Lissa Kasey - Dominion 3 - Conviction

by Lissa Kasey

  “Hey, Harding!” Ryan, a track teammate, waved from down the hall. “We’re meeting at Peppicino’s tomorrow. You game?”

  “Sure. Are we running?”

  “Normal loop, back for lunch. We’ll start about nine, rain or shine.”

  “I’ll be there,” I said, pausing to deliver the required hand slap, low-five handshake.

  “Tell Con. He was too busy sticking his tongue down Ann Pugget’s throat when I passed.”

  My body froze as my brain seemed to go white with shock. “You sure it was Con?”

  “Yeah. His tattooed ugly puss is hard to miss. Is Ann your girl or something? ’Cause that’s so not cool.” Ryan flipped his black hair back and glared at the hallway behind him. “I can go with you—”

  “No. It’s nothing. He just didn’t tell me he was seeing anyone. It was sort of a shock.” More than a shock. A betrayal. He’d had his cock up my ass just eight hours before, telling me he loved me.

  “Yeah. But Ann’s got a rep for being an easy spreader. He’s probably just looking for tail.” Ryan patted me on the back. “See you tomorrow, K.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.” My legs felt like concrete when I headed down the hall toward Con’s locker. The walls seemed to be closing in as I moved, my sight getting fuzzy.

  He stood at his locker, body close to Ann’s, hand in hers, smiles on their faces. I almost reached them when the world dropped out from under me. All I remember was the alarm on Ann’s pretty face and Con’s head turning my way.

  When I awoke I was in the nurse’s office, lying on an uncomfortable cot. Con sat beside the bed. His eyes were wide and worried, and his legs fidgeted in a random tapping.

  “Hey,” he said, noticing I was awake. “How are you feeling?”

  “What happened?” My lungs hurt, and I struggled to pull in another breath.

  He reached back, grabbed something on the desk, and a second later my inhaler was pressed to my lips. “Asthma attack. Bad one. Your mom’s on the way.”

  I didn’t remember having an attack, but the tightness of my lungs was familiar enough. His fingers caressed my arm absently, and he finally tucked my inhaler in my pocket. The feel of him touching me so tenderly hurt. My eyes burned with tears I fought not to show.

  “Everything okay, K?” he asked, like he hadn’t done anything wrong.

  “You kissed Ann.”

  He shrugged. “Gotta keep up the show. You know my parents would freak. You’re still my number one.”

  Footsteps crossed the room, and the curtain slid back. My mom smiled at me with concern. I’d never been so happy for the interruption. If she noticed the tension, she did well at ignoring it, even making Con go back to class. But the day had already been ingrained in my head as the beginning of the end.

  I shoved the book onto the nightstand, clicked off the light, and hit the pillow. Seeing Con again was really messing with my head. I’d never be anyone’s dirty little secret again.

  Chapter Ten

  Jamie

  CAT’S smile was easy and her eyes bright. She clung to my

  side like most Dominion girls did when they heard I was from the second wave and related by blood to someone in the first wave. Stupid aristocracy, at least I could make it work for me. Thankfully my sister Hanna never acted this way. Maybe it was just how they were raised.

  “So how long are you and Constantine staying?” I asked, ignoring the way her hand caressed my arm. “Awhile, I guess.” She didn’t seem to like talking about her brother.

  “It’s good to see you’re so close. I don’t know what I would do without my little brother.” My words made her cringe, but she covered it well. “Then there’s my sister Hanna. She’s pregnant, so there will be a baby coming soon. We have an appointment next week to look at the ultrasound.”

  Cat flipped her hair back and put on an inquiring smile. “Babies are wonderful. Does she know if it’s a girl yet?”

  Because all that mattered was that the baby was a girl. “We’ll know soon.” The baby would be born whether it was a girl or a boy.“So you and Con are related to the Gossners?”

  “Yeah, Hans is my mom’s brother. But Louise wasn’t Dominion.”

  “What element are you?”

