One With the Shadows by Susan Squires Page B

Elders had sent him to find the stone. He had a purpose. That might be his only hope of finding a way back to what he had been.
    But he just couldn’t keep his mind on his work. His world had dissolved in chaos. The fires for instance. Were those really his doing? First the fires in Algiers, then LaRoque’s lodgings, and finally the girl’s … all started with spontaneous combustion and the only thing they had in common was … him. And the girl. She didn’t even seem to realize how odd it was that she could resist his powers of suggestion. In fact, it always came back to the girl … She was an exact opposite of him, in every way. She had no honor at all. A thief, a charlatan who seemed to be able to ignore what she didn’t believe in. But courageous, educated, thoughtful. He’d never encountered her like.
    Well, speak of the devil . That’s what she’d said to him that night in her rooms.
    He rose as the waiter let her in. She was wearing red again. Emilia, the unconscious donor of the wardrobe, loved red. This dress was burgundy, like new wine, with soft, loose sleeves and a waist just below her ribs in the latest fashion. Gian had never liked those high waists that refused to reveal a woman’s form. The bodice curved over the girl’s breasts. She wore a thick black ribband around her neck to hide the fading bruises Elyta had left. That would become a fashion, if the women of Firenze had eyes. It made her neck look slender and elegant. She had knotted her hair up hastily, for tendrils wisped around her neck and ears, but the effect was … attractive. She was so stupidly conscious of that scar. One didn’t even notice it after the first day or so. And except for that she was a diamond of the first water. He frowned. Something was bothering her. Her eyes glittered with fear and determination.
    She stalked in and stood, rod-straight, in the center of the room. The door closed behind her and still she did not move.
    He raised his brows. “Will you eat something?”
    Her jaws clenched. “I … I wonder if you would assist me with this clasp?” She came forward, hesitant. Her hand was clenched around a delicate silver chain until her knuckles were white. She opened it slowly. The garnet crucifix.
    Ahhhh. Gian could not help but smile. So, she was even more intelligent than he thought. She had put the clues together. Now she wanted to know for certain rather than run screaming away because she was courageous, and because she did not want to believe those clues, since that would mean that all things were possible whether you could see them and touch them or not.
    All those hours in the carriage he had half wanted to tell her what he was, perhaps in recompense for her revealing her own past. Or perhaps because he had revealed himself to no one except his mother and at some point that didn’t count. Or perhaps he had wanted to tell her because, in the telling, he might reveal his nature to himself. He knew little of himself these days, and what he knew appalled him. But now that the moment when he could reveal himself was on him, he knew he would hide the truth. Why spoil her certainty? Why burden her dreams with monsters? Why risk her revulsion? It was his job to tell her that monsters did not exist and keep her by him until he could see her safe.
    He nodded. “Of course.” She was actually holding her breath. He took the crucifix from her and undid the clasp. So many things people believed about his kind were myths, garlic and crucifixes among them. He’d never been dead. He was flesh and blood, as painful as that was at times. He glanced up. She was staring at him as though her life depended upon what she was seeing. “Will you turn round, or shall I clasp it behind your neck?”
    She seemed incapable of moving. So he leaned in and reached around her neck. His lips were inches above her hair. He could feel her heaving breath. He was strangely touched. And excited. He eased closer. Her breasts brushed his