There was a flash that Gabrielle recognized. She dodged his grip, trying to keep both of her adversaries in front of her, away from her at the same time. The one with the fire-controlling ability shot more flames at her, and Gabrielle wondered how the hell she was supposed to cope with two people with unique abilities like this. It was bad enough dealing with one.
Her hand ached and stung when she tightened her grip on the branch, swinging it abruptly at the fire-controller. He would likely have at least partial immunity to his element, she thought.
“Your brother was too slow,” she said, panting as she caught him once more, landing a decent strike with the fiery end of the branch. The flames were beginning to inch closer to her hands. She would have to throw away the branch soon. She didn’t like her chances of hand-to-hand combat with a living stun gun and a man who could shoot fire at her.
“I’m much quicker,” he replied, trying to duck up under her guard. Gabrielle brought the burning brand down on his neck, lighting his hair on fire. The man screamed, backing up and occupied—for the moment—with putting himself out as the fire spread to his clothes.
Just when Gabrielle was trying to think of a way to deal with both of her assailants, her wide-open mind sensed the approach of another person.
Keep quiet. The words were inserted into her mind deliberately, and Gabrielle almost wheeled in the direction of the thought. But that was foolhardy. She couldn’t take her attention off of the assailants she knew she had to deal with somehow.
Out of the corner of her eye, a woman appeared. Taller than Gabrielle, she ran in, holding something sharply metallic in her hands. Before Gabrielle could react, the woman had slashed out at the assailant who controlled electricity, leaving a wound that Gabrielle could see was serious. She came to stand next to Gabrielle, holding the long knife in a ready fashion. “You will want to take your friend and get medical attention, I think.”
“Who are you?” Gabrielle asked. The woman gave her a quick smile. Gabrielle had an impression of long, blonde hair, big brown eyes, and height. The other assailant, in desperation, made a move to attack, which he instantly regretted when the woman brought the knife up and slashed his arm.
“Get the hell off of my property,” the woman said harshly, bringing the knife up in a very readily-understood movement. The man grabbed his partner and ran away, stumbling and trying to staunch the blood flowing from his arm. Gabrielle took a deep breath, looked at the woman, and felt herself getting dizzy. But no—she had to find out what was happening with Dustin.
“Dustin,” she said, stumbling over her words. “They had other guys after him. We need to make sure he’s okay. There’s no telling …” The woman nodded.
“They’ve gotten more sophisticated, sending paranormals after you,” she agreed. They both turned toward the house.
Chapter Twelve
Dustin was sitting heavily on the porch, a man nearby talking to him with a slight smirk on his face. As Gabrielle and the other woman approached, he looked up. “Ah, welcome back, Sasha,” he said. “I see you brought the problem child with you.”
Gabrielle reached out and found that the man’s mind was as difficult to touch as Dustin’s—more so, in fact. She was so tired suddenly, seeing that Dustin wasn’t being actively attacked; her mind finally began to put things together. The woman telling the thug to get off of her property—this was her house. These were people Dustin knew. Possibly even his bosses.
Dustin stirred at the comment from the other man, who looked utterly relaxed. Gabrielle took a moment to look at both of the newcomers in detail. The woman, Sasha, was beautiful, with flowing blond hair and an athletic build. She had the mental touch of someone who had an ability, though Gabrielle couldn’t probe deeply enough to discover what it was. The man had deep-brown skin, almost eerie green eyes, and a ready smile. He was dressed in a suit, while the woman was in jeans and a camp shirt. The woman rested her hand on Gabrielle’s back and ushered her onto the porch.
“I think we’ve come to the point where conversation is in order,” she said, and Gabrielle recognized a faint Australian accent in her voice. Dustin was staring at Gabrielle intently, and Gabrielle realized that he was injured—that was why he was still sitting on the floor. She moved toward him, wanting to know what had happened.
