Slipping the Past (23 page)

“Do you mind if I sit? My name’s Libby, or that’s what my mother called me.” She took a seat across from him. “Where are you headed?”

“New Stratus City.”

She nodded. He studied her for a moment. She was young, with pale blonde hair and clear green eyes. Her dress covered her from head to toe in yards of black, an odd style for someone to wear. He looked down. Amish, perhaps? The train did travel through their country.

“I’m an old soul.”

Nate lifted his eyes. “A what?”

“An old soul. It means I’ve been around for a while. I know the look of someone troubled by their past.” She leaned forward, searching his face. “We all have demons that haunt us. Every life we’re given a chance to do better, until we get it right. Some of us never seem to learn and some of us take a while.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand. Her skin felt like ice, sending shivers wiggling up his spine. “I think you do.”

Nate sighed and pulled his hand away. “This is going to sound insane….”

“Go ahead. I’ve heard some pretty crazy things. I won’t judge you.”

“I think I had something to do with hurting my sister. I mean, she wasn’t my sister then, but….” He ran a hand through his hair. “She is now.”

“You wronged her in the past.”

“Yes.”

“Then you need to fix it.”

“How? I have no idea what I did back then. I don’t even know if it really happened and this isn’t some drug-induced hallucination.”

“You’re here for a reason, Nate Miller.”

Nate’s mouth fell open. “I didn’t give you my name.”

“No.”

“What else do you know about me?” His heart began to pound. She didn’t look like a reaper.

“I know that you’re not going to stop in New Stratus City, but you’re headed to Salem. There are bigger forces at work than you could imagine.”

Nate snorted.

She glanced out the window. “I’m not one of them, a reaper. It’s not man’s place to hold souls. They belong to God.”

“Don’t tell me you buy into all that higher-power stuff? Our origins are from off-world.”

“Don’t you remember?”

Nate laughed softly, shaking his head. “This isn’t real.” He reached up and touched his forehead. Cool to the touch, no fever. “I’m gonna go crash, I’ve had a rough couple of days. I’d love to sit and chat about all this, but I’m wasted.”

“Rest is not what you need. What you need is to remember.” Libby leaned forward, until their noses almost touched. Her hands came up and cupped his face and she tipped her head, pressing her lips to his.

He didn’t know what he expected from that kiss, certainly not what he got. Ice slammed through him. His lungs seized and he couldn’t draw a breath, then lights exploded around him.

“I want her gone.” Widow Dover pushed a knife into the constable’s hand. She leaned in. “Caleb, too.”

“Murder them?”

“I don’t care. Then we can marry, as planned. Caleb’s holdings will pass to me as the only surviving family member. We shall not want for anything.”

“Woman, you misunderstood my intentions. Though I enjoyed your favors, ’tis not thee I want.” He grabbed her hair, yanking her head back, and abruptly slit her throat. Widow Dover’s mouth fell open and blood bubbled from her lips. “Thou wert simply a means to my desires.” He dropped her body to the floor, wiping the knife on the front of his trousers. “I want the redheaded witch.”

Liberty gasped from the staircase, giving away her hidden seat there. The constable’s eyes traveled up, locking on to her.

“Thou hast seen too much, love.”

She scrambled to her feet, gathered her skirts, and ran.

Libby pulled away, leaving a chill slithering down his spine. “You’re going to die, Nathanial Miller.” The girl’s green eyes grew darker. “If you go to Salem, you’re going to die. But if you go, you will save her, finally balance the scales, and get a second chance.”

Die but get a second chance? She was nuts. He studied her closer, noticing the ethereal quality to her skin and the face that stared back. He threw himself back in his seat. The girl from the vision. “Liberty.” Then the face shifted into his own, as though he stared in a mirror. Chills exploded across his skin.

“Look, I don’t know why you’re trying to freak me out, but I am going to New Stratus City—not Salem.” Nate turned his gaze out the window, doing his best to ignore her.

“No, Nathanial. You’re not,” she whispered.

“Nobody calls me Nathanial.” Nate rolled his eyes and turned to her, but she was gone. He glanced around the car, looking for the girl who’d made his hair stand on end the moment she’d touched him. A man sat off to the side, reading the news.

