Dark Tremor (Mated by Magic #2) (4 page)

When the shaking finally stopped, Terra let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Her heart hammered against her chest and something sharp jammed into her back. Fingers and toes wiggled freely.
Okay
. Then, she tried her arms, neck and legs. Other than some aches and bruises, she probably wasn’t hurt too badly.

Jace’s heavy body draped across her like a warm, inviting blanket, and she had to stop herself from letting her hands roam. She’d never felt the weight of a man on top of her before, and despite their current situation, her body responded. Her nipples were hard, her breathing irregular, and a warm ache pulsated between her legs. 

“Jace…” The dead weight was too much. “Jace get off.”

No response. His breath heated her skin, and his power, albeit weaker than normal, pulsated around her.

She squirmed underneath him, edging her way out. Damn, the man was solid.

Once free, she tried to gain her equilibrium, but it wasn’t easy. The floor was uneven and the darkness almost tangible. No matter how hard she tried, her eyes wouldn’t adjust. With each step the cabin creaked and groaned beneath her feet.

Feeling her way across the room, her fingers found the open box. She flipped open the cover and gripped a large handle, pushing down. A clank, a sizzling zap, and her backup generator hummed to life.

Soft, orange bulbs came to life in the corners of the room, casting an unearthly glow. Terra let out a small whimper as she surveyed the damage.

Cupboards hung open, the contents spilled across the floor. A dirt wall replaced what had once been her bedroom. Tables and chairs lay on their sides. Her laptop had a crack down the screen, and the pile of gems she had collected the day before was scattered across the floor. Everything she’d worked for so hard was destroyed.

Jace moaned from the far side of the destruction. With a pained expression, he managed to stand. He touched the back of his head, and when he pulled his fingers back, they were covered in blood.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, it probably looks worse than it is.”

“Here, sit.” Terra righted one of the chairs, then moved to the small fridge which hung open on its hinges and pulled out an icepack. After wrapping it in a dishtowel, she handed it to him.

“How far down are we?” He rasped his hand across his chin.

“I don’t know.”

The old radio sat on its side on the floor, seemingly undamaged. But were the cables to the surface still in place? She righted the table, placed the short wave on top, and plugged it in.

“I’m thinking they sunk us a good forty, maybe fifty feet.” 

“Shit.”

“That about sums it up.” She turned the black knob. Nothing but static. Damn it.

“You owe money or something?” 

“No.” She glared in his direction. “I don’t do loans, and especially not from Mic Luggerio.”

With eyebrows raised, he asked, “Luggerio? As in the Brasmatia clan leader?”

She nodded slightly, then tried the radio again.

How had Mic found her? Nearly twenty years under the radar, and now this. Had he figured out her true identity?

“Why would he want you dead?” Jace’s eyes went dark, his brows drawn down, and body tense. He seemed almost…possessive.

“I don’t know.” It wasn’t a complete lie.

She gripped the microphone and cranked the generator again. “Come on, work. This is K-C-B-Two-Five-Two. K-C-B-Two-Five-Two. Come in W-9-Fifteen-Fifteen. Jelly, are you there? ”

A screech and then Jelly’s beautiful voice sounded through the speakers, “Hey Hun, can’t talk, Jimmy’s wife just went into labor and he needs me to–”

“Jelly, listen to me. Something really bad has happened. There was a…a quake, opened up a fissure in the ground. Swallowed my house whole.”

“Oh my god. Are you okay?”

She looked around at the wreckage and sighed. “We’re fine, at least for now.”

“We?”

“Yeah.” She winced, knowing the conclusion her friend would come to. “Jace Fialko is with me.”

Jelly whistled. “Well I’ll be.”

“I need you to focus. I’ve got the backup generator, but I don’t know how much air we’ve got down here. Hurry.”

“Okay Hun, I’ll…ca…the…authorities.” Jelly’s voice crackled in and out. “Stay by the radio in case I need to get in touch with ya.”

Where was she going to go?
 

“One more thing. Can you contact Jace’s family back in New Jersey, let them know what happened and that he’s okay?”

Jace opened his mouth and looked like he was about to protest, then shut it and grumbled something under his breath.

“Sure thing. W-9-Fifteen-Fifteen, out.”

On shaky legs, Terra stood to examine the small crack that had formed along the edge of her plate glass window. “How long do you think it’ll take them to dig us out?”

“Don’t know.” He’d gone unusually quiet and his eyes bored into the back of her skull.

“We’ll be all right,” she muttered, more for herself than him.

How long could they really survive down here? Two, maybe three days, depending on their oxygen supply. The local authorities would have to be able to dig them out before then.

