S.P.I.R.I.T

by Dawn Gray

  “Oh, that. You were moving around in your sleep, and complaining about them, so I took them off,” he said and shrugged. “I didn’t think you would mind.”

  “It’s fine,” I whispered and walked over to the table.

  The roast beef grinder was delicious and I ate as if I hadn’t had any food in days. The soda seemed to pep me up, to the point where I wanted to jump on the bed, but Zander had other ideas.

  “I’m going to take a shower, be good while you’re out here,” he ordered as I bounced at the edge of the bed.

  I smiled, nodded, and watched him disappear in bathroom. Once the shower sprayed on, I let my mind wander to what I would do next, the hotel was fun, but I was too wound up to sit by and wait. The thought of spending time alone with the man in the next room curved my need to explore and the more I thought about him, the more fidgety I got.

  I stripped down, leaving nothing on except the blanket, and with that wrapped around me I sat down on the floor in front of the television, to watch the end of the movie. In time, the shower turned off and the door opened, revealing a very handsome man with only a towel on.

  “I was hoping you were going to follow me in.” He laughed as he sat down on the recliner once again.

  “Nah, I got caught up in the movie,” I answered, and shrugged. After a few minutes, I glanced over at him as he watched me, the side of his finger rubbing his lips, and slowly I stood up.

  He followed every movement I made as I walked over to stand in front of him, his legs stretched out before him and then a smile slowly spread across his face. I could feel the fire building up in me, just by the way he looked at me. His eyes flashed with the passion of his storm.

  He reached up, taking the ends of the blanket, and pulled me down to sit on his lap. For a moment he fought with the cover to make me more comfortable, but his hands dropped away when I opened it to show him that there was no need.

  “Oh, my…” he whispered.

  I straddled his legs. One hand slipped behind me, the heat of it brushed the skin of my lower back as he pulled me closer, and the other smoothed over the bare skin of my shoulders and the swell of my breasts. His breathing came in bursts as he caressed the warm skin before him, and my heart felt as if it were going to explode if I didn’t kiss him.

  I placed my hands on his shoulders and looked down into those stormy eyes as he licked his lips and pulled me closer. My belly pressed against his and the pulse flashed through me, igniting the fire in my veins. Slowly, I leaned down, caressing his open mouth with my own, just enough to get a taste of him and the mint toothpaste he had just used. He closed his eyes as I took what I wanted.

  I flicked my tongue at his warm skin and was surprised by how easily persuaded he was to let me explore him. I could feel the rushing of his blood as his heart beat under my hand and he cupped my left breast playing with my nipple between his fingers. I gasped at how hard he squeezed but it sent a surge of pleasure straight down between my legs.

  I shifted on him, and felt him stiffen under the movement. Between us, he reached down and adjusted himself, unhooking the towel as he did so, and then he tangled his fingers in my hair, pulling me deeper into the kiss.

  As I broke away, breathless and on fire, I tilted my chin up as he kissed down the front of my neck. I ran my hands through his hair, feeling its wet silkiness between my fingers as his nipped at my skin. I could feel him, hard against me, and I wanted nothing more than to quench the fire at burned me inside.

  I want you, I whispered, my mental voice as breathless as my own, and I felt him laugh against my thoughts, the tickle sending a current to the heat that boiled in my womb. Zander!

  You have no patience, woman! He growled, but his hand slipped down, pushing the towel away from his heavy erection. Gently he pressed it against my molten core. I can feel you already.

  I slipped down slowly, taking him in a little at a time, until he filled me to the hilt. Releasing my skin from his tantalizing touch, he rested his head back on the chair as I began to rock, sliding up and down, not withdrawing him much at all. As I did, I could feel the swollen point rubbing against his skin and it sent chills down my scorching skin.

  I felt him grasp my hips and slide me harder, pressing up as he did. The gasps that came from him only stirred the want in me more, and it didn’t take long to feel the explosion ripple inside. His moans became louder and his grip tighter as my fingers dug into his shoulders.

