Ashwood Falls Volume Two (5 page)

She stilled and looked around. There were no personal effects. “Why would he have this and not enjoy it?” she wondered aloud.

“He built it for Cate.”

Addyson whirled around and frowned. “What?”

Tanner paled. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m just going to go jump off the mountain now.”

“Oh, no, you don’t. Tell me.” It came out as a demand, and it was a shame Keegan wasn’t here to witness the backbone she suddenly had.

Tanner peered down at his boots. “I don’t know for sure. It’s all hearsay. Some rumors say he made a cavern getaway for the two of them right after they lost the baby...”

She held up a hand, stopping him. “Wait. What baby?”

He peered behind him at Kirk, as if asking for help. When Kirk shook his head and propped up against the stone doorway, Tanner muttered a curse and continued. “Cate had some kind of accident or something and lost the baby about six months before she died. No one speaks of it. Not even Blaine and Alec.”

Addyson’s vision blurred, and a lump lodged in her throat. She sat down on the sofa and studied her hands in her lap. She knew from personal experience that losing a mate was beyond devastating, but to also lose a child? She couldn’t even imagine.

Will came over and sat next to her. “Addy?”

She reached over and covered his hand with hers. “Yes?”

“Do you want to practice shielding?”

She looked at him then smiled. He knew she needed a distraction from her thoughts. Learning how to shield herself from the emotions of others and their history would be wonderful, and it was a great way to pass the time until Keegan got back.

“Sure. What do I need to do?”

Will scanned the room before he stood and asked Tanner, “Can you move the couch so we all can sit on the floor?”

Tanner frowned. “We?”

The teen nodded. “Yes. She can’t learn how to build shields if she doesn’t have anyone to practice on.”

Kirk snorted. “Yeah, right. And when Keegan gets back, he’ll kick our asses.”

Addyson glared at them. Okay, so maybe Keegan would be a little angry to find the sentries inside the cave with her. She stood and propped her fist on her hips, trying her best to look intimidating. Well as intimidating as a submissive snow leopard could. “Wouldn’t he want me to find a way to protect myself?”

Tanner frowned, making his forehead wrinkle. “Yes, but—”

“And he would want me to do this with people I trust.”

Kirk cleared his throat. “Addyson, my past...well, it’s a little dark.”

She paused, searching Kirk’s face for a hint of teasing, but it wasn’t there. Instead, a shadow moved in, and then fear crossed his face. He was afraid of hurting her and afraid of what Keegan would do if he did. She dropped her gaze and whispered, “Darker than the things I’d seen in my hundred years of captivity with the Onyx Pack?”

Tanner growled. The low rumble echoed off the cave walls. “A hundred years?”

She nodded. “It’s why my mind is so broken.” She gestured to Will standing next to her. “He’s also a Scribe. He’s not at full power yet, but he can shield against unwanted emotions that come with the visions.”

Will grabbed her hand. “I can control when I want the visions, too.”

Kirk shifted uneasily from leg to leg. “I’m guessing Will can help you shield.”

Addyson nodded. “Yes.” She hoped so anyway. If this worked, then she wouldn’t have to hide in her house or wear the cloak and gloves when she went out. “Will you do it?”

Tanner blow out a breath and nodded. “Kirk and I need to do a perimeter check.” He peered over her shoulder, and she heard the couch slide across the floor. He grinned, stepped outside with Kirk, and slid the large stone slab of a door into place.

She smiled and almost felt giddy. She was also scared shitless. Pivoting, she met Will’s raised eyebrows. Oh, great, even at fifteen, he was trying to intimidate her. She let out a soft laugh. “You may be more dominant than me, but I’m older.”

Will pressed his lips together as if hiding a smile from her. Addyson laughed. Man, it felt good to be around someone she couldn’t pull psychic energy, which always left her a trembling mess on the floor.

She shivered at the thought and looked around the room again.

He tapped her on the arm, drawing her attention back to him. “The natural floors of the cave will help ground you.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I know.” She was still nervous. What if she found out her mind was too broken to create shields?