  “Air. My great-grandmother was one of the most

  amazing storm-makers of the twentieth century.” She leaned in close, resting her head on her hand and staring at me dreamily. “Earth and air are a great combination.”

  Storm makers? “So what level are you?”

  “I tested at a three. But that was years ago.”

  “Have you ever made it rain?”

  She shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “Any air witch of

  reasonable power can make it rain.”

  But very few were powerful enough to cool it to snow.

  And a level three wouldn’t have that kind of power. “Snow?” She frowned at me. “No.”

  “How about your brother. Can he make it snow?” “He’s male. He can’t even make the wind blow.” Mhmm.

  Kelly FEELING someone move next to me ripped me out of sleep with a panic that Con may have gotten into the room. I brought up a quick knee in the dark, aiming to hurt, but got a grunt when it hit a thick and solid thigh.

  “You didn’t kick like that last night,” Jamie said. I wedged open an eye and stared through the minimal light at him. He stared back, wearing nothing but boxers and kneeling on the edge of the bed.

  “You going to share the bed or lay in the middle all night?” I rolled over, kicked off the blankets, and snuggled into my pillow, giving him a view of my bare ass.

  He sighed but lifted the blankets and buried himself beneath them on his side of the bed. “You know, if it turns out that you have anything to do with this storm thing, I’m never going to forgive you.”

  “How much snow is there?”

  “Seven feet without the drifts. Ten where the wind is blowing it. They may need to fly us out of here. National Guard like.”

  I turned back to face him, feeling more than a little raw with all my old memories of Con running through my head. “Do you really think it’s me?”

  “It wouldn’t be you alone. And maybe you don’t even want to do it. But maybe Roman bit you. They never found his remains.”

  “You can search me for bites if you want.” He shook his head, looking indifferent. I didn’t want him to be indifferent. I wanted him to care. There had to be more to this man than just a guy who obsessed over his little brother. Why wouldn’t he let me in? And how could we get back what had been stolen from us? “Roman would know to heal them. And you might not be aware that you’re helping him.”

  “So what do you want me to do? How can I prove I’m not doing this?”

  “I wish I knew.”

  I leaned in close, loving those big amber eyes of his as they widened, and kissed him. The press of my lips against his was little more than a chaste kiss until he parted his lips and opened for me, letting my tongue explore the taste of him. The mint of toothpaste and hint of him made me hard. He made no move to kiss me or push me away, so I stopped.

  “Am I even on the same planet as you?”

  “I’m sorry, Kelly.” Sure. Everyone was sorry. Poor Kelly. “Whatever.” I went back to my side of the bed and huddled around my pillow, doing my best to ignore him. Thoughts weren’t that easy to push aside, though. They kept me tossing and turning. The late afternoon nap had likely affected my sleep cycle, so I just couldn’t fall into that deep trance I usually did.

  Jamie slept like a bear in hibernation beside me, unbothered by all my floundering. And just after 2 a.m. I decided I’d had enough, got up, threw on some sweats and a tee, and made my way downstairs.

  The lobby and lounge were dark and empty. Light in the kitchen drew me like a beacon. I prayed it wasn’t Con and that the lodge had some sort of ice cream tucked away even in the dead of winter.

  Gabe sat at the large kitchen counter, fussing with the CB radio.

  “Still n
ot getting a signal?” I asked.

  “No one’s replied yet.”

  “Sei sleeping?”

  “Yeah. Sleepytime tea puts him out in less than a half an hour.”

  I dug into the freezer and found a giant bucket of ice cream, then scooped some into a bowl. Sucking on the spoon, I put the pail away and sat down across from Gabe to devour my treat.

  “You’re as bad as Sei with the sweets.”

  Actually, the habit had grown since I’d moved in with Seiran. Now I just worked out more to cover for all his amazing cooking. “You must have lots of sex to keep him so skinny.”

