Love Beyond Sanity (22 page)

"If I can push my power out to soothe, I can also stop it from coming into me. It's like a block. It's basically because I'm a mean bitch."

"Charma," Marina laughed but her eyes looked tired. "You don't have a mean bone in your body."

"Oh, yes, I do."

A crash outside the window had all four of them jumping. "I'm coming for you, Drew."

Charma had never heard that voice before, but evidently Drew and Jason had. Drew ran a hand through his hair. "Shit."

"If I'm complete and she is," Jason whirled around. His expression became his 'thinking' face. "And we know you are, Drew. Then that means Marina isn't. So we need to get her out of here now. We're all exiting the building."

Jumping up, Charma was happy to oblige the thought of running. "Let's not separate this time. We'll all run together."

"Whatever. As long as we hurry." Drew grabbed Marina's arm and pulled her out the door. Charma took Jason's hand and moved into the hall.

As they rounded the corner, she felt a slight vibration. She gasped in horror as she looked up. The ceiling came down on top of them.

Chapter Fifteen

Jason pushed the concrete off himself. Why wasn't he dead? Closing his eyes, he forced his energy to check his injuries as he mentally stopped himself from panicking over Charma. He would find her. But he needed all of his strength—physical and mental—to accomplish that.

He had a slight concussion and used his own energy to maneuver that out of his body. Opening his eyes, he thanked the Fates, or the Spirits, or whoever was in charge that he hadn't broken his neck. As he stood, he made a mental note to find out more of their so-called spiritual path so at least he'd know whom he needed to thank in the event of an emergency like this one.

Just the fact that they existed to do what they needed to do meant he could no longer be agnostic or unsure.

To his left, he heard a slight groan. He moved fast to pull the remainder of the ceiling off Charma. She opened her eyes and groaned again.

"Try not to move too much. It looks like the ceiling from floor five fell on us."

"You mean the ceiling from floor four, the floor from floor five." She had obeyed him and had not moved so he couldn't yell at her for talking. Actually it was a relief that she could.

"No, I mean the ceiling from floor five. A lot more concrete than just our own ceiling."

"Marina? Drew?"

He shook his head. "No idea." He would worry about them in a moment. Also, he needed to think about whether there had been any patients left on both floors. First there was Charma.

She would always be first. He knelt down and scanned her body. She was better off than he had been. Just some bruising and abrasions. Not even a broken bone.

"They grow us Outsiders strong, don't they?" He ran his hands over her neck just to check again and touched her face gently. "Or is it something they fed you up there in Maine?" He smiled. "You can move now."

She sat. "I spent most of my time somewhere other than Maine. Maine showed up on our radar when we were teenagers."

"It was probably always there, sweetheart. You just weren't living in its boundaries."

"I think you knew what I meant and now you're just giving me a hard time because you're trying to distract me from the fact that we are basically stuck here, and we have no idea if Marina and Drew are dead or not. Also, there's the little matter of the two demons and Eden."

She was right. It was alarming and wonderful at the same time how quickly she'd gotten his motivation. "Well, I think if I had to guess, Drew and Marina were probably in the stairwell when the ceiling fell. The good news is that they probably missed getting struck by debris, which would mean they are trying to get to us. Drew is pretty crafty and he's managed to avoid the demon this long." Jason shrugged.

"I think I would know if Marina were dead. I just think I would."

He looked around. All exits were blocked. They could try to traverse over the wreckage but that might be dangerous considering he didn't know how sturdy the floor under them actually was. The room they had just left was still open and it had a window. If they needed, they could jump. Not that a four-story fall was so appealing either.

They both stood. Jason put his arm around Charma's waist and led her back to the room. He knew she didn't need his help, but it felt good to do so.

Doing a cursory glance around the room, he nodded hoping Charma had somehow followed his silent decision making that this was the best way to wait for rescue or see what happened.

If you want me to know, you could make it a little easier for me to follow by inviting me into your mind or speaking aloud
.

