Page 14 of Night's Reckoning
Her voice whispered in his ear, an echo of the wind. “Don’t leave me.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“You will.”
He shifted so he could look into her eyes. The deep grey had always confused him. Her eyes should have been brown. Sable. Mink. Some rich velvet tone that he could fall into.
But they were grey. Had they changed thousands of years ago when her body had frozen in time? Had they turned the color of storms and clouds and the violent wind she controlled? He had never understood her eyes.
“Have you always been this way?” he asked.
She blinked. “You don’t know me.”
“I do.”
“You don’t.” Her eyes were sad.
He felt the anger in his chest. “Don’t pity me.”
“You don’t know me. You never did.”
He sat up and she was gone. He stared at the ocean as the moon reflected off the water and the wind whispered overhead.
You don’t know me.
* * *
Ben triedto wipe the dream from his thoughts as he sat at the bar in Piazza Trilussa. He was waiting for Ronan, who had grown up in Trastevere and would likely never reside anywhere else, even if he lived to be a thousand.
Ronan had always been a quiet man with an unobtrusive presence. That was until you noticed him. After you noticed him, he was impossible to ignore. As a human, he’d sauntered stylishly in the most current fashion, so effortlessly cool that both women and men were drawn to him like flies to honey. He lived on the edges of a party, waiting for people to come to him. And they did.
Ronan had practiced being not the most dominant personality in a room but the most intriguing. It didn’t surprise Ben one bit that Emil Conti had offered to turn him into a vampire.
A few moments after eleven, his old friend appeared.
“Ben.” Ronan held out his hand.
“Ronan.” Ben stood and shook it.
“So formal?” Ronan smiled slightly, holding on to Ben’s hand. “Be honest. Am I strange to you now?”
Ben shook his head. He didn’t know what he was feeling, but he released Ronan’s hand, leaned forward, and embraced him before he kissed both cheeks in greeting. “You will never be strange to me. At least, not any stranger than you were before.”
Ronan smiled, carefully concealing his fangs if they were down. “It’s what I wanted. I’ve known for a long time.”
“Then I’m happy for you.” Ben sat down and Ronan followed. “Are you enjoying wine yet? This is a nice white.”
Senses were heightened once you turned from the mortal life to the immortal. Bland food and drink was the norm.
“Some red wine would be good.” Ronan raised a hand and signaled a server to order another glass. “Did you order food?”
“A little,” Ben said. “I wasn’t sure what you had in mind for tonight.”
Ronan was dressed in a soft grey-brown jacket that emphasized his blue eyes and dark hair. He wore a ripped T-shirt under his jacket and looked like he could go anywhere, from a club to a gallery to a quiet bookstore.
“I just wanted to meet with you,” he said. “Have a drink. Catch up. You’ve been in Rome for months now, and I’ve run into Fabi a few times, but I keep missing you.”
Ben smiled. “I’ve been working.”
