by C. L. Parker
Worry. That was all she ever did. Obviously for Colton, Dominic, and her baby, but also for Drew. He had been forced to spend quite a bit of time with that witch, Sinclair. She was appreciative of the fact that he sacrificed himself in order to help them out, and there really was no other option, but it didn’t make it right. It was disgusting what they were asking him to do. Drew refused to talk about it, which only solidified her suspicion that his sacrifice was taking a toll on him mentally and emotionally. He was even displaying characteristics of Stockholm syndrome, defending Sinclair at times.
She just wanted it all to be over with. The sooner the better... for everyone.
“So, what will you be working on today?” Dominic was flesh and blood now, but they never knew how long that would last. Sleep deprivation made his voice slurred and his eyes narrowed to slits. His large frame was slouched into the corner of the loveseat, and his head rolled to the side like it weighed more than what his neck could support.
Kerrigan moved the hair off his forehead and then swept her thumb over the heavy bags under his eye. “You look so tired.”
He smiled, but the effort it took was evident. “Yeah, but not sleeping is better than the alternative. I’m mostly ghostly now, so at least my body gets some amount of rest. Colton’s the one who’s getting the shit end of the stick. I’m more worried about him.”
His nod in the direction of Colton and Gabe on the matching couch against the far wall was just barely noticeable. His brother was stretched out with his head in his lover’s lap, having agreed after a great deal of protest to try to get a few moments of sleep. Gabe, ever watchful for signs that he might be in distress, was running his fingers through Colton’s thick hair while catching up on his recorded episodes of Supernatural.
“Are you going to answer my question?” Dominic asked.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” She curled her legs under her and drew invisible pictures on his jean-clad thigh with her fingernail. It was distracting at best—dangerously soothing at worst. “Drew said he thinks I have enough of his energy now, and he also thinks he knows how we can banish Drake once and for all when we get the call. So, I think we’re going to work on that today.”
Dominic took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing the tip of her artistic finger tenderly. Then he placed her hand over his heart so she could feel the thump, thump, thump of its rhythmic beat. “Just be careful. If anything ever happens to you...” He sighed and shook his head, the thought almost too much for him to finish but necessary at the same time. He pressed her hand closer to his chest. “If you stop breathing, this stops beating... for good.”
There was a knock on the door before Kerrigan could reply. She leaned in and kissed him. “Ditto,” she whispered before going to greet their guest.
It was Drew. Once inside, he took one look around at the occupants of the living room and then pulled her to the side. “They don’t look so good. How are they getting on?”
“They’re barely sleeping at all. I don’t know how much longer they can keep this up.”
Drew nodded in understanding. “And, how about you? Are you getting plenty of rest?”
“More than they are.”
“Are you taking your vitamins? Eating well?”
She rolled her eyes over his mother hen fretting. “Yes, Mom. I’m fine. Any word from Sinclair yet?”
He shook his head. “None yet, I’m afraid. She was acting rather odd this morning though. Said she had to meet with someone. I suspect that someone is Drake.”
As scared as she should have been, she couldn’t help but feel hopeful. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it is. The sooner this is over, the sooner we can all get our somewhat normal lives back.”
“True, but it won’t do you any good to walk into whatever lies ahead of you without knowing what to do once you get there. Shall we get started?”
Kerrigan nodded and held up a finger to signal for a moment. Popping back inside the living room, she noticed that Dominic’s eyes were closed.
“Don’t worry about him,” Gabe said, noticing her look of concern. “If he so much as twitches an eye, I’ll wake him up.”
Kerrigan gave her friend a warm smile and mouthed a thank-you before rejoining Drew, leading him out back to the garden.
“Drew, may I ask you a question?”
He gave her a sidelong glance. “Why do I get the feeling I might not want to answer it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. If you think it’s too personal, you don’t have to answer, but I really hope you will.”
He chuckled. “Well then, by all means... please, ask away.”
“How did you know what Sinclair was and what she wanted to do?”
“Ah, that.” Drew looked toward the sky as if searching for the answer. “It... it’s just something ingrained in me. I heard voices... no, that’s not right. I felt the voices in my blood, a sort of pulsating pull that stemmed from my soul and carried the message to my brain, to all of my senses, both physical and supernatural. It was something... more powerful, bigger than I could have ever imagined, and I knew I could trust what it was telling me.” He shook his head. “I don’t know if that makes any sense or even if there really is any way to describe it properly. Have you ever been drawn to something, or known something that you shouldn’t have? Something you just couldn’t doubt?”
She thought about the day on the beach when Dominic had confessed his past to her. She should’ve run for the hills or called the police, anything to get away from him, but something had told her she could trust him—that inside the thug for hire beat a heart of gold. The intent of his actions had come from a selfless place, but they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Dominic had been a walking testament to that theory, but she had known he wasn’t a lost cause; that she could steer him back in the right direction and help him find himself again, so she had taken a chance on him and found she had been right.
“Yes,” she said. “I know exactly what you mean.”
