She opened her mouth to speak, but he brought her hand to his
lips and pressed a lingering kiss to her fingers. A heady rush of notes filled
her to the point that it almost made her dizzy.
“Go on before it closes,” he murmured.
He released her hand, and she took a step toward her room,
but hesitated. She looked at him for a long moment, trying to fix him into her
mind. “You promise me you were never just a hallucination?” she asked.
He grinned, a real one that lit up his otherwise somber face.
“What kind of hallucination would I be if I told you?”
She smiled. “I’ll never forget you.” Even as she said the
words, her heart felt funny in her chest, achy and longing.
“And for that, my life no longer seems so dismal.”
He bowed at the waist, and Melody turned to hurry into her
living room before she lost her nerve altogether. She strode the first few
steps until the echoing of her footsteps on the stone floor became less
pronounced as she walked across the hardwood. She stopped at her piano, let her
eyes glance over the music that was still there, and she finally found the
courage to turn around.
Everything was as it should be. Her house. Her door. Her
life.
Why did it suddenly seem so much emptier? She hadn’t thought
it was possible for it to feel any emptier, but she was wrong. A familiar ache
settled over her heart, but the origin of it was different.
With a sigh, she sat down on her piano bench and her eyes
fell on the black fabric of the shirt she still wore. She fingered one of the
sleeves and smiled. She brought it up to her nose and inhaled. Cedar and violin
rosin.
A little of the sorrow in her heart lessened. It really had
been
real
. No dream, no deluded fantasy. Liron was real. He existed. And
if she had been able to go through the gateway once, she bet she could do it
again.
But first, she needed to take care of her blaring alarm clock
before her head exploded. And then, she was calling in to work. She was beyond
exhausted.
* * * *
Liron stared at the empty space where Melody’s living room
had been a moment ago. There was nothing now, just the vacant corner of his
room. The popping and crackling of the logs in the fireplace seemed as loud as
cannon blasts, echoing throughout the hollow room. His home had been silent before,
lonely. Now it felt desolate.
Melody had only inhabited his life for a chaotic whirlwind of
an evening, but she had left her impression upon him completely. Not only was
she an anomaly for being able to traverse the continuum and come into his world,
but she had done so willingly because she’d felt such a strong pull to him. And
though she had been utterly terrified, she had put her faith and trust in him
blindly. She had accepted his care and his touch in a way that defied logic for
him. When every touch or every attempt at tenderness had been met with contempt
and annoyance from Elizabeth, Melody had relished it, basked in it, sought it
out.
There had been no other women for Liron before Elizabeth.
Aside from the loving touch of his mother, he had never known a woman’s warmth
or caress. He’d ached for it from Elizabeth until her coldness had eradicated
all hope of receiving kindness from her. And after she’d left, he had grown
accustomed to his solitude. He couldn’t believe how his heart had revived with
just one trusting gesture from Melody. Her hand in his, her defense of him as
he’d shared his story, the way she had flung herself into his arms when
Siegfried had startled her, the way she’d allowed him to soothe her with his
embrace and unique talent. All of those things made his heart rage and roar
with fire he thought had long since died out.
It was an exquisite discovery, an enchanting, remarkable
resurrection of his dormant heart. And for the short amount of time she had
been with him, he had almost believed he could create music again. Because his
music, written in his deepest pain, had touched her so much she’d been able to
go against the laws of physics and reach him.
But now she was gone. And the music was gone. All that was
left was a lovely memory, a spilled bottle of wine on his floor, and a white
shirt lying somewhere in his bedroom. He had been dangled beauty for one
second, like bait from a hunter trying to snare a beast. Now, he was alone
again. It startled him how much he yearned to feel her in his arms, to bury his
face in her hair and see if it smelled like the sunlight it was kissed with.
He let out a defeated sigh and turned back into his room.
Siegfried was perched atop one of the chairs, preening himself. Liron smiled,
walked by the bird, and held his arm out. The falcon hopped up onto his forearm
with a screech.
