The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (50 page)

He ignored me completely as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her possessively. Her face was flushed by the time he set her away from him. He whispered something against her ear that brought a rosy blush across her chest and up her neck. She quickly glanced at me and replied under her breath. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the eye contact and body language was pretty obvious.

“What’s the matter, Mica? You look pissed,” James commented drily.

Dick.

“I just got a text from Killian,” I lied, holding up the phone. “
Get home now
!” I made a show of typing a text message and dropped the phone back into my purse.

“He’s such an asshole. Why do you let him boss you around?” Dani asked. She was speaking to me, but her attention was clearly on James. He had a hand around the back of her neck and was running his thumb up and down. Her eyes were about to roll back in her head. Oh, my God! Really people? In the food court?

James’ eyes met mine but he continued to stroke her. He asked, “Yeah, Mica. Why
do
you put up with Killian?”

Something in his insinuating tone sent a warning bell ringing in the back of my mind, and I absently rubbed my rune. He caught the movement and gave me a chilly smirk. Without taking his eyes off of mine, he leaned over and whispered in Dani’s ear. She blushed hotly and giggled. Unable to look away from the train wreck, I was horrified to see his hand graze the top of her breasts. Instead of slapping his hand or snapping at him, she gazed at him with love in her eyes. Ewww. I was going to puke.

Standing abruptly, I announced, “Hey, gotta go. Duty calls and I have to wrap. Dani, I’ll talk to you later. Be careful driving home.” I disengaged her from James and gave her a very sisterly hug. “Behave yourself!” I hissed with a fake smile.

The sound of raised voices greeted me when I walked through the door. Amused, I stood in the doorway listening as they argued over the best way to kill demons.

Dec’s accent grew stronger as he argued with Sean. I wasn’t even sure they were speaking English at all. He was saying, “…and blowing them up scatters them. You know they can’t bring themselves back together again!”

Sean stood with arms crossed and looked down his nose. “Oh? And if that’s such the best idea then why do we have the silver knives to begin with?”

“Think about it, aye! You can always blow them up if your hands are tied.” He snorted with derision at the thought of relying on a weapon.

Sean’s tone turned a bit surly. “Oh? And at what point would you have your hands tied? It would be the height of stupidity to get tied up.”

I interrupted, “I thought you needed your hands to blow up the demons. Don’t you have to focus the power through your hands?”

“No, sweetheart, you don’t,” Dec confirmed.

As soon as he heard my voice, Sean decided to light a fire in the fireplace. He kept his back turned as he arranged the logs and kindling. Carefully feeding the fire, he took his time as I got more and more suspicious.

“Why do you always look so suspicious?” Dec asked with a grin. “Come on, lass. I’ll help you put away your bags.” Without waiting for an answer, he walked me back out to the porch.

Snow was falling again. Tilting my face skyward, I let it melt on my skin. There was something about the dusty wintery smell of fresh snow settling on the pine trees that made me nostalgic. Christmas was two days away, and I was trying to get excited.

“Can I stand with you?” Dec asked companionably in my ear. At my nod, he wrapped his arms loosely around my waist and stood just behind me. Fingering my locket, I let my eyes glaze over and blur the snowy scene into something magical. The gold warmed my fingers, and I let the vision come to me as it would. I smiled at the sight of Sean laughing down at me from his snowboard. I was flat on my back with the wind knocked out of me. That had been a perfect day with him. Normally so serious, he was free as an eagle on the slopes. I’d wanted to drown in those eyes…as the snowy scene blurred into the farmhouse, Dec’s blond hair filled my vision as he knelt over me holding my head. With gentle fingers, he’d rubbed my temples and reminded me to breathe right after I’d thrown up in the sink. The musical lilt of his voice calmed the kaleidoscope spinning in my head that day and many after. His crooked grin and boyish dimples had stolen my heart from the first moment I’d seen him in the bar. He was a real angel, a miracle…I squeezed his arm and sighed as the vision shifted again.

