Sarah sighed heavily again. "The girls shielded you from him, but he didn't even turn around."
"That's right. My hand hurt so badly, and we decided to leave. I was angry enough for a confrontation and Abbey was worried, everyone was, because he seemed to be so powerful. As I walked past him to leave, he reached out and took my hand. His thumb slid over my palm just once, and he let go, but as his skin touched mine and continued a brushing movement, it was as if he wiped away all the pain." Even as she described the gesture to her sister, Joley felt that amazing touch all over again, the single brush of skin to skin that sent flames racing through her body, marking her inside and out.
"When did you first notice the discoloration?" Sarah's question drew Joley back from the memories.
"In the beginning, my hand just kept itching like wounds do when they're healing. Eventually that stopped—now the itching only comes back when he's near, or when I am thinking about him, or when he's talking telepathically to me. And recently I discovered that there's some connection between the mark he put on me and the two of us. It connects us…" She searched for the right word. Just thinking about what Ilya did with that mark and his mouth left her damp and needy all over again. "It connects us in a physical way. I suspect it enables him to speak telepathically to me over greater distances."
There was no way she was going to admit to Sarah that the connection was sexual, that Ilya had given her an orgasm simply by manipulating that spot on her hand.
Sarah made a little noise that alarmed Joley.
"What? Have you read about this?" She carefully drew two circles intertwined right above the words
Pros
and
Cons
.
"I've read references, pretty vague ones. There are a few entries in some of the diaries about a male line with similar gifts. Once in a while one of our ancestors crossed one of theirs."
Joley rubbed her palm along her thigh, then realized that rather than trying to brush the mark off as she used to do, she was now brushing her palm slowly back and forth in a caressing motion. She snatched her hand back. "That doesn't sound particularly bad."
"Well, at one of the points when the male line clashed with our line, it was because a woman had come to the Drake women and claimed someone had marked her with a magical symbol, two circles intertwined. She claimed it bound her to this man and she suspected he was a witch or a sorcerer. She seemed frightened. Of course they took her in."
"I don't like the tone of your voice. This doesn't have a good ending, does it?" Joley asked. She pressed her hand tighter against her body, suddenly afraid. It was one thing to contemplate having an affair by her own choice, but it was something altogether different to think she didn't have free will in the matter.
"Well, even their combined powers and skills couldn't break the bond between the man and the woman. No one knew what happened—just that she got up one night and left the house. He was waiting for her. She went off with him and they never heard of her again."
Joley took a deep breath. "So there is some documentation about another family having similar powers to ours, only male."
"Yes, although I can't find anything in our time, or even Mom's. I can call Mom and ask her if she's read or heard anything more. She always studied the history of our family, and I don't have near the knowledge she has."
Joley swept her hand through her hair, twirled strands around her finger and bit down on her lip, trying to decide. "Ask her, Sarah, but…" She trailed off, not wanting to alarm her sister any more. Just the fact that she would consult her mother would elevate Sarah's warning radar.
"You're in way over your head, aren't you, Joley?" Sarah asked.
Joley rubbed her hand along her thigh again. "I don't know. But whatever mark you read about is on my palm, and I'm fairly certain it has somehow, chemically or magically or both, tied me to Ilya Prakenskii." On the paper in front of her, she drew a double circle on the pro side started to draw a line through it and then left it.
"And you're contemplating a relationship with him?"
Joley had known Sarah wouldn't let her off that easy. She sighed, knowing that if she wanted help she would have to confess, tell the absolute truth and hope her sisters would think of a way to save her.
"I'd have to say it's too late for contemplation. I'm obsessed. I wouldn't admit that to anyone but one of my sisters, but he's all I think about day or night. It's more than obsession. I swear, Sarah, it's like he's become the blood in my veins." She gave a small, derisive laugh and drew her fingertip over the circles on the paper. "How cheesy is that? He's the air in my lungs. I breathe him in and out with every breath I take." And she was cold and lonely without him, without the heat of his body, the heat of his gaze, his voice in her head driving her crazy. "It's like we're merging together. You know me. I may have bad taste in men, but I've never been obsessive and I've never needed a man. Ever. But I need him."