  He took in a deep breath, a gasp as if it were his last, and then pinned my hips in one place as he pounded up inside me. I closed my eyes, my inner voice screaming for release, as my body obliged and wetness cascaded over him. Zander felt me go, the surge of my own end bringing him to his as he sat forward and wrapped his arms around me, going stiff as he held his breath.

  For a moment we were both still, nestled tightly in eachothers grip. Then slowly, he sat back, taking me with him as I lay my head on his shoulder. He gathered the blanket about us without a word and closed his eyes, gently running his hand over the back of my head, as if to loll me back to sleep. I began to relax, the embers burning, cooling for the moment, but not completely sated.

  15

  I could feel his eyes on me as we drove, glancing over at me with every opportunity as we followed the quiet roads heading out of town on the lake road. Walters’ research had turned up quite a lot of information on the accident that occurred three years before and we were able to pinpoint the exact location that it occurred.

  “What do you think happened to him?” I asked, staring at the trees as they whirled by in a blur.

  Zander sighed and stretched his fingers on the top of the steering wheel. “It didn’t say. In fact, only one article said anything about a passenger, but even then it was only speculation.”

  “No wonder he’s so upset.” I sighed, and looked down at my fingers. “Three years is a long time to be away from the person you were meant to be with.”

  “I agree,” he answered, looking over at me with a half-smile.

  We moved around a sharp bend in the road and the fire in my chest began to burn hotter than I had ever felt it. Zander looked at me, the lightening flashing through his eyes, and slowly he pulled the car off in the breakdown lane. With a deep breath, as the storm continued to brew, he took my hand and kissed my fingers before the two of us opened the car doors and stepped out onto the deserted road.

  I remembered the exact spot from a distant dream. One side of the road was a pure rock wall, shining with the iron pyrite that was ingrained into every inch of the town. On the other, right where a fairly new guardrail rest, was a forty-five degree drop down into the gorge below.

  “Why do they call this the lake road?” Zander questioned, feeling a chill blow through him. “I don’t even think it connects to the lake.”

  “It did at one point. The gorge was made by shifting iceburgs that moved through this area thousands of years ago,” I explained, zippering my coat. “The water that flowed down this mountain is what formed the lake. There aren’t many inlets to it, except the one that we found when we escaped the cave. I’m sure there are more, but none that I know of.”

  “So, basically, if you crashed over the railing,” he said, as he peered into the thick darkness of the woods below, “you might not ever be found.”

  “The river below could drag you out to the lake, and by the time you got there, who knows what you would look like,” I added and sighed, glancing around at the climbing sun. “This is where her car went off the road. She was coming down over the mountain from that way.”

  I pointed up around the bend and sighed, then glanced over the rail, tapping it with my hand. The strange feeling of the pulse pulling me in two directions had me feeling queasy as I watched Zander hop over the railing.

  “Can you feel anything?” he whispered, as I swallowed hard and took his hand.

  “Only everything around me,” I laughed, and climbed over after him.

  “Well, just see if maybe you can pinpoi
nt where it’s coming from.”

  We walked carefully, making sure our steps were placed firmly on dry growth so that neither of us fell and broke our necks on the rocks below. The air around me grew cold, and I shivered inside as well as out. Zander looked up at me, his lips turning as purple as mine felt, and I glanced around.

  “He was here,” I spoke softly, my voice as low as possible. “The car came through those trees and hit the large oak that used to stand there.” Zander watched as I pointed to my left, at the broken tree stump, one that looked as if lightening had split it in two. “I can see the front end, practically wrapped around the trunk; the middle of the car impacted the hardest. The passenger’s side of the windshield is missing, but I can still see a body inside.”

  I could feel Zander beside me, gently rubbing my arm as I fought to control my breathing. I closed my eyes tightly, as my body shook and looked deeper into the memory.

