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His widely smirking face is the last thing I see before tumbling into the consuming darkness of his subconscious.
“Victoria!”
Seer’s voice pierces into my subconscious, pulling me back to reality. I open my eyes with a gasp, breathing hard. I look around me, trying to determine my environment.
“Nicholas?”
I don’t know why I’m calling out for him, but I suddenly want him in my space. Seer is instantly by my side, his arms around my shoulders.
“Hey… Hey, you’re alright.”
His voice is like a balm to my burning soul. I lean weakly into him, placing my head over his heart. I take comfort in the unsteady rhythm of his heartbeat, burrowing deeper into him as his arms come around me in a comforting embrace.
“You’re all right, chérie,” he whispers in my ear, running his hand over my hair in slow, soothing strokes. “I’m here.”
I’m here.
It’s the most reassuring phrase I’ve heard all my life.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Iglance at Victoria for the umpteenth time. She’s seated snugly in the rocking chair by my window, gazing into the distance beyond the opened curtains. The way she’s unconsciously running her thumbs over the rim of her teacup tells me she has quite a lot on her mind.
She’s been subdued since the soul-searching incident the previous night. She’d been so shaken that she’d insisted on sleeping in my bed all night…in my arms.
Somehow, I survived the night without going insane from the pure lust that’d overridden my senses. I hadn’t been able to think past her soft feminine scent and the curve of her ass pressing against my cock.
It had forced me to admit to myself that I wanted her.
I wasn’t able to get even a sliver of sleep, but at least she’d slept like a baby. Watching her sleep had been worth the agony of unfulfilled desire.
I glance at Victoria again, feeling my chest squeeze with immense guilt. She went through a lot with Edward. I should not have gotten her involved in my battle.
“You keep looking at me like you’re scared I’ll jump out this window at any moment,” Victoria says, turning to look at me with a small smile. Her warm brown eyes seem to dance with light amusement.
God, she’s gorgeous.
And I can’t seem to look at her the same way after last night.
I keep noticing little things like the freckles across her nose and the little cleft on the left side of her chin. These little things have ignited a certain fire in me that’s on the verge of erupting out of control.
“I’m wondering if you feel better,” I say with a small shrug. “You haven’t said much after last night’s incident.”
Victoria sighs softly. “I can’t seem to sort through my feelings.” She takes a small sip from her cup. “I feel angry, helpless, and confused all at the same time.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Tory drops her gaze to the cup in her hands with a contemplative sigh. “It’s just… A lot of things don’t make sense from my encounter with Edward. With others, whatever happens in the soul territory is mostly up to the soul searcher. Edward, though… he was in control of his subconscious the whole time. That shouldn’t be possible, especially while he was asleep. I couldn’t access his memories or get a proper sense of his soul territory. And the way he pushed me out. I never thought anyone could do that. Having someone in control like that is dangerous. I could have gotten trapped in Edward’s mind.”
Now that she’s started talking, it all comes out in a rush. “Another thing I can’t wrap my head around is how he talked about my mother. He said I looked just like her, he acted like he knew her. I keep trying to think up different circumstances that could have brought my ma and Edward together.” She takes in a deep breath and expels it with a self-conscious laugh. “I’ve never had so much to think about at once.”
“That’s a lot for anyone to sort through. Are you close to your Mom?”
Tory shoots a sarcastic grin. If I weren’t looking hard enough, I would have missed the flash of sadness in her chocolate-brown eyes. “No, I’m not. Ma was so busy with her practice that she couldn’t be bothered with me. She wanted to be a big name in the industry, so to speak. I lived with my aunt in Minnesota since I was three until I turned eighteen. I came down to NOLA to look after my ma when she got sick. She’d been alone for too long. There were good days when she was lucid enough to teach me to harness the magic in my blood. She taught me all she could about soul searching. After she died, I saw no point in returning to Minnesota, so I stayed back and learned voodoo from a real shaman. I found Mama, who trained me in the art of healing.”
I lean back against the headboard with a sigh. “So, you don’t know what your mom was up to in those fifteen years that you were apart?”
Tory shrugs. “Mostly,” she replies solemnly, keeping her gaze fixed on her teacup. “She showed up at Aunt Mimi’s doorstep a few times, but the visits were always too short to get to know her life. She was always up and gone the next day, off to some mage or sage that would help her make a name for herself in the voodoo world. With what little I know, I picked up from my aunt’s frustrated outburst. At some point, I learned not to care anymore. Ma ended up going crazy from all those unmet expectations and constant betrayals.”