"If Prakenskii is bothering you, Damon and I can fly out today if we have to and get you through the rest of the tour."
"No, it isn't like that. It's more me than him."
"I can't imagine that. You don't exactly chase men, Joley. They chase you."
"I threw myself at him the other night and he turned me down," Joley confessed. "And he spent last night with me and didn't do much but get me to sleep."
Again there was a small silence. Joley counted to ten while her words sank in. She imagined Sarah with a little frown on her face.
"You don't sleep with anyone in the room. You never did even as a child."
"I know. But I did last night. He said he couldn't stand me not sleeping, and he was going to guard me so I could just relax and sleep all night—and I did."
"And he didn't touch you?"
"He kissed me."
"And?"
"Rockets. Holy cow, Sarah, he's like the greatest kisser of all time."
"That's not good."
"Actually I told him I was putting that in the con section of my list, but he said I couldn't." She couldn't help the bubble of laughter in her voice. She touched her lips, tingling at the memory.
"I'm going to talk to Mom immediately." Sarah sounded more than a little alarmed. "Don't do anything stupid, Joley. If Prakenskii really comes from this other lineage, you could be in real trouble. In the diary, our ancestors wrote that the woman who came to them was terrified of the man who marked her. She was very religious and thought maybe he had made a pact with the devil. The house should have protected her along with all the protections the Drakes could muster for her, yet for some reason, she left the house in the middle of the night and went to him. That doesn't make sense when she was safe."
Joley could have told her why. If the man had been like Prakenskii, he had seduced her with his voice. He had pursued her day and night, until she was in such a state of arousal, she couldn't fight him anymore. "I'm going to be careful. Find out everything you can and call me. I hear a lot of commotion outside. They'll be setting up soon and calling me in for a sound check and I'd like to get in a run at least."
"I love you, Joley. If you need me to help you fight him, I'll come. All of us will."
"I'm good for now. Love you right back. Kiss Damon for me." Joley hit the end call button and sat for a moment, pressing the cell phone to her chin. She had no idea what she was going to do. On the con side of her list she wrote,
Scares the hell out of me
.
She broke the lead in the pencil twice as she wrote out
The hand thing
. She wrote it half on the pro side and half on the con side. Frowning, she was about to add the kiss right in the middle between the two columns as well. And while she was thinking about it, she was pretty sure talking telepathically to her day and night, in an attempt to seduce her, had to go smack in the middle also. She hadn't exactly consulted Sarah over that little piece of information. The pencil snapped in half. Joley took it as a sign she needed to go running.
It was bright outside. She hadn't pulled back the privacy sliders in the bus, and the light from the sun nearly blinded her. Whipping out her sunglasses, she pushed them onto her nose and stepped into the parking lot. Steve would have a fit that she went running without him to guard her, but he had to be tired from driving all night and she didn't want to disturb him.
She looked carefully around her, her breath catching in her throat. Red Rocks was beautiful. The bus was parked in the lot behind the amphitheater, and she looked up at the surrounding natural walls of towering rock that always took her breath. It was as if nature had created an amphitheater with a perfect acoustic sound just for the sheer love of hearing music and then had provided the most beautiful backdrop it could offer. For someone like Joley who was all about sound and nature, it was almost perfection on earth. She loved the natural rock formations, the layers and layers of sandstone that had been there millions of years, slowly rising until they were the majestical towers of red rock creating the walls of the theater.
Joley took a deep breath and let it out. Coming to Red Rocks always revitalized her. The sandstone formations, the prehistoric footprints of time rising above her like a cathedral, were inspiring on every level. It had been difficult to talk everyone into a back-to-back concert, but she was grateful she had. She walked toward the stage, where she could hear a commotion as the crew began to set up.
