Destiny of Three Page 16

  “Good to see you’re back with us Kelly.” She hadn’t heard any door open or anything else to indicate she wasn’t alone.

  “Who are you? What do you want from me?” Cringing at the desperate edge in her voice, she clamped her lips tight. God, how she wanted to beg for water that didn’t come from a toilet, for food, or a blanket, or to go home.

  “Who are we? You don’t get to ask the questions, we do. We want to know who all of you are. We know about you and the four others. You all showed up twenty years ago. Why did you come here? Where did you come from?” The woman’s voice was calm and soothing. It was like they were having a polite conversation, but Kelly knew the horror awaiting her at the woman’s command.

  “I told you, I don’t remember anything before waking up in Dad’s police car.” Kelly’s voice was raspy from all the screams, but at least it was even.

  “But Kelly, Mike Wachowski isn’t really your father now is he?” Again the woman’s speech was calm and soothing. “You appeared out of thin air twenty years ago and were adopted into his family, isn’t that right?”

  It wasn’t a question, and Kelly didn’t reply, but suddenly realized what was coming next. She’d forgotten. This wasn’t the first time she’d woken up in this room and drank from the toilet bowl. Doubted it was even the tenth time. It had to be the shock treatments. They were messing with her memory. She didn’t remember when she’d been kidnapped, but it had to have been well over a month, oh God, could it have been a year?

  She sat there, turning her head away from the direction of the voice. She waited, and then heard more people entering the cell, knowing what came next. Holding up her arms she didn’t have long to wait, they were there, grabbing and dragging her out.

  ****

  “Noooooo-aaaahhhhh!”

  “Shove the bit in again. I don’t want her biting through her tongue. Hopefully this new dosage will break down the damn barrier.”

  Whatever chemicals they gave her burned as they made their way into her system. She moaned around the rubber bit and struggled with the restraints as the paddles were placed against her temples. Maybe they’d finally kill her and her suffering would end.

  First black, then white, and then the red of fire and pain. Coursing through her like molten fire, through every molecule, forcing her to lose control of her bodily functions.

  The colors burst in front of her, yellows, purples, pinks and blues. Ripping the head off one wildflower she pushed it against her nose and inhaled the fragrance, and then threw back her head and laughed. The sun was up and warm against her bare shoulders. Charging forward, she giggled as the flowers brushed legs, the soft grass squishy between her toes. She soared over the log in her path, and then she saw him.

  Noah was her best friend. She knew he wanted to be alone, but he needed her. Tiptoeing behind him, she jumped up to surprise him as he turned around. He gave her a dark look but she smiled at him and flung her arms wide, watching as his face suffused with laughter. He scooped her up and twirled her around. He was nine and she was five, but their age difference didn’t matter, they were best friends. Grabbing his silky black hair as he twirled her, she hugged his neck, and Kali was content. Nothing was better in her world than loving Noah, he belonged to her.

  “Don’t be sad anymore, Noah.”

  “I’m not sad, Kali.”

  “Don’t lie.”

  “I’m leaving with the others.” She’d known. But she didn’t want him to leave. “Kalani, you need to understand, let me show you.” He touched their foreheads together.

  “No, I don’t want to see.”

  “Open up Kali, you need to see. Let me show you.”

  Kali relaxed and let him share the other universe needing their help. He revealed everything. So many things didn’t make sense, but the pain and suffering was easy to comprehend, and more, she could see what it was Noah and the others were supposed to do. It was simple, they were to be themselves and just help a little.

  He was right, he had to go, it was important. Kali started to cry. She knew it meant she would have to leave everything she loved, her Nana, the meadow, and everything else, because there was no way Noah was leaving without her.

  About the Author

  Caitlyn O’Leary was raised in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. She has always been an avid reader. Her earliest creative writing endeavors consisted of “ghost writing” exercises where she pretended to be her younger brothers and sister when she did their homework assignments.

