Books by Maggie Shayne (226 page)

When she woke, Amber was sweaty and her heart was racing. She got out of bed, grateful that she'd had a dream about Edge that didn't include overwhelming feelings of grief and loss, and the presence of death looming over her. She headed straight into the shower, noting that the sun was still up and beaming brightly. Then she made herself a bowl of bran flakes with a sliced banana on top and sat down to eat it in her robe with a towel on her head.

"That looks good. Think I'll join you."

She looked up to see Willem limping into the kitchen. He wore jeans and a T-shirt. His feet were bare and his hair rather tousled. She got up immediately and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his strong neck, noticing the broadness of his shoulders and chest. It was hard to believe he was sick. Except that he looked haggard this morning, as if he'd put in a particularly rough few hours.

"It's good to have you back, Amber. We've missed you. And I gotta tell you, it gets lonely being the only human around here. Especially during the day."

"Tell me about it." She turned and pulled out her own chair, nodding until he took it. "Eat that, I'll get another." He started to argue, but she turned to the counter to fix a second bowl of bran flakes with banana slices, and since it took only a few seconds, he shut up and ate.

Returning to the table with her bowl of cereal, she sat down. "Of course, I'm not exactly human. Technically."

"You're awake and it's daylight. That's human enough for me."

She smiled, understanding that he was trying to keep the conversation light. "You should get yourself some mortal help around this place. I don't know how I'd have survived without Susan and Alicia to keep me company."

He smiled. "They're a unique pair, though. You're lucky to have found people you can trust the way you trust them."

"They're family." She ate some cereal, let the comfortable silence stretch between them. Then they both said "So how are you feeling?" at the same time. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, and she said, "You first, since you're the one with the cancer."

"Blunt as ever, aren't you?"

"And I expect you to be the same."

His lips thinned. "I feel like I always have, most of the time. But once in a while I get these blinding headaches. Dizziness and nausea come with them, and they just about render me useless until they pass. Afterward I feel weak and shaky for a day or so."

"You're coming off one of them now," she said, stating it as fact.

He didn't deny it.

"How long do they last?" she asked, grateful that Will was being honest with her. Of them all, he was one of the few who didn't still insist on seeing her as a child.

"The first one was ten minutes. Then they started getting longer. A half hour, an hour. Two."

"And this morning's?" she asked.

He pursed his lips, glanced at his watch. "Four and a half."

"God. Isn't there anything they can give you for them?"

"They can give me enough morphine to knock me out until it passes. I don't tike that option."

Pursing her lips, she nodded. Willem wasn't the kind of man who would enjoy being unconscious and helpless. He would rather bear the pain and remain in control.

"How often?" she asked.

"Like the duration, the frequency is increasing. I'm up to two a week now."

She reached out a hand, smoothed her fingertips over his forehead, his temple. "I'm so sorry, Will. It's not fair."

"Life isn't fair. I've had a better one than a lot of people, I'm not complaining."

"No, you wouldn't."

"It's 'Fina I'm worried about. Frankly, I don't think she'll do well, if I… " He met her eyes. "She's going to need all the help she can get. Even then, I'm not sure she'll make it."

"I'm worried about her, too," she admitted. "We'll all be here for her, Will. You know that. In the end, that's really all we can do. The rest is up to her."

"I know." He smiled at her. "Your turn. What's up with you?" Before she could speak, he added, "And I expect you to be equally blunt, Amber."

She thinned her lips. "Okay. Well… I'm not sure at all, but I don't think I've aged since Connecticut."

He frowned at her, seemed to look her over more closely. Then he tipped his head to one side. "It's not like there are all that many changes between eighteen and twenty-three, you know."

"I know."

"Still, there probably should be some."

"I've been watching Alicia. She's the only other person I've spoken to about this, by the way, so keep it between us." He nodded. "The changes are subtle. Really very subtle, but she has changed. Her face has changed. Her hips are a little wider, and it's not weight, it's adulthood. You know?"