She noticed a couple of Nikitin's guards with dogs searching the rows of the amphitheater. He must have decided to attend, and his security was doing a sweep right along with hers. Loud voices coming from behind several crates attracted her attention. A few of the crew looked uneasy when they saw her, glancing hastily away or acknowledging her with a slight nod of the head. Curious, she moved closer to the commotion.
Jerry and Brian had evidently caught up with Dean, and the discussion didn't appear to be going very well. Dean looked angry, and he was gesturing obscenely at Brian. Joley had to fight her natural inclination to go join the fray. It hadn't been fair to force Jerry and Brian to confront Dean. She was the one who had forbidden underage groupies at the parties. It was her rule and ultimately her decision to fire Dean if he had broken it. She was putting her manager and Brian, her best friend, in the position of looking like the bad guys. She really had become a diva, although, in the music business, everyone knew it was always the star's decision that carried the weight.
She had taken three steps when a woman emerged from the rocks to her left. Joley recognized Tish Voight, Logan's estranged wife. Joy swept through Joley, and she realized just how much she had missed her. Tish had been a mother hen to all of them, but especially to Joley, as she was younger than the band members.
"Joley!" Tish's face lit up and she ran across the parking lot toward her.
"Tish!" Joley, who rarely touched anyone, threw her arms around Tish and hugged her close. "I've missed you. When did you get in? Are you staying?"
Tish hugged her back hard. "Actually I just arrived, my car's down in the lot. You look great, Joley. The band has done so well. I'm really proud of all of you."
"We've never been the same without you. How have you been? Tell me everything."
Joley couldn't believe how good Tish looked. She'd matured in the last few years. Medium height, she had long dark hair, which she still pulled back in a ponytail, but it looked shiny and healthy, as did her skin. She had a woman's body with lots of curves. That was Tish—no makeup, no glamour, but all beautiful. There wasn't a devious bone in her body.
"I've been working; teaching again. Love the kids, you know I do. So it's all been good."
"But you miss us, right? Miss the road and the craziness?" Joley asked hopefully.
"I miss you and the boys, not so much the craziness." Her eyes looked sad, although she was smiling. "Logan called and said it was an emergency and he desperately needed me, so I came." She shrugged. "I didn't want to come, Joley. I can't afford the risk."
"I know. I'm so sorry, Tish, all of us were. You and Logan…"
"Don't. I don't want to go there. Logan and I were childhood sweethearts. I guess that's very cliché nowadays. He outgrew me. I'm small town and I like it that way. He's uptown and he likes it that way."
"Neither of you filed for divorce," Joley pointed out. She couldn't tell Tish that she felt her sorrow at the loss of her marriage, and that she knew, after touching her, that Tish still loved Logan. Joley hadn't meant to invade her privacy.
Tish shrugged. "I'm not looking for another relationship, and it seemed too big of a hassle. I figured if he ever wanted to divorce me, he'd just do it. He has the lawyers and I don't care about his money. He knows that. I've made my own living without him."
"But he sends you money, doesn't he?"
"He insisted on a joint account, and apparently he puts money in it every month. He told me once everything he had was in both our names, but I never checked and I've never accessed the bank account."
That was total Tish. Independent and fiercely proud. Joley understood her. "So are you going to stay and help with the baby?"
"I don't know. Logan wants me to, but you know me, I'll get attached to her and then won't be able to let go when the time comes."
"No one would make a better mother, Tish. You were born to be a mother."
"I can't have children—at least I can't give birth to them. I had cancer as a child. The radiation and chemotherapy saved my life, but not anything else." She glanced toward the band's bus. "I always wondered if that…"
"Tish! No! Logan was crazy about you. Drugs and alcohol and groupies throwing themselves at the boys ruined everything. You know that. It was too much, too fast, and we couldn't handle it. None of us—except you."
Tish had always stood for them, but as their popularity grew, the band needed someone who knew the business and could handle all the details of a huge venue, and Jerry had come into their lives. With Jerry had come overnight success and all that came with it.