“I know, she interrupted your sleep. Come on, you cranky
bird. Let’s go to bed.” He started back toward the hallway. “But for the
record, you frightened her as much as she did you.” He smiled to himself,
remembering how she had leaned against him in the stairway. Perhaps she was
gone, but he felt blessed to have had those moments with her at all. It had
reminded him his heart still beat, that he was still a man, and that he was
still alive.
Chapter Seven
Melody groaned and flopped the pillow down over her head to
stifle the horrible blaring of her phone, which was almost as bad as the
horrible blaring of her alarm. When it didn’t stop, she crawled out from under
the pillow and fumbled around on her nightstand until she managed to get the
receiver out of the cradle. “What?” she grumbled.
“Geez, hello to you too,” Nikki’s voice came. “What are you
doing? Were you asleep?”
“I was.” Melody rolled over onto her back and rubbed her
eyes.
“It’s one o’clock in the afternoon. Are you sick?”
“No, I was just up late.”
“Doing what?”
Melody sighed. “I couldn’t sleep. I was having…weird dreams.”
It was close enough to the truth.
There was a pause on the other line. “Dreams? About what?
Nightmares? Were they about your parents? Mel—”
Melody knew that tone in her friend’s voice, and she was not
in the mood for it. “Nikki, so help me, if you say, ‘maybe you should see a
therapist,’ I
will
kill you. Or at the very least stop talking to you
for about a week.” She sat up and shoved her hand through her unruly and
tangled mass of hair. She glanced down at the black shirt she still wore and
smiled as she fingered the soft fabric. “And no, they weren’t about my parents.
They were just weird. I drank too much wine before I went to sleep.”
“You were drinking? Why?”
Seriously? Did she have “basket case” written on her
forehead? That was the only reason she could think of as to why everyone seemed
to think she was one second away from insanity, or alcoholism, or any other
psychological problem she could shake a stick at. “Because I made an Italian
dinner and I felt like it. I’m twenty-seven years old. Do I need a note?”
“No, of course not. So, what were your dreams about?”
She’s really not gonna let up, is she?
“Space travel,”
she blurted.
There, that should do it.
“Oh,” Nikki said. “That’s…interesting.”
Melody smothered her laughter.
“Anyway, I’m sorry to wake you up. I was just in the mall
shopping and I went to see you at work, but they told me you’d called in. I
wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Melody smiled at her friend’s concern. “I’m fine, Nik. I just
played hooky like when I was in high school.”
Nikki giggled. “All right, well, go back to vegetating. I
won’t bug ya.”
“Talk to you later, Nik.” She hung up the phone and lay back
against her pillows with a grin. She felt different than usual, not quite as
depressed. Her heart didn’t feel as heavy. And every time her mind wandered, it
wandered right back to Liron; to his silky hair and luminous blue eyes. To his
patient understanding and compassion. To the way he had cared for her and
calmed her, held her. The way he had looked at her right before her alarm clock
had brought them screaming back to reality.
She felt like a schoolgirl with a crush, and she didn’t care.
For the first time since her parents’ death, she didn’t feel like facing the
day would be the equivalent of walking through molasses with cement shoes on.
She wondered what Liron was doing, if he was thinking of her,
and if she would have the ability to travel to his world again if she tried.
Deciding she had nothing better she wanted to do with her day, she swung her
legs out of bed and headed to her closet. First things first, she was going to
make sure she was not in her pajamas. If she managed to go through the gateway
again, she wanted to at least look presentable. She maybe even felt like
looking a little bit sexy.
After selecting an outfit that was casual, but still had a
little bit of sass to it, she headed for the bathroom to take a nice, long
shower.
* * * *
It was around three o’clock when Melody was finally ready to
sit down at her piano and see what kind of magic she could weave. She’d showered
and made herself look decent in her good jeans and a black tank top with a sheer
black blouse over it that came off the shoulders. It had tiny, shiny black
beads interspersed throughout the fabric that sparkled in the right light. She’d
pulled her hair up in a clip and left her bangs and some loose tendrils framing
her face. She’d also put some makeup on, which was more than she usually did
unless she had to go to work. Even when she’d gone out with Rob, she had only
put on light foundation and some mascara. Today, she added a touch of smoky eye
shadow, a soft, peachy blush and some lip gloss.