"I know." He frowned. "You aged normally up to that point, grew from a baby to a little girl to an adolescent into a beautiful young woman. Why do you think you suddenly stopped?"

"I'm thinking maybe it was death."

He frowned.

"Stiles killed me several times while he held me. You know that. I don't think I've aged a day since." She shrugged.

"It's a solid theory."

"It's the only one I have right now."

He nodded, crunched a few more bites of cereal and finally pushed the bowl away. "So tell me about Edge."

She almost choked on a banana slice. Will leaned back in his chair, smiling, arms crossed over his chest, waiting for her to come up with an answer.

She got up, stumbled to the fridge for some orange juice, poured two tiny glasses and took a drink from one of them.

"You're stalling for time, right?"

She put the juice back, carried the glasses to the table. "You're too sharp for me." Sitting down, she added, "It's not that I don't want to tell you, just that I'm not sure yet what there is to tell."

"Tina said you bit him with your car."

"Yeah, only I'm sure it was no accident. I got out to see if he was all right, and he said he was on his way to Salem. So I offered him a ride."

He nodded slowly. "You think that part was a coincidence? That you were both going to the same place?"

She shrugged. "I suppose it's not impossible. Last night I got him to admit that he deliberately bounced himself off my bumper, hoping to guilt me into a ride. Said his car had broken down and he wasn't looking forward to the walk."

"At least he was honest with you, then."

She licked her lips. "I have the feeling there's more."

"You think he's dangerous to you?"

"Yeah, but not in the way you mean."

He stared at her blankly for a moment, then his brows went up. "Oh."

She had to avert her eyes.

"So you like him, huh?"

"Hell, Willem, I don't even know him."

"But you're attracted to him."

She nodded, not meeting his eyes. "Big time."

"And it's mutual?"

She shrugged. "Either it's mutual or he's faking it because he's up to something, and I'm having trouble figuring out which."

"You want me to kick his ass for you?"

She laughed at that, and Will made a wounded expression. "What, you think I'm not up to it?"

"I'm sure you'd manage, Willem. You're not untalented in that area, for a mortal. I was just thinking you'd have to stand in line behind your bride, my parents and Aunt Rhiannon.''

He nodded in agreement. "I doubt they'd leave me any scraps."

"Pandora has dibs on the scraps. But frankly, I'd rather give Edge a chance to show his true colors."

He nodded slowly. "That makes sense. So what's the plan?"

"He seems to want to see me. Keep me around. I can't imagine what he wants from me, but—" She ignored the quick look he sent her. "But I think I'll figure it out, given time. And as long as he's here on the Rock, and I'm here, I may as well spend some time with him, see what I can find out."

He licked his lips, saying nothing.

She met his eyes. "What?"

He seemed uncomfortable, shifting in his seat. Then he said, "Dammit, Amber, it's not my place. This is out of my field, you know. But… well, given what I know about your parents and your upbringing, I would guess you're not altogether… experienced. With the opposite sex, I mean."

She shrugged. "I'm psychic. I'm powerful. I'm strong. I've fought at my father's side more than once."

"But you've never had a boyfriend."

She licked her lips, averted her eyes. "Well, there was Jimmy in high school. But the most we ever did was—" He held up a hand, and she broke off there, then nodded. "Okay, suffice it to say you're right. I'm not experienced in that area. But I can handle myself."

"You think so?"

She nodded. "I… think so. Besides, I think… I have to."

Willem frowned. "Have to?"

She turned her attention back to her cereal, but Will's hand came across the table and encircled her wrist, stopping its progress. The spoonful of bran flakes quivered in her. hand.

"What aren't you telling me, Amber?"

She swallowed hard, blinked twice and finally met his eyes. "I've been having… dreams."

"About?"

"About him. About Edge."

He sighed. "Hon, it's normal. Don't let that worry you. When there's an attraction, the subconscious sometimes—"

"I've been having them for a year, Willem. I met Edge for the first time on my way here, when I hit him with my car. But I've been seeing him in vivid, recurring dreams for months and months. And I don't know why. I don't know what it means. But I think… I think it has to mean something."

