by Berinn Rae
It was worth a shot. She concentrated her power and flung out another sound wave. Black danced at the edges of her vision, but it was worth it when the bulb shattered. Her apartment fell into darkness. She had to move fast.
The back of her neck felt like ice but she kept going, sucking the sound from the apartment, throwing false noise away from where she stood to redirect Collette’s attention. She heard something break to her right.
“Stop hiding in the dark, Cali,” said Collette.
It gave away her position and Cali crept up behind her. When she was relatively sure she was within range she swung her easel. Collette never heard it coming. There wasn’t even a sound of impact. The only indicator Cali had hit her mark was the vibration traveling up her arms.
Collette screamed.
Cali lithely stepped away, feeling invigorated.
The sensation didn’t last. Something in the center of her apartment flickered. It looked like the tiniest of candle flames.
Was Collette so exhausted she couldn’t even create light?
No. It appeared again, this time flickering faster, and each time it flickered it grew in size. It started the size of a golf ball, growing in diameter until it was larger than her fist. The brilliant orange and yellow coloring was blinding in the semi-darkness. Cali held her hand up against the light as it started to pulse as if alive.
Her stomach sank as it pulsed faster and faster.
The floor beneath her feet vibrated as Collette ran toward the door. Cali tried to follow but it was too late.
The ball erupted like a mini explosion. White light blinded her. Her feet left the ground. Her easel was ripped from her grasp as heat enveloped her.
Pain spiked through her back, and belatedly she knew it was because she had slammed into the wall. Again. Cali had no idea how long she sat there slumped against it, her chin on her chest, her whole body stinging. Hours? Days?
One of the drapes had been pulled back. The bright afternoon sun hurt her eyes. Footsteps came closer, and Collette appeared in her spotted vision.
She leaned over Cali. “There’s nothing special about you. You can’t even best me. You never will. Felix will have his fun and then he’ll leave you. Just like he left me.” A baton shimmered into existence in her outstretched hand, like the kind cops wore on their belts. Cali braced for the pain as Collette swung.
Blackness engulfed her.
Chapter 14
“Cali? Cali!”
Sensation slowly started coming back to her. Her body felt as if she’d been hit by a semi truck and then boiled in acid. Her apartment smelled of sulfur, and underneath she could just catch the scent of baked goods. She knew it was Felix even before she smelled him. Her body just seemed to know when he was near. That coiling tension she felt in her chest whenever she was apart from him was gone. She felt safe. Calm.
Felix continued to call her name, interchanged with some cursing.
She cracked open an eye and shut it instantly as the sunlight blinded her.
Felix caught the movement. “Cali?”
“I’m alive,” she muttered. “Wish I wasn’t, but I am. Son of a bitch.” If this is what it felt like to be struck by a bomb, she never wanted to experience it again. She was disoriented, achy, and when she moved in certain ways pain flared like a motherfucker.
“What happened?” He helped ease her up, and she hissed when one of his hands touched a piece of sensitive skin on her shoulder. “Shit, I’m sorry. Let me get something to bandage you up, okay? Don’t move.”
That wasn’t going to be a hard order to follow.
As Felix got a bucket full of cool water, ointment, and bandages, Cali surveyed her surroundings. She was in her room on her bed. A chair was pulled up next to it. When he returned, Felix started to gently wipe her face clean. When he reached the cut on her cheek, she jerked away.
His jaw bulged and he strangled the rag in his hand. “Collette did this, didn’t she?”
She didn’t feel like talking about Collette quite yet. “What are you doing here?”
How had he known she needed him?
He carefully applied ointment to the side of her face. “You didn’t call. I waited forty minutes after you left before I raced over here.” He cursed under his breath. “I knew something like this was going to happen. I should have left sooner. I fucking knew it. Was it Collette?”
She couldn’t avoid the question a second time without looking guilty. “Yes.”
He continued to clean and bandage the small burns along her arms. His face hardened every time he came across one of her cuts. “How were you able to get away from her this time? Are you keeping a Taser on your person at all times now?”
“I didn’t get away from her. She left me.” Collette had beaten the shit out of her and that defeat burned worse than any of her wounds. She had been useless against her.
Felix’s hands stilled against her forearm. His hands were so warm. “She left you?”
“Like so much garbage,” she said bitterly.
His fingers grasped her chin, careful to avoid her burns. “You’re not garbage,” he growled fiercely.
His blue-green eyes glittered with protectiveness and, if she admitted it to herself, a little bit of fear.
He was worried about you.
Her heart flipped.
She pulled her face from his grip. “Doesn’t matter. She came to try and understand why her employer wanted me so badly. After she wiped the floor with me, I don’t think she found her answer.”
A low growl sounded from Felix’s throat. “I’ll fucking kill her.”
The deadly intent in his face gave her pause. He’s not as innocent as you paint him to be. Collette’s words echoed. She didn’t want to believe them but she couldn’t help herself. Could Felix really be capable of killing someone?
She inhaled deeply. “Did you kill Collette’s Mirror Mate?”
