I raised my hands over my head and stretched luxuriously, lengthening the muscles in my back without so much as a wince, and I knew all the tears, pains, and aches were healed completely. I felt like dancing and I knew I would have to saddle this energy before I let it get the best of me and had me running around like a child on a sugar high.
I took a few deep and slow breaths to slow my heartbeat and to just calm down, feeling the tingling sensation in my fingers receding. Satisfied that I wasn’t going to go running in circles with the new energy, I looked out at the city spread out below me, like a fresh painting still drying now that the fog had just lifted. Cars raced up and down the freeway, and I could practically smell the collage of restaurants lining Main Street as they came alive for the day. But what drew my attention was the ocean curving around the coastline.
From this height, I could see the swirling riptide that the news helicopter had shown. It was almost terrifying now that I wasn’t seeing it through the screen of the television, as if it was just a movie and not real. This far away, it didn’t really look like the water was moving at all; the riptide was just an angry white scar in the brown tinted water.
Grabbing my purse and sweatshirt and slipping my feet back into my flip-flops, I made my way back to my car. About ten minutes later, I was pulling into the parking lot of the metaphysical store where we bought most of our supplies and Jodi and I got weekly training sessions with the manager, Deb. It was just nearing ten o’clock, so the store had just opened and was still empty of customers. Only Deb was standing behind the counter. I smiled as I walked in, instantly feeling lighter, knowing I had walked through Deb’s shields on the store that kept all negative feelings outside. After the attempted robbery a few months ago, her entire coven had come down to the store to work on building the most powerful shields they could manage. Now every time I walked in, I felt like I was passing through a cleansing waterfall that hadn’t yet been touched by mankind.
“Hello, love,” Deb said brightly when I came into view. She came around the counter to give me a hug. Deb was a good hugger; she hugged the way a grandmother would hug you. “What’s the matter?” she asked, pushing me back by the shoulders and holding me at arm’s length so she could examine my face.
“Wow, not ‘how’s it going’ but ‘what’s the matter,’” I said with a small laugh.
“Spill it, girl,” she demanded, not yet releasing my shoulders as she squinted into my face, but I had the feeling it wasn’t my face that she was looking at. “It has to do with what’s going on in the ocean right now,” she said it like a statement, not a question, and I knew if I didn’t start explaining soon, she’d delve deeper and make me relive the nightmare I had last night.
“All right, all right,” I said in a defeatist tone. “You have coffee?” I asked and she nodded.
“Okay,” I said, leaning on my forearms on the counter top, after she fixed us both a cup of coffee. My eyes roamed over the different pieces of jewelry inside the counter. “I’m sure you’ve heard the news reports about the red tide and the new riptide?” I looked up at her and she was nodding over her cup. I went on to explain about that morning on the beach with Toby and the incident with Dale at the restaurant and having to get him to a hospital and finding that he was missing his soul. I had to pause then, letting Deb catch her breath; she was almost as strong an Empath as I was and I knew that part was going to shock her. After I finished explaining about Matt being beguiled by the sea creature, her eyes were closed and she had a hand pressed to her forehead.
“Well, that would explain it then,” she said quietly after a while.
“Explain what?”
“Didn’t you see the news this morning?”
“No, why?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
“They’re saying that the EPA can’t find any biological explanation of the red tide,” she said, and I wasn’t surprised at this piece of information. “They say that it is the proper time of year for it to happen, but that it should’ve been caused by an, what is it?” she paused, looking for the right word.
“Algal bloom?” I offered. I got sick from red tide when I was younger and had done research on it to understand it better.
“Yes,” she said quickly, pointing a finger at me. “What is that? I had to leave before the story was over.”
“Oh, well, basically it’s a sudden growth of phytoplankton in a concentrated area,” I said, and at her blank stare, I continued. “They’re tiny plants in the water that we don’t normally notice, but when they grow like this, you see the rust color in the water. Usually it has to rain for it to happen; the runoff from the mountains causes it.”
“I’ll take your word for it, darling,” she said with a laugh. “Well, I guess the EPA is saying that isn’t what’s happening.”
“Then what do they say it is?”
“They didn’t know,” she said, and I saw that knowing look in her eye.
“You agree with me, that those things are causing the red tide just like they’re causing the riptide,” I said, and she nodded.
“I guess I’ll be calling an emergency coven meeting tonight,” she said with a sigh as she reached under the cash register, pulled out her phone, and typed in the reminder on the keys. “I take it you’re working on this problem as well?” Deb asked me as she slid her phone back into its hiding place.
“Well, it’s not like I can just ignore it,” I said before taking a sip of my coffee. “Besides, the damn things are in my ocean; this is happening in my house.”
“You want to tell me about the dream, Shay?” she asked so abruptly I almost choked on my coffee.
“Damnit, I keep forgetting you’re physic,” I said, wiping the back of my hand over my mouth and chin. I set my cup down and told her about the dream. I hesitated at the part about the wings bursting out of my back and helping me get out of the water, but after an empathetic nudge from her, I told her everything, right down to waking up with blood on my back, water in my mouth, and sand on my feet.
