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Sharon raises her eyebrows. “That’s cryptic.”
“I expect Vasquez will understand.”
So, Vasquezwastrying to tempt him. By sending me? Why am I temptation? Does Vasquez want me to be Soren’s Adept?
I check my watch. It's ten o'clock and I haven’t heard from Soren. I guess our late dinner is off, given the bomb.
Finally, I go to bed and hope for a dreamless sleep. Before I fall asleep, I think of Michel and wonder where he is and whether he’s with Soren. It's with Michel on my mind that I finally fall asleep.
In the middle of the night, I wake to see a mist flowing in through the open window, and a hooded man with wings materializes from out of the mist. I expect to see Soren's face beneath the hood but when the hood falls, it's Michel and adrenaline surges through me.
"Michel!"
He sits on the bed beside me and I'm almost breathless, wondering what he'll do, hoping he'll get into bed with me. He brushes hair from my face, traces the scar on my forehead.
"You're alive," he says and leans down, his face by mine, his lips on the skin under my ear. "I thought you'd died. I didn't want any of this for you, but they've forced my hand."
"What do you mean?"
"I have to choose," he says and shakes his head. "I hoped to delay this, give you time, but I can't wait any longer."
Desire fills me at his touch, and I'm not sure whether it's my own or his, or some combination. I feel his tongue on my neck, feel his lips tugging at my skin, and then intense pain as he bites down.
I want it. I want the pain.
I wake, my heart pounding, my body aroused. I feel my neck but there's no mark, of course. It must have been another dream. Must have been because I wake soon after to a dream of Soren dressed in armor, bearing a flag with a Lion and Raven locked in battle. In my dream, he approaches me, holding out his hand to me, and for some reason that I cannot perceive, I take it willingly and follow him down a narrow path between trees in a dark forest.
Above us, the moon shines, it's silvery light illuminating the path. We walk to a clearing where a huge stone altar stands. Faceless people in hoods surround the altar and at the head of the altar is a throne made out of rock, carved with two animals on either side – one a rearing lion, the other a huge raven with wings outstretched.
Soren brings me to the altar and I willingly hold onto his shoulders as he lifts me up. I lay down and wait, but for what I don't know. I only know that I do it with breathless acceptance. I want it.
A figure approaches dressed all in black, his face obscured. Behind him stretch huge black wings. He pulls the cloak off but with the cloak gone, he transforms from dark to light, shining so brightly, the air around him glimmering like the sparks off an acetylene torch, so that I can't see his face. He pulls me to the edge of the altar and I willingly spread my thighs for him.
I wake with a gasp, my heart pounding. After the adrenaline subsides, I get up and go to my purse to get a sleeping pill. I don't want to go back to that dream, no matter how willing I seemed to be for what was going to take place. I want to escape into the blackness of drug-induced sleep.
Chapter 20
“One must not trifle with love.”
Alfred de Musset
THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE EARLY MORNING LIGHT that streams in between the drapes wakes me. For a while I try to convince myself that the events of the previous day were just a dream, but when I stretch, my muscles all ache as if I've been hit by a truck.
When I go down to check my messages, the front desk clerk says I have one from Soren. I read it:
"Sorry we missed our dinner date. I'm leaving tomorrow, and will be unavailable until I return to Montana.Call me next week.I'm looking forward to our little heart to heart."
"Soren's gone," I say to Sharon when I go back up to my room. Just when I wanted more information from him, when I felt I could approach him and demand he reveal who and what he is, he leaves. I stand at the window and look out over the sunrise, wondering what's true, unable to judge any longer.
I return to the site of the conference, to the makeshift headquarters in another wing of the building that was untouched when the bomb exploded. There's no need to linger in the city. With Soren gone, Sharon and I make plans to return to Boston to meet with Terri and Vasquez, to decide on a new course in this case, but I hesitate, wanting to hear more about the blast.
There isn't much for me to do but sit and listen to the other agents discussing the bombing. Since I don't have an official role, I make one last walk around the building to the wing where the bomb went off.
I catch sight of Soren out of the corner of my eye. Before I realize it, he's walking beside me down the long marble hall. Our footsteps echo against the stone walls and ceiling and I wait for him to say something, but he doesn't. He just walks beside me. I finally stop and look at him, searching his face for some clue to his thoughts.
"Tell me what's going on," I say and grab his arm. He glances down at my hand on his bicep.
"It's not that I mind when you touch me, but you'd better let go or there'll be several men with weapons here in a second."
