Midnight Soul (73 page)

I stared right into his eyes, right into the
heart of his anguish, and finally understood.

And what I understood gave me rapture.

“So you hold on to your midnight soul and
refuse to let it go.”

“It’s got hold of me, Franka, and there’s no
way to escape it.”

“Good,” I whispered.

His chin jerked into his neck and he did one
of his slow blinks.

“Midnight is beautiful,” I told him. “And
it’s at its most beautiful in you.”

I watched his body lock.

“Oh but the gods do so love me,” I shared
softly. “To give me a man who would allow his soul to be taken over
by the darkness of night, for he’s a man who loves so deeply, he
lost those who had his love, was cast into the shadows, and he
refuses to crawl to the light.”

I stopped speaking and Noc said nothing. He
just stared at me, and I saw the cords of his throat convulse with
his swallow.

Then he dropped his head.

I moved forward quickly.

Getting close, fitting my front to his, I
lifted both my hands to his cheeks and peered up at him, bearing
the agony in his face, now understanding what he was hiding behind
his closed eyes.

And relishing the honor it was to have
both.

He stood, not touching me, not speaking.

I stood, holding his beauty in my hands, and
I did this silently.

This lasted an eternity.

Then he whispered, “I fuckin’ hate this
goddamned anniversary.”

Finally
.

I had not seen his pain weeks ago simply
because I’d had reason to look more closely.

I’d seen his pain because now was the time
when it forced itself to the surface.

“You miss her,” I whispered back.

He opened his eyes.

I saw the wet gleam and I was honored to have
that too.

“Yeah, sweetheart, every fuckin’ day.”

I slid my thumb along his cheekbone. “I love
you for that.”

He closed his eyes, drew breath in through
his nose, and when he opened them again, contrition shifted into
his gaze.

He lifted one hand to my jaw and returned my
gesture. “Been a fuckin’ dick.”

I shook my head but said, “It’s my joy to
take every part of you.”

He shook his head in return, his lips
twitching. “My Frannie. Should’ve known. She takes the good but
she’s always been better at takin’ the bad.”

“Indeed.”

All of a sudden, my arms were forced to
circle his shoulders when his hand disappeared from my jaw. He
caught me up in a tight embrace and buried his face in my neck.

“Love you, baby,” he declared there.

“And I you.”

He pressed his face deeper in my neck and his
voice was gruff when he went on, “She would have loved you
too.”

I closed my eyes at more rapture.

But I said nothing.

I just held on to my love.

And I basked in the beauty of midnight.

Never Far

Franka

Noc had chosen the place.

He’d also chosen the time.

We walked there together in the
moonlight.

When we got to the spot he wished to be,
standing amongst the shadows of trees dripping their moss
gracefully, he turned me in his arms and bent his neck to touch his
lips to mine. After, he tucked my cheek to his chest and rested his
on top of my head.

I had one arm around his back but the other
hand I rested on his biceps.

I did this for two reasons.

One was to touch him, obviously.

The other so I’d know when it was time.

We remained in each other’s arms as the
minutes on my watch ticked by.

And I watched through the moonlight as the
second hand warned me the time was nigh.

Only then did I step slightly from Noc’s
embrace.

Keeping hold of him with my arm around him, I
swept my other down then up in a wide arc.

And from my fingers, a flock of doves flew,
their gossamer wings glittering among moonbeams, the tips of their
feathers trailing delicate shimmers that dropped in an exquisite
fade to the earth.

They flew direct toward the waning quarter
moon and disappeared in its light.

It was midnight.

My favorite time of day.

And it was the anniversary of Judy’s
death.

When the least I could do was make doves
fly.

My gaze turned to Noc to see him staring into
the sky where the doves had disappeared.

I gave him a moment to spend with Judy.

Then I whispered, “It’s time to go home, my
love.”

His eyes drifted down to me.

I saw pain that would never fade.

As it should be.

But I also saw peace.

“Yeah, sweetheart. It’s time to go home.”

