The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (98 page)

Enter Declan Manning--Primani. One of the nice ones--The one with all the charm and dimples.

Oh, yeah, she caved.

Immediately.

Yes, why certainly she could upgrade his reservation. Did he want the fully-loaded sedan or the sports car? The SUV? Yes, that was completely doable. Silly me, the roads are slippery, aren’t they? Smile, smile, smile. Of course it had an upgraded sound system! Extra costs? Oh, not at all. He was clearly a preferred customer.

I lowered my sunglasses and rolled my eyes at the ceiling. Wow. I really was invisible. I was standing with my fingers casually tucked through one of the belt loops on his jeans and she’d yet to acknowledge my existence. The waves of angelic attractiveness swirled around us like air freshener. I was nearly immune to its persuasiveness, but even so,
nearly
was the operative word. I inhaled the green woodsy fragrance and felt my heart pitter-patter just a little. It was irresistible. Other humans never knew what hit them. He leaned forward slightly and she leaned towards him, breathless and wide-eyed.

Oh, come on, woman! He’s not going to kiss you.

He signed the credit card slip with a flourish and kissed her hand sweetly.

“Thank you, love. You’ve been very helpful. Have a good day now.”

She nearly fell over trying to watch him walk away. Beside me, he hummed a line from “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and draped his arm over me.

“You’re incorrigible. You know that, right?” I felt compelled to point it out.

Grinning mischievously down at me, he just squeezed my waist and unlocked the door to our new ride. “You know you love me.”

Leaning up to breathe him in again, I kissed his cheek and slid into the Tahoe. “My love for you is not the issue here. Declan Manning, you know you smell amazing when you throw off those pheromones of yours.” I breathed him in again and squeezed his fingers to make my point. “It’s not fair to do that just to get your way.”

He gave me a sniff and shrugged. “What do you think that power is for? It’s totally so I can get my own way. Why else would we have it? And you still smell like Killian. What are you two doing?”

Was he serious? I gave myself a sniff but didn’t smell anything unusual. I smelled like…nothing. Even my perfume was long gone. What was he talking about?

“I think your nose is jacked. I don’t smell like anything.”

The late morning traffic was heavy and he spent the next five minutes watching for idiots before we made it to the freeway. After a bit, he draped one wrist over the wheel and put himself on autopilot.

“What’s the deal with you two now? Are things getting serious?” he asked. His tone was more curious than concerned.

“I think
serious
is an understatement, Dec.”

I closed my eyes and brought Killian’s face into my mind. The image was so vivid, so real, I could practically reach out and touch the rough black stubble on his jawline. His eyes looked into mine with such commitment and love…his fingers held my wrist aloft over the stone altar…binding our blood, infusing me with his strength, his powers, his essence.

Saving me, protecting me. 

I remembered our hands joined with the lightning cracking between us, through us…working as one, destroying the zombies, preserving life for a little while longer. Were we serious? I couldn’t imagine anything more so.

“What does that mean,
Mica
?” His voice was more than curious now. He dragged out the words like he knew something I didn’t and wanted me to figure it out.

“You never call me ‘Mica.’ What gives?”

His eyes cut sideways to me and he adjusted the defroster and the windshield wipers.

“Darlin’, you know I only have your best interests at heart, right?”

I nodded with an annoyed sigh. It was really a little too late to have the Killian’s-not-right-for-you talk. That ship sailed a long time ago.

“Dec, I swear I’m going to hurt you!” I halfheartedly squeezed his knee, making him twitch and grimace. “Listen, you nosy back-from-the-dead angel, I know you’ve missed a lot, but he’s amazing. I can’t imagine my life without him.”

Even as I said the words the vision washed over me like a gentle rain.

Soft and warm…cleansing me, lulling me...

Watching from above, I saw myself standing next to Killian, a much younger Killian, his strong hand splayed over my rounded belly. His eyes glowed with pride as he smiled into mine. I laughed into his face and he kissed my mouth. It was a poignant moment, almost too intimate to watch. Even though I was as substantial as a shadow, his head snapped up, eyes pinning me in place. He didn’t say a word but I felt his despair like a knife to my heart. With both eyes resting on my shadow, he placed a tender kiss on the baby stretching languidly inside of me.

The room wavered and I clutched at the ceiling. No! Not yet.

Reaching a hand towards me, he said, “Stay with me!”

My eyes met his and I felt the tug on my heart. Nearly impossible to resist, the urge to stay beside him, to touch him, drew me closer. He stretched his hand outward and I leaned in.

His voice compelled me to reach out to him when he whispered again, “Stay.”

In a second, I was nearer still and our fingers were almost touching. He encouraged me with a smile, his eyes steady on my own. They reflected nothing but love. My vision shrank until there was nothing but him.

“Hey!” The shout and Dec’s rough grip on my bicep brought me careening back into my body as the truck slid into a guardrail.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dec was horrified and looking at me like I’d just grown another head.

Blinking awake, I said, “What’s wrong?”

“You tell me! What were you doing?”

Good question. My brain felt like tissue paper…

“I…had a vision.” It pulled on me still. When I closed my eyes, I saw Killian’s hand reaching for me, heard his voice asking me to stay. No, pleading with me to stay.

“Damn it! Stop that!” Dec was officially freaked out and yelling.

I blinked at him and forced my eyes to clear but not fast enough for him. He shook me hard and scowled into my face.

“I’m not letting go of you! Do not, repeat, do not fade again.” His eyes blazed on low as he peered into mine. Apparently deciding that freezing rain would wake me up, he pulled me out of the SUV to the shoulder of the road.

