by Simone Bern
He nodded, not trusting his ability to speak.
“Give me the knife so I can get the girl down,” she said.
“I’ll do it,” he offered.
“No. Better that it be me.”
Jeremy looked closely at the girl cowering in the corner for the first time. His hand trembled as he handed Lee the knife. She walked across the cabin, skirting around the body on the floor.
“What happened to him?” he asked, glad to have somewhere else to focus his attention.
“He had a heart attack,” Lee said in a voice emptied of all emotion. She sliced through the rope holding up the girl in a quick, sure movement.
Jeremy let out a slow breath. Something had made this man cry out in terror and that something came from Lee. She had killed him. He surveyed the empty husk and then looked back up at Lee. She was carefully easing the rope off the girl’s wrists. He moved forward to help and the girl let out a shriek.
“I think I should do this,” Lee said, not turning to look at him. “See if you can find her some clothing.”
Jeremy rummaged around the shack. There wasn’t much. A smelly, rumpled cot, a small table with two unsteady chairs. His gaze locked on the tabletop. He drew nearer and gingerly put a finger against the edge of a curved blade. It cut into his flesh with only the slightest pressure. He was very, very sorry that the bastard was already dead.
* * * * *
Lee accepted the wrinkled but marginally clean man’s shirt that Jeremy handed to her. The girl whimpered quietly as she wrapped the big shirt around her and eased stiff arms into sleeves. The poor kid was a miserable huddle against the wall. Lee crouched in front of her and took the girl’s hands.
“I hurt too, Elizabeth. I’m bleeding and I’m scared. But we’re alive. We’re going to be okay. We’re survivors, you and me.” She murmured the words into the girl’s ears and even more softly into her mind, willing her to believe.
They really weren’t the same, her experience and Elizabeth’s. Lee had only endured an hour of pain and abuse. Her inner self had been shaken but she had never doubted her ability to endure and eventually triumph. Elizabeth had been tortured for nearly a week. The child’s fragile sense of self was barely clinging to rationality—she wanted only a cessation of pain, her dearest wish was to die. But Lee knew that their experiences could be used as a bridge across to the nightmare in which the girl still wandered.
“Lee, I’m going back to the car. Eric came with me and there are probably some others on the way. You two okay for a bit?” Jeremy’s voice reached her as if from another world. The girl cringed even more tightly into herself.
“Yeah. Probably better for us to be alone for a few minutes,” Lee said, not removing her inner awareness from the girl.
She heard Jeremy’s retreating steps and was surprised by the anxiety that bloomed with his going. He took something away with him, a sense of safety. Lee frowned at her own emotional response. She could take care of herself. Had endured and planned and done what was necessary without his help. Yet sensing him leave she realized that she’d been aware of his presence and had drawn on his savage protectiveness to release the constraints on her powers. She had killed before but never with such utter acceptance. Lee pushed those thoughts aside.
Elizabeth needed her. The dark maelstrom within the girl’s mind was settling under the influence of her subtle mental touch. Lee hesitated, there was more that she should do but it was brutally hard to force herself to endure the girl’s recent memories. However, only by embracing the full depth of her experiences could she affect them. Lee curled into herself and clamped her mouth tight as she dove into the girl’s mind and relived the worst moments of Elizabeth’s captivity.
She would not take the memories away. Such an action would only set a time bomb that at some point could explode and tear Elizabeth’s world apart. Instead Lee reached in and blurred the sharp edges of those experiences. It was what tended to happen naturally over time. She merely gave the girl a head start in coping with what had been done to her.
Distantly she heard men’s voices, Jeremy and Eric. The girl didn’t flinch this time and Lee dared to touch Elizabeth’s chin to lift her bowed head. They stared at each other in silence for a moment.
“He’s dead?” the girl whispered.
“Yes. He’s dead. And we’re alive.”
“How? How did he die? What made him scream like that? Did you do it?” The questions poured out of her.
Lee answered as honestly as she could. “Something from inside him made him very scared.”
Elizabeth regarded her with eyes that had seen too much. “You did that. And the wolf.”
“Listen to me very carefully, Elizabeth. The horrible man died from a heart attack. And the wolf, that was just a wild animal that was drawn by the smell of fresh blood. But the nice policeman came and scared him away. Okay?”
Slowly the girl nodded. “The policeman. You know him, don’t you?”
Lee smiled. “His name is Jeremy. He’s my boyfriend. You can trust him. But I’ll be with you too, okay? Until your family shows up.”
“My family… I guess they’ve been worried…”
“Very.”
“I have a blue room and lots of horses…models, I mean… And unicorns too…and some dogs but I like horses better.”
With that jagged, confused sentence Lee knew the girl had taken the first crucial step. She wanted to live again. The urgent need that had kept her focused and functioning drained out of Lee. She sagged, her shoulder falling to touch the wall beside the girl. The smell of her own blood hit her senses and suddenly she felt ill. Lee started to shake.
