Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE GROUND SHOOK IN violent tremors that rattled Sully’s teeth.
Thunderclaps reverberated overhead unnaturally often, so loud his ears hurt.
Sully shielded his head and squeezed his eyes shut tighter.
Dirt sprinkled him with every impact, the entire structure a breath from collapse.
He’d be buried down here, crushed under the rubble.
Better than facing what was outside. Screams, cries, the rapid blasts of heavy gunfire. He was a miserable coward. They needed him . He was supposed to pick up his damn gun and—
The blasts halted abruptly. Decay, death, and damp earth replaced by something…soft?
Fluttering open his wet eyes, lashes catching briefly before parting, a figure swam into focus.
Beautiful, blond, and polished in the same gray suit Sully pictured him in so often.
His thoughts went fuzzy or the world around him did, remade the way Elliot wanted it to be.
Gone were the garish images and sensations Sully’s mind had cast up of an inevitable future, replaced by soft and luxurious surroundings.
He found himself on an ornately carved rosewood settee, deep blue velvet plush beneath him and at his back.
A lovely dark fur pelt appeared across his lap.
Sully startled at the sight of his own slightly shabby black cuffs.
He was in his finest suit, the clothes he’d worn on the night they met.
The plain dark green tie Anne gave him for Christmas last year was snug at his throat.
Sully reached up and loosened it and unbuttoned the collar, reeling from the normalcy.
A fire burned cheerfully before him in a beautiful white stone fireplace, throwing dancing shadows along creamy mint-colored walls.
“Am I dreaming again?” he murmured, glancing around. Elliot perched on the settee facing Sully with one long, well-shaped leg folded beneath him.
“Correct.”
“You came back.” Relief made Sully’s grin stretch.
Elliot had given him every indication he would, but Sully didn’t put much faith in words.
Men lied all the time—to their friends, their partners, and most emphatically to the men they fucked.
He’d been called enough sweet names in the dark and ignored outright or worse during the day to be deeply acquainted with disappointment.
“I’m sorry I was late,” Elliot said. Wonderfully considerate.
Sully lifted a shoulder, nonplussed. “Can’t expect you’ll always be asleep when I am. S’pose I’ll have to get used to dreams like this. We’re not even over there yet and I’m already cracking up.”
Elliot frowned, his full mouth pinching. “You’re doing nothing of the sort. I expect most soldiers are having nightmares, it’s natural.”
“But it ain’t. That’s the problem.” He hadn’t meant to let that slip. Secrets are secrets for a reason. Even if you want to spill them.
“What do you mean?”
Sully bit his lip, uncertain. What’d Elliot tell him about saying things too easy in dreams? Maybe he shouldn’t.
But if he didn’t talk about it here, now, who else would he be able to talk about it with?
No one that’s who, because he wasn’t about to voice his fears where he’d face scorn and judgment.
Not even in letters to Anne. She was distraught enough over his circumstances, he couldn’t burden her further.
And as much as Edie was his friend, she was also his boss.
He didn’t want her thinking he was defective.
What if she thought he couldn’t work cases when he made it home?
“Look, you had the secret about the whole dream-thing—”
“Dreamwalking,” Elliot supplied.
“Right, dreamwalking. And I… the night we met, you asked if I was always confident of my reception. And I said something flippant probably, but the real answer was yes. I know because I feel things,” Sully announced in a rush, muscles tensing in anticipation of Elliot’s inevitable recoil.
He arched one light brow. “Yes, well, some of us are better at sensing the interest of other men.”
Sully’s face flushed with heat. Apparently his grand revelation wasn’t as revealing as he’d thought. “No, you crackpot. Emotions, it’s other people’s emotions I feel. It’s a skill. Been able to do it since I was a child. Maybe since I was born. Dunno. I can’t remember ever not feeling them.”
Two brows up now, Elliot examined Sully’s face. Did he think it was a joke? Sully met his scrutiny with seriousness.
“You’re an empath?” Elliot asked. “I’ve met one or two, but they’re mostly twitchy sorts. You seem steadier.”
