I roll over and reach for the familiar and ever-comforting 'Tana. She's not there and I sit bolt upright.
"Tana?"
No answer. She always answers if I call her in the night, even if it's just "In the loo". I turn the light on. She's not in our room. I get up and check the bathroom. Not there either. Down the hall. Office? No, not there either.
I find her standing by the panoramic window in the lounge, arms folded defensively around her chest. I approach carefully, because with Etana, you can never be entirely sure.
"Tana?"
She turns and I see a flash of fear in her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just… Just a nightmare."
A nightmare? Scaring my Shadow? I wrap my arms around her and pressed her head to my chest.
"What happened?"
She shrugs.
"Doesn't matter."
"Really? You can tell me. You know that."
She seems unwilling. I tilt her head back.
"Tana, tell me."
She pulls away and presses the side of her face to the window, staring out over the city lights.
"I'm walking through the Jerusalem of my childhood. And I come to a building I do not know. And blood runs down the white marble steps. I walk up the steps but I know something is wrong. My feet are red with blood. I look down and my hands are covered as well and then the blood spreads until it covers all of me. And I reach the top of the steps and see the source of the blood. And… Steve, it's… it's you. And then I wake up."
Something about that sentence strikes me.
"Wake up, not woke up. You've had this dream before, haven't you?"
She shudders then nods.
"Every single night."
I feel a tight fist settle in my chest. There are mutant precogs. What if Tana is one of them? What if I am going to die? I push my fears aside and hold her close to me.
"You aren't getting rid of me that easily Tana."
She smiles weakly.
"I know."
"Will you come back to bed now?"
She gives me that look.
"To bed or to bed?"
"Is there a difference?"
"Well, it depends. The answer to one is yes."
"And the other?"
She doesn't answer with words, just a warm kiss. I go red.
"Oh… That to bed…"
Her eyes sparkle.
"So, former or latter?"
