a Touch of Intrigue

by L. j. Charles

  “When they touched my fingers, yeah.” He shifted away from the door, and stared at the leather and sea glass curled in my hands. “I see the patterns. Beautiful.”

  “It’s the blood bonding, isn’t it?” I closed my eyes and looked at them through ‘Tynan’s senses.’ “I can see the internal patterns in the glass when I tap into your gifts. You’re right. So beautiful, and so complex. It’s amazing that we can share this. I’m so damn grateful we shared our life force that way.”

  He shrugged. “It was a permanent commitment. And yeah, it’s good. You going to wear those?”

  Every one of the bracelets was technically created with white sea glass, but there were slight variations in color when I held them to the light. A touch of blue or green, and if I used Pierce-vision I could see the energetic network at the core of the glass. “There’s a wild circular pattern embedded in each piece of glass that has every color of the rainbow in it.”

  He flicked a strand of hair off my face. “Elementary school science class.”

  “Yeah, but it’s mind-boggling to actually see it.” There was no way I could leave any of the bracelets at home. “I’m wearing all of them.”

  He squinted at me. “All four?”

  I had no doubt. “Yes, I need them to be close to me.”

  He took them, one at a time from my hands, and fastened them around my wrists. “Should I be jealous?” Mischief laced his words.

  It was an obviously ridiculous question, so I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him into a wild kiss. When I stepped back, he tweaked a stray curl that had escaped my scrunchie during our lip lock. I winked at him. “Your kisses make even my hair lose control.”

  Spinning on his heel, Pierce made his way to the front door with me tagging along one step behind. “Keep your phone on, Belisama,” he said, holding the door open for me.

  “Of course. And I have my .380.” I patted my right cargo pocket. “I’ll be fine.”

  We jogged across the porch and down the front steps together, then parted—Tynan moving at a fast clip through the perimeter maze, and me, well, I wandered toward the internal maze, in no hurry to reach my mother’s living lab. Yeah, I wanted to destroy the toxin, and the need to attack the problem burned deep in my gut, but doubt held me back. What if I couldn’t do it? What if… Stupid, Everly. What ifs never helped any situation, and you’re the only person who has any chance to nullify Loyria Gray’s formula. The. Only. Person.

  I took my time navigating my mother’s maze, and found subtle differences in the twists and turns that didn’t match the sequence my grandfather used. I’d explored two of his mazes in finite detail. Both of them were planted for the sole purpose of protection. The maze surrounding the garden was more than that. There were clues as to how the DNA was structured, and if I could learn to read the sequence, I might be able to alter it in the plants my mother had used to create her formula. There was just one problem with that. Even with Pierce’s gift of ESP vision, I couldn’t see what I needed to do. And that left me only my fingers as a guide.

  Skimming my hands over the plants in the maze taught me one thing: my mother was a genius. I gained a new respect for her abilities, especially considering she hadn’t been born with screwed up genes like I was. My fingers might be an abomination of sorts, but damn they worked well. Mom had been handicapped with normalcy, and she still managed to design a formula that with a tweak of the inherent properties could be lethal, an antidote to lethal, or simply healing. That was bloody genius. Now if I could just live up to her standards…

  It had taken me over an hour to navigate the maze, and I was parched by the time I reached the garden. I guzzled one-third of my water, capped it, and stuffed it back in my pocket. I was a long way from the house, and it would be stupid to run out of water before I’d started working with the plants.

  I hunkered down at each of the four sides of the garden plot, examined the different specimens with my ESP fingers turned on high, and backed it up with Pierce-vision. Four specific plants formed a definite pattern within the typical Hawaiian foliage. Breakthrough!

  Bending over one of the sprouts, I closed my eyes and rubbed my fingers over the leaves. Images flooded my internal screen. I dropped the leaf, and keeping my fingers to myself, rewound the images. I studied each frame individually. Most of them showed my mother’s hands selectively picking a leaf or two. She chose the deepest green leaves from the plant I’d touched, nipped them off close to the stalk, and then soaked them in a tray filled with clear liquid. Mom didn’t wear gloves, and her fingertips were immersed in the liquid, so each plant alone probably wasn’t harmful to humans. But when they were combined…

  I repeated the same sequence for each of the other three plants. My mother’s process was exactly the same no matter which type of leaf she was working with. That made things easier. But it was a long way from a slam-dunk.

