I pulled back from him, not afraid, and went deep into his mind to help him get control of himself.
Daniel, calm down. Listen to me. If you care for me then you will relax. You are too aggressive right now. Down, boy. I knew this was a critical situation we had gotten ourselves into, but I couldn't help myself with that last little pun at the end. It worked. He snapped out of it and looked embarrassed.
"Kara, I am so sorry!" Daniel hugged me tightly. "What just happened?"
I turned a bit red, but told him, "Well, you got too excited. You were losing that solid as a rock control you harp about. You were making whimpering noises and breathing hard enough to be considered, with your background, panting. I didn't know if you were going to transform or get too rough with me or what, so I entered your mind and used calming techniques to influence your behavior. Everything is fine now." I rubbed his shoulders to offer my comfort.
"You have to believe me - I swear to you - I would never hurt you, Kara. I haven't experienced any feelings of desire for anyone in so, so long. Hundreds of years. I was just overcome by emotions. Now that you've brought me around to my senses, made me aware of what just happened, I can monitor myself better. For next time. And maybe you won't have to give me the command, 'down, boy'. Cute!" Daniel was back to his fun-loving self.
I hugged him, gave him a quick kiss and thought it best if we just put a chill pill on the lovey-dovey stuff for now. I snuggled up against him with my blanket, although after two minutes I realized I didn't need it. He was putting out heat like my own personal blast furnace.
Chapter 11
Brainwaves
The afternoon rolled around faster than I preferred. The time I got to spend with Daniel was priceless, though. We totally enjoyed each other's company, even if we had no clue where this whole relationship would end up. Dominic had checked into my mind closer to midday to make sure I was fine. During the majority of the time I was with Daniel, I had attempted to put up that mental block against Dominic. I wasn't always sure how strong a barrier I had erected against Dom. With all the emotions Daniel and I had gone through, I'm sure there were pinholes in that barrier. Well, it was what it was. I had a feeling Daniel and I were not going to be shy about showing the feelings we had for one another in public anymore. We would obviously be modest and show respect for the situation at hand, though.
Everyone reconvened in the ever familiar conference room. Good thing there weren't too many visitors at the resort this time of year. And the ones that were there could not have cared less about using the conference room.
Isaac returned from his resort to observe and give any possible support he could. We hoped this would turn out successfully. But everything Dominic and I had batted back and forth when discussing this experiment, just didn't give us much hope. As Dom had said before, I had never had any form of contact with Stephen. I hadn't touched him, hadn't seen him, hadn't even been in his immediate area to pick up on his emotional distress. It was surely a long shot. But we had to try the easiest plan first.
We moved tables and chairs around in the room to allow everyone to be within close proximity of each other. We did not want to be scattered across the room. Dominic was on one side of me, Daniel on the other. Dom had no connections with Stephen either. The Liaison contacted Daniel after hearing about the problems Stephen was causing. And, by then, Stephen's newly formed pack had split off from Daniel's and were on their own. Dom was still hoping he could lend his psychic powers to me, adding more leverage to make the connection.
I had been told werewolves had a pack mentality and that this created some small mental connection between each of them. Both parties had to allow it to occur and, of course, Stephen had closed his mind to Daniel. Not that one of them couldn't mentally tap-tap at the other's brain, as if saying, "Hello, are you open for a chat?" Our goal was NOT to tap-tap at Stephen's mind, but sneak in and hopefully catch him off guard since he would not be expecting me. I might have the ability to by-pass his mental block he had put up against Daniel. Then, I could read his mind, gain any knowledge that would be useful to us or put us on alert if he was planning anything devious. I would attempt to work my telepathic magic by placing positive thoughts and images into his head, using my calming techniques that worked so well during my experiments on the others. Including Daniel, just that morning. I was able to bring Daniel's emotions under control, without a flaw. Now, would it work on Stephen?
