by Jen Talty
“Are you trying to kill me?” he asked.
Without saying a word, she slowly lowered her hand, sliding it across her hot skin until her fingers danced with her womanhood.
“Now you’re really trying to push me over the edge,” he said with a deep, throaty groan. He leaned over and kissed the tip of her finger. “You smell so sweet.”
“I taste even better.” She dove two fingers deep inside. A fire ignited, filling her gut and spreading through her veins. “Here.” She shoved them into his mouth.
His eyelids fluttered as he sucked. “My turn.” He stroked her while his palm rubbed her hard nub, sending an electric shock to her brain. She shivered.
“You like that.”
She arched her back, lifting and rolling her hips. “You know I do.”
He grabbed her by the ankles and rested them on his shoulders. “Be prepared to lose all control in less than five minutes.”
“You’re going to want to be inside me right before that.”
“That’s only because you’re going to beg me.” He licked a path up her leg and to the sweet spot.
Every erogenous zone lit up like a Christmas tree. Heat flowed through her system like a wildfire burning free across a dry prairie. Goosebumps dotted her skin, but they didn’t cool her down. No. If anything, they just heated her body more.
She stared at him, loving her like no other man ever has, or ever will. If she never had sex again, she wouldn’t care. If she couldn’t have Gabe forever, she didn’t want anyone.
A wave of intense pleasure pulsated from her core, radiating to her belly and shooting like a cannon to her nipples. They’d never been so hard before. No amount of plucking or sucking would satisfy them.
She cupped her breasts. Hard. She dug her heels into the mattress and lifted her hips to greet his hungry mouth. “Oh hell, I’m begging.”
But he didn’t stop. No. Instead, he eased a third finger inside. He lifted his head, rolling his thumb over her in a light circular motion.
His tongue made a broad stroke over his wet lips.
“Kiss me,” she said. She reached up, curling her fingers behind his neck and pulling him closer, tasting herself on his hot mouth. She wiggled underneath him, tugging and pushing at his hand, but he wouldn’t stop, so she had to take matters into her own hands.
She gripped him and squeezed, tight.
“Whoa,” he said, jerking his head back, though his fingers never stopped sliding in and out, stroking her insides, bringing her so close to the edge she wanted to scream out his name, over and over again. “I didn’t say you could do that.”
“And what about this?” She shifted to her knees, pushing him back and taking him into her mouth. A sudden desperation stole her resolve and she couldn’t maintain any semblance of control. She lapped at him as if he were an ice cream cone melting on a hundred-and-twenty-degree day. She gripped and stroked so fast and hard she feared she might be hurting him, but all she wanted was for him to spill his release into her. She no longer cared about her own. His was all that mattered.
“Willow,” he whispered, tugging gently at her hair. He reached down and cupped her chin. “Stop.”
She glanced up. “Why?”
“As awesome as this is. It’s not what I want.” He rolled her to her back and settled between her legs, slowly pushing himself into her, inch by glorious inch.
“Oh, God.” She arched her back, wrapping her arms and legs around his hard body.
Their auras swirled around their bodies, creating a blanket of cosmic energy, tickling her skin, sending her into an orgasmic frenzy. She jerked and convulsed. Her muscles contracted. She blinked, unable to focus on anything as the room spun around her in a wild ride. Her lungs burned as she gasped for air.
He nuzzled his face against her neck, whispering her name while his body stiffened. He slammed into her, holding steady as he swelled inside, his climax spilling out.
“Yes,” she managed between ragged breaths. She ran her hands up and down his back, enjoying the rich psychic particles as they settled on their skin.
A good five minutes passed before her pulse returned to normal.
He rolled to his side, pulling the comforter up over their bodies and holding her close to his chest.
Part of her resented how much she missed him and how it felt as if she’d returned home after a long deployment.
The other part wanted to let all that anger go and just let him completely back into her life.
Into her heart.
Her soul.
She exhaled and her breath made an off-white and blue-gray bubble in the air. Inside the circle, a vision formed. She blinked. The Collective Order table appeared, and she and all her sisters and all of Gabe’s brothers sat around it in the open field in a massive backyard on what they all originally thought was the Chesapeake Bay. However, on closer inspection, it looked more like Lake George.
How could she have missed that?
Children ran around, laughing and playing.
“Mommy!” a young boy called as he climbed up on Willow’s lap. The little boy lifted up Willow’s hand and played with a wedding ring.
A toddler, maybe two years younger, jumped up and down, begging Gabe to pick him up.
It didn’t go unnoticed by Willow that whom she assumed to be her son wasn’t much younger than Alexis’ child.
A red fog filled the circle and quickly erased Willow’s children. In slow motion, she and Gabe were pulled from the table. Their clothes wrapped into some kind of security uniform. Gabe snapped to attention at the far side of the property, holding a machine gun. Willow was stationed at the south entrance with a similar weapon.
Willow zeroed in her focus, narrowing her gaze to her left hand.
No ring.
