Lucid (39 page)

To hear him say that in person hurt even more. He must’ve seen in it my eyes because his gaze softened. “I’m trying to protect you. I think your Internet searches have attracted attention. And that’s why Drake and that guy from the library wanted your journal.”

“I got the impression they were working for the same boss.” I paused, then frowned. “What’s weird is that it was almost like they shared the same brain too, based on the things Drake knew that had taken place between me and the guy in the library.”

Ethan stiffened. “I doubt you’ll have to worry about that guy from the library.”

I shrugged, since I didn’t plan to go back there. “Regardless, there’s nothing in that journal that anyone couldn’t find on the Internet.” As soon as I spoke, I realized that the raven symbol on the necklace was unique.

“What is it?” Ethan asked.

I pointed to the necklace. “I drew this symbol in your journal from memory. The guy in the library saw it when I dropped the book and it fell open.” I touched the necklace once more. “Where did you get this?”

“I found it.” He shook his head and snorted. “I wasn’t even looking for it, but I was drawn right to it.”

“You found it in Michigan?”

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kissed my temple. “I was taking a tour through a turn-of-the-century house and I discovered it hidden in a drawer.”

“You took it?” I couldn’t believe he’d remove something from private property.

Ethan shook his head. “I told you, I was drawn to it. Watch this.” He lifted the medallion in his hand, held it for a second, then set the disk in my palm.

It felt like an oven-warmed stone. Awed, I met his gaze. “How’d you do that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It warms to my touch, so I didn’t feel guilty taking it. I was led to it for a reason.” Letting the necklace fall, he gripped my shoulders. “I mean it, Nara. Don’t take it off. Understand?”

“Why?”

“It’ll protect you,” he said, his brow creasing with worry.

My eyes widened. “Protect me from what?”

“From guys like Drake.”

“Where’d you find that sword you used on him? And don’t tell me it was one of the swords from Mr. Martin’s Civil War shadow box,” I said, giving him a stern look.

Without a word, Ethan grasped my waist and settled me on his lap, facing him. Taking my left hand, he placed it on his right shoulder, then closed his eyes.

A few seconds later, a cold hardness began to form under my fingers. I jerked my hand back and gasped.

Ethan’s grip around my waist tightened and his lips set in a grim line. “My tattoo is definitely permanent.”

“Was that the hilt? It’s…real?” My hand shook as I tentatively slid my palm across his shoulder once more. This time I only felt firm muscles bunch under my fingers. “How’d you make it do that?”

“I pictured Drake attacking you.”

That must’ve been the hardness I felt along his back when we were dancing. He was pretty riled about Drystan
. “When did your tattoo change again?”

“While I’ve been gone.”

Fate had said he was an enforcer. Is that what the sword was for? But what did Corvus equalize?

“What was Drake?” I asked in a hushed voice.

Ethan’s dark gaze glittered with anger. “Pure evil.”

I wanted to demand that he tell me everything, but Ethan’s expression suddenly shuttered. I had a feeling if I pushed him for more now, he’d shut down. “When you get back, you’ll tell me everything?” I prompted.

He nodded, his fingers flexing on my skin. “Everything I know.”

I looked down at the dragon tattoo on his forearm and slid my fingers along the flames edging it. Various religious symbols graced each leaping flame that licked around the dragon. Ethan had gotten the tattoo as a way to help him overcome the evil images that pervaded his dreams, since the images were projections of negative energy he’d absorbed from people he came in contact with. I touched each symbol one at a time. “Is it still helping you?”

“It does some, but not as much as being with you does. He trailed his fingers down my cheek, his gaze following the path. “You settle me, Nara. More so now than ever.”

I smiled and grasped his hand, kissing his palm. Now that we’d spent time together, Ethan would absorb my dreams. At least for a few days, he’d see my entire day along with his nightmares each night. I liked being the bright light spearing through the darkness of his dreams, slaying his night demons.

Patch began to make annoyed
tok, tok, tok
sounds. He was ready to leave. I shook my head at the temperamental bird and climbed off Ethan, then pulled a quarter out of my nightstand drawer to set it spinning.

