Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond(58)
Author: Kim Harrison

"I don’t mean to take so much from you," she said. A single tear slipped down, and Tom moved his chair to hers. His long arms enfolded her, and her pulse raced from the love swirling through her aura, seeping into her despite her trying to stop it.

"Mia," he crooned, and she held her breath, stiff and resolved to not take it, but it was hard. So hard.

"Don’t cry," he soothed. "I know you can’t help it. It must be hell to be a banshee."

"Everyone I love dies," she said bitterly into the soft depth of his shirt as the guilt of three hundred years of existence rose anew. "I can’t come back here. I’m making you ill. I have to leave and never come back."

With an abrupt motion, she broke from him. She stood, panic an unusual showing on her usually collected, proud face. What if he told her to leave? Tom stood with her, and as she reached for her coat, he pulled her back.

"Mia," he said, giving her a little shake. "Mia, wait!"

Head lowered, she stopped, allowing his fear to coat her in a soothing sheen like fragrant lemon oil, and she felt her hunger jealously claim it. It was bitter after the exquisite airy lightness of love, but she took it. Stronger in body and resolve, she pulled her head up to see him through a haze of unshed tears.

"You are so beautiful," he said, wiping a tear away with a thumb. "We will find a way to make this work. I recover faster every time."

He didn’t, and Mia dropped her gaze at the wishful lie.

"There has to be a way," he said, holding her close.

Head tucked under his chin, Mia felt a quiver start in the deepest part of her soul. Again. It was going to happen again. She had to be strong. Need would not rule her. "There is . . ." she said, her hand creeping up between them to hold the coin about her neck.

Tom pushed her back, his long face showing his shock. "There’s a way? Why didn’t you tell me before?"

"Because . . . because it won’t work," she said, not wanting to deal with a false hope. "It’s too cruel. It’s a lie. If it doesn’t work, you might die."

"Mia." His grip on her upper arms pinched. "Tell me!"

In a quandary, she refused to look at him. From the living room, the talk radio turned to a classical guitar, the intensity rising with her tension. "I have a wish . . ." she breathed, hand clenched about the pierced coin on its purple ribbon. It was how wishes were stored, and she had had it for years.

Braver now for having admitted it, she looked up, feeling his excitement roll off of him in a wave. It washed into her, and she forced herself to keep from taking it. The room grew richer with subtle shades of want and desire, purple and green, shifting about her feet like silk.

"Where . . . where did you get it? Are you sure it’s real?"

Mia nodded miserably, opening her hand and showing him. "I got it from a vampire. I don’t know why she gave it to me, except perhaps that I shamed her into trying to become who she wanted to be. But that was years ago. I was so bad that day, making her angry so that I could drink in her guilt. I shamed her, but I shamed myself more for telling her I couldn’t love anyone without killing them, giving her my pain in return for her strength. Perhaps she wanted to thank me. Or perhaps she pitied me and wanted to give me the chance . . . to find love myself."

Steadying herself, Mia took a breath, refusing to let his hope warm her like the sun. She wouldn’t take any more. She had to be strong. "I’ve had it all this time," she finished faintly.

Together they looked at it, small and innocuous in her palm.

"You waited?" he said in wonder, taking it up and running his fingertips over the detailed relief engraved on it. "Why?"

Mia blinked to keep from crying as she gazed up at him. "I wanted to fall in love first," she said, almost bewildered he didn’t understand.

Tom’s expression turned to one of pure, honest love, and Mia choked, muscles trembling from the effort to keep from taking it in. He gathered her to him, and she shook in the effort. Thinking it was tears, Tom shushed her, making things worse. It was almost too much, and Mia forced herself to stay, feeling the emotions in the room build and grow like a sheltering fog. It was like spreading a feast before a starving man, and she held back by her will alone. She would take no more from Tom.

"Use your wish," he said, and hope leapt in her. "Use it so we can be together."

"I’m afraid," she said, trembling. "Wishes don’t always come true. Some things you simply can’t have. If it doesn’t work, then I not only lose you, but I lose my hope to ever have anyone." Vision swimming, she gazed at him. "I can’t live without hope. It’s all I have when I’m alone."

But Tom was shaking his head as if she was a child. "This is love, Mia," he said, both their hands holding the coin between them. "All things are possible. It’s a wish. It has to work! You have to have faith."

A single tear slipped from Mia to make a cold trail down to her chin.

"Make the wish," he said, drying her cheek. "Wish that I can love you."

"What if it doesn’t work?" she whispered, feeling the weight of the emotions in the room pressing on her skin in a deepening tingle.

His eyes full of his love for her, he timorously smiled with a raw hope. "What if it does?"

"Tom-" she protested, and he leaned over the space between them and covered her mouth with his.

Fear flashed through her, and she tried to pull back. It was too much. She wouldn’t be able to stop herself. If he gave so freely, she had no way to stop it, and he would die!

But his lips were so soft on hers, and her breath caught at the depth of his feeling, his love, all for her, as encompassing and dark as a moonless night. I was right, she thought as she curved her arms around his neck and stretched to reach him. She couldn’t stop herself, not when he was trying to give his love to her, and she soaked in the strength he had put in his kiss, almost crying at the sensation filling her. It was going to happen again. There was nothing that could stop it.

Tom broke their kiss, and she stumbled back, afraid.

"Please," he said, shaking from the energy he had given to her. "For us. I want to love you," he pleaded. "All of you in every way."

Mia leaned against the cheerful yellow wall of the kitchen, her pulse fast and her chin high. This was the best she had felt in weeks. She could take on the world, do anything. To have this every day would be the fulfillment of her deepest wish. Humans were so ignorant, taking for granted what they received from each other, never knowing the energy they passed between themselves. But the only reason she could see it was because it was what she needed to survive. She could drain the love from Tom like scooping water from a well, but it would kill him.