Destiny Strikes

by Flowers-Lee, Theresa

  Fallon turned to follow the direction of whatever had captivated his attention. She watched five more people join the kid Travis had spoken to earlier. What disturbed her the most about the young man were his eyes, and unconcealed lust she could see even from a distance.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Unfortunately, after what happened last night, I need to take advantage of this opportunity. If you’ll excuse me, there is a little official business that needs attending. Will you be all right until I return? I hate to keep doing this to you.”

  She agreed. After what a single touch from Travis aroused, she could use the time to think. “Sure, I’ll be fine. You go take care of whatever you need to. I’m at a great auto show on a lovely evening. What could be better?"

  Fallon’s gaze lingered on Travis’s ass as he went over to a young man sporting a black eye and arm cast. A damn shame nothing between them would last beyond tonight. Thinking along those lines, Travis’s potential to be the perfect man for someone other than her proved depressing.

  A cool breeze brought with it a scent Fallon hoped wouldn’t become a problem. Scanning the dark sky, Fallon noticed stars weren’t visible and new moon glow barely broke through thick gray clouds. Considering everything that happened since she dropped off her car, she’d forgotten to check weather reports. If a storm cropped up, it was crucial she be as far away as possible from this many people.

  All around her people milled about, and she couldn’t help but appreciate that even though this was a church function, the organizers weren’t trying to push religion down anyone’s throat. They simply raised funds with booths containing food items, homemade wares, and a few crafts.

  She’d even purchased a few baubles to adorn her vehicles. Searching Travis out from within another crowd, her shoulders sagged in defeat. Every second with Travis reiterated what she would never enjoy. What she could get from him was information. Then maybe, she could be done with this façade of normalcy.

  She headed over to the bleachers, located within shouting distance of Travis. He’d also know where to find her when he finished his official business.

  Lost in thought, Fallon neither heard nor saw the young man sit down beside her until he spoke. “Hi, my name’s Dennis. I saw you with Travis and wanted to come meet you.”

  She wanted to ignore the young man, her out-of-control emotions as dangerous as the weather changing above her.

  Propping elbows on her knees and clasping her hands in front, she continued to look Travis’s way. When she finally turned to acknowledge Dennis, the oddly unblemished and glowing face of the person staring at her carried a monumental secret. Invisible to the naked eye, scrolling artwork created a tattoo effect from the young man’s temple over his cheeks before disappearing into the collar of his shirt. Why hadn’t she noticed it earlier?

  The etch work was a calling card Rafael had left behind more times than not and when anyone was fortunate to talk to him, he wouldn’t explain why. Each mongrel they located with the beautiful swirling design, the question was raised, Was Rafael helping them or not? Because strangely enough, the Sortaneph bearing the mark turned out to be the worst of the worst that went unchecked by the Guardian. Rafael’s time with the boy was recent. Why not learn about her brother’s influences and purpose. Despite the youthful, handsome face, Dennis still made Fallon’s skin crawl.

  “Yes, I’m with Travis. I think he figured out my obsession with classic cars and here I am.”

  “So why are you sitting here by yourself if this is a date?”

  “Is that really any of your business?”

  Though his actions offended her, she needed Dennis too much to bother teaching him some manners.

  CHAPTER 25

  Dennis possessed the power of vengeance. Every hour craved an outlet. Foolish of him believing of all the evil he’d witnessed his stepdad rain down on his mom, he he’d house such evil. Now he knew differently accepting whatever his birthright required of him. No hesitation when a death sentence came down. Anebasi had underestimated him and his growing abilities. The other night outside the restaurant, he overheard the voice of whoever she reported to. The command was very clear. Fallon and Travis weren’t to be harmed yet.

  Some way or another, plans with Orion were going as scheduled, but Rafael was still a wildcard and hadn’t guaranteed them total success. Dennis shifted on the bench. He’d brushed it off that night, but now that Travis had shown up with Fallon, he wondered what made them so special.

  He’d received a mental blow when he’d attempted to gain control of Travis’s mind. All Dennis wanted the guy to do was stop bothering him and introduce Fallon to him. Child’s play when it came to others. Was he even like Anebasi? She’d said once that there were different classes of Angels. The question was, now that he discovered his secret, where did Travis belong?

  “You look mighty familiar, ma’am.”

  “You’re the second person that's asked me that same question today. My brother was apparently in town, and I missed him again,” she said offhandedly, inspecting him from head to toe. “How did you meet him?”

  “You could say what I did was stupid, and he saved me,” Dennis muttered, thinking back. “I wrecked my stepdad's four-wheeler one day. He helped me out of a jam. As they say, the rest is history.”

  Dennis didn’t miss Fallon’s strange behavior, more interested in the sky than his story. Her head turned sharply as the sound of thunder rumbled in the distance. Her face paled as she tucked her hands between her thighs. Cars started to pull out after thunder clapped a second time. He didn’t think she noticed she’d balled her fists.

  By the third resounding boom, she rose from the bleachers as if the hounds of hell were after her. “I’m sorry, Dennis. I have to go.”