The girl reached out a tentative hand and touched her arm. “You okay?” she asked.
“I think I lost a little too much blood. I’m tired…just need to rest.”
Darkness encroached. Lee tried to hang on, not wanting to leave Elizabeth on her own with two strange men. Her eyelids dropped of their own accord.
“Help!” she heard the girl shout.
“Lee, are you all right. Lee?”
Jeremy was back. She sensed his calm strength like a shell of iron but it was laced with a spidery network of cracks made by anger and fear.
“She’s lost a lot of blood and she’s still bleeding. She needs to go to the hospital,” Elizabeth said, mimicking the directive tones of a concerned schoolteacher.
Lee wanted to smile. Elizabeth was taking control. Maybe fainting wasn’t such a bad idea, she thought as her world faded to black.
* * * * *
Lee woke up in a hospital bed, Jeremy slumped next to her, half in a chair and half draped across her bed. He was snoring faintly. She lifted a hand and stroked his hair.
His head rose and she looked into concerned blue eyes. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better. How’s Elizabeth?”
“She went home with her family about an hour ago. She seems fine. Pretty shook up, of course but…coping.”
“Good. What time is it? How long was I out?”
“Only a few hours. It’s about one a.m.”
Lee turned and glared at the IV. “Think they’ll unhook me and let me out of here?”
“Probably. But you need to give a statement to the police first.” Jeremy smiled slightly. “Not me. My partner’s hanging around somewhere, I can go find him if you feel up to it.”
Lee nodded then reached out to grab his arm as he stood up. “Do you know…what did Elizabeth say?”
Jeremy looked down at her and smiled again. “That the bad man screamed and grabbed his head then he fell down. Then a big dog came in and sniffed around but I chased it away. That the other lady was really brave and really nice and she’d like to see her again.”
Lee smiled up at him. “I will. I’ll see her soon.”
“I know. I told her that. I also told the family that you’re a counselor and probably the best person in the world to help their daughter through this.”
Lee relaxed back into
the pillows. “Okay. Go get your partner…and tell the hospital staff that I expect to be discharged within the hour.”
Neil, Jeremy’s partner, was an older man with graying hair and a steady, soothing voice. He was kind but businesslike in his approach as he led Lee through the events of the past day. She reluctantly revealed her psychic abilities but downplayed those talents as much as possible, explaining that they were very uncertain and could not be relied upon. He merely nodded and took notes.
When she described how she got caught, Jeremy stood up. Watching him pace back and forth, her voice faltered.
“Jeremy, perhaps it would be best if you left the room,” Neil said.
“Damn it, Lee. You should have waited. What kind of idiotic fool thing was that? Letting the bastard get at you…it didn’t help the girl and just got y—”
Neil stood and walked over to the door. “Out. Now.” He didn’t bark. It was merely a calmly stated direction. Lee almost smiled at the sight of Jeremy being ordered around by the slight, old man.
Jeremy scowled at his partner then looked back at her. “Sorry, Lee. I was just so worried and—”
She smiled wanly at him. “I know. And I know I was an idiot. You can yell at me later.”
He visibly calmed himself. “Okay, I promise to save the yelling for another time. But I think I have to hear the next part. Otherwise my imagination will come up with something even worse…if that’s possible. Can I stay? Please?”
Lee nodded. “Yeah. I think I’d like you to be here.”
A surge of affectionate warmth burst out of him at her words and he came to sit on the bed, taking her hand in his.
She went on with her story and although he flinched inwardly several times Jeremy did not say a word. He just squeezed her hand until it hurt even through the drugs. Finally the telling was over and she could get dressed. Someone had at least wiped the worst of the blood off her leather jacket but the shirt was hopeless. Lee shrugged. She had enough bandages on her chest that she really didn’t need a shirt. She found Jeremy prowling outside in the corridors.
“Let’s go,” she said and led the way the elevators. “By the way, is my motorcycle still sitting on the side of the road?”
“No. I had them bring it to my place. Figured they couldn’t get into your parking garage without making a scene.” He sounded casual but in reality the confession troubled him.
“Thanks. That was a good idea.” Lee wondered if she’d really been such a prickly bitch that he’d be concerned how she would react to him taking the liberty of storing her motorcycle.
They got out on the bottom floor. She looked around for his black SUV but Jeremy led her to a police cruiser.
“I see I get to ride in the official vehicle today.” She smiled and buckled herself into the front seat. The drugs had to be good ones because she hardly even winced as the seat belt snugged up across her belly.
“I’ll drive you home then go to the station to get my own car.”
Lee’s face froze. Home. Alone. She thought about her apartment, fifteen floors up in the air.
“Can I come with you?” she asked. “To your place?”
“I’d love that, Lee. I really would,” he said softly. Joy shone out of him like a small sun.
She settled back into her seat, smiling again.
* * * * *
Jeremy parked the SUV in the garage and unlocked the door to the house. “I’ll push your bike in, you go to bed.”