  Gabe smiled. “Never enough for Sei. He’s actually still five pounds under his normal weight. I was hoping the trip would help with that.” He ran his hands through his blond hair, then played with the radio dials again. He looked worried, which was more emotion than I’d seen from Jamie in days. Gabe tried to stay stoic most of the time too, so this must really be getting to him. “I’m always putting him in danger.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Why people seemed to be drawn to hurt Seiran I didn’t know, but it wasn’t right for Gabe to blame himself. “If you want to blame anyone, blame me. I suggested the trip.” The ice cream looked more like cream soup in my bowl. “But I’m not doing this storm thing. Just so you know.”

  “I didn’t think you were.”

  “But it’s not normal. I feel the water, like it’s being tossed around carelessly. I’m just not strong enough to stop it.” That bugged me a lot, and I really needed someone in our little family to trust me.

  “Sei and I talked about it before he went to bed. Air is at play, which probably means Roman again.” He sounded matter of fact. “But Roman shouldn’t have this kind of power. If he were to test, he’d be around Jamie’s level of power, not yours or Sei’s.”

  “What if he has others helping him? Like other air witches.”

  “Not the same. Now that Sei is my focus I understand his much better. Most witches draw the power into themselves and can only expend so much. For Sei, it’s like he’s standing in the middle of a lei line all the time or is a lightning rod that’s constantly pulling in storms. He has a never-ending supply of power. Most witches are selfish and can’t control the power they do have, so lending it to someone else would be unheard of. Sei, of course, can do it without a passing thought.”

  I stared at him for a while, knowing why Sei had such a thing for the guy.

  “What?”

  “You’re kind of poetic.” And sappy.

  He rolled his eyes at me.

  “So you think Roman’s still alive.” There had been a massive explosion that had taken out a barn and likely its occupants, which had been Andrew Roman, Matthew Pierson, and maybe, Sam Mueller, all men who wanted to harm Sei at one time. Sam had been under vampire influence, but the other two were pure evil, in my opinion.

  “The police found Roman’s badge at the house, but no sign of his remains.”

  “And Sam survived.”

  “Poor kid is still trying to figure himself out. Sei hasn’t heard anything in a few weeks, though.”

  “At least Sei has you.” The wind howled, and the lodge creaked. I shivered. “It’s building again.”

  “The storm?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You should go back to bed. Get some rest. Not sleeping will make it feel worse. I’ll keep trying to reach civilization. If anything, I can go out in the storm and walk somewhere. I won’t freeze to death, and I can bury myself in the snow in the daytime. We’ll be fine.”

  I put my hands over my heart and batted my eyelashes. “My hero.”

  He laughed. “Go to bed, Harding.”

  The craziness of the weather made me wonder if there was another option. I’d been skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling my whole life and never been stuck like this before. It had me thinking about the snowmobiles. All the ones here were damaged by water, but you had to be pretty close to do that sort of damage, pull the water out of the air to flood a tank or something. Though the Ski-Doo at the cabin was buried with snow, how likely would it be that whoever was sabotaging our stuff would know it was there and travel far enough to do it?

  “Something still on your mind?” Gabe asked when I didn’t head toward the bedrooms.

  “I was just thinking about the snowmobiles. If you do end up walking, remember there’s a sled at the cabin still. That one might not be filled with water. Just buried in snow.”

  He stared at me for a minute, like he was trying to figure me out. Though I didn’t think I was all that complicated. “Okay. That might be an option.”

  I turned to head back to the room, but paused. “I would never hurt Sei. You know that, right?”

  “Sei trusts you. Just remember how often that trust has been violated. The next one who comes against him, I will destroy.”

  “Understood and agreed.” Despite being tempted to ask if I could curl up with Seiran just to try to get some sleep, I didn’t. I made my way back to my room and contemplated the blowing snow. The icy crystals couldn’t give me anything more than vague impressions.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jamie I WOKE up to find Kelly gone. The first instinct of panic made me roll over to see if he was just in the bathroom, but the door was open and the light off. It was almost 3:00 a.m. Where could he be? Maybe Sei’s room?

  Throwing on a T-shirt and grabbing a key, I tiptoed down the hall to Gabe and Sei’s room, using the spare Gabe had given me to open the door. Sei slept curled around Gabe’s pillow, but otherwise alone. I watched him sleep for a few minutes, marveling at the peace he seemed to find at night.

