Unknown Touch (15 page)

The four of us went into a trance-like state. We were determined to give it our all. Dom merged with my mind, next we entered Daniel's mind and lastly, reeled in Isaac. It took Isaac a few minutes to calm down as this was a new experience for him and he was somewhat disoriented. We knew we didn't want to waste any time, though, as Eli had reprimanded us heavily that Dom and I would continue to lose our energy the longer we engaged in this activity.

Daniel and Isaac together sought out the mental pathway to Stephen's mind. They kept the image of him firmly in their thoughts for me to absorb. At the precise moment they were about to establish an attempt at contact with Stephen, they pulled up quickly to allow me a chance to break through. There was something there this time. A momentary flash of emotions. Bitterness. Frustration. Boredom. I tried hard to suppress my intrusion into his mind. It was difficult. I felt Dom's presence trying to give me power, but he thought he would lose the group's mental linkage if he spread himself too thin by helping. He backed off and continued to focus on maintaining the mental links we were sharing. Daniel and Isaac didn't want to come too close to where I was at in this psychic phenomenon. Stephen would surely recognize their presence and we would lose the element of surprise. I knew if that were to happen, I would absolutely have to attempt to get as physically close to Stephen as possible in order to pursue any further telepathic manipulation.

I concentrated as much as I could without passing out, and tried to enter Stephen's thoughts one last time. I knew I was starting to feel the early signs of wearing out. Dom was, too. I quietly, calmly pressed myself into this mental pathway created by Daniel and Isaac, taking with me the physical image of Stephen. Again, a few catches of emotions, but I had nothing at all to work with. I think the addition of Isaac did help with me identifying some emotions Stephen was feeling, since before Isaac I had a blank slate. But we weren't getting anything accomplished.

As I withdrew from this mental pathway, Daniel's mind jumped too quickly back to me. For that split second, until I drifted further away from Stephen, I could have sworn I felt a warning as Stephen's mind seemed to question whether someone had tried to contact him. I think he caught remnants of Daniel's presence and hopefully not mine. As we opened our eyes and leaned back in our chairs, I proceeded to fill in Eli, Zac and Tessa on what had happened. It just wasn't much of anything.

Now we had to go on to 'Plan B'. This probably meant my getting as close as possible to Stephen so I could see him with my own two eyes, not through someone else's eyes. I needed my own personal view of him, to be able to take in his aura, see him in action, pick up on his emotions. I knew Daniel hated this idea. He was concerned for my safety. We sat in silence for several minutes, contemplating our next move.

Well, it was time for supper. Abigail, once again, treated us to a wonderfully prepared meal. Tonight, I would not bother offering to help clean dishes; since I witnessed the speed and agility she displayed taking care of them herself the previous night. Amazing! Afterwards, we adjourned to the lounge and made ourselves at home. There was a fire crackling and popping in the fireplace giving a sense of warmth and security. Daniel mentioned he had better check in on a few business matters since he had been involved with either me or the group the entire day. He promised he would be back in an hour.

This gave Dominic time to make his move on me. Or so he thought. We crashed onto one of the monstrous sized sofas, sitting only about a foot apart. The room was rather large, so our group was not necessarily making a point to sit on top of each other. We kind of spread out through the room that night, trying to relax and did not worry about talking the entire evening. The flat screen TV was playing some movie that the others were getting interested in. Eli was partially watching the movie and typing on his laptop, again. Dom would be able to speak freely to me although he would have to keep his voice way down. We were exhausted after our frustrating afternoon and had severe mental drain. Regardless of our weakened states, he was still going to try his best to win me over.

"Kara, this thing with you and Daniel, isn't going to work out. You know that, right? I can tell you're falling for him." Dominic stated this so matter-of-factly. All it did was put me on the defensive.

"How do you know what's going on? It's my life, I can make my own decisions," I spewed at him. If he was trying to win me over, this was not the way to do it. And I allowed him to read those thoughts. He had become very aware that I was putting up mental blocks against him, more and more frequently it seemed. And he wondered what I was up to during those times.

