Blaize and the Maven: The Energetics Book 1 (17 page)

What was that?

It was several hours later and they were still working.

Whatever it was, Blaize couldn’t hold onto the vision. She fell out of the light trance and her eyes snapped open as the images slipped away from her. When she focused her eyes she found Cuinn staring into them. She flushed. What had just happened? She wasn’t sure if she wanted to ask, but Cuinn spoke before she had a chance.

“Good. You created a safe space in the dreamscape, a Haven, which for you was a garden. Your energy, which was all fire at first, was able to brush against mine and shift to a more Ajna energy. Did the smell, taste, or even ‘feel’ change? What could you see?”

He’d had her imagine herself in a place of positive memories, and to imagine him there with her. They’d no longer been in his Haven. He’d had her interact with his energy. “It changed colour. Well, sort of. It kept flicking between red and blue, with purple and all the colours in between. It was intense. …”
 

She hadn’t been able to hold on to the feeling. It had been too much.

“That’s good. Did you see my energy as blue?”

She nodded. She didn’t want to tell him what a beautiful blue it had been. She'd been drawn to it, and to him, and when she'd reached out with her own energy to touch his, she'd only been able to do it for seconds before the delicious intensity had slipped away.

“Your energy adapted to the touch of mine, and it brought out some of your own dormant Ajna energy. Great start. Let’s break for lunch.”

“But we’ve only just started,” Blaize protested. She was here to work. And she had been surprised to find she'd been enjoying it. Even enjoying spending time with Cuinn. He was a good teacher, calm and helpful, providing useful feedback but letting her find her own way.
 

“It’s 1 p.m.; Tierra will kill me if I keep you up here and we miss lunch.”

Blaize shifted and felt the fatigue in her body, her limbs stiff. Several hours had passed. Where had the time gone?

***

Several sessions later, Blaize was still trying to trust the process.
 

“Try to call your own Ajna energy. Use the sensations you felt when you touched mine to guide you.”

They were back in her Haven and she felt clumsy, with no idea of what she was doing. She'd forgotten what it was like to be such a beginner and she found herself wanting to impress Cuinn.

I can do this.
 

She opened herself up wider than normal to see what else was out there that might be different from fire energy. What else could she draw on? She reached out, seeking the blue energy that had surrounded Cuinn to see if she could call up her own.

Instead, she touched something very different.

A dirty, oily blue energy that came into the garden fast and began to attach itself to her.
 

Suddenly, Cuinn wasn’t just watching her. He shouted and moved towards her, his face filled with fear.
 

But it was as if he was moving in slow motion.
 

She turned to him, puzzled, as the oily blue began to replace her own red fire energies, turning them a dull brown. She felt heavy, her heartbeat loud in her ears. Her hands shook, and her eyelids fluttered. She wanted to ask Cuinn what was happening, but she couldn’t form a single word.
 

This was not going as planned.

***

Something … else, something more, had come through. Cuinn had leapt to protect them both against it, trusting his own defences would hold against whatever was intruding where it didn’t belong. But before he’d managed to get to Blaize, she’d fallen unconscious, and he’d found himself thrown out of her garden and back in his Haven.
 

He’d jumped out of the etheric plane and back into his own body as quickly as he could, wincing as he moved between planes too fast, only to find her lying on her mat in his study, a trickle of blood under one nostril in a hideous echo of the prophecy.

He slid from his mat to hers and shouted for Tierra. Then he turned back to Blaize. “Blaize? Blaize. Wake up. Wake up, now!”

As Tierra rushed through the door, she appraised the situation and gestured to him to move aside as she knelt down beside Blaize. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure. Something tried to get through and I was kicked out of her dreamscape and into my own. When I got back, she was like this.”
 

“I don’t like the blood.” Tierra checked Blaize’s pulse and felt her forehead.
 

Cuinn rubbed the back of his neck, all traces of the relaxation he’d felt in the dreamscape gone.
What the hell had happened?
Was Blaize alright? Was he responsible for this?

Tierra sat back on her heels and closed her eyes to examine Blaize energetically.
 

Blaize was horribly pale as if the red smear under her nostril was the only blood left in her lean body. Tierra was motionless, hands in her lap, but he had no doubt her mind and her energy were working furiously. Cuinn wiped away the blood on Blaize’s face, at a loss as to what else to do while his cousin worked.
 

He waited a few more seconds before he broke. “Tierra. What’s going … ”

She shushed him. A few more minutes passed. Cuinn's neck muscles got tighter, and he rubbed the heel of his palm in a repetitive motion on his thigh. He was considering calling an ambulance and involving the human medics when Tierra finally opened her eyes. “She’s okay.”

His body sagged a little and he pressed his palms into his eyes for a moment. “Why hasn’t she woken up then?”

“She will in a minute. She seems to have had the energetic equivalent of a knock on the head. Another one.”
 

A sound came from Blaize. Not loud enough to be classed as a moan, it was definitely a sound of pain. Blaize’s hands flexed, and her head lolled a little to one side.
 

“Cuinn?” Her voice was soft, not at all what he’d been used to hearing over the last few days.
 

“Blaize.” He put his hand out and when they touched, her hand closed around his like a drowning woman holding a life preserver. “Blaize, you’re fine. Tierra and I are here.”
 

“Where are we?”

“In my study again. Something happened and you were knocked unconscious and back into this plane.”

Blaize’s free hand came up to her face, which started to get some colour back. He stared into the now murky-green depths of her eyes and saw confusion, mixed with a little fear. He was sure his eyes held the same emotions—though with a lot more fear.
 

