I kept waiting for that kind of thing to ease up.
To go away.
I just wanted it to stop. Hurting.
“I just need time,” I assured myself.
I just needed time.
It was a cold day, with five inches of snow everywhere, after the Witch had arrived. Big wet flakes were coming down. There was a freezing wind off the lake. Tonight, icicles would start forming as the warmth of the day bled out into the night. I was wearing jeans and sneakers and a light jacket. Cold and snow and ice were becoming second nature to me. They gave my brain something to track other than what real pain felt like.
I settled down on my heels at the base of the statue of the Scarecrow, closed my eyes, and waited. Lara made no sound when she approached, but I could…feel her coming, through the snow. Just the faintest quiver, or shiver, in the proper time to match slow steps. My nostrils flared, and I caught the faintest hint of expensive perfume, a mix of several scents.
“Nice day for a walk in the park,” I said in greeting.
Lara stopped in the snow. She’d been attempting to approach in stealth. “The Scarecrow, eh?”
“I think I can make good arguments for having a certain amount of courage. And a heart.” I sighed. “If I only had a brain.”
She let out a rueful laugh. “I think we all know that feeling.”
“Either that or we’re about to,” I agreed. I opened my eyes. She stood twenty feet away from me, on the snow over the sidewalk that hadn’t been shoveled yet. The trees behind her were thick but almost denuded of leaves. Between them and the steady blur of the snowfall, she seemed the only thing tangible and real in the scene. There was even enough snow to hide the city skyline beyond the park.
It felt like we were alone together. Things had been tough enough in town that people weren’t going for casual walks in half a foot of snow. This part of the city was in pretty good shape, and I had seen lights in most of the buildings when I had walked in. Lara’s footprints, and mine, were the only ones visible.
Lara wore jeans, a quilted leather coat, and a knitted cap. Her hair had been braided back into a neat tail. Her eyes were sapphire blue, andthat and the faint pink shade to her cheeks and nose were the only colors in the grey surroundings.
“It would be very easy,” I heard myself say, “to think a lot more about how attractive you are, and a lot less about how dangerous you are.”
Lara blinked at that, and her eyebrows went up. She looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, “That may be one of the more flattering things anyone has said to me in at least twenty years.”
“I owe you an apology. For my behavior at Halloween. I haven’t always done well in situations like that one and…The bravado is how I try to compensate. You were well within your rights to be upset. I’ll try not to let it happen again.”
A little burst of a snicker exploded from her lips as she smiled with one side of her mouth. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Harry,” she advised me. “If some terrifying creature shows up in the future and flirts with your fiancée while simultaneously offering to hand you your head, I expect you’ll react in exactly the same way.”
“Yeah, probably,” I said. “But I’lltry.”
She considered that for a moment and then nodded. “That’s worth something, isn’t it.”
“I suppose there’s only one way to be sure,” I said. “But…I’m not really a party person. So that’s something you know about me.”
She came closer, though without making eye contact, and settled down beside me, in the same posture, both of us facing out in the same direction. “I had been concerned that it was me.”
“Being an ass? No, that was me, I promise. You were an excellent host.”
She shook her head. “Not that. That your behavior was a reaction to being near me. In my territory. That you were…I don’t know. Resentful. Frightened.” She pursed her lips. “It took me time to realize it, but that was what my father’s resentment was about. He was frightened of me. From the beginning. It was what drove several of his more…unsavory behaviors.”
“How can a sweet Midwestern girl like you resist a man who reminds you of Dad?” I said drily.
I saw her smile in my peripheral vision. “We all face that kind ofthing, don’t we? Old defense mechanisms that we developed for very good reasons come up at the damnedest times.” She turned to face me, her expression serious. “I owe you an apology as well.”
I glanced at her and waited.
“The kiss,” she said. She looked…almost flustered. “Dammit,” she muttered, “I haveneverapologized for anything like that before and…” She closed her eyes for a moment and I got the impression that she was consulting mental notes. “Part of that was about my past. And a lot of it was about being…well. Somewhat intimidated. Partly I did it because your behavior had angered and embarrassed me.” She exhaled. “But I should not have done that without talking to you about it first. I’m sorry I did. I should have used my words. And I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
I studied her face. Lara was a world-class actress and operator. She was a manipulator like few others who walked the earth. She could have been offering me a double dozen artful expressions, all delicately blended together. But she wasn’t. She just regarded me and looked…
Damn. She looked tired.
