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Cloak girl was speaking to
him
now, their voices distant and dreamlike to my ears. I was pulled back to the present the moment his grip eased lower to gently clasp my waist.

“Some suit, eh? How much dough a year you thinking that guy brings in? Gotta be
at least fifty times all our salaries combined!” The pretty dark-skinned girl turned her head and chewed her gum thoughtfully. “And Lissa’s gonna get a mouthful from the boss for leaving before her last number. Betcha he fires her tight little…”

“Chloe
,” he growled in warning.

Shrugging
, she twisted the tie around her neck as though it were too tight. “Whateva, man. I’m just sayin’.”

He answered s
o low the girl couldn’t have possibly caught the brokenness hidden within his words. “You’ve said enough.”

I wondered
that the girl had yet to notice me. If this man could see me, what was to stop everyone else? I latched onto a glimmer of hope.

Perhaps it
’s a mistake, a glitch.

The cloak
was
two thousand years old after all. Seid had fashioned it to protect my form from the rare human who had the sight. And I had long ago stopped caring whether the curse kept me from their clueless eyes.

I held my breath and
tried to slip out of his grip.

His blue eyes turned stormy gray
instantly, zeroing in on me as he remembered what he held in his hands. In the blink of an eye I felt the remnants of the anger and frustration he felt for the woman in the red dress, his Lissa. From what I had seen, there seemed to be little love lost between them.

Had the world fallen so far
that this was the best couple he could find me?

He finally spoke, peering into the darkness of my hood.
“Sorry… forgot about you there for a sec.” He paused when I gave no answer and frowned, conflicted over the wild feelings clouding his aura. “So… no ID, huh? Were you meeting someone here?”

Ignoring him, I
looked through the walls of this building and watched Lissa and Derek exchanging kisses in between steps to his parked limo. The man followed my gaze to the brick wall and an amused grimace troubled his handsome face.

I couldn’t read minds. No that was a gift
Seid had used over weaker souls than my own. But the feelings of passionate humans often carried pictures and color with them. From these I could sense this man’s sudden loneliness, his anger and deepest pain.

In all th
is time I had never come upon two souls already so thoroughly lost.

But perhaps I
’ve judged them too quickly?

When I turned
back my attentions I was once again struck by his familiarity. Even the resonance of his voice was the same when he spoke.

An unwanted anxiousness settled in the pit of my abdomen, the ache I had felt since the moment Seid cursed me.
At times I hated myself for missing him after everything he had done to me.

“Look
, miss, I’m trying to help you out here. But you have to give me a name to go on.” Something flickered in and out of his gaze again, as though he too was trying to place my face from his memories, but then it was gone.

Shaking my head
at my ridiculous thoughts, I tried to pry from his grasp and frowned when I did not budge. It had been so long since I felt this
fleshy
that it frightened me. No walls were too thick for me to pass through, no waves powerful enough to crush me. I was used to feeling invincible. My efforts to escape surprised him. He laughed the harder I struggled to get away while his arms barely strained.

“Easy there. You’re not in trouble, okay
? But this is an exclusive club and the boss don’t like me letting in charity cases.”

His grip eased when I stilled. For a long, tense moment we stared back at one another. His eyes were beautiful in the false light
s and in the center of his black pupils I saw my reflection, my own eyes faintly glowing in the shadow of my cloak.

To show
him I agreed, I nodded my head after another beat. The left corner of his mouth lifted higher when he grinned, because of the strange scar on his cheek. This new feature startled and drew my gaze. My love had been perfection in every way save his rotten core.

When I moved to leave this
time he let go of my waist, but his eyes followed. A different emotion hung over him now, obscured to me and troubling. I could not bear to look away as I faded into the shadows. With an easy shove, he opened the secret door and left it open long after I had gone through.

The further I drew apart from him, the stronger the compulsion gre
w within me to turn back, the brighter the aura glowed around him.

Chloe laughed then
. “Geez, man! Who you waiting for? There’s nobody there and you’re lettin’ the draft in.”

He turned to challenge her. From this distance I could see the giant of a man he truly was. “You didn’t see that woman? Come on, she was just here
, Chloe.”

“Who? I ain’t seen nobody leave
’cept that ho who left you high and dry.”

“Chloe…” He groaned into his hand, but when he turned to find me
, I had already faded through to the other side.

Something was instantly wrong. The wall had almost refused to budge when I first pressed against it and the strain I felt once I had fallen through left me in shivers. Snow had begun to fall from the dark clouds above the city. Horns blared in the distance, tires skidding on a collecting layer of ice.

I checked my cloak once more to be certain it was secure and breathed a sigh of relief. Except this time, the air
escaping my lips appeared in a wet, puffy cloud of heat. I frowned and sank against the side of the building, confused and not wanting to think on the fact that I might be lost.

Had I done something wrong? There was no other explanation why I had already so obviously failed my mission. Perhaps if I followed the gol
den thread of a trail Lissa left behind? But why had she chosen Derek over
him
? Usually the lovers were together when I came to them, often living in the same place.

I was usually called to them
at the most critical of their times together, the final test and the last chance.