Seeing her like this brought back a lot of memories he’d tried to forget. It was one more reminder of the reasons he hadn’t wanted to take on another Adherent from the start. He rolled his head, stretching out his neck, still almost unbearably tight. Tierra looked at him, concern in her eyes. She knew what he was thinking. He couldn’t deal with that now. He shook his head before turning back to Blaize.

“Blaize, you’re okay, you just need to rest. Tierra, can I sit her up?”

Tierra nodded. “Carefully. Blaize, sit up slowly. I’ve checked you over, and you don’t have any lasting damage.”

“Just another bump on my head,” Blaize muttered the words, but Cuinn caught what she said, and looked away.
 

“There won’t be a physical bump this time.” His words were sharper than he’d meant them to be, and Tierra frowned at him.

He moved behind Blaize, and with Tierra’s help lifted her so that her head was propped up on his lap. Blaize’s eyes were open, but unfocused. She winced as she put her hand up to her head and rubbed her forehead. “Ouch.”

Tierra moved and left Blaize’s weight solely supported by Cuinn.
 

“I’ll make you something warm to drink. Cuinn will look after you.” Tierra shot Cuinn a warning look. “Help her into the chair when she’s ready. And remember, slowly.”

She put her hand over Blaize’s and gave it a short squeeze. “You’re going to be fine, I promise.”

“Yeah, until the third time.” The words were quiet but stopped Tierra as she was getting to her feet.

“What?” Cuinn wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly.

“The third time. When you knock me unconscious a third time. Three’s the charm, so they say.”

Tierra smiled and walked out. Cuinn moved Blaize up his body so she rested in his arms. Her body was as supple as it looked, and he could feel the toned muscle under her clothes.
 

“Umph.” Blaize scowled. “No big moves yet. Please.”

“Sorry.” He shifted his weight so his position was more comfortable, and sat back with his legs outstretched, Blaize resting warm against his chest. “I’m sorry. There won’t be a third time. Really. And this time it wasn’t me.”

Blaize’s eyes had closed again. “Whose fault was it then? Was it mine? Something I did?”
 

He had to lean down to hear her voice, which faded as she spoke the words. As he did, he could smell her fragrance, light and exotic, a hint of jasmine and something else.
 

His breath quickened, and his arms tightened around her. Blood flooded his groin and he almost dropped her in his haste to hide his body’s betrayal.

What the…?

It had been a long time since he’d touched a woman he wasn’t related to. He obviously needed to get out more if he was aroused by a woman with whom he did nothing but argue.
Focus, idiot.

“You didn’t do anything. Well, you did, but nothing you shouldn’t have. You started to pull energy a little strongly, and something happened. Something tried to piggy-back on the energy you were pulling through. I don’t know what. We were both kicked out of the etheric plane before I could discover what it was. You were doing well—some people take weeks to create their Haven, their safe place. You did it in a day.”

“It wasn’t that safe.” Blaize’s hands came up to rub her face again and she opened her eyes.

Her face flushed and she grimaced, as she realised she was leaning against Cuinn. She placed her palm flat on his chest as if to push herself away.
 

He put a hand over hers.
She mustn't get up too quickly.

“Just rest for a while. Tierra will be back with a drink in a minute. There’s no rush.” He tried for soothing in his own voice, but could hear a rough edge in it from the arousal he was still fighting.
 

“There’s no need to sound so cross about it.”

He cleared his throat.
 

“I’m not cross. Not with you, anyway. I don’t know what happened, and given how much in the dreamscape I’m unable to explain right now, it makes me edgy.”

“Crabby.”

He smothered a smile. “Maybe.”

“You’re always crabby with me. Except when you’re not.”
 

“I’m sorry for that.” His voice was gentler now, and he gave the hand under his a little squeeze. Her hand was over his heart, and he tried not to consider whether she could feel his heart rate pick up the longer it stayed there. He shifted again, restless, and when his hand let go of hers to cradle her body, the simple movement put her hand on his face. He looked at her.

As his face tilted down, hers turned up.

“You could be kinder,” she whispered. He felt her warm breath on his lips.
 

It seemed the most natural thing in the world to close the gap between them and brush a careful, gentle kiss over her lips.
 

Her mouth opened with an “Oh,” and as it did so, his tongue slipped inside as if someone else was directing it. She tasted sweet and tangy, and as enticing as her perfume. Her tongue curved over and around his, matching his soft exploration.

He smothered the sound of desire that the kiss drew from him against her lips, his arms going around her as if he did it every day.

And that movement, that movement, which had happened without a thought, without a decision, stopped him dead.
 

He never, ever, went with instinct alone.

Several hours later, Blaize lay on the sofa in her living room, a blanket draped over her, and everything she needed within reach. The spring rain had returned, and she was glad she had made it back to the cosy cottage before it had started or she felt sure Tierra would have kept her in the main house overnight. As it was, Blaize had strict instructions to call if she felt unwell in any way.
 

She wasn’t sure if she felt unwell exactly, but she certainly didn’t feel like herself. In fact, all aspects of her were tired—mental, physical, energetic, and emotional. Her hand strayed to her mouth, touching her lips gently. As gently as Cuinn’s kiss had begun.

Why had he stopped? He’d moved his hand to cradle her skull and pressed her closer to him. She had felt as if she might combust at any moment, the adrenalin melting the headache she’d been fighting. But she’d felt him falter. He’d rested her head back on his chest.

Tierra had found them soon after when she returned with a cup of spicy herbal tea sweetened with honey, and, Blaize suspected, brandy and healing energy.