Mari managed a small nod. She hadn’t gathered the courage to say anything yet, and wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to put it all into words. She was rescued by the creak of the door again, as Magni and Val entered, followed by her father and someone she’d never seen before. The stranger was tall even by her brother’s standards, but was built like a mountain. Her mouth fell open, and she could feel the look of surprise stretching across her face. She thought he almost could have been the man in her dream, if he’d had darker hair, and was built just a little broader.
The new arrivals all spread around the table settling into chairs as the cook, Shay, began bringing out dishes of food for their meal. Small talk was bubbling around the room as everyone prepared their plates. It was a rather quiet and somber conversation all around, but no one had paused yet to say anything formal, or to even introduce the newcomer.
Mari watched quietly from across the table as her father bent over in quiet conversation with the man. She was curious, and thought it was worth just dropping her guard a little bit to try and figure out what he was, at least. As she felt herself relaxing into her power, a flash of hands sliding up her thighs crept into her mind. She gasped passionately as she felt the heat of fingers gripping at her skin, closing her eyes as the feeling overwhelmed her.
Every pair of eyes in the room turned to her. Her brothers in confusion and shock. Her father and uncle in concern. The strange man eyed her with something mixed with amusement and curiosity. One blond eyebrow arched and a smile lit his face watching in amusement as she writhed in her seat across the table. All conversation had ceased and was replaced with nothing but the muted sounds coming from Mari as she struggled to control herself.
Mari’s mind was still half-aware that she was in a room with family and one stranger, but also racing with the ideas of where those large hands were moving as they slid around the outside of her thighs and gripped passionately at the curve of her ass. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she could feel her body tightening in response to the touch.
Mari bit back a moan as she worked to suppress the image and regain control of her power. She kept telling herself she had to stop, but it was as if the more she tried to resist the image in her mind, the stronger the reality of those hands and fingers became. She could see one hand sliding slowly up the side of her stomach, reaching up to cup one of her breasts. Mari was struggling to suppress it all, and the electric feeling that was coursing through her body, followed with the intense burning that was trailing along behind the hands was crippling her self-control.
Someone cleared their throat uncomfortably, and the sound was enough for Mari to hold onto to ground herself back in reality. She inhaled deeply, with control trying to focus her thoughts and exhaled slowly closing off her mind to everything around her. The feeling and image of hands and hot skin on hers faded. Her breathing was still slightly shallow, and her heart was still pounding in her chest, but at least she had control of her own thoughts again.
Mari let out a shaky breath and felt pure embarrassment washing over her. She was sure no one would be able to see any of the red marks on her body, since she was most definitely blushing hard from head to toe. She was in a state of shock. What the hell had just happened? In the middle of dinner? Seriously…she was losing her mind. That was the only explanation she could come up with.
Mari covered her face with her hand. How in the world was she going to face these people? She wished desperately that she could just run out of the room, but had a feeling that was even worse. She opened her fingers a fraction of an inch and peered out, unfortunately catching the stranger’s eyes as he broke into a wide suggestive grin, wiggling his eye brows up and down.
“Man, Illwyn, I know you said your family was different, but that was a heck of a welcome,” the young man laughed deeply. His grey eyes were dancing, despite the revolted glares he was getting from Mari’s brothers, and the exasperated looks he was receiving from the older men at the table. The only person who seemed to appreciate his joke was Shay, the cook, who he saw smiling into a tray of potatoes. He made a mental note to try and find the cook later as she seemed like she was at least up for a laugh…or maybe a good time.
Mari dropped her hand and gaped up at the man in shock. She had never experienced anyone with so little sense of tact. She turned, irritated, towards her father with the expectation that he would have some explanation of who the man was, or at least why he was there to comment on the most embarrassing moment of her life. She had thought things were bad with Ben, this was infinitely worse.
“This is Riley Eisold,” Illwyn explained with a tired sigh, “He’s an ice dragon I’ve brought along with me to aid us in our search. You’ll have to pardon his comments, dear. I’d like to say he behaves better normally, but that would be a shameful lie.” Illwyn tried to give her an encouraging smile, but faltered as she buried her head in her hands. He watched as her skin darkened a deeper shade of red.
“If it makes anyone feel any better, what’s happening to Mari is quite out of her control…and has quite a bit to do with what’s going on, and is rather remarkable really,” Illwyn said factually, as he slowly looked around the table at the other men around him. He didn’t need any sort of telepathic power to sense the level of awkwardness that had filled the room.
“I can’t do this!” Mari blurted out pushing herself up quickly from her chair and turning away from the table, heading for the door. There was just no way she could sit around the dinner table talking about her random near orgasms that were catching her by surprise and the burns all over her body, with her father and brothers. Nope. She was not going to do that, especially with Riley Eisold, who seemed to be an arrogant pain in the ass. Just no. She fled the room as quickly as she could manage and made her way to the sanctuary of her bedroom, asking herself over and over what the heck had just happened.
