Pure Ecstasy

by Aja James

  “When?”

  “Two hours from now at midnight, if my decryption of the notes are correct,” Grace answered. “At one of the old estates belonging to Viktor Corvinus in upstate New York.”

  “And here I’m not even invited,” Jade said with a put upon sigh.

  Then flashed a full set of gleaming fangs in a chilling smile.

  “All the more reason to crash their party.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Let’s call it a night,” Ere said quietly, noticing Sophia’s haggard face and drooping eyes.

  They’d spent the entire day inside the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. It had one of the largest collections on Persian history in the United States, most of the reference materials not available nor summarized online.

  They’d met up at 10am in the morning when the library opened, and Ere pulled some strings to have the Persian section remain available to them on extended hours.

  They’d wolfed down sandwiches for a light lunch. He kept them supplied with bottles of water. But other than that and a few bathroom stops, they hadn’t paused for break in twelve hours straight.

  Sophia had been relentless, going from shelf to shelf, stacking two long tables full of books and files.

  Ere didn’t envy the librarian who would have to clean up after them.

  She nodded in agreement to his proposal, rubbing her eyes with her fists.

  He wanted to grab her hands and tell her that they were bloodshot enough without her scrambling them even more.

  “Why don’t I walk you home,” he offered, pulling out her chair to help her rise.

  She got to her feet on wobbly legs and inhaled deeply, as if she hadn’t breathed properly the whole time she’d been immersed in her research.

  He steadied her with gentle hands on her shoulders, then abruptly let go when she seemed to have found her center of balance.

  The chemistry between them had changed.

  He no longer wanted to flirt with her as he did before. And he knew that it was because she had changed.

  Perhaps he had as well.

  “I don’t want to go home yet,” she murmured tiredly. “I want to stop by and see some friends.”

  “I’ll walk you there,” he offered. “It’s late. You shouldn’t be out alone.”

  “I can handle myself,” she said reflexively, with a confidence that came from experience.

  “But come with me because we’re friends,” she offered, a ghost of a smile curving her lips. “I want to relax and decompress at my favorite tea and dessert shop.”

  “Dark Dreams?”

  She nodded with more enthusiasm than she’d shown for months.

  “We’d made plans to go there together, hadn’t we?” she recalled. “But…”

  She shrugged. A lot had happened since they casually made those plans.

  “Let’s do it,” he agreed.

  Together, they left the library and took the subway to Brooklyn.

  Sophia felt somehow comforted by Ere’s presence, even though they didn’t talk much on the way. She was too in her own head to strike up a conversation, and he seemed content to leave her to her thoughts.

  She noticed that something about him had changed, though she couldn’t put her finger on it.

  Perhaps it was the way he treated her. He was no longer openly flirtatious and teasing.

  But it was more than that.

  He seemed to be trapped inside his own head as well.

  Not for the first time, she appreciated that she didn’t know much about her ex teaching assistant. Despite herself, she was curious. And as she was no longer that shy, insecure girl she’d been in her Freshman year, she pursued her curiosity.

  “I don’t even know your last name, Ere,” she thought out loud. “I just realized that. Professor McGowen never mentioned it either. Your email just says ‘e_u’ before the address.”

  “Uhhurum.”

  She looked up at him, her eyes focusing for the first time on something besides her research.

  “‘Left behind,’” she translated. “That’s the ancient Akkadian word for ‘one who is left behind.’”

  Startled, he straightened in his subway seat.

  “That’s a strange coincidence,” he said after a weighty pause. “And stranger still that you would know ancient Akkadian, if indeed my name has anything to do with the language.”

  She stared intensely into his dark chocolate brown eyes.

  “Yes,” she murmured, “very strange.”

  “We’re here,” he said as the railcar pulled to a stop. “After you.”

  They alighted from the subway train and walked leisurely together in the direction of Dark Dreams.

  Neither felt the need to break the silence, though it was less comfortable and more portentous than before.

  Sophia snuck glances at Ere whenever she thought he wasn’t looking.

  There was something about him she just couldn’t put her finger on. The colors of his soul were cool and subdued, but not by nature.

  No, his colors seemed forcibly subdued.

  Disguised, even.

  She recalled that when she’d first encountered him she thought he might have had a Pure soul. There was a core of orange, yellow and red flames within the block of ice that seemed to encapsulate him.

  Sometimes the flames burned brighter. Other times, like now, she couldn’t detect them at all.

  Sophia’s Gift was the ability to see souls—and much more—but she’d rather not dwell on her other powers, newly Awakened. She’d seen countless souls across the ages of her incarnations. Sometimes, the colors of one soul would change over time, but the intrinsics always stayed the same.

  Ere’s soul, however, seemed to metamorphose whenever she tried to look into him. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought she was looking at different souls at different times.

  But he was always Ere.

  His looks and mannerisms, his voice, his personality stayed consistent. Only his soul seemed to flare with different temperatures as if he were turning the dials on a four-burner stove.

  Abruptly, he turned and stared back at her, catching her in the act of scrutinizing him.

