LogansEmpath (14 page)

This wasn’t what she’d imagined.

Still, at least it wasn’t long before they started up the
winding gravel road that led to her house.

Logan pulled up under the carport, sliding between two of
the cars already parked. He pulled off his helmet, hanging it on the
handlebars. He then hopped off and helped Bree to her feet.

She staggered a little as her foot caught on the seat but
kept her dignity along with her balance. She glanced at the patrol car on one
side and the Ford on the other. “If you want this to be a private conversation,
it’ll have to be on the porch.”

Instead of going through the house, they walked around the
outside to front. Logan took off his wet jacket, shaking it out and tossing it
over the porch rail, Bree following suit.

Again, they sat on a glider together, staring off at the
mountains.

“What’s so important that you had to pick me up at work?”
Bree asked, kicking the glider into motion.
I thought we’d settled this. No
lovey-dovey stuff.

He grimaced, eyes filled with worry. “I need a second
opinion.”

His worry triggered a deeper fear in her. Whatever she might
think of Logan, he’d been through some serious battles in his time. If
something that bad was about to go down, she needed to know about it.

Bree faced him but couldn’t catch his gaze. “Okay, not sure
what you’re talking about. But I don’t like seeing you this worried. You don’t
seem the type to stress unnecessarily.”

Logan gripped the armrest. Bree tried to take another peek
at his emotions but they were in such turmoil that she couldn’t get a clear
read.

“I’ve been getting more visions and they aren’t good,” he
muttered, still avoiding eye contact.

“Okay, you said our powers would be stronger after sex with
me, just like mine got stronger. I guess for you that means more visions.” She
didn’t like the dark expression that crossed his face and her stomach
tightened. “How bad are we talking? What do we need to do to prepare for it?”

“Bad…the worst.” His brow wrinkled as he finally looked at
her. “I’m having them when I’m awake, without trying or guiding them.” He
rubbed his hands over his face and she noticed his fingers trembling. “I damn
near wrecked my bike when one hit this afternoon.”

Bree still didn’t know what to think. The whole magic thing
was new to her but she’d always had emotions shooting out at her at
inappropriate times. Were the visions Logan had so different? “This is more
than you expected?”

“They should be easier to control and guide, not necessarily
more frequent.” He paused, a sadness falling over him that was almost
overpowering. “The last time I had visions this dark and powerful was right
before my family was killed.”

His pain was so vivid it cut through the miasma of his
emotions. Bree couldn’t help but reach out to him, putting a hand on his knee.
“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really but I think I need to for you to understand how
much this is bothering me.” He put his hand over hers, holding on so tight that
his knuckles went white and her fingertips started to tingle. “You have to
understand, Bree, I was only six years old when it happened. I was just
starting to remember things from the past but I didn’t understand what I was
seeing yet. Normally those kinds of memories along with the visions, would
start at puberty and grow from there. I was too young. But I started having
these savage nightmares. My mom would open the door. A man and a woman, both
wearing suits and carrying briefcases, would walk in.”

He licked his lips and swallowed. He loosened his hold but
didn’t let go of her hands. “In the nightmare their faces would go fuzzy, like
something was trying to get out but couldn’t. Then they attacked. They killed
my mom and dad, butchered them. Then they hunted down my sister, who’d tried to
make it out the back door. They killed her in the kitchen, her body lying over
the island. Finally they would start searching the house for me.”

When he looked at her, Logan’s eyes shone with unshed tears.
“After about a month it happened, just like I saw. Some neighbors heard the
commotion and called the police. They arrived before the man and woman found me
in the crawlspace under my parents’ closet. The killers were demon possessed.
From your family’s research, you know what happened to me after that. I ended
up on the streets and then was institutionalized for a while. Seeing visions at
such an early age isn’t easy to hide and no one wants to deal with a foster kid
who periodically goes catatonic and has hallucinations.”

Bree didn’t know what to say. She knew that there wasn’t
really any comfort in words. So she tried to say it without words. She reached
out to her powers, pushing sympathy at Logan.

