I Have an Invisible Stalker (Guardians #1)

Chapter 31

Olivia's POV

Because of the thick darkness, I can't see the ceiling above me no matter how much I strain my eyes. It's already past midnight, yet there's still no sign of Samuel; not since he punched Lucien in the middle of the café.

No more than five seconds tick by before I can't stand the boring silence any longer. I throw the thin sheet off my body and scoot off the bed. Without bothering to put on socks, I make my way to the kitchen, which turns out to be just as dark as the rest of the house. I flip the light switch on. The single lamp hanging from the ceiling flickers to life and I'm forced to squint until my eyes adjust. Then when I finally get a good look at the room, I stop.

For a second I think it's Samuel who is sitting at our kitchen table. It turns out to be the other Guardian with unlimited access to our house, though.

"Eliza?" I eye the Guardian as she plucks a white petal off the bouquet of daisies positioned in the middle of the kitchen table. "Where's Mom?"

"What do you think?" Eliza doesn't bother to glance at me, let alone stop destroying the flowers. "She took her sleeping pill, so she's been out for about two hours now."

"Then why are you still here? Are you staying over? Because if you are, I'd suggest the empty couch in the living room. It's a thousand times more comfortable than the kitchen chair."

"Guardians don't sleep."

"Then why are you still here?" I move over to the chair across the table and sit down.

"None of my charges are up to anything interesting, so it doesn't matter where I stay."

"But why our house? Can't you go to a beach or an empty hotel room to relax?"

"We can't teleport to anywhere other than our charges' sides." Eliza finally looks up from the flowers. "How's your head?"

Instinctively I reach to my forehead where a white bandage is hiding underneath my bangs. The rough material scratches the tips of my fingers, but what matters is that my head isn't throbbing anymore.

"It's fine." I drop my hand back onto the table. "Have you seen Samuel?"

"Nope." Eliza plucks yet another petal, and we watch it float side to side further and further down until it reaches the table's top. "Why? Are you two fighting?"

"No. It's nothing like that."

"You sure he's not angry with you for hurting your head again?"

"He doesn't even know about this." I point at my forehead and then lean my head against my open palm. "He hasn't been back since yesterday morning when he attacked another Guardian. You should have seen him. One moment he was fine and then the next he punched the daylights out of Lucien. But I have no idea why."

"Who knows." Eliza shrugs. "Maybe it's because he discovered that the Guardian is connected to his past human life."

"But you said you can't remember your human lives."

"We aren't supposed to. Not in the beginning." Eliza removes her hands from the partly destroyed flowers and leans her back against the chair. "I think the longer we stay as Guardians the more likely we are to remember bits and pieces of our past."

I lean forward with my ears perked up. "Do you remember anything?"

"Of course." Eliza closes her eyes. "One of my charges is actually the reincarnation of someone from my human life."

I open my mouth to ask her who the person is when another voice beats me to it.

"Why are you awake?"