“Ah, Gabrielle, Al’s fine. Just a flesh wound,” the other man said, brushing her gently aside. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, actually. My name is James.” He extended a hand which Gabrielle numbly shook, rocked by a combination of shocks into blank compliance. She could feel his mind when he touched her—barely—a very strong mind, difficult to read. “We work with Dustin, in case you hadn’t noticed that. You should sit down, I think.”
Gabrielle let herself be ushered into a seat, feeling numb all over. She flexed her hand and felt the sharp pain of the cut across her palm. She looked down at it and winced. She’d have to clean it again, she realized. She didn’t want it to get infected.
“Gabrielle, you’ve doubtless realized that there’s a group after you,” Sasha said gently, kneeling down to maintain eye contact. “We’ve been watching you—well, Dustin has—because we wanted to see if you would be a likely recruit for our own team. You see, we’re not Al’s bosses, but we’re sort of senior to him, overall.” Sasha gave her a smile. “Oh, James, they’ve bonded.” She glanced at the other man. Gabrielle’s eyes widened. The other man nodded.
“You’re both telepaths, too?” she asked weakly, wondering what was so special about her if Dustin’s team had two telepaths on it already. Both shook their heads.
“James can push people with his mind, but he can’t read their minds. Not like you, anyway.” Sasha smiled slowly. “Me, I’ve got a little bit of telempathy, but mostly I’m good because of my own twist on telekinesis.” Gabrielle wanted to ask what Sasha meant by that, but it didn’t seem the right moment.
“Are you really okay, Dustin?” she asked, seeing how pale her lover had gotten. Dustin nodded, smiling weakly.
“Don’t worry about me, Gabby, just listen.” Gabrielle scowled at him.
“Seriously? Now is the time you choose to annoy me?” Sasha laughed and put a hand down on Gabrielle’s knee.
“Now, Dear. He’s got a point. The people who were after you—not very pleasant folks, as you saw. I won’t say that we’re necessarily angels, but the people we work for have good intentions. They want us to find other paranormals, make sure that folks aren’t being killed, that sort of thing. When we found out that Iron Cross was after you, we did some digging of our own. I’m not sure you realize how powerful you are.”
“I didn’t every really think about it in those terms.” Gabrielle shrugged.
“You grew up with understanding parents. I don’t think they ever let you know what kind of potential you have.” She glanced at Dustin. “How’d the blocks hold up?” Sasha nodded.
“Pretty well, though certain circumstances …” He cast a glance at Gabrielle and smirked. Dustin smiled again.
“Well, if you’d kept your hands to yourself, that wouldn’t have been a problem.” James cleared his throat.
“Look at her James, of course I couldn’t keep my hands to myself.” Dustin chuckled, then winced in pain.
Gabrielle blushed a deep crimson, though she could feel herself smiling at the same time. Sasha brought her attention back to the topic at hand.
“We put blocks on Dustin so that his mind wouldn’t give away what was going on; it wasn’t an easy decision, but if you were captured at some point—like the attack they just made on you two—they’d of course try and drag it out of you. Dustin’s got more secrets than just this particular mission to keep.”
Gabrielle nodded. There was still some unfinished business between her and Dustin.
“The guy—he said they’d burned out my house. I saw it in his mind,” she said quietly.
“Unfortunately, that’s sort of par for the course. From what James and I know right now, everyone else in the bu
ilding is accounted for.” Sasha glanced at James and Dustin and then nodded.
Gabrielle sighed. Almost everything she owned, destroyed. She bit her lip, feeling the tears stinging her eyes. She looked away from the other three, taking a few shaky breaths, trying to calm herself.
Dustin grunted as he got up, moving slowly to Gabrielle’s side. He put his hand on her thigh, sinking down onto his knees next to her. Gabrielle felt him manipulating her telekinetically, forcing her to meet his gaze.
“We can get these assholes, Gabrielle,” he murmured, brushing a lock of hair out of her face. “You know we can.” He leaned in close and brushed his lips along her jaw, ending at her ear. “I am never letting you out of my sight again, woman.” He took her hand in his and squeezed it.
