Snow was falling again. Tilting my face skyward, I let it melt on my skin. There was something about the dusty wintery smell of fresh snow settling on the pine trees that made me nostalgic. Christmas was two days away, and I was trying to get excited.
“Can I stand with you?” Dec asked companionably in my ear. At my nod, he wrapped his arms loosely around my waist and stood just behind me. Fingering my locket, I let my eyes glaze over and blur the snowy scene into something magical. The gold warmed my fingers, and I let the vision come to me as it would. I smiled at the sight of Sean laughing down at me from his snowboard. I was flat on my back with the wind knocked out of me. That had been a perfect day with him. Normally so serious, he was free as an eagle on the slopes. I’d wanted to drown in those eyes…as the snowy scene blurred into the farmhouse, Dec’s blond hair filled my vision as he knelt over me holding my head. With gentle fingers, he’d rubbed my temples and reminded me to breathe right after I’d thrown up in the sink. The musical lilt of his voice calmed the kaleidoscope spinning in my head that day and many after. His crooked grin and boyish dimples had stolen my heart from the first moment I’d seen him in the bar. He was a real angel, a miracle…I squeezed his arm and sighed as the vision shifted again.
Mist curled along the creek bank as I turned to watch the sun rise through the trees. The pale light shadowed his face and accentuated the sharp angles. Killian’s eyes lingered on my mouth as he pressed my cold fingers against his lips. A sudden gust of wind scattered the mist and snow replaced it in my mind.
“What’s wrong, darlin’? What did you see?”
Shaken and confused, I struggled to grab onto the vision, but it was gone. I blinked to clear the rest of the fuzziness and stared hard into the trees.
He was out there, somewhere.
Was he alone?
“Let’s go inside. I’m cold.”
The next morning, I had a text message from Dani telling me that she and James were going skiing at Gore Mountain. It wasn’t an invite, exactly, but I wanted it to be. My suggestion that we go boarding for the day was met with mixed reviews. Sean felt the need to point out that we were supposed to go to my parents’ house in the morning, and I was supposed to bring something for Christmas dinner. I hadn’t figured out what to cook and I hadn’t wrapped gifts yet. He was such a downer! I had a feeling Sean and Dec were up to something, but they kept their faces as innocent as two angelic super-secret agents could. Since he didn’t have to cook or wrap, Dec thought a day on the mountain was perfect. Sean was being more practical.
Leaning up on tiptoes, I nibbled on his neck to sway him my direction. “Oh, come on, I have a need for speed…”
A few hours later, we had lift passes and had jumped onto a chairlift. At the top of the trail, Dec stood against the sun and waited for us. He always wore charcoal gray board pants and a gray and white jacket. Like Sean, he kept gloves tucked into a pocket but never wore them. His Oakleys had vivid blue lenses that stood out against his skin. I’d never lose him in a crowd. As we approached the ramp, I was stunned to realize I could see his halo. Blinking against a trick of light, I looked again. There it was. The saol that flowed inside was subtly outlining his body. It was as clear to me as his sunglasses.
“Oh, wow! Sean! Do you see that?” I gripped the sleeve of his jacket and pointed to Dec.
Shaking his head, he said, “I don’t see anything. What’s up?”
My mouth fell open. “You don’t see the halo? It’s clear as day.”
With narrowed eyes, he looked again. “It’s always there. Don’t tell me this is the first time you’ve ever noticed?”
He was truly surprised and lifted his sunglasses to see me better. He had on the same blue Oakleys but wore a black jacket with black pants. The only color was a single red stripe along one arm.
“Do you have any idea how wicked hot you are? I’m such a lucky girl!”
After kissing me until my fingers glowed, he said, “Yep, you’re pretty lucky. I’m a catch in multiple dimensions.”
With that, he lifted the bar and got ready to drop off. At the end of the ride, we both smoothly slid down the ramp and off to the side to strap in. It was gorgeous up here. The sky was grey but no new snow was expected so we could relax and ride. I was waiting to hear back from Dani so we could meet her. In the meantime…Dec and Sean flew past me while I dawdled with my phone. With a loud whoop, Dec was airborne over the drop with Sean on his right.
