Charged Part Three

“Hello. Watch where you’re going,” Dakota said, colliding with what felt like a tree trunk. She reached out to steady herself and turned.
A pale, white face stared down at her, but it belonged to the two most brilliant brown eyes she’d ever seen. They looked like pools of dark chocolate.
“In a hurry?” the guy asked.
Long dark locks of hair spilled forward as he leaned toward her. What was up with everyone being so tall? She instantly despised her tiny five-foot-three status.
She batted strands of hair off her forehead, glad, for once, for the windowless hallways leading from the workout room. She would have cleaned up more had she known she’d be running into Mr. GQ. Oh, and nice-smelling GQ. Was that Envy cologne tickling her nostrils?
“Dakota Summers?” The guy held up an index card.
“Yeah?” She stepped back, fighting with her constricting lungs to catch a breath.
“Mr. Smith sent me here to find you. I’m—.” He looked side-to-side then smiled. “I’m new here. He said you’d show me around?”
Her brain turned to mush. “I’ll whaa—?”
His gaze shifted beyond her then to the index card in his hand.
“Oh. New student. New . . . .” Finally the synapses started firing. New to the team. Meaning, new powers. New everything.
Duh. She probably looked like a pretty impressive mentor-type right then.
She’d stayed up way too late with Sean the previous night. How she refused his offer to go to his room, she didn’t know, but she was glad she did. Maybe it was a good thing she had because Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome looked mighty—
“Hey, Red, you okay?”
“Red?”
He pointed his forefinger toward her head. “Yeah, the hair . . . sorry it’s a habit. I give nicknames to pretty—well, I just give people nicknames.”
She tugged at her stringy locks. “Oh. The hair. I get it. Um. Let’s get out of here.”
She stepped around him and plowed down the hall, thankful for the dim lighting. For as much as they burned, she could only imagine how bright her cheeks were.
She cranked the stairwell door open. Metal slamming against metal echoed as she made her way up the stairs with Mr. I-could-melt-in-your-arms newbie close behind. “Okay, so I didn’t catch your name.”
He coughed. “Name? Oh, it’s Tom.”
“Where are you from?” She glanced up. One more flight to ground level.
The lights flickered out.
“Whoa!” Tom said.
“Don’t move.” She reached behind her and sent a little charge of electricity to her fingers. “See my hand?”
“Wow. I do.”
“Grab it.”
“Won’t that hurt? That’s electricity.”
“Only if I want it to hurt. Just grab it. I have to keep my bearings.”
His fingers met hers, and she shut off her electrical charge. Or at least she thought she did. Her skin still tingled where he touched it.
Okay, that’s new.
“What’s happening?”
“Probably nothing. Stay still.” Dakota squeezed his hand, suddenly worried for his safety. “So, what’s your power? How long have you had it?”
A muffled scream erupted. Maybe it came from the floor above them?
“No. It came from behind us.”
“Oh great. Another mind reader.”
“Another one?”
“Forget it.” She tightened her grip around his fingers then lit up her other hand. Her body brushed against his as she made her way down the stairs. “Come on, Tom. Let’s see what you’re made of. Stay close. I’ll keep you safe.”
Too bad his power wasn’t strength or fire or something lethal like that. All she knew was that she needed to protect him.
Dakota creaked open the stairwell door and peeked out, but something hard crashed against the side of her face. She released Tom’s hand and spun, then ducked and kicked. Her foot collided with whatever had just smacked her. A knee maybe? She lit up her fingers and reached for the attacker, but Tom stepped in and wrapped his large hand around the demon’s neck.
His digits glowed as did his eyes, and the demon vaporized. Not even a burst of dust like usual. The next second, his eyes and hand returned to normal. He looked at Dakota and offered her the hand he’d just used to kill the demon to help her up.
“Nice trick!” She let him pull her to her feet. “You’re gonna come in handy.”
The light radiating from her charge reflected his teeth as he smiled. “That’s the idea.”
Tom took lead, still holding Dakota’s hand. Her throat had gone dry. All the moisture in her mouth somehow ended up in her palms.
Mental blocks up! He’d probably heard her thoughts about his looks earlier. And how good he smelled. And then the chocolate comment.
“Get off her,” a muffled voice said from a distance.
A grunt followed, then the clap of a hand hitting flesh. Dakota pointed to the right side of the dark hallway. Athletic Trainers’ room. She glanced at Tom. The light from her hand outlined his clenched jaw and glistening forehead. Poor guy. Just got to the school and already thrown into battle.
“It’s okay. I’m ready.” He squeezed her hand.
So much for her mental blocks. She was going to have to talk to him about that mind reading thing. She snuffed out her light and stepped into the room. A hiss sounded to her left and the unmistakable smell of rancid demon breath washed over her.
She ignited a charge that illuminated her skin, lighting up the room. A demon to her left had a dark-haired female pinned against the desk, violating her body and inhaling her soul. Another demon, to her right, hunched over a guy, mouth latched onto his neck.
“Tom, get the girl.”
Dakota lunged at the other demon. Tendrils of electricity shot from her fingertips as they made contact with the demon’s cold skin. It stumbled back, and her charged hand gripped its neck. She reached for the blade in her boot. The demon snuck a backhand to her cheek. She held her grip on it, but the weapon clanked against the cement floor, out of reach.
Guess it would have to be done the gross way.
She wrapped her other hand around the neck and when her fingers touched, electricity sparked. The demon howled. The stench of burning flesh filled the air. Dakota gagged but held on. She preferred extermination by stabbing much better than electrocution.
The body in her grip thrashed. Its eyes bulged and tongue shot out. Streaks of electricity flashed like light bulbs in its mouth and eyes until finally the head detached. Splats of crimson stained Dakota’s white shirt, then the demon turned to smoke.
The sudden loss of the creature’s body weight sent Dakota stumbling back, and her butt hit the desk. Two strong hands grabbed her shoulders, keeping her from plummeting to the side.
She squeezed her hand around Tom’s forearm. A faint current shot up through her fingers. She looked at her fingers expecting to see them illuminated. But they weren’t.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes. The other one is gone, but so is the girl.”
Dakota lit up her skin again so she could see, then scrambled to the guy’s side and felt for a pulse. “He’s alive.”
Beams of light filled the hallway. “Everyone okay in there?” A deep voice, Dakota recognized as belonging to Mr. Smith asked.
“Here!” Dakota said.
“Tom?” Mr. Smith said as he walked through the doorway holding a flashlight in front of him.
“Yes, sir.”
“Dakota. Are you two okay?” Mr. Smith looked over his black-rimmed glasses at her.
Dakota snuffed out her light bulb skin--civilians might be close behind Mr. Smith. “Yes, sir. This one’s alive.”
“We’ll take care of it. Tom, we’ll need your assistance with his memory later.”
He nodded as he stepped toward Dakota. “Yes, sir.”
“So, Dakota, this is how you treat the new guy?” Mr. Smith nodded toward Tom.
“You know me. I’m not one to mess around. Like to see what they’re made of right off the bat.”
Tom grinned. He flashed his dark eyes at Dakota, and her brain suddenly ached like she’d slurped an Icee too quickly.
Red, there’s more I must tell you about me.