  Clouds brewed overhead, signaling it was late afternoon and I was about to be doused in the daily rainstorm. Damn, but I’d hung around too long, and now I didn’t have time to make it home before the storm broke. A tree was my best bet to stay reasonably dry. The storms didn’t last long and usually didn’t involve lightning, so I’d be safe nestled under the dense canopy. I scanned the area, picked the most likely tree to offer protection, and headed toward the far side of the garden. I climbed onto a low branch, sat astride, and leaned my back against the trunk. It was a long way from an easy chair, but comfortable enough that I could sit and enjoy the storm before I made my way home. I worked my phone out of my pocket and sent Pierce a quick text. Lost track of time. Waiting out the rain under the canopy of friendly tree. Home soon. Love you.

  It was a matter of seconds before he replied. Want me to be there?

  I sensed the concern in his text. Even Annie wasn’t that careful with me anymore. Hadn’t been for months. My heart swelled with love. Pierce cared. Really cared. It was all in the little things. No. I’m solid. I’ll text you when I start home. Dinner plans?

  I’d barely sent the message before my phone beeped. Food.

  And that left me to plan the evening. Plus I had to take into account that Siofra and Lorcán would be arriving later. We’d need to feed them. A rush of fear vibrated through me. Holy crap. I had to feed Pierce’s mother. Possibly the best cook in the world outside of Millie. Wait. There was that pot of soup in Millie and Harlan’s refrigerator. I could swing by the cottage before I went home, pick it up, and be back before Pierce had a chance to miss me. Maybe not. But if I told him my plans, he’d hike over to the cottage and get the soup, and he’d probably do it during the rainstorm. And this was something I could handle, as long as I texted him when I got to the cottage it should be fine. No danger inside the perimeter maze except from Fred’s cronies, and although they were far from trustworthy, they wanted me alive. Yep. It was a plan.

  The storm was lovely, drenching everything in life-giving moisture, and when I used Pierce-vision, I could see a definitive difference in the auras of the formula plants from normal plants. The vibration was multitudes wilder and very high-speed. The color sparkled in shades of white, a lot like diamonds. Which brought up an interesting question. What had Loyria done to those seedlings before she planted them?

  Wait. White. Diamonds. Sea glass.

  I leaned from under the leaf canopy and stuck my arm into the gentle rainfall. The glass came alive. Not literally, but the two bracelets on my dripping wet arm glowed with a precise energetic pattern. The exact opposite of the formula plants. Did that mean they had nothing in common, or everything in common, like two sides of the same design? They were both formed by nature… I yanked my arm back, sloughed the water off, and settled on the branch.

  Crazy thoughts. The plants were created in nature before my mother “changed” them. Sea glass was created by humans, and then changed by nature. Mirror processes. And the sea glass came to life on my wrist. It sang to me. If a human swallowed the formula it changed them—either to heal or to destroy. I pu
lled a notepad out of my pocket and made a note:

  Nature’s creation—Changed by human—Human touch=Heal or Destroy

  Human creation—Changed by nature—Human touch=Life song

  It needed work.

  In typical Hawaiian fashion, the downpour stopped as suddenly as it had begun. I shoved the pad in my pocket, and jumped out of the tree. Time for me to collect the soup from Millie’s refrigerator, text Pierce, and get my butt home. My visit to Mom’s garden hadn’t been a total waste, but it would have been nice if she’d sent her ghost to chat with me, show me how I should fix the mess she left.

  I shuddered. Was it a chill from my damp clothes, or the idea of confronting Loyria Gray’s ghost? According to Aukele, Makani had seen my parents’ death, and warned them the accident was coming and when. Why the hell hadn’t she finished her research when she knew I’d be stuck with the leftovers?

  The answer popped into my head, as clear as if she stood in front of me. Because you are the only one who can finish the project. It is your destiny, and your gift.

