a Touch of Intrigue

by L. j. Charles

  He rolled his lips in tight, then sighed. “Aukele challenges his students. Drove me to contemplate murdering him.”

  Where was Pierce going with this? “Yes. I love him dearly, but I’m right with you on reaching the edge of sanity when I can’t grasp what he’s teaching, or where he’s leading me with his allegorical memes.”

  Pierce let out another sigh. “Could be way off on this, but communication seems to be a common thread in Huna philosophy.”

  I ran his idea through my memory banks. “You’re right. Communication with nature, with life, with energy, and with our own souls is always a part of Aukele’s teachings.”

  “I was born in Templebryan.” His words were strangled, almost shy.

  I carefully waded in. “Siofra, um, your mother’s Circle of Nine home? Wait. You mean in the stone circle?” My heart picked up speed. She’d birthed him outside? In a stone circle.

  “Yes. The standing stones are portals.” A typical Tynan Pierce statement. Saying everything and nowhere near enough.

  Tread easy here, Everly. Your man is uncomfortable as an ice cube in hell. “I don’t know much about the Circles. Do the portals open?”

  He nodded, slow and deliberate. “Pathways.”

  I drew in a long breath, and summoned the dregs of my patience. “To?”

  He shook his head. “Between human existence and the Universe.”

  It took a moment of contemplation before I came up with a response. “That’s big. How about if I try and simplify it a bit? Your birthplace is the reason your vision is enhanced?”

  “Mo mháthair would say so.” He turned his head, left, then right, probably working an emotional kink from his neck. “I don’t have another explanation.”

  We needed to speed this up. “Works for me, too. So how is that related to Aukele and Huna?”

  He grabbed my hand, holding onto it like a lifeline. “Communication. My vision and your fingers working together. What do you think?”

  Pierce was right. So damn right. My veins hummed with the possibilities. “Yes! Any idea how we communicate on a Universal level?”

  A thin rim of blue outlined his dilated pupils. “Blood.”

  Mine ran cold. “Like in a sacrifice?”

  Pierce gave my hand a slight squeeze. “Like in blood brothers.”

  I shivered. “Just so I understand. You want us to slice our skin open and share blood? Is that the deal? Isn’t that a seven-year-old boy kind of activity? Not that I mind if it’s what you think we should do, but it seems…odd.” I wasn’t about to question his sanity. Not when he’d slipped a knife out of his pocket and was holding it in front of me.

  Tugging free of his hand, I backed up a step and pointed at the knife. “How exactly is this going to go down?”

  Smart man that he is, Pierce handed me the blade, hilt first. “Not exactly like seven-year-olds. Prick your fingertip and I’ll lick the blood.”

  My eyes had to be the size of dinner plates. Make that platters. “You don’t have any vampires in your family, right?”

  He grinned. A regular, normal, Pierce smile that brimmed with laughter. “Not a one. Sounds crazy, but there’s a lot of blood spilled during childbirth. Seemed to fit.”

  My heart slowed to a normal rhythm. “I get that, in an off beat abnormal kind of way. And it sort of almost makes sense, but I’m not cutting my fingertips. Thumb?” I gave him a “thumb’s up.”

  “We can do thumbs. Blood is blood.”

  He took the knife from my hand, punctured the fleshy tip of his thumb, squeezed a few drops of blood out, and then rubbed a rich, red smear over my bottom lip. I licked my lips. Shock at the intimacy of it flooded me, and my core swelled with need. Oh, yeah. Those vampire types knew things normal people didn’t. I brought his thumb to my mouth and sucked, then brushed my tongue over the injury until it closed. “That was—”

  “Sexy as hell.” Pierce adjusted his cargoes, then offered me the knife.

  “You do it.” I held my thumb up, and stroked his erection with my free hand.

  He pressed into my palm, and need flashed behind his eyes. “Distracting me, Belisama?”

  “No. Distracting myself.”

  There was a prick against my thumb, and then my universe was reduced to a single-focus on Tynan’s mouth, sucking, demanding more. No gentle licks, no tender kisses.

  I reached for his zipper, but he grasped my wrist, stopping me. “No condoms.”