He tamed it down a bit, and tried again, "I'm sorry. I know I can't tell you what to do. I just care an awful lot about you, Kara, and I don't want to see you hurt or disappointed. We've spent a huge amount of time together over the last several weeks. It feels like months to me. But in a good way because of the time I've spent with you. I've noticed you don't allow me into your mind as often as you used to, which could be detrimental if I need to contact you telepathically for an emergency. Although, to be honest, I think if I really, really wanted to push it, I could break through your little mind barrier." He was bragging now.

"Dom, if something was truly wrong, I would get your message, don't worry. I would sense your urgency and yes, you could break through it. It's only a flimsy shield meant to momentarily stop you and make you think that maybe I want some privacy at that moment. And if it's nothing critical or life shattering, maybe you'll respect that privacy for a bit," I explained.

"Okay, I get your point, I understand. Getting back to who likes who-I can see Daniel getting possessive of you. Territorial. Next thing you know, he's going to lift his leg and pee on you," Dom was serious but I started laughing. He, too, finally started laughing. It definitely brought up an interesting image in your mind.

He went on, "I really am being serious, Kara. You need to watch yourself. Be careful. You could fire up emotions in him that he might not be able to control."

I sat there with a look of "having been caught" on my face. Guilty as charged. I admitted, "Well…actually…this morning I had to dampen his highly charged emotions a tad bit. But, nothing happened. He's under control. He's aware of himself now. I'm fine. I'm just unbelievably wiped out after today's events."

"I don't suppose
I
could just go ahead and pee on you now, huh? And then take you on a real live, human date?" Dom barely could get the words out, he was almost falling off the couch, chuckling.

Laughing and gagging at the same time, I responded, "No, on the peeing! And you could take me out, pizza sounds great, but I'd rather not consider it a date, Dom. You are like my best friend, do you get it?" I tried to emphasize the word friend. I also pushed feelings of comfort and affection into his mind.

He answered, "Yeah, I get it. But I will always be here for you, Kara. Remember that."

And on that note, I gave him a sincere smile of gratitude, grabbed one of the pillows, threw it on his lap, plunked my head down on it to rest and catch what remained of the movie on TV. And to wait for Daniel's return. Dom was not sure what to think about my head being in his lap, although there was a huge pillow between us. I had a feeling he was reading too much into it. I was just looking for a way to collapse in a horizontal position. He readjusted his posture to allow himself to slouch back down and make us both comfortable.

Dom and I drifted off into a light sleep that lasted about thirty minutes. Daniel entered the room, noticed I was sleeping with my head on Dom's lap, and cleared his throat loudly to wake us up and get everyone's attention. I could tell he wasn't thrilled about the position I was in, but chose to dismiss it for the meantime since obviously he had more pressing matters to tell us about. He looked distraught. Something bad had happened. Dom and I were fully awake now. We sat bolt upright.

Daniel relayed to us, "I've heard through the police and the locals, there have been more livestock mutilations, and a camper at a campground near Stephen and Simon's place was found murdered today. I called Simon, luckily he answered, and said Stephen hasn't been around the main house or at the woodworking business lately. He's probably hanging around the old cabin they originally lived in when they left here. Get ready because tomorrow morning we're heading out. Stephen will be found."

Chapter 12

Off Road

After Daniel's abrupt announcement, everyone started talking at once. We had to assume it was Stephen who feasted on the farmer's cattle and killed the camper. Unless, of course, we could prove otherwise. Rebecca had clearly stated, she wanted us to be positive on our actions against Stephen. At least two people had to be in agreement that Stephen was completely out of control, that he could be declared evil, and only then, he would be destroyed.

Daniel rallied the troops together and stated, "We are now on Plan B. I want to keep this hunting group small. I will be the only werewolf going. As it stands, that gives us six total. Zac and Tessa, you have your weapons in case we need to use them. We still must determine that Stephen is the one who committed these crimes. So,
don't
shoot to kill. At least not yet. I will confront him alone. He won't feel as cornered, or feel that it's a trap, if I go to him by myself. The rest of you will remain very close, but hidden in the woods, able to view and hopefully hear everything between Stephen and myself."

