by Misty Evans
But she sat frozen, her eyes locked with his as he spoke. “Chee’s department is in charge of the crime scene investigation.” His voice took on a dangerous edge. “And now he’s got FBI agents here who will officially take over the criminal investigation. The best I can hope to do is consult on the killer’s psychological profile and possible motivation. I won’t be able to help you or run interference between you and them. This is your last chance to give me what I need to capture the son of a bitch who killed your family, whoever he is and wherever he came from. Understand?”
She did understand, but her information about Enann wouldn’t help Rife or anyone else. Chief Chee’s comment rang in her head. You can’t catch a ghost…
She sat up and saw Rife’s gaze drop to her legs. Distraction. That’s what she needed. Distract him and get away from him. Disappear into the world, like she had a dozen times before, even though it would rip the heart right out of her. “What happened before Quantico to change you?”
As his gaze rose from her legs to her eyes, the air between them sparked. “Nothing.”
Keva leaned toward him, fighting the pulse in her throat and welcoming his sensual energy. She licked her lips for effect. “I’ll tell you about Enann if you tell me about what happened in your past that made you become a profiler.”
His head tilted as if he were about to kiss her and Keva’s already erratic pulse jumped.
But instead of kissing her, he smiled into her face. “Ladies first.”
Chapter Twelve
When Keva sat back, ruffled, Rife scooted the rocking chair forward. He purposely blocked her legs between his and leaned his elbows on his knees, settling himself into her personal space, not sure why he was pushing her, but too tired to reign himself in. As usual, getting close to her felt right. Instinctive. Effortless. He noticed the little things. The slimness of her fingers, the curve of her waist. The erratic pulse beating at the base of her neck.
While getting so close to her screwed with his control he had to stay focused on his one-hour deadline. Stay focused on the fact he was about to lose her to the other FBI agents.
“Go ahead, Keva.” He bumped his knee against hers. “Tell me about your lover.”
Her hand went to the base of her throat, and instant fear flashed in her eyes. Was she scared of him? Or was it this Enann fellow?
And why the hell was she refusing to talk now that he was so willing to listen?
As if she’d read his mind, she answered his question. “I’m afraid you’re not going to like what I have to say.”
Her dark eyes sucked him in and he hated himself for putting the fear in them. She’d suffered enough, even if she was a raving lunatic.
Mentally sighing, he reached for her hand, massaging her fingers with his, and lowered his voice. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Keva. You must know that.”
She slipped her free hand on top of his and brought his fingers up to her throat.
At once he felt the vibration there, wild and erratic under his fingertips. Waves of electricity ran up his arm, across his shoulders and into his chest.
Keva searched his face, looking for some reaction. “Enann was jealous of our love. As I explained before, I was supposed to marry him, but I refused because I believed you were my destiny. You came to me an enemy, sent with the job of forcing me to marry him, but once we met, you, too, understood our destiny together.”
Rife refused to show any emotion, and even though the vibrations continued zinging through his hand and up his arm, he pretended he didn’t feel a thing. “And?”
“We fell in love and made plans to go through with joining our tribes to create one nation. My council accepted our plan, but Enann and the father you shared with him, did not. Enann discovered I was pregnant with your child, which sealed our union even though we had not officially married, and he poisoned me.”
She swallowed hard, her throat contracting under his fingers. “I survived, but we…we lost the baby.”
A chain of neurons exploded in Rife’s brain like fireworks. His heart began galloping, striking his ribs as if trying to break free.
We lost the baby.
Gasping, he stared into Keva’s eyes, the room suddenly spinning around them.
This time, he couldn’t fight it. Colors and light encircled them like a funnel. The rocking chair seemed to tip and Rife lost his balance. He jerked his hand away from Keva’s and gripped her upper arms, both to steady himself and to keep from losing her, which seemed like a weird reaction, but weird was normal at this point.
At the same time he grabbed her, she reached for him. He hugged her tight in an effort to anchor himself. She seemed to do the same, her arms forming a vise around his chest.
