Cataclysm (Supernova Saga)

by C. L. Parker

  “Oh, thank God, thank God, thank God,” Olivia chanted.

  Kerrigan released Drew’s hand to touch Dominic’s scruffy face. He pulled back and kissed her one last time before turning his attention toward the ocean. With a relieved sigh, he looked back at her. “See? All you needed was a little distraction.” His grin was teasing, albeit smug.

  Needing to see it for herself, she scanned the ocean until she found Tyson running out of the water, the big, fat grin on his face a testament to his excitement.

  “Now that was epic righteousness!” he bragged to his twin, and then they bumped chests before doing that weird manly handshake thing.

  Dominic led Kerrigan back to their beach towel. “You showed your eyes. I don’t think anyone noticed them though.”

  “Oh, God. I forgot. I just wanted to see so badly.”

  “It’s cool, Querida. Like I said, I don’t think anyone noticed. That was amazing, by the way. What happened at the end there?”

  Drew answered the question for her. “I took her hand.”

  “You did what? Why the hell would you do something like that?” Dominic was more than a little irritated. “Ty could have been seriously hurt, or worse.”

  “I assure you that was never my intention. I didn’t realize how powerful Kerrigan had become. I merely wanted to show her what a surplus of power can do. It can be hard to control.”

  He turned to Kerrigan. “You’re quite extraordinary, Miss Cruz. It took several lessons for me to learn to use my gift without going to my sanctuary. However, as you just witnessed for yourself, too much of a good thing can be just as dangerous as not having enough.” He gave her a knowing look and then glanced back toward Dominic.

  “Well, this has been quite enough excitement for one day. I think I’ll retire to my hotel and try to get some rest.” He gathered his things. “Kerrigan, if you’d like, we can resume your training tomorrow afternoon. I should be well rested by then.”

  She nodded, feeling a tinge of guilt for assuming she could wield so much power without consequences. Nevertheless, she was determined that when the time came, she would be well versed in how to use just the right amount of the energy she gained from her own Light mixed with Drew’s to save the man she loved. If Drew was trying to dissuade her from her goal, he had failed.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she said.

  The look on his face said that he couldn’t believe she was willing to proceed, but admired her tenacity. He threw his bag over his shoulder, gave Dominic a nod, and went over to the rest of their friends to bid them farewell.

  “What’s he talking about?” Dominic asked once Drew was out of earshot.

  She shook her head and brought her attention away from their circle of friends, all fawning over their latest edition. “Nothing. It’s not important.”

  Their bodies moved together like the gentle rock of the ocean. Separate bodies like ripples joining to form one wave. Mutual passion drove them until the wave swelled to unimaginable heights and then crashed against the shore only to recede back into the blackened depths of the sea to rebuild its momentum. Dominic’s mouth left a fiery trail as he devoured his lover, gorging himself on her flesh. He couldn’t get enough—would never get enough of her.

  Kerrigan moaned as she clutched him to her body, her fingertips leaving marks in the tawny skin of his sinewy back. His muscles flexed beneath her hands as he surged into her, going deeper and deeper.

  Not a word passed between them, just the sounds of their lovemaking. Working toward a common goal, they were enraptured by the sensations invoked by their shared passion. Muscular limbs tangled with soft extremities and their bodies, coated in a thin sheen of sweat, slid against one another.

  Dominic broke the silence, but spoke only in a hushed whisper. “You feel so good, Querida. The way you move, the way you moan, the way you just can’t get enough. You were made para mi cuerpo. So... perfecto.”

  Kerrigan arched into him and wrapped her legs around his waist, holding him to her as she undulated beneath him. Reaching between their bodies to the place where they were joined, her eyes closed, and her breaths became more labored.

  He shuddered when he felt her slender fingers around him. “Jesus, Querida. That’s it.” His lips fell to the spot just below her ear, and his cold breath ghosted across her flesh. “Te siento, Querida. I feel you. Feel me... feel us. The way we move together is unlike anything I’ve ever known.”

