Someone opened the gate and he stumbled through. The gate slammed behind him, but he knew it would only be a matter of minutes before it was broken th...ough, or burned. There was no one left to defend and protect him."Vladimir!" a female voice cried out. His wife raced down the precarious steps as though she was running on flat ground, mindless of the fact that she could fall and break a limb."Elsa!" he gasped, falling and picking himself up again. "We must flee! Radu will be here in moments."A. .in an accident?"Terri gave me a worried look as she helped her sister out of thebathrobe. "That's what the hospital said." What happened?"Terri helped Cori shrug into a short pink raincoat. "I don't know. Allmy mom said is your mom was in the hospital before she told me to bringyou two out to the car." After zipping up Cori's coat, she held out alonger version to me. "Cori wore this raincoat last year, so it shouldfit you just right. Come here and I'll help you put it on."My legs refused to. I breathed in, long and deep, sucking her scent into me until I felt as though I might faint. She smelled rich and bold, a hot stink of day old sweat and floral perfume and shoe leather. It was intoxicating, unbearable. I breathed in again, eager for more, feeling my pulse pounding in my temple, feeling sweat rising on my back, soaking my shirt.I pulled back and kissed her sole, feeling the warm softness of her on my lips. Then she kicked out and slapped me with her toes, making me cry out in. ”“I wish...” She tried to turn her head to look at me but couldn’t move it far enough. Instead, she shuffled around to face me. She placed her hand on my cheek and said, “I wish I could wake up like this with you every day.”I smiled. “I’d like that too.”She sighed. “This is all I want, Paul. Yours is already the last voice I hear at night, but I want yours to be the last face I see before I close my eyes and the first I see when I open them every morning. Wouldn’t that be great? Not now,.