"I'm sorry, sweetie," she said hoarsely, her throat tight. "I'm having a bad day. It's not your fault. We'll discuss it later. Right now, I need to talk to this man."
Alex looked uncertainly from her to the stranger. "He feels funny," he said. "I don't like him."
So he could sense the power. Kara had never had any way of knowing how Alex might react if he were around others of his kind–until now. She strove to reassure her son. “Silly boy. He's on the other side of the couch. How can you tell anything about him from here?"
But Alex remained serious, his distrustful gaze on the stranger. "Listen," Kara said, shifting back. "Why don't you go to your room and watch Star Trek? Take Mac with you."
Alex nodded, but he seemed reluctant as he stood and headed toward the hallway. With a low growl at the stranger, Mac followed, his tail still tucked between his legs.
Dreading the coming encounter, Kara rose and walked to the fire, seeking its warmth. She turned her back to the flames, keeping a wary watch on the stranger. He shrugged out of his duster and tossed it over the arm of the sofa, then started toward her.
"I didn't invite you to stay," she protested.
"I don't stand on formalities." His voice had an odd rasp to it, not unpleasant. He closed the distance between them, moving to her side.
She realized it had been a mistake to position herself in front of the fire. Now the stranger had her virtually hemmed in, with the flames behind her. This close, he was even more intimidating, towering almost a foot over her own five foot, six inches.
He wore a red pullover sweater and faded jeans over his impressive physique. His face appeared even harsher, defined by high cheekbones beneath slashing steel eyes. His full, sensual mouth had a ruthless set to it. Energy sizzled between them, permeating her skin and moving through her body like molten lava. How could a virtual stranger have such an effect on her?
"So you're a conductor," he said, certainty in his voice.
What he thought he knew and what she would admit were two different things. It was far too frightening to go down the same path she'd traveled nine years ago. She forced herself to meet his penetrating gaze. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes you do. In town this morning, you recognized my power immediately. Since you're not a Sentinel or a Belian, that leaves only one possibility." He stepped closer, and she tensed. "And ther0e's no denying the energy between us."
His words, enhanced by the electricity arcing between them, conjured up shockingly erotic memories. Memories of Richard, and of him and Kara naked and entwined, their bodies locked together in a frenzy of passion. With them, it had been like a fever in the blood, a hunger that couldn't be sated.
Richard had told her it was a chain reaction of chakra energy, automatically ignited when certain conductors and Sentinels were in close proximity. Yet there had been more than just sex between Richard and her. She chose to believe that the reaction itself was simple lust, fueled by chemistry, no more, no less. It could be controlled—mind over matter.
"I don't feel anything," she lied. "You've barged into my house uninvited, talking foolishness. I want you to leave."
"You're a conductor, and your reactions to me, earlier and now, prove it. Besides, you just told me not to use magic. Why would you say such a thing, if you didn't know what I am?"
He had her there. She knew he wouldn't leave now. His extraordinary powers had ensured he'd be able to ferret out her secrets, despite her resistance. Not that she'd been very cool or levelheaded. She stepped away from the fireplace, putting some distance between herself and him.
She tried to still her trembling, to speak normally, but her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. "What do you want from me?"
He advanced, and she retreated, her legs shaky. He gestured toward the couch. "Sit, before you fall down."
Hating that he could see her fear, but knowing his suggestion was valid, she moved to the couch, sinking down on the sturdy blue corduroy. She was grateful he took the large armchair opposite her and that he now appeared to be shielding the energy. It wasn't the bombardment it had been.
"Tell me, Dr. Kara Cantrell, about your psychic abilities."
Another shock jarred through her. "I have none," she said adamantly.
Impatience flashed in his eyes. "Stop lying to me. Many conductors have some sort of ability—precognitive, empathic, telepathic. And you were able to sense me from a distance. You can’t deny your abilities."
Kara shook her head, wishing she could block out the truth of his words. Her thoughts drifted back through the years, to events she would rather forget. The earliest memory was from age four, when she awoke from a particularly vivid dream and informed her parents, "Grandpa went to visit the angels." Two hours later, they received a phone call with the news that her beloved Papi had suffered a sudden heart attack and died.
Then there was the terrible time, when at age eight, she again awoke from a dream—this time screaming—and told her mother that she'd “seen” her father crushed in his car. They soon learned a drunk driver had smashed into her father's vehicle, killing him instantly.
During her senior year of high school, while in her calculus class, she’d had a sudden vivid image of her brother Dan being shot in the left leg, his knee shattered. Dan, who was serving in Desert Storm, lost his left leg from the knee down that very day.
There were more, many more, incidents over the years. She’d felt like a freak, been unsettled by these unexplained occurrences, and rationalized them away as coincidence. She had taken refuge in science, which was logical and definable. And she’d worked hard at suppressing the events, training herself to awaken at the first hint of an unsettling dream. Meeting Richard had opened her eyes to a world that couldn’t be explained by logic. But she refused to acknowledge or enter that world again.
"I'm a doctor, with scientific training,” she said. “I don't believe in unexplained phenomenon. Obviously, you have me confused with someone else."
