Once Forbidden(19)

Sarah nodded. That made sense to her—but likely wouldn’t be as easy as it sounded. She felt him in her mind then. He was chuckling at her in her head. “What are you laughing at?”

“That’s good, Sarah. I was going to move on to that next. We might need to communicate with our minds. Now, block me out of your mind.”

Sarah tried a mental shove. Her head started to hurt as she tried to shove him out.

“A shield, Sarah,” he reminded her gently. “You can’t shove me out, you need to keep me from thoughts you don’t want me to know. Shield them.”

“My head hurts.”

Devlin rubbed her temples gently. “I’m sorry, love. We have to do this.”

He continued prodding inside her mind carefully. Sarah concentrated on a force field around her mind—an invisible barrier. Still, though, he was inside her head. “Get out!” she finally shouted.

Devlin broke the connection. “Do you have a shield built?”

Sarah rubbed her forehead, trying to ease the ache building there. “I don’t know. I don’t like this, Devlin.”

“I know you don’t, Sarah. We’ll take a break soon, I promise.” He probed again gently into her mind. He got to the surface, then hit a wall and smiled. “That’s my girl.” He backed out and hugged her.

“I did it?”

He nodded. “You did indeed, love. You’re a quick study.”

She relaxed against him. “So, now what?”

“We need to rest, love. All this practice will wear you out.”

Sarah nodded and closed her eyes a moment. “Okay.”

Devlin kissed the top of her head. “Still mad at me?”

Sarah shook her head. “I was just getting frustrated.”

Devlin stood up, Sarah still in his arms, and carried her into the dark bedroom. He placed her on the bed and removed his clothes then climbed in next to her. “Try and sleep, love. We’ll talk later.”

Sarah cuddled against him, her head resting on his shoulder. “This is nice.”

“Very nice,” he agreed. He hugged her tightly. “Sleep, love.”

“Okay,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

Devlin felt her relax against him a few moments later and knew she was asleep. He was exhausted, but his mind was racing. She had learned quickly. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d master her new skills very quickly.

But he was worried. There was danger surrounding them. He could sense it. Sarah couldn’t—at least he didn’t think she had. He needed answers—but first, he needed to sleep.





Chapter Eleven





It was dark when Devlin awoke. He touched Sarah’s cheek softly and she smiled against his fingers when he moved them to her lips. “Hi,” he said huskily.

“Hi yourself.”

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Rested.”

He chuckled. “Then let’s get up and see what we can accomplish with finding the Hunter that attacked you, love.” He wanted nothing more than to keep her in bed and love her for hours, but it would have to wait. Keeping her safe was more important.

Sarah sighed. “I don’t know who he was. How are we going to find him? He was just a man. I don’t even know how he got in the apartment. The door was locked.”

Devlin jack-knifed into a sitting position. “Explain.”

She shrugged. “I was in my room and he just walked in the door with the knife. I don’t know how he got it. I suppose he could have broken the locks.”

“We need to go check, Sarah. And we need to get you some clothes.” He bent to the side of the bed and picked up the robe that had been discarded hours earlier. “Put this on, and I’ll get dressed.”

He climbed from the bed and dressed in black quickly. He had a bad feeling, but didn’t want to worry her until he knew for sure what was going on. When he was dressed, Devlin took her hand in his. “Just flow with me. I’ll drive,” he said, not wanting to take the chance of her getting lost. “Don’t try to get there yourself.”

“Okay,” she said, sensing his urgency.

When they materialized in her apartment, somehow it didn’t seem like home anymore. Everything looked foreign to her. Devlin released her hand and she walked to the closet and pulled out dark clothes, deciding that it was better for night travel. She wasn’t sure what he had in mind, but decided he’d dressed in black for a reason so she followed suit.

He’d left her in the room, and she heard him cursing. She walked to the living room. “What’s wrong?”

“No one broke in, Sarah.”