by C. L. Parker
She and Dominic had learned some things about her gift along the way as well. For example, the Light does not allow Kerrigan to manipulate things that aren’t a part of the natural order that was intended for them. In other words, she couldn’t make a pig give birth to a puppy. Not that she had tried to or anything, but she did try to give Dominic a set of boobs – her attempt at being funny when she caught his stare lingering a little too long on her exposed cleavage one day. It didn’t work.
They had been pretty successful at hiding their little secret from the rest of the gang. Until Kerrigan got the bright idea of repairing the damaged Magnolia tree in the garden. That was pretty much a dead give-away something was going on. Having spent so much time in that garden, Gabe and the girls started questioning how it was possible that it was suddenly as if nothing had ever happened to the tree. Dominic tried to convince them that miracles were possible, and Tyson, the big goof, happily went along with him.
Kerrigan felt terrible about lying to them, even though it really wasn’t a lie. Her gift was a miracle, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to hide it from them for long, nor did she want to. She was confident her friends would never look at her like she was a freak. So, with Dominic standing by her side, always giving his unwavering support, Kerrigan told them the truth.
Sydney’s mouth dropped.
Olivia beamed proudly.
Talon looked like he was trying to figure out a math problem.
Tyson pumped his fist in the air, thinking he was going to cash in.
And Gabe? Gabe rolled his eyes and told her that there was no way she was going to steal the spotlight from him, but that he would be happy to share it with her instead, albeit reluctantly.
Letting their friends in on her gift was bittersweet. While Kerrigan was glad she would no longer have to hide it from them, the secret had been hers and Dominic’s. Something that only the two of them shared. Dominic felt her disappointment and offered her words of encouragement when she failed a task. When she succeeded, he wrapped her in a cocoon of his warmth or gave her his brightest smile. It was their own little world. Now they had five eager soldiers infiltrating their secret garden like a platoon of ants raiding a picnic.
Although Kerrigan resented their intrusion, she knew it was only because they weren’t just sharing in her gift, they were also popping that intimacy bubble that she and Dominic thrived in. Of course she knew it wasn’t their intention, but it was true all the same.
Since the beginning of her training, Kerrigan had been having more dreams, or rather, nightmares. They always started different, but ended the same. There was the same constant presence of something foreboding and sinister lying just on the edge of her dream. And ever present was the mocking caw of a black raven with orange eyes.
On more than one occasion, she had been running barefoot through a graveyard in a tattered green cloak. The rain was coming down in torrents, and she could feel the mud squishing between her toes. She kept moving, afraid that if she stopped, she would sink into the ground, becoming one of the cemetery’s undead residents herself.
She wasn’t sure what she was running to, or from. No matter which direction she went, she always ended up at an old oak tree. And perched on its lowest limb, was that same damn bird. It would do nothing but watch her, offering only a single eerie croak before taking flight into the chilly night air. She looked down at the platform headstone before her, the name Drake D’Mon carved into the cold stone. A deep rumble of thunder caused the ground to shake under her feet. Within moments, blood seeped from the sharp edges of the letters as they shifted and morphed into a different name. Dominic Grayson. And sometimes, he appeared before her. Dominic, strapped lifelessly to the top of the granite deathbed while a detached and faceless voice warned, “You’re nothing like her. You can’t stop it.”
She would wake with a start, sometimes with mud caked on the bottom of her feet, but always with her heart pounding so hard in her chest she was afraid it might burst with fear. Kerrigan had no clue what the dream meant, and she wasn’t the least bit curious to find out. There was still a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that it spelled out certain disaster for the man she was falling for.
Unbeknownst to Kerrigan, Dominic sat with her every night. He was becoming increasingly concerned about the obvious nightmares she was having. Her terrified moans and erratic jolts of movement gave away the nature of her dreams. He wished he could ask her about them, but doing so meant he would have to confess that he had been lying to her about where he had been going every night. Plus, she would see him for the peeping Tom that he had become.
But staying away simply wasn’t an option.
Dominic had been watching Kerrigan throughout a particularly bad nightmare. This one was different from the others in that she had been sobbing and out of breath, clutching at the material over her heart as she begged and pleaded with an unknown force. “Please, not him…” was all that he could make out of her muffled moans.
He was at her side in an instant, attempting to quiet her and bring her out of the dream with careless whispers meant only to comfort her. It was risky. If she had awoken without him realizing it and heard him in a conscious state – he shuddered to think about the consequences. Every single part of the relationship, the friendship that he had been building with her, would come crumbling down around him.
He would have failed.
As luck would have it, he was successful at rousing her without further adding to her traumatized state. Tears were streaming down her face, and her chest was heaving with labored breaths. Once the initial shock wore off, and she found her bearings, her head jerked up. She stared into the ceiling above her, as if she were trying to find any sign of life coming from his room.
He was startled when she jumped out of the bed, every ounce of her motions proving she was very much aware of where he should have been, where he would have been if only he could have been there.
