Page 67 of Endlessly Raphael
“And just like that…” I shake my head. “Alright, Romeo. Take me somewhere to tell me this game-changing news.”
TWENTY-THREE
Raphael
“We need to stop at Yves’s place and update him about your parents coming.”
Haven nods, staring straight ahead as I pull into my parking spot in the garage. His energy is a heady mix of unsettled nerves and pulsing desire. He’s addicted to me? Then we’re two addicts feening for each other.
“Is he gonna be mad?”
“Mad? No. Why would he be?”
Haven shrugs. “I don’t know. You have to tell him, so I figured he might have a reaction.”
“He just needs to know someone new will be among us.” And the sooner that’s dealt with, the sooner I can tell Haven what we are to each other. Here’s hoping he’s as joyful about the news as I am and that it calms some of his worries about the future.
“I’d like you to wait for me in the apartment,” I say, entering the elevator. “I need to talk a little business with Yves too.”
“Okay,” he says without arguing.
“Thank you.”
“Sure. I’m curious, but I figure you’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
“I will.” I kiss his temple. “One thing at a time.”
Upstairs, I lead Haven to my unit, kissing his forehead before turning to go see Yves. I enter his home and I’m immediately hit with a tense, almost confused energy permeating the room. The disturbed air draws me to his office quickly, where I find him hunched over his desk, flipping through a stack of papers.
“Yves?”
He startles, which is very odd behavior for a man who often expects your presence before it arrives.
“Raphael.” He sits back in his seat, blinking away the chaos on his face. “Something’s wrong?”
“With you, yes. What’s going on?”
Yves shakes his head. “No, actually, I’m fine. I was digging through some old papers that brought back memories.”
I nod, studying his face, but he’s back to his usual guarded self. “Okay. Nothing you want to talk about?”
His stoic expression slips again. “It’s likely nothing, but I had a very unusual feeling earlier. I felt…” He pauses, so I take the opportunity to settle into the seat in front of his desk. “I was on the roof looking out over the city and then the air shifted. I felt this… energy. An energy specific to someone I knew a very long time ago. Before I met any of you.”
“Someone you loved?”
Yves nods. “Oh yes. I loved him, but we were not meant to be. Not for lack of trying, but it seemed that something was always preventing us from being together.”
“What happened to him?”
“We were turned together and lived with our maker for a time, but we went separate ways. I heard he met a gruesome fate in Paris. I was on my way there to see him again when the news reached me. Burned while he slept, his entire coven destroyed by local villagers. By the time I arrived, there was nothing but ashes and debris, and in the ruins I found a ring I had given him.”
“Yves, brother. Why didn’t you tell us about this tragedy?”
“What difference would it have made? He was lost, and I was left to build a life that didn’t include him.”
“That’s when you found Syn?”
“Decades later.” He turns his head to stare off into the distance for a moment before shifting his melancholy gaze back to me. “I swear I felt him again, but it’s impossible.”