And then turned away and left the office.
Chapter Twenty-Four
No'One woke up to a great, horrifying scream, the kind of thing that accompanied bloody murder.
It took her a moment to realize she was making the sound, her mouth stretched wide, her body strung tight, her lungs burning as she exhaled.
Fortunately, she had left the lights on, and she frantically looked around at the bedroom's toile-covered walls and drapery and bedspread. Then she focused on her robe. . . yes, she had her robe on, not a thin nightgown.
It had been a dream. A dream. . .
She was not in a root cellar in the earth.
She was not at the mercy of the symphath -
"I'm sorry. "
Gasping, she jerked back against the padded headboard. Tohrment was standing just inside the room, the door closed behind him.
"Are you okay?" he said.
She yanked her hood up into place, hiding beneath it. "I. . . " Memories of what had happened between them made it hard to think clearly. "I am. . . well enough. "
"I can't believe that," he said in a hoarse way. "God. . . I'm so sorry. There's no excuse for what I did. And I won't come near you ever again. I swear. . . "
The anguish in his voice bit into her as surely as if it were her own. "It's all right - "
"The hell it is. I even gave you a nightmare - "
"What awoke me was not you. It was. . . from before. " Taking a deep breath, she said, "It's strange, I have not dreamed of the. . . what happened to me. . . ever. I have thought of it often, but when I sleep, I have only darkness. "
"And just now?" he gritted out.
"I was back underground. In the root cellar. The smell down there - dearest Virgin Scribe, the smell. " Wrapping her arms around herself, she felt the draft sure as if she were once again behind that rough oak door. "Salt licks. . . I'd forgotten the salt licks. "
"I'm sorry?"
"There were salt licks down there for the animals - that is why my scars stuck with me. I'd always wondered if maybe he'd used some kind of symphath power or something to alter my skin. But no, there were salt licks, and salting meats. " She shook her head. "I'd forgotten about them until now. Forgotten so many precise details - "
As a growled curse came out of him, she glanced up. Tohrment's expression suggested he wished he could kill that symphath all over again - but he covered it up, as if he didn't want to upset her.
"I don't think I ever told you I was sorry," he said softly. "Back then, in the cottage with Darius. He and I were both so sorry that you had - "
"Please, let us speak no longer upon the subject. Thank you. "
In the awkward silence that followed, his stomach rumbled.
"You should eat," she murmured.
"Not hungry. "
"Your tum - "
"Can go to hell. "
Staring up at his still figure, she was astounded by the difference in him: even after such a short time, the color was back in his face, his posture was straighter, his eyes much more alert.
The blood was such a powerful thing, she thought.