"Do I? Your son is a Sentinel. Which means at least one of his parents is a Sentinel. In this case, it would have to be his father."
“Leave my son out of this.” She had no intention of discussing Alex with this man. Alex was just a normal six-year-old boy. He attended first grade, played soccer, watched Star Trek. He— She clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to face what she'd known since Alex was three, what she desperately wanted to will away.
The sudden presence next to her, the startling feel of a hand over hers jolted through her like a burning brand. The stranger sat next to her on the sofa, having moved with astonishing stealth and speed—something she well remembered. She gasped and tried to pull back, but he tightened his grip on her hand. Currents of energy tingled up her arm.
"No more games," he said. "I will get to the truth of the matter, with or without your cooperation. I can help you. Alex needs protection until he can learn to shield himself."
What protection had Richard had? If her son was in danger from the same dark forces…God, why had she thought all that was behind them?
She pressed her free hand against her mouth, mortified by the sudden rush of hot tears in her eyes. "We don’t need your help. Just go away."
His face impassive, he manifested a clean handkerchief in his palm and handed it to her. "Let's start from the beginning."
* * * *
The fool. He thinks he can hide from me, can keep his presence in Zorro a secret. But I'm too smart for him—and too powerful. It’s only a matter of time before I uncover his identity.
Now that I have physical substance, I can't be defeated. A weakened body has given me everything I need. It might be diseased, but soon I will find a stronger body, and then the possibilities will be endless. The terminations…ah, how glorious! The rush, the adrenaline, the power.
Praise Belial for my descension into this plane. No Sentinel can discover or defeat me. There will be more terminations, more power.
I will have it al
l.
CHAPTER THREE
"Your son was fathered by a Sentinel," the man repeated, a ruthless determination underlying his deep voice. “Who?”
Kara knew he’d eventually uncover everything—already had, for the most part, but a deeply ingrained instinct for survival insisted that she continue to deny the facts. "What makes you so sure of that?" she challenged, wiping at her eyes.
“There’s no denying Alex is a Sentinel, no matter how much you might wish otherwise. And there are only two ways a human can have Sentinel power. The first is to be born to parents where one or both have the power. The second is through possession of a body. I’ll bet your son has no indications of being possessed—and believe me, you would know if he was. You are not one of us. Therefore, the transfer of the power came from his father."
She lifted her chin, glaring at him defiantly, although fear still pounded through her, barely restrained only through tremendous effort on her part. “And there are no exceptions to that rule, no anomalies?"
"None. The mother becomes pregnant only if a Sentinel soul chooses to enter the physical plane at that time and through those specific parents."
The soul chose? Both the time and the parents? This new knowledge skittered through Kara, adding to the emotional and mental overload.
"You didn't know this." Her surprise must have been evident, because he said it more as a statement of fact rather than a question.
Richard had told her there was no need for birth control, and she'd believed him. She'd been so head over heels in love with him, that she didn't care if they did have a child. But she hadn't known any details of how Sentinels came into the physical plane.
There was probably a lot more she didn’t know, information that might be necessary to keep Alex safe. Resignation seeped through her, and she felt weary and drained. Any denials were futile in the face of the stranger’s perceptiveness. She shook her head. "I didn’t know how Sentinels came into being. I didn't even know I was pregnant until after Richard—" She paused, closing her eyes against the pain. "Until after he was murdered."
The stranger leaned closer. “Tell me about Richard.”
Surrendering to the inevitable, Kara steeled herself against the grief. “I met him in Birmingham, Alabama. I had just finished my residency in family practice. He was a medical examiner for the county coroner’s office.”
That fateful moment flashed through her mind: Bored to tears at a stuffy American Medical Association honorarium dinner, she’d glanced across the room to see a tall, handsome man staring at her. Normally she would have ignored him, but the attraction had been mutual and instantaneous. She’d watched as he threaded his way through the crowd with a purposeful tread, his gaze never leaving her, and a shiver had swept through her body…
“Birmingham.” The stranger’s voice jolted her out of the memory. “You must be talking about Richard Wayman. His physical entity perished after a mortal encounter with a Belian that had incarnated as a state trooper. Seven years back, I believe.”
A mortal encounter? No, that was too neat and clinical. It had been a massacre…The trooper, his inhuman eyes shielded behind mirrored sunglasses, coldly gunning down innocent people as they screamed in terror and tried to run. Smiling as he stepped over bodies sprawled around him like broken, bloody toys. Daring Richard to stop him—a challenge no Sentinel could ignore.
With a gasp, Kara tried to shut out the horrific images that she had witnessed seven years ago. She channeled her emotional upheaval toward the man now sitting beside her. She wouldn’t allow his unemotional reduction of Richard to nothing but a statistic.
“Richard Wayman was more than a physical entity,” she snapped. “He was a flesh and blood man, and he cared about people, really cared what happened to them.”
So much so, that he had answered the Belian’s challenge. Had stepped forward so no more innocents would die. She clenched the handkerchief, dug her nails into the fabric.
The stranger appeared unaffected by her outburst. “And you conducted for him?”
Other memories swirled forward, heated and erotic: Richard rising above her, stroking inside her deep and hard.
