Terran Realm Vol 1-6

by Dee, Bonnie

“Think we’ll manage. But you might want to leave us the gun in case.” It irritated the hell out of Ian that Foster directed most of his words to Mira as if Ian was beneath his notice.

  “I’m more likely to need the gun, but I have a taser you can use.” Foster fished the device from a rear pocket and handed it to Mira. “Keep the box safe at all costs.”

  “Uh, about that,” she said. “I’ve hidden it. In the woods. For now, with these men on our trail, I thought it would be safer.”

  “You what?” Foster’s face was so stunned it was all Ian could do to hold back a laugh.

  “We can come back later with more Protectors to guard the box and escort it to KOTE, but right now, I believe the safest place is where I’ve put it. We’ll keep leading Brody’s men farther away from it.”

  Foster’s mouth was a thin, straight line. “When were you going to tell me? Who authorized you to make this decision?” Barely contained fury boiled beneath his calm voice.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but my instincts…” Mira trailed off under the strength of Foster’s glare. “I just know it’s the right thing to do.”

  Ian pulled the lighter from his pocket and lit his cigarette, taking a deep satisfying drag as he watched Foster and Mira face off.

  Foster nodded, his jaw bunched so tight he looked like he had the mumps. “All right. You’re the Keeper. I’ll have to trust your judgment. Can I ask where you’ve put it?”

  “In the woods near where we crashed. It’ll be fine until we come back for it.”

  Foster faced Ian. “And you know where it’s hidden?”

  Ian took the cigarette from his mouth and blew out a cloud of smoke. He couldn’t suppress a grin. “I put it there.”

  “This doesn’t seem dangerous to you?” The Protector turned back toward Mira. “A criminal knowing the location of something so vital? This is a man with no conscience, who’ll do anything for money or self-protection. He can’t be trusted!”

  “He’s right, you know.” Ian shook his head. “You’re taking a big risk.” He said it as a joke, his tone mocking, but inside he knew he was telling the truth. Half the time, he didn’t know himself how far he’d go or how low he’d stoop in his own interests.

  Mira looked Ian square in the eye with a little half-smile playing around the edges of her lips. “I trust him.”

  His heart clenched and seemed to stop beating for a moment. Her eyes looked right into his, searing deep into his brain, and he wondered if she knew the box was pressed tight against his back right now. Her utter conviction that she could trust him made him feel… Hell, he didn’t even know what it made him feel. He’d never felt this way before.

  For a moment Justin Foster looked like a cartoon character about to spout steam from his ears. His face was red and his jaw clenched and released rhythmically. “Very well, Ms. Kashi. If that’s your call, I guess we’re stuck with it now.” He glared at Ian with fierce blue eyes. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone. Keep a lookout. If Brody’s men show up, find a hiding place and stay there.”

  Ian glanced around the shack. Oh yeah, there were a lot of hiding places here.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I’ll find a house, call for backup and see if I can borrow a car.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure Farmer John will be happy to lend you his pickup if you promise to bring it right back,” Ian scoffed.

  Foster gave him a killing glare then turned and left the shack.

  “Do you have to bait him?” Mira asked. “He’s doing his best to help us.”

  Ian sucked in a lungful of smoke and let it go slowly. Without Foster there to bug, smoking didn’t bring him near the same pleasure, and Mira’s disapproving glance went a long way toward sucking the rest of the enjoyment out of it. He sighed and tossed the butt on the floor, grinding it out with his foot. “So, you’re eighty-eight? Looks sexy on you.”

  Mira smiled. “Thanks.”

  Ian rose and crossed the room to look out the window. Foster had already disappeared from sight and no one was sneaking up on them—yet. “Hey, don’t you have some kind of inner radar that can detect intruders? I don’t feel very comfortable sitting here not being able to see what’s coming. Especially when all we got is the damn taser.”

  “Not really,” she said. “You’re the one that sensed Brody’s men last night before they attacked. Why don’t you see if you can run up an antenna?”

