Mystic Realms: A Limited Edition Collection

by Nicole Morgan

  Tears filled her eyes as Betty's words hit her heart. She could feel Betty's pain and image the anguish she felt from learning about Jonathan's death.

  Her fingers scrolled through the other entries until one caught her attention.

  "Jon, I'll never forget our 'lessons'. Yours forever- KS"

  Who the hell was KS and why did she put lessons in quotes? Jessi's mind began to reel as her imagination started to hypothesize the answer to the question. KS must have been one of his lovers. There was no other explanation for her quote. If it were true, why didn't he mention anything to her about it? Wouldn't he want Jessi to deliver a message to her? Maybe he was afraid I would refuse. Then again, if he did ask would she have done it? A few days ago yes but now...

  Her thumb scrolled up to his picture again. His smile captivated her and she didn't know why. When had she become so enamored by him? His voice, his touch, his smile, she couldn't wait to experience those sensations again. Somehow he managed to open her up to feeling again and wanting to be with another human being. She’d sworn to herself she would never let another man get close to her like Ben did. Jonathan had slowly begun to break down the barrier she’d carefully put around herself.

  Her thumb touched his photo and a pop-up brought some options for the image. Her thumb pressed to save the image. Jon had put some spell on her and she couldn't stop thinking about how to help him. Everyone deserved happiness and peace. How could she not help him? His life was taken away so quickly, not giving him a chance to live.

  She folded the newspaper, put it into her purse and bolted out of the library. There was one stop she wanted to make before she headed back home.

  Jessi slowed as the road wound sharply left. She pulled over to the side and reviewed the hand-drawn map given to her at the office. Based on the landmarks, the grave should be a couple feet from where she parked.

  She opened her car door and stepped out. A glance at the map showed the destination to be on the left. The pristinely cut grass contained silk bouquets, flags, candles on various graves. Her palms began to sweat with her anxiety, but she pushed forward, wanting to know for sure. After a few steps, her heart almost stopped. Close to an elm tree was a grave with some freshly placed sod. No grave marker, just a plain wooden stick came out of the ground. She dragged her feet forward to view the site. They stepped over the fresh sod and she leaned in to read the temporary marker. Jonathan Lewis Slot 34.

  The sob she contained after seeing the grave finally got its release when Jessi kneeled on the grave site.

  He is real. He was alive. It wasn't a joke. Jonathan was a man who walked the earth and had a life, a favorite food, pet peeves, habits, hobbies, a beating heart. Up to this point, Jessi had kept telling herself he was not real. The spot her knees touched told her something different.

  Sobbing silently, she inspected the grave. No flowers, no banners, or flags, just a small wooden stick with his name. It looked as if no one had loved him or cared for him at all. She couldn't comprehend that- what about KS? Why didn't she leave anything for him? Or were their lessons not memorable enough?

  A thought struck her, what if she died alone, too, with no one to love her and be with her every day? Would they find her dead from tripping down the staircase or slipping in the kitchen and hitting her head? The thought terrified her and she cried even more.

  "Besides Betty, you are the only one to cry for me."

  Startled, Jessi turned around. The sun slowly set and its tendrils wrapped around his figure, making him surreal, almost angelic.

  "Jonathan? How did you...?"

  "I'm somehow tied to my grave. I can come back here anytime I like. I actually feel something when someone is at my grave."

  He walked over to her and knelt beside her. "I always hoped a beautiful woman would cry over me. But now I want to kiss the tears away." His hand moved her hair away from her face and his thumb wiped away her tears.

  Her tear streaked face tilted up to him as he leaned closer to her.

  "There's no need to cry for me. What's done is done."

  "You shouldn't think that way. Didn't you have anyone who loved you?"

  His expression turned solemn. "No, not really."

  "What about KS?"

  "Who?"

  "KS. She left you an online memorial message about your 'lessons'. Didn't she love you?"

