Page 111 of Edge of Oblivion (Night Prowler 2)
“Xander!”
Even in hell he recognized that voice. It cut through his dreamy laxity like a knife through butter, and his eyes flew open. And his heart—oh, his heart—
“You’re awake,” breathed Morgan, leaning close over him with her hair draped all around her face like a veil of burnished, silken bronze.
If he wasn’t already dead, he was pretty sure he would die of a heart attack.
“I...don’t...think so,” he murmured, staring up at this beautiful apparition. He reached out and touched a finger to her satin cheek. Her irises burned vivid emerald, that circle of yellow around the pupil blurred just slightly by the moisture welling in her eyes. “This is a wonderful dream, though.
Very realistic.”
She laughed and sobbed at the same time, then pressed the back of a shaking hand against her mouth. She hitched up her dress and sat beside him, and for the first time he re
alized he was on a bed.
In a room. No—a cabin? The sky shone deepest azure through a round porthole edged in brass set high in the wood-paneled wall; the ceiling was painted aqua and populated with dolphins and seaweed and eels slinking through coral. The spoked ship’s wheel clock on the dresser beside the bed read 4:17 p.m.
“It’s not a dream,” she said, “and here, I’ll prove it to you.”
Then his beautiful ghost leaned over and pressed her lips against his. When she drew back, they were both out of breath.
“Well,” said Xander. “I did say it was realistic. Perhaps a little more proof is in order.” He pulled her down to him, ignoring the sudden pain between his shoulder blades, and kissed her hard and deep with his hands pressed against her face, his fingers threading through her hair.
She broke away first—again—and quietly laughed. “You’re feeling better.”
“I thought you were a fiend.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Did you now?”
“And this was hell. I thought I was dead. How am I not dead?”
Her eyes grew soft. She brushed back his hair from his forehead and smiled. “Well...I sort of saved your life. Again.”
Xander took a breath. “Oh. Not very manly of me, needing to be rescued so much, is it?”
“It is an awful lot of work,” she agreed, somberly nodding. Then she lifted a shoulder and dropped her gaze to the knitted azure blanket across his chest. She picked at the material, chewed on her lower lip. Her voice lowered. “Someone has to look after you, though. And since I’m so...fond of you, well, I suppose it might as well be me.”
As his heart swelled inside his chest, Xander had to work very hard not to smile. He reached for her hand. “We can save each other,” he whispered, and pressed his lips to her knuckles.
She bit her lip, and that moisture welling in her eyes finally overflowed. Tears tracked down her cheeks. She buried her face in his chest.
“You found me,” she said, muffled, into the blanket. “You came for me, Xander, you found me
—”
“I’ll always come for you, amada,” he murmured, stroking her hair. “Don’t you know that?
You’re my heart. You’re my soul. I’m not going to let a little thing like you being kidnapped by a madman and held in his secret underground dungeon keep me from my heart and soul. You’re not getting away from me that easily.”
She sobbed into the blanket.
“Hush now, sweet girl.” He gathered her into his arms and held her against him until she quieted and all her tears were spent. “Tell me what happened.”
She sighed, snuggled closer to him, and began to talk. She told him how the males of the catacombs had helped her, how they’d cared for him in their infirmary, how close he’d come to death.
She told him how they’d quashed the rebellion that had stirred when the other members of the colony learned of the King’s death, how they’d installed the one named Celian as the new leader, how the King’s daughter had fled the colony with her brother and a handful of others and had not yet been found.
“But the best part is,” she said quietly in conclusion, “now that I did what I was sent to Rome to do, I’ve been given a full pardon. And the Queen has honored her promise to me.” She lifted her eyes and gazed at him. Light from the window caught in her hair, warmed the tips of her lashes. “I can go wherever I want. Live wherever I want. I’m free.”
