“What is this?”
“It’s a bridge. Since we aren’t in your mind and we’re not in mine, I wanted to give us a place to meet.” She walked to the center of the bridge and waited for Locke to join her.
“I’m beginning to think you don’t need me.”
“I do, I can see the easy part that’s all.”
“Let’s take a seat.” They sat on the side of the bridge with their legs swinging over it. The colors swirled around them and then through them making them light up like fourth of July fireworks.
“First you need a filter. That will allow all the things you’re not interested in and never wanted to know about a person to go into a waste bin where it will then go to a second sieve to catch anything you missed. The rest will be thrown away like garbage.”
“I like it, but won’t that only apply to humans? The Shadows can’t be denied, that’s what Mira said.”
“She’s right, we haven’t found a way to mute their voice. They think that plays in their favor, but they’re wrong. It tells us where they are sometimes before they want to reveal their location. It can’t be relied on because they have a way to keep from broadcasting.”
“All right no underestimating the enemy.” Filtration sieve her mind ran through every scenario she could find. How could she do any of that without letting the noise, the pollution of other minds come into contact with hers? Over the years she had built up catchphrases of things that weren’t important. Things she wished she never had to hear again. Someone’s love life, the birth of their children. The last was kind of cool, to be honest, but some woman went through pain she didn’t want to know about. Why didn’t they use the drugs?
Her mind was organized, it had to be when other people’s thoughts were bombarding you daily. She could set up her filter based on the things she never wanted to know about another person and then fine tune it as time went on. As for her sieve when it dumped through the filter, she would tighten the parameters and mentally go through what was left.
“I got it, I figured it out.” She threw herself into his arms. “It will take several days to set up and years to refine, but it gives me my life back without taking my gift away all because of you. The anchor you give me makes this possible.” She placed kisses all over him.
“You’re almost there.”
“Almost? What more could there be?”
“Self-defense from the Shadows. If they come for you, when they come for you, they will most likely attack you mentally. If what Mira went through is any indication of how they work.”
How was she supposed to defend her mind from something that might not be human?
“I want to open my mind to you again. I’ve been allowing a small trickle of information to flow to you. If the Shadows come after you, they will overwhelm you. That means you have to know how to fight back.”
She stood and began to pace back and forth on the bridge thoughts of her first attack playing repeatedly. The feel of the Shadow hammering against her shields. The black oily substance she felt coating her mind. All of it was enough to make her feel sick. It was the attack at the festival that had her legs trembling and her hands making a fist. She did remember to tuck her thump, one point for her.
“Ava, what’s wrong?”
“I know why I blacked out at the festival. Well, to be more specific I know some of why I blacked out. The Shadows attacked my mind. There were two maybe three of them, that’s all I remember as far as numbers go. They didn’t want me it was just to let me know they were coming after me.”
Locke took her into his arms. They stared over the side of the bridge where before there was nothing but clouds. Now there was a rushing river below them. It was beautiful with multicolored water to match the bridge and a rainbow that was shades of violet disappearing into it.
It was the thrashing of the water that caught Locke’s attention.
“The water reflects the emotions raging in you?”
“It does. They abused me, there’s no scar no place where I can show you that they hit me. Still what they did up here isn’t something I would wish on my mortal enemy.” She buried her face in his chest.
“Mental, emotional, and physical abuse each is a leg on a three-legged stool. They go hand in hand. If you had been before them never doubt, they would have physically abused you too. I say that to say, that there is no shame in having suffered. Be it male, or female, alien, or relative, abuse is abuse, and the shame is not yours, it is theirs.”
“It’s hard to feel that way sometimes.”
“I know. I’ve been there and I’ll remind you that you did nothing wrong.”
She stepped back and took his hand leading him over to the side of the bridge. They sat while she got herself together.
“I’m ready.”
Locke increased the trickle of information coming from him into a steady flow. Deep breathing, she knew she would need more than her shields. She started working on deflecting what was coming in until he let it all flow. It bombarded her. Even as she struggled with stopping the attack on her mind, she couldn’t ignore that it wasn’t just mindless information that he was giving her. He was allowing her to see the darkness he went through. The deaths he was responsible for and those that wanted to kill him.
She saw the abuse he suffered at the hands of those who made them. This was the real trial. He showed her hell, and she had to stand tall to fight it. His pain could take her down. She multitasked taking the memories that still caused him grief filing them away for later. The rest she focused on sending back.
When he was teaching her how to defeat what was coming at her earlier, he said small movements. All this was happening right outside her mind. She constructed an image of herself and watched as her hands began to grab pieces of the atmosphere that flew around her. The more she pulled out the brighter the fragments became. The earth, the very air around her was filled with more magic than met the naked eye.