  Jon stopped and thought a moment.

  "It must be Kerri, but she and I were just friends."

  "It sounded more than that."

  "Yes, I wanted a fling with her, but it never happened."

  "Oh." Jessi's perception of Jon changed. He went from a gentle kind man who searched for love to a guy who only looked for his next good time. That would explain why the grave was so empty. There might have been visitors, but they must have spat on his grave.

  His strong fingers tilted her chin and stared straight into her eyes. "Jessi, that man is gone. I'm never going to be like him again. I just...I want to find out who killed me so I can move on."

  So that's what this was all about. She felt so bad for him being alone when he died and here he was trying to use her to get what he wanted so he can move on. Jessi hated being used, but what other choice did she have? As the only one he could communicate with, she was his only hope.

  She sighed, stood up and brushed the soil off of her knees. "Ok, I'll help you."

  Jonathan let the sigh out. "Thank you. You are a caring person."

  His words held onto to her as she wiped away her tears and headed back to her car. What was it about him that made her heart skip a beat? One minute she wanted to strangle him and the next she couldn't resist him. Maybe once she got rid of him her mind would clear up and she'd be able to get her life back.

  Chapter Seven

  Jessi exited her car and put on her sunglasses. The hot Texas sun scorched down on her back. Jessi could feel the moisture cling to her clothes as she grabbed her keys, phone and water bottle.

  Great day to start my first day at the dig site. Even with the intense heat she couldn't contain her excitement. Her mood was enhanced by Jon being nice and even helpful after her visit to his grave. When she got home she found him unpacking more of her boxes and he even asked where she wanted things. She hadn't expected that kind of change, so she was grateful for it. Any more fights with him and she would have needed to bring in a witch doctor.

  Her shoes kicked up dry sand as she maneuvered around the cars and headed to the dig area. All other Aztec finds were discovered around Mexico City, not in Texas. Jessi's fascination had grown when she read the news reports and desperately wanted to find out why and how they came to Texas. She stepped over the string which corded off the area and found a man meticulously chiseling an artifact in the ground. His wide brim hat, khaki shorts and shirt made him look like a typical archaeologist.

  "Excuse me," Jessi called out to him as she stopped at the edge of the dugout area. "I'm looking for David Bigsby."

  The man didn't bother to glance at her. His finger pointed in the opposite direction. "He's over on the west side of the site. He's the guy wearing the jean shorts, t-shirt, and cowboy hat."

  "Thank you."

  He barely acknowledged her as she walked away.

  Jessi's back began to sweat as the sun baked her. There were a handful of people working in the dig area and others were under canopies with tables, sorting and tagging the items. Jessi swore the area was the size of her high school's football field, but instead of markings on the grass, ropes and pipes divided the area into squares. Buckets, plastic containers, hoses and some other equipment she couldn't identify lay everywhere in the sandy soil. Jessi had to veer and balance certain ways in order to avoid stepping on anything.

  She soon found David where the guy she asked had said he would be. He had his chisel and slowly tapped into something in the dirt.

  Jessi stooped down and called out to him. "David?"

  He stopped and tilted his head to peer up at her. "Yes?"

  Jes
sica's heart beat in an erotic rhythm. David had to be slightly older then she was but not by much. His light brown hair fell slightly past his shoulders and his face was covered with some of the sand he dug in.

  "Hi, I'm Jessica Brettwood. I'm here about the book I want to write."

  He thought a moment and then smiled. "You’re Lawrence Brettwood's daughter? Wow, I was expecting someone older."

  Jessi smiled. One of the benefits of having a well-connected family was being able to get access to many places, including this dig site. Since her father loved history much like she did, he’d donated a generous amount of money to the museum sponsoring the dig. She hated using her family ties, but otherwise she would have never been gained access to the site.

  "I'll take that as a compliment," she replied.

  "It was meant as one. Welcome, I'd shake your hand, but I'm a bit dirty."

