Where the hell was he?
I spent the next hour running up and down the staircase for exercise. Toward the end, my arms grew shaky and my legs burned. Sweat ran down my back, and air singed my lungs. I managed to exhaust myself…and fuel my anger with Kyrin. How dare he leave me here like this, with this damn unremovable armband.
I trudged into the bathroom. The floor tile boasted burgundy and cerulean porcelain, the wall gold-plated marble. The winding, double-hinged faucet cost more than I made in a year. Had I not been a prisoner, I might have enjoyed the extravagance.
After programming the wall unit, I stepped into the shower. I yelped when water, actual hot, steaming water, burst from the pipes. I almost jumped out of my skin, in fact. But as the water continued to rain upon me, I relaxed. It felt so…good. Odd, but good. Soothing. No wonder people used to bathe this way.
When I emerged, I was deliciously wet, my muscles unknotted. A new gown was waiting for me upon the bed, this one crisscrossed pink and creamy white. Pink, for the love of God. Scowling, I slithered my moist body into the ultra-soft material and sank onto the bed. I stared up at the vaulted ceiling. Why me?
Usually I didn’t sleep at night, since I had to be on the street, prowling for predators. I slept during the day. Yet, as I listened to the wind howl outside the window, and heard the branches scratch against the glass, my eyelids began to feel heavy. The mattress was soft…so soft.
Sleep soon claimed me.
Dreams instantly overtook my mind. This time, I saw Dare, only he wasn’t a child. He appeared eighteen, yet his eyes held a fountain of worldly, seedy knowledge that had never been there before. I ran to him. He didn’t open his arms. He turned away from me.
I ground to a halt, my stare boring into his back. Why had he done that? Why had he turned away? He’d never done that before.
His form twisted, and suddenly I was chasing an alien through a shopping mall. A Mec. His skin pulsed green with his fear as he looked over his shoulder at me. He shoved humans aside in his haste to escape. I had my gun drawn and finally had a clear shot. I fired.
Bull’s-eye.
He tumbled down, taking a human female with him. She screamed. And then all went silent. I raced to the body and kicked him aside, intending to free the woman. Her features were frozen. The Mec had stabbed her on the way down.
I dropped to my knees in horror.
“Arise, Mia,” someone in the crowd said, a lyrical vibration in the undercurrents of their voice. “Kyrin returns soon.”
I awoke with a gasp, my fingers gripping the sheet.
My gaze darted left and right. I was alone. Yet the words Kyrin returns soon still rang in my ears. Confusion consumed me as my dreams replayed in my mind. First, Dare rejected me. Then my vision spoke directly to me. Both were new occurrences, and I didn’t know what to make of either of them.
At least, if Dream Mia was to be believed, Kyrin was alive and well and due here at any moment.
I shoved my way from the bed, dislodging my limbs from the tangle of linens. When my feet hit the carpet, I glanced down and frowned with distaste. I still wore the pink gown; the flimsy thing hadn’t magically disappeared. Turning in every direction, I blinked at my image in the wall mirror. I looked too feminine, like I was weak and incapable and needed a big strong man to take care of me. I much preferred my huntress slacks and top. And boots. God, I loved my boots. Ass-kicking wasn’t much fun in anything else.
I sailed past the bedroom entrance, down the polished stair-case, and into the kitchen, where the sweet scent of caffeine greeted me. Several Arcadian servants, both male and female, flittered about with morning chores. All but one sped from the room after spotting me.
“Coffee,” I said to the remaining woman. I plopped onto a waiting barstool. “I need coffee.”
“I get. I get for you,” she said. She possessed the white hair and purple eyes common to her kind, yet she lacked the grace and facial beauty I’d seen in the others. She offered me a soft smile. “You like sugar?”
“You have real sugar?”
“Yes.”
I usually took it as thick as motor oil, but I couldn’t resist real sugar. “Make it half and half, then. Half coffee. Half sugar.”
She nodded her approval and dried her hands on her gauzy apron. “Glennie like hers that way, too.”
Pensive, I tilted my chin and watched her bustle about, shuffling through cabinets, lifting a crystal pitcher. My ears perked as she hummed a song under her breath. Here was an alien who didn’t cower in fear at my very presence. She appeared calm, relaxed even. Unconcerned.
“Mind if I ask you a few questions, Glennie?”
“Ask, ask,” she said. “I glad to answer.”
“How long have you known Kyrin?”
“Oh, I do not know,” she said, steam wafting around her as she poured my drink into a plain black mug. “Long time. By your standards, at least.”
When she handed me the fragrant liquid, I gratefully laced my fingers around the offering. I allowed myself a tentative sip. Perfect, and so deliciously sweet. Not too hot, not too cold. I sucked down the rest. If I’d been alone, I would have licked the cup clean.
“Exactly how long?” I probed.
Turning back to her duties, she lifted her strong shoulders in a shrug. “Fifty years, I guess.”
I nearly choked from fluid inhalation and pushed my cup aside. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, no. I never kidding.”
I’d known the Arcadians stopped aging physically after a certain point in their lives, but actually hearing the words fifty years associated with the virile-looking Kyrin astounded my mind. The man who had kissed me so passionately was…what? Eighty years old? Ninety?
“How old is he?” I asked.
Again, the servant shrugged. “Three hundred Earth years would be my guess.”
My jaw dropped. Three hundred f**king years old. I was attracted to a man, had kissed a man, who should have needed diapers and calcium supplements.
Why was I even surprised? I wondered next. Of course I’d fall for a guy like that. I’d never lived a normal life. Why start now?
“Does he treat you well?” I asked.
Slivers of awareness stroked the back of my neck, and tingles prickled along my spine. A low heat kindled deep in my belly. A palpable surge of relief and desire swept me. The coffee mug shook in my hands as I resisted the urge to spin around.
Kyrin had returned.
How could I long to kiss him and choke him at the same time?
Unaware, or unconcerned, Glennie kept her back to me, to Kyrin. She clasped a rag in her hand and continued to scrub the counter clean. “He is a true Arcadian,” she answered. “Proud, honorable. Courageous. He treat me very well.”