His joy would be short-lived.
The air around Dominic crackled with an ominous surge, and the skin on the back of his neck tingled as the fine hair stood on end. “Isn’t that just precious?” A malevolent voice echoed throughout the room.
Dominic turned toward the voice, every protective instinct inside him compelling his muscles to coil in defense like a cobra ready to strike. Materializing before him was pure evil reincarnate.
Drake D’Mon.
He was tall and lean, jet-black hair hanging in waves over his narrow shoulders. There were no whites to his eyes, just pitch-black with a center of eerie orange. His skin was pale and paper thin. The most prominent feature on his face was the long, slender nose that hooked ever so slightly at the end. It reminded Dominic of the beak on the raven his father had been forced to inhabit, and he wondered if he had always looked like that or if he was actually starting to become the bird.
A raw, animalistic growl rattled the cage inside Dominic that contained a beast he had never known existed. It was a warning; the one and only warning he would extend to the threat he perceived. “What are you doing here, Drake?”
“Oh, come now, son. Is that any way to treat your old man? We’re family, after all.”
Dominic guffawed. “I’m surprised you can even say those words without choking on them. What do you want, and how did you get into my dream?”
“Let’s call it magic, son.” Drake spread his hands in the air like he had just done some kind of grand trick. “It’s what dreams are made of, I hear. I can get into your dreams anytime I want, my boy. The trick is in our blood. It’s how I’m able to visit Colton’s dreams as well. He was such a cute little tyke. I can’t believe I missed out on his childhood. He thought the world of you though. I would be jealous if I actually gave a damn.”
“You’re not capable of giving a damn about anyone but yourself. What do you want?”
“In the interest of family and all, I came to give you a warning.” Drake’s tone was meant to intimidate. “You have no idea how powerful I am. I’ve been playing nice up to this point, but make no mistake, I can convince Colton to do anything I want. He’s smart, but his lifelong yearning for a father renders him weak. You might want to remember that before you get someone you love hurt.”
Drake looked over to where Kerrigan still sat, cooing to their baby. She was oblivious to the sinister presence in the room, unhearing and unseeing as she went about her motherly duties. Drake’s threat was clear.
Dominic didn’t take to being threatened. He tensed with the rage that filtered through him. “Don’t even think about touching them!”
Drake threw his hands up in surrender and took a step back. “Oh, I won’t lay a hand on them. Although, I can’t promise that I won’t... suggest that a little overindulgence in a few lively spirits might make the burden of protecting you a little easier to bear.” A wide, satisfied grin spread across his face, showing his crooked, yellowing teeth.
A vision of his mother passed out on the couch with an empty bottle next to her on the floor flashed across Dominic’s mind. She reeked of whiskey and vomit, her dirty hair tangled and plastered to her pallid face. She was too thin, too fragile, a meager shell of the woman she had once been; Death seemed to hover in wait. Even in her unconscious state, she still wore the look of fear on her face.
“You did that to her, didn’t you?”
“Sarah?” Drake rolled his eyes and turned away from Dominic, strolling around the room and taking in its contents as if he was in an art museum. “She never told you anything about me, about us, did she?”
Dominic didn’t answer.
“I loved her once upon a time, but we grew apart when she failed to see my vision of a better future. She never really understood me. She was jealous, wanting me to spend more time with her, be a father to you. I just wasn’t hardwired that way.
“She was pregnant with Colton when she ran away. She thought I didn’t know, but I did. I was determined to find her and bring my family back. She knew she could never really hide from me. Sarah was pathetic, easily manipulated. She couldn’t stand my constant visits in her dreams, so she drank until she was so smashed she went comatose to keep from dreaming. The times I was able to penetrate her little pea of a brain, she somehow managed to keep you boys hidden from me.”
As he talked, Drake moved closer to where Kerrigan sat with the baby, staring at them with rapt fascination. Dominic instinctively put himself between his family and the man who had the nerve to call himself a father. Drake didn’t seem fazed. He just kept watching the scene from over Dominic’s shoulder.
