Kissed by Moonlight (10 page)

I fingered the amulet around my neck. Yes, this had definitely been a true dream. A dream of the past. That was why I couldn't change anything; it had already happened.

I sat up abruptly, ignoring the slight dizziness as my body tried to deal with the whole being awake thing. The blonde girl from my dream had been Jade Vincent. Much younger, much more innocent, and a hell of a lot happier, but definitely Jade.

Morgana had taken memories from her. Of what, I had no idea, but I imagined they must be good ones, happy ones. The kind of memories that gave a person solid ground under her feet. Morgana had replaced those memories with what? The only reason the Fairy Queen would expend that kind of power on a nobody girl was so she could use it to her advantage. Whatever memories she'd implanted in Jade's mind had been used to manipulate the poor girl. Who she was, what she'd done, was based on a lie.

Rage infused me. Morgana and her sidekick or partner or whoever had traveled back in time and turned an innocent girl into a psychotic killer. Of that I had no doubt. And now I knew who I'd seen in the Other World with the Fairy Queen.

Alister Jones. I was sure of it. Who else could it be?

I slipped from bed, jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth might crack. That bastard had a lot to answer for. Clearly, he was in cahoots with Morgana. Obviously, he must need her help for his plans for world domination. Though what he could possibly offer her was beyond me.

And why was Jade so damned important? I'd felt the kind of power Morgana had used to get them through the portal into the past and fix Jade's memories. It was a lot, even for the Fairy Queen. Why? Why would she do all this? What did she have to gain?

Morgana was definitely up to something that went far beyond her tiff with me and her hatred of the djinn.

I shook my head. It was way too early for any sort of logical thinking. Not that logic was much use where Morgana was involved. What I needed now was a very large cup of Tommy's coffee.

I threw on a pair of sweats and headed down the hall toward the kitchen. If Tommy was going to make coffee for me every morning, I might just move in permanently.

Chapter 15

"Again." Tommy thumped his walking stick on the ground.

"Seriously?" My whole body ached and my brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton. "You're killing me. This is cruel and unusual punishment. I'm pretty sure there's a law against that."

His weathered face remained impassive, but his eyes narrowed. "Again."

I'd been at Tommy's for almost a week, and every single day we'd done the same thing: practice. And not just physical stuff, though there'd been plenty of that. Tommy claimed it was his version of physical therapy. The real practice, though, was the power drills. As in my very special, super-duper Atlantean powers. Since Air was the newest power, we worked on that the most. It was exhausting.

"I can't, Tommy. I'm tired." I winced at the slight whine in my voice. I was no sissy, but I was reaching the end of my rope. My powers had a mind of their own.

"You're tired because you fight against yourself," Tommy snapped. "You are tired because you allow your emotions to affect your powers, and right now your emotions are out of control. Stop wallowing in self-pity and control will follow. Now, again."

Clearly I'd get no sympathy from Tommy. I sighed, glancing around the flat plain of sage brush, rock, and a few spring grasses struggling to survive. Nope. Nobody to save me from the torture. I closed my eyes to focus on summoning the air again.

"Open."

My eyes flew open. "What?"

He shook his head at me like I was some kind of idiot. "You gonna close your eyes in the middle of a fight?" he asked, thumping his stick again. "Or when a demon's charging at you? I don't think so. Again. Eyes open."

What I really wanted to do was throw something at him. Preferably something sharp and pointy. Instead, I did what he told me.

It was a struggle, focusing on the powers inside me without closing my eyes. The Darkness and Fire were right there, eager to get out and play. They'd been frighteningly easy to work with, or at least they'd been easy to let out. Not so easy to rein in. But it was the Air I wanted. Typically, it was doing its own thing, unconcerned with cooperation. Tommy said it was my emotions causing the problem, but it seemed par for the course to me.

In my mind's eye, Air appeared as tendrils of silvery mist whirling and twirling their way around that deep, dark, inner well where my powers lived. I tried to coax it, but it ignored me.

"Don't ask it," Tommy snapped. "Tell it. You're the boss." He pointed a gnarled finger at me for emphasis.

"Right. Sure," I muttered under my breath. "I'm the boss."

