LogansEmpath (7 page)

He couldn’t wait and neither could she. Her hand pressed
into his, shoving a condom into his grip. He grinned. That was his Bree, never
one to wait around for something she could do herself.

So he couldn’t help but tease her a bit. He pulled back,
smirking as he dangled the condom in front of her. “Do you want to put it on
me?”

“If it will hurry you the hell up.” She jerked the packet
from his fingers and ripped it open. She took his cock in hand, rolling the
latex into place.

At the feel of her fingers gliding over his sensitive flesh,
Logan groaned. He gritted his teeth against the urge to come even as his balls
tightened.

She laughed, actually laughed, as she ran a single finger
down the crease between his balls to tease his perineum. The single touch sent
a bolt of arousal up and down his spine, arching his back and forcing a hiss
through his clenched teeth. “Now, are you going to fuck me already or do I need
to get rough? You were the one pushing for us to increase our powers. You gonna
chicken out on me now?”

Logan shoved her back with a growl.

She giggled, locking her ankles around the small of his
back, nudging him. “That’s more like it.”

There was only one way he knew of to truly keep that smart
mouth of hers quiet. He slammed his mouth across hers, nibbling and sucking at
her lower lip. He reached down and guided his cock into the tight channel of
her warm cunt. She gasped beneath him, tightening her thighs and convulsing.
The warm squeeze of her body around him had him digging his fingers into the
sheets beside her hips.

Slowly he built up a rhythm that drove them both higher
while avoiding a fall over the edge of orgasm. He opened his mind to her
completely, allowing her full access to his every emotion and sensation while
keeping no shield up against hers. It wasn’t the same as it would be with their
Catalyst present to heighten both their powers but Logan still felt wave upon
wave of raw emotion flowing from her and into him. His hunger grew with hers
until lust seemed to crawl up his spine with every plunge into her body.

But it was the feeling of her orgasm crashing over him at
the same moment her channel tightened around his cock that had him pouring his
cum inside her, the full connection blocked only by a thin layer of latex. He
trembled as he came, elbows locked as he struggled not to collapse on her.
Finally, when he felt he had enough control, Logan pulled out and rolled to his
side. He knew he had to leave to clean up but he didn’t want to move from her
side, not yet.

The power they built here, forged together, was not enough
to close a tear in the veil. But surely it would help power their mage magic.
He would be able to teach Bree and both of them would be safer. If it led to
the love that he’d once had with her before, all the better.~

It was at this point of contentment and epiphany that
Logan’s vision shifted from this possible future to a more bleak option, one of
refusal, loneliness and weakness.

~The woods looked darker, more brooding than he thought
possible. The trees seemed to hold their breath, waiting for the end to begin.
Logan felt his heart clench with every gust of wind howling through the
branches and every snap of a twig. This was worse than fighting in the sewers
of San Francisco. At least there you knew what direction the enemy was coming
from. Here, deep in the mountains, imps and demons could be anywhere.

The fact that his own emotional state was in turmoil didn’t
help his anxiety. Since Bree had chosen not to join her powers with his, Logan
knew they were at a disadvantage. What made it worse was the fact that he
alone, thanks to his Visionary powers, had any idea of how much weaker they
were than they could have been.

But he respected Bree. He couldn’t force her against her
will in the past and he wouldn’t start now. Not that forcing her to have sex
with him would have increased anything.

Negativity only fed the enemy.

A howl sounded close on his left, followed by several more.
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as his every nerve quivered.
Those didn’t sound like imps. Those sounds came from grown demons at the very
least. And unless he was more turned around than he thought, the cries came
from the direction that two of the Collier brothers last headed. The screams
and hisses that erupted served to guide him to the battle.

Sword held at the ready, Logan dashed as quickly as the
slick ground allowed. Muddy leaves made gaining any traction practically
impossible. Cursing the rain, Logan slid to his knees, slowing him down even
further. As he finally slashed his way through some bramble and joined the
fray, he realized that he was too late.

