“Then leave.” Beth nodded and picked up her other case, and stared at where Aster had been. No one was there, not a ghost nor a human. Beth moved to the door and stopped. It was open. All she had to do was walk through it and she could be gone before anyone noticed. But the voices down the hall had her pause.
“I know that we wanted the nursery light green, but I think it would be much nicer if it was white. That way we can add more colors to it when we have him.” Kari giggled as she continued. “I would paint it blue, but you said to wait.”
“What if we have a girl? Did you think of that?” The voices moved out of her hearing range and still she stood there. Beth knew that she had to go, had to go right now, but she moved back to the bed and laid her cases out. She wasn’t going to leave them, not yet. She couldn’t, and she was pretty sure that Aster knew it.
Chapter 12
Nick stared at the headstone. He didn’t understand it, or better yet, he didn’t want to understand it. Looking around the open field, he tried to think where the hell he was and what the fuck was going on. But the name on the marble stone drew him back again.
“Addison Stark. Loving wife and good friend to all.” The dates were blurred to him, and that was how he knew that this was another of his dreams. But this was the first time a name had ever been given to him.
“Do I know you?” He turned at the sound of the voice and looked at the woman there. He tried to absorb every detail of her he could into his mind, but he knew that no matter how much he tried, there would be nothing left of her when he woke. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. And I think I know you. I’m not sure.” She nodded and walked around him to the stone. “I think this is you, isn’t it? You’re Addison Stark.”
“It is. And I am.” She reached down and ran her hand over the beautifully carved letters that proclaimed her name and life. “You’re my husband then? Stark is your name?”
“I think so. Nick Stark. Nicholas, but I only go by Nick.” She nodded and stood up to walk through the stone to stare at him. “What happened? To you, what happened that put you here?”
“I’m dead.” Nick nodded. “And you’re wrong about going by only Nick. I called you Nicholas. I always have.”
“I don’t know who you are. Not really. I see you almost nightly in my dreams, but I don’t know you.” She smiled, and he could see the reason he had probably loved her. She was simply beautiful. “I’ve dreamt about you a lot, but I don’t ever remember seeing you before. I mean, I’ve seen you, but you’re not there when I wake.”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to. We have to meet, and if you save me, then this will never be.” She looked down at her stone. “It’s very lovely, don’t you think?”
“So are you.” She looked at him and grinned. “I call you Addie. I…we fell in love very quickly, though I don’t know how we met.”
“Neither do I. What I do know is that you didn’t want me, that you thought that by not taking me into your heart….” She looked away then, and he turned too. There in the distance was a house, the first one he’d seen in his dreams about the woman. “Do you know where this is? This area, I mean?”
“No. I live with Steele Bennett and his wife.” She looked at him and grinned again. “Do you know him?”
“Everyone does. We have heard a great deal about him since…well, since his sister has been here.” Addie frowned then. “Am I dead now?”
“No. I don’t know why, but I know that you’re not.” She nodded but still frowned. “Do you dream of me like this? Are we having a connection through a dream?”
“I don’t know that either. But I have dreamt about you too. But I will tell you this. I’ve no desire for you to find me. I have no desire to die, but I don’t want you in my life. I don’t need you any more than you do me.” She sat down on her stone, and he had an overwhelming urge to go to her and kiss her. “I die a great deal in these dreams. It’s never…the sex we have is very wonderful, but I never feel as if it’s enough. Then when I die…do you suppose you’re never meant to find me, and we relive this dream over and over forever? It sounds like something that the fates would do to me. I’ve not been a dutiful daughter, and my parents are probably paying them to shit on me like this.”
“I hope not.” She nodded but still looked at the house. “Do you know that place? Have you had dreams about it before today?”
“Yes, I know the place. Very well. As a matter of fact, I want to own it someday. But I won’t. Too much red tape. I think…I’m not sure, but I think that we lived there at one time.” She looked at him. “I died in the bedroom once. You stabbed a stake through my heart as I rode your lovely cock.”
The dream he’d told Steele about but had never finished. “You changed into something else. You were no longer human.”