Ezra squeezes my hand before releasing it as he rises. Before he exits, Ezra puts his hand on Xander’s shoulder as he stands near the open door. “Thank you for bringing her back.”
Xander’s runs his hand through his hair. “I wasn’t going to let her go.”
“I know.”
Xander levels with Ezra. “I’m not leaving her side tonight.”
Ezra puts his hand on his shoulder and nods, then looks back at me. “Both of you try to rest.”
Xander stands at the door and I lay in bed in silence fidgeting with my fingers long after Ezra has left.
I try to reassure him that I’ll be fine. “Xander, you don’t have to stay with me. I’m just a little drained. You’re not getting any rest standing there like a sentinel.”
Xander walks toward me and sits at the foot of the bed. Leaning against the post of the bed, he grins for the first time since seeing me in the state I was in. “There, I’m resting.”
He folds his arms over his chest, and runs his hand up his arm as if he’s chilled. “You’re cold. Here.” I toss him the blanket Ezra added to the layers of sheets and comforter before leaving.
“If you’re going to stay, then at least wrap up and keep warm. And, you don’t look comfortable leaning against the bedpost. Just sayin’.”
He wraps the blanket around him, rises off the bed and walks over to the lone chair in the corner of the room. He turns off the lamp on the nightstand next to the chair and leans back to get comfortable. “There. Better?”
With the glow of the moon the only light filling the room, I turn on my side and watch him as he stares at me.
“You said that banging woke you. I wasn’t hitting anything in my nightmare. All I remember is running, then being caught.”
Xander shifts in the chair, but keeps his eyes on me. “It was a voice first. In my head.”
“Was it a man’s voice or woman’s voice?” I ask inquisitively.
His eyes don’t leave mine. “It was your voice.”
“Why didn’t you tell Ezra?”
Xander rests his closed fist on his temple for support. “I didn’t want to piss Nate off. So much for that attempt.”
Wondering if the only thing he was withholding was what he heard, I ask him, “How did you bring me back, Xander?”
“I told you. I shook you, and then I held you to me.”
“I know what you said. But I know there’s more.”
Xander looks away and out the window. “How do you know?”
I’m straight with him. “I can feel it. Hear it even.”
As Xander sits up, he rests one hand on his knee, and then places the other over his chest as he takes me in. “Your heart was beating so slowly. It was so faint, so weak. All I could think about was how you just found me and now I might lose you. This couldn’t be all that was meant for us.”
I remember him saying those same words in front of Ms Olivia’s store the day we met. My chest tightens with the memory, and I breathe in deeply, trying to control my emotions as he continues to speak. “All I remember is that I closed my eyes and begged for you not to leave me. I felt anger and pain all at once. Then, I felt like I released something from within me and gave it to you.” He bows his head, cupping his hands around the back of his neck.
Slowly, I push the covers off me, rise and walk over to him. As I get closer, I see his shoulders rising and falling from the emotions he’s fighting. Feeling me coming towards him, Xander raises his head just as I kneel in front of him.
“Ezra’s right. The feeling of release you felt was you connecting with me. Giving me your energy. Saving my life. You saved me Xander.”
I can’t help the emotions overflowing between us as a tear rolls down my cheek and my breath hitches from the intensity between us.
In that moment, Xander comes down to his knees with me and pulls me to him. His soft sobs as he clutches me to him both melts and sets my heart ablaze. Then, without warning, Xander lets me into his mind.
When someone opens their mind to you, it feels like a window is being opened in a fast-moving car. Everything in the wake of the wind swirls and fills every crevice in that car. In this instance, everything that is Xander fills every crevice of me.
I gasp from the impact of all the images—his mother’s face his father’s face, his parents’ funeral, his grandmother’s face. He even gives me the memory of the way his grandmother smelled, and I inhale it deeply. He shows me the first foster family he stayed with and how the kids would bully him when the parents weren’t watching. He shows me the shelters and his fear of getting hurt by the other runaways and homeless people.
I tighten my arms around him as his thoughts continue to flood me. He shows me a younger version of Ezra, waving his arms and running toward him. He shows me Sam telling him to get into the car. He unleashes so many memories in this moment that I can’t control my sobs.
He runs his hand along the back of my head, down the length of my back, soothing me with his touch as his memories continue to flow.
He shows me the day he saw me at Ms. Olivia’s. How I took his breath away if not more than he did to me. He gives me the feeling he felt when I looked at him in the cafe as we drank coffee and talked about everything and nothing at all. He reveals how he felt when I looked at him with hate and bitterness the night Corinna was taken.
That same night when he snuck up on me while I was jogging, he exposes how he was so hesitant to come see me before he left but he couldn’t leave without telling me how he felt. He gives me all the emotions that filled him as he kissed me—the need for me, the passion for me, the want to be everything that is good for me.
How can he want to be everything good for me? Everything that he’s been through in his life, someone needs to be there for him. I pull back from him far enough to still feel his labored breath on my lips.
“Jes. I’m sorry I left. I just...”
