Surreal Ecstasy (33 page)

Dr. Hearse laughed easily. "I
love wine, as well as good food. Your family is a respected food manufacturer,
restaurant owner, and line of critics. Would you like to have some of my
own
special wine?"

Dess looked like she wanted to
barf. "That sounds pretty creepy, so I'm going to have to say no. Thanks,
though. I appreciate the insanity."

"Dr. Hearse is Dionysis, the
god of wine," I explained as he chuckled merrily.

"Ah," she replied in a
that-makes-sense tone. "Lachesis, one of the Three Fates," she said,
thrusting her thumb toward her chest.

The doc's smile grew. "Ah,
yes, of course. It's an honor, goddess." He bowed low to her.

"C'mon, Morgue, let's go,"
she said, grabbing my arm and nearly running for the door. She probably couldn't
stand to be around him, god or no god. "If you tell anyone who I am, I'm
gonna kick your ass," she called over her shoulder at him.

I looked at Dr. Hearse before I
went out the door. He smiled at me and laughed. "That girl is a delight,"
he said, shaking his head and sighing. "A pure, spunky delight."

* * *

"Seattle is beautiful in the
fall," Ree remarked. I was inclined to agree.

We were in his Lamb, on the freeway
from just having dropped off Dess at SeaTac airport. Their mom's birthday was
coming up. Ree had refused to leave my side, so he encouraged his sister to
attend the party to represent the both of them. Dess hadn't really needed
that
much convincing—she was probably bored, lonely, or both. That also gave us
the house to ourselves for the entire weekend, and that was a huge bonus.

"Let's go downtown," I
suggested. "I need a caramel macchiato."

"You don't drink coffee,"
he argued.

"I do, actually. A lot. I just
haven't in a couple weeks. Maybe I'd be in a better mood if I got back into my
old routine."

He laughed and I gave him
directions to the original Starbucks. He found a parking space not too far away
from where I had parked on that fateful day when we officially met. Grinning a
little to myself, I remembered how, not too long after we'd pulled up in that
parking space a week ago, we were pulling right back out, our hormones blocking
out every other possible feeling and thought as we stumbled over our own feet
to get the hell out of dodge and into the privacy of my apartment.

My clothes couldn't come off fast
enough, and my fingers had almost been shaking with overwhelming passion.

Blinking, I snapped back to reality
and looked over at Ree. He had parked the car and was looking at me curiously,
a small smile on his face. I tossed these memories out of my head for now and
tried to look very innocent as I smiled back.

"You're thinking about the
last time we were in this area, aren't you?" His eyebrows were raised and
his eyes kept moving from my eyes to my lips.

I scoffed a little and pretended to
be totally absorbed by the people walking along the street in front of the car.
I scoffed some more and tried to act calm and cool, but what came out were loud
bursts of chuckle that sounded like, "Hah. Hah. Huh."

I looked over at Ree, who continued
to watch me with amusement. "Uh, no," I denied, accidentally spitting
out the side of my mouth. "I don't sit around thinking about stuff like
that, you know."

Not breaking his gaze, he moved
forward intently, his mouth dangerously close to mine. "I do. Every
moment. And it's driving me crazy," he admitted in a low voice right
before diving in to steal a kiss…or five.

Just one kiss pulled me into his
mind room, and as our lips moved, I saw two different worlds, like I had during
our blowout with Adim. I saw both the real world around me and Ree's mind room
at once, as if in a haunting dream.

At least, I saw a small part of his
mind room. I could feel like there was a seemingly-endless volume of shelves
behind me, but I was focusing on one shelf in particular and that's all I saw
at that moment—a beautiful, ornate shelf that looked almost Victorian in style.
An enormous painting of me was hoisted above it on the wall, and it caught my
eye, for more reasons than one. Besides the extravagance of it, this painting
wasn't derived from real life. I never posed for such a picture or painting,
and honestly I couldn't even tell what age I was in this painting, whether it
was my current age, 10 years in the future, or 10 years in the past. I looked
almost ageless.