I had my right hand in Daniel's and my left hand in Dominic's. Talk about a strange feeling I had the moment we all touched. Jealousy. I knew Dom and Daniel were friends, but at that instant, there was a flare of male possessiveness in the air. Individually, I gave each of them the mental message, "Stop it now. We need to concentrate." It brought them back to the present situation. Both actually had this look like they regretted acting the way they just did.
"Okay, Daniel. You need to be focusing on Stephen. Anything and everything you can think of. The way he looks, the way he acts, talks, walks, smells. Whatever. Keep a strong mental picture of him in your mind for me. We know he's closed his mind off to you, but get as close as you can to making that mental pack connection with him, then step aside. I'll be right there in your mind with you, just let me try accessing his mind, so hopefully we don't clue him in to what we're trying here. I'm pretty sure he won't approve of an outsider, like me, messing with his mind.
"Now, Dom, you need to fully merge yourself into my mind so we can create a more powerful link between all of us, kind of like our group did driving down here. Don't hold back merging, but don't distract what I'm trying to focus on. Ready?" I glanced at both of them, they nodded, and I closed my eyes to concentrate.
I dove into Daniel's mind. At least that was an act I had become very familiar with performing. Dom was merged with me. I could feel the extra strength; the links between the three of us were powerful. It was amazing that when we all put our minds to it and were not just casually goofing around, the telepathic connections became super clear. Vivid. I felt a surge of energy which had to be coming from Dominic. I sought out the images and information about Stephen from Daniel's memories.
Stephen was, like Daniel, tall, muscular, confident. He exuded power, arrogance, and the stereotypical bad-boy image. Daniel was trying to pull up from memories a time he and Stephen had spoken with each other. He hoped this would give me something more to work with. He kept the image of Stephen plastered in the forefront of his mind. I now pushed Daniel to hold those images in his mind, and then move on to create the mental pathway to Stephen for me.
Things started feeling very perplexing as I followed Daniel's mental connection to Stephen. Dominic acknowledged his disorientation, too. We agreed to remain calm and collected in our thoughts. Focus, focus. Searching. An empty void. Nothing but a wall of darkness. I let my mind drop back away, as Dom and Daniel followed suit, from what should have been the mental pathway leading to Stephen's mind. Inside Daniel's head, I softly asked if he was close enough to establish the first step to the connection. He was, but feared if he pushed, Stephen would suspect something. We all came out of our trance-like behavior.
Isaac was asking, "Well, did it work?"
All three of us, Daniel, Dom and myself, answered together with, "No."
Isaac again, "Can you bring me into this mental linking thing you've got going? Maybe I could be an additional source of power to crack through Stephen's mind block."
He had an idea. I had to give him credit. Although the more people involved, the more likely it was that Stephen would figure out something was happening to him. Dominic and I played out a scenario of how we would go about pulling off this feat and realized it couldn't hurt anything. Eli was contemplating the whole scenario, too. He reminded us that the longer we kept trying to maintain all these psychic links, we would eventually drain ourselves. He explained how Dom and I were psychics and so there really wasn't any mental drain between the two of us. When we read non-psychics minds, there might be a slight amount of energy
drain. But, as on the drive down to Kentucky, the moment we mentally connected three non-psychics to us and kept up quite involved mental conversations for awhile, we were drained a pretty fair amount. I remembered that incident and Eli was right. He was the scientist and this was his field, his specialty, the workings of the mind. Dom and I were worn out after that experiment. Excited, but we felt like we'd run a mile. And then Eli brought up the fact that we were dealing with werewolves' minds that are different from our own. They do have a slight psychic connection to their own pack members, but we are not part of their pack, let alone we're humans. So, we obviously could read their minds, it just wore us down faster. And it sure would have helped if I had some physical contact with Stephen or at least been closer to him to pick up on his vibes.