Sully almost laughed, would have if nerves weren’t wriggling in his guts, twisting them all up. “You might be too if you felt what we do. But have you really? Met others like me I mean?”
“In Paris, a lovely French woman. She was a bit eccentric. And in Edinburgh, there was a gentleman with eyes you wouldn’t believe, but he couldn’t stand most people. Including me. He said my feelings were too loud.”
“Huh. I haven’t ever met anyone else who is a—what was that word you used?
Empath? I guess I wouldn’t know if I had.
It’s not like I go around blabbing about it.
” He was rambling and couldn’t stop, but it wasn’t as if there was a book that laid out the vast variations in power or what each type was called.
Since he didn’t like to discuss this particular skill, he hadn’t ever asked anyone.
Ma hadn’t known the word, or she would’ve used it.
“Can’t say I’ve met many skilled individuals I trust in the first place and then, like you said, we’ve all got secrets, don’t we? ”
“We do indeed. Why don’t you trust those you do meet?”
“Oh, I meet them through my job. The types of cases the agency sends me out on aren’t to get to know good friendly folks.
I foil criminals mainly, using their skills to steal, cause havoc, sometimes far worse.
We consult with the police. They don’t know they’re dealing with magic, just that Edie gets results.
But generally if it’s not a serious crime, it’s a warning from us and we keep tabs on them.
Those types aren’t prone to heart to hearts.
And even if they were I don’t trust them. ”
“Right. That does make sense.” Elliot shifted forward to rest his forearms on his thighs. “We’ve gotten off topic. How does being an empath relate to your night terrors?”
Sully released a gusty sigh. How could he say the next part without sounding like a coward? Even with his inhibitions lowered he struggled with himself.
“I’m picking up on everyone’s worry and fear and excitement, and I can’t even get away from it in my sleep.
I’m already dreading what it’ll be like over there with so many people hurt and suffering, dying and scared.
It’s almost knocking me off my feet here and half the fellas I meet are thrilled they’re going. ”
The official draft had only just gotten underway as far as the public knew.
Those whose magic had brought them to the attention of the government knew differently.
Men like him and Elliot had been approached and informed of their precarious positions, forced into signing up.
He’d expected more to be like them, reluctant, but this group proved otherwise.
Within the first day it became abundantly clear they were caught up in patriotism and fighting for their country, signed up out of some sense of civic duty Sully lacked.
It was hard to feel patriotic about dying for a country that required him to hide so much of who he was.
“Doesn’t exactly sound pleasant.”
“Guess I’ll get used to it after a while.
Adjust and whatnot. But what’s it gonna do to me if I get used to feeling all that pain?
” Sully shivered. He’d barely let himself consider any of this, let alone spoken it.
“I might not remember much of my dreams when I’m awake but I remember the terrifying sensations and feelings.
I wake up feeling like I didn’t sleep at all.
Like I’m not resting and replenishing properly. It’s only going to get harder.”
“Warren.”
“I’m not trying to guilt you into coming back all the time.
I just…” Sully shook his head, watching the fire.
He tried to drag his thoughts away from this.
He didn’t want to talk about himself anymore.
It was too pathetic, showing off his weak spots.
“Never mind. Tell me about you. How has it been for you? Every time I see you, I wonder how those soft hands are doing.”
Elliot looked like he didn’t want to talk about himself either, but he finally answered. “Unpleasant. I despise rules, I despise discipline, and I despise men who think I’m too delicate to be capable of fighting. My hands will never recover, but I can live with that.”
The left corner of Sully’s mouth twitched up, teasing, and relieved Elliot submitted to the change of topic. “You’re stronger than you look. I thought so the night we met.”
Elliot pulled a face. “I’m not small, you’re just built marginally larger.” Sully snickered. “Oh not like that. I’m still taller than you, even if I’m slimmer.” A muffled laugh shook Sully’s shoulders. At Elliot’s grin, Sully’s heart thumped in his ribcage.
He’s too attractive when he does that. How’s anyone think around him, let alone figure out what to say back?
“I think this whole process is far more tedious and trying than it needs to be,” Elliot said, turning serious.
