Ancestral Reunions

    When I looked into his eyes, all those concerns faded away and I felt myself giving in to the world around me.

    "Hello," his voice held a deep timbre, powerful as he approached me with his hand held out. He spoke with a hint of a German accent, but it was subtle, as if he had been away from his home country for a long time. "I've missed you terribly."

    My dream man had never spoken to me before. It was almost a creepy turn of events.

    Nevertheless, I advanced toward him and took his hand gingerly. His fingers tightened over mine, and he urged me closer.

    "I missed you, too," I practically whispered the response. I suddenly felt intimidated in his presence though it didn't come close to deterring me from getting closer. "I don't understand all of this."

    "Shh." The only sound I had ever heard him make was a familiar and comforting one. He smiled as he put a finger to my lips. "It'll all become apparent to you eventually. I promise."

    "I trust you." I felt overwhelmed by the intensity of his gaze. It made me melt inside, and I smiled self-consciously. A huff of laughter offset the tension. "You're so beautiful… I wish you were real."

    "Who says that I'm not?" He leaned closer and kissed my forehead. "Just because this isn't real doesn't mean what we have won't be real someday."

    "I don't understand." It was the honest truth. I knew that these moments were not merely daydreams but what specifically they were, I hadn't guessed. The worst part was that I was on autopilot outside of them. I was on the verge of questioning my sanity. "How is this possible?"

    "I think that we're supposed to be happy here." He kissed my cheek and shifted so he could whisper in my ear. "There might not be many happy days ahead. I don't have all the answers, Miranda, but I do have something almost as valuable--hope."

    "Hope?" I began to tremble, and he gave me a careful hug. "Hope for what?"

    "The future." He drew his head back to look me in the eyes again. "Ours…the world's… everything."

    "That's enough to make a girl afraid." I tried to make the comment flippant, but instead it sounded weak.

    "And what's this enough to do?" He leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. The contact was gentle at first but escalated swiftly until we were deep in the midst of a passionate dance of muffled moans.

    There was something about his very presence that drove me wild physically. I wanted him to possess me--to comfort me with his touch. In contrast, I was desperate to see him relax his broad shoulders and gaze at me through eyes that spoke of pure happiness--the kind of emotion where one surrenders to all else.

    It was my turn to take control.

    Miranda Aldridge thought violin juries were bad. When a mysterious phone call wakes her up from a bizarre dream, she finds her world turned sideways. A vast fortune falls in her lap from an inheritance and the history of a family she never realized she had comes to light. But everything has a price and though it would seem on the surface Miranda could afford anything, the world has a way of upping the ante. Now, stuck in a strange place with memories that aren’t her own and friends that don’t believe what’s happening to her, she must solve an ancient mystery. The answer could spell the destruction of the world…or its redemption.