Ravens (8 page)

Kendra had no doubts these three men
were Ravens, and Liam was right: Any human who didn’t understand the truth
would take one glimpse at them and cower. They were brooding and enigmatic. It
was difficult to believe they were actually the good guys.

She glanced at Liam as he watched her.
She focused on the men who assessed her.

“Don’t mind their stares,” Liam
muttered, “we don’t come across many Raven females.”

His words didn’t make the moment any
less awkward. In fact, not coming across many “females” sounded creepy.

Kendra wiped her brow and fanned herself
for a second before realizing how strange that may come across.

“You feel it, the heat?”

She nodded.

“It’s the energy we emit. It’s
electro-magnetic heat. Every Raven emits a very mild amount from their pores
all the time. It attracts other Ravens, it lets us know when others like us are
close. Almost like a scent, a pulse, or a sensation. I dunno; it’s hard to
pinpoint.”

Despite lacking an official term, the
strong scent was there. She sensed it. With so much Raven energy surging
through the room, Kendra felt it in the pit of her being. It drew her to the
others like a startled magnet, but the strongest pull emanated from someone who
wasn’t even in the room. Julie’s energy through their blood-bond pounded around
Kendra. She knew it belonged to Julie because flashes of her face blurred her
vision. She blinked them away.

A dizzy spell hit. Her stomach churned,
and a strange heat washed through her. She grabbed onto the back of the couch
behind her and doubled over in pain.

“Darling?” Liam went to her. He crouched
down to her level.

He placed his left hand on her shoulder
and his right hand on her arm. Skin-to-skin contact caused an onslaught of
fusing energy between him and Kendra. The touch sent a wave of tremors through
her, worsening her reaction, and igniting the second step in her
transformation. She became a trembling mass in his arms.

“Sorry,” he muttered and moved his hands
to her back and hip, avoiding her skin. “Seem to forget my abilities around
you.”

“It’s starting to hit her.” Nathan took
a step toward them. “Get her off her feet before she passes out.”

“Too late,” Kendra mumbled as things
distorted, and her world went black.

The heat swirled around in her head as
her vision grew hazy. The voices clashed until everything hummed. She collapsed
in Liam’s arms. He caught her. Kendra was weak, defenseless, and on the verge
of unconsciousness in an alien world, trapped in an apartment with four husky
strangers, one of whom happened to be her captor and borderline stalker.

Liam swept her into his arms, and
carried her to the bedroom.

“Where are you taking her? Why don’t you
just settle her down on the couch so we can get going?” Nathan asked.

“She’s going to help us find Julie, and
she needs to change.”

“How’s a newcomer gonna help?” Mark
muttered.

Liam retreated into the room next to
his, the bright one. He placed Kendra on Julie’s bed to allow her blood to
settle and her psyche to regain balance. He rummaged through Julie’s closet in
search of raid-appropriate attire.

Kendra moaned. She pushed herself onto
her elbows, but was too weak to sit up. She felt high or drunk, or what she
imagined those things felt like. Whatever the strong feeling, it wasn’t
pleasant.

She watched Liam push through the
hangers as she frantically attempted to stay alert and coherent. She couldn’t
tell if he was aware of her by being in her mind. She stared at his tattoo-engraved
triceps and the mesmerizing play of his back muscles against his shirt.

Liam whipped around, holding onto a pair
of jeans. “What size are you, darling? You might be about Julie’s size.”

He tossed the jeans onto the bed at
Kendra’s feet without waiting for an answer. He picked up a pair of tan
sneakers and went to the bed, setting them on the floor.

Kendra was still dazed.

Liam glanced down at her. She rested on
her back, head turned so she faced the room, the door, and Liam. Her hands
rested on the bed by her belly with her right knee slightly bent.

“As much as I love your comic book vixen
outfit, boots and all, not very practical for the raid we’re going on,
sweetheart.”

“W-what’s going on?” she stuttered. Her
lids fluttered in the assault of his energy, which wafted through the air and
reacted with her developing energy.

“Our powers are interacting. They’ll
draw out your own abilities, and very soon you’ll be just as strong as the rest
of us.”

He bent over her legs. She extended her
neck so her head rocked back in response to the nauseating sensation. Kendra
didn’t know what to do with herself. She wanted to vomit, pass out, and
physically try to remove the sensations all at the same time.

Liam unzipped her boots. The sound
startled her.

“Don’t worry,” he coaxed her, placing
his fingers on her exposed knee to calm her through his energy.

His power pushed back her nausea with a
tingling, numbing sensation that emanated from his touch. The feeling spread
through her body, branched out in her veins, and clawed toward her head. She
unknowingly lifted her knee, beckoning for more of his touch, more of his
addictive power. Though he hadn’t explained it to her, she understood his power
of persuasion was not faulty. He could make her do anything with this
intoxicating effect.

Chapter Eight

Liam slipped off one boot and unzipped
the other, placing his hand on Kendra’s calf as he did so. He watched her. To
his surprise, she seemed somewhat awake, watching him through hooded lids. She
lay motionless with one knee bent as his fingers stroked her calf, her stomach
concaved then sharply angled where her ribs met her heaving chest. Her loose
and untamed hair covered her shoulders.

The smile gradually faded from Liam’s
lips as he stared at her with the utmost longing. The girl from his past, the
one he’d been mentally and emotionally intimate with these past few years, laid
here within his grasp. Soon, she would be his.

Liam straightened his body and took one
long stride to the head of the bed. As he moved toward her, one finger brushed
her shin, knee, and thigh, leaving a trail of warmth from his powers so she
could relax and heal. Every scrape and bruise from her fall through the portal
vanished before his eyes.

