Page 47 of Havoc's Fox

“You are surrounded by talent and gifted people,” Tempest said.

Analise looked around the apartment, then thought about all the different people in her life. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Then, why, I wonder, do you continue to live in the past?”

“What? I don’t live in the past,” Analise said. “I have a whole life!”

“You do! Rooted firmly, and devoted to remaining, in the past,” Tempest said.

Chapter 11

Analise sat speechless, staring at Tempest. “That’s not true,” she finally said.

“Sure, it is. While I know you love what you do and have a certain passion for it, you intentionally accept assignments that keep you far from home so you can work around the past. Your brain is always focused on anything to stimulate it so that it doesn’t wander back to, or linger on the past.”

Analise scowled. “No. It’s just the nature of the job and where it takes me.”

Tempest nodded slowly, but was clearly not convinced. “I guess the fact that you only choose unavailable males to date has nothing to do with your preoccupation with the past, either. As long as they’re not capable of becoming attached, you won’t either.”

“We just all have other priorities in life, and especially in my field,” Analise huffed.

“Okay.”

“Okay,” Analise repeated.

“I wonder, though, if that’s all it is, why your subconscious seizes every opportunity to remind you of what you’re running from. Why your soul sneaks away any chance it gets to commune with the only other soul it knows that can soothe it, help it heal, give it a sense of being complete.”

“My soul doesn’t…”

“Come on, Analise. Every time you close your eyes, you’re with Havoc,” Tempest said.

“Why are you doing this?” Analise asked, blinking away tears again.

“To help you see.”

“I see you being mean!”

“I’m not trying to be mean. I’m trying to help you realize that whether you want to leave him behind, or take him with you on your adventures, neither can happen until you let yourself leave the past behind. You wrap it around yourself like a cloak to keep not only him, but anyone else from getting too close. You use it to remind yourself not to feel, to remain aloof and above anything that evokes too much emotion. That’s why your soul ventures out to ‘feed’ itself, for lack of a better term.”

“My soul doesn’t go anywhere. It’s right here inside me.”

“You ever heard of astral projection?” Tempest asked.

“Yes, but I don’t know how to do it, or if I even believe in it.”

“It’s nothing new, and nothing too terribly complicated. Some of my family can do it at will.”

“Wow,” Analise said, sitting there with a shocked expression on her face as she stared at nothing, trying to make heads or tails of everything Tempest was saying.

“And it’s also why your dreams feel so real. Why Havoc can’t wait to go to sleep every single night, just in case it’s one of the nights he gets to spend with you.”

Analise grew quiet, watching Tempest cautiously.

Tempest waited her out.

Eventually Analise spoke in almost a whisper. “They’re just dreams.”

Tempest shook her head.