The head of the youngest Collier brother rolled past his
feet, nearly tripping him. As he tore his eyes from that horror he watched as
the eldest held his hand to his neck, blood flowing through his fingers.

Bree broke through the trees on the opposite end of the
fighting. As she stood frozen in disbelief, Logan tried to catch her gaze and
plead with her not to do anything stupid. She screamed her rage, hurling
herself at the demon facing her eldest brother. She managed to slice through
its chest before a second demon grabbed her and flung her into a tree. She
smashed through branches and struck the trunk with a sickening thud before
sliding to the ground, hopefully unconscious and not dead.

Logan charged forward, just reaching the first demon as the
vision faded.~

Jerking up, Logan gasped and held the edge of a quilt to his
throat. His stomach clenched and churned, threatening to reintroduce him to his
dinner. He waited for his heart to stop pounding and his muscles to ease.

He couldn’t let that last vision happen. That could
not
become the true future. He had to convince Bree to join him, strengthen both
their powers.

He wouldn’t live with the consequences if they were too weak
to defend this family that she loved.

Chapter Eight

Okay, so over coffee in the kitchen probably wasn’t the
best time or place to explain things but I didn’t think I had time to waste.
And despite what she’d already said, I didn’t believe Bree would want her brothers
to know everything.

Obviously I was wrong.

Logan pressed a hand against his stinging cheek. Bree glared
at him, her brown eyes practically glowing with her anger. The entire room
seemed displeased as her emotions bled into her surroundings. Hell, Logan was
surprised the walls weren’t heaving.

“I’ve heard some lame excuses for wanting to have sex,” she
sneered, “but that has to be the most outrageous piece-of-crap story ever.”

Before Logan could stop her Bree dashed out of the kitchen,
past her brothers and out the door.

Okay, that went over less than well.
His shoulders
sagged as he slid his hands into his pockets. He wanted to bang his head
against the wall. He’d let the emotions his final vision left him with rule his
actions in real time.
Not a good idea, obviously. I used to be a better
strategist than this.

“What the hell did you say to her?” Wes demanded from the
doorway, his voice more curious than angry.

Logan eyed the fourth Collier brother, wondering what to
tell him. As a journalist, if a reporter for the
Browningsville Daily
Enterprise
could be called that, this brother seemed to be the one more
inclined to listen to the full story. He also seemed like the one who’d be most
skeptical.

But if Logan really wanted a relationship with Bree, not just
a quick fuck like she seemed to think, he needed to focus on her family. Her
five brothers meant the world to her. Without their support, no man was getting
near her.

“Can you call the others?” Logan rolled his head slightly,
trying to ease the tension in his neck. Risking his life against demons was one
thing. He knew how to handle that. Five pissed-off brothers might be enough to
do him in. “I think I need to tell you everything.”

Wes stared at him with eyes almost identical to Bree’s,
though framed by a head of shaggy, jet-black hair. The amount of suspicion in
those eyes echoed Bree’s as she’d stormed out. “All right. Meet us in the
dining room. That’s the best place for family discussions.” He paused at the
door. “You want Bree there too?”

Logan shook his head, a wry smile curling his lips. “I
already tried that. I think it would be better if I gave her time to cool
down.”

Wes gave a respectful nod. “You sound like you already have
a pretty good handle on Little Sis.”

You have no idea.
“I’m trying.”

“I get that.” Wes smirked for a second before pinning Logan
with a narrow gaze. “Just don’t try too hard. We don’t trust you yet. You hurt
our sister, we hurt you worse.”

Dark laughter bubbled out of Logan at the thought. “I doubt
you can do worse to me than she would.”

“Maybe.” Wes paused to chuckle as well. “But there’s more of
us to go through.”

Logan took a moment to pour a cup of coffee before wandering
into the dining room. He took a seat at the middle of the table while waiting
for Wes to find everyone. He made a conscious decision not to sit at the head.
He suspected that was Aaron’s territory and he didn’t want to step on any toes.
His story was going to be hard enough to swallow without any other antagonism
on Aaron’s part.

