Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (166 page)

Mitch tried not to sound skeptical, he
really did. “And you’ve been immortal ever since that sip?”

Lilith met his gaze with easy assurance.
“Yes. The elixir takes the one who imbibes it out of the stream of
time. I stand still – like a rock in a river – while everything
swirls around and past me.”

She shrugged as though this made perfect
sense – which Mitch might have found difficult to argue if Lilith
hadn’t glanced back to Cooley’s hole.

Because when she did, a single hair nearly
buried in the dark tangle of her hair winked in the sunlight.

A single silver hair.

Mitch’s heart leapt, but he tried to sound
casual while he confirmed his suspicion. “So, I guess you don’t
age, then?”

“
Not since that moment. I’m
eternally thirty-three years old.”

Mitch leaned on the shovel, trying to look
nonchalant even when he sensed victory was nearly within his grasp.
“Sounds like a vain woman’s dream. No wrinkles, no face-lifts.” He
paused significantly. “No grey hairs.”

Lilith smiled sunnily. “No, never a one in
over five hundred years.”

“
Then what’s that?” Mitch
pointed to what he had just spotted.

Lilith raised on hand to her hair and
frowned. “What?”

“
You can’t see it because
of the angle, but you do have a grey hair.”

Her eyes flashed. “Impossible! I can’t!”

“
You certainly do,” Mitch
argued.

“
I don’t believe
it.”

“
Then hold your breath and
I’ll show it to you.” Mitch gently worked the offending hair free
of the others around it, an easy task since it was of coarser
texture than Lilith’s silky tresses, and gave it a tiny
yank.

She yelped, then her eyes widened when he
presented it to her. The hair shone in the sunlight, unmistakably
white, even as her fingertips massaged its source.

Lilith didn’t seem to have anything to say;
she just accepted the hair as though she couldn’t believe it was
real.

There was a glimmer in her eyes that made
Mitch think that she was reconsidering everything she had told him,
that maybe a few dots were teaming up to make a line.

This had to be a revelation of a kind. He
could almost sense a door opening in her mind. Lilith was one smart
lady, after all. Maybe all she needed was a moment to herself.

“
It’s not the end of the
world,” Mitch teased gently. “Let’s hope three don’t grow in its
place.

Lilith looked up at him silently. She turned
the hair in her fingers and stared at it again. “I don’t
understand,” she said softly. “It’s impossible.”

“
Clearly, it’s not.” Mitch
touched her cheek with a gentle fingertip. “We’re all getting
older, Lilith,” he said. “I’ve pulled a few of those out
myself.”

“
No! I’m not supposed to
age,” she insisted, her gaze fixed on the hair.

“
Well, maybe something has
changed,” Mitch whispered. She looked up in alarm at this sentiment
and he smiled encouragingly. “It’s not so bad. You’ll
see.”

Lilith opened her mouth and closed it again.
She frowned at the hair, then shook her head. She seemed so lost
that Mitch wanted to gather her up and make everything better, but
this was a hurdle she had to jump herself. Clearly, Lilith had some
things to work through – and if her trauma had been as bad as Mitch
feared, he had probably already pushed far enough.

He bent, unable to stop the tenderness
flooding through him, and kissed her brow. “It’s okay, Lilith. I’ll
help you. You can come and talk about it any time, whenever you’re
ready.” She met his gaze, her own expression so vulnerable that
Mitch’s heart clenched. “Just say the word and I’ll brew up some
sangria,” he promised, and was glad to see her fleeting smile.

“
I just need to think,” she
said quietly.

“
I know. Just remember that
I’m here.”

And then she really smiled, her eyes so warm
that Mitch didn’t want to leave her side at all. “I know,” she
said, stretching suddenly to press a quick kiss to his cheek. “And
that’s the best news of all.”

She turned, hefted her spade, and strode
back to her gate, that hair held before her like a trophy.

Admiration flooded through Mitch as he
watched her go, admiration along with a certainty that Lilith would
see her way through this. It wasn’t easy to open doors that had
been securely locked for a long time, but Mitch knew that Lilith
would manage it.