His grip on her hand eased even more, his fingertips
caressing the back of her hand before giving it a soft pat. He grinned at her.
“Thanks for trying. But that isn’t why I told you this, though it’s nice of you
to try to alleviate some of my guilt and grief. I want you to understand how
much these visions worry me. I don’t want to see slaughter like that ever
again. That’s why I’ve spent close to a decade helping the Three in San
Francisco clean up their mess. If something doesn’t change and soon,
Browningsville will fall to the demons. If they have an entire town to nest
safely in, I don’t know how we will be able to stop them.”

Bree had to take a deep, calming breath. The fear
surrounding Logan nearly overpowered her. “You said you needed a second
opinion. I don’t get visions so I don’t see how I can help with that.”

Logan waved at the rain pouring down. “Something’s wrong
with this. I know you get lots of rain in Kentucky but don’t you sense
something different about this particular storm?”

Closing her eyes and reaching out with her feelings, Bree
tried understand what he was talking about. She couldn’t tell if it was coming
from the rain exactly, or if the rain was a symptom, but her town felt somehow
darker than usual. It was almost as if the woods held their breath, waiting for
something terrible to happen. The feeling struck at something primal in her
psyche, something that wanted nothing more than to run and hide.

Like I’d ever let myself turn coward like that.

“I can’t put my finger on it.” She tried reaching out again
with the same results. “Something feels wrong but I can’t pinpoint the source.”

“Then it isn’t my imagination. The visions are warnings.”
Logan leaned forward and groaned, rubbing at his temples.

His conflicting emotions tore at her. Guilt and lust mixed.

He wouldn’t be able to say what had to be done, not this
time. This time, it had to come from her.

“We need to sleep together again.” Bree didn’t even try to
make it a question. There was only one thing they could do.
It’s not that I
want to. It’s not that the thought of being with him again makes my pulse race
and my heart go all gooey. We need to do this to get stronger and put up a
better fight.

Yeah right.

“Yes.” He gripped her hands again but Bree could tell it was
to anchor himself as he fought with his own conflicting emotions. “I know you
don’t want a relationship. I understand that you have no intention of changing
your feelings toward me. But my feelings are what they are. I can’t change
them.”

Her stomach clenched at the hopeless tone to his voice.
I
don’t want to hurt him. I really don’t. But I can’t say I want him. Not yet.
Maybe never. I’m just not ready.

But those feelings didn’t change what needed to be done.
Still, she couldn’t help but to offer him an out. “And you still want us to
sleep together, knowing that?”

He gave a weak laugh, shaking his head. “I’m a man. I’ll
always want a chance to sleep with you. I won’t lie to you, though. It stings
knowing that for you, us being together is only about gaining power for the
fight.

Bree’s emotions churned into a bubbling mass of confusion
and contradiction. She was starting to like Logan, respect him. She wasn’t
stupid. It wouldn’t take much for those feelings to grow into something more.
That’s why she’d wanted to stop in the first place. Sleeping with him was too
risky to her heart.

But not sleeping with him could be deadly for everyone.
Logan was right about that. That was the reason forcing her hand. Having sex
with him was a necessity. At least, that’s what she would tell herself. The
little voice in the back of her mind, the one that cheered at the chance to
trace his tattoos with her fingertips and feel his body over and in her again,
had nothing to do with it.

She pulled her hands from his. “You have to understand that
I’m not changing the ground rules. I don’t want you to think this could lead to
more.”

He gave her a sheepish grin, crossing his heart and raising
his palm to the sky. “I won’t think you’ll try to use the fact that I’m hot for
your body as a way to trap me.”

She shoved at his shoulder, trying not to laugh. “God, that
sounds like something Jordan would say.”

Eyes wide, Logan clapped his hands to his chest. “I didn’t
think Jordan was hot for your body. I mean, I’ve heard rumors about backwoods
families but didn’t think there was any truth to them.”

Bree stood and shook a fist at him. “Take that back now or I
will pound you into the ground.”

