She nodded. “I know, and we’ll find her in time. I have confidence in my visions. They’re never wrong.”
“Never?” his brows rose.
“They’ve always come through.”
“Well, shit, that’s something. Thank you.”
“And thank you for saving my life tonight, you and your men. I will never forget that.” Then she smiled. “Now, how about that shower?”
Gideon glanced first to the left then to the right. He frowned, as though undecided about where to put her.
Finally, he looked at her. “I don’t mean to crowd you, Elise, but would you share my bed tonight? No funny business, I just want to be close in case something unexpected happens.”
Elise nodded. “You won’t hear me argue. I’m not sure I could sleep if you weren’t next to me.”
“Good. Then we’re in agreement. Good.” But his brow was pinched.
He gestured to his right and she headed down the hall. “Take the second hall on the right.”
She turned and made her way into a lofty suite that had a large bathroom on the right and on the left a bedroom with a vaulted ceiling.
She debated for only half a second. She headed left into the bathroom. Just before she shut the door, she glanced back. He stood there, godlike in his flight battle gear, his hair flowing away from his face, his hands fisted, his arms flexing and releasing.
“You won’t go far, will you?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’ll use another shower and join you in a few minutes. How does that sound?”
“Good. That sounds good.” Funny how awkward she suddenly felt. She knew his body backward and forward and upside down from all her time with him at the Blood and Bite, but put her in his master bedroom and she felt strangely shy.
As Elise flipped on the lights and closed the door, she happened to glance down at her jeans. She drew in a soft hiss. The legs were covered in dark blobs and a couple of sprays of the same matter, which must have been blood from the death vamp she’d killed.
She weaved on her feet, then backed up into the door to give herself some support. Could anything have brought the recent battle at the Borderland closer to home than this?
She closed her eyes and breathed through it, through the reality of the decision she’d made, that she’d basically entered a war against powerful monsters who drank people to death.
Her stomach turned, but she breathed some more. She reminded herself of what she’d seen in the death vamp’s head, the pregnant woman murdered, her child lost as she died. She held to that. She created a shrine to the woman deep within her mind and she promised herself that no matter what else happened in the coming days, weeks, maybe even centuries, that she would hold this woman’s death as her touchstone, the reason why Commander Greaves and his army of death vampires must be defeated as soon as possible, and once and for all.
The part of her that functioned well when her world was orderly, approved of the shrine and subsequent resolve. If she just kept her head, both metaphorically and literally, she might discover she had the skills to survive all the coming tests and challenges.
With that, she folded off her all her clothes, and sent them straight to the trash can she kept in the side yard of her home in Surprise.
She turned the knob on the shower and as the water heated up she brought a few things over from her house: toothbrush and Colgate, peppermint soap, a hairbrush, body lotion, and a few more incidentals, a chemise and baggy silk shorts for sleeping, as well as a chenille robe. She hung the clothes on two hooks on the back of the door. Then she took a minute to arrange the rest of the goodies in a row.
Something about the neat line of toiletries gave her pause and a slow smile curved her lips. Maybe she didn’t know everything the decision to ascend would bring her or even cost her, but being able to just be herself, to utilize powers she possessed, really caused her heart to swell.
A half hour later, her hair was still damp as she sat in Gideon’s bed near the headboard, the covers to her waist. She drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around them.
Gideon had returned to the doorway, this time barefoot but wearing jeans and a T-shirt that pulled across his pecs. His longish hair was damp, which made his strong cheekbones look even more prominent and so damn sexy. She wanted to ask him to join her in bed, but for some reason that earlier odd, shy feeling returned to her.
Even though his toffee scent was a strong indication that he wanted to be with her, probably as much as she wanted him, he hadn’t budged from the doorway.
“Hey,” he said, the tenor of his voice low, so very low. “So this has been a rough night for you.” He looked solemn, concerned, his forehead creased.
“Yeah, it has, but I’m good, really.”
The shower had given Gideon time to think. His plan to share the bedroom with her had seemed like a good idea at the time, but when he arrived at the door and saw her sitting in his bed,in his bed,some ridiculous primal beast had risen once more, maybe a symptom of this really frustratingbreh-hedden myth, and he’d wanted to launch through the air and throw himself on top of her.
So he remained by the door, trying to calm down. But it didn’t help that she kept looking at him, her gaze sometimes dropping to his neck, then his chest, his abs. More than once even lower, and he wasn’t exactly being shy right now. His jeans had shrunk.
In addition, her strawberry scent was an olfactory nightmare that kept on giving.
Gideon knew the rational part of his brain was in there somewhere. He summoned it now and worked hard to put himself in her shoes.
She had been through hell, given the nature of her initiation into the world of ascension. It was now past ten. She needed her rest and he needed … dammit, he didn’t know what he needed.
When he realized what she’d done at the Borderland, while he was battling his last pretty-boy, some tremendous shift had occurred in his mind. Here was an untried woman of power and of substance who had used two boulders, one that she’d moved kinetically, the other that she’d held in her hands, to kill a death vampire. She’d also coordinated his battle movements and because of that alone, he’d been able to slay four,four, death vampires. Unheard of for a Militia Warrior.
So who the hell was she, this powerful ascendiate, sitting with damp hair, a thin, strappy shirt over her full br**sts, ni**les peaked, her arms clasped around her knees, loosely, like she was doing okay, and shedding strawberry scent? Who the hell was she?
The woman meant for him.