Eyes to the Soul (37 page)

She gasped. He froze.

She dug her nails into those sculpted buttocks.

He groaned, pressing deeper.

Celina could hardly breathe as mini fireworks rattled through her body. He shifted lower, trailing wet kisses down her throat to the top of her breasts. Using his teeth he pulled the edge of the soft, lacy bra back. She whimpered as his tongue laved the hard nipple, first on the one side and then on the second. She rolled from side to side.

“Shh,” he murmured, his soothing voice penetrating the haze in her mind.

“Stefan,” she cried, arching her back.

Her bra snap opened and the material was tossed to one side. When he lowered his head and suckled her nipple hard, she cried out in joy. When the other one received the same treatment she was beyond coherent thought.

She grabbed fistfuls of hair, tugged him upright and kissed him.

All the frustration blending into a greedy kiss.

He might have started with a laugh but he ended up with a groan.

Moving gently, he slid to one side, hooked onto her panties and pulled down and off.

Then he rolled back into the cradle she’d made for him.

Hearing sounds, and only dimly aware that they were coming from her, she hooked her legs around him and urged him closer.

He kissed her while his hands cupped her bottom, adjusted her hips, and plunged deep.

She cried out and stilled.

Fire licked through her. Her skin so hot she could barely stand it.

Shh,
he murmured.
It’s all right.

And damn if he wasn’t in her mind. The same as he was in her body.

The intimacy, the perfection, the absolute togetherness was her undoing.

The tremors started deep inside and helpless, she could only hold on for the ride. Feeling her response, Stefan lifted slightly and plunged, grinding deeper yet again. Once. Twice. Three times. Explosions wracked her slight frame and he rode her through it. Just as she didn’t think she could stand any more, he shuddered above her and emptied himself into her.

And started the fireworks all over.

Hours later she curled up, her body humming in pleasure but so exhausted sleep was one breath away. And she took that breath and dropped into a deep, rejuvenating slumber.

*

With the few
pieces left he could feel the energy, the power surging through him. He could think so much more clearly. It felt good. No, great. Maybe he wouldn’t be so quick to leave this earth yet. With this much strength he could see how this would be a possible life. An existence he wouldn’t detest.

There were still a few more areas bleeding energy that he needed to plug. Then he’d be centered in just one. He sighed and stretched, loving the feeling of being so collected.

This wasn’t half bad. Not perfect, but so much better.

He needed to visit her. Make sure she was still suffering. Anything less wasn’t acceptable.

Bitch.

*

Jacob woke up,
his heart pounding, his head booming. He groaned as wakefulness surged through him and he opened his eyes. It took a long moment to realize he was alive. He was in a hospital, but he was back in his body.

Thank God.

That had been an experience he did not want to repeat ever again. He lay back and closed his eyes, grateful to have that nightmare over and to be awake again. His mind drifted.

Oh Lord. Immediately tears swamped his eyes. His best friend and lover was gone. And that brought the accident back to the forefront and the nightmare he’d been living ever since.

Owen. Celina. And… Stefan, her friend. He bolted upright and cried out. The room swam in front of him and he lay back down before he fell.

Where was his phone? He needed to call them.

That was his last thought as he went back under.

C
elina moaned, rubbed
her head against the pillow, and whimpered again. She lifted her hand to her head as the drums inside boomed and then boomed again.

The pounding changed to a sharp stabbing, a thin slice of pain directly into her eyeball. She screamed as that same knife edge came down again and again.

“Celina!”

Her shoulders were grabbed and shaken lightly. “Yeah, that helps,” she snarled, twisting to free herself. “My head is ready to explode.”

And she started weeping.

“Make it stop,” she sobbed, curling into a tighter ball, her hands over her head.

“Is it in your eyes again?” Stefan urged. “Can you tell if it’s him?”

She didn’t know how to answer – the pain was too severe. She tried to marshal her thoughts and breathe through the pain but her shoulders trembled with effort. Dimly through the red and black in her head she felt Stefan’s hands massaging the back of her neck and the corded ribbons across her shoulders. She moaned as his caring hands worked magic on her locked-down muscles.