Squeezing his eyes shut to block out the spinning, Rife tried to grasp the sensations ripping through his body. Fire and ice mixed in a tornado of searing hot and freezing cold. Smells and tastes converged, rolled and separated, only to throw themselves at each other again.
All of it stemming from the feel of Keva in his arms.
Her head lay on his shoulder, the smell of her hair flooded his nose, her arms securely wrapped around him…everything felt right.
But he knew it was wrong. Terribly wrong.
Opening his eyes, he pushed her away and stood, knocking the flimsy chair back on its wooden rockers. The room no longer spun, but he was dizzy and staggered over his own feet. Rubbing his eyes and drawing in a shaky breath, he blinked hard, spreading his feet wide to brace himself. Once he regained his balance, he drew another breath, this one long and deep.
He could feel Keva watching him, but he avoided her gaze, making work of righting the old rocker and sliding it back to its place.
His voice came out garbled when he spoke and he had to clear his throat and try again. To hell with his deadline. He’d figure something out. “I’m going to grab a shower and then we’ll fire up the stove, okay?”
He didn’t wait for her response, didn’t even glance at her face. His jeans were so tight in the crotch, he could only shuffle out of the room.
Chapter Thirteen
The moon was a sliver away from full. Keva sat in the dark living room of Chee’s cabin, her hope gone. Letting Rife feel the vibration in her throat, the very thing that signified she was a Moon Water High Chieftess, shocked him, but as evidenced by his hasty retreat, it still hadn’t awakened Kai’s spirit.
She’d played her last card and lost. Now she had to leave, disappear again like she’d done a dozen times in the past. She had no choice. She was the only one who could stop Enann, and Rife’s soul was not Kai’s.
Fighting back tears, she hugged herself. All she ever wanted was to protect her family and share a life with the man she loved. Even now, in this lifetime, she’d still managed to screw it all up. At least in the prehistory of her people, she’d felt loved and taken care of. They’d only been together a few brief months, but Kai had protected her in so many ways, giving her the self-assurance that she needed to make the difficult decisions she’d been faced with as the leader of hundreds.
Listening to the shower running in another part of the cabin, she couldn’t block the image of water cascading over Rife’s naked skin. The muscles in her lower stomach tightened in response. It had been so long since she’d seen that body, so long since she’d touched him, the erotic image drove her crazy. She wanted to put her tongue to his skin and taste him again. Wanted to feel him hard inside her. Wanted to tell him how much she loved him and always had.
Her breath stuck in her throat and she ached between her legs. Closing her eyes, she opened herself to the past from a thousand years ago. To the Pathwalk that foretold her turning away from Enann and her duty to follow Kai and her destiny…
There is nothing but black sand, a death pit, as far as my eyes can see. Standing on the rock edge, on solid ground, the ocean beyond the sand calls my name. I cannot see the water—only feel its rhythm coursing through the veins in my body. My nose, sharp and feral in this
Pathwalk, picks up the scent of brine.
I am a waterchild. The old, mystic matron told my grandmother my soul was born to water. I seek it out as a baby seeks her mother’s breast. My own mother, the one who birthed me, nearly died attempting to save me from drowning when I rose from a baby’s crawl and walked into Mother Ocean.
The black sand is its own ocean. My Pathwalk—part dream, part meditative illusion—has brought me here. I must cross it in order to continue the journey to find the water, in essence to find myself. I know, without understanding why, that one errant footfall is my death.
“Think before you step,” a voice says over my right shoulder.
Enann appears in my Pathwalk dreams these days whenever I am faced with a decision of importance. The Red Fire tribe has sent their next chief to me, and, in the waking world, he is my husband-to-be.
The son of the Red Fire Chief Stone Tree and his wife Shimmering Dove, Enann is beautiful to look at. Hair as white and crisp as lightning—so rare as to be rumored he is born directly from the heavens. His blue eyes, another impossible trait, are the color of the ocean I so love. Within them, though, is a world I fear. He seeks knowledge from the Earth and from the elders for his own purposes, his own pleasures, not for the betterment of all. The Clan has already accepted him as my mate, my husband, even though I have carefully avoided an official ceremony. My Pathwalks never reveal him to be the One eternally linked to my soul, and I avoid the binding ceremony as I would a snapping turtle.