Oh, no they didn’t!
Like a shot, I was right behind them. The Lies was a black diamond run and we liked to hit it first. The trees blurred greenly as I focused only on staying upright on the vertical trail. Falling at this speed would hurt…a lot. I leaned slightly to turn left onto the Mica trail, for obvious reasons, then another quick turn onto the Open Pit. The guys were slightly ahead of me and didn’t hear me when I screamed.
I tumbled end over end until my board flew off and took my boot with it. When I finally stopped bouncing, my Oakleys were gone, and I was barely conscious. Lying on my back, I opened my eyes to a green sky.
Why is the sky green?
When my brain caught up with things, I realized I was looking at a tree branch and that my leg was probably broken. A now too familiar pain was shooting through my tibia. Well, hell. That’s just great! I started to push myself upright when a voice shouted at me.
“Don’t move! You might have hurt your back or something!” A man leaned into my face and shouted at me. He was very young, probably only 19 or 20. His face was very serious as he scolded me.
“Okay, I’m not deaf. Stop yelling at me. What happened? Did you see what happened?”
Looking around us, he sounded confused too. “Yeah, I was right behind you…it was crazy, dude. Some guy just appeared in the middle of the trail in front of you. I don’t know where he came from. You swerved to go around him and wiped out. It was spectacular! Do you remember hitting that tree? You bounced off and kept going.” He grinned down at me, sharing in my pride. Snowboarders were proud of their wipe outs.
That sounded familiar. The man had been wearing white and yellow. That’s all that registered before I fell. “Where did he go? Did you see him leave?”
Shrugging, he said, “No, sorry. I was more worried about you. It took me a few seconds to stop so I wouldn’t hit you. By the time I looked up again, he was gone. I’m going to go flag down a ski patrol. You’re not walking down this mountain.”
My phone chose that moment to buzz in my pocket, but I couldn’t reach it. “Could you grab my phone for me? Right front pocket.”
“You get a signal up here? How’s that possible? My phone sucks. I never have a signal.” He dug around in my jacket and pulled out the little phone Killian had given me last year. It was a cell phone…and so much more.
Steeling myself against the pain that was rapidly making itself known, I tried to smile at him. “It’s a super-secret agent phone. Cross my heart. Just hand it to me, please. My boyfriend’s on the other end of it.”
He sat back on his heels and waited while I called Sean. We both flinched as Sean’s voice bellowed from the earpiece. I did a whole lot of nodding and said a lot of yesses before he hung up. Feeling evil for deceiving this nice guy, I groaned convincingly and sent him down the mountain in search of a ski patrol person. Thirty seconds after he cleared the trail, Dec and Sean appeared next to me in the trees. Glancing around for witnesses, they both raced over to me.
“What hurts? Tell me so we can get you out of here.”
“I think my leg’s broken again. I don’t know about anything else. I’m kind of numb. Apparently I wrapped myself around a tree or two, so I’m not sure about a concussion.” I stopped Sean’s hand when he was about to pick me up. “Sean, this wasn’t an accident. A guy in a white and yellow jacket appeared out of thin air and disappeared the same way. It had to be James. Get him away from Dani.”
Dec was fuming but busy skimming his hands over my body. Frowning, he said, “Her leg’s definitel
y broken and I think a rib or two. I’m going to take her to the house so I can check her out. You go find James and Dani and drive the car back.” He gave Sean a reassuring look and added, “Don’t worry, I’ll heal her and if I can’t, I’ll take her to the hospital and text you.”
Sean’s eyebrows went straight up. “You’ll text me? Jesus, Dec. Use your damn telepathy for God’s sake. You’re killing me here.”
Bending over me, he kissed me lightly and said, “I love you. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Hang in there.”
Dec knelt beside me and carefully scooped me into his arms and we vanished into thin air.
“What the hell happened to you?”
