by C. C. Wood
I smiled at him as he helped me take off my shoes and pulled the blanket over me.
“I’m a grown woman, you know,” I joked, my teasing interrupted by a huge yawn.
“Yes, but you’re my woman.”
“None of that sexist stuff now,” I muttered, turning over on my side.
I heard his quiet chuckle and soft footfalls. Then the overhead light switched off and so did my brain.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
A ringing noise ripped me from my sleep. Annoyed, I flailed in the bed, reaching for the phone on the nightstand.
“Hello?” I snapped into the receiver.
A dial tone greeted me and the ringing continued. It took me a moment to realize that my ass was vibrating.
Muttering beneath my breath, I twisted around under the blankets and yanked my cell phone out of my back pocket.
“Hello?”
“Goddess, Shannon. When you say you’re going to call someone back, you need to do it within a reasonable amount of time! It’s been five hours. I was worried that you and the other guys went on an animavore hunt.”
“Oh shit, Kerry. I’m sorry I forgot to call you back. The, uh, news you shared with me didn’t go over well. Asher and I had a huge fight, then we made up and I showed him my vision of what happens the night we kill Cornelius.”
She was silent for a moment. “Damn, all that happened in five hours?”
“Yeah. And I have to tell you, I’ve never had a vision like that before in my life.”
“What do you mean?” she queried.
“I wasn’t just watching it, Kerry. I was in it. I was experiencing everything I’ll experience that night. You spoke to me and I spoke to you. I could feel the power of the spell, the wind it created, and the wicked shadow that seems to follow Cornelius everywhere.”
“Dear Goddess,” she whispered. “That sounds like astral projection.”
“Is it even possible to astral project myself into the future?” I asked.
“Not that I know of,” she replied. “It seems becoming a vampire has made you stronger than any psychic I’ve ever known. I wouldn’t be surprised if you start to notice other abilities popping up.”
“Other abilities popping up?” I parroted.
“Yeah, like telekinesis or even pyrokinesis.”
“You mean like Firestarter?”
“I don’t think you’ll set fire to Conner’s mansion and kill everyone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you could light a few candles or maybe throw people and objects across the room with your mind.”
I couldn’t decide if that was incredibly awesome or if it freaked me the hell out.
“How do I find out if I have any of these abilities?” I asked.
“Just…try, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Well, hell, I don’t know, Shannon. I’ve never met a psychic vampire who may or may not be developing other skills, okay?”
“I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I’m just having a bit of a meltdown here.”
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Kerry said. “Just do some experimenting.” She paused. “With small stuff, like pens and candles. And maybe do it in a large open area, just in case.”
I laughed a little at her warning. “Because I might actually set fire to Conner’s McMansion?”
“I wouldn’t discount the possibility, though I think you’ll have enough self-control to keep that from happening.”
The bedroom door opened to reveal Asher holding a steaming cup of tea.
“I need to go. I’ll let you know how it turns out.”
“Don’t forget to call me this time.”
“Tomorrow,” I insisted. “I have a lot of things to do tonight. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“You’ll make me wait that long?”
“Just ask Finn to distract you. I’m sure he’ll come up with something.”
Kerry chuckled. “I’m sure he will too.”
“Bye, Kerry.”
“Bye.”
We hung up and Asher approached the bed. “What were you and Kerry discussing?”
“Well, I forgot to call her back earlier to let her know what you and Conner said about the Rhys situation. She was calling to bitch at me.” I stuffed my pillow behind me and sat up the rest of the way. “How long did you actually let me sleep?” I asked archly.
Asher handed me the cup. “I came in here two hours ago to wake you and you tried to punch me in the nose. I decided to let you sleep for a little while longer.”
I laughed. “Damn, I must have been more exhausted than I thought.” I took a moment to assess my body. “I’m still a little tired. Do you think I need to feed?”
“It’s possible,” Asher answered. “I’m not sure how your abilities affect you. If they drain enough of your energy, you may need blood to speed your recovery.” He sat on the side of the bed, his hip pressed to mine. “But before I feed you, what were you talking about with Kerry?”
“You mean other than you and Conner hulking out on me, our big fight, and my weird vision?”
He nodded.
“She thinks the new intensity to my visions is an indication that my abilities are growing. Maybe even a sign that I’m going to develop new ones.”
“New abilities?” he asked.
“Yeah, like moving things with my mind or setting shit on fire.”
He laughed. “Really?”
When I answered, my voice was deadly serious. “Really.”
His smile faded. “Are you okay with that?”
I shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to be. I don’t think I have much of a choice.” I tilted my head to one side. “It does have the added benefit of me being able to set the seat of your pants on fire if you make me mad.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“What, afraid I’ll ruin your three hundred dollar pants?” I teased.
“They’re five hundred dollars, and yes. I have these tailor-made in London and shipped over.”
Five hundred dollar pants? The only thing I’d ever bought that would cost more than that was a gun. I couldn’t imagine wearing clothes that expensive, not with the way I ruined them.