She sat down on the couch and Pumpkin jumped onto her lap. He purred when patted, seemingly undisturbed by their current predicament.

“You didn’t answer my earlier question.” Jace stood, his eyes narrowed on her. “Why would the leader of the Brasmatia clan want you dead?”

Good question.
There was no logical explanation, other than the very scary one. He knew who she was.

“I don’t know.” Her voice sounded petulant, even to her.

Jace pulled the baggie from his pocket and clenched his fist around it. “If he knows about the dark turquoise–”

“Shit.” Her stomach clenched. She hadn’t thought of that.

“How well do you know the man?”

“I’ve never met him, but I’ve heard stories.”

“Yeah, so have I.” Jace pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled roughly. “How much more is there?”

“More?” She studied the broken vase on the floor.

“Dark turquoise.” He leaned forward, chucked her chin, and studied her. “If there’s more I need to know.”

She turned her head out of his grasp and rubbed her temples. Could she trust him?

“Terra.” His voice was deep, her name a command on his lips.

“There’s more,” she said softly.

“How much?”

“A lot.”

“Fuck.” Jace paced, cursing under his breath and mumbling to himself. Finally, he turned and gave her a pointed stare. “Does anyone else know where the mine is?”

She shook her head. “Only Falcon.”

“Falcon?”

“He’s a friend. A healer. He won’t say a word.”

“You better hope to hell you’re right.”

Jace’s head pounded like a freight train had blasted through it. What a fucking mess. “You got anything to drink?”

“There should be a bottle of Diet Coke in the fridge.” Terra knelt on the floor, picking up the scattered gems. Her pants rode down low exposing a lacy pink thong.

He groaned when she bent lower, lifting her ass in the air.

“I was hoping for something a bit harder.” He’d need it to survive being alone with her. Maybe he could drink away his constant hard on.

She glanced over her shoulder. “There’s a bottle of Jose Cuervo in the pantry…if it survived the fall.”

“Tequila?” He raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged.

Bottle in hand, he scooped up two unbroken cups from the floor.

Her lips turned down in a cute little pout when he offered her a glass.

Damn, but she had a sexy as fuck mouth. His cock responded, which irritated the hell out of him.

“If we’re going to be stuck, for God knows how long, we might as well enjoy ourselves.” He shoved a glass in her hand, saluted her, then tipped his back. He hissed out a breath as the liquid burned down his throat. “God, that stuff’s nasty.”

She rolled her eyes, then shot hers back like a pro. “Wimp.”

He couldn’t help the grin that tugged at his lips.

A small, framed photo lay on the floor. Crouching, he picked it up and studied the young woman and little girl that stared back at him. The resemblance was striking. Matching blue eyes, dirty blonde hair, pouty, full lips.

“This your mom?” He held it up to her.

“Stop touching things.” She grabbed the photo from his hand and clutched it protectively against her chest.

Ouch. The badger was back. “How long have you lived alone out here?”

“I’m not alone.”

“Feline companionship doesn’t really count.” Pumpkin rubbed against his leg. “It’s dangerous to be out here all by yourself. What if something happened?”

“What? Like being buried under thirty feet of rocks and dirt?”

“Touché.” He snickered and poured another generous shot into her glass.

“No boyfriend?” Shit, why the hell had he asked that?

“No.” She frowned up at him. “I have Jelly if there’s an emergency.” 

She leaned her head back and swallowed without wincing.

“No family?”

“There’s a clan of healers that lives a couple miles south of here. They’ve been my family since–” She glanced down at the photo she held and paled. “Since my mom died.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“You want to talk about it?”

She shook her head, placed the photo on the desk, then held out her glass for him to pour another shot. “Nothing to talk about. Cancer. You know the drill.”

Actually he didn’t. Witches weren’t impervious to the disease, but it was very rare for one to contract it, or any illness for that matter. Jace couldn’t remember the last time he’d even had a cold.

“You’re not a half-breed are you?”

“What? No.”

Hell. Now he’d insulted her. “So your mom was a witch?”

“Yeah. Why?” She reached down and picked up the damn cat that looked up at him imperiously, no doubt sniggering under all that fur.

“Nothing,” he muttered. Something about her story was all wrong. But why would she lie to him? “How old were you when she died?”

She rubbed the cat’s head, while cradling him in her arms, lovingly. First time he’d ever wished he was feline.

After kissing it on the head, she looked up and said, “Fifteen. What’s with all the questions?”             

“You’ve been out here, all by yourself since you were fifteen?”

She sat down on the couch, tucked her feet underneath, and the cat crawled up her chest. He moaned internally. Now that was just uncalled for.

“I told you, I’m not by myself,” she said, petting the little beast.

