that next time?”
“Not yet, no.”
“Not yet is good.” I kept sucking in air, but I wasn’t getting enough. “Then why am I stuck here?”
The space was gray and warm, bleak, its fabric shifting and twisting. Gaunt faces dotted the mist beyond where I sat, and Ambrose stood in profile, his hands shoved into the pockets of his slacks, a caricature of Linus. I drank in the sight of him, my curiosity finally sated, and I couldn’t fault him for his artistic license.
His skin was as pale as the first full moon in winter, his hair a ravaging flame around his head. His lips were so blue they were almost violet, his eyes full of shadows so deep no light had hope of penetrating them. Mist swirled around his ankles, black tendrils that resembled a wraith’s tattered cloak, another of his Linus-like affectations.
There was a reason Ambrose had hooked me from the start. No good could come of us meeting like this. Creatures like him homed in on the insecurities and desires of their potential hosts, and I had been ripe for the plucking. They used what they gleaned to seduce prey into leaning on their strength, their knowledge, their power, until the prey—now a host—toppled without their support.
Most of the time, their prey even thanked them for it.
I know I had, in the beginning.
“I wished to tell you that I am not what I once was and not yet what I will become.”
A bitter laugh twisted its way out of my throat. “Sure thing.”
“It has been an age since I learned a thing I did not already know.”
“Was it the Star Trek or the Star Wars trivia that won you over?”
“You have taught me compassion. I had none in life, and I have had none in death. You are a lens through which I see the world more clearly. Your perception fascinates me. Therefore, I propose an alliance.”
“Why now?” I coughed, the air too thick and cottony. “What brought this on?”
“You trusted me,” he said simply. “You placed your life in my hands and believed I would cradle it softly.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve been on good behavior recently.”
“I enjoy the chocolates,” he said solemnly. “I have never tasted the likes of which you treat me.”
A rattling cough moved through my chest, and I covered my hand only to pull away bloody fingers.
“You must go before it is too late.”
“Will we be able to do this again? Talk, I mean?”
“Only if you find yourself on death’s door may I hold it open for you.”
“I’ll take that as a no.” I wiped my hand on my pants. “Thanks, Ambrose.”
“We have centuries ahead of us, Amelie. Our kind may step in and out of time as we choose.”
A hard thump against my ribs stole what breath I had from me. “How long will we live?”
“We will live until we die.”
“As long as Midas?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“You will surpass him into eternity.”
Frost swept through me, chilling me to the bone. “I don’t want that.”
“We are bound to him.”
“How are we bound to him, exactly?”
“We are what we are, and we take what we need.”
“Are you saying our mate bond is…parasitic?”
No wonder it didn’t work right. Midas and I weren’t soul mates. We were conduits. For Ambrose.
“We are symbiotic.”
“What does he get out of it, then?”
“The bond flows both ways.”
“I don’t follow.”
“He may take from us and live, or we may take from him and die.”
“He can live with us forever,” I said slowly, wrapping my head around it. “Or we can die with him?”
“Yes.”
“Can I get back to you on that?”
“Take all the time you need.”
Amused by his own wit, he laughed, velvet-soft and inviting, the way I sometimes heard in nightmares.
“All right.” I rubbed the tender skin over my breastbone. “In that case, I’ll—”
Light exploded around me, piercing my eyes and shredding the misty gray landscape like tissue paper.
Lifting a hand in silent farewell, Ambrose watched over me until he too was ripped to tattered nothings.
“Hadley.”
Compressions strained my ribs until they creaked.
“Hadley.”
Warm lips covered mine, and oxygen swept into my starving lungs.
“Hadley.”
The voice murmuring my name like a prayer cracked as Midas attempted to save my life.
“Hadley.”
“We’ve got a pulse,” Lisbeth announced, her delicate fingers on my wrist. “Give her room, guys.”
No surprise, the guys did not give her room. I woke with both of them leaning over me. Plus Ambrose.
“What happened?” Midas held fists of my curls like that might have held me to life. “You were…”
“Dead,” Lisbeth finished for him. “Your heart stopped for a