Whisper Cape (18 page)

“Whoa, shit! Damn, that’s cold,” Cael said.

“Getting back to this journal and why my father was killed ...”

“Right. I think Eidolon believes he can harness the combined strength of our powers, to control the consciousness of humanity. What he doesn’t realize is any rapid alteration of human consciousness is hard to achieve and humankind wouldn’t surrender to it easily. He’s not the first, and unfortunately, he won’t be the last to attempt to destroy us. For centuries, we’ve fought hard to keep our secrets from the world. If people today knew of our abilities, they wouldn’t see us as romantic superheroes from comic books, movies and television shows. We would be more feared than understood. It’s human nature for people to fear what they don’t understand and to fight against what they perceive as evil. They would consider us dangerous, forcing many of us to endure scientific laboratories, ridicule, and even death. Even though someday humankind will find our powers valuable and recognize their greater purpose, for now they must remain a secret.”

“What about the book and why does he think I have it?”

“The journal contains not only our secrets but also our salvation. They were in your father’s possession when he was murdered. Well, I don’t mean in his hands at the time, but he had custody of them. I’ve never actually seen the book or the crystal—only those old photographs you saw—we need to find both before Eidolon does. He will stop at nothing to get them. Monsters such as Eidolon make it difficult for normal people to accept us.”

“I don’t get it. If you know who this psycho is, why don’t you just go after him?”

“Because I don’t know what he looks like. His abilities are preventing me from knowing who or what he is. He may be a shape-shifter or have some other ability. I just haven’t figured it out yet. Even if Eidolon stood right here, in his true form, I wouldn’t know him. No one has seen the guy in thirty years. We can speculate about what he might look like with aging composites, but with all the technology available today, he could have had procedures done to alter his appearance. We just don’t know.”

“This is all very frightening. How will we ever catch him?”

“I’m working on it, and we
will
catch him.” He was pleased that Addison seemed to be accepting everything he told her and even included herself in the quest to catch Eidolon. Cael only hoped he sounded more convincing to her than he felt, because deep down he was very afraid for her.

Chapter 18

The sky became a palette of purple and orange hues, all swirled together through the haze as the sun set over the horizon. As they headed back toward the house, they stopped to admire the miraculous view.

“It’s so magnificent. It’s hard to imagine there could be something so evil in the world.”

Addison turned to face Cael.

“You’re freezing. We should get back inside.” His voice was husky and he cleared his throat as he rubbed his hands up and down her arms.

She reached her hands up to his face and gently pulled him to her, his lips covering hers as she pressed her body against his. Her mouth was warm and accepting. He held her close, the irresistible rise of passion stirring inside and he knew she could feel his excitement. His hand slipped inside her jacket and cupped her breast.

Forgetting everything except her, he wanted her with a fierceness he had never experienced before. She moaned softly as she tangled her fingers in his hair while his tongue glided down her neck. She shivered as he kissed her softly.

“God, you smell delicious,” he said, pulling her jacket aside as his lips and tongue skimmed down her collarbone. “Addison, I want you so much.” He brought his face back up, covering her mouth with his. As he tasted her, he sensed her soul, the intensity so arousing he was losing control. Forcing himself to stop, he lingered at the spot under her earlobe.

“Not here.” His voice was husky, his breath ragged. “Let’s go back to the house before we have an X-rated scene on the beach.”

They’d barely made it in the house before he was pulling her to him again, covering her with more hot kisses. As they struggled to get their jackets off, Addison’s hand slipped and hit his gun. “Here, wait.” He unbuckled the holster and let it fall to the floor. They tugged at each other’s clothes with an uncontrollable frenzy. She unbuttoned his shirt, and he shrugged it off and onto the floor. His mouth came down on hers hard and she wrapped her arms around his waist, her fingers pressing into his back. He tugged her top up and she lifted her arms as he pulled her blouse over her head without even unbuttoning it.