“A storm’s a coming, it hides the sun. Here come the reapers, run child, run. Jump once to save your life, two to save your soul, three to find some rest and four to stay whole. Five they’re gonna get you, six you’ll get….” Two little girls played a rhyming game, slapping their palms together. They began to giggle when they messed up and started over. “A storm’s a coming….”

Nate yanked his attention from them and turned in the other direction. Nobody had seen it? Everyone went about their business as though nothing had happened moments before. He swallowed and looked to the other side of the compartment. A woman nursed her baby and tugged the blanket up on her shoulder when she caught him looking.

Odd. Freaky. How could they have missed him smashing a glass into the paneling and screaming like a lunatic? Had he only imagined the Amish girl who’d sat across from him? Nobody seemed to hear a thing he’d said.

The drugs the hospital had given him had to be tap dancing on his brain and cooking up a serious trip. God, that was weird. He glanced down at the table. A ticket sat in the middle like an ominous warning—over it—his glass of water, magnifying the words on the paper.

Salem, MA.

***

Jocelyn waited in the vehicle until Gabriel exited the Inn’s office. “We should have come here instead of going into town. They filled their last vacancy an hour ago.”

“Doesn’t matter. I can’t go in there. Never again.” Using his eyes, she studied the majestic house standing sentinel over the cypress trees lining the brick drive. Shadows danced in the moonlight like a specter’s ball, sending shivers across her skin. She lifted the cuff of her jacket sleeve.

“Nervous habit?”

Jocelyn dropped her wrist. “This place gives me the creeps. I’m afraid if I go in there, I’ll have to face our deaths and I don’t know that I can handle that.”

“I’m here. You’re not alone. We’ll come back after everyone’s asleep.”

“We can’t sit out here all night.”

“No. There’s a grove of trees up the road. We’ll pull in there and wait.”

***

She put the vehicle in Park and turned to Gabriel. “How long do we wait?”

He grabbed her hand and lifted it to his cheek. “I love the feel of your skin against mine and the energy between us.” His fingers slid behind her head and he leaned in to kiss her bottom lip. Gabriel groaned and tightened his hold, fully capturing her mouth. Her heart skipped a beat and a fluttering started in her belly.

God, she’d fallen hard. Chances were, she wouldn’t prove her case. She couldn’t let him become any more attached than he was. Jocelyn pulled away and turned to the window. Her heart fractured. Better to put distance between them now.

“It’s too late.”

“You barely know me.” A lie. She’d known the moment she saw him that he knew her better than any other. If she felt it, he did too.

Gabriel shifted in his seat. “When I had the room across from yours, I had an accident and hit my head. It triggered memories. I was dying and all I could think about was that I’d lost you. Letting go was almost impossible. I promised you I’d come back, not sure that I could or how I’d even find you again. You were covered in my blood.” Gabriel reached over and popped open the first two buttons on her blouse. He slid his hand inside the fabric and slipped it off her shoulder, exposing the birthmark. “You stained your skin and your hair while you tried to keep me Terra-bound. I saw the despair in your eyes and heard what you whispered as I died.”

“What did I say?”

“That you’d make sure I found you—that I’d always find you.” He reached up and touched her hair. “It’s red for me.” Gabriel leaned in and kissed the mark above her breast. “And my blood has stayed where it marked you thousands of years ago, as if you knew one day it would draw my attention.” He pulled back and traced around the mark with his finger. “This mark isn’t a curse, it’s a gift.”

Tears came to her eyes. One broke free and escaped under the frame of her glasses. She tried to turn them off, but they continued to flow. He understood her innocence. That one mark had ensured a life of hell, and looking over her shoulder from the age of eighteen. Gabriel pulled her glasses free. The shadows of the pecan trees blocked the moonlight, allowing her to gaze at him without pain. He brushed a tear away with his finger.

“Don’t cry. I don’t like to see you sad.”

“What if we can’t get the evidence? You know things aren’t as they appear, but the DSLE won’t take my word for it. I’ve been waiting my entire life for the missing piece of my soul and now I’m going to lose you.”

“You have me now.” He grasped her hand and placed it over his heart. “I don’t know what comes later, but I know we shouldn’t waste this moment. Here and now, this is our time. Life is too short to waste it on ‘what if’.” He leaned in and kissed her. Jocelyn sank into his warmth. Energy whirled around her and her body buzzed.