“You have so much power in the palm of your hand with that one.” He motioned toward Kerrigan with a nod of his head. “I’m curious as to why you don’t you use it to your advantage.”
“It’s really quite simple.” Dominic folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t want power. I just want her.”
“How admirable of you.” Drake feigned a look of pride. “Still, there’s a little of me running through your veins. I’ve felt it from you. All that time you spent on the streets... those were some pretty horrendous things you did. Whether you want to admit it or not, you’re capable of just as much evil as I am. We could rule the world, you and I... if you would just harness the power that’s been laid at your feet. She trusts you. She’d give it willingly.”
“You’re right, she does trust me, and it will be a very cold day in Hell before I ever betray that trust. I love her, and that’s something you know nothing about.”
“Pfft... I believe the saying goes, ‘What’s love got to do with it?’”
“It has everything to do with her. I’m nothing like you, and I never will be.”
Drake’s icy cold stare bore into him. “You might want to think that over, Dominic.” His words were foreboding, menacing. “If I can’t have you, and if I can’t have Colton...” his voice trailed off, but he didn’t need to finish the threat. Dominic read him loud and clear.
Drake took a step toward Kerrigan, but Dominic cut him off. “Stay away from my family!”
Portentous laughter clawed its way up Drake’s throat and reverberated through the room. “You can’t keep me from my grandchild, silly boy. My blood runs through those veins just as much as it runs through yours.”
And there it was—the underlying truth of the matter. Dominic’s child would be in just as much danger of his father’s manipulations as he was. No matter how diluted the bloodline, it would remain an endless cycle until Drake finally accomplished his mission. He would never stop until he finally beat death and was free to walk the earth in human form again.
And he didn’t give a damn whose soul he had to steal to do it.
Dominic felt a surge of power build inside of him. The beast grew exponentially and broke free of its cage, roaring the battle cry of ten thousand warriors. He did nothing to contain it. He set it free, channeled its strength, and aimed it at the man hell-bent on destroying not only his life, but the lives of anyone he loved.
Drake’s eyes widened in surprise and then he smirked as if he got it. A millisecond later, hot, white light exploded out of Dominic and struck like lightning to Drake’s chest with a force potent enough to send him careening out of his son’s dream.
Dominic’s eyes shot open and he gasped for air as his hands reflexively went to his upper torso to feel for an opening. Even though he could still feel the burn of whatever the hell it was that had shot out of his chest, there was no opening. He was whole, intact. It had all been a dream, so why had it felt so real?
He sat up on the edge of the bed, lethargic and drained of strength. Something was different, not quite right. He looked down, and even though the sun was shining bright through the open window, his form flickered between apparition and solid mass.
“What the fuck?” he mumbled to the empty room.
“Mmm, I love the sun.” Kerrigan sighed and tilted her head back to soak up the rays like a cat on a windowsill. Any form o
f natural light was like chicken soup for the soul. It rejuvenated her, made her feel alive, and energized her essence. The pores of her skin soaked up every last ray of light she could hold, storing away the excess to convert into energy she could use whenever necessary. There was never a time that she felt she had enough, that she couldn’t hold any more. It had always been that way for Guardians of the Light. Not that she knew of any besides herself and her deceased grandmother.
She and Gabe had decided to hit the beach so that Dominic might actually agree to take a nap. He’d had a very strenuous night and an even more strenuous day confessing his secret to his baby brother. He needed the sleep, but whenever Kerrigan was around, sleep was the furthest thing from his mind.
She was proud of him for getting everything out in the open, and relieved that for all the convincing and prodding she’d done, it hadn’t backfired. Things could have taken a very bad turn if Colton hadn’t reacted like the analytical scientist that he was. Of course, it helped that he was still very much a college frat boy at heart and had the ability to see the humor in it as well. One thing was very clear: Colton loved his older brother, and not much could change that, except maybe if he knew the lengths Dominic had gone to in order to provide a somewhat normal life for him. It also helped that the ever-amusing Gabe was present to do what he did best—make fun of other’s misfortunes and make them feel better about them.