He kissed her neck, brushing fluttering little kisses down to her shoulder. “God, Addison, you’re doing some major damage to my self-control. Since I first laid eyes on you, I’ve dreamed of this. You’re so sexy. I can’t keep my hands off you.”

He cupped her breast in his hand and covered her mouth again with his. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she moaned, and he scooped her up, cradling her in his arms as he carried her upstairs.

He laid her on the bed and stretched out on top of her, kissing her lips then her neck, grazing her throat with his teeth, his tongue tasting the salt from the ocean breeze still lingering on her skin.

“You’re making me crazy. I can’t breathe, Cael.” Her breath warm on his neck, she ran her nails down his back, trembling beneath him.

He started to move away, fearful of crushing her. “Am I hurting you?”

“No, don’t move, stay. I want to feel your body on mine.” She pulled him tight, her heart pounding against his, as need had his breath catching in his lungs.

Sliding his tongue down her neck to her breast, he teased her nipple with his teeth before taking it in his mouth. His tongue flicked at it repeatedly while his fingers teased the other.

Moving his hand down across her stomach to her pants, he pulled down the zipper and tugged them off. “God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered and felt his eyes widen at the glorious site of her naked body. Her perfect breasts and those long slender legs overwhelmed him. Catching his breath, he returned to her breast, tasting first one, then the other. His hands roamed over her body, relishing every curve, his fingers teasing as her body quivered under him.

All his life he knew there had to be someone he could be himself with, and now he knew it was Addison. He delighted in the thought of not having any secrets from her. Addison had to be his. She was suddenly the most important thing in his life and he was determined to make her want him as much as he wanted her.

He reached down between her silky thighs, his long fingers taking pleasure in her wet satiny skin.

***

Cael was sending her into ecstasy; Addie jerked her hips up, accepting, needing, and pulled his face to hers, the spell of his kisses rendering her helpless. His hands were so sure and knowledgeable, so possessive. She loved the way they felt on her skin. He knew what he was doing, where he was taking her, and she let him. Her body tingled and roared from deep inside, pulsing, pounding with pleasure. She felt hot and sexy for the first time in her life.

“Do you know what you’re doing to me?” she whispered.

“Tell me baby, what am I doing to you?”

“You’re making me hot, so hot. I can’t breathe.”

“You’re breathing just fine,” he groaned, crushing her mouth with his as she arched her body up against him.

She felt his hard erection on her thigh and reached for it, feeling him shudder. She struggled with his belt and tugged at his pants. “Help me, I can’t get it undone.”

He reached for his belt, unbuckled it, then shimmied out of his pants and kicked them off the bed. “Touch me, Addison, now. I can’t wait to have your hands on me, around me.”

She took him in her hands and felt the heat. Caressing her fingers around him and slipping her thumb over the slick tip, she felt him tense and quiver.

“I want to be inside you now.” His voice was husky, his breath hot against her neck.

“Do you have something?”

“Hmmm … I do.” He reached into the drawer at the side of the bed, pulled out a packet, tore it open and slipped a condom on. He let her guide him in and she pulled him down, wrapping her legs around him as she raised her hips to meet his. Deeper and deeper she took him in. Never before had anyone made her feel so beautiful, so free of inhibitions, so filled with jubilation and lust. She thought she would explode. They moved in harmony, his eyes holding hers as pleasure ignited them. He pulled up and out slowly, teasing her with his tip until she begged for more. His strokes slow and deep, she shivered under him until his movements intensified and she erupted with wave after wave of orgasmic pleasure as he exploded with her.

They lay side by side, drained, their legs tangled, his arm across her as if he didn’t want to let her go. Her rapid heartbeat slowly returned to normal as she sighed and curled her body closer into him. They stayed that way, silent, for a while.

Addie finally broke the spell. “You don’t scare me anymore.”

“You were scared of me? Why? Was I too rough? Jesus, I would never want to hurt you.”

“No, not scared of this. I was scared of you before, the other day. I thought I’d killed you with my truck. You just disappeared and I didn’t see you, couldn’t find you. You were always frowning and glaring at me. And you know, the whole hit-and-run thing. I really did think you were going to have me arrested.”