Her telepathic voice jarred him for a moment, and then he smiled. Of course, she'd be monitoring what he thought. That was so… Charma. The fact that he knew that, still, after all of these years was fantastic.

She jumped on the bed and sat down. Charma patted the place beside her where she apparently wanted him to sit. He followed her direction without remark. It was better to be close. For a lot of reasons. He took her hand in his and kissed it. They'd been lucky. Maybe the demon had just been so focused on Drew, they'd been granted a temporary reprieve. But he wasn't going to lose her again. Not to her own mind, not to a demon, and not to physical distance. Wherever she went, he went.

"Stop thinking so hard." She closed her eyes and put her head on his shoulder.

"Don't read my thoughts if you don't like it." Jason had no idea how to stop thinking 'so hard.' Even he knew his mind was not an easy place to hang out in.

"Ah, but I like reading them. I've been deprived the intimacy of it, thanks to someone's disappearing act eighteen years ago."

"Are we back to that?" This was one of those things he heard women did but had never seen before. Harping. That was what it was called. His mother nagged, but she didn't harp, at least not to him. Maybe she pestered his father. He had no idea. Their married relationship had fallen into the realm of 'not interesting' to him. The nurses in his practice would not have dared harping on him. Nor would any of his dates…

"And how many dates were there?"

"Hell, Charma, you're reading my mind like you're looking at a textbook."

"You could visit mine if you wanted to."

"I'm scared about what I might find in there. Massive amounts of 'I hate you, Jason, for disappearing from my subconscious when you were twelve' messages or something."

"Actually when I'm not trying to follow you in the mess you call your inner dialogue, I was thinking about how comfortable I am, considering the situation we are in."

He stroked her hair. "The calm before the storm, is that it?"

"You're not feeling remarkably okay, considering?"

"No, not at all. I'm revved up. Something is coming, I know it." He could feel the tinge of a headache forming too.

A sensation of calm soothed his thoughts. Maybe he could relax. He closed his eyes.

Wait a minute, what the hell was going on?

Opening them, he glared at Charma. "Don't do that."

She looked at him innocently. "Don't do what?"

"Lying now? Don't try to soothe me like I'm one of the endless souls that need your attention. I need you but not for your healing properties. Whatever my 'issues' are, I'm comfortable with them, leave them in my head."

She grumbled something unintelligible, and all of his earlier edginess came flying back.

With more strength than he would have imagined, she kicked him hard in the shin. "Stop being a jackass. You're obviously tense but nothing is going to get fixed by your spending the next hours that we are stuck in here on high adrenaline alert. You're just going to wear yourself out and be of no use if something did show up."

"I still don't want you in there tinkering with my emotions. Save it for someone else who needs it. I'll get myself under control if that's what you'd like."

"I don't want to 'save it.' In my life, there is no one I would rather take care of than you." Her eyes were wide, doe-like. He felt like an imbecile. He rubbed his shin where she had whacked him earlier.

"Fine. Then you can take care of me in a different situation. In this instance, I'm taking care of you."

She narrowed her eyes. "Come again?"

"I nearly lost you today. You were going to be endlessly stuck in your fears and away from me. That means I get to do the protection thing right now."

"I lost you from the time we were twelve and I got myself out, thank you very much."

"I swear Charma if you bring that up again, my head is going to explode."

If she could have spit daggers at him, he was sure she would have. Her pupils were huge, she was clearly biting the inside of her cheek, and her skin tone had taken on a red tinge that he imagined matched the color she was seeing right now. It was clear. Charma was pissed.

And he was totally turned on.

Without another thought, he reached out and pulled her into his lap. She made a sound that was close to a squeak as his mouth pressed down on hers. Her lips were smooth, soft, and completely feminine. She smelled clean, which was amazing considering the day they were having. Her skin was supple and warm.

She belonged to him.

