Gravitational Pull (Vis Vires, book 2) (Vis Vires trilogy)

by Marissa Carmel

  Gravitational

  Pull

  by Marissa Carmel

  Copyright © Marissa Carmel 2012

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of

  the author or the publisher.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to

  printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Marissa Carmel

  ISBN-13: 978-0615796543

  ISBN-10: 0615796540

  “Run your fingers through my soul. For once, just once, feel exactly what I feel, believe what I believe, perceive as I perceive, look, experience, examine, and for once; just once, understand.”

  ~Unknown

  Dedications

  For the victims of Hurricane Sandy, and my beloved Jersey Shore.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue: Justice Everything I Can’t Have

  Bombshells and Bridal Showers The Break Up

  Up in the Air Glitter in the Air Kiss Off

  It’s All in the Past Going Under Maximum Ride

  A Walk on the Wild Side Dare You Look Apologies and Epiphanies Body of Lies

  White Hot World

  Vestige of the Seminal Flower Suspended Animation

  There’s No Place Like Home, There’s No Place Like Home Marry Me

  Derrin’s Song

  Epilogue Damage Control

  Prologue: Justice

  I can’t stand to hear her scream any longer so I let go.

  I drop Liv right in the middle of Century city and watch as she rolls and bounces down the cobblestone street. It looks like it hurts.

  I do a roundabout over the city, and bring myself down just outside its perimeter, wanting to avoid a fire within its compounds. I snuff out the flames and my wings evaporate instantly.

  Then I run.

  I catch up to Liv walking swiftly towards the White Tulip. “Why are they all staring at me like that?” She asks with her

  arms wrapped defensively around her body.

  “Because they know what you are,” I tell her as I scan the crowd gathering around us. You used your goddamn powers in public, and now everyone knows.

  “Supernatural?” She asks naively.

  “Powerful.” I glance down at her, fearing for her life.

  I open the doors to the hotel, and once inside I blast a psychic call to see who I can reach. Almost instantly, I can sense AJ, Jocelyn and Derrin; I’m not surprised Aayden and Jayden are nowhere to be found.

  “You don’t have to blow out our eardrums!” Jocelyn heckles in my head.

  “Get over it. We need to do some damage control,” I respond briskly as I usher Liv up the staircase. She whips around when she realizes I’m not following her.

  “Aren’t you coming?” She asks with those sultry violet eyes that slash right through me.

  Baby, there’s nothing I’d like more.

  “No,” I say sharply, “go up to your room and stay there.” My tone contradicting the indecent images I have of her raging inside my head. “I need to go do some damage control.”

  I watch as she ascends the stairs, then I head back out.

  Once outside, AJ flanks me on one side and Derrin on the other. “Why don’t you just fuck that poor girl and put yourself out of your misery already?” Derrin asks as we stand on the street, pixies bustling all around us. AJ and I both glare at him.

  “Do you always have to be so crude?” AJ asks.

  “Why be anything other than what I am?” Derrin responds indifferently. “Oh, and excuse me for offending you, Father AJ.”

  Jerk-off.

  “You know why,” I answer Derrin coldly. “And stay the hell out of my head.”

  “Then don’t leave your thoughts open for the world to see.” Derrin accosts me with sharp royal-blue eyes. “So what, you char the girl a little. It isn’t anything she doesn’t deserve.”

  I jab him with a kidney shot.

  “Will you get over it already? She ousted you. It wasn’t anything you didn’t deserve,” I tell him during the short second he’s hunched over.

  A thought suddenly stirs within AJ, spurring both Derrin and I to glance his way.

  “What’s up?” Derrin asks with a chin thrust.

  His eyes pass over ours, but his thoughts are suddenly locked up tight. “Do you think you guys can handle damage control without me?” he asks ambiguously.

  We both nod, and AJ swiftly disappears into the White Tulip. “What do you think that was about?” I ask Derrin curiously. “Who cares?” He stifles a yawn, stretching his arms over his

  head, bowing his body.

  “It’s a beautiful day for a flight,” he glances at me roguishly. “Don’t you think?”

  I eye him errantly, still hearing Liv’s screams inside my head. “You know that horseshit attitude of yours isn’t fooling

  anybody, right?”

  Derrin ignores my comment.

  “Are we doing this or not?” He asks impatiently. “Doing it,” I shove him with a competitive gleam. A wicked smile spreads across his face.

  Then we take off running towards the outskirts of Century city.

  We land right outside the gates of Keelin Castle.

  Extinguishing ourselves, we descend on the palace.

  Walking authoritatively, we make our way down the nave-like hallway of the castle to the huge, golden double doors at the end. The throne room.

  “Are you sure that’s where she’ll be?” Derrin asks snidely. “She might be waiting in her chambers for you.”

  “Well if she is, she’ll be waiting a while.”

  “It could be a good way to get some of your frustrations out,” he says boorishly.

  “There’s more than one way to release frustration,” I threaten him.

  “Bring it,” he grabs his crotch, not intimidated at all.

  Asshole.