This wasn’t going to be easy. Logan could barely remember a
time when he’d told a civilian about the demons. It had to have been in one of
his earliest lives, before all the different sets of Three were established.
Then, he felt, it was easier, people more believing. Even though the family was
well aware of the existence of demons, Logan wasn’t looking forward to
explaining what happened in the past. Especially the sexual aspects and how
they related to the Colliers’ sister.

One by one, all shooting him puzzled looks, the Collier
brothers came in and took seats at the dining table. As Logan thought, Aaron
sat at the head. Logan waited for him to start the discussion.

While waiting, Logan considered the leader of the Collier
family. He could easily picture the older brother working as a miner. Only in
his early thirties, Aaron was built like a linebacker. He could probably carry
pounds of coal out of the mines strapped on his back like a pack mule. But he
also looked like he could crush a man’s head with his bare hands, something the
man was sure to do to anyone who messed with his sister.

And Logan intended to do a lot of messing—not a safe
position to be in.

“What can you tell us about these demons?” the older man
asked.

With several lifetimes worth of information, that could take
a while. “Where do you want me to start?”

Aaron crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “How
about from the beginning?”

The beginning. That’s farther back than you’d think. But
I’ve been raking through those old memories since I was old enough to understand
them and much too young to be exposed to the viciousness of them.
Closing
his eyes, Logan let himself think back to those lifetimes, so violent and much
too short. “The beginning was a long, long time ago.”

From the seat directly across from Logan, Jordan smirked.
“Once upon a time?”

“Something like that.” Logan didn’t let Jordan’s obvious
disbelief stop him. He put his hands behind his head and leaned back, putting a
slight distance from himself and the negativity in case he needed to pull on
his Visionary powers for clearer details. “This isn’t a new war. Mythology
alone gives proof to how long this battle has been going on. Thousands of years
ago, demons began breaking through into the mortal world.”

“Why?” Ty braced his elbows on the table, his steepled
fingers tapping against his chin.

Now I’m an expert on how demons think. Well, I have
thought about it a lot. I can give them my best theories.
“In one sense, I
guess because it was better than the place they came from. They wanted freedom,
freedom to kill, maim and terrorize to their content.” That much wasn’t hard to
figure out. Logan thought of all the bodies he’d seen over the years. “In
another sense, because humans gave them an opening.”

“An opening?” Aaron asked.

Logan turned to stare at the eldest brother, willing him to
understand and believe. “You see, it’s been my experience that much of what
happens with demons is keyed in on emotions. The creatures seem to feed on the
feelings of hatred, fear, anguish and despair as much as on actual human flesh
and blood. That’s why people with abilities, like your sister, are so
important. Negative emotions and energy build up in a place. After a while they
become like an acid, eating away at the border between the mortal world and the
demon realms. A small tear allows imps and the like entrance. A larger tear
allows fully grown demons and demon lords access to this world.”

“So we’ve got a big tear somewhere ‘cause we’ve been killing
the suckers for seven years now.”

Logan shook his head at Jordan. “I doubt it. You may have
seen a few adolescent demons but you haven’t met up with a fully grown one
yet.”

“And how do you know that?” This time it was Matt asking.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Logan gave a humorless
chuckle before turning to his right and shaking his head at Matt. “Because
you’re all still alive. You’re good. I can’t even imagine how someone not
trained managed to keep up demon hunting for years but you’ve only dealt with
possessed humans, imps and low-level demons.”

Jordan’s eyes narrowed, lips pursed. “You say we’re good.
Then why don’t you think we could take down one of your demon lords?”

“Because it takes mage magic to do that and none of you have
it.” Logan paused, taking a moment to look at each man one by one, stopping on
Aaron. “Bree could do it but she hasn’t learned how. It’s not something that
just comes to a person.”