Read The Competition: Elemental Rain

Elemental Rain Part Three

She screamed and clutched him, and in that instant, she felt right again, solid. He could write the scream off to possibly breaking whatever psychic link there was left, but the way her body tightened against him, there was only one reason for that.

Bloody hell! “Forgive me. Forgive me, Lily,” he pleaded as he withdrew himself and began to draw away from her.

Before he could get to far, she caught his face in her hands, searched for an answer but not finding any she prodded, “What’s wrong, Jake?”

“I’m sorry, darlin’, I didn’t realize…I should have taken more care—,” she cut him off.

“Don’t Jake. You didn’t do anything that I didn’t want. Don’t run from me. Not now. Stay and finish what you started.”

“Lily. I’m still not sure if I believe all of this, but if people really are lookin’ for you, we don’t have much time. We need to get movin’.”

“Jake,” she said as she trailed her hands down to his trench coat lapels and gripped them, “I’ve waited ten years to be with you. No one else ever caught my attention the way you did. I need you to realize that I am in a battle for my life. I don’t want to die without—,” this time he cut her off with a strong, hungry kiss that shook her core, leaving her breathless.

He shrugged out of his coat and draped it on the chair next to the bed, covering his discarded boots. She got to him. If some mystical battle did happen, he didn’t want there to be regrets, for either of them. He strode over to the door and locked it. Now would be about Lily, and the many fantasies he’s had over the last ten years.

********

Long after they were both sated and Lily was sound asleep, Jake got up. As much as he wanted to stay, the twin bed made it impossible. Plus, he couldn’t just take off without letting Mick know. Mick was capable of running things for a few days and Dottie was pretty good with the books. Something was up and he wasn’t going to leave Lily alone to deal with this, whatever it was. And, he really needed a shower.

Before he could leave, Lily woke up.

“Jake?”

So much for leaving before she woke up, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you darlin’.”