  “It’s Sam,” I whispered, hoping that my first instincts were wrong. I could smell the gasoline as it poured from the engine and could hear the grind of metal upon metal as the gears still spun within the motor. “It’s going to catch fire, why doesn’t she control it?”

  “Does she even know?” he whispered.

  “No.” I sighed, thanking the stars that she was unconscious through this terrible fate. “She doesn’t know anything, she’s out cold.”

  The flames licked out from under the engine first, tiny red and orange dancers on the hood of the car, and I could feel the heat as it started to flare up. I reached my hand out, trying to grasp the fire, to control what was supposed to be mine to control, but I couldn’t get a handle on it.

  “It’s burning.” Zander’s gripped my shoulder as my hands began to shake, and then I watched in terror as the woman inside lifted her head. “Oh no!”

  “What is it, Sam?” he questioned as the tears began to slide down my cheeks.

  “She’s coming to,” I replied as my lips quivered. I watched the horrified face of the woman inside the burning deathtrap, my heart leaping for my body to save her, but my mind knew that I couldn’t, that this was nothing but a memory. Her mouth opened in a silent scream. “She’s calling for him!”

  I watched with horrible dread, knowing what her fate would be, but I never expected to see her turn in my direction and look me straight in the eyes. She stared as if in disbelief, as if she were wondering why I was just standing there, and then she reached her hand out to me. My fingertips tingled as her mouth moved, and I shook my head.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you,” I whispered in reply to her plea. I watched her shake her head, slowly, as if to tell me that I had gotten it wrong, that she had excepted her fate and that wasn’t what she had asked.

  SssAAmm, her voice whispered as her mouth moved. It was like a strange dream; the word started out quietly, moved into a high note and then faded out once again. My breath quivered as I heard it repeat. SssAAmm, heelp himmm.

  “Zander?” I questioned, and watched her look down the hill.

  Heelp himmm, she pleaded once again and then suddenly an explosion rocked the world around me.

  “NO!” I screamed going to my knees as the strength gave out on them. My Zander held me tightly, wrapping his arms around me as I sat shaking and sobbing, my eyes tightly shut. I could still feel the heat as the car burned before me, and there was nothing I could do to shake the images, not until her life and her memories were done.

  It stopped as abruptly as it started. There were no more feelings of death and loss, no more images of the burning car, and no more voices from the other side. I sat up slowly, as my heart began to slow along with my breathing, and I wiped the tears from my eyes.

  “You’ll never know how strong I think you are,” Zander whispered against my ear. His voice filled with the tears that I knew he shed. “I could never do what you do, see what you see, and be able to continue being as strong as you are.”

  “She told me to help him,” I said softly, turning towards him from where we sat on the damp ground.

  The pine needles were crisp under my fingers and the earth smelled musty, reminding me of a place that we had been in not that long ago. I stood slowly and watched as he followed suit, staying close enough behind me to catch my arm if I slipped down the embankment, until we came to the river’s edge. The pulse was strong there, as I glanced over the rock to look into the pond below.

  “There’s something down there,” I whispered, watching the water ripple. Deep within the pool, where the liquid was the deepest, I saw a sparkle of something and it blinded me for a moment.

  “It’s the pyrite; the mountain is made of it,” Zander said as he looked over.

  “It can’t be, it’s only in that one spot,” I insisted and moved closer to the edge, going so far as to lay on my belly to avoid falling in myself. “Look, the way the sunlight reflects off the surface, it’s not even hitting that spot. What could be making that light?”

  “When we get back to the car, I’ll call it in. We can get Harris down here and check it out. He’s an expert at diving and can avoid stirring up the muck at the bottom.” Zander sighed, sitting back on his bottom as he scratched his head. “Do you feel him at all?”

  “Just down there.” I sighed, glancing over at him. “And even then, who’s to say that he’s down there, the feeling isn’t that strong.”

  “She said to help him,” he whispered, and looked up the hill. “But, if he’s not here, how are we going to do that?”

