Ravens (6 page)

He held her head in his lap and
immediately took notice of the unnatural color in her hair. He picked up a few
strands and rubbed them between his fingers—black and pink tresses. He brushed
the hair from the unconscious beauty’s face.

He inhaled her metallic scent. He went
into a frenzied reaction. Every sleeping electromagnetic ion in his body jolted
awake by the aroma of her newly formed molecules. The long-awaited scent filled
him like a drug.

“Kendra.”

She didn’t respond.

He could hardly believe she arrived. He
finally held the girl from the other dimension in his arms. He could actually
feel her, touch her, breathe her in, but he would have to enjoy this moment in
a safer place. The strange phenomenon would attract even more hunters.

He carried Kendra. His biceps bulged
from cradling her head against his chest. With agility and superhuman strength,
Liam moved silently through shadows, successful in avoiding humans and
circumventing the late nighters. He ducked inside a tall, broad building, and
slowed down. With waning strength, he took the elevator to the fifth floor, and
took Kendra to his apartment where he laid her on his bed.

Liam knelt beside her. He couldn’t pull
his gaze away from Kendra’s face. She was even more beautiful in person.

Exhaling, he stood and leaned over her,
pressing the back of his hand against her bruised cheek. She didn’t stir. He no
longer touched her in illusions. He licked his lips and tilted into her, waging
war against good judgment. He wanted to kiss her badly, but this wasn’t right,
not now, not like this.

Instead, Liam kissed her forehead and
whispered into her ear, “Kendra.”

Liam moved to the foot of the bed. The
escalated awareness of the attack faded and he returned to his natural, playful
demeanor. He took notice of Kendra’s attire and grinned. What was she supposed
to be anyway, a super hero? Certainly the hottest one he’d ever seen.

Kendra rested on his bed, completely
passed out. He slipped off her boots, taking hold of one calf at a time, being
generous with his time, and stroked her skin with a thumb. He reminded himself
this was not an illusion, but reality where Kendra existed in his perilous
world.

Before taking the covers, he glanced at
her tattoos, and smiled to himself. She took the idea from his ink, and
imprinted his memory on her.

Liam pulled the sheets to Kendra’s chest
and sat on the recliner in the corner. He watched her, observed her as reality
seeped in. The first half of his plan was completed, and he could only hope the
latter half would follow just as smoothly.

Chapter Six

Kendra moaned in the aftermath of the
bizarre transportation.

She had a splitting headache. Her body
quivered and ached as if she finished many days of insane weight training.
Drawing her petite fingers to her forehead, she rubbed hard to push away the
pain. It didn’t work.

What an abnormal night.

Kendra’s lids felt heavy when she opened
them to a blurry gray and blue room. She lurched up in bed and panicked. Within
a few minutes, clarity stepped in. Colors and objects came into view. She fell
back against the pillow and sighed. Thank goodness, she hadn’t gone blind. On
the other hand, she didn’t recognize her surroundings.

In the quiet day, light entered the room
through breaks in the blinds. Black curtains, pulled above the window, revealed
a blazing red sun with solar flares so close it was impossible to fathom they
hadn’t scorched Earth. A giant red sun wasn’t normal.

She sat in a simple bed in the corner
with white linen and two pillows. The sparsely decorated room had a white
five-drawer dresser and mirror across the way near the foot of the bed, a white
bedside table to her left, and a white recliner near the door.

She pushed aside the sheets and swung
her legs over the side of the bed near her boots. She slipped into the tall,
black heels and zipped them as quietly as possible. She stood, a bit wobbly at
first, but found her balance.

She crept across the room, careful when
opening the door. She peered out into the living room, which appeared to be
nothing out of the ordinary. There was a dining table near the front door,
cornered between the modest kitchen and the living room. There was another door
to her right, down a short hallway. She peered into the adjacent room. The
currently unoccupied bedroom had splashes of vibrant orange, pink, and green,
obviously a teenage girl’s room.

Kendra crept toward the front door,
making note of the sound of a shower.

The water turned off just then, ending
with a slight squeak of an older faucet. Kendra froze. She didn’t have time to
panic. She had to get her tail out of here. Admittedly, fear crawled into her
reflexes. She sucked in a breath, attempting to regulate her heartbeat so her
actions moved with less jarring mistakes.

Her host only needed one stalled moment
to appear.

Someone opened the bathroom door. Kendra
jumped around and froze. Her only movement being heavy breathing and the
flutter of her lashes set against wide eyes. She stared at the young man who
nonchalantly stood before her, and who looked like the Liam from her dreams.
Water beads dripped from his wet hair onto his neck and torso. They streamed down
to the white towel that clung loosely over low hips.

His auburn hair, a wet mess, stuck to
his forehead and flickered over his brows, which arched in curiosity of his
visitor. He looked down at her through thick lashes. Black sclera set the
background for white irises and pupils, the coloring backward. The young man
from her dreams, the voice from her nightmares, stood before her.

A smirk curved his lips. Muscles
protruded against a strong, masculine jaw.

He leaned against the wall and crossed
his arms. Thick muscles corded his neck. He had broad shoulders, the left side
decorated by the inked spiral pattern. Biceps bulged over dragon-etched
pectorals, and his strong forearms crossed above defined and rigid abs.

Normal teenage boys weren’t this ripped.

Kendra met his stare again and snapped
her mouth shut. She felt her cheeks flush with heat, and she kicked herself for
being so readable and weak.

Her host grinned. “I thought I smelled
you.” A Texan accent emerged from his broad chest.

His low voice sent a mild tremor through
her gut.
Die butterflies
, she warned herself.