Which reminded her...
“So, what’s the story with you and Colton?”
“What are you talking about? We’re friends.”
“Mmhmm. Don’t think I didn’t see that little exchange between the two of you this morning. There’s some definite couplage going on there, so I call bullcrap.”
“Look at you, all up in my Kool-Aid without even knowing the flavor.” Gabe sighed. “Not that it’s any of your beeswax, but y’all told me to stick to him like glue, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. It just so happens that we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well and have become something like... work spouses. That’s it.”
“Work spouses?”
“Yep.”
“And you’d tell me if there was anything more going on, right?”
“First of all, I don’t kiss and tell.”
Kerrigan snorted. “You totally kiss and tell.”
“Well, if that’s the case,” Gabe said, his voice all high and mighty, “you already have your answer, don’t you?”
“Whatever. I’m just saying Dominic will kick your ass if you take advantage of his little brother.”
“Um, he can try to kick my ass,” Gabe said with an arrogant tone. “And judging by the size of Colton’s hands, there ain’t nothing little about him, honey.”
“Well if he’s anything like his brother...”
“Nobody likes a braggart, Kerr.” She could hear the jealousy laced in his voice and she giggled.
“Good googly moogly! Stud alert at three o’clock.” Gabe lowered his sunglasses to the tip of his nose and looked down the beach. “Oh... my... gawd... It’s Orlando Bloom!”
Of course Kerrigan had to look on the off chance that Orlando Bloom really had skipped out of his lap of luxury and decided to visit their little corner of the world.
What she found was a man, an incredibly bright man, jogging along the surf with an English bulldog in tow. She had to shield her eyes to look at him, and not because of the sun. The man was literally putting off light. He turned to look in their direction as he neared, did a double take, and then halted in his tracks. He knelt down on one knee and tied his shoe, all the while stealing glances in their direction, and then he patted his dog’s head before he stood and walked straight toward them.
Gabe gasped and then fidgeted with his hair. “Oh my God, he’s coming this way. Do I look fat? Oh my God, tell me, bitch. Do I look fat?” He resituated himself in his beach chair and sucked in his stomach, causing Kerrigan to giggle at his nervousness.
Gabe glowered at her. “I swear you can be such an insensitive whore sometimes. You know I’ve been too busy babysitting your skank ass to enroll in my Pilates classes, and you have the audacity to... Oh, hi, y’all!” he had abruptly changed his tone to greet the stranger.
When had Gabe become a southern belle?
Kerrigan turned away from her friend to find the jogging man standing over them. He definitely wasn’t Orlando Bloom, although he would be a very convincing double. He had at least five inches on Dominic with the legs of a runner, bulging muscles covered with tight, tanned skin. His torso was long and his bare chest was well-defined. A silver chain hung around his neck with a gold band dangling from its end. His shoulders were muscular, and his dark, chestnut hair hung in thick waves to just above his shoulders. The cut of his jaw was angular and smooth-shaven, but a light mustache and meticulously-trimmed goatee framed his heart-shaped lips. Faint smile lines creased the corner of eyes the color of warm honey. He looked like an angel fallen from Heaven, and his skin... it practically glowed. Not in the way a woman’s skin glows from a religious care regime—he had a faint light oozing from his pores. He was beautiful.
And he was staring at her with a curious expression on his godlike face.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude.” He had a thick British accent, distinguished and creamy smooth like Werther’s caramels. His expression made him look as if he was trying to figure out a mathematical equation. “But...” he continued and then stopped again before a smile as bright as his skin rose on his face and his brow furrowed in contemplation. “May I ask you a silly question?”
Gabe interrupted before Kerrigan could respond. “No, my first name ain’t Baby. It’s Gabe. Miss Baxter if you’re nasty,” he said with suggestive eyes.
