Demon Retribution (Shadow Quest Book 3) (29 page)

He stood then, turning away and buckling his
pants. She hadn’t even gotten him fully naked. Meanwhile her
clothes littered the floor, and a red mark from the edge of the
counter top ran along her belly. She might endeavor to be
embarrassed if she had the energy. However, when he headed straight
for the door, she did plow headlong into anger.

“Where the fuck are you going?” She scooped
up her panties and stepped into them.

He gave her his profile. “What? I’m headed
back to the pub.”

She stabbed her feet into her jeans. “You’re
just going to leave me here? Without a word? A second glance?”

“I’m looking at you now. What do you want me
to say? That was great, thanks?”

“Fuck you, Cale.” She slipped on her shirt
and brushed passed him, muttering to herself, “I’m such an Idiot.
What did I expect?”

Cale fell in step behind her. “I told you
what to expect from me, and that’s exactly what you got.”

“You’re right, Cale. Not only am I an idiot,
I’m a bad listener to boot.” Once in the hall, he continued to
follow her. “Go on to the pub and leave me alone!”

He gripped her upper arm, halting her
mid-step. She frowned at him.

“What do you want from me?”

What did she want? Everything! But a much
more honest part of her conscience concluded that, at the moment,
she was so pathetic as to want almost anything she could get.

“Nothing,” she decided.

The sound of footsteps echoed down the hall.
Kyra turned to see Anya rushing toward them, her face panicked.

“Cale, Kyra!” she called. “Come quick.
Something’s wrong with Nadua.”

Kyra ripped her arm away from Cale and
followed her sister.

As they went, Anya spoke rapidly. “We were
practicing together, trying to explore our gifts. I told her how I
can reach out with my mind and touch everybody’s energy, and she’s
been trying to do it too.”

“How long have you been doing this?” Cale
asked, surprising Kyra that he’d come along.

“Almost since she came aboard,” Anya
replied. “She’d been doing well, I could tell, but today she…I
can’t even describe it. I could hardly take it myself. Her energy
just…flared out of control.”

Cale heard the screaming before they entered
the training room. Nadua was writhing on the floor, eyes shut
tight, arms cradling her head.

Anya waited by the door, obviously having
trouble blocking whatever it was that was happening.

Kyra rushed to her side. “Nadua! Can you
talk to me? Nadua!”

The screaming continued. “Too much! Stop!
Stop it!”

Kyra placed her hand on Nadua’s arm. Nadua
responded violently, thrashing. He lunged forward to hold the girl
down as Kyra ducked flailing limbs.

“Anya! Make it stop!” Nadua screeched.

“I can’t! I can’t!” Anya chanted, sinking to
her knees and bringing her palms to the sides of her face.

“What the hell is going on?” Cale
demanded.

His outburst went ignored.

Kyra reached for Nadua again. “Open your
eyes,” she cooed. “Look at me. Nadua?”

“Kyra?” Nadua whimpered. “I can’t make it
stop.”

“What’s happening?”

“It’s everything! It’s too much.” Nadua
opened her eyes, and Cale cursed. There were no whites, no irises.
In their place were two pools of black, dotted with specs of
color.

Kyra sucked in a breath, whispering,
“Father’s eyes.” Then she placed her hands on Nadua’s face, forcing
the girl to look her way. “Listen to my voice. I’m here, okay? I’m
what’s real.”

“Okay,” Nadua huffed. “Okay.”

“What are you seeing?”

“Everything. I can’t make any sense of it.
It’s past, present, future. All at once.”

Suddenly, Nadua let out a harrowing wail.
Anya followed suit, curling into herself. When Kyra crumbled as
well with an equally pained cry, Cale considered knocking Nadua
unconscious, but his vision faltered.

It felt like he was still in the training
room, but it looked as though he were somewhere else completely. To
be more accurate, several somewhere elses. He was in the pub, some
random room on the ship, the surface of a planet he’d never seen
before, back home…His mother sat with a young Velicia…Then he was
on another unfamiliar planet. So many people’s memories gnashed
together.

“Kyra!” he called, hoping she could hear
him. “I’m seeing some pretty weird shit!” As the pictures flew by,
people appeared and disappeared mid-action, like apparitions. His
brain started to pound with the overflow of information, and he
couldn’t imagine what the others were going through.

“You see it too?” Kyra replied. “Anya? How
about you?”

No response.

“Anya!”

Still no response.

“Kyra,” Cale hollered in a warning tone.
“I’m going to knock your sister out.”

“Don’t you dare!”

“Damn it. Then what do we do?”

Nadua continued to struggle under him,
probably getting the brute force of her own personal mind-fuck.

Kyra’s voice sounded. “Nadua, listen to me!
Remember what Father said. Focus on your anchor. Let the magic flow
through you like water. Your anchor keeps you still.”

Cale felt Nadua attempt to relax, yet the
images continued to block his sight. Her harsh breathing slowly
became more rhythmic, controlled. He began to notice some
reoccurring visions. Marik appeared more and more. His face, his
smile.

Blech.

It was strange to see him through Nadua’s
eyes. Instinctively, Cale assumed that Marik was this “anchor.”

Thankfully, like a fog blowing away, the
visions faded. Though Nadua’s eyes were still black, both he and
Kyra seemed to be free of…whatever the hell that was.

Anya was out cold.

When Nadua fully calmed, he released her and
stepped back to check on Anya. Kyra clasped Nadua’s hand, offering
more encouraging words.

Once Cale determined Anya was breathing, he
stepped to the transmitter to call for Sebastian. As it was, he’d
get his head ripped off for not contacting him sooner.

Kyra sighed. “Cale, I think we’re fine now.
You can go. Thank you.”

Dismissed?