He pulled her closer. “I need to hold you, make love, and hope for a future. God, Jocelyn. I need you.”

He kissed the column of her throat, skimming down her neck. Her pulse danced under his lips and her heart leaped.

He reached for the front of her blouse, undoing the third button, then another, finally pushing it open and sliding her bra strap off her shoulder. He stared at her naked skin above the lace cup and where the cursed mark sat.

Jocelyn reached down and grasped the seat as jolts rocketed from her core to her toes.

He tugged the button on her jeans and pulled it open. Warm fingers brushed over her pelvis and lower. He stopped and sucked in a breath. “All out of underpants?”

“You ripped the only pair I owned.”

“Pity.” He lifted his gaze and grinned. His fingers slipped between her lips, finding her clit. Jocelyn gasped and arched off the seat.

“I can’t control myself around you.”

“Then don’t. Let go.” Gabriel lifted her across the seat and into his arms. He tugged her shirt off and released the clasp on her bra, throwing both in the back of the vehicle. Jocelyn grabbed his T-shirt and yanked it over his head. She balled it up and tossed it with the others. “What happens if the local authorities pull up?”

“Then I tell them I’m interrogating my prisoner.”

Jocelyn reached behind her and hit a button, darkening the glass.

He peeled her jeans off her hips and down her thighs, pulling one leg off at a time. “Adjust passenger seat to the rear.” The seat dropped back and down.

Jocelyn smiled and straddled him as he reclined under her. “You’re a quick study.”

“Umm.” He ran his hands up her body, cupping her breasts. “Hold a moment.” Gabriel disappeared and reappeared under her naked. “How’s this.”

“Nice trick.”

“No trick.”

“I’ll show you one.” Jocelyn grasped his cock and lifted her hips, placing him against her wet lips. “How ’bout I show you how to make this disappear?” She smiled. “Now you see it.” She lowered herself on him, taking her time, feeling each inch as it pushed inside her. Gabriel drew in a sharp breath as she seated herself, pelvis to pelvis. “Now you don’t. Oh God, you feel….” Jocelyn rocked her hips. “I’ve never had you like this.” She raised her body and slid down. Gabriel groaned and she lifted again, holding herself off all but the head. “I don’t know if I like it more like this, or on my back. What do you think?” She reached down and grasped his shaft, rubbing her clit. “Like this.” She slipped him in and slid back down. “I don’t know. Could you do that teleport thing and put me on the bottom?”

Gabriel growled.

Jocelyn wiggled and lifted.

“You are killing me, Jo.”

“Maybe we should try it the other way?” She shifted her weight.

“Little tease.” Gabriel grabbed her hips and arched up, thrusting inside. Orange and blue light exploded around her, humming against her skin.

Jocelyn threw her head back and gasped. She rode him up and down, meeting each thrust, flesh slapping against flesh. Gabriel pounded into her. Each strike sent fire zinging through her. Her stomach tightened and heat began to ball in the center of her belly, spreading out until every nerve in her body tingled.

Sparks, like frenzied fireflies, danced before her eyes, spiraling around in an orange and pink storm. Gabriel’s blues mingled with her pinks, twisting and interweaving, swirling faster and faster. Up the middle, violet sparks jumped like a fire fountain, shooting up the energy funnel they’d created with their joined auras. Threads of their souls wound tighter, containing the vibrant energy.

Jocelyn’s muscles tightened. Spasms rippled through her body, washing through her in waves of pleasure. Her toes curled and she raked into the flesh on his chest as she came. Remembering everything. His touch. The way he held her after they made love. His laughter. His pain. This man belonged with her—had always belonged with her. Their bodies remembered what their minds had forgotten, and brought the past forward. Here and now. This was their moment in this time and she would not sacrifice a second of it thinking of what might happen tomorrow.

“I can’t hold off…I’m coming.” Gabriel grasped her hips, impaling her to the hilt and holding her as he came, throbbing against each clench of her muscles. Jocelyn rocked forward and fell against his chest, her hair spread across his chest. She sucked in a breath and steadied the ripples pulsing through her. Had she seen what she thought she did? Was there a third energy present?