The Bend-Bite-Shift Box Set

by Hardin, Olivia

  “Nicky…”

  “Damn!” He slowly slid the yoke back in the direction of his chest and leveled them off before turning accusing eyes to her.

  Gerry’s bile churned in her belly again so she bit off another crumb of cracker and chewed it. She felt tired and alone. She didn’t want to be this way anymore. She and Nicky were a team. His love for her had always wrapped her in a cocoon of security that she needed, craved. She was a tough woman and didn’t bat an eyelash about jumping into a fray. That didn’t mean there wasn’t a soft part of her somewhere—a part that his love fed and made her whole.

  “I’m pregnant, Nicky. Kris told me she saw it. She saw the souls inside me.”

  His mouth fell open. She watched him stare out the windshield before he murmured a single word. “Souls.”

  Gerry nodded. “Yes, she said two. She says there are two of them. Nicky, I don’t know how this happened. I mean, I’ve always been able to use my magic to prevent it before.”

  “You weren’t unconscious when we made love before,” he responded, deadpan.

  Nicky is my husband, she rationalized with herself. When she was unconscious and fighting an inner battle, he saved her with his love. Marriage was sacred, and she had no right to toy with their vows by being dishonest and keeping secrets.

  “Dy and I are twins, too,” she continued and didn’t address his comment about being unconscious. “I don’t think I ever told you that. She was always so different from me. She was older in some way, advanced. She liked to flirt with adventure and danger, and she was always getting us into mischief. By the time we got older, the mischief turned to trouble and…” She hesitated, pursing her lips while thinking. “And I sort of thought I detected malice in some of her antics, but I always went along with it. I was always by her side.”

  She glanced at Nicky and saw that he was listening intently though his hands and feet still worked the controls.

  “So things got really serious when we began to come into our powers. I didn’t understand what was happening. I could do little things at first, like make my hair look a certain way. I remember the first time I changed my own eye color…” She laughed and rubbed a hand over her eyes. “I thought it was a lot of fun. I was just a teenager. Dy somehow knew exactly what was going on and she knew how to use it. She bent people to her will, and she flirted and slept with boys before moving on to men and sometimes women. Then on to our parents’ friends and people in our church, even clergy.”

  The sick feeling held at bay in the center of her stomach gurgled to life, and she swallowed it down again by taking another bite of the saltine. Nicky was still silent, as if he knew she just needed a chance to breathe as she told her story.

  “My parents tried to keep me occupied with other things like dance and volleyball. I remember my mother telling me things like, ‘Love your sister always, but don’t feel the need to follow her every whim.’ I gradually took Mum’s advice and made new friends apart from Dy. And that made her bitter and nasty to me. It became her constant goal to drag me into the messes she created.”

  She paused when Nicky glanced at a booklet on his lap and adjusted a knob down to his left. He looked up at her and she thought he wanted to smile but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. “It’s okay,” he told her and nodded.

  “She put my parents through hell over a matter of years. She caused havoc on a regular basis. My father finally insisted she move out when we turned eighteen and she refused to register for college. She left and I was sure she was glad to. That was when my parents decided to take a vacation to Hawaii.” Searing pain in her chest replaced any bit of morning sickness. There was a reason she didn’t talk about these things, and it wasn’t entirely her shame about who she was.

  “It was a helicopter accident that killed them,” she said, the words coming out in a rush. She wanted to get them out of her mouth as fast as she could so she could move on again and forget what happened. But Nicky touched her face, caressing her cheekbone with his thumb, and tears built behind her eyes.

  “Damn, baby. You should’ve told me your parents died in a crash. Hell, there’s no way I would have dragged you aboard this airplane…”

  “Please, Nicky, I’ll never get through this if you touch me. My hormones are out of whack and I’ve been fricking crying at the drop of a hat!”

  He rubbed her cheek once before releasing her. She gazed up to force the tears back and took a deep, cleansing breath before looking at him again. He winked at her and she laughed. He always knew just what to do to take the edge off when she was wound too tight.