Holding hands, we made our way to his car,
leaving moonlight and magic behind.

However, Judy stayed with us, for I was
certain no matter what day it was, or what time, the love Noc had
for her, the love she’d earned, she was never far.

Every Way Love Can Be

Franka

“I would say that’s a job well done,”
Valentine noted.

We stood, Valentine, Lavinia and I, on the
pavement across from the restaurant where the maintenance man and
the woman who’d loved him from afar, the woman who had loved him so
much she scrimped and saved to buy his love for her in return, were
sitting at a table at the window eating hamburgers.

Their first date.

I was aghast.

Surely, my magic said more than
hamburgers
for a first date.

“I find this highly disturbing,” Lavinia
murmured.

I did as well.

I mean,
hamburgers
?

Valentine and I turned our attention to
her.

She shifted her eyes from the couple to us.
“All the beauty you can make with your magic, you use it to meddle
in people’s lives?”

“We give them what they want,” Valentine
replied.

“And that man,” Lavinia gestured to the
restaurant across the street, “did he want her?”

“He does now,” I shared the obvious.

Lavinia rolled her eyes skyward.

Even though we’d just started, Valentine made
it known that she was quite done talking about this.

“We’ve a booking at Arnaud’s in half an hour.
Noc, Dax and Circe are meeting us there. We must be going.”

Lavinia sighed and we all moved to where
Valentine had parked her car.

“These conveyances, I cannot get used to
them,” the other-world witch muttered as we did.

“I felt the same,” I shared. “As you seem to
enjoy spending time in this world, we’ll teach you how to drive.
Trust me, it’ll make it better.”

Lavinia cast horrified eyes to me.

I smiled a small smile.

The car made a noise while its lights
flashed, telling us the doors were open.

Valentine headed to the driver’s side
speaking.

“That job complete, having been away, I have
many lined up, Franka,” she said to me. “Are you ready for your
next?”

This one was hardly a challenge.

And it ended in
hamburgers
.

I was very much ready for my next.

“Of course,” I replied to her over the roof
of the car. “Do you have one in mind?”

“Yes,” she stated.

I studied her face and the look on it made a
thrill gather at the small of my back.

“Your next client seeks revenge,” she
whispered.

I held her eyes, and at her words, my smile
was still small.

But it spoke volumes.

* * * * *

Korwahk

“Stop drooling, sugarlips.”

“Mm?”

“Babe.”

“Yes?”

A shaking “Frannie,” mingled with an arm
tightening around my shoulders, curling me to Noc’s front meant I
was forced to tear my eyes from the Korwahk warrior.

Oh so many moons ago, I’d briefly met him
back in Fyngaard, although after the troubles he’d quickly been
away home.

He was one of Lahn’s most trusted
lieutenants.

His name was Zahnin.

And his ferocity of appearance was a match
for Lahn’s. I’d found him most frightening, and as lovely as many
things on him were to look at, at the time I did not admit to the
relief I felt when I heard he was gone.

But now, here, in his homeland in its capital
city of Korwahn, standing on its Majestic Rim, awaiting the
ceremony that was soon to commence, he was with his wife.

And his children.

Before Noc pulled me away, I’d been watching
the little boy crawling up his long, stout leg while Zahnin was
tickling, squeezing and throwing up in the air his baby girl,
catching her as she giggled uncontrollably. And she kept doing so
while he blew kisses into her neck.

Then, easily tucking her in his long, strong
arm, he’d bent to haul up his toddler son, the boy going up
shrieking his glee, and the warrior juggled them both against the
large expanse of his bare, brown-skinned, painted chest, to their
abandoned delight.

Through all this, his exceedingly pretty
Fleuridian wife, Sabine, stood pressed close to his side, both her
arms wrapped around his middle, and looked on with unconcealed
adoration.

Of her children, of course.

But mostly her husband.

I could understand this.

His smile was white and wide, transforming
his face.

There was no fierceness there, not now.

