Tori, page 19
And came down on top of him, seating him deep inside.
“So good,” he murmured.
At the squeeze of his fingers, she started to ride, her thighs rising and falling in a rhythm as old as time. The pace was slow and steady, but his fingers were getting firmer and stiffer on her flesh, his head twisting on the pillow.
She tossed her head backwards.
And picked up the pace.
He grabbed her hips and pulled her down hard, his hips grinding upwards against her. Then he arched beneath her and groaned. His seed spurted deep inside.
And sent her over the edge.
With the explosion still rocking her, she collapsed on top of him.
She barely noticed when he shifted their positions and tugged her up against his side, pulling a sheet over both of them.
And she slept.
*
He watched, feeling at peace for the first time in a year. Maybe longer. There’d never been this sense of joy in the aftermath before. Their coming together had always been hot, raw—feral in a way. The sex divine. The relationship rocky, but with so many highs that the lows were livable. But it had never been peaceful.
Now he understood what it meant.
And he thought he could get used to this. It was so much easier to look at life from this new position.
Now the challenge would be to keep it. His thoughts hardened. Those bastards who shot him needed to be picked up, and they needed to solve this forest problem. He wouldn’t like to have Tori caught up in another electrical storm like he had seen. She’d been a little too willing to walk away from everything they had.
That whole event had freaked him out.
As he lay there, Tori shifted restlessly in his arms. He gently reached down and stroked her back. From the corner of his eye, he watched as something moved. No longer disturbed by the odd movement, he watched as Jessie curled around Tori’s neck and shoulder, one eye on Devon.
“Hey, buddy, it’s all right.”
Jessie appeared to study him for a moment, then closed his eyes and slept.
Nice for him.
Sleep was the furthest thing from Devon’s mind. Staring at Jessie, he considered Matt’s words. Could he get a spirit pet? Did he even want one? Yes, he really didn’t have to think about that. To have an animal that connected on an energy level, that was his pet alone—and where that thought came from, he had no idea, but considering how he’d grown up with two brothers…
But wanting it didn’t make it so.
And although Genesis and Tori had energy affinities, that didn’t mean they could help him.
He didn’t really know what kind of animal he hoped he could have, just one that would want to be with him.
“You’re thinking too loud,” Tori said drowsily.
“Ha, you should be sleeping.”
“I would be, but you were making too much mental noise.” She yawned. “What are you worrying over?”
“Well, not worrying, exactly.” And he wasn’t sure he wanted to share. The spirit pet issue was still touchy, and he didn’t want to set off fireworks. Jessie took that opportunity to roll up like a cat with his belly to the top looking like a beautiful, furry ball.
He chuckled. “Jessie is quite the character.”
“Yes, he is,” she murmured, half asleep. She opened her eyes. “You really can see him, now?”
He nodded. “It started after the night of the energy storm.”
“Good. That’s the way it should be. We grew up with dozens of spirit pets hanging around.”
“Dozens?” He couldn’t imagine.
“From Granny. And Celeste has an affinity for animals, both spirit and flesh. Both were always in and out of the house as she found homes for them.”
“She can help spirit pets find homes?” Okay, now he really wanted to find Celeste.
“Sure. Granny did all the time, too. Or helped them to cross over.”
“Hmm.” He wanted to ask, but figured it was a silly request.
“Of course, it’s not like adopting a flesh-and-blood pet. That affinity from animal to soul is everything.”
“I can imagine.”
“Maybe by the time she gets home, you’ll know if that’s something you’d like to do. You just have to put the mental call out, energy-wise, and see if someone, some animal, answers.”
She yawned and rolled over.
“You could also ask Jessie. They are all connected.”
And she closed her eyes, snuggling in deeper.
Devon started at her for a moment before his gaze switched to Jessie. “You?” he asked in a low voice. Jessie raised his head and stared at him. There was almost a question in his question. He studied the spirit pet and sensed a weird tingling in the ethers. He had the strangest feeling that Jessie was asking him something.
Just in case, Devon said, “Yes, please.”
Chapter 30
“Plans?” Tori sipped her coffee, loving the morning thus far, sitting at the center of a large table and having just finished breakfast. In fact, she was feeling pretty damn satisfied with life in general this morning.
Hell, maybe she’d get back on track with her world. In some ways, her yearlong hiatus had sent her back a few steps, even while it had moved her life forward.
“The forest,” Genesis said. “That needs to be our priority at this point.”
“The men need to be picked up.”
“We have to find them first,” Matt said smoothly. “Connor, you’re on that.”
Connor grinned, a feral smile that had Tori’s eyes widening. “With pleasure.”
Devon’s smirk was fun to see. “And me?” He looked over at the girls. “I’ll be with you two.”
Tori rolled her eyes. “Of course you will.”
“He’s right. You two don’t go anywhere alone,” Matt said, “Got it?”
“Got it,” the sisters said in unison.
“I need to go to the lab and check on how the work is progressing before I can go anywhere. Then I was hoping to go back to the cottage.” Genesis looked at her sister. “If that works?”