“Okay, sorry, couldn’t resist.” Logan braced his feet to
stop the glider from moving. “But I don’t think I’d mind you pounding me any
way you wanted.”

Bree couldn’t help herself. As she walked into the house,
she glanced over her shoulder and shot him her best lascivious grin. “I thought
you’re the one who’s supposed to do the pounding.”

He blinked, a wide smile sliding across his face. “I can
hope.”

“Well, after dinner, why don’t I stop by your room and see
about that hoping of yours.”

Chapter Seventeen

Half an hour later, Bree stood in front of Logan’s bedroom
door, hand poised to knock. She glanced up and down the hallway, heart racing,
feeling like a teenager again, sneaking around her brothers. Her stomach
twisted into knots and she just knew that Jordan would come barreling around
the corner any second and ask what she was doing.

She wasn’t entirely sure what her answer would be, should
be. She’d sworn she wasn’t going to do this again, that the risk to her heart
was too great.

But the demons and magic forced her hand. As much as she
wanted to protect herself from heartache, she couldn’t back down.

She knocked before she could second-guess herself again.

The door opened almost immediately. He stepped to the side
and waved her in. “I was wondering if you were going to stand there all night.”

Her cheeks heated and her feet stayed glued to the floor
just outside the room. “How did you know?”

“The floorboards squeak.” He shrugged, looking a bit
sheepish. “Not that I was waiting and listening or anything.”

He flashed that boyish grin of his, the one that made him
look almost nonthreatening—or at least less dangerous. He rubbed his head and
glanced at the floor.

Somehow the thought that he wasn’t as self-assured as he
seemed made Bree feel better about her own doubts. “Yeah, you weren’t waiting
for me.” She stepped forward and closed the door behind her.

Bree started to say more but was pinned by his sapphire-blue
gaze. She loved his eyes, piercing and sparkling at the same time. His gaze
alone made her melt. The heat blazing in them now was enough to make her knees
weak.

But she couldn’t let him know that. While she’d made her
feelings about a relationship quite clear, Bree wasn’t foolish enough to think
he’d let the subject drop entirely. He was biding his time, hoping to use sex
to tip the scale.

It would take everything in her not to let that happen.
Nothing could come of it—nothing permanent at least. In the end, if the demons
didn’t kill them both, he’d leave to go back to California, back to his life.
There was no reason for him to stay in a dead-end town like Browningsville.

She’d enjoy her time with him now but wouldn’t expect
anything more. She’d already refused him anyway.

Logan lifted one hand, moving slowly, giving her time to
avoid him if she wanted. He ran his fingers through her hair from front to
back. She shivered as he grazed the nape of her neck. He noticed the reaction,
sliding his hand down to wrap around her neck, running his fingers back and
forth over her sensitive skin.

“Mmm, so sensitive. I love how you respond to my touch.”

Bree shivered. It felt so good, so familiar. But she
couldn’t allow him know how familiar it felt. He didn’t need the emotional
ammunition. He might be right about all the past lives stuff but that had
nothing to do with the here and now.

It would be so easy to change her mind and she didn’t want
to. She leaned in to kiss him to take control of the situation. She slid her
tongue into his mouth, running it over and over the not-quite-roughness of his
own.

He groaned, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her
tight. She dug her fingers into his hair, losing herself in the kiss. He
grabbed at the edge of her shirt, releasing her mouth long enough to yank it
over her head.

Spinning her around, he guided her toward the bed. He helped
her sit, working his t-shirt off.

Bree narrowed her eyes. So he thought
he
was in
control. This might be the last time she ever had a chance with him.

He’s so
not
going to be the one in charge.

She reached forward, deftly dealing with button and zipper
on his black jeans. She grinned as she slipped her hand in the vee of cloth.

Commando, huh?
She licked her lips.
So much the
easier.

His hands dropped to his side and his head fell back as she
pulled his cock out, holding him in a firm grip. She tossed her hair back,
making certain she didn’t block his view. He’d want to see what she was doing
to him. The sight would pique his desire even more. She locked eyes with him as
she stuck out her tongue to lap at the little opening in the head of his cock.