“I had a long afternoon uptown. I didn’t get back until late.” He hugged and kissed her back. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,’ she said. “But I worry. Every time, I think that you’re not coming, that something’s happened. I don’t know how to handle it.”
She broke away, holding him at arm’s length and staring at him as if she had never seen him before, or never would again. Her eyes were black pools in the dim light, and her brown skin was smoothed and darkened by the shadows. “Did you miss me?”
He laughed. “Only enough that I gave up dinner to come see you.”
“That’s all? Only dinner?”
“That’s all I had time to give up. What else do you want?”
She stared at him. “I don’t know. Everything, I guess.” She smiled selfconsciously and reached into her jacket pocket. “I brought the pleneten.
Six doses wrapped in cold packs. It should be enough for Persia. Keep them cold until she takes them. Have Tiger do the same while they’re stored.”
He nodded, accepting the packs and sticking them deep into his side pocket. The pleneten came in tablets that were easily transported. He would take them to Tiger tomorrow at midday, as promised.
She took his hands and led him over to the bench where they liked to sit during their visits. He wrapped one arm about her shoulders and cradled her against him. “Thanks for doing this.”
She nodded, but didn’t say anything.
He sensed something. “It went okay, didn’t it?”
“I might have been seen.”
He felt himself grow cold inside, and for a moment he didn’t say anything in response. “Seen by whom?” he managed finally.
She sighed and lifted her head from his shoulder. “There was another girl working in the medical supply room. She caught me in the refrigeration cabinet where they store the pleneten. I made up a story about doing an inventory, but everyone knows that inventories are only done by assignment and at certain times.”
“Do you think she might tell someone?”
“She might.”
“Then you shouldn’t go back.” Because you know what will happen if you do and they find out you’ve been stealing medical supplies, he wanted to add, but didn’t. “You should come with me.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“I know you think you can’t.”
She drew back from him. “Why must we always have this argument, Hawk?
Every time I see you! Why can’t we be together without talking about the future?” She squeezed his hands sharply. “Why can’t we just be in the present?”
He had thought he would be able to lead into this more gradually, but that wasn’t the way things were working out. He bent close, so that their faces were almost touching.
“Because,” he whispered. “Because of everything.” He took a deep breath.
“Listen to me, Tessa. I told you last night that you had to be careful about going out of the compound, that the Weatherman had found an entire nest of dead Croaks down on the waterfront. But there’s more. We came across a Lizard two days ago that was just all ripped apart. I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t know anything that could have done it. Then, earlier today, we were down in a warehouse basement and Candle’s voices warned her to get out of there. I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel it. There was something there, something big and dangerous, hiding on the other side of a collapsed wall.”
She started to speak, but he put his fingers to her lips. “Wait, there’s more. Last night, after I came back from seeing you, Candle was waiting up for me. She was shaking, she was so afraid. She’d had one of her visions, a bad one.
It was of something huge coming to the city, something that was going to kill us all.”
He touched her cheek, then stroked her hair. “Candle doesn’t make these things up. The voices are real, and they have never been wrong. I don’t think they’re wrong this time. But I don’t know what to do about it. I haven’t told anyone but you. Do you know why that is? Because I can’t do anything without you. I have to get the Ghosts out of the city to someplace safe. But I won’t go without you. I can’t leave you. I won’t ever leave you.”
She nodded, biting her lip and reaching up with her hands to hold his head steady as she kissed his eyes and nose and mouth. There were tears in her eyes.
“What am I supposed to do about my mother? You can’t ask me to leave her!”
His gaze was fierce. “You’re all grown up, Tessa; you’re not a child. We belong together—you and me. We’re ready to start our own life. To do that, you have to leave her. That’s just the way of things. She has your father; he can look after her. You would be leaving her, in any case, if we were to marry.
Isn’t that what you want for us?”
She shook her head. “I’ve told you before! You could come live in the compound! You could be with me there!”