  She swept her tongue over the mark on his shoulder, and he shook with the intense feeling that always resulted.

  Dominic hooked her thigh over his hip and rolled his pelvis against her. She rocked against him, her moans intensifying when she bit down on her bottom lip. It was the telltale sign that Dominic knew all too well, and it was always followed closely by a mind-blowing orgasm.

  “Dominic... I...”

  “Let go, Querida. Let it take you under,” he whispered into her ear. His thrusts became more purposeful, and he said the words he knew would push her over the edge. “I promise... I’ll catch you.”

  Slow and in time to their ragged breaths, he moved inside her while grinding his hips, giving her what she sought. Then with one deep, hard thrust, Kerrigan’s body seized and her thighs became like a vise around his hips. She clamped her mouth closed to keep quiet, squeezing her eyes shut and digging her nails into his biceps. He willed her to open her eyes again. He wanted to see it, and she did not disappoint.

  She opened her eyes, and the luminescence that shone through shook him to the core. The Light was strong within her. She had become so proficient at controlling her gift that she could summon it any time she wished. It just so happened that when she did it while making love to him, it intensified the sensation for each of them.

  As Dominic gazed upon her, he knew that no matter how many times he witnessed the beauty of Kerrigan Cruz finding her pleasure in his arms, it would never cease to amaze him. She was more than he deserved, but she was his nonetheless. And she forever would be.

  With a broken rhythm, he pushed into her erratically, feeling all his blood rush to a central location. A tightening in his lower abdomen started the domino effect of his unraveling. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and his release spread through every nerve ending. With a final grunt, he thrust as deep as he could and held still, his seed pulsing into the only woman he could ever desire in this way. She had awakened the lustful beast inside of him that had lain dormant for so long, and he would never tire of bringing her the same unspeakable pleasures that she gifted to him time and time again.

  Satiated and unable to hold himself up any longer, he collapsed on top of her. She always told him how much she loved the weight of him on top of her. She had said it made her feel safe, secure... like she was as close as she could possibly get to crawling inside of his chest. If he could, he would open up the cage around his heart and tuck her away there, because that was where she belonged.

  Kerrigan wound her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. He could feel her heart thumping against her chest, or it could have just been his own. Despite the sweat she had worked up, she still smelled as she always did—like sunshine and home. He inhaled deeply, savoring it as contentment settled in his bones.

  His peace would be short-lived. Drake would come. At least this time he had actually let them finish before he interrupted.

  “What a sexy little nymph you have there, my boy.” Drake’s voice sounded more like a hissing viper than the warped Father Knows Best impression he was trying to pull off. “Mind if I have a turn?”

  Dominic rolled over and pulled the cover over Kerrigan’s naked body. She turned onto her side, completely oblivious to Drake’s presence, and snuggled into her pillow.

  He knew what his father was trying to do, and as much satisfaction as it would give him to blow the sick bastard from his dream he also knew he would be the one to suffer in the end.

  “It’s not going to work, asshole. Why don’t you go bother your little b
itch and leave me and my brother alone?”

  “Oh, Colton.” Drake put his hand to his chest with fake endearment. “I was actually just on my way to visit with him. Want to tag along? He always has the most interesting... nightmares.” He had a disgusting grin that made Dominic’s skin crawl.

  Before Dominic could tell him to shove his little magic tricks up his ass, Drake snapped his fingers. Just like that Kerrigan, along with the bedroom they shared, was gone. He was upright and fully clothed—without his Doc Martens. Drake was nowhere to be found.

  Shrouded in darkness, he shouldn’t have known where he was, but the pungent smell of his surroundings was all too familiar. A strong odor of stale cigarette smoke, bitter alcohol, and day-old vomit lingered in the air. He blinked and then opened them to find a sliver of light coming from what he knew was the bathroom just around the corner and down the hall. He had spent way too much of his youth trying to get away from that tiny two-bedroom shack of a house, and there he was, once again held prisoner to it.