  Ian turned away from the window and walked back toward Mira. “Naw. That only works sometimes. I get, I don’t know, flashes, I guess.”

  “I could work with you. I bet you could learn to enhance your natural abilities and use them at will.”

  Ian dropped down on the couch beside her. “I don’t believe in that stuff.”

  Mira laughed and slapped his leg. “How can you say you don’t believe in the abilities you possess?” She didn’t remove her hand after she’d smacked him.

  His dick stiffened in response to the warm weight of her hand resting on his thigh. His face felt hot. He hoped to hell he wasn’t blushing. “Well, maybe I believe, a little. What would I have to do?”

  “Give me your hands like last night.” She held out her small, brown hands. The bead ring shone brightly in a shaft of light coming through the window.

  Ian was happy to take them. The day had been so full of drama he’d actually almost forgotten the amazing thing she’d done to his head the previous evening. He turned toward her and took her soft, warm hands in his. His stomach went weak and his cock harder than ever. Lust and longing surged through him. Mira’s hands weren’t nearly enough. He wanted to touch every bit of her skin, hold her body close, kiss her mouth and possess her very spirit. He’d never had such a strong reaction to a woman in his life. He thought he might be going a little insane and prayed she couldn’t read his chaotic feelings.

  If she did, Mira politely hid any reaction. “All right. Now this time I’m not going to reach into your mind. You’re going to try to find mine. I want you to breathe slowly in and out. Calm your breathing, open your inner eye and see what you can see.”

  Ian tried to relax and obey, but her touch was driving him crazy. After several quiet minutes of handholding, all he could see in his mind’s eye was Mira naked and writhing on a bed. The bed had red satin sheets and her brown body looked like a chocolate displayed for him to taste. Her mouth was open. She gasped and panted through magenta lips. Arousing little murmurs and moans rose from her throat. Her eyes were closed, thick, curling, black lashes lay in a fringe across each high-boned cheek. The diamond stud in her nostril winked and glittered.

  His hand was between her thighs, stimulating her clit, causing her to twist and moan. Ian felt the steamy heat and moisture of her plump pussy beneath his hand, the hard nub of her clit under his circling finger.

  In his vision, his gaze traveled from her face, down her arched neck to her heaving chest, to her breasts. They were round and full, their distended nipples thrust up toward him like a pair of dark berries. He had to have one in his mouth … right now. He leaned forward and sucked a burgundy bud into his mouth, rolled his tongue over its hardness while his hand clutched her soft breast.

  Her hand threaded through his hair as she held him to her. “Ahh, Ian.” Her voice was a throaty murmur.

  “Christ!” Ian’s eyes flew open. He pulled his hands from Mira’s grip. The vivid daydream or hallucination, whatever it was, had left him with a hard-on pressing painfully against the zipper of his jeans. He was afraid Mira had caught the intensity of his desire, seen his erotic fantasy, but when her dark eyes opened to focus on him, there was no sign of it.

  “What is it? What did you see?”

  “Nothing! I didn’t see … I wasn’t doing anything.” He stood up and backed a step away from the couch.

  “Did it seem more real than a dream?” Her dark brows were drawn together. “You might have pre-cognition, a vision of something yet to be.”

  “Yeah. Whatever. Maybe. Uh, I’ve got to take a leak.”
Ian tripped on a warped floorboard as he rapidly crossed the room to the door.

  Outside, he scanned the forest around the cabin. It was still quiet except for birds. He leaned his back against the building, breathing heavily. For a moment he considered taking his cock out and finishing off what the damn vision had started. Mira was right. It had been much more real than a dream. He’d felt everything like it was happening in reality. What the hell did it mean? Was he actually going to throw down with Mira sometime in the future? God, he hoped so, although he couldn’t imagine a circumstance that would bring it about.

  He blew out a breath and fumbled in his pocket for the last of the cigarettes to take the edge off his nerves. He drew the pack out, looked at it then put it back in the coat pocket. Maybe later. Right now he wanted to get back inside and spend what time he could with Mira before Captain America came back. If he was lucky, maybe he’d manage to steal a kiss or two. It couldn’t hurt to try.