My sister, Annika, and I are the last known descendents of a powerful sorceress. I am the one blessed with Sight and Healing. My sister is a warrioress whom I would bow to as leader if it weren’t for the curse of my visions. She is the natural leader, not me. I wish only to help birth children, heal those in need, and walk amongst the forest glades to gather the herbs of my grandmother and her grandmother before her to scent the air of my house.
My station, my abilities, however, forces me to rise to clan matron. It is something I’ve been raised and trained to embrace. On the outside I do, but on the inside, I am scared. At twenty summers, I can barely hold water in the palm of my hand—holding the Clan there is beyond my capabilities.
What I have discovered from previous Pathwalks is this—I cannot lead my people until I fully leave the security of their circle and walk the path chosen for me, no matter the Clans’ demands. I wish to do what is best for my people and yet I know not what it is. The elders and other matrons wait for my word that I have seen the future of the Salt Coast Clan—lately racked by war and famine—and can guide them into it, whatever may await. Every day they look into my eyes trying to divine whether I have completed my Pathwalk, whether I have seen either the return to prosperity for our people or their complete elimination. I have seen neither, and their patience grows thin as a dragonfly’s wing.
“Faith, Chieftess,” another voice, rough as the sand, speaks in my left ear. “You will not fail.”
A shiver of anticipation unfurls in my stomach. Kai possesses a warrior’s heart, a warrior’s soul, and has only appeared to me in these dreams so far. Born from the loins of a herald leader, he is my sister’s equal, but he is our enemy. If I refuse to marry Enann and join the Red Fire tribe to my clan, he will seek my death and raise his brother to chief of the Salt Coast people with violence. His presence in my Pathwalk, like Enann’s, is a constant occurrence.
And like me, I know he attends to his preordained destiny with equal parts obligation and dread.
I recognize the balance of power between Kai and Enann and I draw on it like a sponge draws water. But there is no true balance. While Enann tries to confine me, Kai pushes me into the mouth of danger. Here, as is his waking nature I suspect, he accepts all as it appears to him, never looking nor caring for hidden meaning or symbolism. What comes, he takes. What begs attention, he touches with hand or strikes with sword. Fearless in the face of danger, he spurs me to bravery. I must cross the sand at whatever risk it brings.
With nothing but the sacred knife of my grandmother in my hand and a song to Mother Moon on my lips, I step forward. The sand holds, and as I come to trust its solid surface beneath my feet, I break into a run. I must run from the weight of my duties. Run to the future and find answers there. Dark clouds gather in the sky above, billowing, voluminous walls moving as enemy warriors toward each other. As they clash, their energy begins to rotate into one long tube, folding in on itself and spinning down to a tip on the ground.
My brain tells me to slow down. I can feel Enann’s hands reaching to pull me back, hear his voice calling me, but I plunge forward, my only thought Kai. In my peripheral vision, his shadow runs with me, his sword drawn and ready. As the wind’s fingers rip through my hair and tear the clothes from my body, I am lifted off the ground and tumbled into the spinning energy, the unknown future rising higher and higher. It screams through my ears and splays my limbs out to the four corners of the Great Mother Earth. The pain is extreme, as if my arms and legs will be torn from my body. Yet, my head falls back and laughter explodes from my mouth.
I am flying.
Spinning wildly out of control, terror and exhilaration war inside my heart. It is freedom like none I’ve ever known, and I command my body to relax and be carried by the energy. Maybe this time, the future will reveal itself. Maybe this time, I have truly become the Chieftess and leader of the clan.
Sudden gravity pulls me into darkness. My hands reach for purchase to stop my fall and connect with hard muscle.
Kai.
