S.P.I.R.I.T (3 page)

Camera caught the smoke detector light.

“A smoke detector,” I whispered my eyes wide as my knees felt weak.

I turned and looked at Zander, who’s terrified expression told me all that I had to know about how I must have looked. Suddenly he was by my side, his hands cupping my elbows as he guided me to a seat. Once there, and sitting, I fought to find the words that my lips tried to form.

“You saw what I saw, Sam,” he spoke in a calming voice, his hands rubbing the coolness of the jeans against my thighs, watching as my other hand rose to capture the one over my heart. “From so far away, you were looking through my eyes.”

“That’s not possible!” I muttered, shaking my head as I did, and then slowly I rose, leaving the dark haired man on his knees. “What the fuck did you do to me?”

“At least she’s moved on from ‘hell’.” One of the men spoke up behind him and Zander rose, shooting a disapproving look in his direction.

I stepped back, closing my eyes as I swayed, and reached out at the same time to brace myself on anything solid. Even with my eyes closed, I could feel him; the pulse and the heat his body let off at just a touch told me that Zander Smith and I were much more connected than just me seeing what he did. He pulled me to him, wrapping those strong arms around me and my knees gave out, and gently he came with me to the floor. My eyes opened just as the darkness and white spots began to claim my vision, but I could see the look of wonder in his, and he reached out, brushing my cheek as the blackness closed over.

“I don’t understand, sir!” Zander’s voice picked up, a whisper at first, but slowly it rose to where I could hear the confusion in his tone. “What
does
this all mean? It’s one thing for her to show up here from out of nowhere, it’s another to be psychically linked to her and have her seeing things through my eyes without me knowing. That, and the sensations I feel from her when we touch, this isn’t something I want to continue playing with.”

“Feelings, sir?” One of the other men spoke up. I could hear him sigh, and even as I lay there still blinded by the darkness, I could feel the frustration from him as if there were tiny bolts of lightening sparking off from him.

“Its…it’s a pulse, like her heart beat, a vibration that she gives off whenever I touch her, or when she touches me. It’s like a connection, as if our bodies know each other,” he replied, and suddenly I could see his hand come up and move through his hair.

I breathed in quickly, and in my vision turned to look at my still body, lying comfortably on a cot. I walked over to myself, glanced down and reached out, and at the touch of his hand I was suddenly backed in my own body.

“Boom chica-wow-wow!” A sarcastic voice spoke up.

“Screw you, Harris!” Zander snapped, and then his voice leaned closer. “Sam? Sam, I know you’re awake, I can feel you. What did you just see?”

I turned my head in his direction, opening my eyes as I did so, and reached up to touch his cheek. He closed his lids tightly at the sensation of my skin against his and then sighed, opening them to watch as I ran my hand through my hair. There was no need for words to be exchanged, for the mimic of his gestures were too precise to be just coincidence, and he shook his head.

“Who are you?” he whispered. The question wasn’t asked with confusion or even bitterness, but with a smile that reached his eyes and made them sparkle.

“Maybe we should find better accommodations for Ms. Ricketts while we investigate this more.” Everett spoke up as the two of us turned to look at him. He glanced over in my direction and crossed his arms. “I’m sorry miss, but we won’t be able to send you home any time soon.”

“What?” I questioned, sitting up the best I could. I glanced from Zander to the Captain and shook my head. “Why not?”

“You’re linked to one of my soldiers, Ms. Ricketts. It’s a matter of security. I can’t have you out there being able to access his sight at any point you wish,” the man replied and began to step out of the trailer.

“Now just wait a goddamned minute!” I yelled, moving faster than Zander could react as I followed him out. “I didn’t ask to be linked to him; I still don’t even know how I got here! There is no bloody way I’m going to be held captive just because your brainwashing machine has backfired and fried the circuits of one of YOUR men!”

“Caution, Ms. Ricketts!” The man snarled, warning in his tone.

“Caution, my ass! I want to go home!” I replied and felt someone step up behind me.

