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I couldn’t wait to see the nodded, as silent as she’d been on the drive over, and I cranedhad pointed to as we passed But ere at an odd angle, parked well away fro roo had no s in the back, and no matter how I ave up, suppressing a sigh as I turned to sit norht streets had been disappointing I’d peered out of the s, hoping for a gli Ben, the London Eye, or West darkened suburban roads surrounding the airport for hours in inexplicably heavy traffic, getting no nearer to the city Still, the vieere interesting The street signs were new, not toside of the road, which freakedwheel being on the right hand side, I kept thinking sically driving theers sat with bored expressions The houses were also definitely Not American: most seemed to be row houses, their front lawns paved to hold one of the tiny cars that seemed to be everywhere

That said, the vast banality of the ’burbs--while not particularly inspiring--had givenof London’s size I’d only been in a few "real" cities in o we’d only driven around, never even entering the city proper After Rockabill, the cities I’d visited had seemed enormous I realized noever, that they were really baby cities, barely out of diapers London htly terrifying

A sudden desire for the emptiness of my ocean struckcovert, let alone start a war, in a place as tightly packed as London

Magog and I sat in silence for about twenty minutes, unbroken except for my initial attempts at conversation--which were rejected--and then my occasional sleepy yawns I tried to focus on ere doing here, on what little Blondie had told us, but I found s with big noses, like Anyan Barghest, for exa one of these sleepy, Anyan-related reveries that I saw headlights pull up behindcarefully into her rearview mirror before she exhaled with relief

"It’s the open , hard stretch I paused at the top of my stretch to take a deep breath The air smelled of pollution, but also of water I could smell river water, and ocean water, and rainwater The air was saturated with le of power I closed le and the ache in my limbs as I stretched, only to find Anyan had appeared and atchinghis lips

My belly burned with lust for that damned man, as my heart picked up its pace in my chest Anyan and I had been friends, with the hint of so more on the horizon, e’d both been attacked a couple of months back I’d saved us, barely, but nearly killedwas suddenly so intense between us He’d watched me lie in a coma for a month, and had obviously come to so--no tied those first tentative touches

I’d woken up to hier I couldn’t help butread way too ood, I knew that a thousandto do withhi me almost die, my vulnerability in that coht he owed h all of Anyan’s actions towardsbut paternalistic, I still worried A worry coe where I wasn’t sure if it was okay to touch him at all, let alone in public, in reality we’d already have had sex if we hadn’t been interrupted by Blondie And we’d been interrupted to go to another country, to start a war One in which I was supposed to be soure, hopefully

To say we had some issues to work out was an understateorgeous in a pair of low-riding jeans, with his bright blue T-shirt rey eyes extra cold and inscrutable, I knew the only thing I wanted rey eyes to hen they met mine

He held his hand out tocloser to hihis own curly black hair was sticking up like that of an electrocuted poodle An adorable, electrocuted poodle

"Long," I answered Before I could help myself, I said, "And I wish you were on it"

"Me too I worried about you"