And as suddenly as the vision appeared, it vanished.
Leaving Willow to feel cold. And alone.
She snuggled closer to Gabe, knowing her fate wouldn’t be the kind with the happily ever after.
There were too many things she couldn’t get past.
Lifting her chin, she locked gazes with Gabe. “I need to be honest with you,” she said.
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
She cupped his face. It would be easy to close her eyes and get lost in his touch, forgetting about the world outside and the problems surrounding them. “Just now, I had a vision. Actually, I had two.”
“I know. I saw them too,” he said, kissing her neck. “I didn’t want to interrupt or intrude.”
“I don’t know if that’s sweet and gentlemanly, or you being a coward.”
“Why do you have to go and ruin a great moment?” He let out a long breath.
“It’s my superpower,” she said. “So, to keep going with the destruction of the mood, you understand it’s our choice if we sit at the table as part of the Collective Order, or as protectors.”
“I do.” He rolled to the side, fluffing the pillow and leaning against the headboard.
“And that vision tells me our families are going to need protectors. That even when this part is over, something else is still going to be out there, lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce like a lioness.”
He held his head up with his hand. “I know that to be the absolute truth,” he said matter-of-factly. “Only I don’t know what that is yet. Maybe you can figure out something I’ve missed in my research.” He ran his hand up and down her forearm. “But Mallard and Project Perception have been putting together a good team.”
“I know. The Raven Sisters are now part of Project Perception. However, things are now very different.” She rested her chin on his chest. “But you and I are good at protecting people.”
“What are you saying?”
“The future of the Collective Order is more important than anything else,” she said. “I can’t forgive you for not trusting me with the truth about who you were, who we were, three years ago.”
He dropped his hand to the mattress and let out a p
uff of air. “I couldn’t tell you, even if I wanted to.”
“Because Mallard told you, and that’s a pretty lame excuse, especially when you know without a shadow of a doubt that I wouldn’t have told a single soul and that I would have worked with you to take them down and save our families.”
“It’s not that simple, Willow.” He slipped from the bed, hiking up his pants. He stood and stared at her with his hands on his hips. “For starters, when my mother died, you were eleven. You have no idea how confused and weirded out I was about all of this.”
“Actually, I do. I was there, remember?” It was the hurt in his eyes that ate at her soul. She’d seen that emptiness before and she hated that she’d put it there, but if he looked deep enough inside her orbs, he’d realize the part he’d played in the destruction of their future. “You made all the choices for us.”
“No. That’s not true. I didn’t blindly follow Mallard like some pathetic puppy like you think I did. But I did follow my mother’s wishes. I did exactly what my mother asked of me when she took her last breath. For that, I will never apologize.” With that, he turned on his heel and disappeared.
She tossed her arm over her face and squeezed her eyes shut. She wouldn’t cry. There was no point. She had a purpose. One that she could be proud of. The only problem she faced would be having to see him day in and day out for the rest of her life.
Chapter 4
Willow rolled down her pant leg, though she was far from satisfied that she had enough firepower strapped to her body. She glanced at her watch. Three in the morning. “Are you ready?”
“Yup,” Gabe grunted, slinging a backpack over his shoulder. Ever since he’d walked out of the bedroom a few hours ago, he’d been avoiding her, only talking to her about the escape plan and only when necessary. He had to have known that their sleeping together wouldn’t be a permanent thing. People didn’t just jump back into relationships after being apart for three years.
Especially when the breakup had been as devastatingly painful as theirs. Well, it had been for her; she had no idea how he really felt about it, and at this point, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know or not. They had much bigger problems that needed their attention.
“All right. Let’s try this out.” Willow pointed her finger, making a mini circle, focusing on the energy she created. According to the information she’d found that Riley had provided, one of the sisters would develop the ability to make themselves invisible. And not as if they were in a remote view with their organic particles traveling through space and time. With the help of Gabe, she should be able to create the kind of energy that for a moment should make their bodies completely invisible while they made a beeline for the car rental she’d lined up under an alias Farrah Milestone had managed to create for her and Gabe.
“I feel like this is some sort of stupid parlor trick,” he said, mimicking her movements. “I don’t know what makes Savanah and Chad think this will work.”
“You do know that some scholars that have studied Dimitri and his following believed his offspring were indeed witches, and he knew they were, which is why he cast them to different parts of the world, protecting them from the witch hunts.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
The fog covered their bodies, seeping into their skin, making her shiver. “Farrah seems to think we have the power, so we might as well try.” She inched toward the mirror where she saw no reflection. But she didn’t want to waste the power, so she shook out her hand, which made herself known once again on this realm. Seconds after she reappeared, so did Gabe. “Hopefully, we can keep that going long enough to get us in the vehicle and a good mile or two away from here.”
“But if we can’t, we go with plan B.”
She poked his biceps. “Just remember, payback is a bitch.”
“I would never call you that,” he said with a big goofy grin and a wink. “Brett? Everyone in place?”