  On the other hand, if he had an ounce of brains left that weren’t connected to his cock, he should go find the men pursuing them and give them the damn box. It would keep Mira safe. Hell, it would keep himself safe. He might even come out financially ahead of the game, if he could figure out a way to make Brody pay for the box.

  Ian’s mind seethed with conflicting desires. All he wanted was to look after himself like he’d always done, but now Mira was in the way—blocking his natural instinct for self-preservation and making him want to do stupid, unselfish things. For the first time in years, he found himself considering the right course of action. It made his head hurt and the conclusion he drew went against all that was sensible.

  He had to stick with Mira and get the box back to KOTE. He couldn’t give it to the bad guys even if it would be the easy thing to do. The fate of the world might very well rest in Ian’s incompetent hands at this moment.

  He glanced down at his hand still cupping his erection through the denim of his jeans and laughed at the irony.

  Chapter Seven

  Mira sat on the couch, a little dazed by Ian’s abrupt exit. She wondered what he had seen to scare him so badly. Was it a horrible future world brought about by Brody’s box? What could the damn thing possibly contain?

  She almost wished she hadn’t left it in the woods, maybe Justin was right and it was a really stupid idea. It was too late to go back for it now, though.

  She rubbed the back of her sore neck. At least the pain in her head had subsided. If she could relax, take a step back and let the chi flow instead of blocking it by worrying about things beyond her control, her neck would heal quickly too. Mira took a few cleansing breaths and turned her mind inward, guiding her energy flow up her spine. Almost immediately, the strain in her damaged neck began to ease. She chanted silently and breathed slowly until the pain had completely dissipated and she felt calmer than she had all day.

  Sort of calm.

  Calm but itchy. Not in an “I’m afraid bad guys are going to find and kill me” kind of way, more of an “Ian is getting under my skin” way.

  She was aware of him outdoors, probably smoking another cigarette. Her hands still felt the imprint of his warm grip. Mira was ashamed to admit that her desire to help him learn to use his psychic abilities was also a pretext to touch him. She wanted to touch more than just his hands.

  She imagined how his wiry body with its taut, sinewy muscles would feel beneath her palms. Energy practically sizzled off Ian in waves when he walked into a room. To have that energy at her command, wrapped around her body, invading her… Mira shivered at the thought. Her nipples peaked with arousal and her sex clenched and released. The peaceful state she’d achieved with her meditation was shot to hell.

  She gave up and allowed her mind to drift into a sexy daydream in which Ian had her bound hand and foot to a bed, his gleaming eyes in his sharp-featured face gazing down at her with desire. He crawled onto the bed between her spread legs, never taking his gaze from her face, and lowered his mouth to her crotch. Mira breathed in sharply when imaginary Ian touched the tip of his tongue to her clit.

  The door of the shack opened and closed with a bang, startling her from her daydream. She jerked her hand away from her crotch.

  Ian came back to the couch but sat a cushion distance away from her. “Sorry about that. Nature called.”

  “Did you have a vision? What did you see? Was it bad?”

  “No. Personal.” Ian shifted and looked away from her. There was a light sheen of sweat on his forehead and Mira wondered why he didn’t take off his coat. It was a little too warm in the cabin to need it.

  “Tell me more about you.” He changed the subject. “You said Terrans live all around us. How big of a segment of the population are you?”

  “There aren’t many of us compared to the number of humans. Our history is vague, to say the least. We used to know more about ourselves as a race, but lost the knowledge over the centuries. We live in fragmented groups here and there across the world. Sometimes it feels like my family alone accounts for about fifty percent of Terrans.” She laughed.

  “Big family?”

  “Yes. Even though my family has lived in the U.S. since I was small, when we go to India to visit we’re welcomed by a so many relatives, aunts, uncles and cousins, I can’t keep them all straight.”

  “All with superpowers?”