Pulling back, she stared into his eyes. He was breathing hard as he gazed back. Without a word spoken, he leaned her down on the bed. His body loomed over hers and he became aware of how much bigger he was than she.

"I don't break, Jason."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Reading my mind again?"

"No. It's written all over your face."

Looking down, he kissed her again. Hard. He wanted to consume her. It was like she was a drug he was addicted to, and it had been too long since he'd had his fix. Gently, he nipped the bottom of her chin and was rewarded with her sensuous sigh. She ran her hands through his hair and he shuddered.

Charma was going to be dangerous to his health. There was no way he would ever get enough of her. He said his last thought aloud, knowing she would pull it from his mind if he didn't.

Touching her short blonde hair, he smiled. The look was perfect on Charma. When she'd been a young woman she'd worn it long—practically to the floor. Today she was this strong, sophisticated, complete person, and her entire look seemed to scream confidence, sex appeal.

He practically growled at the last thought. There were going to be far too many men who would look at her, and he suddenly realized he was a very jealous man.

Her eyes sparkled and she smiled like an imp. He pushed his thoughts into hers, desperate for her mind as his body grew harder and more strained, wanting to join with her in every possible way.

Punching his shoulders, she laughed as he felt his mind expelled at the same time. She nibbled at his neck. "You said you didn't want to be in my mind."

"Now I do."

She shook her head. "Too bad."

She was going to make him suffer for a while. He suppressed the grin that threatened to appear and pinched her on her backside. She yelped and laughed.

"Don't you want me in your head?"

"I did. Now I kind of like tormenting you."

He knelt above her, and reaching down, he pulled at her shirt until he managed to get it over her head. Her breasts called to him, demanding attention. In his life, he'd never felt more compelled to taste anything.

After a few tries, he finally got her bra off. "You're like something from a fantasy, Charma. It's like nothing could be so perfectly constructed."

"Oh, I'm flawed, but if you don't see them. I'm not pointing them out." She looked down at his hand where her bra had once been. He had no idea what she was thinking about because she still wouldn't let him in her damn mind. "You did that like you've done it before."

"I'm never going to be very good at it. But I'll practice, okay. I tried to get the bras off cadavers…"

She raised her hand to cut him off. "Okay, too much information for right now."

He nodded. "You were the one who brought it up."

She reached to kiss him again and he was undone. Charma was everything, his entire world. They were in the ruins of a mental health institution and all he could think about, his only focus in the entire world, was the small woman beneath him.

He'd pushed her away and nearly lost her to a demon but she was here with him now and he couldn't waste any more time. Every second they were together was a gift that might soon go away. They needed each other.

Her abs were smooth and flat. Charma was tiny, at least next to him, but she was curved in all the right places. With just his index finger, he drew a line down the center of her body starting at her neck and ending at the top of her pants.

"I want them off."

"Then I'm going to be all but completely naked and you will still be fully dressed."

He nodded. "My entire focus at the moment is on getting you into the nude."

"Not fair." She pulled at his shirt and he paused in his goal of removing her pants to help her in her task. Chest-to-chest, skin-to-skin was better. She was right.

Charma ran her hands over his chest, rubbing through his hair there, and he sighed. The things the woman could do by just touching him. His pants were becoming increasingly snug and if this went on much longer, he wasn't sure he would be able to actually take them off without hurting himself in the process.

She reached down and pulled at his zipper, releasing him. Her hand cupped his hardness and he groaned.

"Take them off."

He nodded and complied with her wishes.

Jason wasn't a man who thought very much about his own needs and emotions. Mostly, he felt neutral about things. But their day had been a trying one and it had caused him to feel all sorts of emotions he had avoided for years. Gently, he bit the side of Charma's neck. She squealed and he grinned. How could he have thought he could live without this?

The warmth from her body bled into his, and he sighed. Truth was, he had been cold for years and hadn't even known it. Charma wasn't just temperate, she was downright steamy. He needed her to fill him, to make him whole where he was empty. A low steady chanting noise filled his ears and he gasped.