I shook my head. “Oh God, you’re a fashionista. Or is it fashionisto?” I asked.
Asher ignored my teasing. “Why did Kerry want you to call her back?”
I sighed and let it go. Apparently, I couldn’t pick on Asher about his fashion choices.
“She wanted me to experiment, to see if I could move things or light candles with my mind.”
Asher’s eyes lit up. “This could be interesting.”
“Yes, it could, but I think I need to feed before I start lighting the place on fire or tearing it down brick by brick.”
He chuckled. “I don’t think Conner would appreciate that.”
“I know. We’ll do this in the backyard, just in case,” I replied.
I yelped as Asher snatched me out from under the blankets and settled me across his lap.
“Then you should drink before we go downstairs,” he murmured.
I pressed my hands against his chest, letting the sound of his heartbeat bring down my fangs.
“We’re keeping our clothes on?” I whispered against his throat.
“For now.”
I scraped my fangs across his skin. “Do you really think we can control ourselves once I bite you?”
Asher moaned softly. “Maybe.” When I closed my lips over his carotid artery and sucked lightly, he admitted, “Probably not.”
I moved my mouth up to his ear and nipped the lobe. “Just probably?”
“The hell with it,” he mumbled.
Asher rose to his feet, twisted around, and tossed me on the bed. Then he stripped off his sweater. “We’ll be quick.”
“Just what every woman wants to hear,” I quipped, batting my eyelashes at him.
Asher growled and pounced on me, silencing my laughter with a fierce kiss.
Chapter Thirty
�
��I can’t do this with you staring at me,” I complained, my eyes locked on the small beeswax candle in front of me.
“I’m not staring at you,” Asher argued. “I’m staring at the candle.”
I made a sound of disgust and straightened. “Nothing is happening.”
Asher didn’t say anything. I turned and looked at him over my shoulder.
“What, nothing to add?”
He shook his head.
“Why not?” I asked suspiciously.
“Because anything I say right now will just piss you off. I’ve decided that silence is the smarter side of valor.”
I chuckled and turned back toward the candle. How could this vampire understand me so well after less than a month together?
“Good point,” I answered. I stared down at the candle in frustration. “Stupid fucking candle.”
Then I flipped it off.
In awe, I watched as it tipped over on its side and rolled a few inches to the left.
“Holy shit!” I cried. “I did it!”
Asher was at my side in less than a second. “It’s not lit,” he stated, clearly disappointed.
“I don’t mean I lit it,” I answered excitedly. “I flipped it off and it tipped over!”
“What?”
“I flipped it off and it fell over!” I repeated, turning to stare up at Asher from my kneeling position on the ground.
He crouched down next to me. “You made a rude gesture at the candle and it moved? Did you hurt its feelings?”
I rolled my eyes at his snarky question and set the candle back up. “Watch.”
I focused on harnessing the feeling I had the first time it happened. The candle shivered but didn’t fall. I concentrated harder, adding a little flip of my hand in the air above the candle.
It didn’t fall over and roll this time.
Instead it flew about five feet across the grass and landed in the bushes.
“Oh my God!” I gasped, turning to Asher. “Did you see that?”
He was staring at the bushes. “Yes.” He twisted his head back toward me. “Do you think you can call it back?”
I hadn’t even thought of trying that. “I’ll try.”
He nodded.
I looked back at the bushes. Instead of trying to do it only with my thoughts, I lifted my hand, palm up, and crooked a finger, thinking only of the candle.
It whizzed out of the bushes, moving almost too fast for me to see. Asher’s hand shot out in front of my face and grabbed the candle before it could hit me square in the forehead.
Wide eyed, I stared at the now misshapen wax. “Thanks for not letting it hit me in the head.”
“You’re welcome.” He placed it back on the grass. “You’re much stronger than I thought you might be,” he commented blandly. “Maybe you should try lighting it again.”
I stared at the wick on the crooked candle, noticing that there were five perfect impressions in the wax from Asher’s fingers and thumb. I imagined a small spark at the tip, then a flame.
I saw the first wisp of smoke and thought maybe I’d done it. Then nothing else happened.
A hand gesture had helped before, but I wasn’t sure what might work for lighting a candle.
I refocused on the wick, holding my hand a few inches above it. Nothing happened. Frowning, I tried rubbing my fingertips together. Nothing.
“Try snapping your fingers,” Asher suggested.
It couldn’t hurt.
Wary after nearly getting a candle to the face, I snapped softly. Sure enough, a small flame danced along the tip of the wick. As I watched, it began to grow until the candle burned brightly, the fire not even disturbed by the slight breeze filtering through the trees.
“I did it,” I whispered.
“You did.”
“I’m not only psychic, but I can move things and light them on fire with my mind,” I stated, trying to wrap my head around it. “I’m not sure if I’m happy or terrified.”
“I’m happy,” Asher replied.
I looked over at him. “You are?”