  She continued her story. “It wasn’t long after that happened when Dy took her vows as a succubus. I don’t know what she got in return. They made me any number of promises if I would only pledge myself to... to Evil. They offered me the power of flight. They offered me the power to hear people’s thoughts and not just feel their emotions. The list was long, and I finally demanded the only thing I truly wanted: my parents back.” A deep, shuddering breath escaped her lips before she could continue. “And he couldn’t do that. He said he could let me see them one last time but he couldn’t bring them back to life.”

  Nicky glanced at her, and she wondered what he was thinking. She could see concern on his face, but she wanted to know how he saw her. She needed to know if the disgust she felt for who she was could be hidden somewhere in his heart, too. She reached her mental feelers to him but found only a cold block, the same coldness since waking up those months ago.

  “What happened, Gerry?”

  She snapped back to the now, reaching up to touch a hand to her neck. She rubbed her fingers into the tense muscles. “I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to be like her. I didn’t want to hurt people, Nicky. I don’t care if that’s who I am. I just couldn’t do it.”

  She jumped when she heard him key the mic and say, “Cessna 875 Quebec, five miles out for a landing on runway 36. Full stop.”

  “Why are we landing? Is something wrong?” Panic seized her insides.

  “This is our mid-point. We don’t have enough fuel to make it all the way to New Orleans. Stop worrying. If anything is wrong, I promise to tell you, okay?”

  She knew nothing about flying, but she had to presume Nicky made a perfect landing. The airplane floated as if on a puffy cloud of air right to the runway. When the wheels touched, there was just the smallest screech of the tires. She glanced at him and saw a little smirk on his face. She didn’t need her powers to know how much he was enjoying himself.

  He hopped out of the plane and walked around to her side, opening the door. Before she could step out on her own, he moved close. She parted her knees so he could come to stand between her legs, and he placed his hands on her waist.

  “Baby, who you are is who you want to be. Life is about choices. We make choices, and those choices define us more than what we are physically. I don’t care that you’re a succubus. You,” he said and pressed his finger into her chest, moving her rosary against her skin. “You are the woman I love. You,” he repeated as he traced that same finger across the line of her jaw. “You are my wife and that’s all I want you to be.”

  The surge that coursed through Nicky’s veins the moment he finished his short monologue was so intense that the breath rushed out of his chest. He watched Gerry’s eyes widen as her face shattered into a broken mixture of pain, desperation, and longing. It was the longing that tore into him.

  She slid out of the plane and collapsed into his arms. Her face buried against his neck, and her breath was hot and moist against his skin. His body lurched to life and he groaned as he clutched her to him. She molded to him perfectly, and each curve of her body fit with him in a way that made him desperate to never part from her again.

  But he had no choice. They were standing on the ramp of a small airport. Their mission was imperative, and they needed to get fueled and back into the air. He reached up, took her hands, and slid them from around his neck, down his shoulders, and to her sides. When h
e tried to step away from her, she slinked closer, her lips red and inviting as she lifted her faced to his.

  They gazed into each other’s eyes. The dark depths of her brown eyes sucked him in deep; there was no denying it. Maybe she was using her powers to pull on his desires. Or perhaps she wasn’t doing it intentionally. How it was happening no longer mattered to Nicky. They hadn’t slept together since he’d made love to her in New Orleans months ago. He ached for her, throbbed for her in a way that made him certain he would simply implode if he couldn’t have her. And that kind of need couldn’t be denied.

  He crushed his mouth to hers with enough force to bruise her lips. She didn’t pull away but instead groaned and clasped at his rear with desperate hands, tugging his hips to hers. His sex pulsed in response.

  “No!” she wailed when he shoved their bodies apart. Nicky clasped her hand and yanked her along with him as he approached the little flight based operations building. When he stopped, the inertia with which he pulled her along caused her to slam into his side.

