… solipsubmissive …

“Daños?”

The voice, with that annoying tinny quality created by the speakerphone and distance, pierced his reverie.  He scowled at the triangular device on the conference room table.  ”Yes,” he replied.

“Yes, you agree?”

“No.”

Silence fell, and Daños almost quirked a smile as he envisioned the two men in a similar conference room halfway across the country glancing at one another in confusion.  ”No, you don’t agree?”

At that, he abruptly lost patience with the call, although it hadn’t at all been their fault he’d lost focus.  ”No, I’d like to give it some more thought and run a couple reports.  Email me the proposal.  We’ll pick up where we’ve left off at this time tomorrow.”  Without waiting for the inevitable protests that they were already days behind schedule and approaching the limits of the budget, Daños reached out and slapped his hand on the button to sever the connection.  He leaned back in his chair, steepled his fingers and frowned.

Lack of focus had never been a problem, for him, but he hadn’t slept very long, even by his meager standards, nor had he slept well.  Dreams had haunted him for days, dreams that left him frustrated, because they danced just out of reach when he woke.  All he could recall was the echo of a woman’s voice, the musical sound of her soft laughter, and the shadowy memory of the softest, lightest mere brush of a kiss.  And then he’d wake, unable to catch even an edge of the dream. He could feel it curl away from him like the fragrant smoke of a candle just extinguished.

He leaned on an elbow, dropped his forehead into his hand and began smoothing his fingers across the skin as though he could massage his headache away.  I know you’re there.  The soft contralto echoed through his mind again.  He sat up abruptly, reached for his notes, tossed them in  his briefcase, and left the conference room, striding down the corridor to his office.

Work.  Hard, exhausting work would drive it away.  Perhaps he’d tire himself enough to sleep like a normal human being this time.

* * *

Chloe felt the air stir behind her before she actually laid eyes on him.  ”I know you’re there.”  She turned around to glare at him and found herself staring at Michael’s feet.  She crossed her arms and looked up.  ”Afraid to face me down here?”

Michael hovered just out of her reach.  ”Well, quite frankly,” he said, “yes.”

That tugged a reluctant smile from the fallen angel, but it was brief, instantly replaced with the scowl she’d so carefully cultivated while waiting for him to show.

“I wish I had a decent explanation for you,” he began, but she ruthlessly interrupted.  ”Don’t you dare try to apologize or explain things to me!”  She folded her lips and closed her eyes in a visible effort to regain control of her emotions.  When she opened them again, they were clear, twin blue pools, utterly lacking in expression.

“I blame myself,” Michael began again, then stopped as if expecting Chloe to cut him off.  When she didn’t speak, he continued, “I should have rectified the situation as soon as the error was discovered.”

“Will he go to Calliope now?”

Michael hesitated.  ”No,” he said finally, and hovered just a shade higher.

She narrowed her eyes.

“Daños will no longer have a Guardian Angel.”

The full import of that hit Chloe with the force of a rapture.  ”You leave him no opportunity to repent.  You’re dooming him to becoming a Lost Soul.”

Michael shook his head.  ”Not me, Chloe.  I made the choice to recall you, even though you’d fallen and I’ll pay dearly for that choice, but the decision to eject Daños from the program was arrived after much discussion by the group.”

Chloe’s eyes grew wide, and she abruptly lost control of the tenuous hold she’d had on her emotions.  ”Put me back,” she whispered, her face stricken and pale.  ”He’ll be alone.”  Panic began to build in her chest, and she felt as though someone had reached inside to squeeze her soul with a cruel, twisting, iron grip.  The sick feeling grew, and she took a couple steps backward, shaking her head.  ”No.  He can’t be alone.  He’ll torture himself without me there.”  She turned and ran, looking wildly about for something, anything to indicate a way out, a way back, in the endless sea of white on white on white, but there was nothing.

She stopped and whirled around to see Michael following her, a look of sorrow on his face.  She reached out a beseeching hand.  ”Put me back,” she begged, then fell to her knees, crossed her arms over her stomach and leaned forward, the tears she’d held back all this time finally winning.  She threw her head back.  ”Daños!” she cried out into the void.

* * *

Daños sat up in his bed abruptly, torn from the fitful sleep he’d only just managed to achieve.  He listened to the air, heard nothing for a moment, then registered the distant sound of heart-wrenching tears.  He shook his head, convinced he was losing his mind.  And then, astonishingly clear, he heard his name.  And he knew.

“Chloe!”

part twenty-one