Illicit Senses: Illicit Minds #1

by Royce, Rebecca

  Her nephew was gone, the man she was in love with was all but dead in his body, and she was… No. She forced herself to stand. No. She was not going to start whining or feeling bad for herself. Every problem had a solution.

  How would Spencer find her if the situation were reversed? She swung around, looking left and then right. The difference, she supposed, was that Spencer could see energy signatures—in colors—and then he could track them. If everyone had one, that meant he did too.

  So why can’t I see it? Perhaps it wasn’t within her power to see such things. Addison sighed. Nothing was ever easy. Why should she expect this to be?

  She never gave up—never had and never would. If Spencer could see them, there was every reason to believe she should have been able to catch sight of them as well. After all, she was in dark space. What was the point of being able to enter dark space if you couldn’t see energy spectrums?

  Maybe she just needed to move a little bit deeper into the shadows. At the very least, she knew she’d be able to light her way back out, which she knew firsthand Spencer could not do.

  A hand grabbed her arm. She jolted but didn’t leave dark space. Who was distracting her now?

  “Addison, can you hear me?”

  Minnie. She didn’t know the voice well, but she was sure it was her.

  “You can’t do this alone; you need my help.”

  A light flashed, and she realized she was seeing Minnie’s energy structure in dark space. Bright orange, it kept illuminating brightly and then fizzling out.

  “I’m weak at the moment. I’m not going to be able to hold on to this for very long. I’ll get you to Spencer—that’s all I can promise.”

  Without warning, Addison felt herself propelled forward through the darkness, dragged behind Minnie’s orange form. She hissed in a breath as the landscape around her lost shape and color and became nothing more than shadowed blackness—all-consuming and powerful.

  Not even when she’d brought Spencer back from the shadows the first time had she known that blackness had a feeling, a sensation akin to a taste that enveloped her entire body. She hated it. Her insides screamed against the assault on her senses. This wasn’t natural. No one should have to do this, ever.

  As she came to an abrupt stop, she stared at a giant wall engulfed in a purple light. Her heartbeat picked up but she didn’t need the internal signal to tell her how she felt. She already knew. She was scared stiff.

  “What is that?” Her voice came out as a strained whisper.

  “That’s Priscilla. We battered and battered at it.” Minnie’s voice stopped and started. The woman was clearly having a hard time speaking. “Finally, Spencer got through, but she trapped him inside and threw Marisa and me back into our bodies. I never imagined anyone could be that strong.”

  “Spencer is in there?” She pointed at the wall; she just wanted to be sure she understood correctly.

  “That’s right. I’m starting to think we didn’t break through the wall at all. If anything, Priscilla let us think we did so she could trap Spencer.”

  “Why would she want to do that?”

  Minnie laughed, followed immediately by a strained cough. “She was always so in love with him. I think she felt if she just hung on long enough, they’d end up together. Anyone could have told her that was ridiculous. Spencer didn’t earn his reputation for loving them and leaving them for nothing.”

  The words ate at Addison, and she forced herself to put away the nagging doubt they created.

  She shivered as she dug deep and felt the constant power she carried building inside her. “I can’t feel the dampening field at all now. It’s like everything I can do is just surging inside me.”

  “Even though our bodies are still standing in Jack’s room, our psychic senses have moved so far beyond Rhodes’ reach that we’re entirely on our own out here.”

  That didn’t even make any sense. “Then Rhodes isn’t really dampening your power at all, not if you can get out any time you want to.”

  “Kind of ironic, isn’t it? He knows it, too. The dark-space walkers have never been under his control, not once we learn to enter the plane.”

  “Then why do you stay at Safe Dawn, if he doesn’t control you?”

  “The Fury scares the hell out of us.”

  Well, she couldn’t blame them for that. Roman was starting to scare the hell out of her, as well.

  “I can’t stay.” Minnie’s voice had reached a new level of strain.

