Kissed by Moonlight by Shéa MacLeod

bare my soul.
    I swished my spoon through the thick, brown goop. Tommy was inordinately fond of stews, and while they looked tragic, they tasted heavenly. Unfortunately, I wasn't very hungry. The trip had exhausted me. Every bone in my body ached, and the proximity to djinn lands was making the Air power inside me itchy, which in turn was getting the Darkness riled up.
    "What do you mean?" When in doubt, play dumb.
    Tommy chewed thoughtfully, his eyes never leaving mine. He didn't say a word. Just waited. Awkward.
    I let out a sigh. "Well, on top of the soul vamp thing, Brent Darroch escaped from jail. That's not good."
    Tommy said nothing. He simply tore a hunk of bread off the homemade artisan loaf in the middle of the table, swiped it through some stew, and popped it in his mouth.
    "And, uh, there's that whole price on my head thing. Kind of stressful having vampire bounty hunters on your ass. I'm usually the one hunting them."
    Silence. Nothing like a joke that's fallen flat on its face.
    "My powers are a little... unpredictable lately," I admitted.
    Tommy raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He was waiting. Waiting for me to say it.
    My throat felt thick and tight, and I was half afraid I might do something embarrassing. Like cry. I was clenching my spoon so hard my knuckles turned white. I carefully placed it on the table and forced my muscles to relax. I was only partially successful.
    "It's Inigo."
    Tommy nodded as though he'd been waiting for me to get to the point. He took another bite of stew and motioned for me to continue.
    I wasn't sure how to tell him everything without sharing secrets that weren't mine to tell. "You know his brother, Drago, took him back to dragon lands."
    Tommy ripped off another hunk of bread and swirled it through his stew. Still giving me the silent treatment. It was becoming irritating.
    "Well, the dragons have a... method for healing. They say they can heal Inigo. Maybe." I tried to swallow past the increasingly large lump in my throat.
    "That's good."
    "Not really," I said. "Drago said it could take years. Like hundreds of years."
    "Ah."
    "I'll be dead," I wailed.
    "That's a bit dramatic."
    Dramatic? Was he mental? I stared at him. Finally I managed to choke out, "You have no idea what I'm going through."
    "I'm sure you're right," Tommy said. Was that sarcasm in his tone? Seriously?
    "What? So you know what it's like to have the person you love stuck in a century-long coma?" The snark was back.
    I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks as he eyed me. "Nope. But I know what it's like to have the person you love die. Lots of people know how that feels. Think you got some kind of monopoly on heartbreak?"
    I suddenly felt ashamed. I'd been so busy wallowing in my own misery, I'd been acting like a spoiled little brat. Still, the pain was real, and I was having a hard time dealing with it. At least death was final. This was... something else.
    "What's the real problem?" Tommy's tone was softer this time. Sympathetic. It made me want to break down and blubber like a baby.
    "The real problem is I don't know what to do. He could wake up tomorrow, or he could wake up never. Or I could be an old woman when he wakes up. I could spend my whole life waiting."
    Tommy was quiet so long, I thought he'd gone back to the silent treatment. Finally he said, "Lots of people spend their lives waiting. You wouldn't be the first. You won't be the last. The woman I know you to be would wait forever without batting an eyelash. This is not what upsets you."
    "No," I admitted. How did I say this without sounding like a lunatic? "Inigo came to me. In a dream. He told me it would be a very long time before he woke." I stared down at my hands, clenched tightly in my lap. "He told me not to wait."
    "Insistently, I gather."
    I nodded. "The problem is, I don't know if this was a true dream, or if it was somebody messing with my mind. I don't know what to do." My voice cracked on the last word. I swiped angrily at the