Dominic took a step back when she moved toward her bedroom door, but he wasn’t fast enough, and Kerrigan walked right through him. His ghostly figure wavered, and it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room, leaving him light-headed. He drew his hands back to steady himself even though he really wasn’t in any danger of falling. Kerrigan stopped only for a second to look around her. She had felt it, too. But her attention was quickly drawn back to whatever mission she was on, and she walked out into the hallway.
With timid steps, she walked down the hall. Her body was still trained in the direction of his room as he crept along behind her, careful not to make any sounds to alert her of his presence. She stopped outside his door, her hand poised just over the doorknob, but she didn’t turn it. Instead, she pressed the palm of her hand against the door, followed by her forehead. She closed her eyes and let out the most heart wrenching sob he had ever heard.
“I need you, Dominic,” she whispered to no one. “Where are you?”
I’m right here! He wanted to scream. I have always and will always be right here!
But of course he couldn’t say it out loud.
Dominic clinched his fist and bit down hard to keep from touching her, from reaching out, from doing anything to make her feel better. It would only terrify her in the end. He hated himself in that moment. He wanted to be there for her more than anything else in the world, more than his own humanity.
That was the moment he realized he would sacrifice everything for Kerrigan Cruz. His heart, his soul, they belonged to her.
After collecting herself, Kerrigan turned the knob to his room, just wanting to be closer to him, even if he wasn’t there. She climbed to the top of the stairs and pulled the chain to turn on the light. His smell encompassed her, and her distress was laid to rest. This was his space. It lived and breathed everything that was Dominic.
She closed her eyes as a breeze filtered in through the opened window and blew her hair around her face. The wispy strands tickled her nose, and she couldn’t help but smile at the sensation. That
is what being near Dominic did to her. It made her smile.
She walked over to his stereo and turned it on before she sat on the futon and let her fingers drift over the strings of his guitar. It was almost as if by doing so, she could hear him playing it.
Dominic watched in rapt fascination as she got up and moved around his room, touching everything she could lay her little fingers on. She was marking his territory, whether she realized it or not, but he didn’t mind her going through his things at all. That was the weirdest thing for him. Normally, he was a very private person, but he wanted her to know him.
She swayed along to the sultry beat of Ride On, the last song he had listened to, moving toward his wardrobe. Dominic’s heart began to pound in his chest when she opened it and pulled out his Rolling Stones T-shirt and held it up to her nose to inhale his scent. Then she slipped it on over her cammi tank and wrapped her arms across her stomach, as if doing so was the same as hugging him.
When she looked back into the wardrobe, she gasped in surprise. Dominic almost panicked when she picked up his gold-plated Colt 1911 pistol with ivory grips. One of his past “jobs” had given it to him in exchange for Dominic not beating him within an inch of his life. He thought it was a fair trade then. It had been a side job outside of his normal dealings with Ricardo, so he didn’t feel too bad about not following through. It may have been a bit tainted, but it spared a man his life. Dominic figured accepting the gift put him on an even keel.
That gun had been his baby and had saved his life on more than one occasion. It was ironic how it was suddenly in the position to threaten it. If anything ever happened to Kerrigan Cruz, he would simply fade to black.
Dominic rushed to his nightstand and knocked over the photo frame he kept there in hopes that she would think the wind had knocked it over and get distracted enough to put the loaded pistol down. Kerrigan’s head whipped toward the sound. Just as he had hoped, she put the Colt back, closed his wardrobe, and made her way over to the fallen frame.
He sighed in relief. That also caught Kerrigan’s attention. She turned in his direction and looked right at him, or rather through him. Her eyes were probing, trying to see something, anything. All Dominic could do was hold his breath and try to remain as still as a statue. When she couldn’t make anything out, she turned her attention back to the photo.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, Kerrigan picked up the frame and held it close to her face. It was a picture of a woman with two little boys. The woman had her arms wrapped around each child with her face wedged in between the boys’ faces. Her smile was wide and genuine, and it reached all the way up into her eyes. There could be no doubt in anyone’s mind, the woman was happy. The two boys, who Kerrigan had presumed to be the woman’s children, had their lips puckered and were turned to the side as they each kissed the lady on her cheeks. The taller boy in the picture stood out in particular, and she could see the familiar face of her friend.
“Nicky,” Kerrigan breathed. Her fingers reached out to trace the outline of his figure in the photo. His eyes were a darker green, emerald, but the depths of them were still the same.
It was surreal to see that little glimpse into Dominic’s world. So much of who he was still remained a mystery. Kerrigan wondered if he would ever tear down the steel curtains he shielded himself with and truly divulge the secrets of his life. It was difficult to correlate the carefree little boy in the picture with the brooding, self-deprecating man that he had become. What had happened to him in his short life to cause such a dramatic change? Or for that matter, what had happened to the family in the photo, once so full of life and hope? How had they become so broken?