She was quiet for a long time after I finished and I felt like I was on pins and needles waiting for her to speak. Finally she said, “I didn’t think you’d discover your higher self until you were much older, but I often forget that you’re already much older than your seventeen years.”
“My higher self?” I knew the term and knew that it meant what you truly were on the spiritual plane, not this physical one we were tied to. When I saw Jodi and Steven as embodiments of their elements, I knew that I was looking at their higher selves, but right now I knew that Deb was talking about something much larger than I was.
“I don’t know if it’s my place to tell you and I don’t know if now is the time,” she said with a shake of her head and I suddenly felt a distance between us; she had thrown up shields against me, not wanting me to press her.
“Will you tell me soon?” I asked carefully, not wanting the conversation to die altogether.
“If it is my place,” she said with a small nod. “But I think you will soon discover it for yourself and much sooner than I or anyone else thought you would.” She sounded scared, but underneath that I thought I caught a tone of pride and I took a little comfort in that and let the subject lie between us. “Do you know what you’re going to do about these creatures?”
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I think we have to kill them, but I want to try and retrieve the souls they’ve stolen first because I’m afraid if we kill them first, then there’ll be no saving Dale and Mark and they will die.”
“I think you just might be right,” she said sadly and patted my hand and I saw the light in her eyes fade just a touch and that more than anything scared me.
I left the store with a new amethyst crystal pendant on a silver chain around my neck, personally charged by Deb with the hopes that it would save me from any psychic attacks in my dreams. I reached for my cell phone as I pulled up to a red light that would lead me to the freeway on-ramp and back to my side of town. I had two mi
ssed calls from Jensen. I called him back and arranged to pick him up for a lunch date, but when I got to his house, I was pleased to see that his mother wasn’t home and decided we could just make something to eat there. The thought of a quiet house all to ourselves, if even for only a few minutes, sounded like a blessing.
“Hey, you,” I said as Jensen opened the front door before I could even knock. He had a strained look on his face, like he was upset with me but was trying not to be.
“I know you said you were fine, but I don’t believe you,” he said by way of greeting. “I woke up last night feeling like something happened to you.”
“Want to talk out here or can I come in?” I asked feeling a little awkward.
“Oh,” he cleared his throat, “yeah, sure.” He stepped aside to let me in.
We walked to the kitchen. Jensen opened the cupboard and pulled out two glasses, setting them on the counter that I was leaning a hip against. He moved to the fridge and pulled out a pitcher of lemonade, pouring us each a glass. Once he’d put the pitcher away and walked back over to me, leaning his opposite hip against the counter, mirroring my stance, he raised an eyebrow at me.
“It was just a bad dream,” I said. “Okay,” I sighed as he continued to stare at me, “a really, really bad dream.”
“Bad dream like ‘Ian bad dream’?” he asked, referring to his evil twin brother.
“Yeah, like Ian bad,” I said with a nod before I sipped the sweet lemonade. I went on to fill him in on all that he had missed since he and I had run into the boys on the beach.
“Wow,” he said finally when I was finished. “You’ve been busy.” It would’ve been funny if he didn’t look so upset.
“Yeah, kinda.” I could feel the tension snapping in the air between us, but as usual I couldn’t read him.
“So when you texted that you were fine, you weren’t really fine,” he said, setting his glass on the counter.
“Jensen,” I started to say, but he picked up a hand and waved me off.
“No,” he said, “I get it; you didn’t want to talk to me about it.”
“No, I didn’t,” I agreed, setting my own glass down. “I texted you after I had woken up, after passing out from pain from the dream. I didn’t want to talk to anyone right at that moment.” We stared at each other for a few silent moments. I thought about leaving, realizing he had made his mind up about being mad at me, I just wish we could have done this over the phone. I felt like shit seeing the anger on his face.
“I guess,” he paused, staring at me, “I guess I understand that. It just would’ve been nice if you had answered your phone this morning.”
“I had to go replenish my power and then I saw Deb, I didn’t hear my phone.”
“You went to see Deb,” he said it low, more to himself than to me. I couldn’t read his emotions, but he was obviously mad that I had turned to someone else when I was in need. I had no idea what to say to fix this; we were fighting like a boyfriend and a girlfriend even though I had tried very hard to make sure that couldn’t happen.
At a loss for words, I stepped forward, closing the small distance between us, wrapping my arms around his neck and rising up my on my toes to press a kiss to his red red lips. His fingers found the tops of my hips, pressing into the bone as he gripped, almost hurting, but stopping at just this side of pain. I pressed my hips into his and was rewarded with a soft rumble in his throat that vibrated against his lips and into my mouth, tasting as sweet as honey.
Jensen broke our kiss with a frustrated noise. “It’s just so damn hard to know something is wrong with you and not be able to do anything about it.”
