When Arik Beltrán checks into a hotel on business, he expects the tedium of unfamiliar beds and boring meetings. He expects to meet a financial client and be home before the solitude of being a stranger in a mundane land becomes too much to bear. Instead Arik finds Blaze: a mysterious man with an inner fire that lives up to the name. Nothing in Arik's life, not his deranged father nor even his faint brushes with the magic only Arik can see in the woven web of life could have prepared Arik for the man in the hotel lobby who casually invites Arik to room 1109 for late night ... Well, anything at all. Blaze Zaituc, on the other hand, knows exactly who Arik is and what Arik needs: Blaze. He has crossed land and sea to find the man who has appeared in Blaze's Visions as the next target in the Quest that comprises Blaze's life. Arik is someone for whom the Universe has plans, and Blaze must make sure Arik complies. Or else. Unaware of the lives and risks hanging in the balance, Arik untangles himself from the sheets in the silent hours of the morning. He wonders if he will find the door to 1109 open and waiting. He's not a risk taker, but this one time, just this once, maybe he'll take a chance ... And seal both his and Blaze's destinies forever.

Vision Quest

Arik eyed the setup. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that bastard is jeering at me.”


Blaze tilted his head and stared at the goat. “I don’t know. He seems to be flirting with me.” He walked past Arik and up to the board. He tapped the goat’s bottom. “Nice ass.”


“Oh, great,” Arik snorted. “Now he’s going to like you best!”


Blaze laughed. Arik responded in kind. And the sun slipped behind a cloud.


“It’s okay,” Blaze nodded. “Now that we’re close personals, I’m sure he’ll be kind. You are, after all, a friend of mine.”


“It’s good to have friends in high places,” Arik agreed.


A child ran past with an ice cream. They turned to watch him. A buzz started in Arik’s head.


“Tell you what,” Blaze stepped forward. “I’ll pass on some of the goat-ass-grabbing luck if you want.”


“Oh?” Arik huffed. “What do I have to do? Stroke its balls?”


Chapter 11