Tori nodded happily. It didn’t matter what the suggestion was—all was good with her today.
As they headed toward the first room in the lab, someone raced past, shoving them in the process. Tori called out, “Hey! Watch out.”
He didn’t acknowledge the two women, nor did he slow down. He quickly disappeared from sight.
Genesis had her phone out and was talking to someone. Tori wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation. Her gaze was locked on the direction the man had disappeared. It had looked like an escape.
“Genesis, where does that lead?”
Instantly a loud noise crashed overhead as a siren began to wail.
“Damn, I knew it.” Tori took off after the man.
“Knew what?” Genesis cried from behind her.
“He didn’t belong here.”
She raced down the hallway and into a maze of doors and more doors. She spun around in frustration. “Where does any of this go, Genesis? Is there an exit here?”
“I have no idea,” Genesis cried out, panting with exertion at Tori’s side. “I haven’t been down here much.”
The alarm kept blaring in her ears. She clapped her hands to the sides of her head. “That needs to stop.”
As if obeying her command, the alarm stopped. And a heavy silence ensued.
Genesis’ phone went off. Followed by Tori’s.
Tori answered.
Devon snapped. “Where are you?”
“We’re in some hallway off the labs. A man went running past us then the alarm sounded.”
“Stay where you are.” And he hung up.
“I hate it when he does that.” She snapped, putting her phone away.
“Did you get that same ‘stay where you are’ order?” Genesis asked, her voice tinged with humor. “Not sure what they expect us to do but stand here, looking like idiots while they all run around trying to solve this problem.”
“I sure did.” Tori motioned to the long hallway behind them and the double doors that opened to let in the three men. “And there they are to rescue the damsels in distress.”
Genesis sighed. “I really don’t like that role.”
Tori glanced at her, caught her sister’s eye, realized that they were thinking the same thing—that with their abilities, they wouldn’t ever be in that role—and broke out laughing.
They were still giggling when the men reached their sides.
“What’s so funny?” Matt shook his head. “Never mind. Where did the man go?”
Tori shrugged. “I tracked him to here and I don’t know why, but I can’t see much energy here.”
“That’s purposeful. After those rocks came in, we had to try and keep the energy fields down here neutralized.”
“Not such a great idea now,” Connor said, glaring down the hallway. “Do we have any idea what he wanted?”
One of the doctors came through the double doors and raced toward them. “He took the box with the black rock.”
Genesis groaned. “No. Not that. It’s going to create chaos where it ends up if they take it out of the box. Worse, the person who takes it out is likely to die. Bet no one warned him of that.” She studied Matt’s face. “Time to beef up the security around here.”
The doctor interjected, “It was the new technician we hired.” He held out a tablet that displayed the image of a man. “This is him. He came highly recommended.” He gestured frantically. “Now I might have to consider that he was too highly recommended.”
“And who did the recommending?”
“The Portmans. Portman Sr. runs the Paranormal Center in Colfax.”
“As it was Portman junior who created the damn black rocks, I wouldn’t think that was a recommendation at all.” Tori narrowed her gaze.
The doctor looked down his nose at Tori. “That’s why we were happy to bring him on board. He’d seen the rocks before because of Portman Junior. He had experience with them.”
“And yet apparently what he really wanted was the rock. What’s the chance he had plans for it that didn’t include research?” Matt turned to make his way back up the corridor. “Connor…”
“Coming.” Before he turned to follow, Connor shot a hard look at Genesis. “This has nothing to do with you. We’ll handle it.”
And he raced after his boss.
Genesis snorted. “Like hell.”
“Thank you. I’m glad to see you aren’t taking those kinds of orders lying down.”
“You might want to consider, Tori.” Devon said calmly. “Connor has a good reason for warning her.”
Tori shot Devon a look. “I’m fully aware that he might.” She paused, then gently asked him, “Shouldn’t you be helping them?”
She caught the quiver of Genesis’ energy as she waited for the answer. Her sister wanted to go after the rock.
“I’ll be staying with you two,” he answered, his voice clear and knowing, his gaze shifting from one to the other. “So no trying to get away from me.”
Tori gave him a wide-eyed, innocent look. “Never.” And she turned away, rolling her eyes at her sister, with a big grin on her face.
*
He didn’t trust them. “You know trying to ditch me would be the worst thing you could do right now, right?” he said in a silky voice.
She froze, turned back, and said, “I wouldn’t try. Even though I could do it without putting in that much effort.” She turned sharply to walk away from him, her back rigid.
Good, she could be pissed off all she wanted. As long as she stayed safe. And playing games was no way to do that.
Genesis reached out a gentle hand. “We won’t. Honestly.”
He studied her face, then nodded. “Good.” They turned to walk after Tori, who hadn’t slowed at all. “Where to now?”
“The caves and the woods. We need to find out what’s happening there. Matt will have to work on the missing rock and Connor is supposed to be tracking down the men who shot at you. So what we can do is start looking closely at the woods. See why the energy system there is off.”