  I push open the throne room doors, and as expected, we see the pixie queen perched on her throne waiting for us.

  Emery surveys us as we approach. Both Derrin and I give a small nod in due respect as we reach her, but don’t be deceived, we are the supreme strata.

  “Your little human has caused quite a stir,” she says evenly, but I can see the danger flashing in her eyes.

  “She was the one who was attacked,” I quickly defend Liv.

  “Was she? Or did she bring it on herself?”

  My look becomes more intense. “What are you talking about?”

  “My brother has taken a significant liking to her, you know,” Emery says randomly.

  Yes, I’ve noticed.

  “If your brother knows what’s best for him, he will disappear from her life,” I say through clenched teeth.

  Or I’ll remove him myself.

  Emery’s eyes turn razor sharp - she realized something. She slips off her throne and stalks down the three slate stairs to the floor where Derrin and I are standing. Like Liv, she is tiny with long hair blacker than night and almond eyes just like Melenia’s.

  “What is so special about this human?” She looks up at me, the question searing straight into my soul.

  “Nothing,” I snap, but Emery knows me. She sees right through my lies.

  “Then it will be nothing if I send the royal guard to take care of her, and rid my land of such contaminants.”

  “Do it, and I will burn this entire realm to the ground,
” I growl.

  Her eyes grow a little wider, but she doesn’t back down from my glare.

  “You love her.”

  “No.”

  Yes.

  “You deny it?” “Yes.”

  No.

  “You loved me once,” she says vulnerably. “What we had was never love,” I bite. “Just sex.” Ouch. That was harsh, even for me.

  Emery’s eyebrows crease, and I know I have hurt her deeply.

  It’s not the untruth, I never loved her. We did have an intense physical relationship that included some emotion, but it’s incomparable to what I have with Liv.

  She backs away from me, shifting her eyes between me and Derrin.

  Derrin clears his throat. “Not to interrupt this lover’s quarrel,” that I highly enjoy watching, he tells me telepathically. “But what exactly did you mean when you said she brought it on herself?”

  Emery’s full attention falls upon Derrin.

  “Siberian didn’t give me all the details, but apparently she used her powers on him, and what she did, he could only describe as provocative.”

  I clench my jaw. Provocative?

  Images of Liv and Siberian reel through my head. What did she do to him? What did he do to her?

  The thought makes me furious.

  I’ve damaged us so badly, she turned to a threat more dangerous than the Darklings. And the only thing I can do about it is blame myself.

  “So, is she in trouble?” Derrin goes on. “Is there anything we need to be aware of?” He hints. “Besides you sending the royal guard and Siberian?”

  Emery contemplates Derrin’s questions for a short second. “Besides Darklings, what else should there be?” She looks over at me as I stand there stocked-still trying not to give away the anger boiling over in my chest at the thought of Liv and Siberian. “Who is this girl, exactly?” She pries deeper now, and I know

  we are heading into hazardous territory.

  “She’s no one you have to be concerned about,” I dodge the question. “We just need to know if you’ve caught wind of any unusual uprisings?”

  She is simultaneously lost and absolutely intrigued as she stares at me decisively. “No, nothing.”

  I nod, and release an almost nonexistent sigh of relief.

  “Do I have your word she won’t be harmed while she’s in Devonshire?” I phrase it as a question, but she understands my query is so much more than that. It’s a threat.

  She nods her displeasure with a small, irritated frown.

  We’ve collected the information we came for, and I’ve had enough of Emery’s probing stares. Surrendering to the ever-

  present pull drawing me to Liv, and preparing for the shit-storm I’m sure awaits me once I see her, I turn to leave.

  “What should I tell my brother?” Emery calls, taunting me. “He wants her.”

  I turn back and glare at her. “Tell him he couldn’t handle her, even if he got her.” Then I slam the throne room door behind me, the sound echoing throughout the castle.

  That pixie prick is dead.

  Everything I Can’t Have

  “Make it stop!!” I scream through strangled sobs, as I flail against the bed.

  “Liv!” I can hear a distant trace of Justice’s voice as he tries to calm me. But I have no control over my own body; the energy is just too much. Make it stop. Make it stop, I repeat and repeat, as the tingles move viciously up my thighs.

  I brace myself for the worst.

  The energy finally makes its way to its destination and pinches me right between the legs.

  “Agh!” I scream as my body violently, and brutally, gives out. I’m left lifeless; no energy to spare. A hollow vessel, I stare up at Justice, as he stares direly down. He’s clutching onto my arms tightly. Too tightly. My breathing is tattered and my muscles are tense. Then there is pain; a searing, scalding pain. Justice lets go of me and I immediately bolt up and scramble into the bathroom. I turn on the shower and let the frigid water have me, clothes and all. I sob weakly under the stream, trying to pull myself together.

  Justice is nowhere to be seen, but he can definitely be heard. Through the gush of running water, I can hear him pounding down Derrin and Melenia’s door. He invades the room with an airstrike of F-bombs, attacking them for their lewd behavior.