He blinked slowly, licked his lips, his gaze turning inward, no doubt remembering dreams of his own. "You're right," he said softly. "You have to find out what it means."

She nodded, glancing at the clock. "There's still an hour of daylight left. I thought I might go out to his place, rifle through his things and see what I can find."

"You want company?"

She shook her head. "No. I think I need to handle this on my own."

"Just let me know if you need any help, Amber. And be careful. Where is he staying, by the way?''

She looked at him with her brows raised.

"Just in case you fail to come home one night, I'll know where to look."

"Oh. Uh, there's an abandoned church a mile up the beach."

"I know it."

She tipped her bowl to her lips to drink the remaining soy milk from the bottom, then put it on the table. "Guess I'll get dressed, then." She got to her feet.

Will did, too. He came around the table, put his hands on her shoulders. "Your father wouldn't like this."

"My father still thinks of me as a little girl. But you know I'm not."

"I know," he said. "Just… don't let this Edge character get the best of you. No matter what you decide to do or not to do, make sure it's what you want. Your decision, Amber. For your reasons. Remember what you know about him and be mindful of what you don't."

She nodded, thinking there was a lot more she didn't know about Edge than that she did.

"If he hurts you, I'll take him out," he added, as if for good measure.

She smiled. "I'm counting on it." Leaning up, she kissed Will's cheek. "I love you, you know."

"Love you, too, Amber. Be careful."

"I will."

Amber took her time, walking along the edge of the rocky beach, barefoot, her jeans rolled up so the cold water could lap at her ankles as the waves rolled in. Guilt niggled at her for mistrusting Edge as much as she did. But only a little. She tamped it down by reminding herself how often her parents and their paranoia had turned out to be dead on target. There were bad people in the world. Edge might be one of them.

When she reached the church, the shutters were closed tight. She wondered where he was resting and sent a nervous glance toward the sky. The sun was still there, beyond the trees, hanging low, but not yet setting. She had time.

She stretched her arms, reached the very bottom of the shutters and tugged on them. They didn't move; something held them from the other side. So she yanked a little harder, popping them open, but only just slightly. She didn't want to let a shaft of sunlight in if he were lying within its reach on the other side. Pulling herself up, she peered through the crack she'd made and saw no sign of Edge, so she opened the shutters farther and climbed through. A little puff of dust rose from the floor when she landed. She quickly turned to close the shutters behind her, then faced in again as she brushed her hands against each other.

And then she frowned as she took in the changed appearance of the church.

The pews had been moved to one side, and in the large open space where they'd been, there was… equipment. A weight bench, with barbells balanced across its upright arms. A punching bag dangling from the rafters, a mat on the floor.

"What's he up to?" she wondered aloud, pacing through the church, examining the items, which were stamped with Salem Fitness Center, Salem, MA. She crooked an eyebrow. Edge had been busy.

She looked around for his duffel bag but didn't find it. The pew on the dais still held his strange little collection of keepsakes. There were more candles now than the three that stood on the pew. He'd affixed one on each windowsill. All unlit, of course. She wondered why he saw the need for candles, when he could see better than she could in the dark.

Where was he?

She went through a door at the rear of the church. It stuck a little, swollen from the weather and hanging by only one hinge, but she shoved it open and stepped into a dark, dusty storage room. There were shelves, a couple of disintegrating boxes with candles spilling out of them, and another door. Amber shoved that door open and stared down a rickety wooden staircase. Some of the steps were broken, others missing.

He was down there. Naturally he was down there. It would be the safest place to rest. No one in their right mind would attempt to navigate the broken-down stairs in the pitch-dark to invade his privacy. His duffel bag was apparently down there with him, since she hadn't located it anywhere else.

Drawing a breath, she started carefully, stepping past the missing first step, past the broken second step, and slowly lowering her weight onto the intact-looking third step from the top.