“It is about time you woke,” a voice came from the shadows. She reached for the lamp on the nightstand and turned on the light. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness, there stood Traves Choaks. The boy was naked, his member erect.
“How did you escape?” The inane question was the first thing that popped into JoAnna’s mind. She quickly communicated to her soul mate through the warrior channel, where all his friends would also hear she was in danger. “Traves Choaks broke into the house and is in my bedroom.”
“I am a mind control telepath,” Traves answered. “All I needed was to be alone with a weak minded guard to claim my freedom. These lower beings cannot judge me. My abilities place me on a different plane, one you belong on. I had never felt power that compares with yours.”
A sick feeling descended upon her. “Did you harm anyone in this house?” JoAnna knew it had been empty when Koel brought her home. Communications through the warrior channel confirmed everyone was safe and accounted for.
“Distract him anyway you can,” Koel communicated through the warrior channel. “Do not let him kiss you and drain your power. Prevent him from creating a link with your mind, since he had been able to partially drain you previously. Someone will be there shortly.” JoAnna had no intention of letting the psycho before her anywhere near her mouth. Unfortunately, Koel had removed her outer garments when he placed her on the bed. She only had a bra and panties on. JoAnna was any teenager’s wet dream.
She rose partially, she leaned on her elbow, presenting Traves a better view of her full breasts. “Jeryl Jarlyn did not know what to do with you,” JoAnna said. “He brought me in, hoping I would be able to break through your barriers. You are very powerful, I could barely make out anything because of the complexity of your mind. I am new to my telepathic gifts, I could learn a lot from you.”
Traves Choaks had been looking at her breasts, but as soon as she bowed to his superiority, his gaze returned to her face. “I can teach you all sorts of things and in return I want to fuck you.”
JoAnna was startled by his choice of words. No one in her acquaintance had ever been so crass. She did not believe the word existed in this realm, since it was an acronym on Earth. It was imperative she shake off his adolescent behavior and appear to be turned on by what he said.
“We can share power and our bodies,” JoAnna said. “Jeryl Jarlyn is old and has no designated successor. The mind control telepathic government took power because they felt superior to the common people. They will not even see us coming.” JoAnna tried to embody all the powerful female villains from campy films she had seen over the years. The boy was so over the top, she figured he would be turned on by her behavior.
“You are wearing too many clothes,” Traves complained.
“Foreplay,” JoAnna answered. “You want to build to the climax. I can teach you to savor a woman’s body and extend your own orgasm.” That statement stopped Traves cold. She imagined he was guilty of premature ejaculation in the past. That assumed he even had sex with a partner. JoAnna rolled over onto her back and raised an arm, inviting the boy to her bed. Where the hell was Koel?
The youthful enthusiasm of a seventeen-year-old boy preparing for sex should be bottled. It would power cities for months. There was no grace in the way he moved, unlike the feline grace Koel possessed. One moment he stood over her, the next he was on top of her. One of his grubby hands reached out and grabbed her right breast. There was no finesse in his touch, only inexperienced fumbling.
JoAnna had expected he would try to remove her panties and get right to the sex part of their relationship. She had miscalculated, Traves went straight to her mouth. It was impossible to shift her body, in order to protect herself from him placing his lips on hers. The all-consuming kiss of telepathic power she had seen in his mind was what Traves truly wanted. She did not have to enter his brain to figure that out. She had been played.
He took her lips, as if he planned to punish her for her involvement in his incarceration. Travis invaded her mouth with the battle techniques of Attila the Hun. If she survived this assault, her lips would be bruised and raw. She heard conversations within the warrior channel, but nothing to make her hope she would be rescued in time.
His mouth was rough, but it was not sexual. Traves prepared to transfer energy, not have sex. JoAnna could once again feel something coming at the barriers in her head. She had no idea how the walls in her mind were erected to begin with, so she was unsure how to reinforce them against his attack.
Something broke, she felt a stab of pain in her head. Thoughts that were not her own invaded her mind. She thought of her experience in the portal with Darden. Flashes of memories occurred when she entered a mind, not when someone entered hers. Was she somehow reversing the pull of Traves’s gift?
JoAnna was pulled from her thoughts when Traves slapped her in the face. Even his slap was inept, surprising more than hurting her. “Stop whatever you are doing. I am the master of telepathic power, not you.” He immediately brought his mouth back to hers. Oddly, he had broken the kiss to orally communicate, rather than telepathically convey his orders.
It was time to turn the tables. Whatever he was doing, Traves was failing. He had attacked women to steal their powers and now he had run into someone more powerful than he was. JoAnna grabbed his head with both her hands and deepened the kiss. Her powerful legs wrapped around his weaker limbs. She once again thought of the female heroine from Lost Girl. This time she was the succubus.
JoAnna used suction, caused by her breath, taking in Traves’s power. He struggled, but she was superior in both physical and telepathic strength. She saw the atrocities the boy was guilty of. JoAnna only wanted to drain him enough to make him helpless to escape. The last thing she wanted was to bring any aspect of his insanity into her mind.