“You’ve felt it, too, then?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry you were forced to sleep with her. In fact, I’m sorry you were dragged into any of this. If I’d known...”
“There really is no need to apologize. I go where I’m needed and do what I must to ensure balance in the natural order of things is maintained. It’s what we Guardians do, Miss Cruz.”
“Still, I can’t imagine how horrible it must have been for you to get that intimate with that evil... woman.” She caught herself before she resorted to name calling.
He didn’t respond, but there was something in his eyes that made her question if it really was as appalling to him as she thought it ought to be. Men—maybe they really were all the same.
Once they reached the center of the yard Drew faced her, tapping a finger to his chin while surveying their surroundings. “What I have in mind for today might be a bit more grandiose than what we’ve been doing up to this point. Tell me about your neighbors.”
She turned toward her right. “Well, Olivia, Sydney, and the twins live there, so they won’t be a problem. The Days live on the other side, but just for the summers. The house sits empty the rest of the time, so we should be okay. What exactly do you have in mind?”
“I’ve talked to my father to get his insight on what’s going on here. My grandfather has a lot of experience with crossing lingering spirits over to the other side and sometimes they’re not so pleasant. He seems to think the solution to your problem is forcing Drake’s spirit to cross over.”
“And how do I do that?”
Drew paced back and forth in thought. “That’s the tricky part. We know Sinclair practices black magic, so chances are Drake did, too, which means he’s going to be more powerful than any other run-of-the-mill spirit. You’re going to have to bind him from using his magic and then banish him to the other side so he can’t return.”
“Okay. So, what do I need to do?”
Drew stopped and faced her. Placing his hand
s on her shoulders, he bent at the knee to get eye level with her. “This is going to require a great deal of energy. I have no doubt that you have enough Light to accomplish the task, but I am concerned about whether you can handle it in your current condition.”
She put her hands on his forearms. “You worry too much, Andrew Dickens. If this is what it takes to save Dominic and Colton, then I’m doing it.”
He released her shoulders and stood to his full height. “Not without practice, you’re not. I’ve received enough threats from your boyfriend to know that he’ll have my arse if I let anything happen to you, so let’s see how using that much concentrated Light energy will affect you.”
Kerrigan’s eyes brightened with anticipated excitement. They had found the solution to their problem, and the nightmare would soon be over. Then she could get on with her life with Dominic, raising their baby in a loving home like every other normal family.
But, wait... Would banishing Drake help Dominic’s situation?
“Drew, what about Dominic? Will this lift the curse from him? Will he be okay once I get rid of Drake?”
“I honestly don’t know the answer to that, Miss Cruz. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed and hope that it does, yes?”
“All right.” She clapped her hands together. “Tell me what to do.”
After a few moments spent getting her to a meditative state, Drew coached her through the process per his father’s instructions.
“You must call upon the energy you have harvested from my bloodline, as well as from your own. Concentrate on pulling it into a central location. Feel the warmth of the Light as it courses through your veins, gathering in that place inside you where instinct, pride, determination, and courage dwell. Do you feel it?”
She could feel it, although if you asked her where that place was, she wouldn’t have been able to tell you. There was no real name for it, but it was somewhere between the faith that had been instilled in her from Grammy since birth, and the belief in something greater—a mystical magic borne of the thing that made people persevere even when all hope seemed to be lost.
Her smile spread across her face from her excitement. “It’s... it’s... there are no words to describe it.”
He chuckled. “Sounds like you’ve found it, then. What you’re feeling is something older than time. It is everything good and pure, everything that has been or ever will be. It has power beyond what any mere mortal can comprehend. It is life; both the creation and demise of all that we know. You’re feeling the Light in its most pure, undiluted form. If you can manifest that power, if you can control it, you can move souls beyond the mortal world and into the realm where they belong.”
Kerrigan was too overcome by what she was feeling to taint the moment with insignificant words. Drew watched as her skin came to life with an angelic glow.
“You’re doing a fantastic job, Kerrigan. How do you feel?”
She nodded that she was fine. Her whole body vibrated with the surge of power cultivating inside of her. The warmth the energy produced made her feel feverish and slightly weak, but she had to push on.
“Good. Now, let it grow until it’s bigger than you, too large to contain, but be careful. I don’t want you to overdo it.”
Not heeding his warning, Kerrigan went for full glory. She was determined to prove she could handle the power and harness it to save the ones she loved. Visions of Colton and Dominic in their weary state flashed before her eyes. The pity she felt for them was almost overwhelming, and she felt the Light grow exponentially.
Drew saw an uncontrolled flare from the Light that had engulfed her and became concerned. “Careful, Miss Cruz.”
Thoughts of the life growing inside her came to mind. Would it grow up without a father, never knowing how wonderful a man Dominic was? Would the child be forever haunted by the same plague that now threatened its father?
She trembled, the jack-hammering vibration clanking her teeth together. Her eyelids quivered, and her head thrust back with the force that bolted through her like lightning.