"A penny for your thoughts."

I'd inadvertently stopped kissing
Ree while entranced by my own painting.

I described what I saw to Ree, who
smiled fondly. "That's just one painting out of many," he explained. "If
you ever go back in there, take some time to look around. I'm pretty sure you
don't have just one shelf."

"You know what? I think I'll
wait to do that," I said, planting one more kiss on his mouth and then
pulling away, grabbing my purse. "I don't feel comfortable nosing around
in there."

"But you're welcome to see
anything I have in there," he protested.

God, he was gorgeous. "Thank
you, Ree, for trusting me with anything in your mind. But I stand by what I
said. If I ever go back inside your mind room, I'll let you know first."

He just pulled the keys out of the
ignition and winked.

While I waited for my macchiato, I
noticed how women everywhere watched Ree like psychotic fans. One girl actually
tripped and stumbled as she walked past him because she was so busy checking
him out. And while I knew he was hot and a celebrity of sorts, I didn't think
he was well-known to the point that women would gawk at him while he walked
down the street.

Ugh. I certainly wished
I
had
Fire Claws.

We walked across the street to Pike's
Market without really discussing it. We had a good time checking out all the
stalls of food, art, and clothes.

"Morgan?" Ree said as he
followed me to a t-shirt booth.

"Are you against wearing a
pink shirt?" I asked, holding one up to his chest. "If you're
confident in your manliness, I don't think it'd be a problem. And, if it had
the right cut, it'd look great on you." Realizing the shirt I held had a
picture of a bouquet of flowers on it, I laughed and put it back.

"Morgan," he said again,
barely looking at the shirt.

I looked up and saw that serious
expression on his face. "What?" I asked, my nerves getting the best
of me. That look always worried me, because it meant he had something
undesirable to say to me.

He led me by the hand to an empty
place near the wall, next to a huge window that overlooked the harbor. "I
know how you feel about being kept out of the loop, and how you feel about
knowing important things that could affect us both." He paused and waited
for my reaction.

I nodded quickly. "Yes, I…I
always want to know what's happening, especially things that could affect our
relationship."

He took a deep breath and said, "It
is true that since the day we met, I am no longer officially your LGA. It is
also true that I'm fading because of my own sin, which is a totally separate
issue. But there's something else you should know."

"What?" I asked him
quickly, not wanting to wait one second longer.

"Unless I find another charge,
someone else to guide, my angel powers really will be gone. I'll be worse off
than a choop."

"What?" I repeated,
though this time it was due to outrage. "You mean you're not going to be
an angel for much longer? Even if we prevent you from fading? What kind of
stupid rule is that?"

"The whole thing about me
fading would be completely pointless if I don't find someone else to guide.
Imagine it this way. My soul is a chalkboard, and as an angel, all the words
written on it are white. When I began to fade because of my sin of wrath, all
the words on my chalkboard are beginning to turn red instead of white, but this
color change hasn't been completed yet. Now, if I don't find another charge,
this is all null and void, and everything on my chalkboard will be wiped clean—not
to say I'll die or be brain-dead, but I won't have any special powers. I'll be
as ordinary as ordinary can be."

"That doesn't really sound
like a bad thing, Ree. You wouldn't be in danger and the Melted won't be at war
with you."

"True, but remember that my
sister is still a Slate, and you're still a Human Helper. You guys are still
involved, which makes
me
involved, only I won't be able to help or
protect either of you."

I contemplated these things for a
few minutes, pulling my forehead away and facing Ree, who looked perfect and
beautiful standing there in blue jeans and a black Adidas t-shirt. I looked in
his eyes, eyes I loved and could see forever in. I thought about all he had
done for me:  Coming down to Earth to find and be with me, and now, giving up
his powers.

For me.

"So…how would you get another
charge? I mean, how does that whole thing work?"

