“That much I do know.” Even before I knew about auras, I could sense it. It seemed to me it was the most widely used form of communication, whether the people were aware of it or not.
He frowned slightly. “Did you also know the Scintilla are a source? We,” he said, holding his head up proudly, “are the spark that ignites the flame.”
“I don’t understand.” But I’d heard similar words… A mighty flame follows a tiny spark.
Giovanni looked around. He zeroed in on a grandmother who was struggling with a very unhappy toddler currently in full meltdown mode, screaming, arms and legs flailing on the ground. “Watch,” he said, leaving me leaning against a tree as he strode over to them.
I could not hear what he said to the woman or the child. But I could clearly see his silver aura flow out of his body and swaddle the little girl in its glow as he chatted with the elderly woman. The kid suddenly stopped crying and looked up at him like he was Santa Claus. Then his energy shifted a bit and wound around the elderly woman as well.
“Oh, gracious!” the old woman said. “I was at my wit’s end. You have the magic touch with children, sure enough. How can I ever thank you?”
Giovanni patted the girl’s head and walked back to me with a conceited smile. “You see?” he asked. “You can give them the spark. It’s what they want. Their greedy bodies take it like candy.”
I thought of the man in the park, who didn’t give of himself. He took. Ruthlessly. “It seems like a violation to tamper with people’s auras,” I said.
Giovanni’s brows pinched together. “It is not a crime to make people happy, Miss Cora. I’ve spent most of my life alone on the streets around the world, and I’ve learned you can get nearly everything you need—food, money, a place to sleep—in exchange for the one thing everyone in this world wants most: to feel good.”
“But aren’t you manipulating them?”
“Such an ugly word. I consider it currency, not manipulation. You should be asking how to do it. Not judging me for giving of myself. It’s my choice who to give to.”
Just as I was ready to tell him about the man with the white aura and argue about people’s choice to receive or to be taken from, the bus pulled up in front of the waiting area, and we had to run to catch it. Giovanni and I sat next to each other, but he was brooding and silent for the drive. Twice now, I’d upset the one person who could tell me more about myself. But when we got off the bus he surprised me by asking me to walk with him.
“I’m sorry,” I admitted as we stood outside the back of the visitors center on a small footbridge over a stream. “I shouldn’t have judged. It’s just that I’ve seen very violent attacks on people’s auras. What you’re doing is definitely not the same thing. You do what you have to do, and you make people happy. My best friend, Dun, does that, and I don’t even think it’s conscious.”
Giovanni tilted his head in a charming, inquisitive way, and when he accepted my apology with a bright smile, I found myself thinking, he hardly needs special energy to make people feel good.
“Finn is picking me up, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you again soon. I have so much more I want to ask. You showed me how you can give of your aura, but can you teach me how to block energy or”—my throat closed around the words—“stop someone from taking energy against my will?”
Concern and something like understanding registered in Giovanni’s eyes, and he nodded gravely. “The people with the white auras…you wish to protect yourself in some way. I wish I could tell you how. I don’t know the answer to that, but I will answer as many of your questions as I can.” His hand ran from my elbow to my wrist. “Please call me. I’m desperate to see you again,” he said, his tone pressing, his stormy eyes insistent. I couldn’t look away. “You scared me to death when you disappeared yesterday. You have no idea how rare you are.”
“That she is,” Finn’s voice said from behind Giovanni.
Finn strode toward us with an almost predatory gait. His tiger eyes never left Giovanni’s face. The yellow-green aura was a color I’d never seen on him. Distress but with something else mixed in. Jealousy?
I walked over and took his hand. Finn curled me into his arms. His warmth was different. Infused with the fire of possessiveness. I mumbled an embarrassed introduction, then moved back to Giovanni to say good-bye. Finn’s gaze raked my back.
“Thanks for everything, at the library and today.” I held out my hand formally, which Giovanni took, giving it a jolt of energy. I gritted my teeth. “I’ll call you.”
Giovanni stepped forward and, much to my dismay, kissed each of my cheeks. Little circles of residual energy swirled on my skin. He whispered urgently in my ear, “Careful. You are not safe with him.”
I stepped back. Blinked.
Giovanni nodded curtly to Finn as he passed us and tramped through the glass doors leading to the visitors center. His silver aura disappeared into the crowd.
“It’s my own fault the lads are swarming, really,” Finn said with a soft nibble to my bottom lip. “Leaving you alone like that. I don’t know what those flippin’ eejits in your town were thinking, but to the wider world you are enchanting.”
“It’s not like that,” I said. “What you heard him say was soooo out of context.” The memory of the physical charge between Giovanni and me rushed through my body. I flicked it away. “We just have a lot in common.”
“I’ll bet.”
I stopped Finn in the parking lot and turned to face him. “You know, I don’t give my heart to just anybody. Your accusing me of being fickle is an insult.”
He nodded. I was warmed by the sight of his love, tinged with a little bit of insecurity. It was easy to forgive his jealousy when I could see his attachment to me, his fear of losing me. I wished he could see my attachment to him. I wished he could see how silver strands of energy from my body coiled and reached for his heart. I ran my fingers over the outline of his jaw and then behind his neck, pulling his mouth to mine. He kissed softly at first, almost reluctantly, until I bit his bottom lip and opened my mouth to a deeper kiss. His fingers dug into the small of my back.
The kiss was everything true, a claiming and a declaration.
Mine.
Yes. Yours.
Thirty
At the hostel, Finn parked the car and offered to walk me in. The lobby was relatively empty but for a twenty-something couple on a dingy couch, looking at something on their phone. I fished my key from my pocket and turned to say good-bye to Finn. There was everything but good-bye in his eyes.
“Food?”
I laughed. “We just ate!”
Finn drifted into my atmosphere, nibbled my bottom lip, and whispered, “Dessert?” in a voice as dark and tempting as chocolate.
“I could go for something sweet,” I answered with a mock air of indifference, while my heart beat double time.
He kissed me again and sucked my bottom lip into his mouth just slightly. “So could I,” he growled.
I snagged his hand and led him to my room.
Our impatient kisses delayed us at my door. Neither of us could suspend our need to close the gap, emotional and physical, between us. The bold girl I liked so much rose up in me again. I held Finn’s narrow face between my hands and kissed him hard. His hands clutched the small of my back, gathering my jacket in his fists as he pulled me against him. Being pinned to the door by Finn’s body was as heady as being pinned underneath him in my room that night back home. A small shred of me knew that unlocking the door and taking Finn into my room was reckless.