Only love and happiness.

Something that veritably beamed from him when
he’d finally turned his attention from their children and gazed
with open and frank devotion at his wife.

Right then, I looked up to Noc and saw no
fierceness either.

His smile was white and wide but it didn’t
transform his face.

My Noc always showed me his love and the
happiness I gave him.

And the devotion he gave to me.

Thus I melted into his body.

“Would be jealous you’re pervin’ on that guy
if you didn’t wake up happy to be back in your world and feelin’
the need to go down on me,” he noted.

I frowned.

Noc kept smiling. “You told me a year ago
that I’d be in an adobe house that had running water only because
it was fed direct from a river, that house in a parallel universe,
waking up in that place to get the best blowjob of my life, I’d be
intrigued, but I’d think you were crazy.”

“This is hardly the topic for discussion on a
day like today,” I snapped. “Circe and Lahn haven’t invited us here
for you to be rude.”

He dipped his face closer to mine, still
smiling. “Babe, first, no one understands a fuckin’ thing I’m
sayin’ seein’ as no one speaks English. And second, you think there
aren’t gonna be a lotta blowjobs goin’ around today, you’re very
wrong. Weddings make people horny.”

Well!

“That may be so but you don’t
discuss
it moments before the joyous festivities begin.” I admonished.
“Regardless if people don’t understand you, that wolfish look on
your face speaks volumes.”

His wolfish look got even more wolfish (which
I had to admit, though not to Noc, was most attractive). “If they
had airplanes here, I’d hire one to skywrite how good my woman is
at giving head.”

Although I was most pleased I could pleasure
him so thoroughly in this way, I batted his chest.

He started chuckling.

At that moment, a hush fell over the
crowd.

Noc lifted his head and we both turned our
attention to the colossal lip of sand-colored rock that jutted out
over the city of Korwahn creating its Majestic Rim.

There we saw Korwahk’s Dax Lahn, his chest
and back painted in blacks and golds, striding to the clearing
before us where his throne and that of his queen were sitting.

The Golden Queen Circe was at his side, in
extraordinary regalia, including a band of glittering golden
feathers around her forehead.

And loping next to her like a trusted pet
(something I’d found last night when we’d arrived and I was
introduced to it that it was) was a large, grand white tiger.

Following them, under a drooping shade of
golden silk, was a young couple, the pretty, plump woman beaming
happily, the lean, tall man at her side looking serious.

The shade was held up on four poles by four
young women, all practically skipping in their excitement.

Coming up the rear was a regiment of Korwahk
warriors, all wearing black and gold paint.

Just off to the side of the clearing, Lahn
and Circe’s three children were being looked after by Circe’s
friends, Narinda and Nahka (women I’d also met last night), who had
their own children with them, this large brood easily managed
considering Narinda’s husband, Feetak, and Nahka’s husband, Bohtan,
were keeping a stern eye on the crew.

Circe and Lahn made it to their thrones just
as Diandra, Circe’s best friend, a kind and exceedingly attractive
Valerian woman (which meant she spoke Noc and my language), sidled
up next to us.

I looked to her and returned her smile before
my gaze shifted back to the rim to see Circe seated in her throne
made of white horns.

The honor guard had lined up behind her.

Lahn’s throne, made of massive black horns,
was empty for he did not seat himself. He stood, hands on
hide-covered hips, looking like he was scowling down at the couple
who were now situated in front of their king and queen, facing each
other, the four women still holding the shade over them.

“Iykoo!” Lahn boomed.

“Kneel,” Diandra whispered in
translation.

I at once had the urge to kneel, but as the
throng around us did not, I stayed where I was, in the curve of
Noc’s arm, and watched Jacanda, Circe’s trusted slave girl, kneel
across from her soon-to-be-husband, Derahn.

The instant they settled on their knees, a
collective gasp came from the crowd as a shower of flower petals in
the colors of yellow, orange and deep pink fell from the underside
of the awning held over them, raining down on the couple below.