Kerrigan replaced the photo on the nightstand and turned her attention toward the pillow on Dominic’s bed. It was there that his head rested as he dreamed. Her hand smoothed the wrinkles from it as she wondered if she had ever had a starring role in those dreams. She shook her head at her silliness then grabbed his pillow and hugged it to her, inhaling his scent. She lay back onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling, the same ceiling he had likely looked upon countless times. She wished he had been there with her instead of God only knows where.
Before long, Kerrigan had drifted off to sleep. Dominic felt a sense of pride that she was finding some comfort in his bed, in his room, surrounded by his things. He waited and watched, relieved when the nightmares seemed to be gone for the time being.
Once the first signs of dawn crested over the eastern horizon, Dominic made his escape into the bathroom just in time before the transformation took place. He couldn’t risk Kerrigan waking up during the few seconds it took for him to become whole again, and there was that pesky little lie about working all night that he had to try to make look authentic.
Back to his human form again, he made his way up to his bedroom, not trying to be quiet, because technically, he shouldn’t know that she was sleeping in his bed. She didn’t even stir when he trudged up the steps with heavy footfalls. He chucked his boots off, not caring where they fell, and stepped out of his jeans before slipping on a pair of sleep pants. He was aware that if she woke at all during that time, she was going to catch an eyeful since he went commando and all, but as soundly as she was sleeping, it was doubtful that she was going to wake any time soon.
He stripped his T-shirt off and slipped into the bed. Lying on top of the sheets, he mimicked her position without touching her. As much as he tried not to disturb her, she must have felt the bed shift with his weight because she hummed contentedly and turned to face him with a big smile on her face. Her eyes fluttered open and the instant she realized that he was real, the smile dropped and her eyes shot open wider in surprise.
“Good morning,” Dominic said in a hushed tone.
“’Morning,” she mumbled, her cheeks stained with a deep crimson blush. “I’m sorry. I was just…”
Dominic put his finger to her lips to quiet her. “I think I rather like seeing you in my bed when I get home. You’re welcomed to it any time.”
“I’ve been having these horrible nightmares,” she started, her focus trained on his tattoo. “I…I guess I just missed you.”
“Hey,” Dominic said, lifting her chin with his finger so that she was looking at him. “Do you want to talk about it?”
His eyes were sincere and full of concern. She could see his desire to make it all better, just the way he had been doing with her training. But, saying it out loud would almost be like daring the nightmare to become a reality. She just couldn’t stand that thought.
She shook her head in response, hoping he wouldn’t try to force it out of her.
Dominic gave her a faint smile. “Come here.” He pulled her into his chest and tucked her head under his chin before he kissed the top of it and secured her body to his.
“So, you like my shirt, huh?” he asked with a bit of amusement in his voice as he rubbed her back.
Kerrigan’s body stiffened against him and she looked down, confirming with her own eyes that she was still wearing it. “Oh, um…”
“It’s okay, Querida,” he chuckled. “The only thing better than seeing you in my bed, is seeing you in my bed with my shirt on. Keep it. It looks better on you anyway.”
Kerrigan relaxed in his arms again and pressed her nose against his neck to breathe in his scent. This was the comfort she was looking for. It was in the way he held her, the way he just made everything okay. Whether it was just a fluke or not, she noticed that while she had been in his bed, the nightmare had stayed away.
“Did you just take a shower?” she asked, noting she couldn’t smell the soap on him, but she also didn’t smell anything relating to a work odor either.
“Nope, too exhausted.” Dominic never slept while he was in ghost form. He wasn’t even sure if he could. He never tried, afraid he might not wake up or something like that. So, he always stayed awake during his phantom time and caught a few hours the next morning.
“But you don’t smell like manual labor,” Kerrigan said, making Do
minic aware that he had messed up.
Quick on his feet, he shrugged nonchalantly and closed his eyes. “I had an easy night for once.”
“Oh.” Kerrigan rolled over.
“Hey, where are you going? I don’t smell that bad, do I?” Dominic asked, feigning insult.
“You don’t stink at all. On the contrary, I think you always smell delicious and,” she stopped mid-sentence, blushing. “…and I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
There was a long pause before Dominic finally spoke in that deep, lusty voice. “Can I have a kiss goodnight?”
Kerrigan turned to look over her shoulder. “I haven’t brushed my teeth yet this morning. I’m sure my breath must be kickin’.”
“I. Don’t. Care,” Dominic said, putting his hand on her hip and rolling her over so that she was lying on her back.
When he leaned forward to claim his kiss, she threw a hand up over her mouth to stop him. Dominic growled playfully and pulled her hand away, letting their joined hands rest on her stomach. Kerrigan felt like she was going to melt into the mattress when she looked back at him and his tongue darted out to wet his lips. He leaned over her and began to close the distance.
She closed her eyes and sighed when his mouth met hers. As usual, his lips were soft and warm, but the breath that seeped from his mouth was always cold. It was an odd mixture, but it was perfect and refreshing. The hand that had been resting on hers began to drift down her stomach and across her hip as his lips moved fluidly over hers with the most delicious pressure.
