Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(38)

He was the personification of animalistic power, and though he did not move to threaten her, the aura of feral viciousness that surrounded him was almost palpable. Mikki shivered and pulled the blanket more closely around her shoulders.

"The night is getting cold," he said as softly as possible. "I should have had them set your dinner within by the hearth."

"I - I like it out here," she stuttered.

"Do you? Or are you just being polite?"

"No, I often eat dinner on my balcony at home," she said, feeling a tremor of homesickness. There wasn't a lot she'd miss about her old life, but her comfortable apartment and her view of Woodward Park was something that would always be a bittersweet memory.

"Then I am pleased that I chose to set your dinner on your new balcony, Empousa."

Slowly he placed the goblet on the table and, with a gentlemanly gesture that was in direct contradiction to his bestial appearance, he poured her another glass of wine. Each of his movements was unhurried and carried with it a catlike grace.

Like a predator, she thought.

When he was finished pouring he took a step back from the table and nodded at the full glass.

"Drink. It will soothe you."

Mikki did as she was told, barely tasting the excellent red. Her body felt detached and unreal, but the wine warmed her and helped anchor her senses. She drank deeply, for the moment not caring if it made her tipsy or muddled her thoughts.

Her thoughts, after all, were highly suspect. Perhaps they could use some muddling.

"I dreamed of you. Back there, in your old world . . . at your old home. I dreamed of you often."

His words jolted through her, and she put down the goblet before it, too, broke. Mikki raised her eyes to his. They were almond shaped and as dark and bottomless as a quarry.

"I know," she whispered. "I dreamed of you, too."

"It was a shock," he said, pulling his gaze from hers to look out into the darkness. "After all those countless years of nothingness . . ." He shook his head and his mane moved softly around his shoulders. "It seemed impossible that I was aware again. At first I sensed you, but I could not see you. I only knew your presence." His voice was deep with a low, hypnotic sound, but his face remained expressionless, as if part of him had become stone again. He did not meet her eyes. "Then the dreams changed. They became more real. I could see you and feel you. Finally you called to me and I awakened completely. I knew you were Hecate's Empousa; only she could have awakened me. My mastery over magick returned to me, and so I brought you here."

"I thought I was going crazy," Mikki said, wishing he would look at her or give her some hint about what he was feeling. But he only stared, stone-faced, into the night.

"No, Empousa. You are not mad. You are fulfilling your destiny."

Chapter Thirteen

"YOU know that's not really my name," she blurted. Now why the hell had she said that?

He turned his head and finally looked at her again.

"Of course not. Empousa is a title of respect, not a name."

"Well, it doesn't really seem like it's me yet," she said. "Like just about everything here it seems foreign . . . odd . . ." Mikki stifled a sigh, wondering how it could be that she was talking so easily with this man-creature.

"If not Empousa, then what shall I call you?" he asked.

"Mikki," she said.

His thick brow furrowed, and for a moment she thought she caught the glint of humor in his dark eyes.

"Mikki? That is a name?"

"It's not my given name, but it's what everyone calls me."

"What is your given name?"

"Mikado," she said.

"Ah." He nodded, and the candlelight glinted off a quick flash of too-sharp teeth as he smiled. "The Mikado Rose. It is appropriate."

Mikki took another drink of wine. With its spread of warmth through her body came a sudden, delicious sense of heady courage. She cleared her throat and spoke quickly before she changed her mind. "What is your name?"

"I am Guardian of the Roses."

Mikki frowned. "But what do I call you?"

"I have always been called Guardian."

"Guardian?" Mikki said doubtfully. "That sounds like Empousa - a title, not a name."

"It is what I am. Title or name, there is no difference for me."

His face changed again, and this time Mikki was sure she saw sadness there before his expression settled into an unreadable mask. He was such a mass of contradictions. One second he was scaring the breath from her, and the next he was making her feel pity for him. Her head was a little woozy. She was definitely more relaxed - not exactly grounded, but relaxed enough to allow the next question to spill from her mouth.

"Am I making you up? Is this all happening just in my mind?"

"No. We are real, you and I. As is the Realm of the Rose and the goddess we both serve."

"So I'm not asleep and dreaming this?"

"No, Mikado." He enunciated her name carefully. "Not this time."

His eyes caught hers, dark and expressive with the knowledge of what their dreams had become. "You are very much awake, as am I. Finally."

"Sometimes my dreams of you felt more real than the world around me."