  How many times had he been hurt by others? Used like he was nothing more than a puppy someone could throw away when they were done. Abused by the people who claimed to love him. First Tanaka, who always treated him with an iron fist, shaping his life for him while condemning him at every turn. Then Matthew, who convinced my brother he was nothing more than a hole to fuck, making him fear commitment, love, and emotion of all kind. And then Brock, who had been the first real friend that Sei had made in his college years.

  Now there was Kelly. Who spent endless hours with Sei. Had convinced us all to trust him, let him into our lives. He knew all of Gabe’s secrets, had a key to the underground apartment, which put Gabe in danger. Kelly slept just feet from Sei. Had access to their food and water and could stage an accident at any time. He’d wormed his way so deeply into our lives that even I’d begun to wonder how I’d existed before him.

  But the snow and the storms, they would need a strong water witch to create them. How easy it would have been for him to put water in the lines of the sleds. He was a level five witch. He could probably drown a man where he stood without breaking a sweat. Sure, he didn’t have much training, but that made a witch more dangerous, didn’t it?

  With the last few months of mishaps, the only explanation could be that Kelly was part of it all. Maybe he’d been bitten by Roman months ago. Forced to befriend Sei and dig so deeply into our lives that we wouldn’t suspect him. That could be the only reason he wasn’t in bed at this hour. Everyone but Gabe and me was out to hurt Sei.

  Seiran had to be shown the truth. We couldn’t trust strangers anymore. Kelly wasn’t family. Him not being in bed when everyone else was meant he had to be off doing something to hurt us all. The pain of it stung, but I couldn’t let it control me. Protecting my family was more important. With Sei sleeping so soundly, nothing felt more necessary than separating Kelly and Sei.

  Finally, I shut the door and headed back to my room, feeling the anger in me like I hadn’t for a long time. The storm outside raged as bad as it had last night. Wind howling like a banshee and cold saturating everything. Magic penetrated the air, filling it with malice and pain. Why hadn’t I felt it before?

  Where was Kelly? I hated this deep suspicion. I wanted to trust him, wanted him to be family. He just kept pushing me away. Why couldn’t he just talk to me? If someone was making him do this
, I could help. Somehow we’d get him free. The idea that he may be hiding it from me out of fear or something as equally stupid just pissed me off. If anything happened to Sei because of all this, he’d really get to see the bear I was.

  Kelly

  I OPENED the door to my shared room and moved to crawl back into bed. Jamie sat up and stared at me. “What?”

  “Where did you go?”

  “To the kitchen to get a snack.”

  “It’s after 3 a.m.”

  I could tell time, but I tried to keep my snarky comments to myself. “And there’s praline fudge ripple in the freezer. Ask Gabe if you don’t believe me. He’s monkeying with the CB in the kitchen.”

  “You sure you weren’t out tampering with generators or poisoning our food supply?” His tone felt colder than the storm blowing outside.

  “What the fuck?”

  “Stay away from my brother.”

  My heart skipped a beat. Here it was, his final moment

  of telling me he didn’t trust me. Could I handle it? “In case you’ve forgotten, he’s my roommate now. When we get out of this place, his bedroom is less than fifteen feet from mine.” I yanked the blankets away from Jamie, threw myself on the bed, and stuffed the covers around me like a shield.

  “That just burns you, doesn’t it? That he’s so close but not interested.”

  “What the hell has gotten into you tonight?”

  “It’s after three in the morning, and you’re sneaking around. We’re trapped in a hotel under more than ten feet of snow, and you have to ask what’s wrong with me?”

  “I’d say cabin fever. But whatever. I’m going to sleep.” I put a pillow over my head and burrowed myself further into the blankets to try to ignore any more harsh words. Eventually he settled back into the bed again and seemed to sleep.

  Time passed agonizingly slow. I thought of a million possibilities about how the storm had formed and how to get us out of here alive. Most of the escape plans hinged on finding that last sled undamaged.