  “Thank you for everything you’ve done.” If Minnie hadn’t shown up, she’d never have made it to this wall.

  “I don’t know if you’ll succeed, but someday I hope I meet someone who would do this for me, who would risk so much to bring me back.”

  Addison opened her mouth to respond, but Minnie’s light fizzled away. Not entirely certain how these things worked, she hoped Minnie had found a way to easily return to her body. Hell, who was she kidding? She was making this up as she went along—she’d be lucky if she ever found her way back into her own skin.

  Concentrating, she sent her energy forward into the wall. Spencer was in there, damn it, and that meant she needed to be in there, too. As the minutes passed, she’d gotten better and more adept at controlling her own signature. Unlike Minnie, her energy seemed to leave a visible path behind her. Wherever she moved, it followed. It was like her own version of a yellow brick road. Spencer had been able to take it home the last time she’d used it. This time, she’d have to take the path back with him.

  That was if she successfully retrieved Spencer and lived to tell the tale.

  Forcing all her energy in front of her, she banged as hard as she could against the wall. Surprisingly, it gave way a smidgen. She heard a gasp that was decidedly female. Glee filled her heart.

  “That’s right, bitch, you didn’t expect that.”

  Her next hit of energy encountered a stronger resistance, but this time she managed to push through.

  At first, it felt like she’d barely punctured Priscilla’s wall. A small hole; nothing substantial that could cause any damage. But then, like a dam finally bursting from too much pressure, Priscilla’s wall fell. Elation filled Addison’s veins.

  For a moment, all she saw was darkness. She looked around until she located Spencer. His energy signature was entirely blue, but not blue like the ocean—no, his was navy, like faded denim. It fit him.

  “Spencer.”

  His energy pulsated. “Addison, what the hell are you doing here? It’s too dangerous.”

  “That’s right, little rich girl.” The voice that assaulted her had to be Priscilla’s.

  “You may have gotten through my defenses, but now I’m going to fry you to ashes.”

  Addison laughed. “Well, you can try.”

  She hadn’t been feeling particularly happy since Jeremy had been taken, in fact it had been just the opposite. Every day had been terrifying. But it turned out she was really strong and capable in dark space. She’d taken down Priscilla’s wall. Whatever the other woman dished out, she could handle it.

  Giving her energy a pulsating burst, she felt the rightness of what she was going to do. “Let’s do this.”

  Nineteen

  The situation rapidly spiraled out of control. Spencer pounded on the wall he couldn’t get through, even though, evidently, Addison could. Just one day earlier, she’d exploded a glass window because she’d been so overwhelmed. Now she thought she could take on Priscilla?

  No way. He wouldn’t allow her to hurt herself. He pushed his energy forward, which he could do because Addison illuminated dark space for him. He wished he had solid arms and legs so he could grab her and shake some sense into her.

  “What are you doing here? Get out before she hurts you. Forget about me. Roman will help you find another way to get to Jeremy.”

  “This isn’t about Jeremy—well not entirely, anyway—this is about you and me and this lunatic who thinks she can take you from me. I’m a Wade; we don’t lose
what we own.”

  He couldn’t help the smile that filled his heart. He could imagine her raised eyebrow and pursed, proud expression. As it was, her yellow energy pulsed, and he wanted to kiss her.

  Priscilla interrupted. “Such sweet concern, Spencer. If the little troublemaker wants to fight, let her. After all, if she doesn’t beat me, I’m going to tell the people I work for that she can move through dark space. Then maybe they’ll take her just like they took poor little Jeremy.”

  Spencer didn’t even have time to turn back to Addison before his beloved’s energy flared and streamed out of her essence into Priscilla. The Wade heir was pissed. He couldn’t blame her.

  Priscilla sucked in her breath before she flared her own purple surge back at Addison. Their energies smacked together in the center of the makeshift prison Priscilla had created. With her concentration focused elsewhere, the walls around them crumbled.