Okay, Janet Jackson complex much?
The stranger laughed a deep, hearty sound and then extended his hand toward Gabe. “Well, in that case... Hello, Miss Baxter. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Mm, boy, you shouldn’t tease like that.” Gabe placed a limp hand in his. “It’s just not nice to lead people on.”
“My apologies, Gabe.” The stranger bowed, pouring on the chivalrous charm. “I simply couldn’t resist. My name is Andrew Dickens, but my friends call me Drew. And this,” he patted his dog’s head, “is Akasha, my ever-faithful companion.” He turned his attention back to Kerrigan. “And who might this lovely specimen be?”
“That would be my ever-faithful companion, Princess Fetch-A-Lot. I took pity on her when I saw her down at the animal shelter and did what any dog lover would do: I adopted her, and I didn’t even care that she was a mutt. Poor thing was covered in her own piss when I first brought her home,” Gabe said with pity in his voice as he patted her head. Then he leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, “Took me forever to convince her that running water and soap were a much better alternative to urine and feces for bathing purposes. I still have a hard time keeping her out of the trash, and she’s a bit gassy, but she’s a pretty good bitch besides all that.”
Kerrigan shot her supposed best friend the evil eye and introduced herself. “My name is Kerrigan Cruz. You’ll have to forgive my friend, he’s looking a little fat today and that always puts him in a foul mood.” She gave Gabe a tight smile that said, Ha! Suck-on-that.
Drew chuckled. “You two are quite the pair, aren’t you? Are you from Saint Augustine, or just here on spring break?”
“We just moved into town about three months ago,” Kerrigan answered. “You?”
“I’m from London, actually. Here on holiday.”
Gabe squealed and squirmed. “Ooh! I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use this line.” He cleared his throat and lowered his chin to his chest, giving Drew come-hither eyes. “Is that Big Ben in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”
Kerrigan rolled her eyes in an exaggerated motion and turned toward Drew. “Aaaand speaking of silly questions, you had one you wanted to ask me?”
“Well, yes,” he said, squatting to her level. �
��This is going to sound like total lunacy if you don’t know what I’m talking about, but here goes nothing: I happen to know who and what you are, but do you know what I am?”
“An extremely attractive, very gay Englishman looking to score a little spring break action with an equally attractive, obscenely gay American man? Emphasis on the obscene?” Gabe closed his eyes and crossed his fingers as he chanted in a whispered voice, “Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say yes.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Gabe, but I would feel terrible for leading you on. I’m not gay.”
“Maybe you just don’t know it yet.” Gabe waggled his brows.
Drew chuckled. “If I were, I would consider myself lucky to, how did you say it? Score a little spring break action with the likes of you.” He gave Gabe a flirtatious wink, and then he turned back to Kerrigan, his eyes caressing her bikini-clad form. “But, suffice it to say, I am very much attracted to beautiful women.”
“Well, you can forget about that one; she’s taken.”
He looked Kerrigan over again, causing her to blush and suddenly wish she had on three layers of clothing. “Pity.”
Kerrigan cleared her throat. “Back to what you are?”
“Yes. Do I look different to you, Kerrigan? A little brighter, perhaps?”
“Brighter, as in smart?”
“Brighter as in I could light up a room,” he clarified with a smile that nearly blinded her.
What were the odds? A perfect stranger just happens to pinpoint her out of a crowd of hundreds on a public beach, waltzes up to her, pours on the charm, looks at her with eyes that capture and suspend their intended target within the sands of time, and then tells her that he knows who and what she is. The funny thing was that she was pretty certain she knew what he was as well.
The attraction she felt to him had nothing at all to do with his devastatingly good looks, his charisma, or the panty-melting British accent. It was borne of kinship. It was like when you meet someone for the very first time, and you don’t know them from Adam, but you hit it off like you have known each other your entire life. And then, later, you find out that your new friend is actually some distant cousin twice removed, or a long-lost sister that your parents never even bothered to tell you they had put up for adoption.
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