We move too fast ignoring what is right in front of our eyes. Another cup of coffee, I’m late for work, that babies crying. The excuse for not seeing what she was meant to see, what she thought they were all meant to see were bombarding her. A distraction, something to keep her eye from the prize. She focused as the light between her hands grew. It went from the size of a marble to the size of a golf ball. It would need to be bigger to fight against the Shadows.
“Release it.” Locke’s voice came centering her again. She threw it at him watching as it exploded pushing him backward until he collapsed. He hadn’t been fighting her but now she understood what she had to do.
She collapsed against him.
Become a psychic it’s so much fun. Bloody hell whoever said that was wrong!
“Ava,” Locke ran his hands up and down her arms. She was shivering the white of her skin glowed a dim blue. The area around her eyes was sunken with a black cast to them.
“Cold,” she managed to pry one eye open. “Oh, good we’re back in the real world.” There were grass and trees in the distance, but the bridge was gone and so was the pretty water.
“We are,” he stood holding her up. “You need electrolytes and some food.” He swung her up in his arms and made his way to the kitchen.
“Have a seat, you’re going to have to feed her. Try to get both bottles of Gatorade into her and then a bottle of water. She’s dehydrated as well as having used up most of her reserve energy.” Ven pulled bottles out the fridge.
“How will the food help?”
“Try going on a forty-day fast then thinking you’ll run to the bathroom.”
“Point taken. She’s human not Kur’ik, her body can’t take what mine can.” He changed the position he was holding her in before lifting the bottle to her lips. “Come on princess just a sip.”
“You’re right, but if she were mated to you. That might change everything.”
“Might or will?” He massaged her throat helping her drink down the Gatorade. “I hope you like orange.”
“Ahh you
’re asking me for answers I can’t give you. Besides, if you mate that can’t or shouldn’t be the reason. We mate for love if we don’t…”
“Ven what do you know that I don’t?” She slowly finished the bottle before he set it aside and worked on getting her to take a bite of food.
“Ten lifetimes wouldn’t be enough to share with you what I know. As far as Ava goes, in the end, it’s all about love and family.”
Locke lifted his eyes to look at Ven. It had to be a glimpse into eternity, the past mingling with the present as it careened towards the future. When he looked in Ven’s eye’s he saw a young man on the verge of losing everything.
Chapter Sixteen
“How do you feel?”
Ava stretched allowing her muscles to speak for themselves. The day before was a little hazy after they made it back to what she was calling the reality plane. They spent most of the day either sleeping, pretending to watch television and sleeping, or with Locke hand feeding her. Holy cow! He hand fed her like she was a little bird about to die.
“Princess?”
And he called her princess. How could she forget that? “I’m fine, okay, not bad at all.”
Locke, who had been standing by the window, walked over to the edge of the bed to sit. “Does it feel strange? All the perceived changes that happened yesterday?”
Well now, that you mentioned it, yes it does. Not that I’m going to tell you that.
“Maybe.”
“Feels strange to me too. I spent a lot of time thinking about them and came to some conclusions. You’ll have to come to your own, but there is something I think you should know. You’re in charge here not me. That means you don’t have to do anything you don’t want, like take me on as a mate.” He leaned over and kissed her before getting up and leaving the room.
Damn men, just when she thought she had them figured out. One of them goes and does something… something selfless. Now she had to take a good look at how she felt. She wasn’t dying or caught in the between world that only existed outside of her head. Her life wasn’t in danger, all she was, was alone. That sucked.
Locke’s mental shields were up or were they called his anchor shields? Whatever they were, they were keeping her from getting any impression of what he was thinking. The little Locke as she thought of the figure in her mind looked like a tiny robot. It wasn’t moving he was totally on lockdown, pun intended. She laughed at her own joke.
How did the rest of womankind decide if they wanted to be in a relationship, much less get married? Weren’t they scared that somewhere down the road the right one could turn into the wrong one? Maybe they lose a job, or God forbid a limb. Then they become the thing you saw when sitting on the couch with a pillow and your hand shoved in your mouth as you watched the worst of humanity on television. Did anyone besides her worry about that kind of thing? Disney movies aside there was no guarantee when it came to love. That’s why humans didn’t do forever.
Except the marriage vows said to death do we part. Humans were just as romantic as Disney; she was just as romantic as Disney. She was betting Cinderella never got laid and Prince Charming didn’t have a penis, but that’s fantasy. This was reality and she most certainly got laid and enjoyed it. Locke had one heck of a penis. Sexy times forever, but would she be happy with just that?
She hated insightful questions. There was no way to even ask what another woman would do. This was personal and every person you asked would have different thoughts and take different actions on it. The question remained would being fuck buddies be enough for her as time went on and she got older. Did she want more in a relationship?
“You’re thinking way too hard for a delicious morsel who won’t survive much longer.”
This time she knew exactly who was bombarding her shields. She wouldn’t lump him in with humanity or even the small percent of men they called a serial killer. This was a Shadow, the same one that threatened her a couple of weeks ago.