  “I don’t care.” The words slipped out, almost a dare, and I twisted my hand trying to get to his elusive zipper.

  Pierce distracted me with long, hot, frustrating kisses. I wanted more. Tried to work my boots off without untying them. The functioning part of my brain knew I couldn’t get my pants over the boots, and I couldn’t wrap my legs around him until I was free of the restricting clothing. How to accomplish the task was way too complex for my hormone-addled mind to figure out.

  He clutched my hips, holding me still. “We’re not…”

  He nibbled a sensitive spot on the side of my neck. “Going to…”

  A series of delicate licks that he blew against the damp spot reduced me to a puddle of need. Hot, then cool electric tingles spread through me with every nuance of his touch.

  “Make a baby…” Pierce slipped his hands around to cup my backside, pulled me firmly against him, and rubbed that beautiful arousal over my sensitized abdomen. I wanted it lower. Where I needed it. So, I stretched up, and tried to work my leg around his thighs. Stumbled. And common sense shattered my hormone-soggy brain. “Baby?” No. Nope. Not ready for that. I leaned back, and gave him a wide-eyed stare.

  “Hmm. No condoms.” One final, hard kiss, and he set me away from him.

  Our breathing was so loud and ragged the birds had flown for cover. I tightened my thighs, trying to relieve the pressure. It intensified. “Definitely no baby.” My words came out embarrassingly squeaky.

  Pierce sucked in a huge lungful of air, adjusted himself, and sighed. “Can’t until I know you’ll be safe.”

  There was a wealth of emotion behind his words, and I wanted, needed him to understand we were on the same page. I laid my palm against his cheek. “We’ll work that part out. There’s never any guarantee of safety, and speaking as a child that grew up in a similar situation, I wouldn’t trade my life for anything. Yeah, it’s sometimes brutally difficult, but it’s never been so awful that I wished I hadn’t been born, or that I’d had different parents. But you’re right that it’s too soon for us. We need to share a lot more uninterrupted sex before we deal with morning sickness, diapers, and no sleep.”

  The lines of tension disappeared from Pierce’s face, and he kissed my palm. “We’ll work on it. After we find Millie and Harlan.”

  I took his hand and started moving down the nearest pathway. “I’m thinking we should practice making babies often. We wouldn’t want to be inept when it’s time to create a new little Tynan.”

  “Define a lot.” Laughter simmered through his words.

  I shot him a sideways glance. “At least daily. Maybe hourly if we forget any steps.”

  He whirled, picked me up, and held me arms-length high. Looking down, I soaked in the love that sparkled in his eyes. “I love you, Tynan Ailill Pierce.”

  “I’m grateful. And in love with you.” He cleared his throat. “Your pronunciation is slightly off. It’s a longer ‘a’ and softer ‘l.’ A..ll-yail.”

  I tried it out a few times, smoothing the syllables with each attempt. “Do I have it?”

  “Yes. I like the sound when you say it.”

  His comment opened a convenient segue to ask one of my burning questions. “Tap?”

  Pierce shook his head. “Millie and Harlan first. Is your vision any sharper?”

  I inhaled, centering myself, and looked along the path. “No, I… Wait.” We’d shared blood, but that didn’t mean Pierce’s gifts would work exactly the same way for me as they did for him. I closed my eyes, and the woods shimmered, then shifted int
o precise focus. “Yes. It’s different, like I can see a lot more detail. And it’s brighter.”

  “Your eyes are closed.”

  I popped them open, staring at him, open-mouthed. “Because I work differently from you. You’re more external and methodical, and I’m more internal and intuitive. Have you tried touching something, um, besides me?”

  He glanced down the path. “No. But there wasn’t any difference when I touched you. No images.”

  It made perfect sense to me. I nodded, pointing to a nearby tree. “Yep. Your eyes were closed most of the time. Try touching that koa with your eyes open.”

  Pierce frowned, but kept his gaze on his fingertips while he touched the tree. “Shit.” He jerked his hand back, shook it, and turned to me. “It’s like being inside the damn thing. Whole new world, Belisama. Incredible.”

  “Now we just have to put it together to find Millie and Harlan.”