“You didn’t wake me. I know, you have things to do, but before you go, there are some things you really need to know.”

He closed, the door and leaned against it, crossing his muscled arms over his broad chest.

“You might want to sit down for this.”

Eyebrows raised, he walked over to the bed, sat in the chair and waited for her to begin.

“The most important thing you need to know is that you never killed Blake West. You were set up. He’s still alive.”

Now that got his attention, “How do you know for sure?”

A bit more distant, “I saw him. He was at my house, talking with my parents. They didn’t know I was in the house. They were yelling at him to make sure he got it right this time….” she trailed off.

“Lily? Got what right?”

Still distant, “Do you remember that night, Jake?”

“How could I forget?”

“You weren’t supposed to be there. In fact, I didn’t even know you were in the house. Why did you stay home that night?”

“Hmm. You know, I’ve never been able to figure out what made me stay home that night. It’s weird. All I remember is at the last minute havin’ an overwhelmin’ urge to stay put. It was almost sickenin’ now that I think back on it.”

“Do you believe in fate or destiny?”

“Lily, darlin’, where are you goin’ with all this?”

“It was fate, Jake. Fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it, made you stay home that night. As far as my parents knew, you would be at that movie and I would be alone. That’s why they sent him that night. They knew I would be vulnerable, without my Protector. That’s what they refer to you as, my Protector.”

“Who’s ‘they,’ Lily?”

Tears streaming down her face now, “My pseudo parents. Yeah, that’s something else I found out. They aren’t my real parents. They stole me. I’m not really clear on why, but that’s what I know.”

“How do you know this?”

“It started Monday. I figured it was time for that backpacking trip across Europe. My parents were furious, and I couldn’t understand why. I finished college, I was an adult and I worked really hard to save up all the money I would need and then some. There was no reason for them to argue. We fought. I left. I returned later to walk in on their conversation with West. I didn’t just hear the words they spoke, I heard their thoughts too, which was how I learned some of what I’m going to tell you. The most important being that the extradition was arranged with someone from here.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know,” Lily exclaimed, sobbing. “I wish I knew.”

Jake reached over, pulled her onto his lap, wrapped his arms around her, kissed her and whispered, “It’s okay. You’ve given me more than I ever expected to find. Certain things are beginnin’ to make more sense now than they ever did before, but I’m still havin’ trouble wrappin’ my mind around what you can do. Readin’ minds, huh? I guess that could be a good thing, in the right hands.”

Wiping her eyes with her knuckles, Lily confessed, “I can do more than just read minds, Jake. I can communicate telepathically with people. I’m not very good at it yet and it only happens when I’m really scared or really angry, and apparently I can conjure things with my mind. That’s how I got from home to here.”

Stunned silence.

“Hello? Earth to Jake!”

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he responded, “Sorry. This information changes everything.” He looked her in the eye as he spoke his next words, “It’s extremely important that you stay down here while I’m gone. No goin’ outside. They’ll find you if you do. Give me your cell phone. They might use it to track you here.”

“I don’t have it with me.”

“Good, at least we have that in our favor. I’ll be gone a couple of hours. Promise me that you’ll stay here. If for some reason, they manage to come here searching for you, go hide in that closet. It’s protected. I’ve used it often enough to avoid the police in the early days.”

“I promise.”

“Good,” he replied as he got up, kissed her one last time and set her on the bed. As an afterthought, he took the pendant she wore at her neck, held it until the metal felt hot in his hands and then kissed it, whispering, “Be safe my love,” as he released it. Then kissed the top of her head.

As he made his way upstairs, Millie handed him a paper. Bloody Hell! If her information was right, he now needed to raise a small army! Using his Sat phone, he pressed a button and when someone answered he said, “All for one!” and waited for a response before hanging up.

“And one for all!”

Read the Competition: Charged

Forbidden Part 3

Anita stumbled forward into the empty apartment. Dagon stood behind her his face passive as if he did this all the time. Maybe he did.

Her knee shook and throbbed with pain, but she managed to hold herself upright. It would take more than bruising to take her down. But in her current situation, she knew she could be at the edge of her limits.

Dagon closed the doors, shutting out the gentle night breeze. She glanced back at him. He was strange. Indifferent one moment, but then gentle the next. Now he seemed to have closed himself off from her. He leaned against the wall with his I-don’t-care manly attitude.

He may be bored, but her heart had never beat so hard before. She’d never felt more alive than she did in this moment. Maybe that’s the way everyone felt right before they died.
She had no illusions of making it out of this alive.

“So, what are we waiting for?” Her voice echoed off the empty walls. There were no doors save the ones they’d come in.