Mist curled along the creek bank as I turned to watch the sun rise through the trees. The pale light shadowed his face and accentuated the sharp angles. Killian’s eyes lingered on my mouth as he pressed my cold fingers against his lips. A sudden gust of wind scattered the mist and snow replaced it in my mind.

“What’s wrong, darlin’? What did you see?”

Shaken and confused, I struggled to grab onto the vision, but it was gone. I blinked to clear the rest of the fuzziness and stared hard into the trees.

He was out there, somewhere.

Was he alone?

“Let’s go inside. I’m cold.”

The next morning, I had a text message from Dani telling me that she and James were going skiing at Gore Mountain. It wasn’t an invite, exactly, but I wanted it to be. My suggestion that we go boarding for the day was met with mixed reviews. Sean felt the need to point out that we were supposed to go to my parents’ house in the morning, and I was supposed to bring something for Christmas dinner. I hadn’t figured out what to cook and I hadn’t wrapped gifts yet. He was such a downer! I had a feeling Sean and Dec were up to something, but they kept their faces as innocent as two angelic super-secret agents could. Since he didn’t have to cook or wrap, Dec thought a day on the mountain was perfect. Sean was being more practical.

Leaning up on tiptoes, I nibbled on his neck to sway him my direction. “Oh, come on, I have a need for speed…”

A few hours later, we had lift passes and had jumped onto a chairlift. At the top of the trail, Dec stood against the sun and waited for us. He always wore charcoal gray board pants and a gray and white jacket. Like Sean, he kept gloves tucked into a pocket but never wore them. His Oakleys had vivid blue lenses that stood out against his skin. I’d never lose him in a crowd. As we approached the ramp, I was stunned to realize I could see his halo. Blinking against a trick of light, I looked again. There it was. The
saol
that flowed inside was subtly outlining his body. It was as clear to me as his sunglasses.

“Oh, wow! Sean! Do you see that?” I gripped the sleeve of his jacket and pointed to Dec.

Shaking his head, he said, “I don’t see anything. What’s up?”

My mouth fell open. “You don’t see the halo? It’s clear as day.”

With narrowed eyes, he looked again. “It’s always there. Don’t tell me this is the first time you’ve ever noticed?”

He was truly surprised and lifted his sunglasses to see me better. He had on the same blue Oakleys but wore a black jacket with black pants. The only color was a single red stripe along one arm.

“Do you have any idea how wicked hot you are? I’m such a lucky girl!”

After kissing me until my fingers glowed, he said, “Yep, you’re pretty lucky. I’m a catch in multiple dimensions.”

With that, he lifted the bar and got ready to drop off. At the end of the ride, we both smoothly slid down the ramp and off to the side to strap in. It was gorgeous up here. The sky was grey but no new snow was expected so we could relax and ride. I was waiting to hear back from Dani so we could meet her. In the meantime…Dec and Sean flew past me while I dawdled with my phone. With a loud whoop, Dec was airborne over the drop with Sean on his right.

Oh, no they didn’t!

Like a shot, I was right behind them. The Lies was a black diamond run and we liked to hit it first. The trees blurred greenly as I focused only on staying upright on the vertical trail. Falling at this speed would hurt…a lot. I leaned slightly to turn left onto the Mica trail, for obvious reasons, then another quick turn onto the Open Pit. The guys were slightly ahead of me and didn’t hear me when I screamed.

I tumbled end over end until my board flew off and took my boot with it. When I finally stopped bouncing, my Oakleys were gone, and I was barely conscious. Lying on my back, I opened my eyes to a green sky.

Why is the sky green?

When my brain caught up with things, I realized I was looking at a tree branch and that my leg was probably broken. A now too familiar pain was shooting through my tibia. Well, hell. That’s just great! I started to push myself upright when a voice shouted at me.

“Don’t move! You might have hurt your back or something!” A man leaned into my face and shouted at me. He was very young, probably only 19 or 20. His face was very serious as he scolded me.

“Okay, I’m not deaf. Stop yelling at me. What happened? Did you see what happened?”