Lee ignored his advice and watched him park her bike. Then she pulled off her boots, tugged down the dirty jeans and dropped the stiff leather jacket in the laundry room. She sensed the tingle of desire in Jeremy as she was stripping but he did not reach for her. The bandages crisscrossing her chest were a pretty strong barrier. Lee went into the bedroom and pulled out one of Jeremy’s oversized t-shirts.
“It’s time I healed myself. Will you come with me?” she asked.
“Heal yourself? Of course… I forgot about that. Why didn’t you do it sooner?”
“It would have looked strange if I showed up at the hospital stained with blood but without a mark on my skin. And I can’t do it from inside a car.”
She tugged Jeremy through the house to his back door. They stood outside in the persistent drizzle. Lee shivered a little but the air wasn’t really cold.
“Take off your socks,” she told Jeremy. He was still in his uniform and the neat button-down shirt and slim pants were looking better by the minute as the rain slicked the fabric against his skin.
When they were both barefoot she took his hands in hers. “Remember what I did with you before? This is sort of the same but I add in a little spell. I’m hoping I can share some of the benefits with you.” She slanted him a sly look. “I’ll be completely restored…and full of energy.”
He grinned. “Sounds like I’d better hope this works. Or I might fall asleep at a crucial moment.”
“Unlikely, knowing your stamina,” Lee muttered.
She sank into the earth, pulling Jeremy down with her, and chanted softly, “Mother Earth, make my body as strong as your mountains, my mind as clear as your waters, my spirit as light as your air.”
The powerful wave of vigor and healing that shot through her caused her back to arch and a low moan escaped her lips. Jeremy was still holding her hands but he stepped in closer. She felt his lips on hers. The awe and wonder he was experiencing wrapped around both of them, as well as the strong core of his love and desire. Deeply connected by the earth there could be no doubting what he felt for her. His long arms reached around her, gingerly at first then with increasing tension as she made it clear that she no longer suffered from the lacerations on her chest. Time disappeared while they shared a deep kiss.
Lee eased away from Jeremy. The rain made rivulets down his cheeks as she pulled apart the buttons of his shirt. She buried her face against his chest, licking water and salt off his skin. Held tight in his arms with the earth magic cradling them she felt utterly at home. Tears mingled with the raindrops on her face as she released the fear and pain that had invaded the back rooms of her spirit. It was truly over. She felt not only healed but cleansed through the gift of magic.
Clinging to the vibrant and powerful man who held her, passion blazed back to life. She pressed herself more tightly against him. An almost savage hunger for physical connection, to feel him deep inside her, made her fingers curl and dig into his back. She lifted her head, silently begging him for another kiss. He answered with the same level of intense need, his mouth almost angry in its demands.
Jeremy’s hands slid under the t-shirt to grab hold of her ass. Fingers rubbed her cunt from behind. She moaned and squirmed against the hard ridge of his erection. The clothing between them seemed an unnatural barrier.
Panting and wet, Lee wriggled out of his arms. She tugged off his shirt and then pulled off her own, stripping off the now-useless bandages. Jeremy was already naked. Damn, but he was beautiful with the rain running down his face and along the ridges of his chest. She admired his cock, rock-hard and swollen to its full glorious length.
“Lie on the ground,” she whispered, or perhaps it was only a thought.
He sank down onto the soggy grass. She mounted him, still connected to the earth with her powers. As his cock entered and filled the center of her it was as if the entire world groaned with ecstasy. He bucked and thrust underneath her and she rode the waves of cresting desires. The explosion that came with their mutual orgasm blasted through her body and sent her to a shuddering collapse.
She lay on his chest, noticing how their breath seemed to come as one.
“Did the earth just move?” Jeremy asked softly.
“I think maybe it did,” she answered.
“You know that I love you,” he said. There was no uncertainty or hesitation in his voice. After what they had just shared there was no point pretending anymore.
“Yes.” She sat up to look into his eyes. “The real shocker is I love you too.”
A smile pulled up the corners of his mouth. “Not so shocking. I always figured I’d convince you. Seems it took an earthquake to do it though.”
Lee threw back her head and laughed. It was true that the earth itself seemed to have tumbled her barriers and forced the truth up from the core of her. She loved him. He was everything she wanted in a man, everything that had been missing from her life.
“I never did listen to my mother until she shouted,” Lee admitted.
She felt…blessed. The earth had bound them together in a ceremony older than any church ritual. Whatever happened next would merely be the trappings of a normal life. But she wasn’t normal—and neither was Jeremy. Which just meant they were perfect together.
The End
About the Author
Simone Bern lives in western Canada, but she typically resides in fantasy worlds of her own creation. Writing is her obsession, a passion which she willingly denies only for her son, close friends and the opportunity to dance or visit new places. She loves to travel, having explored much of Europe, Asia and North Africa. One day she hopes to ride her motorcycle across at least one continent. Simone prefers romantic stories with strong characters who are sometimes wicked, sometimes wild…and always hot.
The author welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Simone Bern
Healer’s Price
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