  It wasn’t Mom’s voice, thank the goddesses, because that would have been…too much. But tears still pooled behind my eyes. Damn, but I missed her. And my dad.

  I stood in the sun, drying off and getting a grip on my emotions. If this was my destiny, I’d best get on it, jump in with eyes wide open…or maybe shut. Hard to say when my ESP worked best with closed eyes, and Pierce-vision with open eyes. Except when we used each other’s gift. Opposites. Just like the plant energy and sea glass energy.

  The profound thoughts were burning a hole in my brain so I jogged to the cottage, hoping some physical exercise would jiggle my thoughts into coherence. Or not. It’d be a true downer if I was destined to be a crazy lady for the rest of my life. That idea chased an out-loud laugh from me. Hell, I’d been born different, and should be used to it by now.

  The run cleared my head. I checked my .380, and held it at the ready while I carefully scanned the area around the cottage. Fred, and by default, his minions had access to this section of my property. Anyone could be in the cottage, watching. Time to let Pierce know where I was.

  I slipped the gun back into my pocket, trading it for my phone. At cottage, picking up soup for your parents. Home soon.

  His response came before I had time to inhale. What the hell?

  Uh-oh. I screwed up. I won’t go in until you get here. No sign of intruders. Birds chirping. Feels normal. I’m safe.

  I held my breath waiting for his response. Don’t move.

  Okay. He was angry. Probably with good reason. I should have told him I was coming here before I left the garden. I squatted behind a banana plant and watched the cottage while I waited for Pierce. Quiet as the proverbial tomb. I itched to go inside, but stayed put. I’d scared Pierce, and that was unacceptable.

  Twenty-two minutes later his hand clamped around my mouth, and he jerked me back against him in a hold I couldn’t break. “Fred’s people are trained. You didn’t hear me. Didn’t see me.” He let go and whirled me to face him. “You scared the shit out of me, Everly.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I thought it through. Fred wants me alive, and there would be no point in taking me away from the garden.”

  Pierce glared. “He has Millie and Harlan.”

  Yep. He’d made another good point. “I want them back, Pierce. Can we find them? Please?”

  “Yeah. Later. Soup first.” His tone had gentled.

  I slipped my arms around him, holding him tight. “I’ll get better at this. Try and think things through from your point of view. The thing is, when you’re on assignment, I’m scared, too. We need to find a place where we trust each other.”

  “Got that. We’ll up your training schedule.”

  I left that one alone. He was right, I needed more training to live in his world. “Sharing my life with you is important. For both of us, I hope. And that means—”

  “You want to travel with me. Knew it was coming. Don’t like it.”

  I stretched on tiptoes, kissed his cheek. “Let’s table this until I solve the formula problem. Right now we have your parents and soup to deal with.”

  He stepped back, looked into my eyes. “You’re afraid of them.”

  I twitched. “Yeah. Your mom is one of the best cooks ever, and I’m not. Millie’s soup is—”

  “Got it. You could’ve asked me to cook for them.” Laughter danced behind his smile.

  “You cook?” The man was breaking records for shocking the hell out of me.

  “Damn right.”

  We strolled toward the cottage hand-in-hand.

  “I think learning how to fight is an art.”

  His hand tightened around mine. “We’ll nail it.”

  Yeah. We would. “Baby steps, but they’re still steps.” I stopped walking. “Hey, how come you’re walking straight in without checking for possible invaders?”

  He grinned. “Trust you, Belisama.”

  And didn’t that just knock my socks into the stratosphere. “You trust my scouting or my intuition?”

  “Both,” he said, tugging on my hand. “And I circled the area before I came up behind you.”

  My socks landed back on the earth with a thud. “Well, shit. And I didn’t spot you. Total observation fail.”

  This time Pierce stopped walking. “I wouldn’t have spotted me. But I would have noticed unnatural leaf motion.”

  I thought for a minute. “So if I’m hearing you correctly, you’re saying that you’re so good at what you do no one, not even a well-trained person would be able to see you, but they would notice if the shrubbery moved for any reason other than the wind.”