Words were shouted in her head, but she ignored them, as she continued to drain Traves. The power she gained was obscene and so seductive. She understood how movie vampires were helpless to stop from draining their victims. JoAnna could easily see how she could be considered a psychic vampire.
Traves’s weight was pulled off her, as Koel brought her into his arms. She had temporarily fought releasing her victim, but relented as soon as she realized her soul mate had arrived.
“Koel, her eyes are glowing yellow.” JoAnna somehow knew Tarsea referred to her. She struggled to mentally release Traves’s mind, even though JoAnna was now free of his body. It felt as if the conversation that took place around her was in another dimension, alien to hers.
“I saw Traves Choaks eyes flash yellow for an instant when we were at The Palace,” Koel said. “It must have to do with the transfer of telepathic power. Obviously, JoAnna got the better of him. Thank the Supreme Being, the Prime Ruler forced us to have sex. The kid did not stand a chance against a mated female telepath.”
“Jo Jo, you have to come back to us,” Alex cried. She could hear and sense her old friend, but she could not see her. JoAnna tried to release her hold on Traves Choaks’s mind, but was unable to. It was as if she was in another dimension from her friends, with only the shell of her body still in their plane.
Someone grabbed her hand and placed something cold in it. A crystal. Moments passed and nothing happened. JoAnna was still caught in the stream she had created between herself and her victim. A second and third stone were added to her palm and capable hands closed her fingers around the crystals.
“Blue lace agate, amethyst, and rose quartz are calming stones. You need to concentrate on the power of the crystals and release your mind from whatever is controlling it.” JoAnna tried to do as Shirl suggested. “Let the healing energy wash over your body.”
Shirl made it sound so easy. JoAnna concentrated on the fist which held the crystals. All her effort was geared to tightening her grip on the stones. Slowly she felt her mind releasing its hold on what was feeding it. He
r vision cleared and she could see Alex and Shirl in front of her.
“Thank God,” Alex said. “Welcome back, Jo Jo. Your eyes are back to normal. Whatever held you captive, the crystals did the trick in releasing you.”
JoAnna looked around the room and saw Koel and Tarsea leaning over a body. She rose to see what type of shape Traves Choaks was in. Her feet were a little wobbly, so JoAnna used Shirl as a crutch. She looked down at the boy’s face and let out a blood curdling scream.
Koel could understand JoAnna’s horrified reaction to Traves Choaks’s appearance. The boy’s frontal cranial bone had weakened and his upper forehead concaved back into his head. Brain matter started to leak from the damaged skull. It was obvious to Koel why Traves had taken a bat to his victims’ skulls, to mask what had happened to their brains.
His soul mate had done this. She had stolen telepathic abilities from her victim and destroyed his brain in the process. It was an act of self-defense, but the magnitude of her strength was frightening. He could not fathom what JoAnna would become, nor his role in her heightened abilities.
“We need to get him out of here,” Starc commented. “The last thing we want is to explain his condition to the authorities. Solfa has already communicated she would see to the disposal of Traves Choaks. I say we still take him to the Nightshade universe as planned. By some miracle, the freak is still breathing. He still holds value where the vampires are concerned.”
Koel did not like his cousin’s choice of words to describe the boy. His soul mate now possessed the power that might have driven Traves Choaks mad. He feared JoAnna was not ready for the amount of energy she now possessed.
“Agreed, you should deliver him to the Nightshade universe. I will stay behind and take care of JoAnna.” His soul mate had calmed and based on the look on her face, she was not happy.
“I am coming with you,” JoAnna said. “Do you think for one moment I will be able to sleep at night, fearing this monster will return from wherever you send him?”
His soul mate had a point, but the Nightshade universe had the ability to create nightmares for anyone unfortunate to venture to that parallel dimension. “Starc will make sure Traves is not breathing before he returns to the Troyk universe.” Koel looked at the fallen boy. “I do not believe he will live long either way.”
“Regardless,” JoAnna stated, “I am going. The stories I have heard of that universe may put the issues I deal with in this universe into perspective.”
“We are not going to enter through the natural portal into Yorik’s hive,” Shirl advised. “Drake should still be with Lorenz and Afton. I want to check on her anyway, so this trip is killing two birds with one stone.”
Koel was continually stumped at the things Shirl and her friends said, with the exception of JoAnna. Whatever sayings the other girls learned, JoAnna either was not exposed to them or she did not use them. If it was not her use of contractions, one would never know JoAnna had not grown up in the Troyk universe.
“Let us go while Traves still holds value,” Tarsea said. “Alex, would it do any good to ask you to stay behind?”
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Alex answered. “I have no desire to enter the Nightshade universe again or to see Drake. Why that vampire believes he has a claim to my baby is beyond my comprehension. Although Benko Jarlyn struck a deal with Drake to see me, I don’t feel obligated to make any additional trips.”
JoAnna’s preoccupation with the boy and her growing powers was evident when she did not make a comment about the vampire Drake believing Alex’s unborn daughter was his soul mate. Stranger things had been known to happen, as far as Koel was concerned, but his main concern was the well-being of his own soul mate.