Dagon stood with his arm crossed and said nothing. She was sick of men who thought they were better than her. Who thought to control her. Damn it. She was over this attitude.

She spun on her heel and stalked up to him. She poked him in the center of his chest. “Tell me what’s happening. I’m done being scared.”

“That’s good.” A man’s voice came from behind her. The tone was welcoming, but his voice made her want to curl into the fetal position and hide.

She looked up into Dagon’s eyes, searching for something to hold onto, searching for an ally. He wouldn’t meet her gaze. Her insides clenched. She was alone.

Slowly, she turned and backed closer to Dagon. Better the evil you know...well, kind of know.
In the center of the room stood a man. His long dark hair fell down his back. Eyes the color of emeralds shimmered with a knowledge of everything. His gaze penetrated her soul and knew every secret she had.

“Don’t look in his eyes,” Dagon’s voice resonated in her head. She glanced back but he hadn’t moved. He didn’t meet her questioning gaze.

“They call me Sammuel.” His voice had a distinct accent though she couldn’t place it.

Beautiful did not begin to describe the man before her. It was almost painful to look at him as if an artist had achieved perfection and brought it to life.

“Do you not have a voice, Anita?” Sammuel said.

Anita backed up again. The heat of Dagon made her feel safe. She couldn’t think about how odd that thought was now. The man in front of her required all her attention.

Anita drew from the strength behind her. “Why am I here?”

“Why are any of us here?” Sammuel held his hands wide and smiled as if they were talking over tea.

“I wasn’t being philosophical. I don’t understand what any of this has to do with me.”

Sammuel turned. She caught a glimpse of wings before they vanished. More angels, great.

“Did you tell her?” Sammuel’s attention was on Dagon.

“No, sir.” Dagon sounded like a soldier.

“Well, Anita. Why don’t we have a seat?” Sammuel smiled charmingly at her.

She narrowed her eyes. “There’s no where—”

Two large, wing-backed chairs blinked into existence. She glanced over her shoulder at Dagon. He nodded once. She hadn’t even realized she’d been looking for his permission. Old habits died hard. It upset her that even in her final hours she turned to a man to decide for her. Especially the angel that might kill her.

She sat in the offered chair. Why were they being so nice to her if they were going to kill her? Why not just end her life? Unless they got some sort of perverse pleasure in making women suffer. She wiped her damp palms over her dirty pants.

Sammuel sat and crossed his ankle over his leg as he leaned back.

“Do you know what we are?”

“Angels?”

“Close.” Sammuel’s lips curved into a mysterious smile. “We are the Fallen. Daemons.”

“So does that make you the devil?”

His smile disappeared. “I am simply a servant. You are a Witness, a human who is able to see angels. Most Witnesses still cannot see past our glamours, the image we present the world. But you are special, Anita.”

“I’ve never been special in my life. I think you have me mistaken with someone else.” She stood. “I’d like to go home now.”

She turned and before she could breathe, Sammuel had a hand around her throat, squeezing painfully. His other arm banded her arms to her side.

“Look at the angel that brought you here.”

Anita met Dagon’s grey eyes. His posture hadn’t changed but his eyes blazed with anger. At her? Or at Sammuel?

“What do you see?”

She kept her mouth shut, refusing to be bullied.

“What do you see?” He squeezed harder making it difficult to breathe.

Dagon’s eyes shone with murderous intent. She still wasn’t sure who the anger was directed to, her or Sammuel. Not willing to find out and not willing to pass out with these angels... Fallen or not...

“I see dark wings, grey eyes, black hair.” The pressure on her neck eased.

Sammuel whispered in her ear. “Dagon is glamoured. Humans see him as an average man with brown hair and brown eyes. They only see what we want them to.”

He released her abruptly, and as she stepped forward, her knee gave out. She fell forward expecting to hit the floor she shoved her hands out to catch herself.

Instead she found herself swept up into Dagon’s arms.

“Enough talk,” Dagon said.

Anita’s stomach dropped. Time’s up.

He spoke to Sammuel. “Do what you need to do?”

Read the Competition Across the Veil

Accross the Veil Part 3

“Sainmhíniú. Curse me from the Light, I cannot stop loving you,” Keth whispered between fevered kisses.

Talia felt her heart pounding inside of her chest. She’d been an actress in Hollywood for over five years now and had shared impassioned kisses with many of Hollywood’s hottest actors. But they were boys compared to the man who was clutching her to his chest. He kissed her lips like she was water in a dry desert, like she was the sun to his moon, like she was the only woman in the world who mattered.