  No. He couldn’t let her go like this. She needed to stay with him. “So how long will you be in town?” He knew where she was staying, just not how long.

  Already heading down the bleachers, she looked over her shoulder at him. “I don’t know. But I’ll be seeing you again soon.”

  As he watched her walk quickly away, he whispered, “Yes, you will.”

  Fallon made her way down the aluminum stairway as fast as she dared. First Travis, then the kid. Her nervous system was going haywire. The burnt smell rising from the silk shirt beneath her jacket irritated her nostrils. She’d thought the storm caused her distress, but the more she’d looked at the young man, the vortex she continually struggled to control nearly broke free of her tight reins. Once she’d seen the lavender eyes, her hold on reality started to slip and madness unlike any experienced before threatened to rain down hell on everyone.

  Cracks of distant lightning and rolls of thunder followed her. She contained a cry of fear. Why hadn’t she felt the storm approach?

  Pushing people out of the way, and taking furtive peeks at the sky, she noticed that clouds crawled over each other, preparing to unleash a powerful deluge. Probably sensing what she did, people blocked the remaining few feet she had to reach Travis. This wasn’t normal. Her anxiety over losing control outweighed her concern of being rude as she shoved people out of the way. They cried out in surprise after a painful shock.

  Maybe if she had an idea of what was really happening she wouldn’t be lumbering like a madman through the crowd. People weren’t moving fast enough to suit her.

  The first starburst of lightning created a thin appendage filled with veins as it left the sky and reached for her. Her body practically vibrated with the need to release some energy and join forces with what waited above.

  She made it to Travis side, but had to wait as Travis tried to restore order by directing people to their cars. Her skin felt alive as she rubbed the surface constantly to alleviate the burning sensation.

  “Travis, I hate to be rude, but get someone else's ass over here to do this. I have to go. Now.”
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br />   She couldn’t keep her eyes from darting from the sky to the people and back while she headed away from him.

  “Something’s wrong with Fallon,” she heard him say to someone. “I need you to take over.”

  He followed behind, but not fast enough for her. She outdistanced his strides by two. Soon he caught up and placed her into the truck. She could see his concern for her grow as he sent worried glances her way. She wrapped her arms across her breasts and minded the sky as they moved forward.

  CHAPTER 26

  If Travis wasn’t mistaken, this storm moved faster than most. The weather report called for a slight chance of rain but nothing to this degree. Damn, his attempt at a working date screwed up his time with Fallon. Due to stupidity, leaving Fallon to fend for herself for most of the evening, he doubted he’d receive another chance with her. Figured he didn’t uncover anything new.

  Helping Fallon into the truck, pain snapped his palm. Unprepared this time, it hurt like a SOB.

  Easing into the outbound line of vehicles, Fallon made a soft sound, a mixture of anger and despair. Travis frowned, noticing her huddled in the passenger’s seat cradling her stomach.

  “What’s going on, Fallon? Did something happen tonight?”

  His concern for her grew when she shook her head and moaned. Then without warning, she sat up so fast her hair slapped the headrest behind her. Her body contorted into an odd angle, bowing her backward. Her thinned lips parted in a soundless scream. Damn, she was having seizures right next to him. He was about to pull the truck over when a tear escaped her closed lids.

  “Please, Travis, keep going, don’t stop,” she pleaded, from what sounded like clenched teeth. “I need to get back to the house.”

  He drove as fast as he could. Stretching from above, lightning struck the road in front of the truck. He braked hard and struggling to maintain control as the rear end fishtailed. A blast of air hit him as the passenger door opened and Fallon rolled out.

  “Fallon!” Travis shouted in disbelief.

  He threw the truck into ‘park.’ As soon as he’d stepped out, squinting, another strike almost blinded him. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust as he searched for what he assumed would be her broken body.

  When he spotted her sprawled on the ground, she yelled, “Stay back, Travis. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  What the fuck was she talking about? Hurt him? She struggled to her feet in the middle of the road. He’d believed most of his life that lightning never struck twice in the same place. That idea was debunked as he raised his arm to block the brilliant flashes surrounding her. She clearly wasn’t afraid of being struck as he took another step toward her.

  “Travis, stay back.” Fallon screamed and rocked, shaking her head, tears rolling down her face. “I don’t want to hurt you.” Softly moaning, she added, “Please.”

  All he could think about was getting to her, heedless of his own well-being. He took a deep breath to brace himself, advanced another step when Fallon erupted, expelling hundreds of bluish veins of light. He forced his heartbeat to slow. He’d seen something similar the other night, when she was out of her mind. He didn’t want her to slip away like that again.

  “Fallon,” he shouted over the lethal storm. Inching closer, he noted that sultry was a paltry word to describe how her eye rose to meet his. Instead of pain, pleasure suffused her pale features.

  Thin veins of electricity dancing around and outward. She said, “Stay back, Travis. This is your last warning. I won’t be held responsible because your stubborn ass won’t listen.”