  The sound of retching and muffled sobs echoed from the bathroom—a sound that was also familiar. Dominic’s heart plummeted into his stomach and bile rose in the back of his throat. Never had he thought to be back in that house. Too many bad memories smothered the very few good ones that remained of his childhood. Which one would Drake choose to torture him?

  He would use the worst day that old house had seen; the one that had ripped away any sense of hope his small family had of a better future. He would use the memory that took one member of that family away and nearly destroyed the other two.

  “Oh, God... Colton...” he whispered.

  As if summoned by the sound of his name, a younger version of his brother came through the front door. His back was weighted down by his hand-me-down backpack, trying desperately to balance his science project, the anatomy of the human body. When he attempted to use his elbow to shut the door, the first place blue ribbon that had been attached to the poster board came loose and drifted to the floor.

  “Ah, shit!” Colton cursed. It was a bad habit he had picked up from his older brother.

  Dominic chuckled. “You cuss like a sailor.”

  Colton didn’t look in his direction or even acknowledge his existence. Instead, he carefully placed his project on the table, pushing empty liquor bottles out of the way, and then bent over to pick up the ribbon. There was so much pride in his eyes as he reattached the winning token that he wanted nothing more than to give him a pat on the back and an attaboy, but it was obvious that his presence was undetected. This was Colton’s dream, a memory that was replaying through his own mind—one that Dominic knew would turn into a nightmare.

  “Mom, I’m home!” the unsuspecting child called out into the emptiness of the house.

  A choking gurgling sounded came from the bathroom, along with a gasp for air, and yet more retching.

  “Mom?” The worry was evident in Colton’s voice and on his face. So was the fear.

  With timid steps he crept warily down the hallway. His eyes were fixated on the open door of the bathroom, and he swallowed a lump in his throat. A wheezing gasp that gurgled through something thick and wet became louder. Something crashed to the floor and shattered against the tile.

  “Dear God,” Dominic said even though he couldn’t be heard. “I never really knew...”

  Colton bolted down the hall on skinny legs that looked like they might give out at any time.

  “Stop! Don’t go in there, Colt!” Try as he might to stop the miniature version of his little brother, he had no voice, no physical effect on the scene. He stopped short when he got to the doorway of the bathroom. Colton’s face turned ashen from the sight before him.

  “Momma? Momma, are you okay?”

  He knelt on the floor beside his mother’s lifeless body. Her eyes were pinned opened with an empty stare, and vomit trickled out of the corner of her mouth. Her lips were parted wide, and more of the same vile stuff pooled in its recesses. Desperate to help her, Colton stuck his fingers into her mouth and scooped out what he could. Tears streamed down his face as he cradled Sarah Grayson’s head in his small hand.

  “Please, please, please!” he chanted over and over again, but his focus remained unwavering.

  Laying her head down as gently as he could, he hovered over her and put his ear to her mouth. No air seeped through the passageway from her lungs. He positioned himself with his hands over her sternum to perform CPR. Colton was skinny, but he threw his weight behind his shoulders and compressed her chest several times.

  He stopped and pinched his mother’s nose closed before inhaling deeply and blowing into her mouth. Dominic noticed only a very small amount of disgust on his brother’s face when he tasted the vomit that remained there. Again, he blew into her mouth. When she still didn’t respond, he went back to the chest compressions and repeated the cycle over and over again.

  There was no use. Sarah Grayson would not live to tell her youngest son how proud she was of him for his heroic effort.

  Defeated, Colton sat back and cried in frustration. “Dominic, where are you!? Somebody, please... help... me!”

  Just then, the front door crashed open. “Heeeeeere’s Daddy!” Drake’s arms were spread wide open with his chest puffed out. All that was missing was an axe and a psychotic killer’s look on his face, and he could have easily doubled for Jack Torrance from The Shining.

  Scratch that. All that was missing was the axe.

  When he glided down the hall to the bathroom, Dominic stood his ground, blocking his way. “No way, old man. I’m not going to let you fuck with his head.”