His fingers slid inside of her robe, sending electricity racing through her veins. Her skin was on fire, sensitive and hungry for his attention. But as his palm moved up, around her rib cage, teasing the side of her breast, her brain kicked in.

She couldn’t survive loving this man. He’d pierced her heart so deeply that she’d left the only world she ever knew. If she allowed him to hurt her again, there was no where left to run. No relief from the pain. No escape.

Talia broke the kiss and stepped back, tugging her robe tight again. “I can’t do this, Keth. Not again.”

He stood before her, his eyes on fire with passion, and shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t?” She caught herself staring at his perfect lips and shook her head. “You hurt me, Keth. My heart and soul were yours and you turned your back on me.” A tear spilled down her cheek. “The only thing holding me together was my new life here, and my anger at you. Now you walk into my life and turn it upside down and I’m supposed to be thrilled and bed you right here in my living...” She glanced around her tiny trailer, realizing it didn’t even earn the designation of a room. “..Area? I don’t think so.”

He raked his fingers back through his long black hair, every chiseled muscle of his biceps tempting her. She gnawed at her lower lip, fighting to protect what was left of her heart, but her body was doing everything in its power to betray her.

“I already explained. My brother found out about us, Talia. He told me he was going to name you a betrayer. He would declare braitheann sí with the High Council. I didn’t want you to marry him. Just the thought of him touching you made my stomach retch.” He took a step closer, reaching up to wipe a tear from her porcelain skin. His thumb lingered, sliding along her jaw.

“But I would rather spend a lifetime in jealous torment, than face a day in a world without you in it.”

“So you lied to my face. You looked me in the eyes and told me you didn’t love me. You told me to marry Faldo.”

His eyes narrowed, and his teeth ground together. “I was protecting you, Talia.”

“No,” She shook her head, tilting her chin up a notch. “You were breaking my heart.”

“You don’t think it killed me to see you cry and know it was my fault? You don’t think it has tortured me for the past five years seeing you on television in the arms of other men?”

She wiped the tears from her other cheek. “You watched me on television?” He nodded and seemed to relax a little, but he frowned when he realized she wasn’t smiling. Talia crossed her arms. “So you’ve been here all these years and you never even attempted to talk to me?”

His brow furrowed. “When you left you told me you never wanted to see me again.”

“Of course I did. You had just broken my heart.”

“So I was respecting your wishes.”

“No, you were being a self-centered jerk. You should have found me and apologized so I could have forgiven you.”

He rubbed his forehead and shook his head. “So by protecting you, I broke your heart; and by honoring your wishes, I was a bastard.”

“Self-centered jerk,” she corrected.

Keth growled and stormed across the room, all two steps of it, and scooped her up into his arms. He stared down into her eyes as the corner of his mouth pulled up, hinting at a smile. “Woman, you make no sense.”

She laughed in spite of herself. “I’ve missed you too.”

Her smiled faded as she stared up into his green eyes. Right now they were dark, like a forest after a storm, and full of emotion. He bent to kiss her, softer this time, slowly nibbling at her lower lip as he whispered, “I am so sorry for hurting you, Talia.” Breaking the kiss he growled, “An aimsir láithreach.”

“I love you too,” she whispered as their lips fused together again. His tongue found hers, tangling together while her limbs ached to do the same. Keth carried her to couch and lowered her without breaking the kiss. As he rested above her, his fingers tangling in her red hair, she could feel his arousal against her thigh. Talia shivered with desire and moved her leg, brushing against him. He groaned into the kiss, his fist tightening in her hair as his other hand slid down her side until he found the opening in her robe. With his fingers splayed, he slid his hand up her abdomen to cup her breast.

She moaned, her back arching into his touch. Keth broke the kiss, nibbling his was down her neck to her shoulder.

Suddenly the door burst open. A huge man with silver eyes, draped in a blue cloak and an iron staff entered her tiny trailer followed by Faldo. He pointed at them and bellowed, “Braitheann sí.” He met her eyes and growled, “Betrayer.” He tipped his head toward the Sentinel. “Take her back to Summerland. The High Council can decide her fate.”

The Sentinel, pulled his hood back revealing his blood-red hair. Sentinels were the muscle of Fae royalty. Although they couldn’t’ wield Fae magic, they had troll blood in their lineage. What they lacked in magic, they more than made up for in brute strength. The iron staff would weaken most spells anyway.

As the Sentinel stepped forward Keth leapt to his feet. “You will have to kill me first.”

“With pleasure.” Faldo’s mouth twisted into a sick smile. “I have waited all my life for this.”

Read the competition - Forbidden