“Pull it back, Kerrigan! It’s too much!”
She saw the ravens overpowering her grandmother again, extinguishing her Light and taking her life. A woman so kind and free of any malicious intent toward any living being. She burned with the intensity of her desire to right the injustice of it all.
“Stop! Let it go, Guardian!” Drew’s orders fell on deaf ears.
Kerrigan was lost to the power, lost to the knowledge of what she had to do. Colton and Sarah Grayson, Availia Cruz, an unborn child, and most of all, a man who had risked everything to save the ones he loved. And, for what? So that Drake, something that shouldn’t be, could alter destiny, alter free will, alter fate so that he might enjoy the same freedoms he was attempting to rape from so many others?
A blinding explosion of Light flashed, engulfing her and forcing Drew to shield his eyes from its intensity. Kerrigan let out a blood-curdling scream not of pain, but the relief of releasing the overwhelming supremacy that was rocketing through her system. A shockwave of energy pulsed through an unknown radius surrounding them with Kerrigan as the center point. When it was gone, Drew looked to find his counterpart lying on the ground in an immobile heap.
“Kerrigan!” he shouted, running over to where her body lay. He felt for a pulse, finding one that was steady, yet very faint. “Dominic!”
Within seconds, Dominic was out the back door and running down the steps. When he saw Kerrigan’s lifeless body, all sense of weariness evaporated as adrenaline pushed him forward until he was standing over his mate.
“Goddammit!” He gathered her limp body in his arms, a sense of déjà vu reminding him that he had done this before. “The passion flowers!” He nodded toward the vine along the perimeter of the garden. Then he stood and resituated Kerrigan into a comfortable position, prepared to sprint into the house and up to the bathroom. “Get a shitload of them, and hurry! What the fuck did you do to her anyway?”
“I didn’t do anything to her! She wouldn’t listen to me. She pushed too hard—she’s always pushing too bloody hard. And with her pregnancy it was just too... much...” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. The heat of the moment had a way of turning people inside out and not giving them a chance to think about what they were saying, or the fallout from having said it.
Dominic stopped. He shook with fear, eyes wild with concern, beads of sweat on his forehead—yet his face was blanched, his gaze distant and catatonic. His muscles were poised to take flight, but he remained unmoving. He looked down at Kerrigan, trying to find the answer to the question he only barely spoke.
“She’s pregnant?”
The attic bedroom was in total disarray. A cyclone of rage, anger, and betrayal had wreaked havoc on the small room. That cyclone had a name—Dominic Michael Grayson.
The wardrobe was flung open with its contents spilled out into the floor like it had gone on one hell of a binger and then vomited its innards. The top of the dresser was swept clean, the mattress flipped onto the floor, and there might have been a hole in the wall that hadn’t been there before hurricane Dominic blasted through the place.
Said hurricane was slouched on the futon amid the chaos of his destruction. Having actually taken the time to turn the futon back over, he sat with his guitar in his lap, lazily strumming the chords to Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. The tempo was off, much too slow, but he didn’t care. Hell, it was a wonder he was functioning at all. His body might have calmed down, but his thoughts were still violently swarming like a closed mosh pit at a Slipknot concert—only not as controlled.
Kerrigan was pregnant.
After hearing the news from none other than Drew, not Kerrigan, the shock had zapped him of all his energy and forced him into his spectral mode once again. Thankfully, Drew had recognized what was happening and caught Kerrigan just as she had slipped through Dominic’s transparent hold. It was a mad dash to get her into the house and up to the bathroom at that poin
t. Although he couldn’t do a damn thing physically, Gabe knew what was needed, proving he had paid attention the one and only time this had happened to her before.
Even if he had been in his physical form, he didn’t know how much help he would have been. Of course Kerrigan’s health was his main concern, but he had just had a major bomb dropped on him, for Christ’s sakes.
He was going to be a father.
Once the passion flower extract had been administered and she had seemed to be coming around, Drew and Gabe had rushed her to the emergency room for a full checkup. Colton went along as well, but it had been with a great deal of reluctance. He had wanted to stay with his older brother who, in his ghost form, couldn’t exactly go along for the ride to Flagler Hospital. Needing some time to himself to sort shit out, he had told Colton to get the fuck out. There was no reason for him to play audience to the implosion that was ticking away inside of him.
As it turned out he was perfectly capable of affecting solid things in his apparitional state after all, the evidence of which was scattered all around him. He would clean it up—when he fucking felt like it.
Kicking his foot out, he heard a crunch and only slightly adjusted himself to see what knickknack lay in carnage under his size twelves. The picture of his most precious childhood memory laid on the floor face up with an angry fracture through the glass. The irony of its symbolism didn’t escape him. No matter how impenetrable he had thought his happiness, there would always be something strong enough to crack it.
God. Dammit.
It wasn’t that he was disappointed, or even unhappy about the news. It was the fact that, much like Colton, she hadn’t felt like she could tell him something that damn important. But she did tell Drew, didn’t she?