  “I don’t think she meant help find his body.” I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “She knows where his soul is. She knows the torment that it’s in. You said demons come when a soul is dying to replace it with their own. Can you imagine the anguish that he was in, had he survived the fall, had he laid down here with no voice until he passed?”

  “You’re right.” Zander inhaled deeply. “That feeling is just what would have called the demon, and he would have been stuck here alone.”

  “We should get back.” I glanced down at the water once again, at the small shiny object that twinkled up at me. “I can’t do anymore until I know what that is.”

  “Right,” he smiled, taking my hand. “Come on, I’ll help you up the hill.”

  Everett looked at me as he sat down in front of us, shaking his head.

  “You want me to send in one of my men to a swimming hole to get a piece of something that may or may not even be of value to what’s going on around here?” He chuckled behind the cigar and placed his hands over his stomach. “And what happens if this little gem isn’t even related to what you’re going after?”

  “It has to have something to do with the two of them!” I snapped and slammed my hand down on the table. “She wouldn’t have led me to it just for it to be some sort of bullshit fool’s gold!”

  “Sam,” Zander warned.

  I shot him a glance, fed up with being hushed, and pointed a finger at Everett. “You quarantined me here against my wishes, you locked me in a fucking cave with my hands tied behind my back! I have gone through hell and back because you won’t help me find a way home. Now, when I tell you that this may help lead to the answer you need to get rid of your little ‘SPOOK’ problem, you’re going to giggle at me because I’m a girl. You’ve got a lot of balls, mister, and if you don’t help me out here by letting me borrow one of your ‘Ghost Busters’ for a half-a-freaking-hour, then I’m just going to have to do it myself!”

  Everett sat there completely stunned as I stood, avoiding Zander’s hand, and walked out of the house, slamming the door behind me. I paced back and forth, the other four men watched with caution as I mumbled curses under my breath. Then, after a minute or two, the door opened and Zander walked out. He gestured with his thumb for the guys to head back in and he stopped and looked at me, arms crossed.

  “I think when we get out of here I’m going to put in a recommendation to my commander that you be hired as Everett’s higher up,” Zander said softly.

  “This is not a ga
me, and I’m not playing,” I snapped, as the anger inside me was fueled by his joke.

  “I can see that in your eyes, baby, they’re growing redder by the second. You have to understand that Everett has never dealt with anyone outside the team before, as far as input and communication with the other side. He’s having a hard time following the fact that a person who has been dead for three years told you where to find her lover.”

  “And, what about you?” I questioned, stopping to stare at him. “Do you think I’m making this all up? That I’m doing this to get attention?”

  “Sweetie, I was there in the house when your father handed you a photograph of the two of us, taken before we even knew each other. There is no way I’m going to dismiss what I saw through you today,” he answered and I froze in my shoes.

  “You didn’t tell me that you saw her,” I whispered and watched him shake his head.

  “It was hard enough to see you go through it, I couldn’t have imagined what would have happened if I decided to let you in on the information that I was seeing her too.” He sighed. “You would have broken down even more, thinking that you weren’t protecting me, even though this has been my job for many years.”

  I took in a deep breath, dousing the flames within my chest. Once calm I was able to step closer to him and watched, with a small smile on his face, as his arms relaxed to his side. Gently, I raised my arms and stepped up to put my head upon his chest as he pulled me close to him.

  “You certainly made an impression on the old fart!” Zander laughed, his voice echoing over the beat in his chest. “I’ve never seen him so speechless.”

  “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t hold it in anymore,” I apologized and listened to the deep-throated chuckle that vibrated through him.

  “Woman, I would hate to be on your bad side.”

  “Are we moving out or are we going to say here and watch the two of you make googly eyes at each other?” Everett’s voice picked up behind me and I turned to watch the SPIRIT men exit the house, all set up for a nice swim in the river. I felt the smile spread across my face and Everett winked in my direction.