Chapter 21

Nova hit the call button before she chickened out again. It rang four times before she heard a quiet ‘lo’ on the other end.

“Bastian?” Had she been given the wrong number?

“Mmm, who’s this?”

“It’s Nova.” She heard a crash, something shatter, and then a soft grunt and quiet curse. “I can call back later if this isn’t a good time.”

“No. No. No, it’s fine.” He cleared his throat. “You called me.”

She could hear the grogginess in his voice. “I thought you wanted me to…”

“Yes. No. Yes, I did.” She heard a door shut and then a few moments later the clatter of dishes. “I’m just shocked you did, uh, call me.” She heard water running. “Thank you—for calling.”

She couldn’t help smiling, he was clearly not awake and trying to function through the fog. “I have questions I believe you have the answers to.”

“So many questions,” he mumbled, “for both of us, I suppose.” She could hear the bubbling of a coffee maker in the background. “I’d like to meet and maybe have lunch or some sort of food and talk.” A door closed again, “What time is it?” His voice faded for a second. “It’s three in the morning. You’re not one of those early risers, are you?”

“No, I don’t really have a schedule.”

“I can relate to that. How are you? Any more problems with men after you?”

She played with the pendant around her neck. “No. I’ve only been going out midday if I need anything.” She felt the brightness of daylight and busy places were safer than being caught alone after dark.

“You do know they’re not vampires, right? They can go out in the daylight.”

She grinned. “Yes, I just thought it better than wandering around alone at night.”

“Yes. That’s safer, but you still need to be on your guard at all times, Nova.”

“I always am.”

“So, lunch, or a breakfast as we’ll both need a nap by lunchtime now.”

Nova smiled again and then covered her mouth with her hand. When was the last time she’d smiled this many times in such a short period? He hadn’t been this entertaining that day she’d met him. Maybe it was because he was half asleep now. Lowering her hand, she looked at the notes in front of her. I do have some concerns about seeing you again.

“Too cute to handle?”

She bit her bottom lip to prevent laughing. “I was thinking more of the weird feeling from whatever my soul did the last time. It was unnerving.”

“Mmm, it’s too bad you feel that way, I found it exhilarating.” He cleared his throat. “We can, uh, sit far apart and use hand signals if it would make you feel better.”

Picturing it, made her smile again. “I’m sensing you’re not a very serious man.”

He snorted. “Do you know how tedious that would make my exceptionally long life? I can be serious, just prefer to avoid it at all costs.”

Nova thought for a moment how solemn her existence had been for the last seven years. “That’s one of my questions, how old are you? Because the sketch I have of you is from the 1800s and you haven’t aged.”

“You have a drawing of me? I wonder which one drew that—I can’t picture her right now.”

Nova bit her lip; she hadn’t meant to bring the journals up until she knew more. “Her name was Betsy,” she offered him.

“Do you know you are the first one with that soul whose name I know? It’s been like a game of hide and seek, dragged out over roughly a thousand years. Why, my lovely Nova Gaines, is that? Why the avoidance and chase all this time? It has driven me to distraction over the years trying to figure that out.”

Nova turned and looked at the journals. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

“Mmm, well, that’ settles it, we need to—for our own sanity’s sake have breakfast together and puzzle this mystery out.”

She grinned, again. “You think we can solve a thousand-year-old mystery over toast and tea?”

He chortled. “Absolutely not. Scones and coffee though, we might manage it then.”

She looked at the notes on the desk, then over at her fish, as if their input would happen. “All right, Bastian, we can meet for breakfast.”

“Eight a.m. at the little café down the block from the alley we met in?”

She knew the one he spoke of, and frequented it often for the muffins they made. “Okay,” she answered before she could change her mind. “Just you?”

“I’d like to say yes, but if I’m distracted by your beautiful eyes, who is going to make sure those after you aren’t nearby? My guard, Tor, will be with us.”

“The one that was with you before?”

“Uh, no, that was my brother.”

“Okay. Good, he was very cold.”

Bastian snorted. “Yes, he is. I tell him all the time to loosen up.”

“I’ll see you at eight, Bastian.” She hung up and dropped the phone onto the desk as if it suddenly burned her hand. Blowing out a breath, she looked over at the fish. “I have a breakfast date.” She looked down at the tattered sweatshirt and patched jeans she was wearing. “I should probably change for that.”

Now all she had to do was distract herself for the next five hours or her nerves were going to get the better of her and she’d cancel the breakfast. She didn’t want that, he had the answers she needed. She bit her lip and smirked, he was intriguing now that she knew he wasn’t normally as serious as he had been that first time. She stood up and looked around the library. Dusting the books would do to kill most of that time.