“Nothing to do except try to get a peek at women’s thoughts hoping to tame that erection vicariously at some poor woman’s expense. No wait don’t tell me you have performance anxiety. Can’t get it up when they’re in the same room with you. I hear they have pills for that.”
“You bitch.”
“That’s Princess Bitch to you.”
“I’m going to tear you apart—”
“As soon as your dick gets hard. I know it’s been a while, take your time. You should know that I’m not interested I umm like my men hung and your, sorry, tiny size won’t do it for me.”
The Shadows scream made her put her hands to her ears. It was mental but her body was looking for every defense she could find.
“I am going to tear through mankind, feed off you until I am strong, and you are gone.”
“Sounds like all your going to do is get fat and lazy with as many people who populate the planet. Meaning you won’t be even as half as good looking as I am. You will be too lazy and sluggish to stop me from taking you down. Except I’m not going to wait for you to hurt anyone, I’m coming for you. When I find you, the only one doing the tearing through will be me.”
“Tough words for a woman who can’t keep my voice out her head. Too bad you didn’t find me before the kids I kidnapped died.”
She cast her mind out desperate to get a sense of where he was. It meant letting down her outer shields. His joy almost swamped her as he ran through them only to be met by tighter shields. While he attacked the shields, she attacked him catching a glimpse of the children. There were six of them all under the age of five if she guessed correctly from the images, he had of them. One was an infant.
Stumbling to her feet, she ignored the fact that she was wearing nothing except her bra and panties. On legs that felt like overcooked noodles she made it to the balcony. Pushing the door open, she fell against the railing. The sight before her wavered. She needed to concentrate on what was inside of her.
Lifting her hands, she began a small series of moves. The smaller the moves the more power. She heard Locke leading her through helping her as she concentrated mental power around her hands. As her hands moved the small her in her mind followed the same movements. The two of them sharing information.
With one last indrawn breath, she raised her hands and flung her power outward. In her mind she watched the Shadow bounce around until he was outside her initial perimeter of shields. With lifelong experience, she rebuilt her shields keeping him out. The her on the balcony looked at the trees she uprooted and the grass that burned away when power shot through her hands. She needed more control was her last thought before she slid into darkness.
“Ava wake up,” Locke placed a cool cloth on her forehead.
“Just five more minutes.”
“Wake up princess, we may not have five minutes.”
They had five more minutes. How could he not know this? The babies, an image wiggled its way into her brain. They might be dying as she relaxed on the floor like she had nothing to do.
“The babies they need our help,” the words came out in a gasp. She tried to sit but her brain acted like it was a cartoon with birds flying around her reminding her that she was dizzy and possibly dying, again. “Please, we have to save them.”
“You’re in no condition to try to save anyone. Tell me where they are.”
“I have to be there, please believe me. I don’t know why I just know I have to be.”
“You can’t leave the room without pants and a shirt.” He took her back to the bedroom and dressed her down to a pair of lightweight tennis shoes in case she had to run.
They didn’t look like the A team as he lifted her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “Ven, Cade and whoever is available come with me.” When he got outside the others were out there waiting.
“Babies,” she told them as Locke put her in the back seat of Mira’s SUV. “Back at the house in the west end.” Did they understand her or was her message as garbled as it sounded in her head?
She concentrated on drinking small sips of what Locke was giving her. As she started to feel better, she felt the small bits of power he was feeding her. Not enough to overwhelm her with his alieness in her mind. Just enough to get her back on her feet. That was Locke, he cared about her enough that he put her first. People shipped other people all the time. Could she ship herself? If so, she shipped her and Locke. A small metallic sounding laugh left her as Mira pulled in front of the house.
She slid out the backseat and would have fallen face first if Locke didn’t have his arm around her waist. He was a good man, she’d have to tell him later. I may be drunk, she giggled. She felt kind of drunk. Her arm went around Locke’s waist as they went to take a step and she stopped everyone.
“Ava’s right this whole area is booby-trapped.”
Ava’s shoulders fell, she wasn’t sure she had the strength to tell them what she was sensing. She tapped Locke on his shoulder and pointed to their right. He walked her over and slowly let go of her as she gained some stability in her legs. Taking in a deep breath she reached out to Locke with her mind making a connection. Once it was made, she allowed herself a little grin for being able to do it before she enhanced the sounds coming from the boxes in front of her.
His hands lifted to his ears before she was able to modulate the sounds. Once he heard them, he pulled out the shield he used to make the traps visible and contain them. Ava made a shield like the one he was using bagging two of the traps. Together they bagged five traps placing them in the back of the SUV.
“We have six of them. Do you hear any more?” Mira walked up to them.
“No, do you feel anything?”
“I think we’re trap free for now. I’ve no idea what we’re going to find in that house.”
“Abused children.”
The Wolf & The Psychic: BBW Alien Paranormal Romance (Werewolves & Mates Book 2) Page 10