  Drake grinned at him patronizingly. “You have no control here, Dominic. You might be able to yank his chain in the real world, but in his nightmares... I rule. He can’t hear you. He can’t see you. He can’t even hear the words I’m saying to you right now because technically, his dream isn’t about you. You weren’t really here on that day, remember?”

  Damn but the man knew how to hit him where it really hurt. He was right, as much as he hated to admit it. He wasn’t there that day. Colton had been the one to find Sarah Grayson dead in their bathroom. A thirteen-year-old child shouldn’t have had to witness the death of his mother. A thirteen-year-old child shouldn’t have had to try to save his mother’s life.

  That was the day Colton had decided he would become a doctor. His failure to resuscitate his mother had been the driving force behind his need to save someone else’s.

  “So you see, there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Unless...” Drake looked up in thought. “Well, I guess there is that nifty little trick you picked up. Nasty thing, that Light. Sort of makes me feel like a mosquito caught in a bug zapper when you use it on me, but unlike those little nuisances, I don’t die. I just keep coming back, don’t I? However inconvenient your very limited trick is, it’s worth enduring to see the side effect it has on you. Maybe if you learn to control that temper you’d fare better.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, my son is in need of comfort.” He walked straight through Dominic. The blackness that engulfed him in the infinitesimal amount of time that it had taken for Drake to pass through him was enough to confirm what he had always felt about his father: the man was pure evil—a demon to rival the ranks of Satan’s unholy army.

  “There, there, son.” Drake kneeled beside Colton and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, pulling him away from his mother. “She’s gone, son, but I’m here now.”

  Colton buried his face in his father’s chest and sobbed uncontrollably. He was inconsolable, but the presence of his absent father in his dream was proof of what he had really yearned for that day.

  “I tried, Daddy.” He sniffled. “I tried to bring her back, but I couldn’t.”

  “You’re just a child, son. This isn’t your fault. You shouldn’t have had to see this. You shouldn’t have had to be here alone. Where’s your brother, huh? Wasn’t he supposed to be with her today?”

  Well now, wasn’t that just the
icing on the cake? Colton was the one person who had always looked up to him, believed him to be some sort of superhero, and Drake was trying to turn him against Dominic. He would never be happy until he had stripped him of every sense of humanity he had left, all in a push to make him concede his soul and render his body to his father to use for a meat suit so he could walk the Earth again. The man would never cease to amaze him. What kind of sick bastard does that to his own child?

  “I had... to do... a job! You sure as hell weren’t around to help her take care of us. I had to be the man of the house! Where were you!? Huh? Tell me, old man... where the hell were you when he needed you? When I needed you?” When social services had come knocking, Dominic had had to pull a fast one to keep them together. Ricardo had enlisted one of his many resources to have fake papers drawn up naming himself as next of kin so that Dominic and Colton could continue to live in the house without interference. Drake sure as hell didn’t give a damn what happened to them.

  His words fell on deaf ears, but he knew that even though his kid brother couldn’t hear them, their sperm donor most certainly could.

  Colton cried even harder. “I don’t know where Dom is! He’s going to be so mad at me. I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t save her!”

  “Shh, shh, shh...” Drake stroked the back of his head while rocking him back and forth. “Yes, he probably will be mad at you, but I can talk to him for you. I’ll try to make him understand that you did everything you could. I know he’ll still blame you, but maybe if I talk to him, he’ll at least keep it to himself instead of yelling at you. Do you want me to try?”

  Colton nodded through his heaving tears.

  “I hate you for doing this to him!” Dominic spat. Drake was making Colton believe he blamed him for their mother’s death just to get him to use the Light to banish him from the dream. But that would mean damning himself a little closer to nonexistence.

  Drake looked up at him with a menacing expression, but didn’t speak a word to him. He didn’t have to. His unspoken words played through Dominic’s mind like a scrolling announcement on an LED billboard. To the victor go the spoils...