  He found that the door was locked when he turned the knob. His moan was laced with frustration, but when he took a moment to breathe, he saw there was a keypad above the knob.

  It was Sunday and the airport was shut down. Except, according to the note taped inside the window, a general aviation pilot could have access to the building with a simple frequency code. Following the instructions, he input the airport’s radio frequency and felt the lock release.

  Gerry’s hot sigh of relief blew through his shirt against his chest. She was tight to him, running one hand along his back and the other against his stomach. They practically fell through the doorway, and Nicky had an inclination to toss her there onto the floor and take her. He mustered just enough strength to fight the urge and instead pulled her through the little building and glanced left then right. He found what he was looking for in a small room with a sign on the door that read: “Pilot’s Lounge.”

  There was a small sofa against the wall, and he pushed Gerry onto it so that she was kneeling with her back to him. She glanced over her shoulder at him, her hair cascading down her back when he released it from a clip atop her head. He took a hank of that hair and tugged it so that her head was pulled back and he could kiss, suck, and nip at her neck. She moaned.

  “I can’t wait to have you, baby,” he told her between kisses.

  “Then don’t wait.” Her voice was husky with unleashed desire. “Take me now and take me hard, Nicky.”

  An animal sprang to life inside of him when he reached around the front of her and tried to unbutton her jeans. She slapped his hands away and took on the chore herself. He had his own pants and boxers off at about the same time she removed hers. She turned to him and clawed at his bare ass with eager hands. He lifted her at the hips, and she wrapped her beautiful legs around his as he drove himself into her hot, wet center.

  Now it was his turn to kneel. He dropped his knees onto the couch cushions and rammed her back against the wall and couch. He pumped against her even as she thrust to meet him, the intensity of their passion enough to rock the sofa back and forth.

  Nicky clutched her breasts through her sweater, tugging them tight in clawed hands. Gerry arched her back in such a way that should have been painful, but her expression showed only that of a woman caught in the throes of ecstasy. She reached both hands back to grab the couch so that she could brace herself to pound her body against his even harder.

  And then blessed relief. The explosion of his senses at the moment of climax completed him and then brought a huge sense of blessed relief as he became one with Gerry again.

  He poured himself into her while she screamed in excruciating pleasure. Every sinew in her body tensed as her inner muscles pulsed around him. He bent backwards with a rough moan so that only their pelvises were sealed together. The pulsing pleasure went on and on without there seeming to be any end. His body throbbed and released itself until he thought he had nothing left to give but then, in a last shudder, he gave her more.

  Gerry’s eyes flew open, and he saw tears pooling in them. She smiled just before she collapsed against him. He enveloped her in his arms and kissed the top of her head.

  “Everything I have is yours, Nicky. No secrets, no lies, no holding back. All of me is for you.”

  She lifted her head and looked at him again before grabbing his neck with her hand so that she could bring his lips down to hers. He brushed her hair away from her temple and pecked her on the nose. “We have to get going.”

  She nodded and allowed him to slide away from her. He handed her clothing to her and started for the door but stopped and looked back at her. “I’m going to be a father?”

  A spark of worry crossed her face, but she nodded. “Yes. We’re going to be parents.”

  Nicky grinned, feeling a little goofy as he stared off into nothing. “Parents. Wow.”

  “I guess that means you’re okay with this?” She took a few steps closer to him, wringing her hands in front of her.

  He moved to her and circled around behind, smacking her rear with his hand. “Yeah, babe. I’m okay with it. Now let’s get that bird out there fueled up and get going. You can help and talk at the same time.”

  She skittered away from him with a smile. She knew what talking he expected her to do, so instead of delaying, she jumped right back into her story as she followed him.

