Part 13 (2/2)
”Well, then, you might want to let me in.”
”Oh.” This time the door opened wide. She was dressed in that beautiful blue wrapper that matched her eyes again, and she smelled of what they had done together. He smiled. How could he not? Like Vulcan drawn to Aphrodite, he was lost, no matter who she was.
What was he doing back? And bringing her food, and... were those books under his arm? And... he had on a man's dressing gown. Kate's mind fluttered around what that might mean.
Then he smiled. Kate stepped back and swung the door wide under the blast from that smile. Perhaps she would get used to it, but at present, it devastated her every time he did it. But then, she would not have time to get used to it. She was leaving today, if the draft arrived. She glanced to the doors open onto the balcony and saw the first hint of lightening in the sky.
He set the tray down on the bed, closed the shutters to the balcony tightly, and pulled the heavy velvet draperies across their rod. In order not to be caught staring at the body she knew moved beneath the silk of his dressing gown, she sat cross-legged and busied herself with the tray. He had brought quite a repast. She popped an olive into her mouth. They were green, pungent.
They seemed to hold the summer sun. ”This is good.”
He opened the bottle and poured her some wine. ”My own vintage,” he murmured. He unveiled the cheese and the tomatoes, sprinkled them with basil and drizzled oil over them.Kate took a bite, ”Lovely. The oil tastes fruity.”
She looked up to find he was watching her as she ate. He made no move to eat himself. He was going to tell her he was leaving.
He had come back only for that.
”Your maid may be preoccupied today. One of my mother's grooms proposed to her last night during the rainstorm.”
Kate felt the blood drain from her face. The fork she held clattered to the tray as the room began to spin. ”So... so soon? I... I wasn't sure just when...”
Somehow he was holding her. He'd swept the tray to the other side of the bed and she was shaking as he held her to his chest.
”Oh, G.o.d, Gian.” The sobs took her. ”I wasn't... sure, not... not until now.”
”It's all right.” He stroked her hair. ”It's all right.”
She wanted to him to hold her forever. And that was exactly why she couldn't let him continue. She sat up and tried to get her breath. ”I'm fine. Just startled, that's all.”
He handed her the gla.s.s of wine. ”I take it this is a recent development?”
”Since... that night at the marquesa's little gathering. That was the first time. The one with the stone.” And the one with him in it.
Dear G.o.d, he was going to be tortured! She had to prevent that somehow. Could it be prevented? She grabbed his biceps.
”Gian, I saw you, chained to a stone wall. Like it was a dungeon. And someone was... hurting you with that stone.”
His face turned grim, but his tone was light. ”Did you happen to see who it was?”
”A woman's hand, no more.”
He lifted his brows, thinking. ”Probably Elyta. I have not... endeared myself to her.”
”What is this stone that it can hurt you and drive the jeweler mad?”
He frowned. He was thinking how to lie to her. ”It is a... a relic if you will, from the first of those with the Companion in their blood.”
”The Companion?”
”The parasite that shares our veins.”
”I thought you said it was an infection. Gian, you have got to tell me the truth about you at least, because so many strange things have been happening to me, I just don't think I can bear it if I don't understand at least in part.” Still she saw him hesitate. ”I know, for instance that you are very, very old. Don't even bother to tell me that Michelangelo sculpted some ancestor.” That closed his mouth before he could even speak. ”And I've been having visions about people's moments of intense emotion in the future. I could have been mistaken about the others. But one has just come true. Not to mention the emerald that drives people mad. It's all too much.”
He started to speak then pressed his lips together and looked away.
”Very well,” she said, rus.h.i.+ng on. ”So you won't tell me. Probably out of some mistaken sense of duty to somebody or other, or honor or something. You have to tell me what the stone can do. Why do I see it hurting you? I have to know that.”
He looked down at the brocade bedcover, obviously disgusted with himself. ”It takes energy from those who have the Companion.””I've felt your vibrations. Is that your... Companion doing that?”
”Yes. The Companion provides energy to us. The stone saps it and leaves us weak. I think it can kill us. But only if it touches our Mesh.”
She realized that he'd never touched it. No wonder he'd let her keep it after she'd removed it from its box. ”And we... others?”
She couldn't say ”humans.”
”It drives you mad when you look into it.”
She knew that firsthand. But it was hard to hear it confirmed so calmly. ”How?”
”It is said that you see all possible futures in it.”
”But it didn't drive me mad, and I looked at it.”
He looked up at her under his brows. ”Yes. That has me puzzled. There are many puzzling things about you.”
She sighed. ”Why does Elyta want it?”
”I don't know the particulars. But think what she could do with it.” His voice was grim. ”She could kill the Elders of our kind.
She could drive the men who direct history mad, bring down governments...”
”I see what you mean.” But Kate really didn't care much about all those theoretical possibilities. ”We must prevent this... this thing from happening to you.” She had always thought he wanted the stone to give to some woman, if she considered it at all. But he couldn't, not if it drove people mad. ”What do you mean to do with the emerald?”
”Take it to Mirso Monastery, a refuge for those who are infected as I am. The monks there will keep it from doing harm to anyone.”
”Just throw it in the nearest lake. That's the way to keep out of anyone's dungeon.”
He let out a breath, as though he had been holding it. ”I can't do that.”
”Why not?”
”Because I'm honor-bound to return it to Mirso.”
She could hardly believe what she was hearing. ”With Elyta waiting to kill you for it, and my vision of you being tortured, you're still considering going on some insane journey to... where is this Mirso Monastery?”
”The Carpathian Mountains.”
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