She was really something special.

*

Lilith couldn’t believe her own eyes. The
silver hair waved in her grip as though it deliberately taunted
her, as if its presence wasn’t bad enough.

How could it be here?

Lilith didn’t remember anything about the
elixir wearing off over the years or any maintenance technicalities
that she could have forgotten over the centuries. She put the hair
down on her kitchen counter and stared at it.

This just wasn’t right.

But the hair was here. And it was grey. And
her scalp still hurt from where Mitch had evicted it. No doubt
about it, it was her own.

What was it doing here?

Lilith frowned, then went into the living
room and looked at the cards. The Wheel of Fortune was face up now,
right beside The Hermit. The first circle was complete, the first
phase of Mitch’s journey finished.

The challenge of the physical world had been
met, but the confrontation with the spiritual world had only just
begun. The seeker on the card descended into the underworld,
seeking wisdom and abandoning the illusion of controlling his fate.
Great forces were in the wind when The Wheel of Fortune appeared,
powerful changes over which one had no direct influence.

Lilith sat down and looked at the card. The
Wheel of Fortune whispered of taking changes, of throwing the dice,
of betting it all, win or lose, of dancing a jig with the
capricious partner named Dame Fortune.

A chance had been taken, or was in the act
of being taken, a chance that could have long-reaching
repercussions. Lilith thought about her grey hair, she thought
about Mitch, she thought about him coming back to her.

He was right. Something
had
changed.

In fact, everything that mattered had
changed. Mitch had returned to her – her one true love was right by
her side.

Lilith’s hand rose to her lips in delighted
realization. She didn’t need to wait anymore. She didn’t need to be
immortal anymore. In fact, life would be a whole lot easier is she
and Mitch aged together, now that they had found each other
again.

It looked as though her immortality was a
thing of the past. And Lilith didn’t have too many complaints about
that. If anything, the grey hair was just as sign that they were
solidly on the road to Happily Ever After.

But why the grey hair now? Had it been
merrily growing, unbeknownst to Lilith, since Mitch’s arrival?

Or was it new?

Lilith didn’t know. When she looked down at
the cards again, the next one had flipped over. Lilith had been
sitting right there, and she hadn’t seen it more.

Yet all the same, Fortitude, number eleven,
was turned up.

The Ferris Wheel of Fortune had completed
its turn.

*

Fortitude was called Strength in one of
Lilith’s other decks, but the image upon it was essentially the
same. Pictured on the card was a young woman in the act of prying
open the jaws of a ferocious lion.

The card tells of conquering one’s own
shadow, of coming to terms with the conflict within one’s own soul,
of meeting a challenge with gentleness instead of brute force.

And reigning victorious, when the
alternative might have been expected. The card indicates the power
of inner strength, of conviction, of a fortitude born of belief in
doing the right thing.

Mitch had an ample measure of that kind of
fortitude, Lilith knew, and the realization made her smile.

She suddenly heard the children in the
backyard and glanced up to find the shadows drawing long in the
unlit house. Lilith didn’t know how long she had sat there,
meditating on the card, but it didn’t matter.

Mitch would be where his children were,
watching over them like a gruff guardian angel.

And Lilith knew exactly where she wanted to
be.

*

Mitch sat on his back porch as the kids ran
around the yard after dinner. He was perfectly content to let them
burn off some steam before bed and was hoping that Lilith might
make an appearance.

To his delight, she stepped out on her porch
almost immediately. Mitch wondered whether Lilith could have been
waiting for him and felt himself smile in welcome.

He liked how she smiled in response. The
hinges creaked as Lilith let herself into the yard, Cooley trotted
over to give her a sniff and collect a pat. The change in the dog’s
manner was amazing, but there had to be a reasonable
explanation.

There had to be.

“
Lillit!” The kids
immediately ran for Lilith, their eyes shining as they told her all
the stories they’d saved up since the weekend. She squatted down
and listened to every word, asking perfect questions, sharing her
attention between the two.