“That’s it, baby. That’s it. Just let yourself go, and don’t worry about the energy. I’ll handle it.”
Light flashed around them, electricity arced between them, and her body began convulsing, in the throes of the most powerful orgasm she’d ever experienced. “Oh, God, Richard…oh my God!”
Then the light and feelings became so intense, she couldn’t see, couldn’t think, could only be swept away by sensation.
“Kara?”
Her heart was pounding again, and her breasts felt painfully swollen. She drew a deep breath, looked into the stranger’s glittering eyes. “Yes. I conducted for him.”
“Did you work together long?”
Worked together, lived together, and loved together. “Almost two years,” she murmured.
“Yet you had no idea what to expect, or that your child would have the power."
She blew out her breath. "No, but we've handled it without any problems."
“You can't continue to do it on your own. Alex needs to be initiated into the Law of One. He needs to be instructed in the proper use of his power and the fulfillment of his purpose on this plane."
“We’ve been fine until now,” she insisted stubbornly. “I want my son to live a normal life.”
"You can't keep denying the reality, Kara. An unshielded initiate can draw discarnate entities, or worse. The Belian I'm hunting could eventually pick up Alex's power and prey upon him."
"What are you talking about? There can't be any Belians in this area. There haven't been any murders. No crime at all, in fact."
"You’re wrong about that. There has already been at least one murder in Zorro. But the authorities labeled the death as accidental."
Another chill swept through her, and she clenched the handkerchief until her hand ached. “I don’t believe it. David Thornton was the only recent death, and he drowned six weeks ago. He never could swim, but he always insisted on going out in the water to fish, even in January.”
“He didn’t drown. I believe an autopsy would show that he died from other causes.”
“What other causes?”
“A blow to the head.”
She knew when a Sentinel visited the scene of a crime or a death, and was able to pick up a psychic trail, the Sentinel could often “see” what had happened. But she couldn’t bring herself to accept what the stranger was telling her.
“He was battered badly because the current carried him over several dams, and it was two days before they discovered his body,” she said.
“That was the official report. But Thornton was dead before he entered the water.”
It didn’t surprise her that this man had been able to access the police reports, just as she understood why, even if he had “seen” David’s death, he didn’t know who had committed the alleged murder. A highly advanced Belian could obscure its presence, so it would only appear as a blur in a psychic vision.
But she still wouldn’t accept that David had been murdered. Couldn’t accept it, because it would herald the end of the normal existence she’d carved out for Alex and herself.
“No,” she persisted. “The medical examiner would have discovered the blow to the head, and the death wouldn’t have been ruled accidental. There are no Belians in Zorro. The population has hardly changed since I’ve been here. Besides Alex and me, nobody new has moved to Zorro in a number of years.”
His expression hardened; impatience again flashed in his eyes. “You’re not that naive, Kara. We just talked about it. Not all Belians come to Earth through physical birth.”
Horrific possibilities flashed through her mind. “Possession,” she murmured, feeling even sicker.
“Exactly. You probably also know such a thing is easier if the possessed person’s body or mind is weak.” He leaned forward, his frigid gaze fixed on her.
“There are two things you will do for me. You will give me a list of your patients with serious physical or mental conditions. And you’ll help me track down this entity.”
“I won’t do either of those things. I’m not going to allow you to terrorize innocent people.”
“I can get the medical records, with or without your help,” he informed her grimly. “And you will conduct for me.”
She knew she couldn’t keep him from accessing her patient records, unless she destroyed them, and she would give that serious consideration after she got rid of him.
As for the conducting, although he possessed the power to force her compliance, the code of honor that all Sentinels followed did not allow him to use his power that way. A conductor had to be willing to be called into service.
“I won’t conduct for you, or anyone else.” She rose from the sofa, finding strength from her resolve. “We’ve talked. Now you can leave.”
He rose, too, and she instinctively took a step back from his intimidating frame. “You must conduct for me. This Belian is eluding me. I need you to provide the focus and magnify the energy. Like you did with Richard.”
Another emotional blow added to the staggering overload of the day. “Richard and I—it was different. We loved each other.”
“Love has nothing to do with conducting. It is the physical bodies that are the conduit, and the balancing of female and male energies.” He closed the gap between them, grasping her shoulders. Energy arced from him to her, sparking through her body like fireworks.
He leaned down, his breath a harsh caress against her face. “It is not love, but the power of the sexual surge, which facilitates the seeking.”
She jerked away from his grip, stumbled back. “Go to hell, Sentinel.”
He straightened, his hands dropping to his sides. “We’re already there, Kara. Hell is here, on Earth. And it’s here in Zorro. I can guarantee you it’s going to get a lot worse.”
“Get out.”
He didn’t move. “What about Alex? You can’t leave him unprotected.”
Alex was her weak link, and this bastard knew it. She drew a deep breath, looked at the pictures on the mantle, her son’s beloved face reflected in each of them. She couldn’t discount the possible danger to Alex. “I’ll think about what you said.”
Touched by Darkness – An Urban Fantasy Romance (Book 1, The Sentinel Series) Page 3