  She didn’t look away. Instead, she stared even harder at him.

  “What do you see, Sophia?” he asked in a voice so hushed it was almost a whisper.

  She was silent for many moments.

  Then she answered, “Beauty and pain. Faith and hopelessness. Determination and despair.”

  He stopped walking, and she did too.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the jingling of bells as Mama Bear, also known as Estelle Martin, opened the door to her shop, Dark Dreams.

  “Sophia!” the elderly lady exclaimed happily. “I’m so glad you came! Come, come, I’ve just put a fresh batch of spicy tea on the stove, and the scones in the oven are almost done. You’re just in time.”

  With a slightly delayed reaction, Sophia turned away from Ere to face the owner of Dark Dreams, and a real smile broke through the overwhelming sadness and loss that shrouded her over the last several months.

  Who could resist Mama Bear?

  And given that Sophia knew who she really was beneath the disguise, all the trials she’d overcome, all the impossible feats she’d accomplished, Sophia was even more inspired to take hope in Mama Bear’s presence.

  Once inside the cozy shop, Sophia pulled Ere up beside her and introduced, “Mama Bear, this is Ere. He used to be my teaching assistant Freshman year.”

  She looked at Ere and added, “He’s my friend.”

  The gray-blonde haired lady wiped her ruddy hands on her apron and looked up at the tall, handsome young man with longish hair pulled back from his fallen-angel visage by a simple tie at the nape of his neck.

  “Have we met before?” she asked somewhat quizzically, squinting at him.

  He smiled a devastating smile at her.

  “I’m afraid not,” he replied. “I
would remember such a ravishing maiden as yourself, ma’am.”

  She tilted her head and considered him, not so easily taken in by his pretty words.

  “You remind me of someone,” she mused.

  His smile faltered a little, but he was saved from having to reply as a tall blond male with arresting turquoise eyes walked toward them from the back of the shop.

  “Welcome, Sophia,” the man greeted warmly, embracing his guest in a brief hug.

  When he turned to Ere, the young man seemed slightly flummoxed by his appearance.

  He reached out a hand to shake, and Ere almost hesitated too long before grasping it.

  “I’m Tal,” the older man said, though he didn’t look older than early to mid-thirties.

  In fact, he seemed to get younger the longer they looked at him.

  Nevertheless, when he looped a possessive arm around Mama Bear’s waist, and she leaned into him with a contented sigh, there was no doubt that the two were an item, despite their drastic contrast in age.

  She looked to be in her sixties if she was a day, and he was a male in his prime. She was plump and motherly, and he looked as if he were tempered from steel, his leanly muscular body powerfully masculine in the extreme, though he didn’t dress to emphasize his physique, his clothes made of loose, flowing material. The sleeves rolled up to his elbows revealed a worker’s forearms and hands. Strong veins raised in his skin wrapped around his arms and large, long-fingered, calloused hands.

  But when Ere stared into the other man’s eyes, Tal’s turquoise gaze looked through him, rather than into him.

  Tal was blind.

  The kettle chose that moment to screech, and Tal moved away from Mama Bear.

  “That’s the tea. I’ll get it. You three have a seat. I’ll just be a moment.”

  Ere watched with something like awe as Tal maneuvered gracefully through the shop to the kitchen in the back as if he could see everything as clear as day.

  “Is he…?”

  Ere didn’t realize he asked the half-formed question out loud until Mama Bear answered.

  “He lost his sight some time ago,” she confirmed, her voice husky with emotion, though she tried to mask it with a no-nonsense air.

  “But I thought he was getting better,” Sophia said with apprehension and alarm. “I thought all of his wounds were—”

  “Yes, yes,” the elderly lady replied, cutting her off. “He has been healing beautifully. Sometimes, his eyes can perceive light, but then he’d regress and darkness descends again. I don’t know how to help him. I feel so…”

  She shook her head as if to snap herself out of the despairing train of thought.

  “But we’re doing great,” she said with more cheer than she felt. “Come and sit down for a visit. I haven’t seen you in so long, Sophia.”

  She looked to Ere.

  “And I always enjoy meeting new faces. Especially when they’re young and good looking.”

  Ere gave her a rakish lopsided smile.

  They made their way to the booth toward the back of the shop.

  Mama Bear had expanded the seating area to include two tea tables, four chairs and a comfortable booth that sat another four or five. Now that she had more friends who came to visit, she wanted to make sure she could accommodate everyone.

  As soon as they sat down, Mama Bear said, “You two look so lovely together. Are you…”

  “Oh no,” Sophia was quick to answer. “Ere and I are just friends.”

  “Speak for yourself, Sophia,” her research partner quipped.

  He looked at Mama Bear.

  “I tried my best to entice Sophia my way, but her judgement is too good to fall for me.”

  Though he obviously meant for the comment to be teasing, both women looked at him rather closely, as if they heard something different than what he’d said.

  Again, he was rescued from their probing gazes by Tal’s arrival, carrying a large tray laden with hot tea and fresh scones.

