For several seconds she simply sat there, unable to believe she'd heard his voice. Unwilling to turn around and perhaps discover a stranger.
"In very many ways I am a stranger," he said softly. "We had less than a week together."
His breath washed warmth across the back of her neck. She shivered and rubbed her arms. Why hadn't she felt him enter? Why did she feel nothing in the link between them but an odd sort of grey, when once it had been so full of color and emotion that she had feared its brightness? Now, of all times, when he was standing so close that the heat of his body caressed her skin, she should have felt the rainbow of his thoughts.
That she didn't scared the hell out of her.
"Nothing has happened to the link, Nikki. It is still there."
His soft tones wrapped around her, warm and yet somehow wary. She closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. Six months she'd waited to hear his voice. Six long months. Now he stood behind her, and she wasn't entirely sure what she should do or say.
"I used to know when you walked into the room, used to be able to feel you," she said softly. "Even before the link became strong between us."
"Many things have changed."
"And some things haven't." He was still talking in riddles, still not coming out with the entire truth. Last time it had led to death. She had a horrible feeling it just might again.
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