couldn't let it change, not after everything else I'd been through recently.
'The whole point of the seal imprinting its magic was to mask Jerome's prison! Of course you wouldn't feel it.'
'The seal hides it from anyone not actively seeking it. I am, and I'm telling you it's not here.'
'Maybe it's because you're not strong enough.'
With a sigh, Roman knelt down behind me. 'Georgina, stop.'
'Damn it! He has to be here!'
Roman reached from behind me and grabbed my arms. I struggled, but he was too strong. 'Georgina, enough. Jerome isn't here. The only thing unusual about this spot is the smell from the garbage can. I'm sorry.'
I struggled against him a little bit more and finally gave up. Apparently feeling certain I wouldn't fight anymore, Roman released me. I turned and looked at him, swallowing back my tears. 'This was our last chance,' I said softly. 'We don't have any time left.'
Roman studied me with his sea-green eyes. I saw no anger or threat on his face, only compassion. 'I'm sorry. And you don't know for sure that it's too late.'
'Ephraim will finish his assessment anytime now. And where are we going to go next? The Olympic Peninsula? Wenatchee? Hitting places at random was one thing when they were in our backyard. These others are too far away. We choose the wrong one, and that's it. Game over. We won't have time for anything else.'
'I'm sorry,' he repeated. From his face, I could see that he spoke the truth. 'I want to find him as much as you do.'
I stared beyond him out at the blue-gray water and the circling gulls. 'Why? Why do you want to find someone who tried to kill you?'
Roman smiled. 'Why do you cling to a romantic ideal when everything in your life has pretty much shown you that it's impossible?'
I think he'd spoken rhetorically and seemed surprised when I dragged my eyes from the water to look at him and answer. 'Because of a dream.'
He arched an eyebrow. 'What dream?'
I took a deep breath, and like that, the images flashed through my mind, just as vivid and real as they'd been the first time. 'Awhile ago…Nyx was here.'
He looked startled. 'What, the mother of time and chaos?'
'Yeah. Long story.'
'What is it about this city?'
'Beats me. Anyway, she was preying on my energy and distracting me by sending me these dreams. They were so real, Roman. You can't even imagine.' My voice was small as I spoke. 'I was washing dishes in a kitchen, and 'Sweet Home Alabama' was playing. In the other room, there was this little girl sitting on a blanket. She hurt herself, and I came in there to comfort her. She was maybe two or three, and she was mine . My daughter. Not someone else's. Not adopted. The daughter of my body. Aubrey was there too and this tortie and-'
'A what?'
'A tortie. A tortoiseshell cat.' I waited, but his expression was still blank. 'It's like a calico, but without any white. Just brown and orange patches. How can you be millennia old and not know that?'
'Because I don't subscribe to Cat Fancy magazine. And I can't believe you remember things like cat breed and background music.'
'It was so real,' I said quietly. 'More real than my own life. I remember everything.'
Whatever snarky retort was on his lips disappeared, and he turned serious again. 'I'm sorry I interrupted. So, what happened then? With you, the girl, and the cattery?'
'We were just all there together, warm and happy. Then a car pulled up outside, and I carried the girl out to look. A man was getting out, and he was the one . My lover, my husband, her father. The one my life centered around.'
'Who was he?' Roman asked, face intent.
I shook my head. 'I don't know. I couldn't see his face. It was dark out, and it was snowing. I just know that I loved him, and that he and the girl completed my life.'
Roman didn't answer right away as he turned my words over. 'But it was a dream.'
'I don't know. Nyx can show the future…she showed others theirs. She claimed this was mine, but it's impossible. I can't have any of that. And yet…'
'…and yet, you secretly hope it might be true.'
'Yeah. And when this whole stasis thing happened, I thought maybe…'
Again, Roman completed my words. '…maybe it could be true. After all, you could suddenly touch Seth. Maybe you could have a kid too?'
He'd guessed my secret hope. 'I didn't know. I still don't. Maybe I can get pregnant. I mean, my body is kinda sorta human, right?'
'Yes. But not enough. I don't know every detail of this whole demonic hierarchy and the way they channel their powers, but I know you can't have kids. Even if you seem human, you're still immortal. You still belong to Hell. I'm sorry.'
I held his eyes for a moment and then looked down. 'Well. I guess I can't really be surprised by that, huh? And I have no reason to trust Nyx anyway. Not after what she did.'
There it was. No kids. Another piece of the dream had slipped away from me. All I had left was the faceless man, the man I wanted to be Seth, and even that seemed unlikely now.
Roman tugged me up. 'Come on. Let's head back before the rain comes. We'll get some ice cream. Maybe that'll cheer you up.'
'I'm not really sure ice cream can fix my failed hopes and dreams or an impending demonic takeover.'
'Probably not. But it'll help.'
CHAPTER 23
Dante wasn't around when I got home, nor was he reachable by phone. That relieved me of any guilt I had about going out with Seth, meaning my only other obstacle was the accusatory look Roman gave me when we parted. I had no idea how he would spend his evening, and honestly, I didn't really want to know.
The problem Seth and I had with going out was that we pretty much had to avoid the city. We knew people in the suburbs too, but the odds of running into anyone were a lot smaller. The rainy weather Roman and I had experienced in the afternoon had blown over, and we suddenly found ourselves in semi-warm conditions that made it almost possible to go without a coat. I would have read the fortuitous weather as a divine blessing, if not for the fact that I'd given up on such beliefs long ago.
To my astonishment, though, Seth said he wanted to go downtown and felt pretty confident we wouldn't be spotted. He drove us over to Belltown, parking underneath one of the many high-rise apartment buildings that seemed to be sprouting up there every day. A mysterious key let him inside, and the elevator took us all the way to the top floor.
'What is this?' I asked when we entered a sprawling penthouse suite. It kind of made me wonder if I should have been setting my real estate aspirations in a different direction. I gave him a startled look. 'You don't own this, do you?' Seth having a secret vacation home wasn't entirely improbable.
'Belongs to someone I know who's out of town. I called in a favor.'
'You have friends I don't know?'
He gave me A Look, and I let the matter go. Besides, the place was so beautiful that I had plenty of distraction. The colors were all done in shades of navy and gray, and the furniture was plush and expensive. I especially liked the fact that the walls were decorated with huge reproductions of pre-Raphaelite work. Nowadays, abstract art was the trendy way to go, and it was nice to see something a little different.