"I heard that."

I ignored him and focused on the Air again. "Whirlwind."

It ignored me.

"Whirlwind." I gave it a little more force.

Nothing.

"Damn you," I snapped. "Give me a bloody whirlwind."

This time, something happened. It just wasn't the something I expected.

Green light shot from the center of my chest and out the tips of my fingers. I stared at my hands as if they belonged to an alien. "What the... "

The ground beneath my feet heaved violently, tossing me onto my butt like I was a rag doll. Holy crap. Was that an earthquake?

I reached out to brace myself, and where my hands touched dirt, weeds and grasses sprang up. They grew wild and green and huge, far bigger than they should have in the dry ground of the high desert. They grew until I was surrounded by a thicket and Tommy was blocked from view.

Panic surged through me as the green light intensified. I yanked my hands from the dirt, but it was too late. Trees joined the grasses, erupting from the ground, changing from tiny saplings into towering evergreens within moments. Vines twisted and twined around tree trunks and branches. Orchids sprouted from the bark. Orchids. In Central Oregon.

I scrambled to my feet, trying to push my way through the thicket back to Tommy. It was no use. Everywhere I touched, something new and green sprang up until I was completed fenced in by a thick wall of flora.

Tommy thumped his stick again, and this time I felt the vibration through the earth. Slowly, the green light that surrounded me retreated, sinking back inside me. It mumbled things in a language I couldn't even begin to comprehend, but the tone was sullen. I stood there with my mouth hanging open, my brain a frozen blank.

A pair of gnarled brown hands poked through the weeds and branches, parting them like curtains. Tommy appeared, dark eyes sparkling with merriment. "Now, that's what I'm talking about."

***

"What the hell was that?" I dusted dirt and debris off my butt. "Was there an earthquake or something?" I pushed my way through the thick greenery, purposefully ignoring the fact that it hadn't been there a minute ago. I did not want to go there.

Tommy's dark eyes danced in amusement, the lines bracketing his mouth deepening ever so slightly. He propped both hands on his walking stick as he eyed me. "Earthquake? Yes."

"Didn't think you got many earthquakes this side of the mountain." I know. I know. Denial, thy name is Morgan. And yet, it wasn't that I was in denial exactly. More that I already had so much to deal with, I was afraid one more Atlantean superpower might send me over the edge.

"We don't." He just leaned on his damn stick and smiled at me.

I huffed out a breath. "Fine. It was me, okay? I did it. That green stuff. What the hell is going on?"

He eyeballed me. "Do you remember what I asked you about your powers the day we met?"

I mulled it over a moment, remembering. It had been here at his cabin. I'd been in search of djinn lands, hunting a killer. "Yeah, you asked how many powers were inside me."

"And what was your answer?"

"Three. You told me there would be six... " Oh, holy crap. If he was right, I had four now. Earth power had joined the others. Two more to go.

He must have seen reality slap me across the face, because he gave me an approving nod. "The ancients called it being kissed by moonlight."

"Moonlight? Why?"

"You ask a lot of questions," he said. "Now, let's try it again."

Oh, gods. "You want me to cause an earthquake?"

"Well, I'm not asking you to dance the limbo."

I snorted with laughter. Oh, he was a snarky one. "What if I make another one of those?" I jerked my thumb at the mini jungle.

Tommy shrugged. "Then I have some nice landscaping."

I guessed I wasn't getting out of it. I moved a few feet away from him and carefully braced myself, feet apart, knees slightly bent. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on what was inside me.

"Eyes open."

"Excuse me?" I shot Tommy a glare. "How am I supposed to focus on this new power with my eyes open?" It was one thing to call Fire or Darkness that way. I was more or less used to them by now, and they came when I called. I just didn't like calling them. They had a tendency to take over and that could get really ugly. Anything new required massive amounts of concentration.

"Like I said before, you gonna stop in the middle of a fight to focus? Vamps don't care if you got a new power. They just want to rip your throat out."

I gave him an aggravated look, but kept my eyes open as I reached down toward my powers. The usual suspects jumped to eager attention, but I ignored them. I only wanted one, my new superpower: Earth.

