“Enjoy each other,” Alise said, her voice like a distant echo that barely registered in Mia’s brain. Mia had entirely forgotten that Alise and Niklaus were still there. Mia paid them no attention as they looked at each other and laughed, and she didn’t think of them again after they left and closed the door. Her need for Sebastian filled her body and mind.
She giggled as he threw on her the bed and then lay down beside her. She lost all sense of time as they kissed, her hands exploring the taut muscles of his body while his fingers moved up her stomach, pulled her loosened bra aside, and touched her hard, swollen nipples.
Her hands found their way to the front of his trousers and pulled until they broke open. She reached inside, taking his hard length in her hand.
He made a kind of growling sound and rolled her on her back, and she hurried to take off her underwear. When he lay between her legs, she put him inside of her.
Every part of him felt good, radiating his healing power. She felt like a miniature sun had flared to life between her hips, scorching her from the inside.
She whispered again and again that she loved him, she loved him, she loved him...
Chapter Thirty-Four
Tommy looked over the two rows of eight soldiers each, more of the kids just out of basic training, standing ramrod-straight in their fatigues, their faces blank. Their last order had been to stand at attention, and then the officers and scientists had all left the room, sealing them in with Tommy.
“So, what are you guys afraid of?” Tommy asked. None of them replied, and he smirked. “Going to war? Getting your arm or your head blown off, maybe? What about your families back home? Your parents? Do you worry about horrible things happening to them? Nobody’s talking.”
“They won’t reply unless ordered to,” Ward said over the speaker. He watched from the window above, not bothering to dim the lights to make the window look black and empty.
“That’s no fun,” Tommy said. “Let’s liven things up. Ready?”
“Go ahead, Tommy,” Ward instructed.
Tommy took a deep breath, remembering what he’d done in Charleston the night he’d caused the riot. His power had been charged up by contact with his opposite, Ashleigh, but she’d been dead for quite awhile now. He didn’t exactly miss her, though he’d learned a lot from her.
The fear wouldn’t be as strong today, without Ashleigh around, but he only had sixteen people to panic this time, not hundreds or thousands. He’d had an extra-large breakfast to prepare for this, and he knew he’d be starving again afterward.
Tommy summoned the fear, a chaotic blood-red energy that teemed with incoherent voices, whispers and screams that brought flickers of his childhood and his abuse at the hands of Mr. Tanner. He imagined himself charging up like a battery, until the fear was like a thrashing hurricane inside him.
He exhaled, and a storm of bloody droplets blew out of him, raining down on the soldiers and absorbing into their skin. They flinched but remained at attention. He smiled and crossed his arms, waiting.
It didn’t take long. First a couple of them began to shudder, and then one screamed, and then hell broke loose. The soldiers scattered, some of them hiding under tables and chairs, some tucking themselves into corners, three of them falling to the floor and curling up right in the center of the lab. They were crying, howling, shrieking, swatting and kicking at invisible attackers that existed only in their minds, babbling mindlessly at scenes of unknown horror visible only to them.
Tommy looked up at the window and grinned. In a few seconds, he’d turned the lab into the rec room at a state mental hospital, soldiers howling and hiding, a couple of them fighting each other. In the window, Ward beamed, while the officer who’d brought in the young soldiers was livid to see how quickly Tommy had scattered them.
“I’d say the enemy ranks are broken, sir,” Tommy said to him. “Who’s up for a couple of beers?”
The other officer stalked away, while Ward nodded and gave Tommy a thumbs-up.
After the test, a guard escorted Tommy back to his dorm area, standard procedure for all paranormals.
Tommy hadn’t told anyone, but each time he used his power in the lab, it kicked up the sick, disoriented feeling that this entire place evoked in him, sometimes making him see ghosts or hallucinations. He locked himself in his room and opened a can of Warsteiner. He guzzled the warm beer, hoping it might settle his stomach.
He heard the creaking sound of his door opening behind him. He turned to see Ashleigh there, dressed in a long black skirt and jacket, with a black tie and a crisp white shirt. His room had shifted to a drab olive color, too. It was his recurring dream, the bizarre one where he wore a swastika and answered to the name Niklaus. The hallucinations were back. Fortunately, he held a beer in the dream, too, though the can had a much plainer label and was the kind that had to be punctured with a bottle opener. He took a drink as Ashleigh’s gray eyes looked him over. Her name was Alise, but she had Ashleigh’s eyes, Ashleigh’s golden hair, Ashleigh’s large breasts...