Chapter 7
Mari entered her room with tears stinging in her eyes. Asking herself how in the world was she going to deal with this? She couldn’t sleep, because the crazy dreams were happening. She couldn’t let her guard down at all, because they weren’t just happening when she was asleep. She couldn’t touch people, be around Ben. Her mind raced with all the implications her loss of control was having on her life.
She grabbed her phone off the dresser and flopped down on her bed with a sob of desperation. Embarrassed or not, her fingers were dialing Ben regardless. He was the one person she had always confided in. Her family was great, but Mari learned that you can’t vent to your family about your family. It just didn’t work that way. The trickiest part of her friendship before their encounter the night before had been how to vent to him without letting on what she was.
Mari, being part of one of the Fae families meant to keep magical creatures a secret, couldn’t be the person to run around with a human and let him in on the secret inner workings of the Fae world. Mari had learned that she could vent about personality conflicts though, and those arose often with a young sister, and five over protective and vastly different brothers.
She inhaled deeply, watching a few tears roll off her face and onto the bed beneath her. She wiped furiously at them as she listened to the faint ringing impatiently. Relief flooded through Mari when she finally heard Ben’s voice on the other line.
“Hey, I was afraid you weren’t going to call,” Ben said with a measure of anxiety in his voice.
Mari was mentally kicking herself for leaving things so awkwardly with Ben. She couldn’t understand how she could have done that to him, but had a sinking feeling that she wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders for the past week.
“Ben, I’m so sorry,” Mari gushed as soon as he was through talking, “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I can’t imagine what you must think of me. I don’t even know how to explain it, everything is just so wrong right now, and I have no idea what to do.”
“You’re sorry? I should be the one apologizing, Mar. You w
ere sleeping and I feel like I took advantage or something,” Ben explained, inhaling deeply to gather the courage to say the words he had planned, “I just thought maybe you were finally starting to feel the same way about me, but that’s not the case and that is fine.”
Mari felt the weight of the words he was saying hit her like a ton of bricks. She hadn’t realized that Ben felt anything more for her at all. She considered Ben attractive but hadn’t given it much thought since she knew she was expected to marry another Fae. The idea hadn’t ever seriously crossed her mind that there was another choice.
“What do you mean feel the same way about you?”
Her question hung in the silence between them on the phone line. She heard Ben inhaling slowly, and could imagine him closing his eyes the way he always did when he was trying to say something carefully. She had known him since childhood, and in many ways, knew him far better than her brothers at times. No one had ever questioned her having him as a friend so long as she was careful, and her mother, before she had passed away, had insisted on the friendship for as long as she could remember.
“I don’t really want to talk about it. We’re friends, that’s it, and I honestly wouldn’t want to ever do anything to risk that,” Ben said with a sigh, “Don’t worry about it, okay?”
Mari was trying to process what he was saying but she wasn’t entirely sure she believed him. She had a sinking suspicion that Ben had much more complicated feelings for her than just friendship, and that realization made her realize just how cruel her actions the night prior had been. Mari felt guilt gnawing at her as she tried to think of what to say.
“Anyway, what do you mean everything is wrong? What’s going on with you? You didn’t get a chance to tell me the other night, but you seem upset. I’d much rather talk about whatever it is that Eryn has done this time. He’s so much fun to talk about,” Ben said in a forced attempt to change the topic of conversation.
Mari’s thoughts reeled back to why she had been so upset before she called Ben to begin with. She couldn’t possibly figure out how to explain it without telling him what she was in the process. She settled back on the bed crossing her legs under her, and rubbed her temple with two fingers attempting to squeeze the stress out.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she sighed with a bitter laugh, “Let’s just say I have officially had the most awkward family dinner in the history of all family dinners. The only way it could have been worse is if Eryn had been there to give me shit about it.”
“Oh, come on now, Elwood. You can’t leave me hanging like that. I need details. That sounds far too interesting.”
Mari could hear Ben’s tension dying down as their banter returned to some semblance of normal between them. She wasn’t sure how to explain everything, without poking at whatever emotional wound she had caused Ben the night before but she knew he wouldn’t give in on her opening up about it.
“Ugh,” she groaned, “I don’t even know where to start. It was so bad. I’m having these weird dreams that keep happening. Kind of the like other night, where I can’t control myself and things get very intense. Vocally intense? And I may have had one in the middle of conversation around the dinner table. Think like that scene in that old movie we watched…but so much worse.”
Ben laughed deeply at her flustered explanation. He felt even guiltier over having taken advantage of her dream the night before, but pushed the emotion down. He knew exactly what movie she was talking about and it made the situation all the funnier for him. He had never met all of Mari’s family, but had met Val and had vivid mental images of what they all looked like. The idea of her having anything even remotely like an orgasm in the middle of a family dinner was hilarious, no matter what way he sliced it.
“Did anyone ask if they could have what you’re having?” Ben chuckled, knowing full and well just how much it was going to irritate her. Ben was, if nothing else, extremely gifted at distracting Mari from anything negative she was trying to dwell on. Humor was just a part of him, and it wasn’t in him to let something that had so much natural humor be taken so seriously.