Killian’s worried question greeted us as soon as we landed on the living room rug. He sprung up and caught me before my shoulders hit the floor. Dec filled him in while they worked to slide my jacket and board pants off. I had thin under-armor leggings and a turtleneck on under my board clothes and shivered in the cool air.
Domino came in and sat back out of the way. Her eyes watched us as they hovered over me. Once I was situated they went to work on checking me out. All in all, it could’ve been worse. I had several bruises and a separated shoulder. My back, thank God, was unbroken. My ankle was badly twisted and my leg was broken. Fixing my leg hurt a lot. With teeth clenched, Killian held my leg still above the break while Dec pulled it to straighten the pieces of bone. I bit my lip to keep from screaming. As the two pieces of bone slid together, my vision shrank to a thin tunnel and I tasted blood in my mouth.
All business now, Killian used his own energy to boost Dec’s healing power. Feeling nauseous, I closed my eyes while they helped me heal. It didn’t take very long, but I had the strangest sense of déjà vu. We’d done this before…but with all déjà vu moments, I couldn’t decide if it was past or future.
Leave it alone.
The order came from inside my head, and I blinked up at Killian. His eyes were hard, his face carefully blank. I started to reach out to him and hesitated. His eyes softened and he wrapped his big hand around my cold one and rubbed feeling back into it. His hands were scratchy with callouses but hot as he worked on my wrist and arm.
“I think she’s in shock, Dec. Feel how cold she is? Why’s her body temp so low?” The crease between his eyes was back as he tried to warm me up.
“Hmm. That’s odd. She shouldn’t be.” He pressed his lips against my forehead like my mother did to check my temperature.
“I’m fine, mom, really. Stop worrying. I’m just cold. Someone get me a blanket or take me to bed.”
Was it my imagination or did both of them hesitate for a split second when I said that? Killian helped me up, and I swayed against him as a wave of dizziness washed over me. Scooping me up, he headed to my room. Stopping partway down the hall, he listed awkwardly into the wall. He squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in a breath of air. Without warning, the rune on his hand burst into life and mine followed. His face contorted with pain.
“What’s wrong? Put me down; you’re hurt!”
Instead of putting me down, he took a deep breath and staggered the rest of the way to my room. Sweat ran down the side of his face by the time he set me down on the bed. Afraid now, I reached out and tugged on his hand. “Killian! You have to sit down. You’re scaring me.”
“It’s nothing--” he started to say when he suddenly clutched his chest and sagged forward. His fingers grabbed at an invisible blade, fluttered, and then went still. The rune over my heart burned like a brand and I yelled for Dec.
He came running in to see Killian on his knees clutching his chest. “What is it? Demon? James?” His head swiveled as he looked for the enemy.
Killian’s eyes rolled up in his head, and he slid over to his side. Domino galloped into the room and froze in front of him. She pressed her nose against his chest and growled low in her throat. With raised hackles, she looked pointedly at me and then back to Killian.
Fix him.
Puzzled, I gawked at her for a minute until Dec touched my collar with a question in his eyes. I pulled the fabric over so he could see the rune. It was glowing hotly against my skin and stung like crazy.
Thinking hard, he proposed, “You have his blood…so you have his power. You’re an empath…hmm, you’re drawing his pain into that rune.” Running his fingers over my hand, he did the same with Killian’s hand. Both runes glowed…
“Mica, listen to me. This is demonic magic that’s hurting him. He can’t fight it alone. We have to find the demon and destroy his connection. In the meantime, you can help him.”
“Tell me what to do. I’ll do anything.”
Considering the two of us for several seconds, he finally said, “You have to harness his powers to push this demon’s magic away. Do you think you can separate Killian’s powers from yours and focus it back onto Killian?”
I thought about it and considered the words of Michael.
Do not fear the suffering. It is the pain of others that will strengthen you for what you must do.
I didn’t know if that applied here, but he was suffering and I would take his pain as my own if I could. Nodding at Dec once more, I said a short prayer to Raphael hoping he’d lend me a hand. Dec helped me lay Killian on his back and pulled off the t-shirt. There was an angry red mark over his heart. It was the size and shape of a knife wound. It wasn’t an open wound, but more like a scar.