Will rolled up the area rug and sat down, folding his legs like a pretzel. She sat next to him just as the sentries walked through the door. Kirk walked right over and dropped to the floor in front of her. Tanner was a little more hesitant and opted for the space between Kirk and Will.

Addyson took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “How do we do this?”

Will shifted beside her so his body was turned to hers. “Close your eyes, clear your mind, and then ground yourself.”

Okay, that was easy. She had to meditate on a regular basis in order to keep the monsters in her head at bay. She closed her eyes and imagined she sat by a small stream. Water trickled by her, soothing her. The air was clean, crisp, and held a hint of roses that reached her senses with each gentle breeze.

Most people visualized made up places, unique to only them in order to fully relax enough to ground themselves. Not Addyson. Her mind was filled with so much evil and ugliness that no one should ever have to witness. She visualized a real place. Somewhere she visited often and loved.

The stream, in reality, was located about one hundred yards from her backyard in Ashwood. It was her favorite place, so whenever she needed to relax, or calm her inner demons, she’d go to the stream and take in the beauty.

Now she went there in her mind because it was the only pure thing she knew.

Her muscles relaxed as a calm she hadn’t felt since leaving her home in Ashwood a few weeks ago washed over her. She gathered all the negative, dark energy into a ball in the middle of her chest and slowly pushed it out. When the dark energy reached her hands and feet, she placed her palms on the cool stone floor and pushed it into the rock, imagining it being absorbed into the earth beyond.

She opened her eyes to see Tanner and Kirk staring at her. Self-conscious, she averted her gaze to Will. The teen quickly motioned to Tanner. “Give me your hand.”

Tanner drew his brows together but placed his hand over Will’s. The younger male smirked. “Were you ever a serial killer?”

Addyson held back a grin at Will’s teasing tone. Tanner’s lips twitched, but he kept all other emotions from his features. “I’m a sentry. I kill for a living.”

Will laughed and lifted his hand so his palm touched Tanner’s.

The muscles in Will’s arm gave a little jerk at first, and Addyson wondered how bad it would be for her. After a few moments, Will withdrew his hand from Tanner’s and turned to her.

“Since you told me your shields are completely gone, I want you to try to see if you can build them using his aura,” Will said like it was no big deal.

Well, it might not be for him, but Addyson was trembling inside.

“Wait? Use his aura? How?”

Will bunched his eyebrows together. “It’s one of the first techniques I learned when I came into my power.”

“Okay,” she said. She wasn’t sure she ever learned that style of building or rebuilding shields. She tried to think back to her training as a child. She came up against a dark wall. No, it was more like a black void. Her memories of her childhood were gone.

Sadness filled her heart, but she knew she’d lost the ability to hold on to her past before her captivity. A warm tear rolled down her cheek.

Will took her hand in his. “Addyson?”

She lowered her gaze and focused on the stone floor beneath her bare feet. “I don’t remember how,” she whispered.

Will squeezed her hand gently and said, “Use your second sight to see your aura, then expand yours out to his, but don’t let your energies touch. Change your aura color to match his then bring it back to you. Your instincts should take over from there.”

Addyson wasn’t so sure about that, but she trusted Will. After all, he’d escaped Onyx with his mind intact. Taking a deep breath, she focused on Tanner and held her hand up between them. “Hold your hand up like mine, but don’t touch mine.”

He did as she asked. She closed her eyes and pushed her aura into his.

She opened her second sight, or mind’s eye, and found Tanner’s aura surrounding his hands. It was a deep blue around the edges and grew lighter the closer to his skin. Her own aura was the opposite, only in purple. It was darker at her skin and got lighter to the edges.

Focusing on her aura, she tried to define the colors within and separate them. That proved harder than it sounded. Before she could get totally frustrated, she slowed her breathing and searched for the two colors that made purple.

Finding the red and blue strains, she moved the red away until her aura was blue. Good. Now she had to move the darker color to the outside of her energy bubble. She did that by taking hold of the white string and pulling it closer to her. Relief flowed over her when it worked and her aura matched Tanner’s.

Now what? Oh, yeah. She had to bring the energy to her. Slowly she pulled her hands toward her body while directing her aura into her.

Like a dull light suddenly filling a dark room, her mind formed a barrier. It was thin, but a hell of a lot more than she had before.

