Chapter 14

Nick looked over the engine in the '59 Cadillac. Beautiful car, he thought to himself. The body was in perfect condition, not a scratch in the cherry red paint. Even the white leather upholstery looked as if it had never been used.

He tinkered around the carburetor with a screwdriver, trying to determine what the problem was. For once he didn't have an urge to smoke. "Try it again!" he yelled.

Katherine, sitting behind the wheel, turned the key again. Nothing, just a click. Suddenly it came to him. He reached down in the metal monster under the hood and felt something loose under his fingers. "Aha!"

"You figured it out?" Elizabeth asked from beside him.

"I'm pretty sure I did." He picked up the grease rag and began to wipe his hands. "Where's the closest auto parts store?"

Katherine had left the car. "A little ways from town. Maybe a half-hour drive. What do you need?"

"I think the problem is in your starter. It shouldn't cost much." He put the hood back down.

"We can go now if you want?" She offered. "I'll just use my dad's car."

They began to walk towards her house. She reached the garage and began to punch numbers into the keypad next to the door.

"What kind of car does he have?" He was very curious. If she had a classic, what kind could her father have?

He almost fell to the floor when the door finished opening. Inside sat a brand new Dodge Viper. He walked around it slowly, watching his reflection gleam in the shiny jet-black paint. The tinted windows were dark, but he could obscurely make out the matching raven dark interior.

The jingling of keys woke him from his trance. He looked up in time to reach out and catch the key ring being thrown at him. Still shocked, he sporadically exchanged looks between the keys and Katherine.

She smiled at him lightly. "Why don't you drive?"

Nick felt his knees grow weak. Cars were probably his greatest passion in life, and now he had the chance to drive one of the many gods of the automobile nirvana. He immediately reached over and embraced her.

Something ran through his body, like a shock wave through the earth. He pulled back quickly, trembling. "I know you."

The look in her violet eyes had deepened, showing the same mixture of curiosity and fear that he was feeling. Her honey brown hair shimmered on her shoulders as she tucked it behind her ear. He had never noticed how beautiful it was until this very moment. That embrace had done something to him, awakened him somewhere that had been asleep since Cassie had said that things couldn't work.

A spark of a smile had begun on her lips. "I know you, too. How?"

As if to answer them both, a halo of silver light formed around them. He looked up and around, laughing as it thinned into a fiber of sliver rope, growing stronger by the second. As it weave around them, he looked down and into her eyes. "The sliver cord."

She opened her mouth in surprise. "You mean—"

He didn't let her finish. He kissed her mouth delicately. The wonder and knowledge grew inside of him, as if his heart was a balloon swelling in his chest. The kiss grew slowly more passionate, the feeling of her holding him closer only made the excitement grow.

After a long moment he pulled away, resting his forehead to hers with his eyes closed. "You're my soulmate."

He felt the quake of giggling run through her. He smiled, and knew at that moment, the Nick Armstrong that everyone had once known would never be seen again.