Looking around us, he sounded confused too. “Yeah, I was right behind you…it was crazy, dude. Some guy just appeared in the middle of the trail in front of you. I don’t know where he came from. You swerved to go around him and wiped out. It was spectacular! Do you remember hitting that tree? You bounced off and kept going.” He grinned down at me, sharing in my pride. Snowboarders were proud of their wipe outs.

That sounded familiar. The man had been wearing white and yellow. That’s all that registered before I fell. “Where did he go? Did you see him leave?”

Shrugging, he said, “No, sorry. I was more worried about you. It took me a few seconds to stop so I wouldn’t hit you. By the time I looked up again, he was gone. I’m going to go flag down a ski patrol. You’re not walking down this mountain.”

My phone chose that moment to buzz in my pocket, but I couldn’t reach it. “Could you grab my phone for me? Right front pocket.”

“You get a signal up here? How’s that possible? My phone sucks. I never have a signal.” He dug around in my jacket and pulled out the little phone Killian had given me last year. It was a cell phone…and so much more.

Steeling myself against the pain that was rapidly making itself known, I tried to smile at him. “It’s a super-secret agent phone. Cross my heart. Just hand it to me, please. My boyfriend’s on the other end of it.”

He sat back on his heels and waited while I called Sean. We both flinched as Sean’s voice bellowed from the earpiece. I did a whole lot of nodding and said a lot of yesses before he hung up. Feeling evil for deceiving this nice guy, I groaned convincingly and sent him down the mountain in search of a ski patrol person. Thirty seconds after he cleared the trail, Dec and Sean appeared next to me in the trees. Glancing around for witnesses, they both raced over to me.

“What hurts? Tell me so we can get you out of here.”

“I think my leg’s broken again. I don’t know about anything else. I’m kind of numb. Apparently I wrapped myself around a tree or two, so I’m not sure about a concussion.” I stopped Sean’s hand when he was about to pick me up. “Sean, this wasn’t an accident. A guy in a white and yellow jacket appeared out of thin air and disappeared the same way. It had to be James. Get him away from Dani.”

Dec was fuming but busy skimming his hands over my body. Frowning, he said, “Her leg’s definitely broken and I think a rib or two. I’m going to take her to the house so I can check her out. You go find James and Dani and drive the car back.” He gave Sean a reassuring look and added, “Don’t worry, I’ll heal her and if I can’t, I’ll take her to the hospital and text you.”

Sean’s eyebrows went straight up. “You’ll
text
me? Jesus, Dec. Use your damn telepathy for God’s sake. You’re killing me here.”

Bending over me, he kissed me lightly and said, “I love you. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Hang in there.”

Dec knelt beside me and carefully scooped me into his arms and we vanished into thin air.

“What the hell happened to you?”

Killian’s worried question greeted us as soon as we landed on the living room rug. He sprung up and caught me before my shoulders hit the floor. Dec filled him in while they worked to slide my jacket and board pants off. I had thin under-armor leggings and a turtleneck on under my board clothes and shivered in the cool air.

Domino came in and sat back out of the way. Her eyes watched us as they hovered over me. Once I was situated they went to work on checking me out. All in all, it could’ve been worse. I had several bruises and a separated shoulder. My back, thank God, was unbroken. My ankle was badly twisted and my leg was broken. Fixing my leg hurt a lot. With teeth clenched, Killian held my leg still above the break while Dec pulled it to straighten the pieces of bone. I bit my lip to keep from screaming. As the two pieces of bone slid together, my vision shrank to a thin tunnel and I tasted blood in my mouth.

All business now, Killian used his own energy to boost Dec’s healing power. Feeling nauseous, I closed my eyes while they helped me heal. It didn’t take very long, but I had the strangest sense of déjà vu. We’d done this before…but with all déjà vu moments, I couldn’t decide if it was past or future.

Leave it alone
.

The order came from inside my head, and I blinked up at Killian. His eyes were hard, his face carefully blank. I started to reach out to him and hesitated. His eyes softened and he wrapped his big hand around my cold one and rubbed feeling back into it. His hands were scratchy with callouses but hot as he worked on my wrist and arm.