  “I ran away after that night instead of taking my vows and joining Dy.” Nicky pulled the airplane alongside a self-service fuel pump. After entering his credit card info, he climbed a ladder and Gerry handed the nozzle up to him. “I went by the first name Gerry instead of Geraneia and changed my last name to Hinton. I tried to change everything about who I’d been. I abandoned everything. Thank goodness I found the Company. If not for them, I sometimes think I’d have wandered until I went crazy.”

  Nicky grunted as he nodded. “Okay, yeah, and I knew you’d been with the Company and Kent’s team for a while before I came on. So that brings us to the now. What happened in Dallas?”

  Gerry sighed, not because she was hesitant to tell the story, but because her mind became foggy each time she tried to recall those events. “Dy was there, Nicky. I don’t know how or why, but she was in Dallas. And Tylie was there. You know, the child everyone keeps talking about. She gave me the box. I can only think she must have stolen it from Dy, and when Dy found out I had it, she attacked me.”

  Handing her the nozzle for the fuel pump, Nicky tossed her a frown before stepping down off the ladder. “How did she attack you? I still don’t get how she got into your mind,” he said while moving the ladder to the opposite side of the plane so he could fill the other tank.

  “We used to have that ability, to share things telepathically. I figured it was a combination of our powers and the fact that we were twins. I didn’t know she could still get to me. And maybe she only could because we were in close contact again. No matter how she did it, I felt her searching my thoughts, trying to track where I was going. I didn’t know why but I couldn’t let her get to me.” She swallowed hard, her stomach shuddering when she remembered the feeling of helplessness as her sister probed her memories.

  “You okay?”

  “Oh,” she nodded, forcing control. “Yeah, I’m okay. So anyway, when I knew I couldn’t hold her off, I gave you the box and I shut myself down. It was the only way I knew to protect myself. I didn’t think she could keep a hold on me if I was unconscious. I was obviously wrong.”

  “So what’s in the box?”

  She shrugged and told him the things Langston had shown her in the Grimoire. A few moments later, they both boarded the plane and Nicky began taxiing them back to the runway. He was quiet, considering her story even as he focused on getting the plane into the air. Glancing at her, his expression showed worry when he reached over to touch her knee. “This leg is shorter, babe. It won’t take as long.”

  “I’m okay, really. Let’s just get there and get this done.”

&nb
sp; He didn’t hesitate once he had her affirmation. Her husband took them onto the runway and got them up into the clear blue sky. Gerry ignored the lingering fear about the flight and focused on the details she had shared with Nicky and the ones she still hadn’t, searching for some missing puzzle piece. She caressed the rosary under her sweater, the cross warm between her breasts.

  “There’s something else, Nicky.”

  He turned his eyes to her in askance.

  “She was there when the others were taken.”

  “What others?”

  She stopped, brought her hand to her mouth and considered the idea flashing like a billboard in her mind. Finally she turned to him with eyes wide. “Kent, Devan, and Langston. She was inside one of those tubes or whatever they were. What the hell, Nicky? She’s the fucking traitor Devan talked about. She’s playing both sides.”

  The cemetery was eerie and silent when they arrived. A low-lying fog crept along the ground, making the air thick and moist. Gerry kept a close trail on Nicky as he slinked along beside the stone enclosure surrounding the graveyard. When he stopped, she halted just a single step behind him.

  “How do we get in?” she whispered.

  Nicky turned to her and crossed his hands together, holding them down close to his knees. “I’ll give you a boost.”

  “What about you?”

  “I used that branch last time.” He motioned with his head. “C’mon, now. You first.”

  She didn’t argue, just stepped onto his hands and allowed him to toss her up to the top of the wall. Once there, she leaped to the cemetery grounds and waited. Within just a few seconds Nicky hit the ground beside her and took her hand.

  He wove them in and out down rows of crypts and graves until he found the one with the stone angel on the weed-infested ground. Releasing her hand, he kicked at the front of the crypt until the bricks broke apart and fell on all sides.

  “It’s in there?” Gerry queried, crouching low and looking inside the darkness. “You’re a genius, Nicky. Who would think to look in there?”