  Years in corporate America honed her ability to manipulate words by day and at night she read everything she could get her hands on, including many steamy romances.

  Now happily married to her long, tall Texan and living in Southern California, Caitlyn has finally found the time to write erotic happily ever afters. She enjoys swimming, traveling, babysitting for her nieces and nephews, spending time with friends and family, and doing lots of “research” with her husband for upcoming novels.

  Keep Up With Caitlyn O’Leary

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  Website: www.caitlynoleary.com

  Email: Caitlyn@caitlynoleary.com

  Excerpt from

  FireStarter

  By Elle Boon

  Chapter One

  Keanu Raine walked a few feet from his team, letting his inner fire control him. The forest fire was all but burned out, but it was searching for more, and he knew it had found a new source. The living breathing entity of unforgiving heat that could engulf hundreds of acres, only needed a little spark to ignite all over again, only Keanu wasn’t going to allow it if he could stop it. He ignored their questions knowing they were missing something. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, never a good sign when you were in the middle of a huge forest fire. “Hey, did you guys hear that?” Keanu asked.

  “Shit, man, this gobbler is a fuck nut,” Brax McKay grumbled.

  “Kea, all I can hear is my stomach rumbling.” Hal Aldridge grinned, his blond hair soaked with sweat.

  “I swear something’s not right.” Keanu nodded in the direction of the burned out forest.

  He couldn’t squash the feeling of doom as he looked through the smoke. His inner fire leapt to life, sending his senses on high alert. A small blaze could easily turn into something much larger with the dry conditions, and in Keanu’s opinion, it was a guarantee. They’d evacuated the surrounding homes, but it wasn’t always a certainty all families would get out.

  “I’m going to scout around a bit, since we have about thirty minutes before pick-up. You guys head for the zone and wait for my call. If I’m not there when the DC shows, I’ll meet you at the next drop.” He tapped the radio attached to his suit.

  “Yeah, right, boss. I don’t think so, I’m going with you,” Hal snorted, moving to stand by him.

  “It’s cool. I’ll go by myself. It’s probably nothing.” Keanu shrugged.

  Hal shook his head. “Let’s go.”

  The group of smokejumpers paused and Keanu nodded to Brax. He knew Hal would follow him regardless. They left the other six members of their team and headed in the direction that Keanu sensed the disturbance. The overwhelming feeling persisted. Someone was trapped in the middle of the blaze. He could feel it in his bones. They needed to locate him or her quickly, or there wouldn’t be anything left to find.

  Several minutes later, they stood on the outskirts of an already evacuated community. Keanu considered calling a stop to their search, fearing he was too late. There were towering homes to his right, less than a hundred yards away, and blackened earth to his left.

  “Kea, if there was someone here, they must’ve gotten out.”

  Keanu wasn’t sure how Hal knew he was searching for a person, but he had figured out early on Hal was every bit as sensitive as he was.

  Hearing Hal
mimic his thoughts about their search made his stomach drop. The other man didn’t have to add or they were dead; nothing could’ve survived in the middle of the area.

  Keanu shook his head, not willing to give up yet. “This way, I know I’m right.” Turning toward the trees, he didn’t need to check to see if his partner followed.

  Burnt wood and grass surrounded them. Inhaling deeply he caught a scent so distinctive it made most people gag.

  “My water tank is almost empty. If there’s a fire, and I’m not saying there is, maybe we should call for back-up.”

  “There isn’t time. I smell burnt human hair.”

  “Shit,” Hal swore.

  Keanu led them into a thick clump of charred trees. With all the blackness surrounding him, he couldn’t see a thing, but he sensed a hot spot. A tingling deep inside wouldn’t let him ignore what he knew was a real threat. He rushed to the area before coming to an abrupt halt. A large section of land filled with tall dry grass had started to smolder.

  “What the fuck? How the hell did we miss this?” Hal pointed. “Look.”

  A small boy was nestled in the branches just above the flames.