  Once he set the items down, and everyone took their share, Sophia observed, “You’re looking exceedingly handsome, Tal. I always thought you were gorgeous, but these past few months since I last visited have done wonders. You look younger every day.”

  Said male seemed uncomfortable with the compliment and lowered his eyes, while Mama Bear wrapped her arms tightly around one of his.

  “Better watch it, little girl,” she said with a soft growl, half in humor, half deadly serious. “You know how jealous I can get.”

  Sophia grinned over the rim of her teacup, bringing it to her smiling mouth.

  “Only admiring, pussy cat,” she baited. “Not trespassing.”

  Ere watched the byplay with blatant curiosity.

  The two women teased each other and the male between them as if they were of an age, but physically, they were generations apart.

  But that was not the main reason he watched them so closely. They acted as if they’d known each other for a very long time, longer than lifetimes.

  “You’re neglecting your handsome companion, too busy ogling mine,” Mama Bear said to Sophia.

  Then, she turned to Ere and asked, “Do you live here in the City, Ere? Didn’t Sophia study in Cambridge, Massachusetts? Did you move here from Boston like she did?”

  He nodded, sipping his tea.

  “I reside here primarily. But I keep an apartment in Back Bay, Boston, because I do joint-research with the universities there and am part of the adjunct faculty for Harvard and Northeastern University.”

  Mama Bear sighed, impressed. “So young, and already a professor! You must be very smart and accomplished.”

  Ere demurred with genuine embarrassment at her praise.

  “Yes, you’re quite impressively knowledgeable,” Sophia remarked, turning her probing gaze upon him.

  “How many PhDs do you have again?”

  Ere had the sense that she wasn’t simply asking him a casual question. She was starting to put too many pieces of his puzzle together.

  Glibly, he redirected the conversation to safer terrain, and though Sophia threw him a look that said she wasn’t letting him off the hook, for the sake of socializing with Mama Bear and Tal, she put aside her interrogation.

  When they finally headed home, it was already past midnight.

  Ere flagged down a taxi, but didn’t get in with Sophia. Perhaps he felt that she needed space.

  Perhaps he was the one who needed more privacy.

  Regardless, they parted ways a block away from Dark Dreams, with a promise from Ere to continue helping Sophia with her research, though no date was set for their next meeting.

  Sophia looked out the rear window of her taxi as she drove away.

  Ere waved goodbye and turned to walk in the opposite direction.

  She’d seen the colors of his soul flare again in Mama Bear’s shop. The flames had blazed so brightly, she thought he was someone else entirely in their presence.

  But now, as he rounded a corner and disappeared from sight, he was cold as ice again.

  For the first time, she asked herself the question where Ere was concerned:

  Who was he?

  Who was he really?

  *** *** *** ***

  “How is everything at the Shield?”

  “Good,” Ayelet answered, looking into one of the many giant screens in the tech center at the Pure Ones’ new base.

  Seth gazed back at her from his side, and she noticed immediately that he himself wasn’t looking too good.

  “I’m surprised you’re calling me using technology rather than projecting your aura,” she noted.

  He tipped the corners of his mouth in the semblance of a careless smile, but it looked more like a grimace of pain.

  “Why let good technology go to waste,” he replied.

  Ayelet refused to be distracted by his careless quips.

  “What happened, Seth? An SOS call a few nights ago, followed by an all clear, then radio silence for days? I never pegged you for the
dramatic sort.”

  Instead of explaining himself, he asked, “Did the team look into the coordinates I gave? Find anything?”

  “You mean the scene where your vampire queen turned a fellow Dark noble into ashes with her bare hands?”

  Seth just continued to look at her through the screen, unruffled and enigmatic as always.

  “Yes, actually,” she answered.

  “We did find something. Morgan gave it to his contact in the Chosen. We managed to salvage both SUVs’ computers. We don’t have the technical skills to hack into them here, especially since one of them was blank and the other was too fried from the explosion to repair. But I believe the Cove has resources to make use of it.”

  Seth nodded.

  Devlin Sinclair and his Mate, Grace, should be able to glean whatever they could from the wreck.

  They’d all left that night in a hurry, not wanting to linger at the scene in case the Countess had called for backup. But Seth’s friends were already en route to their location, so if the coast remained clear, he had them help with cleanup and a thorough sweep for evidence.

  “Thank you,” he said, then moved slightly closer to the camera so that his face filled Ayelet’s screen.

  “Listen, Guardian, I might not come back any time soon,” he began.

  Ayelet stared into his dark gray eyes.

  “As in, permanently not come back?”

  He quirked a quick smile. “Just don’t save a place for me at supper for a while.”

  “Because you’re dying?”

  Seth’s façade collapsed only a split second before he put it back up, but Ayelet wasn’t fooled.

  Before he could prevaricate, she said, “Even if you’re there, and I’m here, even if there were thousands of miles between us, my Gift would still be able to pick up on your pain, Seth. Especially since we’ve known each other for so long. Especially since we’re family.”

  His gaze slid away from hers, and she knew that he was trying to think of something to either comfort her or make light of it.