Patch grabbed it, then hopped/flew to the window, where he squeezed underneath the small opening and took flight.

“I don’t believe it.” Ethan sounded dumbfounded.

“What?”

He held up his finger. “Just wait.”

A few minutes later, Patch flew back to the window, landing on the ledge outside. When he pushed his beak through and dropped the quarter on the floor, then flew away, I looked at Ethan. “That’s never happened before.”

He ran both hands through his hair and laughed. “Yes, it has. I wondered where that raven with the white patch got all those quarters he brought to me every day. Sometimes he’d just drop them on my head.”

“But…” I looked at the quarter on the carpet, then back to Ethan. “That’s impossible for him to be in two places at once. He couldn’t fly that many miles every day.”

He shook his head. “I have no idea how he’s doing it.”

“Aww, he was making sure we stayed connected,” I said, comforted by the idea.

“You’ve never left my thoughts.” Ethan touched my chin, then glanced outside at the dawn getting ready to break the sky. “Happy birthday, Sunshine.”

He remembered!
The changes in Ethan might have tinged him with dark edges, but he was
good
inside and he was still
my Ethan
. I didn’t care if he existed outside of my realm. My love for him swelled with the blush of the sun sliding sleepily over the horizon. The rays hadn’t made their way to my room yet, but I already felt their warmth radiating through me.

I smiled at him and slid the sheet down. “About that promise you made before you left…” As I started to pull at the thin baby-pink ribbon bow that held my strapless bra together, Ethan grasped my hand.

“Ethan…” I let out a confused sigh.

When he shook his head, I thought my heart might break from disappointment. “I’ve been waiting for just the right light,” he said and then slowly pulled one of the ribbon’s tails.

He’d made me wait for the right light?
I wanted to punch his arm and kiss him at the same time. As I stared into his deep blue gaze full of love, intensity, and absorbed focus on his task, my insides churned with excitement and anticipation.
This
was why I loved him so much. He surprised me in beautiful, heart-stopping ways.

Just as the first tendrils of sunlight reached my room, the bow unraveled. Ethan took his time tracing a finger past the hollow in my throat, then down the center of my chest. When his knuckles brushed the top curve of my cleavage, I sucked in a breath and goose bumps scattered across my skin.

Ethan’s eyes snapped to mine, a dark, sexy smile tilting the left corner of his mouth. My heart stuttered as he grasped my waist, then slowly pulled me close. Kissing his jaw, I slid my hands along his shoulders and welcomed his warmth as everything inside me bloomed to life.

* * *

I’m floating on a plane of blissful, skin-buzzing happiness. Ethan touches my hair. A curl lifts and he inhales, drawing in my smell. Then his fingers slowly slide along my jaw and down my throat. Everywhere he touches, I tingle.

It bothers me that I can’t see him, so I pull my sleepy eyes open long enough to catch a glimpse of him. He’s shirtless and still wearing his black dress pants as he sits in the chair by my bed.
Those pants are coming off, even if I have to undress you myself.
As soon as the wicked thought flashes through my mind, another thought occurs.
Why is he sitting?
My eyes flutter and as my body starts to stir, he lays his hand on my shoulder and whispers, “Shhh.” As lethargic warmth flows through me, he lightly trails his fingers across my arm.

“I love you, Sunshine,” he murmurs in that deep baritone that sends chills down my spine as he continues to trace along my belly and then down my leg to my toes.

I mumble it back. I think. At least, I thought the words, “I love you too.”

He chuckles and I smile before I lose myself again in sleep’s blissful arms
.

* * *

Houdini’s wet nose nudged me awake from a deep sleep. “Houdini!” I fussed, pushing him away as I tugged the covers to cover me.
Wait?
“How’d you get in here?”

My eyes flew open and I turned to ask Ethan when he’d let Houdini back in. Only a folded piece of paper lay on the pillow next to me.
I didn’t get to say goodbye.
Sadness flickered through me as I slowly unfolded his note.

Nara,

I’ll be back by Monday night. Don’t take off the necklace I gave you. It will keep you safe. I might not know how I know that, but I just do. Please trust me on this. Stay safe, and…no more Internet searches, library research or interviewing people about ravens, swords or tattoos. I promise to share what little I know when I get back. I have more questions about your connection to ravens too.