We all agreed to give it one more try using Isaac as an additional source of power and leverage. It definitely looked like we were having a séance by the time all four of us assembled our chairs in a tight circle. Since I was the one needing to enter Stephen's mind, we thought Isaac should be touching me instead of going through Daniel or Dom's hand contact for a more direct effect. So, Isaac brought his chair in further to reach me and placed his hands on my knees. Daniel possessively gave him a similar look he had given poor Dom earlier. This look also conveyed, "Don't get too friendly with her, brother." I thought, here we go again, but Daniel quickly gave me an innocent, boyish grin like nothing was wrong.
The four of us went into a trance-like state. We were determined to give it our all. Dom merged with my mind, next we entered Daniel's mind and lastly, reeled in Isaac. It took Isaac a few minutes to calm down as this was a new experience for him and he was somewhat disoriented. We knew we didn't want to waste any time, though, as Eli had reprimanded us heavily that Dom and I would continue to lose our energy the longer we engaged in this activity.
Daniel and Isaac together sought out the mental pathway to Stephen's mind. They kept the image of him firmly in their thoughts for me to absorb. At the precise moment they were about to establish an attempt at contact with Stephen, they pulled up quickly to allow me a chance to break through. There was something there this time. A momentary flash of emotions. Bitterness. Frustration. Boredom. I tried hard to suppress my intrusion into his mind. It was difficult. I felt Dom's presence trying to give me power, but he thought he would lose the group's mental linkage if he spread himself too thin by helping. He backed off and continued to focus on maintaining the mental links we were sharing. Daniel and Isaac didn't want to come too close to where I was at in this psychic phenomenon. Stephen would surely recognize their presence and we would lose the element of surprise. I knew if that were to happen, I would absolutely have to attempt to get as physically close to Stephen as possible in order to pursue any further telepathic manipulation.
I concentrated as much as I could without passing out, and tried to enter Stephen's thoughts one last time. I knew I was starting to feel the early signs of wearing out. Dom was, too. I quietly, calmly pressed myself into this mental pathway created by Daniel and Isaac, taking with me the physical image of Stephen. Again, a few catches of emotions, but I had nothing at all to work with. I think the addition of Isaac did help with me identifying some emotions Stephen was feeling, since before Isaac I had a blank slate. But we weren't getting anything accomplished.
As I withdrew from this mental pathway, Daniel's mind jumped too quickly back to me. For that split second, until I drifted further away from Stephen, I could have sworn I felt a warning as Stephen's mind seemed to question whether someone had tried to contact him. I think he caught remnants of Daniel's presence and hopefully not mine. As we opened our eyes and leaned back in our chairs, I proceeded to fill in Eli, Zac and Tessa on what had happened. It just wasn't much of anything.
Now we had to go on to 'Plan B'. This probably meant my getting as close as possible to Stephen so I could see him with my own two eyes, not through someone else's eyes. I needed my own personal view of him, to be able to take in his aura, see him in action, pick up on his emotions. I knew Daniel hated this idea. He was concerned for my safety. We sat in silence for several minutes, contemplating our next move.
Well, it was time for supper. Abigail, once again, treated us to a wonderfully prepared meal. Tonight, I would not bother offering to help clean dishes; since I witnessed the speed and agility she displayed taking care of them herself the previous night. Amazing! Afterwards, we adjourned to the lounge and made ourselves at home. There was a fire crackling and popping in the fireplace giving a sense of warmth and security. Daniel mentioned he had better check in on a few business matters since he had been involved with either me or the group the entire day. He promised he would be back in an hour.
This gave Dominic time to make his move on me. Or so he thought. We crashed onto one of the monstrous sized sofas, sitting only about a foot apart. The room was rather large, so our group was not necessarily making a point to sit on top of each other. We kind of spread out through the room that night, trying to relax and did not worry about talking the entire evening. The flat screen TV was playing some movie that the others were getting interested in. Eli was partially watching the movie and typing on his laptop, again. Dom would be able to speak freely to me although he would have to keep his voice way down. We were exhausted after our frustrating afternoon and had severe mental drain. Regardless of our weakened states, he was still going to try his best to win me over.
"Kara, this thing with you and Daniel, isn't going to work out. You know that, right? I can tell you're falling for him." Dominic stated this so matter-of-factly. All it did was put me on the defensive.