The heat of his panting whisper on my lips sends me over the edge and I kiss him. His urgency meets mine as he cups my face with both of his hands and deepens the kiss. As soon as our tongues meet, I can’t withhold my need for this closeness with him, releasing a moan of want and need. My hands move up his broad chest to his neck, raking through his thick, dark hair as I pull him to me. I can’t get him close enough.
All of a sudden, Xander breaks the kiss, pulling back to search my eyes. With his heart racing under my palms, I know he wants more just as I do. How can this attraction be so strong so quick after being apart for two months?
Xander runs his thumb along my swollen lips before resting his lips on them again, but just for a second. “You need to rest, Jes.” He gently pulls me to my feet, walking me back to the bed. He covers me with the heavy comforter then walks back to the lone chair in the corner and wraps himself up in the blanket I gave him.
We don’t speak the rest of the night. The only communication is our taking turns to watch each other while the other rests. As I lie there, blocking my thoughts, I wonder how Xander could possibly connect with me and save my life if we aren’t in fact linked. Could it be possible for Nate and Xander to both be linked to me?
CHAPTER 17: SEEING ME
Xander
I lean back in the deep chair, trying to get comfortable. This chair is the most uncomfortable chair in the world, but the hell if I’m going to leave this room tonight. I’m not going to leave her alone. God, I’m never going to leave her alone again.
I lean my head on my fist and study the rise and fall of the comforter covering her. Her eyes are closed, but she’s still awake. We are both too wired to sleep, but at least she’s resting.
I still can’t believe what has happened. Sitting here in the silence of the room is surreal as only hours ago this room was full of chaos, my head filled with her fear and suffocating voice.
Then, I have the strangest sensation ca
me over me. The only thing I can think of to describe it is to compare it to the electric charge of the atmosphere just moments before lightning strikes. I felt energy boiling inside of me, and the only thing on my mind was giving that energy to her so that she could live.
Yeah, it made Nate angrier than shit, but I can’t do anything about that. I can’t blame him for falling in love with her either. I saw it in his eyes the night at the club when I first met him. He’s territorial over her. And the more I’m around her I’m feeling territorial too. Maybe she’s right about my connecting with her, but I don’t even understand how that could be. She’s already connected to Nate. I can see that Ezra, who supposedly knows all there is about this shit, doesn’t get it, which leaves us in the complicated predicament we’re in right now.
Watching her brings me peace and I need that peace after setting all of my demons free. I’m surprised she didn’t throw me out with all the shit I sent her way through my thoughts; an orphan, a runaway, damaged. Never in a million years would I have shared my thoughts with another living soul, let alone a woman I’ve only known for a few weeks. But Jes wasn’t just any woman. She wasn’t just any living soul. I knew that the moment I laid eyes on her.
I rub my lips together, as the memory of her kissing me still lingers on them. God, the contact with her, the emotions coursing between us, I wanted her so bad, but I could sense apprehension. A timidity that might reflect her changing her mind about what we have unraveled between us tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised if she pulls back from me, changes her mind about what she had done by kissing someone like me. But I won’t regret letting her in to see all of me.
CHAPTER 18: DISARMING
Jesca
As soon as dawn breaks through the frosted window, I roll over to look at Xander. He looks so peaceful with his eyes closed. His dark-brown hair has fallen across his forehead as his head lulls to the side. I can see some of the features that he shares with Nate—the dark eyelashes and the olive-toned skin. Their strong jaw line is a family trait.
I’m glad to see he’d dozed off. He’s going to need the rest after training with Nate, Ezra, and me today.
Whatever stirred him passes as his breathing deepens again. His lips slacken, and the focus I give them triggers the tingle of my lips as I remember last night and the kiss we shared.
Xander breathes deep and closes his mouth as he scoots up higher into the chair. His eyes blink open and he grins at me. “Morning.”
I feel like I’ve been caught with my hand in the cookie jar. I scoot up to lean my back against the headboard and mumble. “Good morning.”
He unwraps the blanket from his body and stands. His white Henley shirt and jeans are rumpled from sitting in the chair all night. As he stretches his arms over his head, the Henley hugs his broad chest keeping my attention a little too long.
I look down at my fumbling hands as he folds his blanket and places it in the trunk by the window. As he looks out through the glass, the clouded sky reflects against his green eyes, making them gleam turquoise. He doesn’t look at me when he speaks. “I did the same thing last night.”
I scrunch my forehead, wondering what he means.
He looks at me with a heavy seductive stare. “I could watch you for hours. Every sigh; every breath. Everything about you.”
His words are disarming and make me want to go to him, but the tempting need between us is still running hot from last night and I can’t guarantee I won’t kiss him again as I did last night.
Xander looks back out the window, putting his hands in his pockets. Right now, this simple, peaceful, comforting and passionate connection between us seems to thrive on the silence of our voices as we just stay in the moment.
When the moment has passed and Xander silently walks out of the room, I scoot off the bed and take the comforter with me, wrapping myself in its warmth. I need to talk to Ezra.
I find him on the front porch of the cabin, sitting in a rocking chair with a cup of coffee in his hands. He acknowledges me, and then takes a sip of coffee.
“What are you doing out here. It’s fucking cold!”