“Who are you? Where am I?” she demanded.

“After asking
that
so many times,
darling, don’t you know who I am by now?”

She shook her head and barked, “No, you
are
not
Liam. Liam is dead.”

“I’m not dead, sweetheart. Didn’t you
understand my illusions?”

“They were just dreams.”

“No. I tried to talk to you through
illusions. But this
is
real, I’m really here, well, you’re really here.”

“How dare you bring me here against my
will?”

She turned to leave, hastily making her
way to the front door before he could assault her. She expected to feel his
warm, wide hands grab her and pull her back into living room, but he didn’t. He
stood in place and watched her attempt with an amused expression.

Kendra took hold of the doorknob and
pulled. Before the crack between the door and the frame could widen to more
than a few inches, the young man claiming to be Liam extended his right arm
with the palm facing the door. The energy from his white eyes seeped to his
fingertips. A restrained power jolted across the room and collided into the
door just above Kendra’s head to slam it shut.

Kendra jumped back. She pulled on the
doorknob with all of her might, but it wouldn’t budge. She faced Liam, who
settled his hand back to his side. The smile fled his face, leaving only a
dangerous exterior.

“It’s not a good idea to go out into my
world without knowing what it is first.”

“Then tell me and let me leave,” she
replied curtly.

“You grew up to be quite feisty, didn’t
you?” The mischievous smirk returned.

“You abducted me. I don’t need to play
nice.”

“I didn’t abduct you, darling, I saved
you. You passed through the portal, and I brought you home.”

Kendra recalled her last minutes before
and during the earth shaking illumination when her body glued itself to the
floor and the portal sucked her in. This was illogical. Portals didn’t exist.
Wormholes and other dimensions were mere conjecture at best.

Taking note of the question that must
have lingered on her face, Liam retreated to his bedroom. “Have a seat,
sweetheart. Let me grab some clothes.”

“Right,” she muttered, and moved to the
couch to sit down, not understanding why she stayed. To her disbelief, she
actually wanted to find out the truth about this guy.

Before long, Liam reappeared fully
dressed. He sat on the leather recliner in front of Kendra. He ran his fingers
through his wet locks, combing them back. He wore blue jeans and a snug gray
shirt, which left nothing in his torso to the imagination except the remainder
of his tattoos, which crept beneath the cotton apparel.

The two stared at each other for a long
time before Kendra rolled her eyes. “So, let’s get on with it so I can get back
to my life.”

“Do you want something to drink?” Liam
jumped up, ignoring her.

“Quit stalling.”

“I’m hungry too. Do you want me to fix
you up a bit of breakfast, sweetheart?” He busied himself in the open area
kitchen. A pillar cut off the bar-style counter-top.

Kendra twisted her upper body on the
couch so she could keep him in her sights. “I’m not hungry. Just tell me what
happened, and stop calling me sweetheart.”

“Suit yourself, darling. Well, I’m
starving; you should be, too. I can’t have an imperative conversation about
this new world on an empty stomach. It’s really a lot to take in.”

Kendra groaned and stood. Walking over
to the barstools, she took one of the four seats lining the countertop. Leaning
over and placing her weight on her forearms, which extended across the cool
surface, she demanded, “Then talk while you cook.”

He cracked eggs into a bowl. A low
chuckle rumbled through his throat. “Anxious, are we?”

“Yes,” she hissed and flared her
nostrils.

“You’re cute when you’re aggressive.” He
grinned as he cooked the eggs in a hot, sizzling skillet.

She automatically drew back, and relaxed
her expression and body.

Liam sighed. “Ten years ago yesterday,
you, Julie, and I played in your barn.”

Kendra skeptically glanced at him.
“Everyone knows this story.”

“But not everyone knew we played chase,
just the three of us. I chased you around when Julie ambushed me from the
steps. She caught a hold of me and started punching something fierce, and then
you laughed, joined in, and made me cry uncle. When you stopped, Julie kept
hitting me. You went to the steps and turned away when it happened. I picked up
Julie, about to toss her into a haystack, when the ground shook.

“My feet glued themselves to the floor,
and I accidently dropped her. Wherever she made contact with the floor, that’s
where she stuck—on her hands, knees, and face. She screamed, I yelled, and then
we were sucked into the portal. You never saw it. The white light hit, and we
vanished before you turned around.”

Kendra shuddered. She took in a deep
breath and asked, “How do we pass back?”

Liam froze for a split second, too fast
for Kendra to acknowledge his reaction. He avoided her eyes and calmly replied,
“Who really wants to go back?”

“
I
want to go back,” she growled.
“I can’t believe you. How can any of this possibly be happening to me? It’s
nuts, and I’m not crazy.”

He poured orange juice into two glasses
and placed one glass on the counter by her clasped hands. “You can’t just
decide not to believe me and ignore everything that’s happened. You dream of
me, and I can tell you every detail. You hear my voice in your head, and I can
tell you exactly what I’ve said, when I said it, and why I said it. Besides,
you can’t pretend a portal didn’t just suck you in and then spit you out. It
happened to me and Julie, too.”

“Where’s Julie then?”

“She’s not here at the moment.”

A hint of sadness and anger flickered in
his eyes. He went back to his story as he dished up eggs, placing one plate in
front of Kendra then another next to her plate for himself.

“We fell through the portal like you did
last night. Nathan, someone else who passed through the portal before us, found
us, took us in, raised us, and taught us about this world. We’re very
different. Us, now you.”

He walked around the pillar and sat next
to Kendra. She didn’t push her stool back or move away.

Liam ate his eggs and took a sip of
juice. Kendra cautiously followed, acknowledging her hunger pangs.