  The certain death, anger, and feistiness of her attitude during the supernatural event shouldn’t have turned him on, but it did. The more her body sparked, the harder his body became. This was just like his dreams of making love to her, lightning, and a fatal end. Well, if he had to die, why not in her arms? He didn’t hesitate to meet his destiny.

  “Why won’t you listen and just get the hell away from me?” Fallon hollered over the roar of the winds that picked up.

  The pressure building from restraining her gift increased to unbearable pain. She needed release. She’d never held off this long. Crazy to think, here she was about to kill his dumb ass.

  “This is your fault not mine.” Electricity left her hand. More and more, quick and severe successions. All aimed at one target. Travis.

  Whereas someone hit with the power of a mega stun gun would have gone down, Travis’ body remained erect and strong. When their eyes met, he roared his rage at the pain, going onto one knee.

  On the verge of a heartbreak she’d never before experienced, she watched as his sinful lips peeled back from his teeth, morphing with predatory intent as he rose and stalked her. Every vein in his neck stood out in his pure determination to reach her.

  “How you’re even still alive I have no idea, because I can’t stop this, she said, desire and anger warring for territory.

  Dominant purpose measured his every step until he wrapped her in his arms.

  “I dreamed you’d be the death of me,” she heard him say before she lit up the darkness with power that pushed and pulled her apart from within, outwards to connect with the sky.

  This was her element, and she was free. She’d never thought she’d share this experience, let alone rest against a muscular chest as bands of static fingers lifted them both into the air.

  “Care to help me to figure a way not to set the whole town on fire? Because, babe, there’s nothing but a shitload of forest on all sides.”

  Hopeless to stop what came next, she closed her eyes, dropping her head to Travis’s chest in defeat. The Archangel council would hear about this, and she’d not only have destroyed her life, but that of her family. Unable to stop the flow of emotion swamping her, she looked up, finding Travis focused on her, but not really seeing her. A choked cry lodged in the back of her throat as kaleidoscope of color emanated from his tight facial features, down his body, stretching out. Baby fine fissures entwined. They grew, and leapt back and forward between his body and hers. Expanding in mass with each electrical charge she shed, it weaved a magnificent sphere, enclosing the two within its silent depths.

  “I knew I liked you for a reason, and it seems I’m not the only one who’s trouble.” She joined him in laughter, knowing that an explanation was due.

  CHAPTER 27

  As soon as they arrived back at her place, Fallon bee-lined straight for the porch steps without a word. While she fumbled with the key, getting it into the lock then disappearing within the dark interior, Travis’s resolve wavered trying to prepare himself for what answers lay beyond her door.

  At a more sedate pace, he followed, even though she hadn’t exactly invited him. Respect for a stranger’s home demanded he not move beyond that point. Waiting, Travis studied the home. Right off, he noticed the lack of a feminine touch adorning the wood grain walls or furniture. The protruding brick fireplace dominated the living area. Other characteristics about the home were muted by the dim glow from a lamp located near the staircase. Movement upstairs suggested that’s where his host had scurried off too.

  They might have helped avert disaster earlier, but not the rain after. He figured she was removing wet clothes. Arousing mental pictures of puckered nipples, Fallon’s nude body caressed by a towel were thoughts he didn’t need with wet jeans on. There were two doors down the hall and one of them could be a restroom, but he’d wait for her to point him in the right direction.

  Several minutes passed without any sign of Fallon. Travis felt foolish holding his position by the entrance, and with cold seeping into the clingy material, he decided to start a fire. Once he’d taken care of that, he debated what to do with himself. His socks were drying, and he was in the process of laying his shirt out before the fire when he heard a door open.

  Long, lithe legs appeared first as
she descended. She hesitated on the last step and stared at him. He stared back. She was beautiful in a long black-and-white Affliction T-Shirt. Acute jealousy welled up at the item that suspiciously looked like it belonged to a man. That kind of intimacy with any male but him made him decidedly uncomfortable.

  “I thought I would remove some of my wet clothes and socks so as not to ruin the furniture,” he explained. “I left my shoes by the door and started a fire for my other items to dry.”

  All he received for his blabbering was a clean towel thrust at him.

  Travis couldn’t take much more of her just standing there looking so cute and not being able to do anything about it. He looked over his shoulder. “Does one of those doors lead to a bathroom?”

  “Yeah, sure,” she said, pointing out a single door on the right, along a hallway leading to another section of the large house. “Please help yourself,” she added, inching closer.

  If she moved another inch, she’d brush against evidence of her effect on him. He slide around her. “Thanks,” he said, heading to the bathroom to change.

  Almost half an hour later, Travis could no longer deny he was procrastinating. He placed both hands on either side of the sink and gazed into the mirror. What the hell was he doing? He’d seen the signs when she handed him the towel. The hunger in her eyes rivaled what he’d seen in Dennis’s earlier. Hers was more appealing. The question foremost on his mind had nothing to do with the beautiful woman waiting for him and everything to do with whether or not he was ready to find out something that could change his life forever.

  Like this would be any different from every other oddity since childhood. Beginning with the strange birthmark on his chest.