saw during your meditation is.  Who is it?”

No ‘hello’?  No, hey how have you been this last week, nice to know you’re still alive?  Nothing?  Just straight to business.  Well, two could play at that game.

“
Chandler Cain.  His song is number one on the billboards right now.”

“I know who he is.”

There’s a long pause.  I can hear Mason breathing on the other end of the phone but he remains silent.

“What do you want me to do?” I ask,
holding my breath, waiting to see what the answer is.

“I’ll call you back.”

And he hangs up.

I sit there feeling my heart tighten
into a knot in my chest at his rudeness.  I haven’t done anything to deserve it and begin to wonder if I just imagined Mason’s interest in me.  He wasn’t even treating me like a co-worker.  He was treating me like dirt at the bottom of his shoes that just wouldn’t go away no matter how hard he stomped. 

I felt the threat of tears and force them to go back from whence they came.  I w
ill not cry.  I won’t give him the satisfaction.  Slowly, I feel my tried and trusted wall of protection reassemble itself because I refuse to be a victim of his whims.  I have survived a lot in my life and I feel determined to survive this.

The phone buzzes in my hand.

“Where are you?” He asks brusquely.

“Sitting in my car.”

“Which is where exactly?” He says, sounding irritated by my obtuseness which only makes me feel like I’ve had a small victory.

“
Tunica Central Hospital.”

“Meet me at the emergency
room entrance.”

And he hangs up again!

I sit in my car for a good fifteen minutes fuming.  I refuse to jump when he says jump.  If he wants me to keep helping him, he is going to have to learn how to treat me with a little bit more respect than he’s shown me thus far this morning.

Eventually, I get out of my car and
casually walk over to the emergency entrance.

When I see Mason, my heart involuntarily lurches inside my chest, happy to see him and mad all at the same time.  I focus on the mad because it’s easier to deal with.

Mason sees me and stops his agitated pacing back and forth.  For just a split second I think he’s going to revert back to the ‘easy to make smile Mason’ I had become used to but then I see the curtain behind his eyes close and know he’s intentionally blocking me out.  Rationally, I understand this is his way of keeping me at a distance, but emotionally it threatens to make me a complete wreck.

“I thought you said you were
already here?” He asks irritably.  “What took you so long?”