“Ben! That is not funny!” Mari fumed as Ben continued laughing at her expense a little. She felt the sharp sting of embarrassment receding marginally. It was much more difficult to stay embarrassed when she was laughing at herself.
“It’s a little funny, and you know it.”
Mari sighed closing her eyes, and shaking her head slowly at the ridiculousness of her life in general. She heard a faint knocking at her door and groaned lightly.
“Ugh…I have to go. Are we okay, though?” She asked, hoping that her friend was back to just being her rock who would catch her every time she needed it. Mari took Ben for granted in many ways, and had never thought about how he looked at their friendship, after all this time.
“Of course,” Ben reassured her before his tone shifted to teasing, “Go handle what you need to. Just try not to handle it too much or you’ll have the same problem.”
“Seriously?” Mari asked in exasperation, “You’re awful. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Always, but you know you love me. Catch you later, Mar,” Ben replied before hanging up.
Mari shook her head slightly again and tossed the phone aside on the bed. She would have been perfectly content to sit around and dwell on how ridiculous Ben had been, but there was another knock on her door. Shame was itching at her as she fought with the urge to simply not answer and just hide from everyone for the rest of her life.
“Come in,” she sighed in frustration, feeling only minutely better that it was her uncle who opened the door and that he was alone. Of anyone who had been there for what happened, he was probably the only one she had a chance at talking about it with, without feeling like she needed to climb in into a hole and bury herself there.
Illwyn crossed the room quietly and sat on the corner of Mari’s bed. He had no idea what the right way to start this conversation was, but he had to start somewhere and break the awkward silence that was deepening between them. He cleared his throat quietly, hoping that he could get through this without further embarrassing both of them. He certainly didn’t want to consider anything remotely related to his niece and her love life. He didn’t even think of her as old enough to have one. In his mind, she was still a toddler running around.
“I’m not sure where to start,” Illwyn admitted, “I know there’s a lot that’s been going on you haven’t told anyone about. That much I gathered. What’s happening is normal, if that makes you feel better. Very rare, but normal for someone with your gifts.”
The words “normal” and “gifts” turned Mari’s thoughts sour. Her embarrassment was quickly fading as it was replaced with irritation. She was sure her uncle was trying to comfort her, but all he was doing was making it worse.
“Normal? How is what happened normal?” She pulled the side of her tee-shirt up exposing the angry red burns stretching up the side of her stomach, “How the fuck is this normal? If it’s a gift I want to send it back. I can’t do this, Uncle Illwyn. I can’t. I haven’t slept more than a couple hours in a week. I’m scared to let it go too far.”
Illwyn frowned at hearing his niece swearing. It was another reminder that the woman sitting before him was nowhere near the toddler he had imagined in his mind. He attempted to understand where she was coming from. He certainly knew he couldn’t understand exactly what she was talking about, but he had dealt with his power growing and being out of control. It was something that many of the Fae in their family had to deal with.
“You can’t give it back,” Illwyn countered patiently, “Let me explain some things before you keep trying to bite my head off, yes?” He leveled his niece with an authoritative look that he intended to remind her that, while he was tolerating her being angry and flippant, she still needed to calm down and listen to him.
Mari closed her eyes. She inhaled deeply, before exhaling and attempting to
control her temper. She was frustrated, at so many things, but she knew that her uncle was right and none of it was truly his fault. It wasn’t fair for her to direct her anger at him, she reminded herself.
“Fine. Explain.”
“Right,” Illwyn replied before taking a steadying breath, “You have formed a bond that bridges empathic and psychic abilities. The dreams you’re having…they’re a bridge between you and someone else. Not just a figment of your subconscious. I can’t tell you why it happened, or how it happened with this individual…as it usually should only happen between two Fae, but if what I saw is correct, that is a dragon shifter, a fire dragon specifically. Which is why you keep ending up with those burns.”
Mari’s eyebrows knit together in frustration and disbelief. A fire dragon? Her mind raced as she tried to process the information. She had never met a dragon shifter to begin with, there were only two clans remaining, and the only one based in the US was clear on the opposite side of the country. She’d heard devastating stories about fire dragons specifically. They were renowned for having little to no control, to the point they would most often destroy themselves and everyone around them.
Illwyn fished a hand in his pocket retrieving an intricate silver bracelet, with several strands of braided silver intertwined in a vine pattern centered around an emerald. He extended his arm and offered her the bracelet.
“This will only stop the burns. It will mute this psychical side of your empathic powers, not really bind them like we would with a young Fae,” he explained as Mari slide the bracelet over her hand. It felt cool against her skin, though she didn’t feel any different wearing it than she had before.
“Will this stop the dreams? Break the connection?” She asked hopefully. She sincerely wanted nothing more than to be able to sleep, or use her powers without such intense dreams taking over. Her eyes searched Illwyn’s for some glimmer of reassurance but was met only with reluctance.
Touch of Fire (Into the Darkness Book 1) Page 6
