His heart and mind told a different story.
He heard the pounding again, quick and sharp and brief, and once again he jerked upright, partially rising, splashing water out of the tub. The pounding stopped. Eight blows this time. Last time it was five. Before that, it was seven.
Lorelei told him he would hear some hammering. That prevented him from reacting decisively about it. He didn’t leap into action, but remaining calm provided its own challenge.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bambambambam! …Bam!
“Just a hammer,” he whispered, easing himself back into the tub. Muscles in his neck and shoulders stayed tense. He knew he’d hear it again.
Alone in the bath, immersed in warm water and surrounded by white tiles and bright lights and marble countertops, Alex found himself staring at many things. He stared at the mirrors. The faucet. The water.
The lower-middle class boy in him felt mildly uncomfortable in this home, which seemed so opulent to the sensibilities of his upbringing. Memories of growing up poor in Detroit left him feeling even more out of place, as did thoughts of a life that ended only a few years before the one in Detroit began. Thinking of anything further back than that just made him feel like he must be in another world entirely.
He should be dead. Like so many times before.
He wondered when he would start shaking again. He wondered if the tub could stop an arrow or a bullet. He wondered if he shouldn’t get out of the bath just long enough to go get the gun or the sword and bring them both into the bathroom so they’d be in easy reach. Others might think that crazy, he reasoned, and part of him agreed, but most other people didn’t get jumped by monsters.
Bam! Bambamthump “Shit! Ow!” someone snapped. He knew that voice. Molly’s voice, he realized. Again, he forced himself to sit back in the tub.
She just banged her thumb, he told himself. Nobody’s attacking her. She’s a tough woman and a witch to boot. Just an accident with a hammer. Nothing to freak out about. She doesn’t need your help.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
See? Nothing to worry about. Right back to whatever the hell she’s doing.
He heard the door open and shut. Once again he tensed, and then came the knock at the bathroom door. “Love? It’s me. May I come in?”
“Yeah,” Alex answered, somewhat hoarsely to his surprise. He swallowed hard and answered again, “Yeah,” but the door had already opened.
She shut the door behind her, clad in that black nightgown that he liked so much. He liked everything she wore. He was fairly certain that was her highest fashion criteria, much as she might deny it.
Noticing the wet floor, Lorelei smoothly picked up a towel, ran it across the edge of the tub and then sat down on the now dry spot. Alex watched. His eyes drifted to her breasts when she bent over, and to her neck and her face, and when she sat beside him his gaze settled on her hip for a moment before rising once more.
She was fully aware of how he looked at her. She loved it as much as he loved looking, and told him often.
It didn’t seem silly now, or juvenile, or shallow. It felt comforting. Intimate. He needed this, and her. Outside their home, his endless lust sometimes felt like a constant distraction. When his memories threatened to overwhelm him, it served as an anchor.
“Molly says she is almost finished,” Lorelei told him. Her manner felt casual, but he recognized the deliberately calming tone of her voice. She was warm and reassuring without being patronizing.
“What’s she doing?”
“Creating protective lines around our home. She drives iron nails into most of the corners to tie down a spell that will keep out the creatures of the night. Iron is of a time when mortal man found his way to fight back against the things that lurked outside the firelight. Man was no longer easy prey for the monsters after that. Iron is strong. Constant.”
“Iron rusts,” Alex replied quietly.
“Don’t tell that to the nails,” Lorelei smiled.
“It’ll keep our problems out?”
“This is not the only protection that Molly and Onyx will erect. Never fool yourself into thinking any defense is impregnable. All told, though, this home will be as safe from supernatural incursion as any wizard’s sanctum. It will be easily overlooked. Failing that, mere entry will be quite unpleasant for anything that isn’t mortal… or an angel. I asked that Molly and Onyx ensure such an exemption. And one for myself, of course.”
“Does she need to work in here?”
“As it turns out, no,” Lorelei shook her head. “I thought it would be necessary, but Molly confessed that this room is already covered by other lines.”
“Confessed?”
“I think she was hoping to get a look at you in the bath.”
“Ah.”
“She rides a high of anticipation and inevitability,” Lorelei said. “On any other night, I’d have sent her in here and jammed the door shut behind her. She and Onyx look forward to what the future will bring.”
“You seem like your anticipation’s pretty high, too,” Alex observed.
“It is.” She reached into the tub to caress his leg. He heard as much seduction in her voice as reassurance. “They spoke to Rachel. They spoke to me. We have all come to an understanding about all this. Everything is out in the open.”
Alex couldn’t help but smirk. “You vetted them in advance of us hooking up?”
“No. They wanted to ‘vet’ Rachel and I,” Lorelei smiled back. “Don’t forget that this began to build before you and I even met. As usual my motivations were quite selfish. I adore them both.”
Silence fell between them, but their gaze held. Both of them grinned a little wider. “You didn’t,” Alex said, “did you?”
“Only a little,” Lorelei shrugged, though her nails gently trailed up his thigh. “I intended to devote myself entirely to you for your birthday, but then the opportunity came… and I’ll note that the mere thought of what I did or didn’t do with them clearly has you quite aroused, so don’t expect any apologies from me.”
“You’re amazing.”
“It takes one to know one.”
Bam! Bambambambam bam! Alex inhaled sharply, but he didn’t jump.
“That explains the water,” Lorelei observed, glancing at the little pools on the tile and the wet spots on the bath mats. “Your tension will pass.”
“Yeah. Well. It’s easier with you here. Gives me something real and current to focus on. You kind of chase away the ghosts.” He twirled a finger at his ear.
“Do you wish to talk about it?”
“No. It’s the same as before. Same as the first time it all hit me. Usually with the dreams, it’s just one set of memories or the other, but tonight it was all of them at once.”
“Violence is obviously a trigger,” Lorelei said, her hand lingering at his thigh. “I have paid attention to the comings and goings of your nightmares. But as you say, we can lay that aside for later.”
“I just kind of have other things coming to mind. Seems like it’d help pull my brain the rest of the way out of this… whatever it is.”
She tilted her head curiously. “What’s on your mind?”
“When we first…” He paused, searching for the words. “Those first couple nights we had… I was afraid we’d never be able to have conversations like this. I had so much to get over with sex and with the bonds and hooking up with other women, but I think deep down what I wanted from the start was the relationship.” He grinned at himself. “I was afraid I’d never measure up to you.”
“You all but literally gave the shirt off your back to a friend in need. You made love to an angel in the middle of a crowd, danced with me just for the joy of it and took the head from a monster who stood beside Nero and watched Rome burn, all in one night,” said Lorelei. “You have always respected me. Always seen me as nothing less than an equal. I will never lose my interest in you, Alex.