Holding the thin wall around her mind, she held her hand up in front of her face, palms facing Tanner. “Slowly press your palms to mine.”

In slow movements, he lifted his hands and inched them closer to hers. He touched his fingertips to hers and waited. A spark of worry tingled through her hands. When she smiled and nodded to him to continue, he pressed his hands to hers.

She shuddered at the contact, but for a brief moment, she picked up on only a slight transfer of a memory. Then her thin shield crashed, letting in a wave of images. She jerked her hands away from Tanner and slapped them to the rock floor. The images faded just as quickly as they appeared, and she smiled.

“That was great. Let’s do it again.”

****

“W
hat the fuck is going on?”

Keegan’s voice echoed off the cave walls as he stood inside the doorway, his gaze fixed on the two sentries sitting on the floor way too close to Addyson.

The four of them stood and faced him, and the males—including Will—moved to stand protectively in front of her. Did they really think he’d hurt her?

Keegan’s leopard growled inside his head, seeing the males as a threat to someone who belonged to him, to his mate.

“Answer the damned question,” he growled.

Addyson stepped forward, but the sentries moved to block her. Keegan growled again. The sight of the other males blocking her from him only pissed him off more.

Mine
.

Tanner tensed, his muscles flexing as though he was preparing himself for a fight. “We were helping her build her shields.”

Keegan took a step closer, ignoring the wolf. Nor did he care what Tanner had to say. A possessive need filled him, and all he wanted at that moment was Addyson. With his eyes trained on her, he watched as she darted from behind the sentries to come around to stand between Keegan and them.

She laid a hand on his chest, halting him. “They were helping me. Will, too. I created a shield and, with practice, can make it stronger.”

He peered down at her. She smiled weakly as if unsure. He frowned and studied her for several moments before what she said sank in. Shields?

Fuck.

She was trying to rebuild the natural shields that kept her gift in check.

Keegan moved his gaze to Will, who stood apart from the others, wringing his hands and looking as though he was about to bolt at any minute.

“Out,” he commanded.

Tanner and Kirk hesitated, but at Addyson’s nod, they walked out of the cave. Keegan knew they didn’t go far. He could hear them shuffling about a few yards from the entrance.

“Sir?”

Keegan snapped his gaze to Will, who now stood next to them with his head held high. Keegan breathed in deeply through his nose then exhaled slowly while he tried to keep from physically moving the teen out of his way. “Will, go with the sentries.”

The boy turned to peer at Addyson. “Will you be okay?”

She smiled and nodded. Will slowly made his way to the entrance of the cave.

Once the stone door slid into place, Keegan closed the very short distance between them. She didn’t move, nor did she flinch when he snaked an arm around her waist and drew her into his body, hard. A soft gasp escaped her, and she rested her palms on his chest.

Even through the cotton of the tee he wore, he felt the growing heat that was always there between them.

He peered into her violet eyes and frowned. There was a hint of fear hiding behind the strength and control she clung to, although he wasn’t sure if the fear was of him or something else.

“Are you going to stare at me all night?” she said as she lifted her chin a little higher.

He felt the right corner of his mouth twitch. “Are you always so brave?”

She swallowed, and flecks of lavender rippled through her irises. “Only with you,” she whispered then looked away.

He hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her gaze back to his. “Why is that?” He suspected the answer but wanted to hear it from her.

“You’re the only one I can have skin-to-skin contact with and not suffer for it.”

“No pain at all?” he asked while he searched her face. He couldn’t penetrate her mind to see if she was being truthful. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her, but he wouldn’t put it past Addyson to leave out certain details so he wouldn’t worry about her.

She drew her brows together, causing creases to form on her forehead. Keegan fought the urge to kiss them away. When she focused on his face, not quite making eye contact, she said, “No, none at all. It’s like everything is...quiet? Maybe my mind is more broken than I thought.”

She pushed against him to try to break his hold as if she wanted to step away. He let her go and was relieved when she didn’t put more than a foot between them. “Your mind is not broken.” When she opened her mouth as if to argue, he held up a hand. “When I’m touching you, the hum inside my head goes away.”