The air is frigid, and the sun is trying to break through the overcast sky, which is oddly normal after last night’s arc lightning show. I pull the comforter tightly around me, feeling the cold creep up my bare legs as I lean against the log pillar in front of Ezra. “Xander and I talked last night. He told me some things that make me wonder if we could be linked too. I know you’re already thinking about it. Is it possible to be linked to more than one person?”
Ezra runs a hand along the back of his neck. “What did he say that makes you think that it’s a possibility?”
It only takes me a couple of minutes to recount what Xander told me about bringing me out of the dream when I was near death last night. I leave out the kiss, keeping it locked in my head.
Ezra taps his fingers on his lips nervously. His lack of an immediate response has me on edge. “Well?”
Ezra gets up and comes to stand next to me near the railing of the porch. “I’m not sure. You, Nate and Xander are only the second round of guardians to receive the newest generation of Copula devices. Nate and Xander’s abilities are so similar that it could be possible for both of them to be linked to you.”
Ezra looks down, and then he glances back up at me. “It’s obvious Xander has feelings for you. Those could have formed his energy that channeled through you to bring you back. It might not be related to the Copulas link at all.”
“Yes, but what about when he heard me while he was sleeping? It sounds a lot like what Nate experiences while I’m dreaming.”
Ezra gazes out over the landscape. “Yes, it does.” Looking back at me now, he says, “Let me watch him interact with you and Nate over the next couple of days. I don’t want to make any assumptions without seeing for myself.”
I hear footsteps, and the front door opens.
Xander steps out onto the porch, his hair damp from showering. He nods at Ezra. “Morning.”
Glancing at me, he says, “Shower’s all yours.”
“Thanks,” I say as I walk past him and back into the house, leaving them on the porch.
After showering, I throw on a long-sleeve shirt, an old pair of sweatpants, and tennis shoes––training gear. I’m sure Ezra is going to work Nate and me just as much as Xander, so he can prepare us for whatever lies ahead.
I braid my hair as I head down the stairs and walk over to the window to see if Ezra and Xander are still talking. Ezra is explaining something, and Xander is listening intently.
The clanking of pots and pans draws my attention to the kitchen. Nate has a towel thrown over his shoulder and a spatula in hand, as he glances up at me. “Morning.”
I move toward the kitchen bar. “Morning.”
I see all the food he’s prepared—eggs, toast, buttermilk biscuits, country-style gravy, and bacon.
“Wow, you’re hungry this morning.”
He scoops a portion of eggs on a plate with a few slices of bacon, and then hands it to me. “It’s a peace offering.”
I take the plate. “A peace offering? For what?”
Nate adds a biscuit to the plate in front of me on the bar. “Last night.”
I reassure him, “Nate, there’s nothing to apologize for. If you were in my position and I was in yours, I would have felt the same way.”
Nate gazes at me, and then he picks up three slices of bacon for the plate. “So, you know what I’m wondering then?”
Nate pours a cup of coffee while his eyes keep darting to me, checking to see if I’m wondering the same thing as him.
He says, “I’m wondering how Xander was able to connect with you and save you last night when I couldn’t.”
I hesitate answering right away, but then I nod, letting him know that I’m thinking about the same thing.
He sets a c
up of coffee in front of me. “Nate, you were taken off-guard, just like I was. Even Ezra can’t fully understand it.”
He continues making his plate, not acknowledging me so I put my hand over his. The energy that passes between us is a reminder of how much he means to me. His lips part briefly as if he wants to tell me something, but then they close when the sound of the door opening and Ezra and Xander’s voice carry into the house. I pull my hand from Nate’s and instantly feel the loss of connection with him.
Xander walks into the kitchen, picks up an empty plate, hands one to Ezra, then asks, “Who made all of this?”
“Nate did.”
I’m hoping that showing Xander Nate’s peace offering might ease things between them.
Xander looks at Nate and mumbles, “Thanks.”
Nate turns off the stove, and nods, mumbling equally low. “You’re welcome.”
Well, that didn’t go as expected, but I tried.
As the guys sit on either side of me, Ezra takes his plate, and then heads out of the kitchen, humming to himself. I watch as he crosses the living room and opens the basement door.
He stops humming and turns to face us at the landing. “C’mon. Bring your plates. We have a lot to do in a short amount of time. It’s going to be a long day wee ones.”
On that note, Ezra winks at us and disappears down the stairs, the song he hums echoing from the staircase.
I roll my eyes and glance at Nate. “I think the Ezra Kahn from the facility has just entered the building.”
Xander looks from me to Nate, confused. “What does that mean?”
I raise my eyebrows as I take my plate in hand and start toward the stairs. “You’ll see.”
As Nate and Xander follow behind me, Nate adds under his breath, “Yeah, you’ll see the wrath of Kahn soon enough.”
CHAPTER 19: THE MARK
Sam
Tokyo, Japan
I glance up at the top corner of the garage roller bay door of the warehouse as I pull my black Porsche in. The camera lens is on me. I wave, raising my hand off the steering wheel slightly. Leaving behind the soft amber glow of the lamp light outside of the warehouse, I pull into a space next to Corinna’s metallic-red Lotus Elise.
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