“Jensen, it was a dream, there isn’t anything any one could do about it. It’s just part of my whole deal,” I willed him to understand but was met with stony silence. Just as I was about to pull away from him and leave he caught me in his arms and crushed his lips to mine again, desperate and hungry for an outlet for his frustration.
A swirling energy rose up inside me and I remembered all of that power I had replenished on the mountain. A spark snapped between our bodies, zipping up to our joined hands and darting between my hips and his fingers. Jensen broke away from me in a gasp at first, but as I locked eyes with him, feeling the power practically glowing behind my eyes, he grabbed me suddenly and lifted me up. My legs were around his waist in a second and he was walking us out of the kitchen and down the hall. We started kissing again like it was the very air we needed and I clawed at his back, desperate to get closer to him suddenly.
He fumbled at the door to his bedroom, but had it open fast enough. He kicked the door closed once we were through, just on the chance his mother came home sooner than expected, so we would have those extra precious seconds before we were caught. The curtains were drawn over his two windows and the lights were off, so the midday sun was muted, giving the room a new level of intimacy in the false twilight.
Jensen walked to the bed, kneeled on it, and lowered me down, bracing himself on his hands so that he knelt over me. I broke the kiss then, letting my arms slide away to rest my hands on his shoulders as I looked up at him. From this angle, the sharp edges of his cheekbones were softened in a way that belied their dramatic slope, and his eyes were shadowed, making the blue of his eyes into a storm over the ocean, rather than the rich depths of the sea that I usually saw in them. One corner of his mouth pulled up in a smile, not enough to crinkle his eye, but it made him look like he was keeping a secret and that had my stomach flipping in excitement.
He lowered himself slowly, letting his body settle over mine, and I bent one leg at the knee, bringing it up to hook on his hip. Our bodies fit together like two puzzle pieces, each curve and angle finding a mate. I inhaled his spicy aroma, letting it sting my senses. He dipped his face and began kissing my neck, his breath warm against the hollow of my ear, sending pin pricks of excitement running up my spine and calling to the magic swirling inside of me, waiting for release.
As I laid there, I realized I had needed this moment, needed his weight settled on me, his scent filling me, needed a moment of pure abandonment and rebellion. I smiled up at the ceiling and let my eyes close as Jensen slid his fingers under the hem of my shirt and set to exploring the skin hidden there. I wriggled involuntarily as his fingertips tripped along my ribs, sliding along the line of my bra. He shifted his body to the side of mine and, although I could breathe a little easier for it, part of me regretted the new position. Jensen saw the look slide across my face and chuckled low and soft, barely a rumble in his chest, but didn’t climb back on top of me. Instead, he slid his fingers under my shirt again and slipped it off as I arched up to help him, grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling it with me as I laid back down.
I felt the giggle in my throat and didn’t fight it, letting myself just be a girl enjoying the moment. His hand slipped around to my back, sliding up to reach for the clasp of my bra but just before he found it, I felt his hand jolt. He urged me to roll over.
“Oh my god,” he said in a whisper when I rolled over, freezing in place.
“What?” I asked, looking at him over my shoulder, and saw that he was staring in mild horror at my back, but his look was mixed with a little anger.
“You have white scars running up your back, on either side of your spine,” he explained, running a finger up my back on each side, tracing the scars. It had been the different texture of skin that he felt when his fingers were reaching for my bra.
“Really?” I was a little surprised to hear more curiosity in my voice than any fear or worry.
“You’ve never gotten scars before from your dreams, have you?” His voice wavered a little at the end; as if he was afraid that he would find out I had been keeping secrets from him.
“No, but in this dream, something didn’t hurt me,” I said, still craning my neck, trying to see what he was looking at. “It just happened, like I grew the wings; maybe that’s the difference?”
“Shay,” Jensen said my name in that same tone
he had in the kitchen, and I felt him pulling away from me. I rolled onto my side and reached for him.
“Jensen,” I said, “please just let it go. It wasn’t something that anyone could’ve foreseen or done anything about.”
I didn’t have a chance to give the new marks on my body much thought though. After that first tentative moment, he returned to himself and, in a blaze of passion, he claimed me with that same desperate, frustrated energy. We tore at the remaining clothing we were wearing, casting it to the floor carelessly, and nearly clawed at each other in our desire.
As soon as his bare skin touched mine, I felt the magic that I had called this morning spring to life inside of me, like it had been waiting for this moment all day. It sang through my body, racing down my arms and out of my hands, almost searing Jensen where I touched him. I felt it swirling in my loins, reaching out and bursting in small explosions through my core. I opened my eyes and felt the heat of the light shining in them and watched Jensen’s look of surprise as he laid on top of me, watching my face in part wonder, part fear.
With his hips pressed into my thighs and my nails raking the skin on his back, I felt something inside of me snap, and a rush of power coursed through me, stealing my breath, and we both gasped as it slammed back into me. Jensen rocked his head back in the moment and a groan escaped him. I felt like my body had become liquid under him and finally the magic settled in my body, finding a home. All of the muscles in my body suddenly relaxed; a crashing wave, washing gently to shore.
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