Dark Solace Read Online Free PDF Page A

he would take
care of you, if anything happens tomorrow night—”
    “Please,” I said, putting my finger to his
lips. “I understand. I’m grateful you told me this, Theo. But you
are going to come back.”
    “Yes, I am,” Theo said hugging me tightly.
“Because I love you so much I’d crawl out of Hell to get to you, if
I had to.”
    “You are not going to Hell,” I said, kissing
him. “You are coming to Heaven with me.”
    “Sar, I’m probably not going to Heaven,” Theo
said sadly. “I’ve killed too many people.”
    “Then wait for me, if you go first into
death. Meet me by the river Styx, and I’ll bribe the ferryman to
take us to the same place, no matter if it’s Hades or Heaven.”
    Theo stood up with me in his arms, and gave
me a long loving look. “Come with me, you strange woman of mine.
I’m ready for bed.”
    “Are you going to purr for me?” I said
seductively, gently lifting Devon’s limp sleeping form.
    “Maybe later,” Theo replied huskily, his arm
trailing down my shoulder to lightly brush my breast. “But first
you’re going to purr for me.”
     

 
    Chapter
Two
     
    I awoke about eight, the first thought in my
head that it was the day of the fight. Theo was still asleep, one
arm thrown across me, his deep even breathing the only noise in the
room. I kissed him softly, and got up. Devon was still asleep in
his crate at the bottom of the bed.
    “What time is it?” Theo asked groggily.
    “About eight,” I said, pulling on my blue
velvet bathrobe. “Want breakfast, or you want to wait?”
    “I need more sleep,” Theo said seriously,
rolling on his back. “This wild woman I met last night kept me up
at all hours of the night—”
    “I remember it was your idea,” I said
teasingly. “I said I was tired at one a.m., but you said—”
    “I don't remember it that way,” Theo said,
grinning at me. “I remember—”
    “Hush,” I said sternly. “I’m going to go and
feed Devon. But when he gets his nap late this afternoon, I’m
coming back in here to refresh your memory.”
    “I’m looking forward to it,” Theo said
happily, stretching. “But first you can make me breakfast.”
    That day was perfect. We didn’t do anything
extraordinary, but we spent it together, doing things that mattered
deeply to us. We had breakfast early, sharing some with Devon.
Watching him gobble it down, I was tempted to tell Theo not to give
him so much, but I said nothing. If Theo somehow didn’t come back,
I wanted him to have the memory. Devon would recover from an upset
stomach.
    Later, after breakfast we watched V for
Vendetta and my favorite movie, the animated version of The Hobbit,
with Devon sleeping on Theo’s lap.
    “Why do you like this, again?” Theo said
curiously, as he sat through it with me.
    “Because Bilbo was a hero,” I answered. “He
could have sat in his house and had a perfectly good life. He had a
lot of chances to stay out of struggles or to run when the going
got tough. He always chose instead to act, no matter what it cost
him. He was the one who understood life best, because he didn’t
care about what people told him he had to do, or about what might
happen to him. He did what he thought was right, even though he
paid a heavy price for it. That’s true bravery: to be afraid, to
not want to do something, and to do it anyway, because it’s the
right thing to do.”
    “You get all that from watching this?” Theo
said, giving me a disbelieving look. “The trilogy of movies made
with real actors are much better, and go into a lot more
detail.”
    “I’ve read the book many times,” I replied.
“The book is like the movies that were made later, and it’s true,
they’re better. But I grew up with this. It inspires me.”
    “Then you feel about this like I feel about
V,” Theo said contentedly, giving me a kiss. “I never knew that.”
He kissed me again. “I’m glad I do now.”
    We spent our last hours in bed, just holding
each other,