Mitch’s smile returned as he watched. Jen
and Jason really had taken to Lilith - and she seemed just as
delighted to talk to them.

Jen’s newest finger painting had been hung
on the fridge - and Lilith waved on her way past Mitch as she was
dragged into the kitchen to admire their handiwork.

She did and Jen beamed with pride. Mitch had
a feeling that Lilith would soon have a masterpiece for her own
fridge door.

“
Have you noticed,” Lilith
asked the kids when they came back on the porch, “that the bats
have been out these past few nights?”

Mitch was immediately beset by two children
demanding approval to stay up late and watch for bats. He couldn’t
see why not, so he agreed and laughed when the kids cheered. He and
Lilith dragged lawn chairs out into the midst of the yard as the
sun sank below the line of houses behind. Mitch shut off the
kitchen and porch light, and they sat in the twilight, waiting for
darkness to fall.

And when it did, the peculiar flying
patterns of a trio of bats could be discerned against the night
sky. Jason was entranced, Jen nodded off to sleep in Mitch’s lap.
The bats circled, flying in a lop-sided figure eight over and over
again, as they gobbled up mosquitoes. They called to each other,
the sound barely discernible by human ears, and one that would be
missed by anyone not paying close attention.

Mitch hadn’t known they could still be found
in the city. Jason eventually ran out of questions and watched in
wide-eyed silence. The rhythm of the bats’ flight was soothing, the
occasional flutter of their wings like a whisper in the night.
Mitch leaned back in his chair to watch them fly the same course
over and over again, letting the evening’s quiet flood through
him.

He hadn’t felt so relaxed in years. It was
wonderful, just sitting in darkness and silence, watching the stars
come out, holding his sleeping daughter. Yet at the same time,
there was a tingle of electricity running beneath Mitch’s skin, a
tingle fed by the occasional waft of jasmine, the glint of an
alluring woman’s smile, the knowledge that Lilith was just an arm’s
length away.

Tranquility, that’s what Lilith shared with
him.

Not to mention, cats and toads and bats.

But then, she had said she was a witch,
hadn’t she? Mitch grinned to himself, glancing over at Jason and
noting that he had also succumbed to the sandman. He was dozing
against Lilith’s shoulder, and she looked perfectly content to have
him there.

Her gaze met Mitch’s and she smiled, a warm
welcoming smile that made his toes curl. It was a smile that made
Mitch think of all that old-fashioned stuff, all those things that
he’d been sure would never come his way. Cooking together and
sitting on the porch, laughing and making love for a lifetime.

All that good stuff.

He impulsively reached over and caught
Lilith’s hand in his. When Mitch squeezed her fingers, she squeezed
his back, then they both watched the bats fly until the moon
rose.

The bats retired or sought their prey
elsewhere - Mitch was sure they couldn’t have eaten every mosquito
in his yard - and he stretched, shifting Jen’s weight.

“
I should put these two to
bed,” he said softly, then got to his feet. He glanced down at
Jen’s dirty knees and grinned. “I guess there’s more than one way
to get out of taking a bath.”

Lilith chuckled and sat forward a bit. “I
think I’m trapped,” she whispered just as Jason stirred.

“
Come on, sport,” Mitch
cajoled and tousled his son’s hair. “Time for bed.”

But Jason snuggled against Lilith.

Mitch met her gaze, unable to stop his
smile. “You are trapped.”

“
We could
switch.”

“
You don’t think Jen’s too
heavy for you?”

Lilith shook her head. “I can manage.”

They did switch, Lilith following Mitch into
the house and up the stairs, both of them carrying sleepy little
burdens. Having Lilith’s presence behind him felt perfectly
natural. It made Mitch feel less alone, less responsible for every
little thing, less burdened by the weight of the world. They were
only putting his children to bed, but he had a tantalizing taste of
being on a team.

He watched Lilith carry Jen and noted the
protectiveness in the way she held his daughter, a gentleness in
her fingertips and her voice when she laid the little girl on her
bed. Mitch was humbled that Lilith could show such easy affection
for children that were not even her own, children she didn’t even
know that well.