“We should do it then,” Tarsea said. He took Alex into his arms and kissed her. Koel finally understood his friend’s obsession with Alexandra, since her entry into their world. Nothing would have made him happier than to do exactly the same thing to JoAnna. However, now was not the time for them to become intimate.
Starc and Tarsea gingerly picked up Traves. His cousin grabbed the boy’s shoulders, while Tarsea got his feet. Shirl’s amethyst started to glow and a portal opened. A forced portal had a smaller air density than a natural one. The energy to produce such an event horizon was excessive, but Shirl’s powers allowed her to open one with little effort.
One by one, his friends entered the portal, until JoAnna and Koel were the only ones remaining in the room. “You can still back out of going,” Koel told her. “Starc would not lie about Traves’s death. I am sure Alex would love your company while her soul mate is in the Nightshade universe.”
“No, I want to go. I need to see this to the end. Besides, I heard all about the Nightshade universe and I am curious about what a real vampire looks like. Any red-blooded American woman has some type of fascination with fictional vampires. I have certainly read my fair share of paranormal romances featuring a vampire as the hero.”
“Just be prepared for what you are about to see,” Koel warned her. “Drake and Lorenz were made by the original vampire, thus they appear human. The other creatures are in various stages of decomposition. There is nothing sexy about them. They are dangerous because they are starving for blood.”
“Shirl did not bat an eye returning to that world. I am sure I will be fine.”
Koel took his soul mate’s hand and was prepared to walk her through the event horizon before it collapsed. She had been through so much in the last two days, he was not sure how much more she would be able to take. Entering the Nightshade universe was certainly not his idea of having JoAnna take it easy. One never knew what would be on the other side of the portal.
Chapter 19
The Nightshade Universe
JoAnna felt a chill as soon as she exited the portal. What else would you expect when you entered a universe populated by vampires? Part of her had wished she had taken Koel’s recommendation to stay behind, but she needed to see Traves Choaks dealt with. The images she pulled from his brain would haunt her the rest of her life.
The first person JoAnna saw was a blond man, fashionably dressed with a beautiful deep tan. He could not possibly be a vampire. The man was probably the handsomest creature she had ever laid eyes on. His hands were clasped on a raven haired woman who was as striking as he was.
“Welcome to my home,” the vision said. “My name is Lorenz and this is my soul mate Afton. I have alerted Drake to your presence. He will join us shortly.”
“I thought you said Lorenz was a vampire,” JoAnna communicated to her soul mate. “He looks like he could give George Hamilton a run for his money. That is some tan he has.”
“You look taken aback,” the ethereal beauty who stood by Lorenz said. “I figure you were expecting wan, starving creatures.” The girl considered her words and continued. “Actually, that was exactly what I was until I made love to Lorenz. We are evolving into something, I am just not sure what. I can harvest the energy of the sun, as Shirl does the powers contained within crystals.” The girl went over and hugged her friend. “As the sun’s energy is depleted from my body, I will lose the tan.”
“We have an offering,” Koel said. “Fortunately, he will not last much longer. His blood should not have been impacted by his injury.”
Lorenz knelt and placed two fingers on Traves’s neck to feel for his pulse. “His death is near. Afton and I no longer require blood, but the offering is sorely needed and I thank you.” Lorenz snapped his fingers and two vampires came forward to take the body.
JoAnna was momentarily shocked by the condition of the creatures who approached Traves. They looked like the vampire version of the zombies from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. Her desire to see the boy take his last breath overcame her initial reaction. “He needs to be dealt with here, so we can witness his demise. The boy is responsible for the murder and mutilation of a n
umber of women from our world.”
“As you wish,” Lorenz quickly responded. He turned to address a pair of vampires. “Feed your hungry cells.”
The two monsters bared their elongated teeth and fell upon Traves Choakes. One bit into his neck, while the other sunk his teeth into the boy’s femur artery. She could hear bones crushed, as the vampires fed. Under normal circumstances, JoAnna would have looked away. His body fought the vampire’s attack and he made sounds like an injured animal. Her mind recalled the violence he inflicted on those poor women. Traves got exactly what he deserved. If someone thought her moral compass was now defective, so be it.
A dark, pale, gorgeous man entered the room and watched the two vampires finish off their prisoner. He went over, took Shirl’s hand, and kissed it. The stunning vampire did not seem at all put off by Shirl’s soul mate who stood right next to her. This creature had to be Drake.
The two vampires drained Traves of every drop of blood they could recover from him. Starc declared that the boy was dead and the two vampires removed the body from their presence. JoAnna did not care how they disposed of the corpse. Traves Choaks was no longer a danger to anyone, particularly to her.
“I sense extreme power, and it is not from you, my love,” the black haired vampire dropped Shirl’s hand and made his way to her. She would be lying if she did not admit her heart skipped a beat or two as Drake approached. The vampire reached to touch her, but Koel grabbed his forehand, stopping him cold.
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