It lurked in the corners, a faint green mist. I could tell it wanted to come out and play, but only on its own terms and in its own time. It didn't want me in control. Well, tough.

I wasn't sure how this new power worked, so I visualized it swirling around me and shooting out my fingertips like it had before. I swear, it gave me the mental finger before it gave in and did what I wanted.

Unlike the other powers, which had a tendency to surge up and out of me fast and hard, Earth simply oozed out of my pores. My vision misted over, like I was looking through green-tinted glass, and I could see the shimmer of green power dancing and curling over my skin like vines twining around a tree trunk.

I gave the green power a vision of an earthquake. Before I'd even finished the thought, green light shot from my fingertips again and the ground gave a violent heave. It buckled and roiled, throwing me to the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of me. The earth fissured, cracks racing out across the high desert as wave after wave of violence rocked the surface.

"Enough!"

Tommy stood over me, his expression fierce. Even the green paid attention. Its reaction was the sulking of a chastised child. The ground stopped shaking and cracking. The light stopped shooting out of my fingers and the shimmer of green sank back into my skin. My vision returned to normal. The metaphorical lid I kept on my powers slammed shut with an insolent clang.

"Holy crap." Okay, not one of my more intelligent responses, but it was the only thing that came to mind as I lay there on my back in the high desert grasses staring up at Tommy. Sagebrush poked me in the butt. It wasn't terribly comfortable.

"Indeed. Once more. Only this time, I want you to focus your power on that rock."

I squinted in the direction he was jabbing his stick. It was a decent-sized boulder, but it had to be a good quarter-mile away or more. No way I had that kind of focus. Not yet. "You have got to be kidding."

"Not even remotely."

I sighed as I clambered to my feet again. I was tired, I ached all over, and I was pretty sure there was a giant bruise on my butt. Earthquaking a rock to death was the last thing I wanted to do. The only thing I was interested in doing was taking a nice long soak in Tommy's ancient metal bathtub while drowning my sorrows with whatever gods-awful tea he had stashed around the cabin. I could really use something stronger, but unfortunately for me, Tommy didn't drink alcohol.

"Focus," Tommy snapped, thumping his walking stick. I swear I wanted to grab that stick and whack him with it. He smirked as if he'd heard my thoughts. "Try it."

"Fine," I snapped. "Focusing."

Planting my feet firmly on the ground again, I visualized the powers inside me, coaxing up the greenish mist that was Earth power. As it sifted through my pores once again, the ground shifted slightly beneath my feet.

"Just the rock," Tommy admonished.

Before I could sass him back, the sound of a car horn interrupted my focus. The green misty stuff sank back under my skin and curled up into a petulant ball. It clearly had no plans for any further cooperation. Saved by the bell.

***

Jack was driving a brand new, shiny red pickup truck that looked totally out of place parked next to Tommy's rustic cabin and old blue Chevy. Sure, trucks were a dime a dozen here on the eastern side of the mountain, but they tended to be coated in dust, rust, and other unpleasant things. Shiny, they were not.

He strode toward Tommy and me, all long legs and lean muscles and flowing, sun-streaked hair. My heart gave an unexpected and unwanted flutter. I'd loved him once. Maybe a part of me still did. I just wasn't sure my heart could handle what he'd do to it. Besides, I still hadn't decided anything about Inigo. I gave my heart a stern mental talking to.

"You're a day early," I said as he drew closer. I'd asked him to pick me up in a week.

"I know," he said, nodding to Tommy in greeting. "But I've got a lead on that vampire that attacked you. Thought you might want to come along for the ride. If you're up to it?"

Up to it? I'd been healed for days, and I'd do just about anything to get away from Tommy's ceaseless drills. "Sure. Sounds good. I'll just grab my stuff."

As I took off for the cabin at a jog, I could feel Tommy's eyes boring into me like twin lasers. I knew without a doubt this little training session of ours wouldn't be our last, and that was probably a good thing. Much as I hated them, Tommy's drills had helped me focus. They'd helped me heal. And not just physically.

I wouldn't miss his rock-hard guest bed, though. I grinned as I dumped my suitcase on top of the mattress and started tossing my stuff into it. I hadn't come with much, so I was done and out the door in minutes.