I'll follow your voice.

When James had finally pulled from her, his hands swept over her cheekbones, brushing tears.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she sobbed, looking at him.

“What are you talking about?”

“Aurora. I know about Aurora, she came to me.”

James went very still, his hands stopping over her face. “Aurora came to see you?”

“She found me. She said everything.”

“…..We’ll talk later.” He said pulling her cold frame to him. “But I’m just glad your okay.”

“Hey, anyone in here?” a voice called followed by lights scanning over the room.

“Dulcie,” Valykrie said in a gasp of a breath before they all vanished into thin air.

Roxanne opened her eyes on her four poster canopy bed, staring at the ceiling. James had somehow gone with her. Looked like the talking was going to be happening now.

“Roxanne…”

She pretended to be asleep.

“Roxanne I know you can hear me. You’re not sleeping.”

With a frown, she opened one eye at him. “What?”

“Can we please talk?”

“About who? You’re girlfriend who you saved for your own life? Did she mean that much? Did you not want to lose your precious love so bad?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“No.”

He sat down on the bed across from her. “Roxanne….Aurora was close to my heart. She was a fire spirit. I did die for her. That’s all.”

“But why?”

“Because I loved her.”

“But you don’t love me so that’s why you’re pushing me away? Because I’m not like her? The only thing you see in me is her fire spirit, isn’t it?”

His lips pursed. “No. that is not the only thing I see in you Roxanne. I see passion, wild desire that no one else has had in such a long time. I see strength and spunk, someone who’s not afraid to be herself. I also see undeniable beauty in you. What me and Aurora had, was back in the past. It means nothing to me now. Yes, I loved her one day in time, but do I now...no. but do I love you? No. I just met you Roxanne, and in case you haven’t noticed, I’m dead.”

“Well so am I.”

His hand cupped her face slightly, staring into her eyes. “Not yet.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not sacrificing Arabella.”

His eyes fell. “I wasn’t talking about putting up one of your friends. I was talking about you fighting back. You not letting this thing take you down. You can beat it, I know you can.”

“How old are you?”

“I have the body of a twenty year old. Reality speaking though….I’m thirty four.”

Her eyebrows rose softly. The way he had made it seem was like that he was old as time. “Only thirty four?”

“Still enough to consider us illegal.”

“Not if nobody knows your real name. We could say you get homeschooled.”

“I belong in Utopia, Roxanne. The dead don’t live amongst the living.”

“The dead don’t kiss the living either.”

He looked at her. “I was proving a point.”

“Roxanne are you in there?” it was her dad.

“Yeah dad.” Her eyes never left James’s.

“Can we talk?” he said from the other side of the door.

Her eyes casted into James’s, widening with a sight raise. He stood from his bed, pressing his lips to her forehead. “We’ll talk some other time.”

“Yeah dad, come on in.” she called as he disappeared.

Her father strode in from behind her door, the look on his face one of stress. “Uh, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Fiona. It’s just…I didn’t know how. You know I don’t have luck with women, and when I met Fiona, that just sort of changed. When I’m with her, it’s just…magical.”

“Dad, I don’t care who you date. Seriously. But when you don’t tell me you have a girlfriend and I walk in and see you too going at it, I am going to be hurt.” Why did it seem like nobody could tell her the truth anymore?

“I don’t know, to be honest. I just…well now I’m telling you and that’s all that matters.”

But it wasn’t. Her dad obviously didn’t trust her enough with his love life, and kept things like his girlfriend secret from her, there was something wrong. So why should she tell him about her love life? And the fact that she was seeing a guy almost as old as him? Exactly. She wouldn’t. “Alright,” she said, looking from him. “Whatever. Can I go to bed? I have a date tomorrow.” She said through a cautious look in her eye.

“With…I don’t want to know, but I do want to meet him.” He said with a sigh and rose from the bed.

Roxanne almost laughed. He probably did but didn’t even realize it. She nodded, and moved into her bathroom, sighing against the sink. Things could only get better from here, couldn’t they?