I know it is him, his naked skin burning like mine from the energy. Our bodies come together like a wave hitting the shore, foaming at the intensity. Instinctively, I wrap my arms and legs around him, the sacred knife falling from my hands.
His response is immediate. The muscles of his arms contract around me, a hand tangles in my hair to support the back of my head. His lips whisper my name over and over in my ear, “Keva, Keva, Keva.” It is a chant. A song of our future together.
His lips, his tongue, work their way down my neck. Their very touch sends lightning sizzling and dancing under my skin. I arch to receive more of his touch, my nails digging into the skin of his back. The moment the tip of his tongue brushes my nipple, I gasp…red fire leaps from the sand below and engulfs us, but we do not burn inside the eye of the funnel.
I can no longer tell if we are spinning, if it is night or day. If Enann has been swept up with us. My skin aches for Kai’s touch. The fire seems to be inside me now, and only he has the power to put it out.
A pulsing heat lies heavy against my thigh. Through the noise around us, I hear his moan as I shift my hips to accommodate it properly. His dark eyes rise to meet mine and at the nod of my head, he pushes himself inside me without hesitation.
Blessed Earth. An explosion between my legs shoots energy through me, piercing every organ, every cell.
The noise ceases. White light envelops me. A taunting, exotic rhythm beats in my head, my stomach, between my legs.
And then the explosion reaches my heart.
Red blood…everywhere.
In the silence, I scream Kai’s name as blood spurts from my heart and covers him. Cold darkness presses me down. I fall…
Our future together is doomed to end in blood.
Hoo-hooooo…hoo-hoooo…
A barn owl’s screech called Keva back to the present. Back to the cabin and Chee’s musty old couch.
A familiar sense of loss pressed on her heart, ugly memories set in motion by the flashback snapping at her like wolves at her feet. She shook it off, refusing to relive her ultimate failure—her protector, Kai and her people, all dying because of her—after the Pathwalk visions stopped. She had tried so hard to save them all, and in the end, she had failed more miserably than she could have ever imagined. Her Pathwalk visions had shown her there would be bloody consequences to falling in love with Kai, but they had not prepared her for the destruction of her people.
Moonlight graced the lawn outside, the owl c
alling to her to join it. At least she’d have Mother Moon’s light to travel by.
Pushing the remorse ripping at her heart into a deep hole, she stepped outside. For a moment she stood, taking in the landscape and opening her senses to the night.
A tingling started in her throat, signaling danger in the surrounding woods. Immortality had instilled a sense of invincibility in her, but now, Keva saw evil in the shadows of the trees, heard it in the hoot of the owl. Enann might be out there somewhere waiting for her.
Had she fought him when he’d come to the sanctuary or had he enchanted her from the moment she laid eyes on him? There were still details of the attack she couldn’t remember.
Her bones, her very cells, screamed, yes, she had fought him. Fought through the spell he’d placed on her.
But why couldn’t she remember everything?
If only Rife were Kai. He would know.
Chapter Fourteen
In the shower, Rife cursed his stiff body. Even freezing cold water on his skin could not daunt his desire for Keva. It burned in his veins as if his blood had literally caught fire. How would he get through this night without touching her? Without drowning in her pretty eyes?
Soft eyes, soft hair, soft skin, he taunted himself. And a heart full of pain. Every time he challenged her, he hurt her. He didn’t have to see the wounded expression in her eyes to know how his words affected her. He felt it. Every time he questioned her sanity or argued with her over her stories of their past lives, waves of hurt washed over him.
I feel what she feels. How is that possible?
How was any of the past day with her possible? He was seeing visions, reading her mind, losing control of his senses to hot desire.
You’ve lost it, St. Cloud. The idea that his body, his very thoughts, were in tune with hers scared the hell out of him.
She was temptation, that was for sure, but could lust for her screw over his mind?
He hadn’t survived his rough and tumble upbringing and made it as far as he had in the FBI by letting emotions rule his life. The world he had built was strong and based on discipline. He’d felt lust before, but never had a woman diverted him from his goals, from the life he had carefully molded at every turn.
