Her father was a scientist so obsessed with his work he’d allowed his family to fall apart.
Virginia was a whole state; there was no way they’d ever crossed paths. That their lives in Virginia were in any way connected.
But it was the sort of coincidence that nagged at her; that followed her into her dreams, until those dreams became nightmares.
~*~
She was sipping at an Instant Breakfast shake the next morning when Val’s voice sounded behind her: “I didn’t mean to run off yesterday.”
Mia was so startled she choked. She managed to swallow, and snagged a paper towel off the roll on the counter to wipe at her chin.
“Sorry,” Val said, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
But when she turned around, she saw that his shoulders quaked with silent laughter, a smile hidden behind his hand.
He wore blue today, she noticed absurdly.
“Jerk,” she accused.
His eyes danced. For a moment, and then his hand fell away, and his smile dimmed, and he grew more serious. “I am sorry, though. About yesterday. I shouldn’t have shouted at you.”
“You didn’t shout,” she said. Almost, but not quite. And she’d seen the emotion flickering across his face, hard to name. “But I was just trying to help.”
His mouth quirked to the side. He took a deep breath and let it out slow. She got the impression he’d practiced this. “I appreciate that you were trying to show me a kindness. That you would even consider…” He looked down at his hands and shook his head. “I don’t understand…But I am no regular prisoner, Mia.” He lifted his head again, gaze so direct she felt herself wanting to take a step back from it. “I am considered volatile, and dangerous; traitorous, and untrustworthy.”
“Are you those things?” She couldn’t really believe, afterward, that she’d asked such a thing.
He stared at her steadily. “What do you think?”
Careful. She wanted to be so careful here. “I think,” she said, slowly, “that real traitors never claim to be traitors.”
A thin, humorless smile touched his mouth. It was a beautiful mouth; lips thin but shapely, mobile, petal pink.
“And I think danger is relative.”
He released a single breath of quiet laughter. “Well, aren’t you the optimist?”
“No. I’m someone who’s spent weeks getting to know you. And I think wherever you are must really suck if you want to come dog my boring heels every day.”
He bristled. “You think – you think that’s what I’m doing?Dogging your heels?” He frowned. “You think I’m pathetic–”
“Val, no. Please calm down. Okay.”
He folded his arms and turned away from her, glaring at a cabinet face.
“I love spending time with you. I wish–” She caught herself before she could admit that she wished they had more time. That he could stay through the night; that she could open her eyes each morning and find him sleep-rumpled and gorgeous on the pillow next to her. He went very still, listening. “Every day it gets a little harder to think about you locked up in a cell somewhere. I hate it, Val. I wish I could change things for you.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up, a bitter smile. “No need wasting wishes on me.”
“I want to help you,” she said, and it sounded like a plea.
“You can’t. I’m locked in silver cuffs, and chains, and buried in the dungeon of a manor house out in the woods.”
Mia couldn’t help it; she gasped.
Val turned back to her, eyes bright with checked emotion. “Yes, darling. I am a horror. A monster who has to be locked in a cage.” He tilted his head, smile cutting. “And no one better get too close to the bars, lest my bloodlust get the best of me.”
All at once, she realized what he was doing.