  His heart pounded hard. There wasn’t a thing he could do to assist Addison. A hissing noise, akin to the sound a fluorescent light makes when it’s getting ready to burn out, filled the space around them.

  He moved closer to Addison; he had to shout to be heard. “C’mon, Addy, let’s go. I won’t let her have you. We’ll find another way.”

  There was no way he could stomach the idea of losing her. The thoughts made his insides go cold. He suddenly realized that for Addison he’d run forever, just to keep her secure. Priscilla was frighteningly powerful. Every protective instinct in his body screamed for him to get Addison out.

  “Quiet.” Addison’s tone left no room for rebuttal.

  His temples throbbed with anger. She needed to listen to him. “We are not in the boardroom right now. You have to listen to me.”

  “I don’t know if I should be offended by your lack of confidence in me or not, but you’re destroying my concentration right now.”

  Priscilla laughed. “By all means, Spence, keep talking.”

  “I swear, when I get out of here, Priscilla, I’m going to kill you, slowly.” He meant it. Priscilla wouldn’t just die; he would torture her, painfully.

  His former friend’s energy pushed forward, consuming Addison in its purple light. Addison screamed. Her yellow light glowed orange as if she were being burned alive.

  “No!” He could do nothing to help her.

  After only seconds, Addison’s wail changed from pain to fury. Spencer instinctively backed up a step as her yellow brightness poured from her body, shoving Priscilla back one inch at a time.

  When she spoke, Priscilla’s tone had changed from taunting to terrified. “How is this happening?”

  Spencer laughed. He should have known better than to doubt Addison. She was full of surprises. The woman was destroying a dark-space practitioner who had been working the space since she was a child. “It’s happening, Priscilla.”

  “I’ve got to trap her or she’ll give us away.” Addison sounded exhausted. She’d all but extinguished Priscilla’s light. That had to be as hard as hell. “If she can make walls, I can make walls. Roman says I’m some sort of hybrid, that I’m capable of using many powers.”

  “How does Roman know that?”

  “He wouldn’t tell me.”

  Priscilla resorted to begging. “I can teach you how to use your powers. Roman doesn’t know what light-bringers can do. That’s what we’re called. There’s so much beyond dark space for us. We connect to people. I bet you’ve always been very intuitive, and some of us can even use energy in the ‘physical’ world.”

  “If you hadn’t trapped Spencer and helped to kidnap my nephew, I might have considered your offer. As it is, I’d rather never know.” Addison took a labored breath. “Spencer taught me how to do this.”

  He watched in awe as four large steel walls formed a small box around Priscilla.

  “Oh God, no. Please don’t leave me in here. Please, please, please, no.”

  That was the last thing Spencer heard as Addison trapped Priscilla inside an unbreakable box.

  He rushed forward. “Are you okay?”

  “No.” She took a shaky breath. “I’m fading fast, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. Did you find Jeremy?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet.”

  “Do it. I’ll hold on until you’re done.”

  “Addison, you can rest and then we’ll try again—”

  She interrupted. “No, now. It has to be right away. I may never make it in here again.” She groaned. “Not if I have a choice, anyway.”

  “It can be beautiful to be in here…”

  “Just do it. We’ll talk afterward.”

  She was right. He pulled Jeremy out of his energy store as he propelled himself forward, following where the little boy’s essence took him. He held tight to Addison; he wasn’t going to lose her again. Fortunately, they didn’t have far to go.

  Moments later, they stopped. Spencer looked around. There was no energy present in the room except the part of Jeremy he’d brought with him. That didn’t surprise him; Loretta would be wiping them clean wherever they went.

  Tension traveled up his spine. He didn’t like the situation. Even with Priscilla out of the picture, it was possible he could push out of dark space and get caught by whoever was with Jeremy. Loretta could obviously manipulate dark space. But he didn’t have a choice. If Jeremy’s energy thought the real deal was in that room, then he was.