She felt jittery, but in a good way, charged with adrenaline
like when one was getting ready to go out on a date.
She stared at the music score for awhile, wondering if the
gateway would open again, hoping it would, and then wondering if she’d lost her
mind. If she was any kind of practical, she would put the music away, be happy
she’d made it back home at all, and would never again dabble with things she
didn’t understand about the universe. Obviously, she wasn’t practical.
Sure, traveling to a different dimension unexpectedly had
been horrifying. But when she’d gotten used to her surroundings, and learned
more about Liron, the idea became more intriguing than scary. She wondered what
other secrets the world had to offer.
She smiled and started to sit down on the piano bench when
knocking sounded at her door. She instantly bristled. She did
not
want
to deal with Rob right now. The man did not know when to quit.
Annoyed that he had interrupted her, and that she would
probably need to blow him off her step with dynamite, she strode to the door
and yanked it open.
Rob stood there with his sleazy grin, but it morphed into a
look of shock when his gaze glanced over Melody. “Whoa,” he murmured. His smile
went from shocked, bypassed sleazy, and became demonic. “You got all dressed up
for me. How did you know I was coming?”
She huffed and put her hand on her hip. A couple of silver
bangles she’d placed around her wrist jangled with the action. “I did not dress
up for you, Rob, and save your coercion tactics. I have a date.” She got
tremendous satisfaction out of his reaction. He looked like someone had just
shot him in the butt.
“A date?” he snapped. “With who?”
She smirked. “With the man who wrote that music Nikki bought
me.”
It took him a couple minutes to actually figure out what she
meant. She saw pain flash over his features from thinking too hard. “So,
basically, you mean you’re playing the piano all night again?” he grumbled.
“You got dressed up to sit at the piano? How boring is that?”
She scowled. “I got dressed up because I wanted to. And
sitting at my piano is what makes me happy. Just like target practice makes you
happy.” She rolled her eyes. “At any rate, I’m not free tonight.”
She’d seen children who’d been spanked who didn’t look as disgruntled
at he did. “Great, now I’m being replaced by a musical instrument.”
“Music was always first in my life, in case you didn’t
remember me telling you I was a musician.”
“You said you
used
to be a musician.”
She frowned and folded her arms. “I’m sorry, is my line of
work going to be a problem for you? Because, by all means, go on back across
the street. No one’s forcing you to stay here.” For some reason, she was having
a difficult time finding the small smidgen of charm she usually found in Rob.
He was annoying her, and all he cared about was himself. His interests, his
wants.
“Dude, what is with the attitude lately, Mel? All I want to
do is go on one stupid little date with you. You have something better to do?
Besides plunk away on your keyboard?” He snorted. “Like
that’s
a
productive pastime.”
Anger flared to life inside of Melody. How dare he insult her
music? That was like insulting her soul, and insulting her parents as well.
“All right, you’ve overstayed your welcome. If you really want to go out with
me, I suggest leaving me be for a few days. Because right now all I really want
to do is kick you in the nads.” She grabbed hold of the inner door in one hand.
“I’m not even addressing what you just said to me. And if you can’t figure out
why that upset me, you should probably never come back here again.” She didn’t
wait for his response. She just shut the door. She didn’t have time for this.
Arrogant,
belligerent idiot….
She went back to the piano, sat down, and started to pound
out Liron’s music. She used far too much force, fueled by her aggravation and
imagining that all the keys were Rob’s eyes she was poking out. She didn’t do
the music justice, blasting through it with the grace and skill of a buffalo.
When she got to the end of it, she looked over her shoulder,
but saw nothing that was any different than her usual sofa, door, and walls.
She heaved a sigh and let her shoulders slump as she turned back around. “Okay,
Melody, get a grip,” she muttered. She shook out her hands to release tension, cracked
her neck, and poised her fingers back over the keys.