He nodded. “I’ll drive.”
Chapter 31
The woods smelled…dead. The undergrowth had rotted down to a mulching moistness that Tori couldn’t remember ever having seen before. On the positive side, it wasn’t everywhere. It wasn’t even in a large area, but it was definitely at this one place leading to the corner of the forest they hadn’t checked out yet. And she didn’t like it.
There was no energy feel to it. No life to it. Just a dead and dying, having given up hope for anything better, feel to it.
And that disturbed her more than she could imagine.
“Why?” she whispered. “I’ve never seen anything like this. This was my favorite area to play. What happened to it?” At a loss and hating the sadness and grief inside her at the sight, she wandered the path, wondering if she could even bear to move farther inside.
“I don’t know why this one is the worst so far, but it’s been low energy for a long time. A year, in fact,” Genesis said delicately.
Tori turned look at her. “What?” She shook her head. “Why a year?”
Then she realized. “Granny?”
Genesis nodded. “Partly.” She walked forward, the dry leaves crunching underfoot. “Her death was a huge climatic shock to all the systems. And when we didn’t step in to heal them, well…” She waved a hand. “This is the result.”
Tori frowned. She had the strongest feeling like there was something more to her sister’s story that she was reluctant to bring up. “Is it really just our lack of effort? Or is there something else going on?”
The barest of winces whispered across her sister’s face.
“Tell me.”
Genesis hesitated. “How were your energy levels when you were travelling?” she asked.
“Sometimes good, and sometimes bad,” Tori said. “It depended on where and how far away from the forest we were.”
“Right. That makes sense.” Genesis glanced at Devon then back at Tori. “And, of course, you had Jessie.”
Tori nodded. “Jessie was huge at keeping me charged. I don’t know how he got the energy sometimes. When it was really bad, we were bedridden, but as I had a living to make, I couldn’t give in to that often, so I had to pull more energy than I’ve ever pulled before just to stay alive.” She studied the woods around her.
“It seemed like the other woods didn’t have the same affinity for recharging, or not the same affinity for recharging me.”
“Exactly.” Genesis’ voice was so low Tori almost didn’t hear her.
She studied her sister. “What am I not understanding?”
Genesis shifted uneasily.
“Gen? Talk to me. You know something, or suspect something that I don’t understand.” She was aware of Devon, ever silent at their side. He was studying the bushes around them but hadn’t added to the conversation yet.
“I think you weren’t charging from the other forests, as they weren’t your forest. Jessie could, because as a spirit animal he could pull from anywhere, but not enough for you, too. So when you were low and needed the energy to stay alive, you pulled from…” She broke off.
Tori frowned at her sister, not sure where she was going with this.
“From?”
“From here.”
Tori stared at her sister in disbelief. “Genesis, there is no way that I could pull from here. I was miles away.”
Genesis just waited.
“I was like…thousands of miles away.”
Genesis stared at her mutely.
Tori looked around at the dead forest. “How is that possible?”
“This is your forest.”
“But I wasn’t here.” No, it couldn’t be. She couldn’t be responsible for this mess. “No. I have pulled from this woods for years and there was never any of this kind of damage.”
“No, but you never needed so much, never gave in return, or took at a time when Granny’s energy wasn’t there to balance things out. Since her death…” Genesis sighed. “Since her death, everything is different and we are now responsible for everything we see here.” She waved her arms around. “Including the damage.”
Tori walked around the forest, her mind consumed as she cast her thoughts back to the last year. The times she really needed the energy to survive. How she’d specifically thought about the woods here at this corner because they were her favorite. How she’d smile all the time, knowing that this place was here, and special, and how connected it had helped her feel to her own family and home.
She’d really pulled the energy as she’d needed to.
And because she hadn’t been here to see the damage and to break down the blockages in the flow, the flow had slowed to a trickle until they’d eventually stopped altogether.
Before, she imagined Granny’s energy had kept that flow moving, as it was supposed to. All the things that Granny had done to keep everything perfect…stopped when she’d stopped, too.
For all her running away a year ago, thinking she’d been so good at it…in fact, she hadn’t done it at all.
She collapsed down onto a rock. “Oh my God. I didn’t know.”
What had she done?
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I’d have come back if I’d known.”
“I know you didn’t do it on purpose. And it wasn’t just you…” Genesis sat down beside her. “We were all guilty. After everyone left, I couldn’t go to the cottage for a long time. I did the minimal amount of work I had to do here to make sure all was well, and when I say minimal, I mean just that. It was six months before I could come to the pools and not cry. I was lost and felt forsaken at the very center of me. I had to get over it, deal with it all. That’s when I found out that the one group had been trying to commercialize our pools, and then the black rock mess started. None of this could have happened a year ago when Granny was alive.”
“No,” Tori shook her head. “It’s our fault. She kept this place in perfect running order.”
“And in truth, we didn’t know we were going to have to. It’s not like she assigned us death duties, or anything like that.”