He looked out onto the harbor as he
answered. "For LGAs, it has to be a member of the opposite sex. There's a
quick ceremony they perform if they wish to guide them, which I'll discuss with
you later—it's not really important right now. Depending on who her current
guide is, I may be granted the honor to become their LGA, or my request may be
denied—by either the charge herself or by her current angel, whether it be an
LGA or just a regular Guardian Angel. It sounds complicated, but it's not,"
he assured me, smiling. "Anyway, right now, I'm what's known as a freed
LGA, which is an LGA that has met his original charge and is no longer
connected to her. Something in my aura changes, something most people wouldn't
be able to really identify, but they'd be pulled to me. Women," he added,
almost apologetically.

Realization hit me as I recalled
the way the women at Starbucks reacted to him. "That's why all those women
are watching you so closely."

"Eh, that's one of the
reasons," he joked, apparently pleased with himself.

I rolled my eyes and joined Ree in
looking out the window, appreciating the beautiful blue of the water. "So
why don't you find a new charge? You'd have your full power back, and maybe it
would inspire you enough so you'd stop fading."

He looked over at me. "Guiding
someone is a very personal and intimate thing," he said gently. "I'm
closer to you than I am to anyone else in my life. I've seen your triumphs and
your tragedies. If I guided someone new, I'd be affected by their lives
constantly and I'd be inside their head all the time. That's too close of a
bond to share with anyone but you."

"What about Dess or someone
else in your family? Wait, can you even
become
an LGA for someone you
already know?"

 "I really don't want to be
that close to anyone in my family. I love them all, but it's
too
close, and
it's too much of an invasion of their privacy, especially since I know them so
well. In response to your other question, after an LGA has been freed, we no
longer have to abide by that rule where we are not allowed to meet our charge.
So I'd be free to try to become an LGA for someone I know, if I wanted to.

"I have to say, however, that
I think I understand the reasoning behind that rule. It's hard to be objective
if you know your charge. And to guide someone I've known since I was born?"
He shook his head, his eyes glimmering in the sunlight. "I just can't do
it. I won't do it."

I took a deep breath. "So you're
going to fade and lose your powers…all because of me."

"I'd do it again," he
said immediately, taking both my hands in his and holding them to his heart. "I
love you, Morgan Constantina. Remember, you're the beautiful, wise,
ever-illuminating spirit."

My eyes immediately watered as I
remembered him saying that to me two weeks ago when he wore the Friend
disguise. I also remembered that I had wished someone real could have said
that.

Well, someone real just did.

"I don't think it's right,"
I commented, shaking my head.

"It's not your decision to
make," he said kindly, still looking into my eyes. "I've worked very
hard to get here, you know. So if you do respect me, then please respect my
decision to sacrifice for you."

My tears began to spill out of my
eyes, and I raised my arms to circle around his neck, pulling Ree into a tender
hug. I held him like that for a while, thinking of nothing except us, and the
beauty of what we had together.

Chapter 22

"Wow, Dess. That's insane! You
shouldn't have. But thank you. I love it!"

I held up the small painting. It
was a
Maurice Esteve
original. I couldn't believe it. I
really didn't want to know how much this small piece of art set her back.

"No prob, Bob," she
replied, accepting my thank-you hug. "I'm not an art person, so I asked a
couple people."

"This is amazing," I
said, still gushing over my prize.

"So, Mom wasn't upset that I
wasn't there?" Ree questioned.

She rolled her eyes at her brother.
"Oh, you know Mom. Always looking for her little cherub. I told her you
were busy in Washington with your new girlfriend."

That
certainly pried my
attention away from the Maurice Esteve. "Oh, god! You told Mrs. Rios about
me?
The
Mrs. Rios?" I felt like I was going to hyperventilate
again. From what I knew about her, she was a kind yet formidable woman. Ree and
I have discussed my meeting her someday, and I gathered that although she would
love to meet and know me, she might also view me as the person who took her
baby away from her.

Dess glanced at me briefly, amused,
but otherwise didn't respond. "She wants to meet her," she told Ree. "Which
brings me to my next point of order." She looked at him, silent words undoubtedly
echoing in her head.