He leaned over her, pushed against her
torso, and eased her flat against the bed with the gentle, heated pressing of
his body. She felt so good against him. The illusions allowed him to think of
what it would be like to touch her, but now he knew, and it didn’t compare to
the real thing.

He lifted his left hand and placed it on
her lower cheek. He wrapped his fingers beneath her ear and over the corner of
her jaw line. His thumb enticed her lips to part. His face, close to hers,
followed her as she leaned against the pillow.

Kendra watched his lips. He lowered his
gaze to her mouth.

Liam tilted his head to the right, his
mouth an inch from hers. His breath hit her lips when he spoke. Her body
shivered against him. 

“I forget my own skill, but unlike my
illusions, you probably won’t remember this anyway.”

He couldn’t help it. He bent lower and
kissed the left corner of her mouth.

How long had he waited to taste her
lips, to touch her skin, to smell her hair?

Kendra moaned beneath the euphoric
sensations. Her lids fluttered and she succumbed to the darkness, closing her
eyes, hopefully unaware of the lips that caressed hers once again.

He chastised himself after the fact.
Shaking his head, Liam left the room before anything else happened. He closed
the bedroom door behind him.

“How’s she doing?” Nathan asked.

“She’s fine, but passed out.”

“We know what that means,” Lou muttered.

“That we have to wait for her to wake up
and get over it. Why are we waiting for her again? Why can’t we go after Julie
today? Go after her now?” Mark asked impatiently.

“Well, first of all, we don’t even know
where Julie is. Kendra is her sister; she’ll be able to find her.”

The men paused and stared at Liam. Mark
turned red.

“Say what?” Lou asked.

“How did she get here?” Nathan inquired.

“I, um, called her,” Liam hesitantly
replied.

“Like a phone call?” Nathan growled.

“Like I sent her illusions and
communicated with her to be at the portal site,” he replied audaciously. He
knew what Nathan might think of this situation, the reason why Liam hadn’t
divulged the information in the first place. Now he didn’t have a choice but to
explain his actions, so he did so with boldness. He took a chance for the
greater good, so let Nathan yell.

“I can’t believe you purposely brought
someone into this world. You know how she’s going to be treated, what kind of
dangerous life this is. Look at what happened to Julie. You want that on your
hands?”

“She’s meant to be a Raven. If she isn’t
supposed to be here, the portal wouldn’t have opened for her.”

“The portal would have found her, and
she would blame it on the portal, the universe, destiny, fate, whatever, but
not on you. Maybe, it isn’t her time.”

“Her time was ten years ago when
we
came.
Besides, the longer she lived in the other world, the more difficult it’ll be
for her to detach herself from her family, and the more painful it’ll be for
them to lose her. She’s the only one we can trust to find Julie, so we need her
now more than ever. Does anyone have any better ideas?”

“Is that the only reason you brought her
here? You know she can’t ever go back, don’t you? Does
she
know that?”

Liam looked away, heated by the truth of
the situation. Guilt crawled through his conscience, and for once, he doubted
his actions. He sentenced Kendra to a life of danger without allowing her to
make that decision. She would blame him, not the portal. After so many years
without her, and the loss of Julie pushing him over the edge of reason, he
selfishly dragged Kendra here. But, there was no going back now. She could hate
him, but maybe she wouldn’t if he explained everything before she figured it
out.

“I guess adding another to our ranks
can’t hurt,” Lou intervened. “But I gotta ask, does this mean she’s off
limits?”

Liam scowled.

Lou held his palms up to ward away any
pending attacks. “Gotta ask, man.”

“How do you know if she knows about
Julie anyway? I thought Julie never tried to contact her, that she couldn’t.”
Mark crossed his arms, and clenched his jaw.

“Because I saw it in her thoughts.”

“You mean you were in her head?” Nathan
asked. “Apparently, you’ve been up to a lot without confiding in us, brother.”

“I’ve communicated with her for so long
that I accidently slipped into her mind during her last few days in the other
world. I saw her thoughts, even the ones she was unaware of. I tried to fish
through them to find Julie, but couldn’t. Kendra might not figure out these
hidden images until her powers set in. When we get close, she might even be
able to tell us exactly where Julie is being held.”

“That’s amazing.” Nathan leaned in on
his thighs. “I’ve never heard of someone actually stepping into someone else’s
mind. I wonder if she’ll be able to do the same thing with you. Can you read
her thoughts now?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I can only see
her mind when I transmit to her. But, like I said, I slipped into her thoughts
by accident. I didn’t mean to or know that I could actually converse with her
when I initially tried to send her a message.”

“What if this doesn’t work? What if she
can’t find those images? What if there are no images?” Mark asked.

Liam shot him a dirty, annoyed glance.

“Did she agree to help us?” Nathan
asked.

“We were just getting to that when you
arrived. I didn’t get her answer, but I’m sure she will. Julie
is
her
sister.”

“Does Julie even remember her?”

Liam avoided giving a direct answer. “We
don’t talk about our other world lives; it was too painful for her.”

“I don’t remember anything from my other
world life,” Nathan said.

“Consider yourself lucky,” Liam
responded curtly.

“Does Kendra remember?”

“Oh yeah, she has no amnesia. We figured
it’s worse the younger you are and if you go in face first. Julie went in face
first, she doesn’t remember a thing. You were six, too, and went in headfirst.
You don’t remember much. Kendra remembers everything from what happened ten
years ago, to my transmissions, to that stupid martial arts trainer,” he
growled, not meaning to divulge that last bit of information.

“I hope this works.” Mark ignored the
conversation. “I don’t know what those humans are doing to Julie, but I’m not
sure if she can last much longer.”