A Shade of Vampire 40: A Throne of Fire(53)

“Good idea, Shortie.” I smiled. “Unless you’re looking to get turned into a sentry tonight?”

She made a face at me, then, laughing, vanished back into the bathroom. A few moments later she reemerged, fully dressed, her blonde hair still damp and cascading down her shoulders. It was a pleasant sight.

“Has my mom been speaking to you?” she asked archly. “I kind of had the feeling that she might. Ignore what she says—she’ll come around, I promise.”

“I think there might be conditions on that,” I replied dryly. “Like me returning you to The Shade, and not letting you out of her sight.”

She sighed, slumping down next to me on the bed.

“We’re not ready to decide that yet. We don’t even know what’s going to happen today—how can we make plans for the future?”

“I don’t know. But we should at least talk about it. We’ve been avoiding the topic, among others, for a while. Shouldn’t we have some kind of plan?”

“We have plans,” she pointed out, waving her finger in the air. “Marriage plans. Which I can’t even get properly excited about thanks to all the impending doom.”

I laughed out loud. That was one way to look at it.

“Look, I have an idea. Just trust me, okay?”

“Okay,” she answered slowly. I could faintly hear her heart rate picking up, and I wondered if she was worried that I was going to outright ask her to live in Nevertide with me.

Not a good sign.

“I want us to mind-meld, and basically imagine where you want to be five years from now. Just for a few moments, what we’re doing, where we are—just whatever comes to mind. I’ll do the same, and maybe we’ll have a better idea about what we both want…”

“Without having to come out and say it?” she retorted. “Why can’t we just talk about it later?”

“Because we’ve been saying that for a while, Shortie—and we haven’t. So just trust me on this.”

She inhaled a deep breath, and then exhaled, letting her body relax.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

She reached for my hand, closing her small one around it. Her skin felt warm and soft, and she edged closer to me on the bed till our arms were brushing up against one another.

I closed my eyes, focusing on the energy that she was sending out toward me. In my mind, I saw it as semi-clear and fluid, almost white. Honesty. She wanted to be honest. I grasped onto it, sending my energy back to meet hers. For a few moments, nothing happened—we were both so exhausted I’d wondered if this was going to work at all, but after a few moments, images started to form. She was going first.

I saw bright sunshine, a house—old, pretty, built of stone, surrounded by a huge garden—filled to bursting point with flowers and unfamiliar fruit trees. I started walking toward the front door when Ruby appeared in the doorway. She smiled broadly. “Come on, you two!” she called out.

Us two? I looked down. I was holding on to the hand of a small boy, who looked up at me with bright blue eyes. He tugged, impatient. I was moving too slowly. I looked back up at Ruby. She turned away, ready to go back indoors. Her stomach protruded—another one. I followed her inside the house, overcome by the smell of more fresh flowers, and cooking.

On my right was a large living room full of furniture that seemed strange to me. Sitting on a sofa was Jenney. She was speaking into a screen, her voice serious, a small frown on her forehead. When she noticed me she smiled and waved. “I’m talking to Derek—Ruby will debrief you.” She turned back to the screen, and I made my way into another room.

Ruby was standing at a stove, humming as she threw herbs into a pot. It smelled good. The boy ran toward her, wrapping himself around her leg.

“We have company,” she noted, turning to me. “Tejus and Hazel.”

How does she know?

Moments later there was a knock on the door.

True Sight. Ruby was a sentry. A gifted one at that. I heard the voices of our friends floating in from the hallway, but before they appeared the image started to flicker and blur. The vision was ending.

No!

I wanted to hold on to it. To me, it seemed like paradise. One I’d never even had the capacity to contemplate. I realized in that moment that my future expectations were sadly lacking. I had known only servitude in a gray, stone castle in a land where light was dull, the life for all—master or servant—harsh.

I broke the mind meld.

“What?” exclaimed Ruby. “That’s not fair. You said—”

“I know what I said,” I replied hoarsely. “Forget what I said. I want that—I want what you showed me. More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I would give anything, Ruby—anything.”