"Is this cabin easy to get to?" Zac questioned.

"Not like it used to be. The dirt road is barely considered a road anymore. It is massively overgrown with tree limbs, weeds and debris. I'll hook up the car trailer to the truck and load the four-wheelers. Let's see, if we double up riding on the ATV's, then we'll need three of them. Lucky me, I've got about four on the property. Zac, I would appreciate it if you'd help me with that tonight," Daniel politely asked Zac.

"Yes, sir, no problem," his military discipline was kicking in.

Daniel continued, "Tomorrow morning, we'll drive to the campground nearest his cabin. Then, do some off-roading with the ATV's until we can get a little closer. We'll walk the last half mile to his cabin to eliminate the noise from the vehicles. He very easily could be out and about and discover us anyway. Once we are near the cabin, you guys can hunker down in the trees as I head up to the front door. Zac, you can position yourself however you deem necessary. I can handle my own fights, but if something goes awry, it wouldn't hurt to have you in a prime location to take a shot at Stephen. Again, I wouldn't attempt a shot meant to kill, just to slow him down. My hope is that he will be honest and confess to these acts of violence, if he did commit them. Many times, our kind likes to brag about things we've done, to show off, and maybe he'll do just that."

I piped in, "Your
kind
? Ha - males in general, of all kinds, like to brag."

All the men in the room, at that exact moment, turned and scowled at me. Then, it seemed, they were nodding in agreement. Yes, definitely some strong male arrogance could be found in that room. I loved them all, though.

"Anyway…," Daniel went back to the plan of attack, "His answer to whether he is the responsible party will determine what happens next. With Kara being so near to him at that point, hopefully she will be able to make a mental connection with him. Even as I talk to him, Kara, if you're able to work your magic on him right then and there, go for it. Do your psychic manipulation on his emotions. Or if you and Dominic can read his mind, pick out any important details, a way to let us know if he has slipped to the dark side, obviously do so. After confronting him, I plan to just walk away, if he'll let me. There are so many possible scenarios that could play out here. We're going to have to wing some of this. We don't have a crystal ball, and unless you two psychics can see into the future, we have no way of knowing what Stephen's answers will be or how he will react to me."

Eli spoke up, "As soon as Zac and Daniel finish loading up the ATV's, everyone needs to get to bed."

The group broke up and went their own way. Tessa mentioned to Zac that she was going to quickly prepare the guns and choose some other weapons that the rest of us could carry for protection. Lovely. I could just see me wielding some long-edged knife trying to defend myself. Maybe she had some mace. I could handle that.

Eli and Dom seemed to be chatting up a storm about the situation tomorrow. Dom looked over at me and held up one finger, then he mentally said,
Give me a second then we'll head back to the cabin.

Zac and Daniel were heading out the entrance door. They would be getting the trailer and four-wheelers ready to go. As Daniel walked by me, he paused, and said, "Interesting position you were in earlier while you took a nap. I hadn't forgotten that little scene, in case you were wondering. Don't worry. I'm not going to beat him up or anything. Dominic and I are friends, but that doesn't mean we can't have a little playful bantering. Just to let you know."

While most of the group were still in the lounge, Daniel gave me a lengthy hug, then glanced up at Dom who was, of course, watching us, and winked at him. Then, he walked out the door to catch up with Zac. I sensed everyone's curiosity with Daniel's affection towards me. I stood there, smiled and gave a wave as if to say, "Hi - I'm standing right here and can see you're all still staring at me."

Dominic walked over to me as Eli headed back to the kitchen. He thought he'd engage in some good-natured teasing with me. He must have read pieces of Daniel's mind a few seconds ago, as he said, "So, are you ready to hit the bed?" Again, that was another expression that could be taken two ways. He deserved the flick I gave his shoulder. We waited a few minutes for Eli to return, and the three of us headed to our cabin.