  “Hal, you climb and I’ll take care of the fire,” Keanu ordered, relieved to see his partner and best friend didn’t argue for once.

  Stepping over the fallen branches and blackened areas, he inhaled the hot air into his lungs. He continued sucking the flames into his body, relishing the feel of the warmth rushing through his system, while using the water hose attached to his pack to douse the hot spots.

  By the time Hal had the boy on the ground, he couldn’t sense any more flames. He coughed and gave Hal two thumbs up.

  They made their way back to their teammates with the small boy cradled in Hal’s big arms.

  “What the hell?” Brax eyed the child.

  Keanu grabbed a bottle of water from his coworker and chugged, while the rest of the group tended to the boy. His inner flame began to cool with the refreshing fluid and he accepted another bottle gratefully.

  “Oh man, Kea. You saved the boy’s life.” Barry looked from the boy to Keanu.

  Keanu shook his head. “Nah, I just got lucky. Hal got the kid down.”

  “Bullshit! Good job, Kea.” Brax punched his arm.

  Praise from his team made Keanu cringe. None of them were ordinary men, far from it, but he hated having attention drawn to him. He looked to the sky, happy to see their pick-up overhead in time to save him from unwanted admiration. They’d radioed ahead, alerting them to the addition. The first man took the child. Keanu was the last to leave the clearing. Giving his inner fire free reign one last time, he made sure they hadn’t missed anything else. By the time they finished, he was sure the next team wouldn’t have any surprises.

  Getting into the DC-3 wasn’t nearly as fun as jumping from one, Keanu mused as he was finally lifted up.

  * * * *

  Keanu stood on his deck gazing at the openness for as far as his eyes could see. He loved the smell of the mountains, the clean pine scent. It was very similar to his home with his grandparents. He raised his face to the sun, allowing the rays to warm him from the outside as his internal fire warmed the inside. Letting out a deep breath, he turned toward the fire pit in the corner and blew a puff of air on the logs, making them burn.

  Smiling, Keanu stepped into his spacious kitchen and grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge. Closing his eyes in bliss as he twisted off the cap, he tipped his head for a much needed drink. A platter of steaks and two potatoes wrapped in foil were on the counter, ready to be cooked. He grabbed the platter, stepped outside and placed them on the grill, then with another breath of air, the charcoals started to smoke and turn a fiery red.

  “Yo, Kea. Where you at?” Hal yelled from inside.

  “I'm on the deck. Grab a beer and come on out.”

  Hal ducked his head, avoiding the doorjamb, and joined Keanu on the deck with two bottles dangling from his fingers. Keanu took a bottle from Hal with a shake of his head.

  “Oofta, I so needed this.” Hal tipped his bottle to his mouth.

  Keanu laughed and flipped the steaks. “Is ‘oofta’ a real word?”

  “Hell yeah, it’s real. You can use it for just about any swear word.”

  Keanu stifled a chuckle. “Thanks, but I think I’ll just say ‘fuck’ at least once in every sentence.”

  “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  “Fuck off.” Keanu laughed.

  They sat in companionable silence, listening to the birds sing and the wind whistle through the trees. Keanu loved being outside almost as much as he loved women. He swore watching the trees sway was like watching a woman sashay as she led her man to bed.

  “So, what did your grandfather want?”

  Leave it to Hal to cut to the chase before Keanu was ready to talk about it. His grandfather lived at the top of the Cascades. It was only fifty miles away, but it could be another country.

  Keanu shrugged. “Something is spooking him, and if you knew my grandfather, you’d know it was major. He scares the shit out of me and I’m a grown man.”

  “He didn’t give you any hints?”

  Keanu looked at the pit and sucked in a breath, making the red coals lose some of their glow, before turning to his best friend. “Nah. He needs my expertise.” Keanu made air quotes, shrugged, and headed to the grill.

  “So, are you looking forward to going home, boss?” Hal asked.

  “Yes and no.”