The older man before me gestured with his head and suddenly I was being handcuffed from behind. I struggled against my captor, fury in my veins, and suddenly I could feel the heat behind my eyes.

My breathing became rapid, as the burning feeling filled my lungs. I watched as he slowly took the cigar out of his mouth. Not understanding the change in my body at the anger I felt, I turned my head quickly, searching for the one thing that had remained constant since I had arrived.

Zander’s eyes were wide, but his teeth were clenched as I felt the fury building in him. Two of the other men in his unit held his arms and they didn’t seem willing to let him go at any point unless ordered to, but as my heart thumped in my ear and the flames licked through every nerve in my body, I heard his voice above the thunder.

“Let me go!” He screamed, trying to catch the confused Captain’s attention. “Let me go, I can help her!”

He was trapped, held back because of me, and my anger mounted, as if the only thing my body craved was his touch. I felt my eyes roll before I lost my vision to the bright red light that engulfed them, and the only sound I heard was the terrified screams of men in pain before my world went black.

3

The cold frostiness of the night coursed through my body, making my teeth chatter and my fingers numb as I slowly came too. I was curled up in a ball, lying on the dew covered grass before the red trailer I had been in only moments before. The world around me was silent, even the crickets were still. The moon hadn’t moved much higher in the sky from when this nightmare had begun, but I could feel that time had gone by.

My body ached as I moved, straining to rise from the moist ground, and I shook my head, clearing the cobwebs as I rose to sit on my bottom. I glanced around me, and suddenly the tremors that passed through me were not from the cold but from the sight that I saw. Bodies lay around me, like they had fallen where they stood. The two men that held Zander lay over five feet from where they once were, the Captain who had been right in front of me was now several yards away, and the cuffs that had held my hands bound lay in shrapnel near my feet.

Everything was dark. There was no light whatsoever from the trailer behind me and it took me several moments to adjust to just how dark it seemed outside. I spotted Zander after searching the area twice, his black clothing blending in with the night, and slowly I made my way over on my hands and knees.

His arm covered his face, and gently I reached out to move the heavy limb. As my fingertips touched his flesh, it was as if an electrical storm had shocked him awake. He came too quickly, sitting up in a panicked rush, and he scurried back from my touch.

I could see the terror in his eyes from where I sat and tears slowly slid down my cheek. Whatever had happened to me, Zander had witnessed it and now I had lost the only stable thing about this crazy night.

I sat back on my bottom, pulling my knees up towards my chest. As I rested my crossed arms on my knees, I lowered my head and let out the uncertainty that I had bottled up inside. I couldn’t control the sobs, as the knowledge that I had caused whatever had taken place coursed through my mind, and I struggled to remember just what had happened.

Warm hands brushed against the skin on the back of my neck, slipping under the hair that lay there, and slowly the tremors and sobs faded away. With blurry eyes, I raised my head to look at the person before me and found myself staring into pools of darkness. His eyes held a light behind them, despite their color, and it flashed a time or two as he held me captive.

Zander smiled, his hand caressing my cheek gently as he looked over every part of me, checking for injuries. Seeing that I was no worse for wear, his smile broadened and he leaned in, kissing me softly on the lips. The spark of his touch ignited a fire that I fought to ignore.

“What did I do?” I whispered, as questions filled my mind, but he shook his head, the grin never leaving his face. He placed his forehead against mine.

“How…?” I started, but I lost my words. There didn’t seem like there was a question I could ask that would help answer the scenarios that flew through my thoughts.

“An EMP,” the Captain’s voice spoke up and the two of us glanced in his direction.

Zander moved, blocking me behind him, as we rose to face the older man. His cigar was once again in his mouth and his uniform didn’t seem in the least bit wrinkled despite what he had just experienced. Zander stepped back, his pulse flaring as the commander approached, and I grasped his arms with both of my hands, trying to absorb his feelings.

“Sir?” he whispered, his years of military training still showed in the respect that he gave his senior officer.