“Ahem,” Sasha said, interrupting them. Gabrielle blushed, taking a deep breath to regain her composure. “There are some things we do need to discuss. Obviously, it’s not the best time for you to be making decisions, but if you were to join us, we can offer you a safe place to live—you’ll have to move from here, at this point—and of course you’ll have all of the same information that we do.”
“I can’t make up my mind on it right now. If you don’t mind, I’d like a little time to think about it.” Gabrielle was still feeling shell-shocked. She shook her head.
Sasha looked sharply at Dustin, but nodded.
“Al, you should get that cut patched up,” James suggested, he and Sasha both moving to go into the house.
“I’m fine.” Dustin shook his head.
Sasha gave him another firm look. “Don’t start on me right now, Sasha. Just give us some space.”
Gabrielle raised an eyebrow in question when the other two retreated, silently asking Dustin for clarification.
He smiled weakly, leaning heavily against her knees. “They didn’t want me to have anything to do with you—romantically. Obviously, there are some things they’d like to keep secret, and I potentially compromised the mission by letting you have physical contact with me. The blocks they set up are strong, but you’re stronger.” He grinned faintly. “Also, there’s rules against fraternization within the group, so if you did join up, they’d not like that.”
“I seem to recall you saying something to the effect that you only follow the rules when they suit you.” Gabrielle felt herself smiling in response to his explanation.
“I wanted a moment alone with you, anyway. I heard you in my mind earlier—when the attack was starting.” He turned her hand over, and began idly caressing the lines of her palm. “I heard you loud and clear, and if I hadn’t—well, it gave me a little bit of warning. Of course, James would have it go down that he saved my life, but I’d already gotten rid of one of the guys by the time he showed up.” Dustin nodded, his bright eyes intense.
Gabrielle laughed at the sour tone in Dustin’s voice.
“I’m not asking you to make a decision now,” he said. “But just imagine how far we’d go with your ability to read people and my ability to throw them around.” He smiled into her eyes, leaning his forehead against hers.
Gabrielle realized that she was better able to read Dustin than she had been before; she could feel his affection for her, his desire—his need. She still wasn’t able to read individual thoughts, but she knew that if he did have the block removed, his mind was hers.
“God, Gabrielle, when I realized what was happening…” his voice dropped off and Dustin gripped her hands tightly, almost—not quite—hurting her. “The only thing I could think was that I had to get to you. When James showed up, he pushed the other two guys into running away, but they’d already cut me.” He gestured to his lower abdomen, where Gabrielle could just make out the injury, evidenced by the tear in his t-shirt. “I’m sorry about—well, I didn’t know, but I should have told you immediately.”
Gabrielle shrugged. She found herself remembering the way she had pushed him away in the morning, her conflicted feelings. She still wasn’t sure she could trust him 100%, but she had made up her mind on one score: she wasn’t about to stop seeing him.
She could feel his agreement with that sentiment. While she couldn’t hear his individual thoughts—not yet, anyway—she could feel his sense of wanting to remain close to her.
Dustin shifted and brought his lips down against hers, brushing softly at first, almost tentatively. He gradually deepened the kiss, bringing his hands up to hold her jaw, to run through her hair. He leaned in close to her, and Gabrielle could taste the sweat on his lips, the indefinable sweetness of his mouth. She felt her desire welling up inside of her—a desire that Dustin matched—and smiled against his lips.
They were kissing more hungrily in a matter of heartbeats, Dustin wrapping his arms around her to lift her up as he stood, as if he needed to feel her all along his body. He gasped, and Gabrielle felt the sharp slice of pain that worked through his nerves, lighting up his mind like a sudden camera flash.
Gabrielle broke away from the kiss. “You need to get that injury taken care of,” she said, pulling up his shirt to look at it.
“It’s not a big deal, Gabrielle,” he said, leaning in to kiss her once more.
“If it’s not that big of a deal, why not get it taken care of and come back out to me?” Gabrielle dodged the attempt, chuckling softly.
