Page 20

Jeremy nodded his agreement with what she was saying. Kara sighed before finishing.

“He’s also sort of an ex boyfriend.”

Twelve

Kara was still grumbling as one of the hotel staff finally poured her a decent cup of coffee. She reached for the sugar. Leaned over Logan, rather than ask him to pass her the milk.

The whole situation just sucked.

Jeremy had actually been a good relationship. They’d dated nearly a year — a very solid year — during which they explored anything and everything together, including each other.

Especially each other.

They’d met at the Manor itself, both of them between assignments at the time. Kara was staying at the Blackstone, working on honing her retrocognitive skills. Jeremy was the recently-promoted star of a big success story. Apparently he’d been in the right place at the right time, and had captured sixty-two seconds worth of hi-resolution footage of a fully-interactive, anthropomorphic apparition.

Kara hadn’t ranked high enough in the Order to be permitted to view the tape… at least not yet. But Jeremy had shown her anyway, and the video had fundamentally changed Kara’s entire perspective on things. It still chilled her, just thinking about it. On the tape, she watched in rapt fascination as Jeremy very clearly carried on a minute-long conversation with a full-blown ghost.

It was life-altering. The once-in-a-lifetime type of experience that made you question everything.

Somehow Xiomara found out, and the resulting shit-storm raged for the better half of a blistering hot summer. For the other half, the two of them carried on a torrid affair. They were together constantly, sneaking off to be alone wherever they could. Solitude wasn’t always easy at the Blackstone, but in the warmer weather the Estate gardens had always been her favorite hangout. Kara knew exactly where to go, and when no one else would be there. And there were always the lush forests out past the fields, too.

Jeremy was tall and well-built; strong and ruggedly handsome. None of that hurt of course, but in the end it was his geeky side that won her over. He was rule-follower. A by-the-book kind of guy. It was Jeremy who’d showed her the more wondrous side of the Manor’s massive library, and how Kara could best use it to her advantage. He exhibited a nerdy innocence she learned to love… but also, ultimately corrupt.

Intra-Order relationships were historically frowned upon, but not explicitly forbidden. Yet the more Xiomara condemned them? The closer it drove the two of them together. Kara had taken him as a lover for the first time in the stacks of the library, behind shelves of relics no one had touched for decades. After that they rutted like animals, wherever they could. Whenever they could.

And they could often.

The sweltering summer gave way to fall, and they became strong and inseparable. She taught Jeremy how to laugh, how to let go of certain ideals and tenets he held just a little too tightly. She also taught him how to bend some of the Order’s less rigid rules, even break them at times, in order to have a little fun. Whenever he tried to protest, Kara always got around it. When it came to her, he couldn’t say no. It was always easy to persuade him… just as she had with the tape.

In turn, he taught her structure. To a certain extent, even responsibility. The best lessons however, were lessons of the mind. Jeremy showed her how to consolidate her power, even call upon it at will; something Kara — even under Xiomara’s tutelage — had never quite been able to do. Her clairvoyance was never so strong as when he was guiding her, helping to clear her head. Showing her the most effective ways to channel what was happening around her, and to prolong the experience when it did.

Kara couldn’t count the number of times they’d laid in the garden staring up at the sky, talking about life and death and all the grey areas in between. They balanced each other out. Made each other better.

Perhaps that’s why Xiomara let it go on for so long.

They wintered together at the Manor — no longer hiding their relationship — and those were Kara’s fondest memories of all. They spent their days with other ranking members of the Hallowed Order, learning, teaching, exchanging ideas. Together they enjoyed the camaraderie of their closed little universe, even venturing out to explore the snowy upstate New York countryside whenever they got a little stir crazy. Which with Kara’s wanderlust, was often.

By springtime, Jeremy was gone.

Officially, he’d been given an overseas assignment. One that rushed him and his things away in the dead of night, much like the one Kara was on now.

Unofficially, she knew the Head of the Order had separated them. And despite all Kara’s rantings and ravings and brave little tantrums, Xiomara had stayed cool and collected throughout the onslaught.

“This isn’t your own private fucking lovenest,” Xiomara had scolded her. “There’s work to be done here, LoPresti. Work for Mr. Manning. Work for you.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d butted heads with the tiny African woman. But it was the first time it actually hurt. Kara’s affection for Jeremy had let her guard down. She’d been caught without her armor, letting the emotional closeness of their relationship get in the way of work. A work she chose at a young age, but which also chose her. A work she thrived upon.

She swore it would be the last time she’d ever allow such a thing to happen.

Xiomara sent her away on another assignment almost immediately, probably to clear her head. For that she was grateful. The Manor — and its sprawling, antiquated splendor — had lost all charm for her. At least for the moment.

It had been two years since she’d last seen Jeremy, and almost as long since they’d had any contact. Whether he’d written her off by choice, or by official decree from the Order’s council, it made little difference. He’d still made his own decision.

Now he sat across from her. Here again, after all this time. After what seemed like an eternity of silence.

“You okay?” Jeremy asked.

He was staring at her with his chestnut eyes, through the familiar frames of his half-rimmed glasses. Kara wondered if they were the same ones. The same frames and lenses he used to stare down at her in the Estate gardens, all summer long, while nestled snugly between her legs. While buried inside her…