Chapter 4

Groggy, Minerva dragged herself out of bed the next morning. “Oh why, why can’t I just win the lottery and sleep all day?” she murmured as she stretched and then bent and touched her toes several times. Next, she arched her back, feeling the pull of muscles against her spine and then straightened it out. Her last exercise, she took one leg and then the other and extended each one over her head.

She flopped her leg down at the sound of someone knocking on her bedroom door. For a moment, she stood in alarm. What in the world—

Memories of last evening rushed forward like a group of rowdy school children.

Explosion. Fog. Something shadowy and tall. Joshua.

She softly cleared her throat, and then called out in a high voice. “Come in.”

The door creaked open and Joshua poked his head in. “Mornin’, Ms. Wong.”

“Good morning, Joshua.”

He came further into the room and Minerva pressed her lips together to keep her mouth from dropping open.

Fingers of light beamed from the window and fell onto his bare chest. Sparse red hair nestled between smooth, rounded pectorals. Four well defined abs created a valley she longed to tiptoe her fingers through. His pants hung low on his hips, revealing the deep V of his waist.

That bland janitor’s uniform hid all this? Joshua Dennison could easily become a model. He had the classic rugged man look. She imagined him standing next to a creek or a river with the Rocky Mountains as his backdrop.

Her fingers itched with the urge to trace the contours of his muscular chest. Revel in the sun-kissed texture of his skin. Cuddle up and bask in his heat. Toy with the coiled strands of hair on his chest. Press kisses against the bulging Adam’s apple. Dig her nose into the groove of his strong neck and inhale his musky scent—

“You all right, Ms. Wong?”

Minerva blinked and her toes curled into the nap of the carpet as if trying to hide. Her entire body tingled as she was ripped away from her fantasy. Oh gosh, what was wrong with her? She’d never experienced such vivid longing before for a man. Before this, she’d kept her relationships with men to a minimum. She hadn’t even been with a man in an intimate way except for a few sloppy, wet, and bad-breath kisses that hardly encouraged her for more.

Work had consumed her. Relationships were a distraction. She’d even begun to think she was meant to be one of those women who would be content being single for the rest of her life much to the disappointment of her parents.

Until yesterday.

Now, in the space of a single day, Joshua the janitor had awakened desires and longings she’d suppressed all this time. His position as a janitor had no bearing on his suitability. It was honest work. It was just that—

What is wrong with me?

“I’m fine.” She turned from his potent masculinity and started to make up the bed.

“I wanted to see if you had a problem with me fixin’ you some breakfast.”

“You don’t have to do that, Joshua.”

Fluffing the pillows, she felt, rather than saw, him come stand at the foot of the bed. Oh gosh, why had he done that?

“I want to, Ms. Wong. It’ll be my way of saying thank you for looking out for me last night.”

She paused in fluffing up the pillow. “Are you okay? Do you feel all right?”

“I feel fine, Ms. Wong.” He smiled and Minerva’s heart flopped in her chest. When he smiled, his face lit up like a lantern, bringing almost a golden warmth to his chocolate brown eyes.

Her tongue suddenly felt too big for her mouth. “Well, only if you want to, Joshua,” she croaked out.

He gave her a curt nod. “I do.”

“Then thank you.”

Turning around he walked away. Her eyes were riveted to his back. Broad and so inviting. A woman could depend on a man like that. He’d keep her safe from everything. When the door closed behind him, she fell back on the bed, arms outstretched and stared at the ceiling.

What to do about this growing attraction for Joshua? It seemed so unreal! But in just a day, she learned more about him than she had in all the months she’d worked at VEIL. He wasn’t well-educated but he had common sense which wasn’t common at all. He may be a strong man, but he asked for help. There was an old-world charm that appealed to her. She even liked the way he called her by her last name instead of assuming she’d want to give him permission to call her by her first name.

Perhaps it was a throwback from her Chinese ancestry where the family name meant more than the individual’s first name.

Minerva pushed a strand of her hair back and turned toward the closed door.

Something was standing there!

She scrambled up, holding the comforter to her throat, unable to speak or cry out. It was just barely visible, a faint outline of light. It towered eight? Nine? Feet tall. And it had a spiky look.

Finally, she found her voice and screamed.

Orange black ribbons of fear fluttered outward from the woman toward Birog. The woman’s eyes were fastened on her, unable to look away.

Had she not sealed herself properly? Birog glanced down at her body and then swore. The sun’s light had penetrated the seal and peeled away her magic. She was almost visible.

A scream shrilled from the woman’s mouth. Birog found herself torn. She wanted to keep the woman quiet, but her magic seal was weakening. The woman scrambled back on the bed, shaking her head, crying, begging. “Please don’t hurt. Please don’t hurt.”

Hurt? Why would the woman think that?

The door crashed behind her. Birog saw the man who stared at her with eyes wide as a child.

“Aw no! It’s the Predator!” the man cried out.

Birog looked behind her, expecting to see some sort of monstrous animal coming at her. They had predators on her side of the fissure so surely, something like that could be here as well.

Nothing.

The man backed away from her, going toward the woman. “Ms. Wong. Get behind me. I’ll protect you. He should be having his weapons on me now.”

Weapons?

Birog looked down at her hands. The ribbons of colors she’d been manipulating had dropped from her fingers, floundering about in a wind-like motion.

“Ms. Wong, when I tell you, I want ya to run. I’m gonna try to fight it off for ya.”

Just then, the purple ribbon from the two-eyed man glowed so bright it almost blinded her.

What did it mean?

“Joshua, no!”

Mother Righteous, these humans were going to attack her! Birog gulped. All she wanted to do was observe the world.

“Ms. Wong, on the count of three...”

Birog reached into the pockets of her tunic and retrieved her long, tear-shaped topped needles. She had to seal herself up tightly and get out of here.

She looped the pearly viscous liquid of her magic and looped it around the needle like a slip knot stitch for knitting and tugged.

“Joshua, it’s disappearing!”

The man looked confused. “Huh? He supposed to be skinning us now.”

Her fingers went weak at the man’s words. Birog felt bile boil up from her second stomach. Skin them? What exactly did these two-eyed people think she was going to do?

Her magic drooped and started to slip off the needle.

The sun’s light was affecting her magic. There was no help for it now. She had to leave. She tightened the magic and knitted.

Knit, purl, knit purl, yarn over...

The last thing she heard as the room grew fuzzy was the woman saying, “It’s disappearing...”

Joshua stared after the disappearing creature of light. It was just like that movie the Predator, with the alien warrior being an almost invisible outline if it wasn’t for the light bordering it.

It had moved and he thought for sure he was gonna get it. Half expected it, too. But it moved and then it faded away.

He turned toward Ms. Wong. Her hair was all over the place, her skin white as snow and her lips trembled.

“Ms. Wong?”

“Joshua!” She leapt off the bed and launched herself into his arms.

It was the last thing he expected to happen, but there were worst things in life than having a woman cling to him.