“I will. I’ll be back in ten minutes.” Dustin set his jaw, looking for a moment as if he was going to be stubborn about it.
Gabrielle chuckled to herself, watching Dustin carefully walk into the house. She sighed, looking into the depths of the woods as she sat on her own. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do—she knew she should want to track down the organization responsible for derailing her entire life. What had Sasha called them? Iron Cross? Gabrielle made a face.
Dustin had a point as well; between the two of them, they’d be a formidable force. But what did she really know about the group that Dustin worked for—other than that Sasha and James also worked for them, and that apparently they were averse to whatever tactics Iron Cross were using? She had to admit to herself that at least Dustin and his superiors were content to let her make her own choice on the issue.
It was a false choice, though, Gabrielle realized. She couldn’t just choose to decline their offer and go back to her regular life. She had no regular life to go back to. Gabrielle fidgeted, playing with her hair in thought as she stared off into space. She would continue to be a target until she finally hunted down the people responsible. She had no interest in an organization who were content to let her first impression of them be violent kidnapping—that much was certain.
Chapter Thirteen
Gabrielle looked up, startled, when she heard movement at the front door. Dustin was standing there, his t-shirt changed, a slight smile curving his lips. “I am all patched up for the moment,” he told her, walking quickly towards her. He lifted her up out of the chair and kissed her quickly. “Sasha and James have agreed to give us a little privacy; Sasha’s got an even smaller place deeper in the woods where she and James can hang out for a night. But they want you to make a choice by the morning.” Gabrielle sighed, realizing that it was a foregone conclusion anyway.
“Where am I going to live, Dustin? What am I going to do?” she asked him, feeling a recurrence of the insecurity, the intense feelings of displacement that she had been trying to suppress. Dustin wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her close, brushing his lips across hers.
“You can stay in my apartment, and you’re going to help me kick a bunch of people’s asses, and then when we’re done you can go back to telling women how their boyfriends aren’t cheating on them, if you want.” Dustin’s lips dropped down to her neck, and Gabrielle felt her rush of arousal, accompanied by the awareness of Dustin’s own feelings of need. She chuckled lowly, realizing that she was reading him better the more they touched.
Dustin held her close, letting his lips fall to her collar bones, and Gabrielle caught a flash of a mental image—a brief flicker across the very front of
his mind, intense though it was—of him holding her down in a bed she didn’t recognize, kissing her hungrily as they moved together. “I’m getting this block removed as soon as possible,” Dustin murmured against her skin.
“Why so anxious? It only benefits me.” Gabrielle chuckled.
Dustin broke away from her, looking at her with surprise written large in his bright eyes.
“Are you kidding me? I was feeling your thoughts all last night, woman. Every time you came, I could feel it crashing through you—a little bit, anyway. I want to feel everything.” He kissed her hungrily, running his hands all over her body slowly. “And I want you to feel everything, too. Didn’t you know your telepathy goes both ways?” Gabrielle kissed him back, dimly able to read the intensity of his desire for her—the fact that he very much wanted her.
“I’ve never really had to worry about it—but you heard me?”
“Well, hearing isn’t really the word for it. But I can tell you it was the first time I’d had that particular experience. I want to have as much sex with you as humanly possible.” Dustin grinned, biting her bottom lip playfully for just a moment.
Dustin turned around and sat in one of the chairs suddenly, pulling her into his lap. Gabrielle laughed at his vehemence; she thought with his injury he had almost certainly used his abilities, and remembered several other helpful aspects of his telekinesis.
“I thought you said they didn’t want you and me getting involved?” Dustin shrugged, running his hands all over her body, caressing her everywhere through her clothes.
“What’s the worst that will happen? If they kick me off the team, I can still defend you. They need you more than they’re admitting, my dear. We don’t really have a telepath of your strength on the team. You could really be a big deal for helping us—not just in dealing with Iron Cross, but also with a lot of other problems we have.”
Abduction (A Psychic Romance Novella Series) Page 9
