The Awakening: A Sisterhood of Spirits Novel (18 page)

Jordan pulled her weight to the side and tried to catch her breath.

Sunny started laughing. Jordan was instantly worried.

“What’s funny?”

“Oh, that was
wonderful
.” She pulled Jordan up for a kiss. “Mmm. My ass has rug burns.”

“God, I’m sorry.”

“Why are you always sorry, Jordan?”

“Taking you on the stairs like that.” Jordan stood.

Sunny giggled. “Help me up.”

“Are you laughing at me?”

“Absolutely not. Jordan, we have to talk.”

Here comes the kiss-off, Jordan thought. “I’ll go.”

“What?” Sunny searched her gaze. “Upstairs, Jordan. I was going to say we need to talk upstairs.” She smiled. “We almost made it.” She took Jordan’s hand, leading her to the bedroom.

“My shirt,” Jordan protested.

“You won’t need it.” Sunny sidestepped Ash, who darted under the bed. “What’s wrong with you?”

Crap. Jordan forgot about the cats. “He’s not going to answer you, is he?”

Sunny patted the bed next to her. “Nope. Not so you would understand anyway.”

A breeze blew past Jordan, and she saw Sunny’s eyes widen before she fell back as if struck. Jordan rushed to her side. “Are you okay? What just happened?” She pulled Sunny’s trembling body closer. Her skin was ice cold.

Sunny’s teeth chattered. “I forgot about the sha-shadows.”

“What?”

“I was so-so wrapped up in what we were do-doing. I didn’t protect myself.” Sunny burrowed closer to Jordan.

“Protect against what?” Jordan looked over her shoulder. “There’s nothing here.”

“Jordan, sit.” Sunny’s color began coming back. “You have some serious dark energy attached to you.”

“Not this again.” Jordan was conflicted. She was drawn to Sunny as she’d never been drawn to another human being. Their chemistry was mind-blowing, and her skin still burned from the insane sex they’d just had on the stairs. But she was still insisting on bringing this witchy stuff into the conversation.

“Hey! Did you just roll your eyes at me?” A hurt expression crossed Sunny’s face.

A sharp burst of pain blazed across Jordan’s back and she arched. “Ow, Jesus!”

Ash perched on the bed, his hair on end, puffed up twice his normal size. He hissed at her, showing his sharp little fangs. “Fucker scratched me.”

Isis joined him on the bed and growled, her tail twitching behind her as she crouched, ready to pounce.

“Stop it right now,” Sunny snapped. “I’m so sorry. I’ve never seen them act this way before.” She clapped her hands together to get their attention.

Isis immediately dropped her stalking stance, but Ash’s eyes darted around the room as if he were watching an invisible bouncing ball. “Bad kitty.”

Bad kitty?
Her back was on fire from his claws. This was a pissed-off wild animal at the moment.
Kitty, my ass.

Ash hissed one last time before dropping off the bed and racing from the room.

“Come with me,” Sunny said, guiding Jordan to the bathroom. “Sit here.” She pointed at the vanity stool.

From her vantage point in front of the mirror, Jordan watched Sunny move around the room, gathering things, completely unself-conscious in her nude state.

“We’re going to have to work on your cat skills,” Sunny said.

Jordan winced at the sting of alcohol cleansing the scratches. “What?” The moment felt a little surreal. The cat had attacked
her
, and Sunny was walking around as if she hadn’t been close to fainting. As if she hadn’t been spread wide for Jordan’s attention on the stairs a few minutes before that. Jordan’s nipples hardened and her skin heated at Sunny’s gentle touch. The pain on her back receded and was replaced with a flush where Sunny’s skin made contact with hers.

Jordan met her gaze in the mirror and Sunny’s eyes smoldered with lust. Jordan felt as if she had to brace herself against the intensity. Her heart rate sped up and pounded in her chest when she focused on Sunny’s tongue a fraction of an inch from her neck, and when it made contact, she felt a hammer of desire slam between her legs. She was sure the pounding that she heard was her own pulse until Sunny moved away from her.

“Crap.”

Dazed, Jordan shook her head to clear it. The noise was from downstairs. Sunny put on a robe hanging on the back of the door.

“It’s my mother.” She cocked her head to the side. “And Shade. I’ll be right back.”