“Hold our two hands together for me. I think it helps.” He did as I asked and waited.
Thinking about how to do this, I had Dec place our joined hands on top of Killian’s heart. Closing my eyes, I waited. Come on, Killian, where are you? There it was. Killian’s heartbeat flowed through our hands and I felt it pulsing over my own heart. My heartbeat slowed to match his strong and steady rhythm.
We were truly connected. Wow.
I smiled in amazement, and Dec looked at me quizzically. Closing my eyes again, I called his magic to me. It lived in my blood, but I didn’t recognize it yet. It wasn’t a part of me. I had to let it come to me on its own.
Come on, it’s okay…come and take over…
Gradually, it bubbled up inside, tentative at first, then building, growing, gaining strength.
That’s it, take over…
Once the floodgates were opened, his power thrummed through my veins, dominating me, enhancing me, making me stronger in every way. It didn’t hurt exactly, but felt like I was stretching out of my own skin. My arms and legs stretched to compensate, my toes curled with the pressure. There wasn’t enough of me to contain it all.
Ignoring the warning signs, I channeled that power through our hands and into Killian’s chest. Whatever lingering evil there paled in comparison to Killian’s ancient power and dissipated steadily.
Killian’s mind had been hidden behind a black wall of pain but as he regained consciousness, his memories surfaced again. Our connection was so tight that I was bombarded with his memories. Before I could pull my mind away, I was swept up in an image of him holding me against his chest as a summer storm raged around us. The crash of lightning echoed in my ears as my tears ran with the rain.
Yanking my mind away, I cracked my eyes to see him looking up at me. Did he see what I saw? Was it just a random memory I stumbled into, or did he want me to see it?
How was it a memory if I didn’t remember it?
Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe I imagined it…my brain was fuzzy and the wild burst of energy was in free fall. I was about to crash. Exhausted, I glanced at Dec who was staring at me with a hundred questions in his eyes.
“Is he better now?” I asked in a shaky voice. I rubbed my chest and held up bloody fingers.
“Dec, I’ve got this. Leave us for a minute. Please.” Killian was sitting up again with clear eyes. Dec reluctantly left to give us a few minutes of privacy.
Resigned, Killian said, “Sit down, Princess. Let me look at you.”
With gentle hands, he pulled my sticky shirt away to look for the source of the blood. Co
mpletely ignoring my cleavage, he focused only on the rune over my heart. There was a ragged tear in the skin underneath it. It had ripped from the inside. He touched the tear with the pad of his finger and it tingled. After a minute, the tingling stopped and the cut was gone.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize this would happen to you,” he said regretfully.
“I’m confused. What’s happened?”
“I’m afraid you’re not strong enough to handle my power and it will hurt you. It could kill you.”
Kill me? Could this day get any worse?
Aloud, I said, “There is no way your powers would kill me. You love me. That love is part of your power over me. It’s our connection. You’d never let me die at your own hand.”
As soon as I said it, I realized that I shouldn’t know that. I broke off and stared at him with new eyes.
Stunned by my words, Killian was speechless. His sudden paleness was the only outward sign of his feelings.
Stuttering with embarrassment, I apologized. “I’m sorry. I don’t know where that came from.”
With a frightening ferocity that I hadn’t seen in years, he yanked me closer and growled into my ear, “You need to forget that for your own good. Do you hear me?” Flinging my hand away from him, he stalked towards the door.
“But why? Why should I forget that?” Angry too, I grabbed his arm and pulled him back to face me. My voice rose until I was yelling again. “Isn’t it true? Am I wrong?”
“Just let it go! Why do you have to push?” With lips clamped shut, he pried my fingers away from his arm.
“Tell me I’m wrong!”
The split second’s hesitation gave him away. He couldn’t deny it but the knowledge didn’t give me any pleasure. Instead, I was more confused than before. How had I missed this? I had no memory of him loving me…
Snatching up my wrist, he pressed the rune against his heart and hissed, “This was a mistake!”
The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) Page 51