  He cocked his arm. “Hang on to me, and keep your eyes closed while we walk.”

  I slipped my hand under his elbow, and latched onto his forearm. “Good plan. Let me know if we’re going to stop so you can touch something. Then we can switch up and compare notes on what you see and I touch.”

  We covered five entire pathways without picking up a trace of any structure on the property, much less a lived in cottage. Discouraged, I drained my water bottle, shook it. “Water’s gone. Maybe we should head back to the house, regroup, and start from a different direction.”

  Pierce tipped his head toward a narrow break in the foliage. “Let’s try down there first. There’s a rectangular shape, and nature doesn’t do rectangles.”

  I stuffed the empty water bottle in my cargo pocket and ran my fingers over a eucalyptus tree that almost hid the path Pierce had indicated. An image of Harlan popped on my internal screen. “Oh, yeah. That’s it.” I bent to touch the path. “Mille, holding hands with Harlan.”

  Happiness flared in my chest, and a giggle escaped. “We found them!”

  I hurried along the path, slipping, sliding, jogging, tugging Pierce after me, but as we neared the cottage, he yanked me to a stop. “Surveillance first.”

  Damn but I hated when his caution outweighed my curiosity and enthusiasm. “Okay, but just for a couple minutes. It’s Millie and Harlan, Pierce, not a black ops mission.”

  He pushed me behind a banana tree. “Feels off,” he said sotto voce, and palmed the gun from his ankle holster.

  SEVEN

  IT DIDN’T FEEL OFF TO me. And that scared me right down to my purple toenails. I touched Pierce’s arm, fingers turned on high. Tension, a burst of my kind of intuitive energy, and the dead calm of a seasoned black ops professional bathed my senses, but no images appeared. “Are you sure? Because I’m not sensing anything unusual.” I shook my head. “Maybe because the last twenty-four hours has topped my unusual experiences list.”

  His grin bordered on cocky. “Sex with me is unusual?”

  “Perfection hasn’t been prevalent in my life.” The words were out before I realized what I’d said. “Don’t let that go to your head.”

  “Never. And yes, something’s off about that cottage.” He motioned toward a narrow side trail, and then followed it…with me close behind.

  I’d left the house without a weapon because Pierce was armed, and because my plan was to use my fingers on this expedition. “Dumb,” I mumbled under my breath.

  He tossed a questioning glare at me.

  “Not you. Me. No weapon.” I hated confessing because it was such a rookie mistake.

  We’d circled to the back of the cottage, and hunkered down behind a couple large bushes. Waiting wasn’t working for me. “There’s a back door. I should touch it.”

  Deep creases took over his forehead. “Stay here. I’m going in.”

  It was the kind of order that usually pushed my temper to boiling, but much as I want to experience a SWAT-like building entry, I plunked cross-legged on the ground like I was going to spend the next few hours doing nothing but communing with nature. What the hell was wrong with me?

  Pierce moved farther down the path, approached the cottage from the far corner, and eased up to a small window. He peeked inside, shook his head. I took it to mean no one was inside.

  But he was wrong.

  Sure as I was sitting there, someone was watching. Waiting. I desperately wanted to run after him and warn him, but I couldn’t move. My legs were interlocked like an arthritic yogi, and no matter what message my brain sent, I couldn’t untangle them.

  Adrenaline and panic took over. I shoved my hands against the earth, determined to get my ass off the ground. One inch. Three. Four. And I was up, but it took monumental willpower to force my feet to move. Pierce had reached the back door; his hand rested on the knob.

  I slapped my hand over my mouth to keep from shouting out a warning. Not only would such a stupid move alert Pierce, but whoever was inside the cottage would have a heads-up to his presence. Much better for me to follow him silently, and at least make an attempt to back him up. Frustrated beyond any semblance of patience, I curled my hands into fists and pounded my thighs. Why wouldn’t my legs work right?

  Pierce slipped inside the door. I’d only made it as far as the grassy area surrounding the cottage—major backup fail. I was focused on the scene in front of me, so the footsteps didn’t hit my cognitive awareness until I was flat on my stomach. “Damn it all to blue bloody hell.” I swiped leaves off my face, and out of my mouth, then twisted to face my attacker.

