What on earth had I been thinking? How would I have ever found him? And then, exactly, how would I—little me—have helped him escape against all those demons? The idea sounded ludicrous now. Tristan’s humorless chuckle told me he thought the same thing.
“Trust me, I will teach you everything you need to know now. I’m going to prepare you for everything,” he said. “For now, just picture a large network of tunnels and caves, under the Taymyr Peninsula in northern Siberia. An underground city. All of their cities are underground, and this one is their largest—their capital, in a sense. I’d spent a lot of time there in my past life, knew it well. But they’d expanded the caves, dug down deeper. They kept me in a new part…far below the surface of the earth.”
“Oh,” I breathed. “You really were cut off from the entire world.”
With the darkest of tones, he answered, “As far away as possible…and as close to the bowels of Hell as you can get.”
He fell silent, providing no more details, but the image of a cold, dark cave blossomed in my mind. I envisioned him sitting alone on a dirt floor, the stone walls curving overhead. I could almost hear distant screams of terror and pain from other caves and tunnels. I felt his dread. The dread of knowing someone or something would be coming any time to deliver his own torture. Not knowing when or even if there would ever be an end to it all. My heart squeezed and I fought back a shudder.
I could only imagine the loneliness he had felt. I, at least, had had Dorian and Mom and even Rina and Owen. He’d had no one. I reached my hand up and cradled the side of his face with it. He leaned his head into my hand as I stroked his cheekbone with my thumb. It felt like anything I did was so little…not enough for what he deserved. But he seemed to appreciate every little gesture. He’d been isolated from even the least bit of humanity, just when he’d learned the importance and joy of it…what it felt like to be touched and held by someone who loved him. He could only hold on to those memories, relive them in his mind.
I wondered if perhaps we had been somehow connected and that was why I had those same memory- dreams every night for the entire time he was away…and then they all but stopped, about the same time he’d escaped. We had both needed those memories. Perhaps we even shared them at the same time. And that connection told me I just needed to hold on to him, wait for him, although everyone else thought of me as pathetic for doing so.
I didn’t know if the idea held any truth, but, I had learned in the last couple days, anything was possible in our world. And it was really a nice thought to hold onto in the midst of all we’d been through. So I shared it with him.
“Huh, it’s an interesting theory,” he said. We sat in silence as he thought through it. “I can see the possibility of it, especially since your blood runs through my veins.”
“Like vampires?” I asked with surprise. “I mean, the connection vampires have with those whose blood they’ve sucked?”
“Exactly. But my body wouldn’t burn through it for energy like they do. So, your theory’s a strong possibility.”
He just confirmed what I’d once believed to be fiction—the connection between vamps and their victims— and something about that gnawed at the back of my mind. I decided it was just lingering shock because nearly everything I’d been writing about was real.
“So, tell me the ending,” I said, returning to his story. “How did you escape this time?”
Chapter 10
Tristan grinned but not his normal smile. This one took my breath for a different reason. It actually looked…wicked.
“I’d been planning it for a while, ever since I first heard they were coming after you. They’re slow to make such decisions, which they should be, of course, especially when their reasons aren’t credible. I paid attention, analyzing everything, learning the new areas as they moved me around. I hid the fact that I’d become immune to the spells they used and let them believe they still controlled me completely. So they became relaxed with me, keeping me around as they discussed their plans, still absorbed with their own pride and believing I’d change my mind about them. I learned what I needed to know to escape and when I heard they were executing their plan for you, I executed my own plan. I surprised the hell out of them—they created me, yet they still underestimate me. I took out a few of their strongest on my way. I quite enjoyed that.”
Now I understood the nefarious grin. Not actually evil, just vengeful.
I didn’t know what to say. He stayed with them to keep me safe and then escaped to protect me. Even while captured, sitting in the closest thing to Hell, he worried about me. And I only thought about why he hadn’t come back sooner. In other words, I worried about me, too. Even now, the only thoughts coming to mind were selfish or, at least, minimal. I wish you had come back sooner? I’m glad you’re back? Thank you?
“What are you thinking?” he finally asked after a few minutes of silence.
“About how much I love you and how miniscule that sounds compared to what I actually feel.”
He nuzzled his face in my hair and murmured, “Hearing you say you love me will never be miniscule to me. It’s the best thing these ears could ever hear. And I’ve been waiting a very long time to hear it again.”
I turned to him and brushed my lips across his. “I love you, my sweet Tristan.”
It still didn’t sound like enough to me, but a glorious grin spread across his face as he closed his eyes. “Mmm…that’s what I’m talking about.”
Every little gesture was important to him. I needed to remember that—to never discount anything. He pressed me tighter against him and I listened to his heart, strong and steady and comforting. I slid my hand up his chest and neck, around the contours of his face and into his hair.
“Your hair is so dark,” I whispered. “It used to be lighter, the color of sand. Dark sand, anyway. Now it’s like caramel.”
“It hadn’t seen sun in many years.”
I blinked back the tears at the reminder as I let the silky strands fall through my fingers. “And it’s so long.”
“Do you like it?”
“I don’t know.” I continued running my fingers through it. “It is sexy.”
His eyebrows jumped and a smile played on his lips. “Maybe I should have left it longer.”
“It was longer?” Then I remembered seeing him—when I thought he was a delusion—standing in the park, long hair whipping in the breeze.
“I pulled it into a ponytail and cut it off to a more reasonable length. I hope you’ll finish the job for me.”
I laughed. “You want me to cut your hair? No way.”
“So you do like it?”
“That’s not exactly what I meant. I mean, I guess I like it. You kind of look like the Tristan in Legends of the Fall….”
He raised an eyebrow. “Him again?”
I smiled, also remembering the conversation many years ago. “Yeah, but…”
He studied my face. “But what?”
“But you also look like you belong on the front of a romance novel or something.”
He laughed. “Okay, it’s definitely coming off then.”
“Well, I’m not doing it. I have no idea how to cut hair and I’m not ruining it.” But I did have an idea. “You want to feel something incredible?”
“I have you in my arms. What could feel more incredible than this?”
“Hmm…you’re right. It can wait.” I leaned my head against his chest.
“You have me curious now.”
With a grin, I rolled out of his arms and retrieved my brush. I knelt behind him on the bed and brushed his hair, slowly and gently, the way I liked mine to be brushed. Mom had brushed it a lot for me over the years, because sometimes I hadn’t cared enough to do it myself and it had helped to relax me.
“Mmm…you’re right. It’s almost as good as foreplay,” Tristan said with a shudder.