She wished he could do something with the pain. He’d told her he’d be able to stop it, but it was back again and he hadn’t done anything.

Angry, desperate, and hurting, she cried out silently in her head.
Help
.

And damn it if he didn’t answer in her head.
Shh. I’m here. Try to stay quiet. I’m tracking him.

*

Stefan stood inside
Celina’s headache, watching the blackness around her eyes pulse and vibrate with a distinctive, unholy power. He’d never seen anything like it.

He sensed the emotion. Not outside the ball but inside, driving the ball with heavy intensity. And the biggest emotion behind it all was rage.

And it was directed at Celina.

He couldn’t get a reading on the soul behind this. And wished he could. There was one thing he could do though. He winced. It wouldn’t be easy.

But it was necessary. He closed his eyes, spread the little bit of energy he’d used to enter Celina’s mind, and rolled it out as thin as he could.

Then he spread it thinner yet again. Breathing into the energy he approached the red ball and touched it with a tiny flick of energy.

There was no reaction.

He did it again.

He needed to gain access to the energy, but in such a way that he was welcome.

The only way to do that was if the predator’s energy didn’t see Stefan’s energy as a threat.

And that meant the predator’s energy had to become used to it. Used to the feel of Stefan’s energy. Accept it.

Then become one with it.

With that Stefan touched the energetic ball again, letting it blend with his energy. And merge together.

He sank deeper into the experience, emptying his mind, emptying his very cells that he could fill with this other energy and finally know what it was and why it was targeting Celina.

He pulled his consciousness back to center and deliberately opened up to the other energy and let himself be a part of it, not just merging on an energetic layer but merging consciously.

Instantly his mind was filled with hatred – black, twisted, broken thoughts wrapped and wormed through him, filling his own emotions with dark thoughts of revenge and poison.

Stefan struggled to let the emotion flow through him and out of him. To release it before it tainted his own soul. He breathed deep, letting his cells fill, then empty, always keeping them in the light of his own joy. The only way to not absorb the nastiness was to keep surrounding it in light as it moved through him.

He travelled deeper into the ball. Surely he’d be able to identify the person, the circumstances surrounding this nightmare.

Instead, he could only feel the anger. Only feel the pain. And then the determination to make Celina pay. Stefan didn’t understand the other victims involved. There was no anger toward anyone else. He didn’t know if that meant the person used up his anger for the victim at the time, or if he had no strong emotional ties to the others.

If that was the case, then why kill them?

Slowly, as he sat there still in the river of emotion, words and phrases slowly formed.

Bitch.

Make her pay.

Make her suffer.

Like she’d made me suffer.

She did this to me.

She was responsible.

Each new phrase matched a pulse in the ball of energy, keeping the fiery anger stoked.

Whoever was doing this had learned the power of negative emotions. But who was he and what had Celina done?

Stefan waited. Hoping for more.

Need more power,
the voice whispered.
Need more. She’s not suffering enough. I want her to suffer!

More broken phrases and words, the litany a lighter fluid, but nothing new. Nothing to clarify it.

Stefan deliberately pulled a plug on the ball, giving the ravaging heat an outlet. The pulses slowed. The flashes dimmed.

No!

He widened the hole, letting more and more of the negativity and burning anger drain away. At the same time he sent cooling, healing energy to mingle with some of the energy on the far side. He didn’t dare let this energy understand Stefan was there or what he was doing.

He watched the ball reduce in size, in intensity, as the trickle of energy grew to a torrent. The small gap he’d opened turned into a large fissure, draining the nasty energy from this self-contained furnace.

Stefan kept a large energetic blanket around the whole mess so that this guy’s energy couldn’t slide away and take up residence anywhere else.

No! What’s happening? This can’t happen.
The energy spiked, hitting outward into Celina’s eyes.

Dimly Stefan heard her cry out. He raced to extend the healing cushion he’d placed between the energy and her eyes, something to soften the blows this asshole appeared determined to inflict. Blowing cooling colors to combat the heat, he poured soothing energy toward her eyes, protecting, healing them.

And blocking the asshole.

I need more power,
the entity sobbed, the words only bits and pieces, the emotions so much more than formed sounds.
More. More. More. I need more.