“An electro-magnetic pulse, strong enough to put the lights out on a dozen men and a trailer. Son, whatever is going on between you and this young lady, we’re going to have to quarantine you both.” He sighed, and watched the rest of the group come too. “It’s for the best until we figure out just what brought on these unusual gifts.”

“What gifts?” I whispered, shaking my head.

Zander glanced over at me, taking my hand. “Sam, you almost caught the house on fire, not to mention the job you were doing on those cuffs.”

“But, I…” I protested, but I could see by the look on his face that something had indeed happened to me. “So, why did you…”

“To protect you,” he whispered, turning fully to face me. “I swore that I would.”

I reached up, placing my hands against his heart and, for a moment, ours beat at the same pace, in rhythm with one another. Zander turned back to his Captain and nodded, then took my hand and led me to the awaiting jeep.

It seemed all too controlled to me, the way the jeep had been started and all the men coming too at once. There seemed to be something underneath the surface that I just didn’t understand, but I slipped in beside Zander, hoping to discuss it with him before the night was over.

His fingers laced with mine as we drove towards the small town, where rooms were rented in a lakeside hotel, three to be exact, one in the middle for the two of us, and one on each side for the guards. It didn’t faze him outwardly that his own soldiers were holding him captive, but I could feel the growing electricity that flowed through his body.

Once inside the one-bed room, Zander sat down in a small cushioned chair in a darkened corner and placed his head back to rest as I paced nervously around the room. After a few silent moments, he sat forward, placed his lower arms across his thighs and watched me move from one side of the room to the other.

“Sam, why don’t you try to rest?” he asked.

“Rest?” I smiled, glancing over at him. “I’ll rest when I get down to the bottom of this…this mess. They still don’t know how I got here, why I’m here and now the two of us are not only seeing through each other’s eyes, but also developing funky powers that feed off of our emotions. There is no way I’m going to be able to rest until we get answers.”

“I understand that, but…”

“No, Zander! No buts! There are other things going on that I don’t understand, and couldn’t intend to ever comprehend in this life time.”

“Like what?”

I stopped for a moment, unsure about letting out exactly what I felt but I shook my head and drew in a deep breath. “Who are you to me?”

“Just someone who saved your ass,” he grinned, “and a very lovely one at that.”

I felt my face flush and closed my eyes. “Ok, besides my ass, why are we so connected?”

Zander stood, moving slowly as not to spook me into running to another corner of the room, but I had been through too much to be frightened of the man that approached me. He reached out and took me by the arms, pulling me into his powerful embrace. My heart thumped as he leaned down, brushing his lips against mine gently.

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” I protested.

“Me either,” he whispered pressing closer, his lips engulfing me.

The fire started down in the pit of my stomach, racing ever lower as the heat began to flicker between my legs as his mouth caressed mine, penetrating deeper into my soul. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him to me, closing off the last of the distance between us, and I felt the gush of wet desire flow from me. I heard him moan against my lips, as if he felt what I did, and his hands tightly bunched up the black shirt I wore.

I could feel him tugging on it, desperate to get to the skin beneath. When his flesh touched mine, I gasped, releasing his lips as the fire exploded into a million tiny embers. Zander ceased the opportunity, trailing that flame from my lips to the sensitive parts of my neck, his stubble scratching and tickling as my flesh felt like it was on fire.

“I’m burning up,” I whispered, my voice heavy with lust, and I felt him nod, his hands gently moving over my back. “Get this damn thing off!”

With a grin he looked up at me, grabbed the end of my shirt and tugged it over my head, leaving the black lacy bra and pale white skin of my upper body exposed. I felt his eyes move over me, leaving more fire trails in their wake as the electricity sparked around the room.

He wrapped one arm around my waist, and the other gently ran over the bare skin of my shoulders, skimming over the flesh. As if he had been offered a feast, Zander leaned down to taste, his lips and tongue glided down from the hallow of my neck to the swell of my breast. I couldn’t help the sounds that escaped my lips as this man set me on fire. His touch was as electric as his eyes, which stared up at me from the bare nipple that he had exposed.