“I understand the basic principles at heart: break the soldiers down, build them up as a cohesive, stronger unit. But really, must we live in such difficult circumstances prior to being shunted across the globe and dying in the muck?”
That froze Sully to the bones faster than an icy winter sky opening up in a torrent. “Don’t talk like that. You’re not allowed to die, got me? And it’s not so bad. Plenty of people got it worse. ‘Least we’ve got beds, roofs over our heads, and three meals a day.”
Wrinkling his nose, Elliot shifted to lean away, placing his arm along the back of the rosewood. “You have a point, but they aren’t me. I’m not at all used to shared living quarters. How on God’s green earth does one find a moment’s privacy?”
Sully couldn’t help a wry smirk at that. “Oh, there’s ways. You’ll get used to it.”
Elliot grimaced. “I suppose I must, but you ought to know it’s under extremely heavy protest.”
Covering his mouth to hide a smile, Sully shifted so his position mirrored Elliot’s, resting his back against the arm of the settee. “Were you spoiled all your life then?”
Elliot’s lips curved upward, mostly amused, a little self-mocking.
“Compared to most? Undoubtedly. It’s hard to fathom many people having more than I did.
My childhood was unpleasant, nonetheless.
I was small, shy, and sensitive. You must know how boys generally react to those attributes.
I grew and things got better. I was sent to school when my mother felt I was sufficiently capable of restraining my magic.
My father would’ve preferred to send me sooner but sending me late was preferable to revealing my nature. ”
“What was that like? Being sent away for school?”
Elliot’s face tightened.
“Frightening at first. I didn’t know what to expect.
My brothers told ghastly stories. In the end, I enjoyed the experience.
My peers liked me—or at least enjoyed looking at me.
One can never be quite sure which it is, can they?
” Elliot rubbed at his jaw, and Sully’s gaze followed his long fingers massaging over flawless skin.
“And I did decently. I was never caught getting into trouble. Caught is the important word in that sentence. I got up to all sorts of—anyway I’m terribly boring, going on about myself. ”
“No, I’m fascinated,” Sully murmured, and he was.
Images of Elliot younger and infinitely more vulnerable flashed before his eyes.
What trouble had he gotten into? What was he like back then?
What interested him, made his heart race or tears prick at his eyes?
Sully suddenly, vividly, wanted to know him inside and out. He couldn’t decide what to ask first.
“I daresay,” Elliot replied dryly.
“I’m serious. You’re so…” Sully groped for the right words and found none to encompass the interest he felt.
Elliot’s smile was scornful. “Self-obsessed? I am aware, trust me.”
“No, that’s not what I was going to say. Not that it’s not true.” Sully grinned at Elliot’s scoff. “I think I was gonna say that you’re so intriguing. I want to know all about you.”
Elliot’s eyes lit up, lashes flickering slightly. “Flatterer.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Sully hunched his shoulders. “Hardly. No one would accuse me of that.”
“I just did.”
Sully glanced upward and forced himself to sit straighter. “But I’m not. Flattering you, I mean.”
There was a short silence, and Sully watched the muscles in Elliot’s face move, surprised he couldn’t interpret the expressions. “I suppose I can’t deny I’m equally interested in you.”
Sully’s skin tingled. He was hardly interesting.
Orphaned twice over, barely eking out a sustainable existence, he was a disaster more often than he wasn’t.
The interest on Elliot’s features seemed genuine.
Sully’s eyes were too wide, he blinked and shifted as if he was only getting more comfortable.
Inside something warm and fragile curled around his heart.
“So, can you make this dream into anything?” Sully asked, a wild attempt to deflect attention.
Elliot’s expression was quizzical, and no wonder when Sully jumped to an entirely new topic without warning. He probably seemed odd. “I can.”
Licking his dry lips, Sully pushed up to stand, the fur pooling around his feet. “How ’bout instead of just sitting around, you take me to some of the places you’ve visited. You said you traveled a lot, right? There’s got to be somewhere more entertaining than this room.”
Elliot seemed thoughtful, lips forming an obscenely attractive pout, then his face brightened. “Excellent idea. Let’s start with Paris. You’ll love it.”