“I’ll stay.” He surveyed her with a glance.
She didn’t look hurt. Tired, maybe.

He scrubbed a hand down his face, processing
everything that had just occurred. He knew he’d upset her earlier.
Unintentionally, but still. Being with her this time had been so
overwhelming, so significant. The power of it had pushed him far
past the Edge and then back again. Never had he experienced
lovemaking like that…with anyone.

No. Surely he had with Velicia.

Hadn’t he?

Seeing Kyra watch him in the mirror, her
eyes aflame, burning for him…something in him responded with a
staggering ferocity. He felt scorched inside and out, balls to
bone. It had thrilled him just as it had terrified him. But then it
had been as if acid flowed through his veins. He had expected the
pain, but not to the degree with which it manifested. It lingered
still.

At the time, his mind had become so
convoluted he had to get away. To clear his head. But the hurt in
her tone had deemed it impossible for him to leave her.

What was happening to him?

Sebastian burst into the room, and Cale
backed away from Anya, knowing to steer clear of a demon and his
mate—especially if she were in trouble.

Sebastian scooped her limp body into his
arms and bellowed, “What happened here?”

Marik appeared next, heading straight for
Nadua. Cale noticed that the girl’s eyes had returned to normal.
She reached for Marik as he bent to lift her off the ground,
ensuring him, “I’m fine.”

“All of you come with me, now,” Sebastian
ordered in a dark tone, before disappearing out the door. No doubt
headed for sickbay.

On the way, Kyra described the whole
episode. Her account wasn’t much different than Cale’s. She’d seen
the visions and made about as much sense out of them as he had.
Anya roused just before they reached sickbay, insisting that she
didn’t need the doctor, but Sebastian pressed.

“I hadn’t seen any visions,” Anya said,
after hearing what the others had experienced, “but when both of
you touched Nadua, the energy tripled. It was overwhelming. I don’t
remember much else. I guess I just blacked out.”

Nadua displayed interest in the fact that
Cale and Kyra had seen everything she had, and she had somehow
transferred the visions to them. “Normally, I receive a vision of
someone only after I’ve physically touched them. But this was
different. There were visions of every person on the ship, even
those I’d never touched.”

Anya explained that they’d been working on
expanding their powers, pushing past the boundaries. Now that
everyone had calmed down, she was rather excited.

When Sebastian began to protest the
continuation of this training, both Anya and Nadua insisted that
they needed to find out how far they could take it. Kyra nodded in
agreement. Sebastian made one more attempt to dissuade them, but
Cale knew his brother was fighting a losing battle. Anya got that
familiar determined gleam in her eye and there was nothing else
Sebastian could say.

Cale actually approved of their practice, as
haphazard as it had turned out to be. He was all for testing
boundaries and was impressed with Anya’s dedication. From what he’d
heard, she had become quite talented with her magic. It gave him
hope that Kyra might someday master her own gift.

Kyra had become quiet, a contemplative frown
on her face. Cale thought of how things would have turned out had
she been the one to lose control.

Instead of a headache and a little peek into
another person’s existence, she could destroy everyone on
board.

Kyra stayed out of the way as Marik and
Sebastian fussed over her sisters, their features raked with
concern. Cale remained on the opposite side of sickbay from her,
his arms folded, cold and uncaring. The contradiction was
blaring.

She was tempted to describe herself as one
of those pathetic ex-girlfriends, only she had never even been
considered a girlfriend. She reminded herself that it was the worst
possible time in her life to be jonesing for some jerkoff. A drop
dead sexy jerkoff who gave her mind-bending, soul-shattering
orgasms—and was already mated!

Weariness blanketed her, and she suddenly
felt desperate to get away.

Luckily, Sebastian gave her an out. “I need
to get back to the control room. Anya, I had better find you in our
bed resting when I get up there. No more training tonight.”

Kyra slipped through the door after saying a
quick goodnight to her sisters. The hall seemed to go on forever as
she made her way to her room. Then she remembered she’d left Zoey
in the pub with Rex.

“Damn,” she muttered.

“Damn what?” Cale’s close proximity startled
her.

“Damn none of your business, Cale.” She
sneered, not slowing her pace.

“Fair enough,” he replied, unconcerned by
her sharp tone.

After a moment of silence, she asked, “Are
you just going to follow me?”

“I want to make sure you’re alright.”

“That’s sweet of you,” she said with heavy
sarcasm. “But really not your concern.”

“Of course it’s my concern.”

She rounded on him. “Why is that, Cale?”

“Because…” He struggled for words. “Because
it is.”

She rolled her eyes and then continued on
her way.

“Are you heading back to the pub?”

She sighed, realizing he had no intention of
letting her be. “Yes.”

“Good, I’ll join you.”

“I’m not going there for a drink, but you
have a blast.”

“You’re prickly.”

She bit back a retort, resolving not to
fight with him. By the time the pub came into view, she’d had to
hold her tongue three more times. For some reason, his attitude had
done a one-eighty. Before, he’d been ready to cut and run; now he
was acting all fuzzy bunny.

Why the change?

At the entrance, she scanned for Zoey, but
she and Rex were gone. A lead weight dropped into the pit of her
stomach as a very unladylike curse left her lips.

She rushed to ask Sonya, “Where are Zoey and
Rex?”

Sonya raised her brow at the urgent tone.
“They left a little bit ago.”

“Where?”

“I don’t make it a habit of asking people
where they’re going.” She paused. “But by their affectionate
display, I suggest you check his room.”

“Great.” Kyra let her head drop.

“And you let them go?” Cale growled.

Kyra faced him, bemused.

Sonya too looked taken aback. “No one
informed me I was supposed to be babysitting.”

Exasperated, he started toward the exit.
This time Kyra followed. She had to hurry to keep up with his long
strides. “You going to find them?”