  "That is fine. I don't mind getting dirty. Is there anything I can maybe help you with?"

  There was a twinkle in his blue eyes after she uttered those words.

  With a distinct chiseled chin and a broad brow plus the cowboy hat, he looked like a typical cowboy. Stray strands of light brown hair peeked from under the hat and curled around his face. Jessi estimated his height at over 6 feet, based on how he sat down and hunched over the artifacts. His well-toned arms peeked out from under his short sleeve beige shirt.

  "Why don't you come down here and help me with uncovering this artifact?" His voice had a slight drawl that made her toes curl.

  Jessi felt like the proverbial giddy schoolgirl as she climbed down into the crevice and sat beside him.

  "Now grab the brush there." He pointed to a brush three feet in front of her.

  Jessi grabbed the brush and waited for further instructions from him. He took hold of her hand with the brush and brought it over the artifact.

  "What you do is gently try to remove as much of the sand from around the artifact as you can."

  He started to brush the artifact. Jesse couldn't help but notice his gentle grip. The way he glided her hand across the artifact reminded her of a painter painting a masterpiece. She could tell he had done this for a very long time.

  "You have to keep removing the soil until you can't remove any more. Then there is another tool which gently chisels out the sand from around the artifact. We want to be able to remove as much sand as possible. Once we are done we tag the artifact and send it to the museum to be properly cleaned and restored." His soothing and calm voice was hypnotic and Jesse found herself more fascinated with him than the artifact. She took a quick glance at his face and noticed he had deep blue eyes as clear as the water in the ocean.

  How could she be thinking about him that way after what Ben did to her? She swore to herself she wouldn't trust another man for a long time. Yet the simple touch of this man made her forget everything she promised herself. Why was Texas filled with hot men? Every time she turned a corner she found a good-looking man waiting. She came here to run away from them for a while. Instead, she was thrust in the middle of a paradise of steaming hot men.

  She tried to clear out her mind and feelings. "How long have you been an archaeologist?"

  He continued guiding her hand along the artifact. "I've been studying archeology my whole life. It started when I was a young child. One day my dad took me into a cave where we found some arrowheads. I felt like I had found a pot of gold nobody else understood. It escalated from there and became my life's passion. I love to look at an artifact and imagine what these people were like, where they lived, what they did to survive and what kind of people were they. "

  Jessie smiled. "I can understand. I've always loved history, myself. Seeing all those artifacts fascinates me. Particularly ones which are exquisite and intricate. I can't imagine how much patience and time it would've taken a person to create something with such beauty. I always thought it was amazing how dedicated and creative people were. That is one of the reasons I wanted to come down here. I wanted to see firsthand what kind of artifacts were uncovered and what we can learn from these people."

  He let her hand go and smiled. His perfectly formed mouth called out to be kissed. "Where have you been all my life? It's rare to meet someone with such deep passion for history. Someone who would volunteer to go out in the middle of nowhere, in 100 degree weather to dig through dirt and sand to help preserve the history for other generations to come. Especially someone as beautiful as you. "

  Jessi's face got hot. It would be difficult not to get attached to him. She had to keep her distance. She didn't want a fling with anyone, she wanted a relationship. This guy had sexy oozing from every pore of his body, and it called out for her to just hump him.

  "Maybe you can tell me a little bit of what you've already found."

  He chuckled and stood up, "Now I know you are Mr. Brettwood's daughter. I heard he's all work and no chitchat."

  "Yes, except I've been told I'm worse than he is. I have worked 24-hour shifts to complete a story for a deadline."

  "I'd better tell the team we are not going on any more smoking breaks. They are going to be quite disappointed."

  Jesse stood up and smirked. "Good, they should not smoke to begin with. It will only increase their health care costs."

  David grinned at her. "Boy, you really are Miss Policy and Procedure. Tell me, what do you do for fun? Or is fun something you don't do?"