  “To different extents. Being a spiritual clan, some have chosen an ascetic life and never married so they can concentrate their energies purely on raising world consciousness through the power of their meditation. Those who are married have mostly joined with Keepers from water and earth clans. Some have married Protectors. Everyone has different abilities and different levels of development.”

  “But no humans in the mix.” He gave a one-sided smile and picked at a tuft of stuffing oozing from a hole in the couch.

  Mira knew the reason for his interest. Their attraction was clearly mutual. She couldn’t deny it, but should she encourage it? Justin was right. There were a lot of good reasons why humans and Terrans shouldn’t connect. “Very few.” Mira drew her legs up on the couch and turned to face Ian. “A couple of family members have chosen to bury their abilities and live as close to human lives as possible. That happens with some Terrans. The burden of being different is too great.”

  “Then not all of you are connected with this KOTE organization.”

  “No. Most have regular jobs in addition to whatever special tasks they perform for the greater good of the world. We aren’t controlled by KOTE. As a matter of fact, the organization as it is today is a fairly recent development. For many years, Terrans had lost touch with their true purpose in the world and had become self-centered and rootless. In the 80s a Protector named Donovan Callahan almost single-handedly resurrected KOTE, rousing our people from ennui and giving them a new sense of purpose.” She frowned. “Some would like to see Terrans become more organized. Personally, I have a problem with one central body governing everybody, especially when the clans are all so different.”

  She laughed and shrugged. “Actually, I guess I don’t do well with authority in general. At least that’s what my parents tell me.”

  “Oh yeah, you seem like a real rebel,” Ian teased. “The black sheep.”

  “I am the black sheep—at least at the moment. Right now my parents are annoyed with me because I’m not falling in line with their plans.”

  “And what are those?”

  She shook her head. “They’re so old-fashioned sometimes. They’re trying to push a marriage for me with some guy I’ve never met in India, a Protector from a respected earth clan.”

  “An arranged marriage—sounds medieval.”

  “It still happens a lot in India. It’s a cultural thing. But I’ve told my parents I’m having none of it. I’ll know who my life partner is when I meet him.” Mira was embarrassed by the turn of the conversation. She wondered if her attraction to Ian was apparent—and if it meant more than she was admitting to herself. She tossed up her hands.
“Family. What are you gonna do? How about yours?”

  “Me?” Ian’s leg jiggled. He rubbed his palm with the thumb of his other hand. “Uh, no. No family.”

  “None at all?” Mira couldn’t help prying. She had caught glimmers of Ian’s past while poking through his mind, but wanted hear it from him. She wanted to understand what made him tick, and maybe it would do him some good to talk about himself.

  He hesitated a moment, scrubbed at his palm a little harder, then said, “Well, there was my mom, but I think she’s probably dead by now.”

  “Can you tell me about her?” she asked gently.

  “She was an addict. My dad was whoever bought her a fix the day I was conceived. Sometimes she’d get clean for a while, but she always went back to it. Social Services put me in foster care when I was nine. I left the last home when I was fifteen. Been on my own ever since. That’s it.” He blurted his profile in a rush. “Fucking cliché, right?”

  “Not for you. Every story is different for the person living it.”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, well. Doesn’t excuse everything I’ve done since.”

  “No. It doesn’t.” Mira scooted closer, resting her hand on his arm. Impulsively she leaned in and pressed a kiss on his cheek. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that.”

  He looked at her sharply. “I don’t need your pity.”

  “Good, ‘cause I don’t pity you. I’m expressing sympathy. Totally different thing.”

  Ian’s lips lifted at the corners. “So that was a sympathy kiss? I’m not sure I’m getting the complete picture here. Why don’t you show me the difference?”

  Mira grinned. “All right. Here’s a pity kiss.” She leaned forward, took his head in both hands and kissed him lightly on the lips.

  “Gotta say, so far I’m liking pity better.”

  “Wait for it.” Mira angled her head and gave Ian a long, steady look. “This is sympathy.” She pressed her lips more firmly against his, letting the kiss linger for several warm moments before pulling away. She looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Better?”