  Spencer took the chance. “Hold on, Addison. I have to force my consciousness out into the real world. It’s tricky. I don’t have a body to move into. I can only hold it for a few seconds, so we need to hope that I can figure out a location really fast.”

  He forced himself into the light, guiding himself using Addison’s energy signature. Alone, he’d most likely have gone the wrong way and ended up farther in the shadows. Addison was a miracle in so many ways.

  Blinding light assaulted his eyes. He squinted. Not too many dark-space walkers could actually move from dark space to the physical plane without a body to enter.

  He looked around his surroundings. His gaze immediately found Jeremy. The little boy was sleeping on the bed, his blond hair messy and unclean, and he was snoring gently. Spencer couldn’t see his face, and there wasn’t time for him to do a more thorough examination.

  Daniel stared out the window, his eyes glazed over. Spencer wanted to kill the illusionist. He just might do that. Loretta sat on the floor next to Jeremy’s bed, looking at a magazine that had a picture of a horse on the cover. He spared her barely a glance before he noticed Priscilla. Her body, now void of its mind and energy, stood silently to the left of Loretta. It might be a long time before anyone realized she was trapped in dark space.

  None of that mattered; not until he could find their location.

  Loretta looked up, and Spencer shivered. The woman could transverse dark space; it was possible she would feel his presence in the room.

  As fast as possible, he sent his senses outward. It wasn’t just that he didn’t want to get caught; he would be forced back into the darkness at any second. He needed to learn an address before that happened. He pulled back until he saw they were in a warehouse. But what kind? He whirled around, looking left and right to get an idea.

  His vision blurred. Damn it, he was running out of time. He couldn’t see a thing. Right before he was thrust back into the energy field of dark space, he saw boxes of gin. That wasn’t going to be helpful. There could be millions of liquor warehouses.

  With no time to worry, he pressed his energy against Addison’s. She had faded significantly since he’d traveled into the physical plane. “All right, let’s go back.”

  “Did you find him?” Her voice was no more than a whisper.

  “Yes. I don’t know if I can pinpoint the location. He’s being held, asleep, in some sort of liquor warehouse. I’m sorry that’s so vague.”

  Her energy pulsed. “It’s not vague to me. Actually, it makes perfect sense. How do we get back?”

  “Like the yellow brick road, w
e’re going to follow your light back home.”

  “I think I’m going to pass out when we get there.”

  “I’d be surprised if you didn’t.”

  He hoped all she did was lose consciousness. Addison had definitely overdone it. She could be ready to go into a major power burn and be out of it for days. Spencer doubted they had that kind of time. Once Loretta clued in to the fact that Priscilla was brain dead in dark space, it wouldn’t be long before they realized they’d been compromised. Then they might lose Jeremy forever.

  He and Addison were slow moving, but after a few minutes they landed back where they’d begun, each of them falling into their own body. Spencer was used to the feeling of coming back into the solidity of his limbs but Addison wasn’t. He had two seconds to reach for her before her knees buckled. He caught her, and she looked up at him before shutting her eyes.

  Without a word, and fully aware of the many eyes in the room watching him, he carried her to the couch and laid her down gently. He looked up as he saw the person he’d hoped was still there.

  “Laurel, could you?”

  Although she looked slightly worse than she had when he’d left, she moved over to Addison.

  Minnie struggled to her feet from where she’d been sitting on the floor. “Spencer, Addison is so strong.”

  His heart lurched. “I know.”

  “Can you feel her energy in dark space? It’s just like being with Priscilla.”

  “She’s better than Priscilla. I doubted her—thought there was no way she could take on someone who’d had so much practice—but Addison all but horse-whipped her in there before she encased Priscilla in a psychic box. It will be a long time until Priscilla gets out, if ever.”

  He tried to feel sorry for Priscilla, to find some way to have compassion for the woman who had been his partner and friend for two decades. There was none. The sheer betrayal of faking her own death, and then participating in the kidnapping of a child, had killed whatever warm feelings he’d once had for her.