  Jesse enjoyed the banter between them and decided to continue. "I do a lot of things for fun, like read and cook. I also love to relax on the beach."

  Rolling his eyes, he laughed. "Sounds like your life is fun filled!"

  The sarcasm in his voice was not lost her. She crossed her arms. "And what do you do for fun?"

  "I go drinking with my buddies."

  She rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's a lot of fun."

  "Sure, it is if you ride on the bull after three or four beers."

  "You can actually get on a bull being that drunk?"

  "Tell you what Miss Policy and Procedure, why don't you join me and the rest of the team tonight at the bar. You can meet everyone and we'll show you some fun."

  Jessi was ready to decline but stopped herself. She had no friends in the area. This would be a great chance for her to meet some new people.

  "Ok, I'll go."

  "You'll enjoy it. You'll see."

  "I hope so. Now can you please explain to me what all these tools are and how you use them so I don't damage anything I'm uncovering?

  "Sure, Miss Policy..."

  "Just call me Jessi."

  "Jessi it is."

  She picked up what looked like a dental pick and held it up to him. "What is this for?"

  "It's used to pick out dirt in tiny crevices on the artifacts. We use a lot of tools you can find at home to uncover everything."

  Her eyes sparkled with amusement as she looked at the tool and placed it back on his tool mat.

  "Ah, I see." Looking down, she saw he was beginning to unearth a tablet stuck in the ground. "What is that?"

  He continued to brush some of the soil. "It's some sort of tablet with etchings. I have uncovered some of it, but I can't figure out what it is or what it says yet. It's Aztec in nature, though."

  She crouched down for a better view and studied the tablet. She’d studied Aztec culture in college and even did a research project on it, so she was quite familiar with it. The tablet looked like something from one of her history books. None of the symbols seemed familiar to her.

  "Any ideas on what it says?"

  David shrugged his broad shoulders. "All I tell right now is something about the moon."

  He handed her the brush and picked up a small chisel. "Brush the sand off after I chisel it, okay?"

  She nodded, and he began to chisel through the sand. Jesse smiled as she began to feel happiness. It felt good to be in the dirt, unearthing something so historical.

  Chapter Eight

  Jessi cursed her purse for being so big while she fumbled around the bottom
to find her keys. David stood by her, smiling while she unlocked the door. She flicked on the lights, stumbled in and threw her purse on the hall table but missed and it plopped on the floor.

  "I'll make us some coffee." Her voice slurred slightly.

  Cautiously, she walked to the kitchen and held onto the counter to steady herself. She hoped that Jon hadn’t moved the coffee maker. She pulled open the cabinet and smiled. He’d started to accept that this was her house. Her hand fumbled when she grabbed the reusable coffee filter and opened the top. She took the bag of coffee, opened it and shook coffee into the filter almost to the rim. She closed the lid and shoved it into the machine, pressing the button to the maximum setting. She definitely needed a few cups to bring her legs back under control.

  After they finished for the day, David had taken her to the local bar where the mechanical bull resided. The bar was something out of an old 80s movie and she had a hard time believing places like these still existed. David bought her the first beer, and after that it seemed like a bottomless drink. No matter how much she drank her mug never got empty. When she finally stood up to go to the bathroom the room started to spin, so she knew she had enough. David swore that he could drive her home and she believed him. Now she needed some strong coffee to get her head back on straight.

  "What are you doing?" a voice asked behind her.

  She turned when Jon stalked into the room. The intense gaze he gave her was the same she got from her parents when she got caught coming in after curfew. She tried her best to look sober.

  "I'm making some coffee."

  "At 2 am ?"

  "I'm a night owl."

  "A drunk one, apparently." He crossed his arms across his broad chest and Jessi's traitorous eyes focused on his muscles. "Why is David here?"

  She shook her head to break the trance and took a step forward until she was eye-to-eye with him. "He drove me home and is having some coffee with me."