Rapture's Edge

“Shut up, sickie.”

“You first.”

They shared a smile and a moment of profoundly relieved silence.

Eliana had crept into the room only moments before to find Melliane awake, trying to sit up in bed, her face pale and sweaty with the effort it took just to move. She’d gently pushed her back against the pillows and sat down, scolding, beside her.

“We’re at Alexi’s.”

Mel’s dark brows rose into twin quirks. She sniffed, a delicate flare of her nostrils, and looked Eliana up and down before giving her a faint, smug smile. “And Demetrius is here, too.”

Eliana flushed. “Can I just say that’s really annoying? And vaguely creepy?”

“Spill it.”

“It’s a long story.”

“Should be an interesting one.”

“You have no idea.”

Mel’s smile faded, and she regarded her very seriously. “You’d tell me if I was going to die, right? Because it feels like I am. My chest feels like there’s a really fat guy sitting on it, and the rest of me feels like I got hit by a truck.”

“You are not going to die,” Eliana enunciated, leaning closer. “I won’t let you. And neither will Demetrius.” Just saying his name made her feel funny inside, like a million tiny butterflies had opened their wings and started to dance. Her voice softened as her gaze dropped to the white bandage that was peeking out of the neck of Mel’s top. “He’s the one who fixed you up.”

An odd look crept over Mel’s face. “He’s good at that.” There was a little hitch in her voice. “Has he fixed you up yet?”

Eliana chewed her lip. “Insert another word that begins with an f into that sentence and you’ll get the general idea.”

Mel’s look became dire. “Details. I want details.”

Eliana tried not to smile and instead tried to look very stern and intimidating. “I think I might have liked you better when you were unconscious.”

Her attempt at intimidation failed. Mel said, “Don’t pretend you wouldn’t have made a little shrine for me with incense and candles and my picture—a good one, I hope—and cried over it all the time and prayed to it like one of those Buddhist nuns if I never woke up. You so totally would have.”

She brushed a stray wisp of black hair from her friend’s forehead, feeling her heart squeeze to a knot inside her chest. She would have done more than built a little shrine. She would have built a monument, adorned by stone angels with vast wings and fierce eyes, and there would have been wreaths of holly and inscriptions in marble and candles that never burned out.

Eliana shrugged, keeping her voice nonchalant. “I don’t have any pictures of you. I’d make some kind of crude drawing, where you’d be a tiny stick figure with a huge mouth and big scary teeth. I might light one candle. A little one. If I could find any laying around.”

Mel grinned.

There was a soft rap on the door, and then Alexi stuck his head in. “Doctor’s here. Is she—”

He caught sight of Mel awake in bed and broke into a smile. He swung the door open and entered. “Yes, she is. Welcome back to the land of the living, tiny, ferocious one.”

“The land of the extravagantly wealthy living,” Mel said, eying him. “How come I never knew you were rich before?”

“Why, do you like me better now?”

Her lips pursed, considering, and then she nodded. “It helps.” When he beamed she amended, “A little.”

Alexi walked toward them, still smiling, looking more like he’d just been handed a challenge instead of an insult. “What if I bring you breakfast in bed? Crepes with fresh cream and raspberries?”

“Oh,” she whispered, very serious, eyes wide, “you evil, evil man.”

“That’s a yes, she’ll like you more,” said Eliana. “She’s very easily swayed by food, in case you couldn’t tell. If you bring her chocolate, watch out.”

“Ah, an easy woman.” Alexi’s smile grew wider. “My absolute favorite.”

“I think the entire world is well aware of your fondness for easy women, Alexi,” Mel said dryly.

“On that note, I’m leaving,” said Eliana, rising from the bed. She looked to Alexi. “Where’s—”

“Godzilla Romeo is on the phone with someone downstairs, Butterfly.”

“How did you know I wasn’t asking about the doctor?”

He cut his gaze to hers, and his smile grew ironic. “Please. I didn’t get where I am in life by being clueless. But speaking of the doctor, will you send him in if you’re going? He’s just outside the door.”

She nodded, thought it best not to respond, and then blew Mel a kiss and walked to the door.

“Godzilla Romeo?” she heard Mel repeat as she left the room.

To which Alexi sighed and replied, “I know. There’s really no accounting for some people’s taste.”

She found Demetrius looking out a window in the vast, empty dining room on the main floor, gazing in silence at the spectacular view of the city beyond the glass. When she entered, he turned and looked at her.

And his face transformed.

It made her feel lighter, seeing the way his hard, sensuous mouth softened and curved, the way his eyes, settling on her face, lit up. His entire aspect changed as if he were bathed in sudden starlight, and his look of such obvious hope made her feel like she might float right out of her shoes. She wanted to curl up in that look and bask in it, like a cat in the sun.

To manage it, she bit the inside of her mouth.

Orgasms do not equal trust, Eliana. Don’t be a fool.

“Interesting outfit.”

She regarded the white silk robe he wore that was at least three sizes too small for him. It barely reached his knees, just barely managed to stay closed in front with a tie that was a little too strained, threatening to give at any moment and burst wide open, letting Demetrius in all his naked glory spill out.

“Clothes were wet. They’re in the dryer.” His smile turned into a smirk. “Pretty boy didn’t have anything that would fit me, so he gave me this.”

“Oh? No spare sets of giant black clothing hanging around in his closet? Strange.” She walked closer, slowly, a lifetime’s worth of ambivalence in every step.

He grinned. “No size seventeen shoes, either.”

She rolled her eyes. But now she was within arm’s reach, and he took advantage of it. He stretched out one long arm, caught hers, and pulled her against his body. He pressed his face to her neck, and they stood there like that for a moment, feeling each other’s heartbeats, their arms wrapped around one another, silent and still.

In another life, she thought, heart clenching, how I could have loved you. How beautiful it all could have been.

He murmured, “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking…” She sighed. No. Not going to go there. “Mel’s awake. She insulted me right off the bat, so I think she’s going to be okay.”

She felt his smile against her neck. “That’s good. And you? How are you?”

Confused. Conflicted. Worried. Unsettled. Unhinged.

She sighed again and pulled away. “I’m fine. But I have to go out for a while. There’s someone I have to go visit.”

He stiffened. He pulled back to stare at her, and his eyes, so soft and open only moments before, grew wary. “Someone? Who? Where? I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not. He’s a friend—”

“Another friend.” His voice had dropped dangerously low.

“Not like that, Demetrius. He helped me escape from the assassins—”

“What!” D hissed, suddenly livid and terrifying, even in the silly white robe. He gripped her upper arms.