  “Yes.”

  “How do I learn that?” The question came from deep in my gut. I hadn’t realized how badly I wanted to work with him, and not sit at home waiting like a useless bump.

  He grunted. The it-would-take-too-many-words-to-explain sound. “Whitney and A.J. focused on defense skills.”

  I offered clarification. “Which you’ve agreed I’m doing okay with, right?”

  “Yeah. Good enough.”

  “So how do I train for field work?”

  Pierce spun me into his arms. “Go to work for Fred.”

  FOURTEEN

  EVERY INCH OF ME REBELLED, and I shoved against Tynan’s chest hard enough to make him grunt. “Fred my ass!” I sucked in a breath. “You can’t be serious, so what are you really saying?”

  “He trains his people hard. They’re the best.”

  Holy crap, maybe Tynan was serious. No, he couldn’t be. I wandered deeper into this new hell-pit. “So, you want to send me to the Pentagon? Isn’t that where Fred… I scrambled out of his arms. “How did I know that? There’s no way I’d have a memory of a meeting between Fred and my mother. That’s not remotely possible, and yet it popped into my mind as though I stood right there with her.”

  Pierce waited a beat. “Her? Not them?”

  What was his point? The scene was fading from my mind, distracting me. “Huh? Um, Fred sat. Behind his desk. But Mom wouldn’t sit.”

  Tynan gripped my shoulders and gave me a gentle shake. “What did you touch?”

  “Touch? When? I’ve only been in the garden, and now here at the cottage with you.” I ran through my memory of the day. “The plants. There are four of them in Mom’s garden that aren’t native to Hawaii.”

  His eyebrows arched in silent question.

  “I used your vision gift, and could see the aura around them. It was clearly visible, sparkly white with a high-frequency vibration. Anyway, I touched one of them before the rainstorm interrupted my investigation. Why? Do you think touching that plant connected me with my Mom?” Adrenaline bombarded me. “That’s the answer. She can show me how to prepare the formula. This is fantastic news, Pierce.” I came that close to jumping up and down, but managed to corral four-year-old Everly.

  He frowned, looking thoroughly underwhelmed.

  “What?” I asked, backing away so I could
get a good look at him.

  Pierce snagged my hands, and kissed my fingers. Love poured into me. The strength, power, and truth in it completely derailed me.

  “Scares me, Belisama. You connecting with her through those plants.”

  “Yeah. There is that, and it’s uncomfortable. But I have to do this, Tynan. It’s not a whim, or something I can pass off to some unsuspecting scientist. I can’t let Fred, or any of his clones, have access to a lethal toxin. I couldn’t live with that.”

  He pulled me tight against his chest. “Loyria was part of the conspiracy.”

  The honesty of Tynan’s words hurt, but it wasn’t a pain I could back away from or ignore. My parents had conspired with Fred, and so had Aukele. “Yes, she was a part of it. But we weren’t there, and the best we can do is second-guess their motives. I’m uncomfortable with manipulation and deception. Conspiracy—just saying the word leaves a bad taste, however, I’m learning to understand how it happens. Sort of. Secrets, schemes, plots, machinations, they’re all part of the intrigue inherent in our lives. I’ve wondered if our life together would be better if it were free from these things, but I always come to the same conclusion. That kind of innocence isn’t why we were born. Your mother chose to birth you in Templebryan, and mine ingested an unstable toxin that became part of my DNA. Our roles were predestined and neither of us were never meant to walk the earth in innocence. Think about it. Have you ever gone on a mission that didn’t have intrigue woven into the warp and weft of the details?”

  Pierce opened his mouth, but I pressed my fingers against his lips. “Don’t answer. I meant that as a statement based on my interaction with you, Annie, and even Adam, but most of all with Mitch. He wasn’t born with the strength to walk through intrigue unscathed. We were. Sometimes it’s a battle we fight our way through, but we were meant to be warriors. Like it or not, it’s our birthright.”

  Silence. Moisture pooled in Tynan’s eyes. And then he took my mouth in a kiss that caressed my soul.