He didn’t flinch from her question. Didn’t even bat an eye. He leveled a steady stare at her that she had trouble holding.
Oh, my God, he really killed him.
She didn’t know how she felt about that. She should be terrified, but she wasn’t. She knew from experience that there was more to a story than what someone else said. Was she really going to label Felix like others had labeled her?
Fuck, no.
“D-did he deserve it?” she asked. Did that excuse murder? In Cali’s mind … yes. She didn’t care how that made her look. That was what she believed. Some fuckers deserved to be put down.
Felix put down the rag he’d used to clean her wounds and pulled off his black tee. All that bronze muscle rippled as he moved to bare his left shoulder to her.
She was momentarily stunned by Felix’s near nakedness until she caught sight of the scar. It stood out like a rotting corpse in a field of dandelions. The puckered, twisted tissue made her cringe. She traced the wound with her finger. It was a little wider than her thumb and at least six inches long.
Rage burned within her. “He shot you?”
His expression was grim. “For Collette, he tried to kill me. His name was Kevin Bauer. He adored her, worshipped her like the girls here do the sun.”
“But she never loved him.”
Her comment caught him off guard. “She told you that?”
She shrugged, glad the movement didn’t cause her any pain. “She told me Mirror Mates didn’t have to love one another.” She avoided his eyes and studied a point beyond his shoulder.
“She lied.”
Her gaze shot back to his.
“I don’t think Collette even knew what the meaning of love was. I think she was too busy wanting me that she didn’t open herself up to Kevin. She didn’t know what she had until it was taken from her.”
“If she was so head over heels for you, why’d she want you dead?”
His smile was bittersweet. “You know that mentality that if you can’t have something, then no one can? Yeah, I think that’s Collette’s life motto. I befriended
her back in college. I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend. My powers were still too new. Either way, Collette sort of attached herself to me. She turned more hostile as time progressed. She was also a very jealous person. Our friendship started to crumble when we found out about each other’s powers. You’d think it would have brought us closer together, but all it did was make Collette believe that she was entitled to use them. She tried to break up one of my relationships back in the day by sending an Illusion of myself to my girlfriend’s dorm. I stupidly forgave her for that, but she crossed the line when she disclosed my powers without my permission. I stopped talking to her for a long time after that, until I got a call from her explaining she’d found something amazing. She invited me over for dinner, told me to bring my girlfriend.” Grief lined his eyes. “Her name was Jasmine. Collette decided to make an example out of her. She wanted to show me how finding her soul mate had increased her powers. Collette was a theater major. She always had a taste for the dramatic. She materialized a dagger at the dinner table and threw it right into Jasmine’s chest.”
He stopped for a few seconds as if to gather his thoughts. Cali didn’t dare speak. “She was dying right next to me, and all Collette did was invite me to be back at her side. Right there in front of Kevin. I freaked out. My powers went haywire. I screamed at her, told her she was a murderous bitch that needed to be locked away. She didn’t like that at all. Next thing I know, Kevin is leveling a gun at my chest for breaking Collette’s heart. Kevin was a full-forced Dreamer, so naturally I thought I was fucked, but he still had to close his eyes and drift to see the future. He did it to try to find where I’d hide for cover so he could shoot me before I got there. I didn’t bother hiding. I knew I was going to die so I picked up the chair I’d been in and swung as hard as I could at his head. I didn’t kill him.” He stared deep into her eyes as if to convey the truthfulness behind his words. “He was knocked out, unconscious. Still is. He’s on life support last I checked.”
Cali reached for his shoulder again. “And the scar?”
“He managed to pull off a couple of shots. I was lucky this one didn’t take me in the heart like it was supposed to.”
“How’d you escape Collette?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “When I knocked Kevin out, it did something to her. I think I somehow damaged the bond that forms between two Mirror Mates. I remember hearing her scream as if she’d been the one I’d hit. I was too busy running for my life to see what had happened to her, but after seeing her last week … ”
He let the sentence fall away. He didn’t need to continue. The madness was there for all to see when they looked into Collette’s gaze. She was constantly missing her other half. That kind of wound didn’t heal — it simply played on the mind, twisting it. Festering.
Cali didn’t want to feel sympathy for Collette, but she remembered all too clearly the other pain-filled memories the woman had disclosed to her. “She was damaged long before you came along.”
Felix’s head tilted.
“When she was here she kept rambling on about how she was never good enough. How she never measured up to what others wanted.”
“Her parents,” Felix said with a nod. “They pressured her from a very young age to become a world-class actress. They treated her like a princess until she blew an audition when she was twelve. They were filthy rich and as punishment cut off her trust fund. She spent her whole life trying to get back on their good side.” He shook his head. “I’m not going to pity her. Been there, done that. She had a shitty life, but it was her choice to follow the path she’s on.”
It was frightening how much of herself Cali found in Collette’s story. If Felix hadn’t been the one to find her first, would she have followed Collette willingly? Was her endless need to prove her independence to her family nothing but a cry for power?
“I think it’d be better if you took your shirt off.”
Cali blinked. “What?”