Happy birthday, Sunshine! I hope you enjoy your present.

TTTWFO,

Ethan

Present? I glanced around my room and my attention snagged on a six-inch square box wrapped in comics newspaper and a manila envelope leaning against it on my nightstand.

As I moved to sit up, something sharp poked my hip and then tickled my right side.
What’s in my covers?
I yelped and leaned back to quickly push away the covers. There’d better not be a spider under there.

When my gaze landed on the lone black raven feather tucked along my hip inside my lacy underwear, tears prickled my eyes. “Oh, Ethan…” I said, swallowing my emotion as I slid the feather out. “I love the way you make promises.” He’d insisted that we wait to go all the way until he got back, saying, “It’ll be too hard not seeing you everyday afterward, Nara. I never want to leave you again.” I smiled and ran the soft vane along my fingers. This feather was softer than the feather I’d lost, but the quill felt stronger.
Where did he get it?

I tucked the feather in my hair, then found my bra in the covers and quickly tied it back on.

The manila envelope read
Open First
, so I gently lifted the sealed back. My heart jerked when I started to pull it out and saw it was a sketch of me. Had he drawn me like he’d said he wanted to? Pausing, I took a breath and slid the drawing the rest of the way out.

It was a gorgeous drawing of me laughing as I leaned over to throw a piece of bread to geese in a pond. As always, Ethan had dated the drawing in the right-hand corner. He’d drawn it the same day we’d gone on our picnic.

I smiled as I set the drawing on my bed. When I pulled the box closer, I read the note taped to the top of the box.

For those special moments you never want to forget. When it comes to you, all I need is a pencil.

Ethan

Touched by his sweet note, I picked up the box and tore through the comics. When all the paper fell away, I smiled through the emotion clogging my throat. Ethan had bought me a camera.

Houdini started whining, reminding me that he needed to go outside. “Okay, boy,” I said, setting the gifts and feather back on my nightstand.

I hurried over to my dresser, grabbing a sweatshirt and jeans from the drawers. Once I’d slipped on my pants, I pulled on my sweatshirt as I walked back across the room. My shoulder twinged with a slight burning sensation from my movements, so I tugged the neck of my sweatshirt over my shoulder and glanced in the full-length mirror as I started to pass it.

I froze, my fingers digging into the collar. Tearing the sweatshirt off, I dropped it on the floor and turned my back toward the glass.

“Holy mother!” I slid trembling fingers over my shoulder to touch the tip of the stark white feather, then moved closer to inspect the tattoo on the back of my left shoulder blade. The vane looked just like a normal white feather, but the end of the quill didn’t resemble a traditional feather. It was smooth on one side, but the other side had a jagged, tooth-like edge.

As I ran my fingers along the bottom of the quill, trying to see the uneven edge better, I remembered when I’d felt a burning sensation along my shoulder blade. I was in the coach’s closet with Ethan when he kissed me on the shoulder. The moment wasn’t just a physical sensation, but it had felt emotional and connected. Special. I’d felt…special!

Had he done this to me?
Anger flared, quickly followed by disbelief. I chewed my lip for a few seconds as I reasoned through it. Whatever it meant, Ethan would never mark me with a tattoo, magically or otherwise, without asking me first. I
had
felt something shift between us when he kissed me in that same spot.

Could it have happened like my lucid dream? Triggered subconsciously? Intentional or not, it came from Ethan, so why was my feather white and not black like his?
Like his!
Things clicked into place that hadn’t made sense to me before now. As I shrugged back into my sweatshirt, I thought about how the guy from the library and Drake had called me names like tweet, fledgling, and little bird. Both had also been raring for a good fight. And after everything that’d happened, I was pretty sure Harper wasn’t trying to save me from being hit by that swinging door at CVAS like she’d said. Ha, she’d probably kicked the wedge away, sending the door flying. I’d felt her warm breath on my neck, because she’d been looking down the back of my shirt. She was trying to see if I had a tattoo on my back. They all thought I was Corvus like Ethan!