LogansEmpath (9 page)

But these imps knew where they were. The creatures came to
her home ready for a fight.

They knew about the Colliers.

Bree shook off the sense of foreboding, shoving her feelings
to the back of her mind, and went to get the medical supplies from the box in
the bathroom. First things first. Time enough for worry later.

Ty and Wes already had Jordan sitting on his bed with his
shirt off. They were applying pressure to get the head wound to stop bleeding.

Bree wasted no time. She pulled out an antiseptic to clean
out the gash. The wound could use stitches but she made do with a couple of butterfly
bandages.

“They say scars can be attractive, right? Adds to the
mystery for some girls.” Jordan gritted his teeth and hissed as Bree took his
arm and raised it over his head. “Don’t think anything’s broken but I’m sure
I’ve bruised my ribs.”

“We’ll wrap them tight for now, just to be certain.” She
fingered his ribs, testing each one. A huge bruise was already spreading across
his side but while he flinched under her touch, nothing seemed to move or be
overly painful. Bree moved back to start looking through the supplies for
bandages and painkillers. “You should be okay for now.”

“That’s what I just said,” Jordan snapped, lips turning
white as the pain took its toll.

“If you want, I can
look
at it,” a voice spoke from
behind Bree.

Bree glanced over her shoulder to find Logan and Matt
standing in the doorway. “Where were you two?”

“We were getting his things.” Matt dropped his keys on
Jordan’s bureau. “Didn’t expect any trouble tonight, especially not here.”

Bree shook her head as she reached for bandages to wrap
Jordan’s ribs.

“Here, let me see.” Logan squatted next to her, pushing her
hands away from her brother’s injury. He stared at Jordan with unfocused eyes.
He raised his hand over her younger brother’s head wound. Logan’s fingers
started to glow.

Jordan jerked back, practically rolling off the bed. “Hey
now, watch what you’re doing.”

Logan pulled back his hand. “I’m just helping clean the
wound. Imp and demon scratches can leave a negative residue which slows the
healing process. I can clean that up. I can also look at your ribs, using my
second sight, and tell you if they’re fractured.”

“Can you heal them?” Bree tried not to let her relief show.

“Not right now. I’m not strong enough.” Logan waved at her.
“Actually, Sabine was always better at healing than either me or Brandr. With
some training, that would be more up Bree’s alley.”

“I could heal people?” That would’ve been a good thing to
have known, considering all the injuries they’d had over the years.

Logan nodded. “I mean, we’re not talking major magical
healing or anything. You couldn’t cure cancer or bring people back to life. But
you could speed healing of breaks and gashes. It took a lot of energy on your
part and you only did it in emergencies.”

Bree stepped back, hands clenched. She hated this, hated not
knowing what she was capable of. If she could be a better fighter…

“When you’re done, come to my room. I think we need to
talk.”

Chapter Ten

Cool light brightened the simple, warm room while the sound
of late-night TV broke the silence. Sitting on a loveseat in her living room,
Crystal flinched as she sensed the death of her last imp. She slammed her glass
of whiskey on the table, the amber liquid sloshing over her fingers.

The first foray obviously hadn’t worked but, if she was
honest, she hadn’t expected it to. Hoped, yes. Expected, no. This was more of a
test. She needed to know for certain that the imp was correct about the nature
of her enemies. Now she knew. The Colliers were indeed the people responsible
for destroying so many of her creatures over the last few years.

Damn them.

But she knew exactly who they were and they had no idea
about her. Jordan Collier wouldn’t have dated her if he had known she’d been
the one to plot the death of his parents. So she could bide her time and use
what power she’d accumulated in the last decade and a half to plot revenge.

She stood, the imps sitting at her feet scattering around
the room, hiding under the table and behind the piano or simply pulling lace
doilies over themselves.

Ignoring them, she stalked up the ornately carved staircase
to the master bedroom. She disregarded the comfort of her bed, moving across
the room and stepping out onto the balcony.

The town stretched out before her, a feast of poverty mixed
with a large helping of greed. From her favorite spot, Crystal pulled dark
energy into herself, feeding the creature within. She tapped into the fear and
desperation that coated the town. She ate the anger and jealousy.