Cael burst out laughing. “I’m so sorry, baby. I wasn’t frowning at you because I wanted to have you arrested.”

“Stop laughing.” She punched him lightly on the arm. “Then why?”

“I was frowning because I could sense you were the one in the truck and I didn’t want you to find out my secret. Then, I found myself infatuated with you, and couldn’t stay away, but the thought of getting together with you seemed impossible, considering why I’m here and what I need to do. Besides, I usually try to stay clear of relationships.”

“Why is that?” She propped herself up on her elbow and twirled her finger around his hair before she pushed it behind his ear.

“The few I’ve ever attempted have always gone badly for me. Women don’t care for men with secrets and I have many.”

“But now ...?”

“Well, you’re different ... like me. I don’t have to keep secrets from you.” Using his hand to support his head he faced her and played with the long silky brown curl of hair draping over her nipple. Then his hand went to the locket she always wore.

“This is unusual. Do you wear it all the time?”

“Yes, my dad gave it to me for my twenty-first birthday.”

“Hmmm. Addison, what happened to your mother? You said she died when you were a baby.”

“She died right after I was born, I never knew her.”

“Where did you grow up? I mean, if your father was gone all the time, and kept you hidden from the society all these years, who took care of you?”

“My aunt lived with us. My dad wasn’t gone
all
the time, especially when I was a baby. Maia, my aunt, was only eleven years old when I was born, so my dad couldn’t leave us both alone. I think we had a nanny or someone who came to watch us while he went to work, or I guess to the Sectory.” The thought of her father lying to her all those years made her cringe and she felt a stabbing in her heart.

“I think when Maia was about fourteen or so he started spending more and more time away. We lived in New York, moving to a different town every couple of years. After my dad died, Maia and I moved out here to start a new life. They grew up here and she thought it would be a good place for us to live. Then she met Gerry, they hit it off, and Gerry gave me a job. It’s strange, now that I think about it, the whole time I was growing up, Maia never dated anyone.”

“Didn’t you ever question why you moved so much?”

“Not really. I was always told we needed to move because of my dad’s work, and then when I was older they said we needed to keep moving because of a man—a past boyfriend of Maia’s—who had stalked her in college and she didn’t want him to find her. I guess maybe they lied about that considering she never dated anyone.”

“You guess?”

“I suppose I was too trusting. I just never thought about it, you know. It’s not as if I had any suspicions of strange things going on. We seemed normal. Why would I question anything?”

“Makes sense.”

Addie sat up abruptly, “Cael, I just had a horrible thought.”

“What?”

“You said my dad was like a father to you. You said he helped raise you.”

“Right.”

“Did my father and your mother have a relationship—I mean a romantic relationship?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Who is your real father? Oh God, Cael, what if ...”

“Not a chance, Addison, what a sickening thought. Don’t worry, you’re not my sister. What kind of man do you take me for, anyway? Your father and my mother knew each other, but to my knowledge, they were never intimate. Even if they had been, it would’ve been years after both of us were born. I knew your father because he was my teacher. He taught me to fight and he showed me how to strengthen my abilities.”

Cael reached for a bottle of water and handed it to her so she could have a drink before taking a sip himself.

“I knew my father. He left my mother when I was ten. He came around at holidays to visit, sent the yearly birthday presents, but he was a man full of his own pride, and could never accept my mother’s abilities. He tried to forbid her to use them, or even to associate with anyone from the Sectorium.”

“Sounds like you don’t think much of him.”

“I don’t, and that might be another reason I’ve always stayed clear of relationships. I saw the hurt he caused my mother and ... I guess I’ve been cautious. I never wanted to go through that.”

She reached for him, pulling his face to hers. Her lips grazed over his with a soft tenderness, stirring him to arousal again.

He rolled over on top of her.

“Wait a minute, let me grab another condom.”

“Well, I’m on the pill. Are you … I mean, okay?”

“You can trust me when I say I'm safe.”