Jordan sat for a moment and tried to reason with herself. Why was it she could never quite find her footing when she was with Sunny? Her constant companions of reason and logic were nowhere to be found. It was a little disconcerting, as they were two of the qualities she was proud of and relied on the most in her life.

Shouting voices floated to the third floor, and Jordan stood before she realized she was half-naked and remembered her bra on the stairs.
Oh no.

Jordan didn’t stop to think about the implications, she just grabbed the remaining robe that was on the hook and flew out the door.

*

“I was washing dishes when I felt danger surrounding you.” Sunny’s mother almost suffocated her in a bear hug, then shook her before enveloping her again. “I thought I heard you screaming.”

“Mom.” Sunny kept her voice even and tried not to soak up her mother’s panic. “Mom, please, you’re hurting me.”

As soon as she let her go, Shade grabbed her, and the fear Sunny felt emanating from her unnerved her. Shade was never scared. Where was this urgency they felt coming from? Sure, she felt a dark energy and it had slapped her, but it wasn’t still here.

Was it? Jordan’s presence in the house muffled her sense of
other.

“Stop it, please,” she said. “I need to breathe.” Sunny took a couple of steps back and looked at Jordan thundering down the stairs with a wild look in her eyes. She didn’t stop until she reached Sunny and stood in front of her, pushing her back between her body and the wall. The aggressive posture shouldn’t have made Sunny thrill inside. But it did.

Jordan must have heard shouts and raced down to protect her. Sunny looked over Jordan’s shoulder and saw the look on Shade’s face.
Uh-oh.

“Everybody calm down.” Sunny stepped out from behind Jordan, stopping her when she would have moved with her.

Thick emotion flew around the room, overwhelming her, and she sank to the floor. The trembling started in her hands and her body began to shake. She hadn’t had a panic attack in years, not since she’d learned how to protect herself from other people’s chaos.

Sunny’s breathing labored and she struggled to breathe, but the air around her was dwindling. Her mother immediately laid her hands on her back and lent her energy, pushing positive healing light toward her lungs. Warmth washed over her, and she felt lighter when the panic began to subside. She became aware of Shade and Jordan crouched on either side of her but quickly shut them out. She needed to concentrate.

Sunny spotted a swatch of black a foot away on the floor. Jordan’s leather jacket lay where she’d dropped it earlier.
Focus.
She recalled the smell and then forced herself to count the teeth in the zipper.
Breathe.

Twenty-seven, twenty-eight.
Sunny became aware of the wood floor under her and sank back into her body. She took her first full pain-free breath, then another before the nausea cramps hit and she covered her mouth and staggered for the bathroom with her mother directly on her heels. They disappeared inside, and Sunny’s mother closed the door firmly behind them.

Jordan tensed to go after them, but Shade body-blocked her, pushing her back a step. “Haven’t you done enough?”

The question stunned Jordan. “What are you talking about?”

Shade narrowed her eyes and Jordan felt the animalistic fight for territory exuding from her.

Jordan held up a hand, keeping her temper in check. “Wait a minute—”

“No, you wait a minute, cop. This is your fault.”

“I didn’t do—what did you say?” How had she gone from offense to defense so quickly? She straightened to defend herself and paused, feeling stupid in the girly robe. She was so out of her element.

Shade picked up her shirt and jacket and threw them at her. “Are you really that dense?” She pointed to a spot behind Jordan. “You showed up here with
them
?”

“Who? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Don’t you
get
it? It’s you. It’s your nightmares and ghosts. You’re hurting Sunny and you need to leave. Take your dark shit with you.” Shade picked up her keys from the entry table. “I’ll drive you home.”

Jordan turned her back to Shade and pulled on her shirt. “Not going to happen.” The sound of Sunny retching had Jordan turning toward the hall.

Shade grabbed her elbow and Jordan wrenched it away and moved into her personal space to meet her eye to eye.

“Are you really going to throw down here?” Shade held her ground, matching Jordan’s stance and forcing her words between clenched teeth. “And with her mother in the house?”

Jordan’s adrenaline screamed yes, but Shade’s words penetrated the anger. “No.”

“You can quit the Amazon routine. I’m not scared of you,” Shade said. “I eat breakfast with demons. A pissed-off cop doesn’t even put a hitch in my stride.”