  “We’re going to miss you on the team. Not sure what we’ll do without our very own fireman.” Hal laughed, his booming voice echoing in the still of the night.

  “Real funny. I’m still on call in case of emergency situations, and you know Brax can bend things to his will.” Keanu raised his eyebrows. The co-leader of their group had truly amazing and sometimes frightening powers, but Keanu wasn’t going to tell him he thought he was great. The man already had a big head.

  Keanu flipped the steaks and checked the potatoes.

  “I’m going to miss my own personal barbeque-man.” Hal had a frown on his face.

  He flipped Hal off. He’d had the ability to make a fire out of air since he was a small boy. By the time he’d turned twelve, he’d learned to breathe the fire back into his body without much cost to himself, other than the need to burn off the energy one way or another.

  After graduating from high school he became a fireman for the local fire department. Known as a fire-breather in the world of elementals, Keanu could create a small flame or a large roaring blaze, and in the next breath suck it back into his body. Of course, the larger the fire the more energy he needed to burn afterwards.

  As a child, he’d hike for miles and freefall off a cliff into the freezing streams surrounding the Cascades. The adult Keanu found other more pleasurable ways to expel the effects, usually between the thighs of a woman.

  “You need some help there, Kea?”

  Keanu shook off his thoughts of the past. “Could you grab the salad and dressing out of the fridge?”

  “No problem.”

  Within moments, Keanu had the steaks and potatoes on the table. It always amazed him the way the six foot four blond giant waited until everything was set before digging into his food. He’d slice his steak with exact precision into small cube-like bites, and then stab them with his fork, before chewing each piece several times.

  Hal always consumed the meat first, then the carbs, followed by whatever was left, claiming he liked to eat the good stuff first. It amused Keanu to watch him. Being a man who loved his sweets, Keanu would skip the meal and eat dessert first when he could.

  “Why are you staring at me like I’m some kind of lab experiment?” Hal asked.

  Keanu shook his head, raised his fork and pointed it at his friend. “You are the weirdest eater.”

  Hal raised his bottle. “I get no complaints from the ladies.”

  “Thanks for the visual, dude.”

  Ankles crossed, hands resti
ng over his full belly, Keanu leaned his head on the back of his chair and stared at the darkening sky.

  Hal kicked Keanu’s feet on the ottoman. With a grunt, Keanu made room for the other man to stretch out his long legs, too.

  “Have you ever had the feeling your world was about to get rocked?” Keanu asked without looking at Hal.

  “Yep! Every time I take a lady to bed.” Hal wagged his eyebrows.

  “Shut up, dick,” he laughed. “I don’t mean like that. Besides, I don’t get my world rocked when I fuck a woman, I rock her world.” Keanu smirked.

  “Man, you’re so full of it. I heard Cathy calling you all kinds of names and none of them good.” Hal punched Keanu’s arm.

  “Damn, she’s one crazy-ass bitch. Seriously though, have you ever gotten a feeling nothing is gonna be the same again?” Keanu brought the conversation back around, avoiding the unwanted reminder of his ex.

  Hal bumped his size fourteen feet against Keanu’s before answering. He felt like a pussy for voicing his fears.

  “I don’t discount any mysterious crap. For real, my grandmother used to talk about the berserkers in my family, and how they came back every hundred years or some shit. I’m the first blond giant in over ten decades.” He gave Keanu a pointed look. “My Nana’s words, not mine. Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of a fire, I feel like another person is in my body. Ya know what I mean?” Color spread across Hal’s face.

  Keanu knew exactly what he meant. Every member of their Smokejumper group had special abilities. Hal was clearly a human wrecking ball. He just hadn’t realized Hal wasn’t always in control, or didn’t feel like it at least. “I think we all feel like that to an extent. Have you talked to the captain about it?”

  Hal pinned him with a look brooking no argument. “Nothing to talk about.”

  They fell silent. Keanu let the quiet of the night soothe his soul. One of the reasons he and Hal were such good friends was because neither man pried into the other’s business.