  He’s had enough. This is the third night in a row I have suffered, and it’s been by far the worst episode yet. I can hear him admonishing Derrin: “…You know what it does to her…She’s breaking down…Why are you such a fucking douche bag?”

  Then the door slams.

  I shiver under the freezing water, but refuse to move. It feels good, cathartic even. The bathroom door slowly creaks open. “Liv?” Justice’s tone is soft. “You’re going to freeze to death,” he warns when he finds me quivering under the stream. I’m not opposed.

  He turns off the shower, then steps inside, hesitant to touch me, but wildly compassionate. I wrap my arms around myself and cautiously step away from him. When I absorb sexual energy it blows my mind, and not in the amazing-miraculous-life- altering kind of way, it’s more like the old school, shock-therapy treatment kind of way, and when you add a supernatural supersize, the anguish is just inexplicable. It’s still the one sensation I can’t get under control.

  Is there anything that can possibly make my life worse? Yes.

  Justice’s reaction when he sees my arms; it will be a nuclear meltdown.

  He pulls gently at my wrists as he backs me into the corner of

  the stone shower. I don’t take my eyes off him. The tension

  between us is so thick I’d need a buzz saw to cut through it. I finally let him pull my arms aside to assess the damage. And there, where he was grabbing me, are two hand prints burned into my skin. He steps back immediately; his eyes dark and his expression hard.

  No! No! No! Justice don’t stop touching me!

  While Derrin and Melenia were partaking in sexual relations, I was unsuccessfully combating their energy. And as Justice held me down, I crossed right over into his power; which is why his hands were able to burn me.

  This is our fundamental problem, my inability to control myself from absorbing his power, and his fear of touching me for that exact same reason. It’s an intensifying predicament in our physical and emotional relationship. All I want, all I need, is to feel his touch, and this complication is slamming a huge wedge between us. Because of it, our relationship is adolescent at best; our physical gestures limited. Holding hands, a hug or a careful embrace is about the extent of our threshold. I need more.

  He says he doesn’t, but I know better. I can always feel his desire when he touches me, even though he desperately tries to suppress it. I, on the other hand, am not so admirable. I don’t care if he burns me to ash; I just want to feel him pressed against me. He says I have no regard for my own personal safety, and he’s right; when it comes to him, I don’t. Our relationship is in serious

  peril, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to control it.

  I feel like I’m trapped, isolated the way I was before I met him.

  I’ve fought so hard to start building a life, a life that’s constructed so much around him. I’m uncertain of how well it will stand if I lose him, not while I’m still so…so damaged.

  Justice disappears from the shower and returns with a big, fluffy towel. “You should get out of these clothes,” he says with hesitation, but I can see the craving burning in his eyes.

  I start to strip, peeling the cold, wet articles piece by piece from my frozen body. He dries my hair with the towel, massaging away the icy droplets that drip down my back. I’m standing in front of him in only my underwear, but I feel so much more exposed than that. He takes off his shirt, and I know what happens next. Justice pulls me into his arms so our skin can touch, and a warm glorious feeling smoothes over me as he holds me close.

  “I’m so sorry baby,” he whispers into my ear, and I melt. “For what?” I ask, hugging him tightly.
<
br />   “For Derrin and Melenia. For not being able to protect you.

  For hurting you.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I reassure him.

  “I’ll try to remember that the next time I flame-broil you,” he says bitterly, digging his face into my neck.

  “You could flambé me for all I care, I just wish you could

  touch me like that,” I murmur desperately.

  “Liv, don’t say that!” he snaps in my ear, and I tense. I know the conversation is over.

  Wedge. Slam.

  We stand in the shower, arms curled around each other in what feels like blissful, agonizing eternity. And finally, when I can stand no more, he carries me to bed.

  How did I ever let Justice talk me into this?

  The wind whips my ponytail around as the cold nips at my nose.

  I peer down, shivering, and I’m not entirely sure if it’s from fear or the cold. I brace myself. Even with a full day of ski lessons with Christian, my Austrian instructor, I am no closer to tackling the blue circles than I was yesterday. The bunny hill is more my speed. Actually, a beach chair and a cocktail is more my speed.

  But here, everyone seems to be on some kind of powder high. I’d take a late April afternoon in Jersey over Vermont any day. Less snow, more sand.

  People whiz by me as they fly down the mountain; I’m lucky I made it off the chairlift alive. Now I’m alone, relatively, on a mountain top, seriously deliberating taking my skis off and just

  walking down to the bottom. I don’t know where Justice, Derrin or Melenia are, and I’m sort of annoyed.

  It took Justice almost an hour to convince me to try a slope any bigger than a mogul, and now that I finally have, I’m suddenly left all by my lonesome. At least on the bunny hill I was courageous enough to ski to the bottom. Up here, I’m just suffering in my hard, plastic boots, which I believe, incidentally, were originally designed as torture devices. My calves are burning from the sharp angle, and my feet are so constricted that my big toes have lost all feeling. Note to self: inform Justice we can cross skiing of the to-do-again list. His campaign to ‘make Liv live’ is killing me.