I sighed and ran my hands through my curly hair.
There was a myth in the ancient tongue of vampire scholars that spoke of a bond that happened between souls that were each other's mirror. Only the most ancient of vampires and the most devoted of scholars knew of it, and that was because it was considered to be mythical.
It was known asArisma.
I didn’t remember all the particulars, but Ididremember that a couple who had Arisma could feel what the other felt.
I had been in my study the other night, when I’d suddenly felt a burst of terror, shock and pain. And I’d known instinctively that the feelings were coming from Mia. I’d tracked her through the pull in my chest, and found her on the ground bleeding out.
To say that I was terrified would be an understatement.
It was such a vivid reminder of what had happened with my wife that I’d staggered in shock for a moment before I’d grimly gotten a hold of myself and rushed to her.
It was only now, after the emergency, that I realized what it meant. We were Arisma. Mirror souls.
The knowledge brought both joy and fear. Joy, that I’d found something that most vampires, most beings, would never know, would never understand. But terror because she was so fragile and could easily be taken from me.
I wanted to protect her for whatever length of time she was given to me to protect.
To that end, I needed to utilize Virion’s tracking skills to track down the vampire who kept sending henchmen after us.
I left my study and sought out Mia, somehow unsurprised to find her in our office. I wanted to laugh at the elaborate set up she had going, but I also wanted to pick her up and put her back in bed. The wound had proved to be too much for Rhys’ brand of magic. She was still in so much pain that it made me grind my teeth at the impotence I felt. I needed the elf prince, and I needed himsoon.
Mia sat in a reclining chair she’d had brought into the office. The table was laden with her favorite foods and drinks, and soft music played in the background. She had her feet up, and someone had moved her desk so that it sat right next to her chair in the middle of the room. A fire burned brightly in the fireplace, and Zian, of course, was laying in front of it with a happy sigh.
Mia had stacks of papers on her little lap desk that she was using. She was making notes in the margins of some of the most recent blueprints that we’d been sent, giving me her opinion on whether the designs would work in the human world, and what the most cost effective marketing strategy might be. She couldn’t tell whether the blueprints would actually net a workable project yet; I was currently teaching her, but it was a lot to learn. But she knew enough now to give me details on how the proposed project would work in the human world, and if it would be successful there.
Mia’s guards were by the windows. One was keeping an eye outside, looking for any trace of movement, while the other was looking at Mia in frustration and helplessness.
I laughed silently. I knew that feeling so very well.
Zian blinked a bleary eye at me before closing them again, and rolling a bit more to the right so the fire could warm his other side.
I shook my head at the scene that they four made.
I dismissed the guards with a pointed look to stand outside the door. They left so silently that Mia, whose brow was scrunched as she puzzled over a new schematic, didn’t hear or notice them.
“I see you’re giving your guards minor panic attacks.”
Her head shot up, and her copper eyes found me. “Draven? I didn’t even hear you come in!”
I came around and sat on the couch across from her as I studied the piles and piles of paperwork surrounding her. She flushed and looked slightly guilty. I wanted to laugh, but didn’t. She wasn’t a child, my Mia. She could do what she wanted. It was just that she wasn’t supposed to be doinganythingat the moment. Doctor’s orders.
I didn’t mention this to her. She knew what her limits were, and I wasn’t going to remind her that humans were fragile again either. Whenever I did, she got a particularly mulish look in her eyes that told me she was going to prove everyone wrong about that.
Now that we were Arisma, I thought she might be able to siphon a bit of my healing ability, but that didn’t look to be the case yet. I wanted to groan. Nothing was working as I thought it might; as I wanted it to. I knew enough of life to know that things rarely did, but I’d hoped that justoncethings would line up in orderly little boxes, behaving as they should.
Perhaps it was the architect and tinkerer in me that wished it so.
Then again, Mia had been unexpected. And she didn’t particularly fit in orderly little boxes either. I smiled at the thought, and she blinked at me.
“What are you grinning about?”
I shrugged and changed the subject. “I have someone coming today that I hope will be able to heal you.” I hesitated and then sighed. “He’ll also hopefully help me track down Alessandro.”
She sat up so suddenly that all the papers on her lap scattered and slid to the gleaming hardwood floor. Mia winced and gasped at the pain the sudden movement had caused, and I kneeled at her feet before I even registered that I’d intended to move. I set the papers to the side in an orderly stack and held her icy hands.
“I must find him, Mia. He’s gotten through our guard too many times, and I can’t keep you in seclusion here under house arrest. It’s cruel to do so, even though I want to keep you safe.”