“Dec, you’re scaring me here. What--”

My words were cut off by Killian’s appearance next to us. As soon as he was solid, he took my hands from Dec. He seemed worried but not especially hysterical so I relaxed. He didn’t let go of my hands though.

Dec filled him in with the same tone he’d use to describe a 100-car pileup on the freeway. All drama and awe at the massive amount of twisted metal and dead bodies.

“I’m fine. You’re way overreacting. Nothing’s wrong with me.” I held up a hand and wiggled it. “Look, I’m solid.”

Killian studied the ground. Without any other explanation, he caught Dec’s shoulder and hissed, “Get this done and get back.”

Turning to me, he pulled me tightly against him and took my chin in his fingers. Our faces were so close I felt the warmth of his breath against my skin. He caressed my cheek with his lips. His words were so soft they were barely a whisper inside my head.

I need you, Princess. I need you here.

Then he was gone. Poof. Leaving me stunned on the side of the highway with traffic zooming past. Without warning, lightning crashed in the forest behind us and rain came down in sheets.

The road trip from hell was over. Dec knew exactly where the cabin was and had painstakingly navigated the snowy roads to get us this close. Like all Primani, he had a photographic memory. Before we left, he’d studied the map and memorized the two best routes to get here. Plan A and Plan B. That was another one of Killian’s op rules. Never leave without a backup plan. Bad stuff happened all the time and we weren’t allowed to go into any op without a Plan B. Unfortunately, all plans required us to four-wheel it into the mountains.

This was not a good time.

The road was so deeply rutted the truck lurched violently from side to side. Tree branches scraped like fingernails along the side of my window. I winced as my elbow banged into the door handle. My seatbelt went on high alert and practically sawed me in half when I went airborne. Up ahead the road dipped, showing a small lake pooling on top of it. The rain was still coming down and mixed with the heavy snow it blanketed the woods. Everything was a brown, nasty mess.

Dec took his time meandering close enough for easy access and finally parked about a half mile south of her place.

“This rain sucks. What is it doing raining in the middle of December? This is New York not England. This is crap.” I was going to bitch until I felt better.

It hadn’t been a great trip so far. The lingering weight of Killian’s sadness sat like an elephant on my chest and I had no idea what was up. As soon as we got back into the truck, Dec immediately cranked up the stereo and kept the volume high enough to prevent me from dozing off or relaxing at all. As a result, my neck was tense and I had a dull headache. I’d asked him to turn it down and he looked at me and just shook his head.

“Not gonna happen.”

So now it was time to work some magic and I forced myself to shove thoughts of Killian into a box for later retrieval.

Dec drummed his fingers on the steering wheel while I plugged into my remote viewing skills to search for signs of human life. As my vision traveled farther away from us, I relaxed into the seat. Searching, searching…there were deer and chipmunks…a feral cat…but nothing human.

“It’s clear,” I said.

“Great. Be right back.”

While he was gone, I studied the forest around us. The woods were heavy with underbrush here. I imagined they were nearly impenetrable when strangled by summer growth. The tangled dead branches and clumps of brown leaves fed my imagination so I could clearly see it. Yep, in the summer, this place would be one huge brush pile. Probably be covered in poison ivy too. I was soooo glad we didn’t have to hike through it today. Even though it was afternoon, the light was dim and slightly creepy. I checked my watch. Dec had been gone for 15 minutes. Any minute, he’d be back.

On cue, he rematerialized a second later, his face flushed with excitement and dripping with rain.

“Holy shit, it’s wet out there!” He rubbed his face with my dry hoodie and grinned at my annoyance. “Get over it, love.”

“Soooo…?”

“All done. I set up the cameras in each room inside and another one on the outside of the front door. It’s facing the parking spot out front. We’ll be able to see when she pulls up and whatever she’s doing inside.”

I tapped an app on my cell phone and waited for the images to clear. By clicking on each of the camera icons, I could see real-time video feeds. The small cabin was furnished with minimal fuss. From the living room camera, I could see a simple couch and coffee table. A single mug sat tilted on a jumbled pile of magazines. A notebook sat next to the remote control for a small television. I pressed the icon for the bedroom camera. Again, minimal furniture and personal things.

Two overstuffed suitcases stood by the bedroom door and a smaller one lay open on a dresser.

“She’s not planning to stay,” I commented.

“Yeah, I noticed that. It’s been months though. What is she waiting for?”

“You tell me. You’ve got the superpowers.”

He lifted an eyebrow and frowned sourly. “If only it were that easy.”

He turned to me and started to say something but then stopped. His expression was completely unreadable. It wasn’t like him to be this serious or this quiet. He’d been different since he came back to us. He’d changed.

Trying to lighten the mood, I held my palm up and he placed his against mine and we both watched as they began to glow at the fingers. The trail of light snaked up our arms and I guided it towards our hearts and smiled as Dec’s grin spread. We’d played this game a million times on stakeouts where no one could see us. Sharing our
saols
, our warmth; just playing games with each other like little kids. Dec said it was good training for me to learn how to direct the energy. I had to decide where to focus it and push it where I wanted it to go. It
had
been good training for me, true, but I secretly believed he just liked the way it felt. It was the best kind of buzz you could get without doing jail time. Now, I grinned as he took over and guided the energy away from my heart and into my face. The sudden rush of warmth in my cheeks made me burst out laughing and the spell was broken.

“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. You look happy, darlin’.”

“That’s because I am. I’ll be delirious when we’ve got Sean back.”

“Do you ever miss your old life? You should’ve gone to college and gotten a job someplace.”

Did I miss that? Nope, not so much.

Tracing the tan line on his wrist, I swore, “I don’t ever want a life without you guys in it. I can’t even imagine the emptiness. How about you? Do you ever miss your old life? Circa 420 A.D.?”