“Hazel and I are in a remote view in the front. Savanah and Chad are in the rear, and Alexis and Hunter are with the car,” Brett projected back.
“What about Mallard and Riley?”
“As far as we can tell, asleep. But they are pretty in tune with our energy, so we need to make this quick,” Brett projected.
“And they could be letting the children get away with it.” Gabe took Willow by the hand. “It’s best if we keep the communication to between you and me unless we need backup.”
“Agreed,” she said.
He pointed to cosmic particles dancing around their auras. “The invisible wrap is in slow motion.”
“I noticed. That isn’t a speed in which I travel well in.”
“You and me both,” he said.
At a snail’s pace, they made their way to the back door. Willow blinked. “You see that, right?”
“I do.”
Willow raised her hand and waved.
Savanah smiled and waved back.
“That is really fucking weird to be able to see them in their remote view. It’s different when we meet in the space between, but nothing like this.” Willow gripped the door handle, waiting for the signal. Now that they could see what their family was doing, they wouldn’t need to waste psychic energy communicating, making this hopefully a walk in the park.
Although a slow one.
“And Riley can appear in and out as a hologram like it’s nothing,” Willow added.
“I’ve heard she’s a powerful oracle.”
“You haven’t met her yet?” Willow’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. On the drive over, the idea that Gabe had spent time getting to know his birth parents hardened the blood flowing in her veins. “When did you know she was your birth mother?”
“Shorty after I enlisted, but every time I tried to go see her without Mallard knowing, she eluded me. Once, Mallard ripped me a new one, telling me I could have changed the course of my future. From the day my mom died and I signed up with Mallard, he’s had me focused on one thing and one thing only. He’s a driven man, and he’s never let me divert off course.”
Willow pushed open the door just as Caleb’s people turned their back. As quickly as possible, making sure the invisible wrap kept them hidden, they stepped from the row house and scurried down the back patio.
Brett pointed north. Willow noted a military grade vehicle with a team of at least eight heavily armed men.
“They weren’t there an hour ago,” she projected.
“There’s another team in the front,” Brett said. “But according to Chad, they aren’t currently enlisted soldiers. Maybe retired and working for the wrong side, and they are heavily armed.”
“We weren’t getting out of here alive.” Willow swallowed. “They know we’re the protectors. And without us, none of this happens.”
“Oh fuck. We got that wrong.” Gabe rested his hand on the small of her back as he guided her down the alleyway, taking baby steps, ensuring the invisible wrap kept them hidden.
Chad and Savanah came into view at the end of the street. It was a surreal image, knowing it was organic material and not their bodies, though if someone like Caleb could find their split auras, he could tap into the particles, suck the power for himself, and he could render them all useless.
He could even kill them if he so chose.
But what Willow found fascinating was all the various layers that made up the auras and how pliable they appeared to be. She understood why Caleb and Roger, or anyone would want to harness this kind of psychic energy. But she didn’t think he had any idea what kind of power he could tap into if he could be on this plane. It was as if she were stepping somewhere near the space between.
“What do you mean by ‘we got that wrong’?” she asked.
“Those aren’t two different potential outcomes for our future. It’s one.”
“That’s not possible. There was a split in the vision. There were different elements like different clothes. Wedding rings. Our kids. And in the one we saw before, all the chi
ldren died.”
“The vision never separated,” Gabe said. “It was a time lapse, preparing us.”
“For what?” She glanced over her shoulder.
Hazel and Brett were following about twenty paces behind, keeping a close eye on the troops. Hazel smiled. While she looked more like black and white static caught in an older than dirt television than a whole person, Willow could feel her sister’s presence deep in her soul.
“I don’t know, exactly. But again, I suspect that even after we take down Caleb and Roger, there will still be evil forces out there that want to cause us harm and we have to constantly be on the lookout. We all have our roles. It makes sense that we’re the protectors. Hunter and Alexis are healers. Chad and Savanah are explorers and teachers, while Brett and Hazel are our fearless leaders.”
“I suppose that makes sense.” A puffy white cloud dipped from the sky in front of her face. “What the fuck? Do you see that?”
“Look to your right. It gets weirder.”
She turned and gasped. A group of small children skipped down the street, only they weren’t really there, and they looked like they were plucked right out of a scene from the late eighteen hundreds. Psychedelic colors swirled around the street, looping through cars as they passed by. Carriages being pulled by horses crossed one plane to the next. Only they distorted into odd shapes and sizes. The cosmic plane rattled and vibrated as if a sound wave were rolling across the pavement.
“Drop the invisible wrap and run for your fucking life to the rental,” Brett projected. “We’ll create a diversion and cover you.”
“So, you’re seeing this crazy shit,” Willow said.
“Whatever that invisible shit is, it’s pulling together different realities to one energy level. It’s fucking with all our realities. So, if we want to live, move. Now,” Chad projected from somewhere around the front of the house.
“On three,” Gabe said. “One. Two. Three.”