Didn’t that sound like a challenge, Jordan thought before hearing the word cop. She was acting completely irrational and she knew it. But for the life of her, she couldn’t think of an appropriate response to that last statement. “Whatever.”

“Let’s go.”

“Not until I talk to her.” Jordan spun and walked to the bathroom. She knocked and opened the door a crack. Sunny lay curled on the floor with her head in her mother’s lap. “Hey. Are you okay?” she asked.

Sunny opened her eyes to look at her, then lunged to heave again in the toilet. Jordan felt helpless. There wasn’t room for her to go help since her mother huddled over Sunny protectively.

“Jordan, please go home,” Aura said. “Please. She’s not going to get better unless you do.”

“But—” The violence of the retching that caused Sunny to choke is what swayed her. “I don’t understand.”

Aura made eye contact with her, and the top of Jordan’s scalp went numb. “I know you don’t.” The hard lines in her face softened slightly. “Go home, Jordan. I’ll tell her you said good-bye. She needs to sleep. Call her tomorrow and I’m sure she’ll explain.”

Jordan didn’t want a ride home, especially from Shade, but she had questions she knew she needed the answers to. Just as she knew when she got back to work, she would be running Shade through the system.

*

Sunny nested in her comforter with Ash and Isis next to her, neither cat showing any signs of their strange behavior from earlier. Her mother came in with a cup of tea and set it on the nightstand before crawling onto the bed.

“Better?”

“Hmm.” Though the panic attack had passed, it left her drained. Her mother had taken away the headache and the darkness, just as she had so many times before. And while it comforted her, for the first time, Sunny felt like a child and didn’t want to. There was something missing here, some piece she hadn’t seen before. Her mind swam with vague questions but none solidified enough to articulate.

Sunny had always been confident with her gifts and her place in the world. But this was twice now she’d been caught unprepared by dark, unfamiliar energy. Jordan’s face came to her mind’s eye. Beautiful, dangerous, edgy, sexy Jordan.

Mine!

Sunny almost dropped her tea when she heard the deep voice and growl in her head but was aware enough to slam down a protective wall around herself.
Not if I can help it.

Her mother shifted on the bed. “What was that?” Sunny paused to check her surroundings, but there was no trace of the intrusive
other
voice. She relaxed marginally. Her mother’s concern filled the space between them. “What’s been going on here? Please don’t shut me out when I can help you.”

Sunny was surprised her mother didn’t know the details, but was grateful at the same time. It was uncomfortable to think her mother might peek into her very personal space. Sunny was glad to know she was strong enough to hold the wall to keep her privacy. Especially from her mother.

“Mom, do you remember when I was little and first told you I could hear things other people couldn’t?”

“Of course. You weren’t even three years old yet.”

“You and Daddy always believed me.”

“Why wouldn’t we? I’d seen spirits my entire life.”

Sunny patted her hand. “I had a wonderful childhood, full of magic and acceptance. Thank you.”

Her mother smiled. “Thank you for being such an amazing daughter. But what brought this on?”

“Jordan’s mother showed up after I met her. She keeps asking me to help her.”

“But that’s not who attacked you.”

“No, it isn’t. But I’d like to know what did. It feels like it wants to harm me and keep me from Jordan.” Sunny paused. “And don’t tell me to back away from her. I’m not going to. Tell me how to deal with it.”

“Your father and I wanted to protect you. We never wanted you to deal with the dark energies.”

“I do know that, Mom. But I can’t depend on you to protect me all the time. It’s not fair to either of us. This entity actually struck me physically, and for a second, I felt an unfamiliar energy. It felt odd but powerful at the same time. I could clearly see the color purple intertwining with my light, but then a dark cloud obliterated the lights.”

“Sex energy,” her mother said. “Jordan’s shadows meeting with your energy. That worries me.”

“Mom, how come that never happened with Shade? I mean, we had some powerful experiences and I don’t ever recall this feeling.”

Her mother sighed. “Shade soaked it up for you, keeping your light separate from her darkness.” She smiled sadly. “It’s one of the reasons you wouldn’t work as a couple. It was so taxing on her.”

“I didn’t ask her to protect me.”

“I know you didn’t, honey. But the people who love us can’t help but do so. We were so apt in naming you Sunny. It’s your nature and personality. The light simply radiates from you, sending out a beacon for miles around.”