  And there Fred stood. Grinning. “Owed you one.”

  I scooted to sitting. “What in the bloody freaking hell, Fred?”

  Pierce jogged up behind me, lifted me to my feet, and had Fred face down in a hammerlock before I caught a breath.

  I nudged him. “Ease up little.” It wasn’t a request. “I want to hear his explanation for this, and his bones are probably arthritic.”

  Fred mumbled something.

  Pain shot through my neck, dropping me to my knees.

  And then Fred’s voice came through loud and clear. “I said, I have control. I’ll hurt her if you don’t let me the fuck up.” Malicious arrogance coated Fred’s words.

  My gut clenched, and I barely kept my morning coffee down. “How?” I spat the word at him as soon as he’d gained his feet.

  “That’ll have to remain my secret. Just something to make you more cooperative.”

  He was so damn snide. No wonder my mother tried to kill him on sight. Probably it was good that Pierce had taken the Kimber away from me, because this was quickly turning into a like-mother like-daughter scenario. I smiled at Tynan. “How well-versed are you in torture techniques?”

  My legs froze again. Sweat broke out on my forehead, and hard as I fought it, I panicked. “I can’t move, Pierce. He’s doing something to trap my legs.”

  Pierce had him in a neck lock before I finished my sentence. “What the fuck, asshole?”

  A series of gurgling sounds came from Fred, and Pierce adjusted his hold. “Again.”

  Abruptly my legs were free. I shook them out, then jogged in a circle, thrilled to be moving. And then I got in Fred’s very red face. “Never again you freaking jerk. Stay out of my head.”

  Another shaft of pain shot into my skull. I screamed, rubbed furiously at my scalp, trying to stop the agony.

  Pierce let go of Fred, and let him drop to the ground.

  The pain stopped. Another burst of panic exploded in me. “He has control over me, Pierce.”

  “That I do, Ms. Gray. The mechanism has been in place since you were knee high to a grasshopper.” He smiled at the old-fashioned colloquialism, then cocked his head and stared at me. “But I haven’t been using it very long.”

  A chill raced along my spine. “The pain in my neck?”

  He pointed his finger at me. “Smart girl.”

  Pierce shifted position.

  Fred whirled, turning the finger-point toward Tynan. “Whatever you do to me, I can do worse to her
. I don’t think you want to test that now, do you Tap?”

  Pierce’s aura glowed red.

  Mine matched his. I was sure of it. Knowing that this man could subject me to that much pain on a whim had knocked my temper into revenge mode. But I’d learned a thing or three about revenge. “Why? What is it? And how do I get my freedom back?”

  He chortled, sly. “Xola and Jayme made the decision to put me in control.”

  My gut immediately rejected that idea. “Surely you can come up with a better lie than that.”

  Fred shrugged. “Take it or leave it. That’s all I’ve got.”

  Pierce was so pissed off he’d gone icy calm. And that was a whole lot scarier than anything Fred could come up with. You gotta diffuse this, Everly.

  “A word, Pierce,” I said, taking several steps away from Fred.

  He followed me, shoulders stiff, hands fisted, and waves of seething anger banked so tightly it bathed the air with teeming energy. His jaw was clenched, silent.

  “I want to play along with him until we know exactly what’s going on. We need time to read through all those papers I appropriated from Fion Connor’s car, and we need to ensure Cait’s safety. Exactly how much power, and the freedom to use it, does Fred have?”

  “Infinite until death.” Pierce’s tone left no doubt that Fred should be at least part way through writing his epitaph or it wouldn’t get finished.

  “Don’t kill him. At least not until we figure out how he’s controlling me, and if the ability can, or has, been transferred to more people in Fred’s organization.” That unwelcome edge of panic nipped at me, pushing me to keep Fred in spitting distance in case his death left me permanently controllable by outside sources.

  Pierce’s grunt was noncommittal, but he didn’t shoot Fred on the spot, so I sucked in a breath and went toe-to-toe with my new nemesis. “Start at the beginning. No detours. No lies. What do you want from me?”