Owen and I both looked at him expectantly, neither of us getting it.
“Tristan, the knight who fell in love with the one he could never have,” Tristan said.
“Tristan and Isolde?” I asked, stifling a laugh. “That’s where you got your name?”
“Just the Knight part. I chose Tristan for a reason, but the last names come and go.” He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “So if you want the author to be Mrs. Tristan Knight, then we’ll do it. You will always be Alexis Ames, anyway. I can even be Tristan Ames.”
I laughed. “I know that makes sense, since you really are an Ames anyway, but it’s not happening. To me, you are Tristan Knight and I’ve waited forever to be your Mrs. I’ll keep Alexis Knight for myself. So you’ll need to be someone different for the author.”
He wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear, “Whatever you want, my love. To me, you’ll always be ma lykita.”
“So…pictures,” Owen said, obviously as a reminder of his presence. “We’ll take care of those tomorrow, before heading to Atlanta. I’ll need to get a camera.”
“We’ll need to go to Miami, too,” Tristan said.
“Dude! Did you not hear me? Getting you two to Atlanta is bad enough. That’s all.”
“Rina’s orders. Didn’t she tell you?”
Owen exhaled a frustrated sigh. “She just said to make sure you got your affairs in order. I didn’t know it meant a stop in Miami.”
“That’s where a lot of my affairs are,” Tristan said. “It won’t take long. We’ll go tomorrow. You can take pictures of the author and her beau while we’re there. Then we’ll head to Atlanta the next morning.”
“This will be fun,” Owen muttered, the sarcasm heavy. He shook his head slowly. “Sophia and Rina will meet us in Atlanta. I think they’re leaving in the morning and will get in late tomorrow night.”
“That’s ludicrous!” Tristan growled. “They should stay at the island. Do they realize how much danger they’re putting themselves in?”
Owen nodded. “I know, but they want to be here. And we’re going to need all the help we can get…just in case….”
He glanced over at me.
“This is so absurd,” I said. “They shouldn’t be coming if they’re putting their lives at risk—from me or anyone else. I thought the whole point of me being here is to keep me away from them.”
“Sophia was coming no matter what. She never meant for you to be alone for long, but she wanted to make sure Dorian was safe first,” Owen said. “And I guess Rina’s decided she needs to be here, too.”
“So we just lay low in Atlanta for another couple weeks?” I asked, remembering Mom saying the Ang’dora takes several weeks to complete. “What about Dorian?”
“Dorian’s in the safest place he could be,” Owen answered. “And Rina’s not sure about it taking that long. From what I’ve told them, they think you’re going faster than usual. That’s why they’re coming so soon.”
Once they settled on a plan, they both started talking enthusiastically about my abilities and the Ang’dora. According to my ancestors’ experiences, I should have been gaining power gradually, but as far as I knew, I couldn’t do anything I couldn’t do before, except see farther and run faster.
“You can flash, right?” Owen asked. “That’s how you got back last night.”
“Huh?” I asked, confused.
“No, I brought her back by myself,” Tristan said.
“You can flash with someone else?” Owen sounded impressed.
Tristan shrugged. “Never have before, but I guess so. It was necessary and it just happened.”
“Huh. Cool. Alexis, have you even tried?”
I looked at him as if he’d just asked me to fly. He may as well have—for me, flashing seemed nearly as impossible. “I don’t even know what to do.”
“Just think of where you want to be and let yourself go. If the desire to be there is strong enough, it just happens.” He nodded at the balcony. “See if you can get out there.”
“I thought the shield prevented flashing.”
“We can flash within it, just not through it. No going in and out.”
I furrowed my brows and narrowed my eyes, concentrating hard on wanting to be on the balcony, but nothing happened. I felt like an idiot.
“Guess not,” Tristan said with a chuckle. I shot a look at him. “But you look adorable trying.”
He winked at me and I forgave him…I couldn’t remember the problem.
“We’ll try some things in the morning,” Owen suggested. “You might have powers you just don’t know about yet and it would be good to know before we go on this insane trip to Miami. Of course, we’ll all have to go. I’m not leaving either of you alone.”
Neither Tristan nor I argued with his point. Only a major catastrophe could split us up right now. We weren’t willing to take the chance of another long-term or permanent separation.
Tristan retrieved the steaks from the grill while Owen and I gathered the rest of the food and took it out to the balcony. With plans made, Tristan and Owen slipped into a lighter conversation, discussing topics requiring a Y-chromosome to understand, or at least, to care about. I couldn’t keep my eyes off Tristan while they talked. I still couldn’t believe he sat right here next to me. And Tristan constantly touched me—my hand, my leg, my back, somewhere—as if he, too, wanted to be sure I really sat by his side.
Owen caught Tristan up on all the things that had gone on in the human world…well, mostly the sports world. Then they talked about the newest cars. Tristan’s eyes lit up when he discussed what he should get to replace the Ferrari. Owen had brought the car back from Key West this morning, he said, but the Daemoni had left it in ruins.
“I’ll take the damaged goods,” Owen offered. “There’s nothing I can’t fix.”
“I think we can work that out,” Tristan said, glancing at me and back at Owen. “It’s the least I can do.”
“I like that car,” I protested. Tristan fingered the key on my necklace.
“As long as you have that key, we can get whatever you want.” He winked again. He knew how to make me forget to argue with him.
“Cool. That car’s a chick magnet,” Owen said, grinning.
“Yes, it is.” Tristan chuckled. He seemed to be remembering something that didn’t include me because he gave me a guilty look. “Although…I found motorcycles attract the best ones.”
“We definitely need to get a new Harley,” I said with a laugh.
Owen shrugged. “I think I can make-do with the Ferrari.”
I looked at him and chuckled. Although I’d never considered him as attractive as Tristan, he was far from ugly. He could be pushing a shopping cart around as his only wheels and a number of girls would jump right in. He could probably get just about any girl simply by existing. Not only because he was good-looking, but because he was just so good. “Owen, you can’t seriously have any problems attracting girls.”
“Attracting isn’t really the issue.” He sighed. “I just haven’t found the right one.”
“Never? That’s kind of sad. And you’re how old?” I could be that way with Owen. He was like a brother—the older brother I’d always wanted, someone to stand up to the kids who teased me because I wouldn’t do it myself.
“I’m only sixty-eight.”
“Really? I thought you were ancient like everyone else.” Oops! I threw my hand to my mouth and looked guiltily at Tristan. He just chuckled. “You don’t look sixty-eight, of course, but you do look a tad older than when I met you. By a couple years, anyway.”
“Yeah, well, unlike you guys, I still age. Just very slowly.”
“You just don’t seem like you’re almost seventy, though. Mom doesn’t seem like her real age, but she feels older than she looks. So does Rina. You know what I mean? But you don’t.”
He pondered my question for a moment. “I look it at this way—if I get to look young, why not enjoy it and act like it, too? I have the looks, the body and the expectation to live carefree like a twenty-five-year-old bachelor. I’ll eventually have to act older and mature to match my looks, and I’ll be old and decrepit one of these days, so why not make the most of it now?”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” Tristan held his fist up and they bumped knuckles again. I rolled my eyes.