The cat gave Jace a smug look. Seriously?

The far side of the couch was too close, by his reckoning. He shifted away a bit more. “Right. You’ve got the fur ball here.”

“And Falcon.” She gently pushed the cat aside, sucked back another shot, and glared with eyebrows raised. A challenge of sorts.

The cat had the audacity to rub at his legs before sauntering off, clearly the victor in the war for Terra’s attention.

Jace sighed and downed another. “Right. The guy who knows where the turquoise is.”

She shrugged and looked down at her glass. “He’s a friend.”

There was a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

He didn’t know who this Falcon guy was, but he already didn’t like him.

Pouring himself another shot, he asked, “When those men showed up, you said ‘They found me.’ How long have you been hiding?”

Her body tensed. “It’s none of your business.”

Something clunked in the dark, the cat meowed, and came back with a toy mouse in its mouth which dropped at Terra’s feet. No doubt Pumpkin was very pleased he’d interrupted again.

Jace stood, loomed over, and tried not to shout. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m thirty feet deep in your fucking business.”

He ran his fingers through his hair and winced when he touched the new cut. “My family has connections. If you’re in some kind of trouble, I can help you. If you owe money–” 

“I don’t owe money.” There was a slight slur to her words and she swayed when she tried to grab the bottle of tequila out of his hand. “Give me that. I don’t owe
him
anything.”

“Him? You mean Mic?”

She nodded and frowned down at her empty glass.

Uneasiness clawed at his chest. What was she hiding?

When she held up her glass, he filled it again. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth. What does the man want with you?”

There was a long silence. She closed her eyes, and for a moment, Jace thought she’d passed out.

“Terra?”

Her lashes fluttered open. There were tears in her eyes when she finally looked at him. So much vulnerability, so much pain. He had to hold back from pulling her into his arms.

“My mother was his solstice mate.”

“Mic?” Jace frowned.

She nodded.

“He’s your father?” Jace sat back down on the couch. Too late he noticed how their thighs touched and heat sparked between them.

Terra blew out a heavy breath. “My mom was sixteen. Barely legal. He was competing for leadership, and needed the power he sensed in her. So he raped her, forced her to perform the mating ritual with him.”

“Shit. I’m sorry.” He almost put his hand on her knee to comfort her, but held back.

“She told me that they were what the clan calls a
perfect match
.” Her fingers made quotes in the air. “A one in a million happenstance. He ended up more powerful, but so did she. When she found out she was pregnant with me, she left.”

“And you’ve been out here ever since?” He ran a hand over his neck, trying to ease some of the tension. The thought of her out here alone all these years was like a punch to the gut.

“Falcon’s grandfather took her in. It wasn’t safe for her to stay on the reservation, so he helped her get settled out here in the desert. Brought us things when we needed it. Kept her whereabouts hidden.”  She glanced around at the broken mess. “This is all I’ve ever known. She made a home for us. Taught me how to mine for gems using my powers. This area is filled with them. She found a few local dealers. Made enough to survive. We stayed under the radar for years, until…”   

She swiped at her eyes and shook her head.

A gnawing hit the pit of his stomach. Even though she wanted to leave it be, he had to know. “What happened?”

“Two of Mic’s men recognized her at a gas station. My mom tried to fight them off, but…her powers were never very strong. She screamed for me to run, but when one of the men came for me, I froze.” Terra took in a long shuddering breath. “He wasn’t expecting me to fight back. I didn’t really know what I was doing until it was too late. The ground opened up. The man started to run, but the fissure followed him. It must have cracked a gas line. There was an explosion and...”

There was pain in her face, real pain–and he wanted to wrap his arms around her and make it go away. It wasn’t her fault what had happened, but she seemed to carry the guilt of her attackers.

“The men didn’t live to tell Mic that they found us, but three other innocent people died that day. My mom tried to hide it from me, but I heard their screams. Even if I hadn’t seen the newspaper, I knew. I killed them.”

“It was an accident.”

“Reports said it was an earthquake.” She smiled sadly and shook her head. “Who would have believed such devastation cold be caused by an eight year old girl?”

He hadn’t realized he’d reached out to touch her until the flash of heat sizzled through his skin. His fingers lingered on her cheek for a moment, then he pulled away. Shit. The fucking alcohol was making him soft. But he knew a thing or two about guilt. Knew how it could shred your soul until there was nothing left but a broken shell of the person you’d once been.

“I’m tired,” she said, resting her head against the sofa and closing her eyes.

He took her glass, pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and placed it over her shoulders.

A fire burned deep inside him, fueled by a need to protect her. And he would. He made a silent promise to her in the moment. Solstice mate or not, he would make sure she was safe.