Felix picked up the rag again and motioned to her body. “I can’t get to the other wounds with that tattered piece of cloth hanging on you.”
It was stupid to feel embarrassed about taking her shirt off, especially after what had happened yesterday, but Cali still hesitated. The worst was when she couldn’t do it by herself and Felix had to help her. Just having his hands so close to her exposed skin made her heart trip all over itself.
Her shirt was beyond ruined but at least it had saved the skin underneath. There were a few red spots along her sides, and she sighed in relief when Felix pressed the cool rag to them.
He inhaled sharply through his nose. The muscles of his torso looked tense. Cali couldn’t stop staring at him. All that bronze skin. She wanted to lick every square inch of it.
She dropped her gaze out of curiosity. Felix’s erection strained against his jeans. She remembered how large he’d been in her hands, how soft and responsive. Her sex pulsed. She cleared her throat and looked away.
“How’d she do this?” Felix’s voice was husky. She pretended not to notice.
“She made some kind of bomb right in the middle of my living room. Bitch probably took out a lot of my belongings too.”
“We’ll get them back,” he promised as he fingered her bra. “This needs to come off. There’s a burn right on the side of your body.”
“Is playing doctor the only way you know how to get a woman naked?” she teased him. His eyes flashed.
She reached to undo the clasp at her back and paused. “Close your eyes.”
Both his eyebrows rose in amusement. Heat crept up her neck.
“It’s nothing I haven’t felt before,” he murmured.
“Eyes. Closed.”
He gave an over-exaggerated sigh and shut his eyes.
Cali pulled off her bra and flung it into the closet. What was left of it anyway.
“Can I look yet?”
“Not yet.” She drew her arm across her chest.
Felix continued conversationally. “By the way … ” He held up three fingers and drummed them against his chin. “I do believe I’ve taken the lead with three.”
She wanted to punch that smirk clean off his face.
“You know I can feel your glower from here.” He cracked open an eye then shut it. “Yup, definitely felt the glower.”
“Shut up and open your eyes already.”
Grinning, he continued his nurse-like duties. He pressed the rag to her side and she clamped her mouth shut at the stinging.
“Do you want me to get you anything for the pain?”
“I’m fine. Really.”
His other hand came up to press against the opposite side of her rib cage to keep her steady. He ran the rag along the small burns, and the fingers resting on her side twitched. His thumb brushed the underside of her breast, causing her to gasp.
Felix froze.
His voice was low, throaty as he said, “Sorry,” though his eyes told Cali a different story entirely. His gaze lingered on her chest. He trailed his thumb against her breast purposefully.
Cali inhaled sharply.
He watched her, waiting for any kind of negative reaction. Yeah, right. She could do nothing but stare at him, his hand continuing to tease her skin. His fingers brushed against the hand she was using to cover herself and, in an act of pure insanity, she removed it.
The greens and blues in his eyes churned. His fingers danced along her exposed nipple, light as a feather. Cali shivered, a deep ache starting between her thighs.
“I could stare at you for hours.” He cupped her breast and squeezed.
Her lips parted on a sigh. All her aches and pains evaporated.
He kissed her.
She could feel all that coiled power within him, but he held back. Most likely he didn’t want to hurt her.
Screw that.
Cali leaned into him, sliding her tongue deep into his mouth. She ignored the twinge in her arms as she reached for him. She wanted to feel all that hard, warm skin beneath her hands.
&
nbsp; His chest rumbled beneath her palms and she pressed more fully against him, nearly tipping off the edge of her bed.
The rag he’d been using against her burns dropped forgotten onto the floor with a wet splat.
Both his hands grasped her breasts, rolling her nipples between his thumb and forefinger. Pleasure streaked through her, the ache between her legs growing.
Felix broke far enough away from her mouth to speak four words. “Fuck, I want you.”
Her arousal spiked, her body shaking with the need to have him inside her.
She spoke against his lips. “Take me.” She was sick of waiting. She wanted him with such longing it was nearly burning her from the inside out.
“You’re … ” His tongue stole into her mouth. Retreated. “Hurt.”
Her hands slid down the hard planes of his body. She followed the trail below his navel and started to undo his pants. “Then be gentle with me.” She planted an open-mouthed kiss right against his heart. It beat wildly under her tongue. He groaned his surrender, his hands making fast work of the button and zipper on her shorts.
He pulled them and her panties down in one hard swipe.
Cali pushed off from her bed to straddle his legs, the cool air tickling the sensitive skin between her legs.
She worked the material of his jeans down. Then his boxers. It was difficult with him sitting, but eventually she cleared enough room to free his cock. It was thick and swollen, the tip glistening. Her heart stuttered. Moisture flooded her sex.
He was so big.
The muscles in his neck strained. “Everything. Okay?” he gritted as she palmed his shaft.
More than okay, she wanted to say, but her brain was too fogged to connect the words to her mouth. Instead she slid further up his lap and eased herself down onto him.
Felix threw his head back with a shout.
His hands gripped her hips, but still he held back, not wanting to hurt her. She didn’t think she’d ever been with a man who thought about her before himself. It made her want to please him more.