"How do you know what's going on? It's my life, I can make my own decisions," I spewed at him. If he was trying to win me over, this was not the way to do it. And I allowed him to read those thoughts. He had become very aware that I was putting up mental blocks against him, more and more frequently it seemed. And he wondered what I was up to during those times.
He tamed it down a bit, and tried again, "I'm sorry. I know I can't tell you what to do. I just care an awful lot about you, Kara, and I don't want to see you hurt or disappointed. We've spent a huge amount of time together over the last several weeks. It feels like months to me. But in a good way because of the time I've spent with you. I've noticed you don't allow me into your mind as often as you used to, which could be detrimental if I need to contact you telepathically for an emergency. Although, to be honest, I think if I really, really wanted to push it, I could break through your little mind barrier." He was bragging now.
"Dom, if something was truly wrong, I would get your message, don't worry. I would sense your urgency and yes, you could break through it. It's only a flimsy shield meant to momentarily stop you and make you think that maybe I want some privacy at that moment. And if it's nothing critical or life shattering, maybe you'll respect that privacy for a bit," I explained.
"Okay, I get your point, I understand. Getting back to who likes who-I can see Daniel getting possessive of you. Territorial. Next thing you know, he's going to lift his leg and pee on you," Dom was serious but I started laughing. He, too, finally started laughing. It definitely brought up an interesting image in your mind.
He went on, "I really am being serious, Kara. You need to watch yourself. Be careful. You could fire up emotions in him that he might not be able to control."
I sat there with a look of "having been caught" on my face. Guilty as charged. I admitted, "Well…actually…this morning I had to dampen his highly charged emotions a tad bit. But, nothing happened. He's under control. He's aware of himself now. I'm fine. I'm just unbelievably wiped out after today's events."
"I don't suppose I could just go ahead and pee on you now, huh? And then take you on a real live, human date?" Dom barely could get the words out, he was almost falling off the couch, chuckling.
Laughing and gagging at the same time, I responded, "No, on the peeing! And you could take me out, pizza sounds great, but I'd rather not consider it a date, Dom.
You are like my best friend, do you get it?" I tried to emphasize the word friend. I also pushed feelings of comfort and affection into his mind.
He answered, "Yeah, I get it. But I will always be here for you, Kara. Remember that."
And on that note, I gave him a sincere smile of gratitude, grabbed one of the pillows, threw it on his lap, plunked my head down on it to rest and catch what remained of the movie on TV. And to wait for Daniel's return. Dom was not sure what to think about my head being in his lap, although there was a huge pillow between us. I had a feeling he was reading too much into it. I was just looking for a way to collapse in a horizontal position. He readjusted his posture to allow himself to slouch back down and make us both comfortable.
Dom and I drifted off into a light sleep that lasted about thirty minutes. Daniel entered the room, noticed I was sleeping with my head on Dom's lap, and cleared his throat loudly to wake us up and get everyone's attention. I could tell he wasn't thrilled about the position I was in, but chose to dismiss it for the meantime since obviously he had more pressing matters to tell us about. He looked distraught. Something bad had happened. Dom and I were fully awake now. We sat bolt upright.
Daniel relayed to us, "I've heard through the police and the locals, there have been more livestock mutilations, and a camper at a campground near Stephen and Simon's place was found murdered today. I called Simon, luckily he answered, and said Stephen hasn't been around the main house or at the woodworking business lately. He's probably hanging around the old cabin they originally lived in when they left here. Get ready because tomorrow morning we're heading out. Stephen will be found."
Chapter 12
Off Road
After Daniel's abrupt announcement, everyone started talking at once. We had to assume it was Stephen who feasted on the farmer's cattle and killed the camper. Unless, of course, we could prove otherwise. Rebecca had clearly stated, she wanted us to be positive on our actions against Stephen. At least two people had to be in agreement that Stephen was completely out of control, that he could be declared evil, and only then, he would be destroyed.
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