Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(22)

Clutching the comforter to her chest, Mikki tried to control the shaking in her voice. "Wh-where am I?"

"You are home, Priestess!" The brunette smiled magnanimously.

"And just exactly where is 'home'?" Mikki asked, feeling numb around her mouth, like she'd eaten a Popsicle too fast and was having a hard time making her lips work.

"You are in the Realm of the Rose," the blonde assured her.

"I have finally done it," Mikki moaned. "I have finally gone stark raving, totally f**king crazy." She buried her face in her hands.

Instantly, the two women rushed to her, patting her shoulders and stroking her hair. Mikki jerked back from them.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled. "You're only making it worse. I can damn sure feel you when you touch me, even though I should be sleeping and this should all be a dream, and . . ." She broke off her babble. Breathing hard, she just shook her head at the women. "No. Stay back. You're just giving me more proof of how kooky I am!"

The women took nervous little half-steps away from her.

Obviously the leader, the brunette spoke quickly. "Let me assure you, Priestess, you are of your right mind. We are not imaginings, nor are we deranged fantasies." Her smile was hesitant but sweet. "I know this must seem very odd to you" - she glanced at her partner, who mirrored her smile - "but you truly are in the Realm of the Rose, and we are your handmaidens."

The blonde nodded her head, the waves of her hair bouncing in perky agreement.

Mikki felt her right eye begin to twitch.

"Maybe I'm drunk," she muttered, trying to remember how much she'd had to drink before she'd dumped her date. Three, or had it been four glasses of that fabulous chianti? Oh, Lord . . .

"We would be happy to bring you wine, Priestess," the blonde chirped.

"Oh, be quiet and let me think," Mikki snapped. "And stop calling me priestess. It's not my name, nor is it my job title." Then she rolled her eyes at herself. What a totally moronic thing to say. Not her job title? Being a kook was bad enough. Being a stupid kook would be completely humiliating.

But the handmaidens seemed oblivious to her idiocy. They were busy exchanging startled glances.

"But," the brunette began hesitantly, "you must be our priestess. You awoke the Guardian."

Mikki made an exasperated sound in her throat. "The only thing I must be right now is crazy."

The women went on talking to each other as if she had not spoken.

"She is beautiful," the blonde said. Studying her carefully, she sniffed in Mikki's direction. "And she has been properly anointed."

The brunette squinted at Mikki. "But she is not as young as the other priestesses who were Chosen."

Her partner nodded silently, her brow wrinkling in concern. "Perhaps that is for the best." Her voice dropped to a whisper, and Mikki had to strain to catch her words. "You know how badly the last one turned out."

"Silence!" the brunette snapped.

The blonde paled and clamped her lips together.

"You are a maiden, are you not?" the brunette asked Mikki matter-of-factly.

"That's it!" Mikki swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up so abruptly that the two women each took a startled step back. "It's bad enough that I'm having some kind of psychotic break with reality, but I really have to draw the line when my delusions begin talking about my age and questioning my sexual history." Mikki made little shooing motions at them. "Go on. I prefer to sink into psychosis by myself."

"We did not mean to offend, Priestess," the brunette said, instantly contrite.

The blonde nodded again - vigorously.

"You didn't offend me. My mind, or more accurately, my lack of it, offended me." The women blinked at her like Kewpie dolls. "Oh, just leave me alone for a while. I have a lot of thinking to do."

"You have only to call for us if there is anything you desire," said the brunette. "Of course, Priestess, we will return when the sun has set to prepare you for the goddess's evening ritual. We all hope that once again - "

Mikki's raised hand cut off her gushing words. "No! Nothing else right now. To quote an idiot accountant I once had the misfortune to date, 'My bucket is too damn full right now to deal with anything else.' Just leave." At their hurt looks she added, "Please." They were fabrications of her mind, but (as she was sure her mother would have reminded her) there was really no reason to hurt their feelings and be impolite. They couldn't help her kookiness.

Reluctantly, they walked gracefully across the room. Mikki expected them to pass through the wall like proper figments of imaginations, but the blonde opened the large, ornately carved door, which clicked closed softly behind them. Even her hallucinations didn't behave properly.

"Insane," Mikki said firmly. "You are completely insane."

Her legs felt weak, and abruptly Mikki sat back down on the bed. The thick down comforters billowed around her like clouds of hand-spun gold. Unable to help herself, she ran her hand over the rich, silk surface of the duvet.

"Unbelievable," she muttered. The bedding was sumptuous and incredibly beautiful, richer than even the linens from The Blue Dolphin, the expensive boutique she liked to browse through at Utica Square. And browse was the key word - she could never have afforded to buy her bedding there. Now she was surrounded by material that made The Blue Dolphin look like K-Mart.