As the darkness grew within her, Crystal began manipulating
the energies. Her body vibrated as a coating of black mist surrounded her,
boiling and churning.

Slowly the mass of almost-living darkness grew, fed by the
demon that possessed Crystal. She began directing that energy upward into the
clear night sky. A cloud billowed over her home, growing larger with each
passing second.

It expanded until it covered the entire valley, falling like
a lid across the mountaintops.

Gritting her teeth and clenching her fists over her head,
Crystal squeezed the mist. One by one drops of rancid rain fell to the earth,
faster and faster. The rain poured from the sky, soaking Crystal. As her blonde
hair plastered itself to her scalp and cheeks, she grinned.

Rain happened all the time in Kentucky. It was the price
paid for a landscape so lush and green. As such, floods were also common.
Common enough not to seem out of place.

Not even when that flood was caused—and controlled
by—demons.

The Collier family’s sense of charity and responsibility for
those living near them would be their undoing. They wouldn’t know what hit
them, wouldn’t be prepared. And this time, not only would they no longer stand
in the way of her plans, she would join their lands together. With the Collier
property joining the Briggs’, Crystal would have more than enough room to breed
an unstoppable army.

The mortal world would be hers.

Chapter Eleven

Standing in her doorway, trepidation filled Logan to the
point that he wondered if Bree could sense his approach. He stepped into her
room, wondering what to expect. Bree hadn’t seemed to be the most even-tempered
person, not that she’d been in any previous life either. His cheek didn’t sting
from her earlier slap anymore but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to
her hitting him again.

Bree stood by the window, staring out into the beginnings of
a stormy night. She appeared the picture of calm, the kind of figure he
imagined men once dedicated epic poems to. But that image could be
so
deceiving.

Logan cleared his throat and waited.

“I knew you were there.” She didn’t move or turn in his
direction. “I just needed to think for a little bit.”

Logan stepped into the middle of the room and looked around,
not knowing what to say. Her room wasn’t exactly bare. It had furniture and a
few family pictures. But that was all. It didn’t have the girly clutter he’d
expect to see in the room a woman grew up in. No stuffed animals or bottles of
mysterious female liquids and ointments littered her dresser. It was as if all
her childhood things had been put in a box, locked up and forgotten.

He felt a stab of sadness at the thought. As far back as he
could remember she’d never had a life where the move from childhood to
womanhood went smoothly.

“Whatever it is you’re thinking, don’t,” she snapped,
fingers gripping the curtains as she bowed her head. “I really don’t need the
added emotional stress right now.”

Again Logan didn’t know what to say, so he tried for
reassurance. “Your brother’s going to be fine.”

Bree finally turned away from the window. She crossed her
arms against her chest and leaned against the wall. “I know that. He wasn’t
hurt badly. Hell, I’ve had worse injuries before. That’s not what I’m thinking
about.”

Remaining silent, Logan gave her time to collect her
thoughts. Bree obviously had something on her mind and he didn’t have the power
to figure it out by himself. All he could do was wait.

She looked down at the floor, hugging her arms tightly to
herself. “If you were stronger, if we did what you suggested, would you have
been able to see the attack coming?”

Logan weighed his words carefully, watching her tortured and
guilt-ridden expression. He didn’t want to give her false hopes but he needed
her to understand the urgency and danger of their situation. “Maybe. There’s no
way of knowing, especially since I’m closely involved in the events. I probably
couldn’t have told you yesterday that this would happen. But I would’ve known
it was happening and been able to bring myself and Matt back in time to help.”

He watched her reaction for any signal or clue about what
she might be thinking. “Actually, you would’ve gotten more of a warning than I.
You would’ve been able to feel them coming, without trying. Scanning for
negative or alien emotions would come more naturally, without work or
concentration on your part.”

I’ve never wanted to be the Empath more than I do right
now. I would give anything to know what Bree’s thinking. The fact she has her
eyes closed and is drumming her head against the wall doesn’t exactly bode
well.

What is she
thinking
?