He nodded. “Your new abilities mean you’ll be better able to protect yourself.”
He had a point.
“Now, let’s try this with something….bigger,” he suggested.
“What do you have in mind?” I asked.
“A weight from the gym, maybe?”
“I’m willing to try if you are.”
* * *
An hour later, I was shaking and sweating from exertion. A fifty pound free weight hovered in front of me, about four feet off the ground. I started to lower it, but lost my control and it hit the ground with a thunk, flattening out the grass.
“Shit,” I whispered. It was time to stop. If I kept pushing myself, I was going to end up getting hurt. Or hurting someone else.
“I think that’s enough,” I confessed, hating to admit defeat.
Asher didn’t say a word, just picked up the free weights he’d brought outside. In fact, he hadn’t said anything at all while I practiced my newfound abilities, even when I knew he saw that I was getting tired.
“Thanks.”
He looked at me in surprise. “For what?”
“For letting me discover my limits on my own and not pushing me to quit until I was ready.”
“You have to decide what your limits are, Shannon, and when you’ve exceeded them. If you need your powers during a fight, you need to understand exactly what you’re capable of or you might overestimate your abilities. That would be more dangerous than you pushing yourself as you did today.”
I nodded in agreement because he was right. “I’m hoping it’s like a muscle, the more I use it, the better my strength and endurance will get.”
“It will likely be that way. Or it could be your age.”
“My age?”
“You’re a new vampire, Shannon. Granted you’re more powerful than any newly born I’ve ever seen, but your powers will grow as you age. It will probably take more than practice. It will take time.”
I nodded again. “That makes sense.”
Asher smiled at me. “Why don’t you go to the room and take a shower while I put the weights away? I’ll be there soon.”
“No problem,” I answered, following him into the house and trudging up the back staircase.
Donna was coming out of the library as I walked past.
“You were really amazing this afternoon,” she stated. “I think I spent more time watching you than reading the book Kerry gave me for research.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks. It’s exhausting.”
She leaned against the doorjamb. “Don’t push yourself too hard, okay? Believe me, you’re powers will keep growing as time goes on. I’m always surprised when I do something I haven’t been able to before, and I’ve only been a vampire for a few months.”
“I need to know what I’m capable of,” I insisted.
She nodded. “I agree, you do, but you’ll be no good to any of us if you wear yourself down to a nub before the winter solstice.”
“I just feel like I’m running out of time.”
“Hey, you’re the one who keeps saying we win,” she retorted.
“Yes, but—”
“No buts,” she argued. “You and the Council are doing a great job of getting everything ready. You’re double and triple checking everything. It’s not as if you’re chilling by the pool because you don’t think we can lose.” She stepped forward and put a hand on my arm. “Cut yourself some slack, get some rest, and enjoy some sexy times with your new smoking hot vampire mate. Taking a break will help you more than running yourself ragged.”
I sighed because I knew she was right. I was quickly heading toward burn out. “You’re right, you’re right,” I admitted. “I’ll go do all of those things right now.”
“Now who’s sharing too much?” she teased me.
I rolled my eyes at her and headed toward the guest room. The cold sweat was drying on my skin, making it itch. “See you in
the morning.”
“Night!” she called, disappearing around the corner to the master wing.
I was already showered and drying off when Asher came into the bedroom.
“Well, there goes my idea of taking a shower together,” he said from the doorway.
I wrapped the bath sheet around me and tucked the corner between my breasts. “Sorry, I was itching like crazy from the sweat drying.”
He came over to me, dropping a light kiss on my lips. “Sounds uncomfortable.”
I watched as he walked away from me and stripped his shirt over his head. The muscles in his back flexed as he tossed it aside. He was a Greek statue in motion, lean muscles flexing and stretching beneath his golden skin. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he unbuttoned his pants and shoved them down to his ankles, taking his underwear with them.
In the last two weeks, I caught myself staring at him like this a lot. He was graceful and beautiful, the physical embodiment of poetry. There was just something about him that made it difficult for me to take my eyes off him.
He glanced over his shoulder at me, smiling. “Are you sure you don’t want to join me?”
God, he knew exactly what kind of effect he had on me.
Without taking my eyes off his, I dropped my towel to the floor and watched as his eyes trailed over my body.
Then I took Donna’s advice. I cut myself some slack and headed back into the shower for some sexy time with my smoking hot vampire.
Chapter Thirty-One
Over the next two weeks, we tried to find Rhys, but it was as if he’d vanished off the face of the earth. The shadow that had followed me around for weeks before the night I nearly died had returned.
I could feel the darkness growing, urging me to do something.
I also had a sinking feeling that Rhys’ absence wasn’t by choice. I wondered if Cornelius had learned that he was helping us and decided to take his brother out of the equation once and for all.
I mentioned my concerns to the Council, but there was nothing we could do unless we figured out where in the hell Cornelius was. Unfortunately, because he didn’t use technology, it was proving to be incredibly difficult to locate him.