Yet instead of following Lissa
, I listened to the pull of the man in the club. The music ended abruptly, following a smooth male voice. “Weather’s turning nasty out there, ladies and gents. We’ve been advised to send all y’all on your way. But don’t fret, don’t stress, more music to be had this following Saturday.”

Voices rose up, drin
ks tipped back for a final swig. Servers rushed to clean while their guests moved to the secret door. I watched as fancy cars and limos waited to pick up their important clients. A flurry of the fancy and trashy paraded past my eyes but I cared little. Too much focus right now made my head spin. I could see the heartache and trouble that filled their lives, and knew why they had all come this night.

Time often passed me in leaps and jump
s. I did not know how long I sat there, pressed against the building after the last car had gone. The sky had shifted color however, behind that thick veil of gray to a hidden dawn. Still I rested deep in my memories, the closest I could come to dreaming.

Despair was the color of my nightmares. I realized then that I was still shivering and the recognition hit me with a cloud of terror. I could
feel
the cold. Staring at the vacant street in a numb shock, I was suddenly afraid to ponder why.

Chloe called to him before he walked out, “Don’t be jealous ’cause the boss likes my breasts better than yours.” She laughed loudly.

“Last chance to catch a ride with me
, Chloe.”

“And chance being stuck with
you
for more than ten hours? In your dreams, big guy! Later!”

My
skin tingled the nearer he came and burned with an inner fire once he stepped out the front door into the storm. Snow had caked my cloak with a fine layer of white dust. And had I not lived at the edge of the emerald sea in my human years, I would have thought to be afraid.

From
the safety of my hood I took him in, coated by a heavy leather jacket, a skin tight woolen cap, scarf and gloves he was currently blowing warmth into. Shaking out his limbs in a way that was entirely too familiar, he turned his head and froze when his eyes caught mine. Flinching, I could not understand how he saw through my cloak
again
and willed him to look away. But the worst of my troubles was that I didn’t want him to look away.

Gather your senses!

While I struggled to find my sanity, he took several more steps closer and startled me by the sound of his voice. “Miss? What are you still doing out here?” Glancing down the street he shook his head. I could feel his frustration. “You know it’s already twenty below? You’re gonna freeze if we don’t get you home.”

Tilting my chin up
to meet him, I felt the snow graze my bare skin and gasped at the sensation. Tentatively, I pushed my cloak aside and held my bare arm out to feel the wind slide through my fingers.

“Are you wearing anything underneath that cloak?”
he asked. After staring incredulously at me he grasped his head in his hands and let them slide down his cheeks with a frustrated groan.

I kept my h
and still outstretched and as though it came from a distance, I heard a voice speak, raspy with disuse. “Can you feel it?”

“So you can talk after all,
” he said with wide eyes. His smile tugged one corner of his mouth into an upturned grin.

Something surged inside of me and gave me the energy to stand. Before I could take another step he was there, clutching me around the waist and helping me out of the drift. I turned and found the stubble on his strong jaw with my fingertips.

“Can I help you get a cab at least?” He sounded doubtful, as though he already knew I had nowhere to go but with him.

Certainty claime
d my conscience at the thought.

This is the answer, to go with him.

He pushed me back by the shoulders so he could look me in the eye and offered another grin. “Guess that’s a no, huh?” His brow furrowed when I began to feel the cold again and shivered. “You’re freezing…” He moved to pull my hands from my cloak and began to rub them down.

His warmth sank through his gloves and into my skin. There was a moment when our eyes met and he seemed to ponder his own actions. Confusion was pushed aside by determination in the end. In
him I saw for the briefest of moments, for the first time in a century, the strength of men.

“I’m Cain, by the way.”

He paused after, but did not ask for my name. I watched him fight the war within himself. Would he leave me here? Could I even follow him now I was beginning to feel again? My eyes fell to our joined hands, where his thumb was brushing slow circles over my upturned palms. My shiver came not from the cold then.

“So,” he began, almost nervously, “
I don’t normally do this, but… would you want to come with me? My place ain’t much, but it’s warmer than this.”

-ruth

Chapter 3

To Breathe, To Feel

Cain drove a battered old motorcycle, the sort that spoke of journeys taken and better years gone by. After I settled in behind him, we flew. I had never ridden in a car, train or boat unless absolutely necessary. Never had I felt the wind in my face like this, the sting of cold sleet biting my cheeks.

Chains kept his t
ires from skidding over the ice and the same power I had noticed in his every movement manifested here. Pressed against him with my arms around his waist, I could no longer feel the cold.

Home for this human was a flat among dozens in a rundown old neighborhood. Allowing my senses to stretch farther
, I could feel the pain and heartache in most. Happiness and love were nearly nonexistent.

He parked and locked his bike next to a row of others, lifting me
effortlessly to stand ankle deep in snow. His arm sheltered me up the walk, to the first of many steps to his home. I gasped when my legs buckled and threatened to give out, bracing my hand on the gritty rail. Without another word he swept me up in his arms and carried me the rest of the way.

Human life was a messy
, noisy din around us, but I had learned long ago to drown most of it out.

He glanced down at me
briefly before plugging his keys into the lock. “Sorry my place ain’t much to look at.”

A single dim glow came from a
nearby glass case. After flipping on the lights, he turned and shut the door with one hand, bracing me to him with the other.