“Do I have to love you?” she finally asked, focusing on a
point over his shoulder instead of meeting his eyes. “Because I don’t even know
you, not really.”

His heart ached a little at her words but she deserved a
truthful answer. It just hurt to admit it. “No, you don’t have to love me, not
to strengthen our connections and powers. The ritual to close a tear, the one
that involves all three of us,
that
requires both love and trust. This
just requires trust. And of course desire. Sex without desire on both sides is
always meaningless.”

Bree gave a humorless laugh, rubbing at her arms and
shifting her weight on her feet. She grimaced. “Trust. I don’t trust anyone
except my brothers.”

Logan moved farther into the room, closer to her. She looked
so lost. He wasn’t certain how to handle that. Brandr had been the best at
giving that kind of comfort. Logan was the planner, the logical one. “Do you
think I would do anything to hurt you?”

The look she gave him reminded Logan of the past, more
bloodthirsty Sabine. “No. I wouldn’t allow you to hurt me.”

“Do you trust that I’m telling you the truth, about the
demons and past lives and sex, no matter how incredible it sounds?” Logan moved
even closer, into her personal space. Though she seemed a bit jumpy, gaze
darting around the room, she didn’t try to move away.

Bree didn’t answer for a long time, long enough to put his
already frazzled nerves on edge. Logan’s breath held in his chest, causing his
heart to thump almost painfully. In the end, everything, his whole possible
future, rode on the answer to that one question.

“Yes. Demons are real.” She let her hands fall to her side
and stared at the ceiling. “I’ve known that for years. You have extensive
experience with them, that’s apparent from how well you fight against them.
I’ve seen you use magic. As much as I might want it not to be true, I believe
you.”

Logan reached out to cup her cheek in the palm of a single
hand. She jerked under his caress, eyes widening, but she didn’t pull away.
“Then you trust me enough.” He rubbed her lower lip with his thumb. “Now, about
the desire…”

Her eyelids lowered to half-mast and she shot him a coy
glance. Her lips curled into a knowing smirk. “Well, I’m female and I have a
pulse.” Her eyes flicked down his body and back up. “I don’t think desire’s
going to be a problem.”

“Good,” he whispered before leaning forward to take the kiss
he’d hungered for from the first moment he caught sight of her in the cafe.

She gave a soft whimper as he pulled her against his body.
He lapped at her mouth until she parted her plump lips. As soon as he achieved
entrance Logan devoured her, letting the familiar lush flavor fill him. But she
didn’t allow him complete control for long. Her tongue plunged into his mouth,
taking as she gave.

So absorbed in her taste, Logan didn’t even realize that she
was moving him across the room until his knees hit the side of her bed. He
ripped his lips off hers, panting. “Slow down, Bree. Take time to enjoy it.”

“Oh, I plan on enjoying it. I plan on enjoying it immensely.
If I’m doing this, I’m going to enjoy myself.” She gave him an unexpected push,
sending him toppling onto the mattress.

He barely had time to gulp as she pulled her shirt over her
head and sent it flying to land on her dresser, knocking over a framed picture.
She reached for the back clasp of her white satin bra, practically growling as
she struggled with the catch. Logan sat up to stop her.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this.” He shook his head as he
pulled her hands away from her clothes. He held her fists loosely, rubbing her
knuckles until they unclenched. “Slow down. There’s no rush.”

She smirked, her disbelief obvious. “I have five brothers
living here. There’s always a rush.”

“But that isn’t why you’re rushing things, is it?”

Bree opened her mouth but closed it before saying anything.
Her shoulders sagged as she sat down on the bed beside him. She avoided looking
at him.

“Talk to me.” Logan kept his hold on her hands and rubbed
them between his own. “Remember, trust is the key.”

“This is just about the magic,” she whispered, still not
meeting his gaze. “I don’t have it in me for it to be about anything else.”

Logan closed his eyes. He’d known that already. He hadn’t
wanted to hear it again, not like that. But her feelings made perfect sense.
She didn’t have any of his memories of past lives and loves to pull from. It
had taken a while the first time too but Sabine had loved him. Logan didn’t
doubt that for a second.