After she pulled away, John whispered, “I’m so sorry I dragged you into all this. Be careful. If anything happened to you, I’d—”
“Shh. It’s okay.” She pressed her hand against his chest and felt his racing heart. “Now lie down.” John slumped on the ground, slowing his breathing until it was barely audible. Sherrie squeezed his hand once before calling for Blake.
“Hey, come here! I did it. Let me out.”
Her heart pounding as hard as John’s, she waited for the bobbing light and the sound of their captor’s voice. Her skin itched, every hair standing on end as adrenaline and potent energy coursed through her body. This was it, make or break time. Either her plan would work or she’d put herself and the shifters in even greater danger. But, hell, it couldn’t get much worse than being imprisoned in a cave and threatened with death.
As she saw light approaching, Sherrie did a quick deep breathing exercise to clear her mind and practiced what she was going to say. Her role was an easy one to play since she actually was excited, but for different reasons than she was about to give to Evan Blake.
The light shone down the shaft, blinding her. She shielded her eyes and peered up the tube of damp rock.
“I did it! You were right. I could do it all along. I just wasn’t aware of it.” She laughed, a little hysterically. “God, the way this feels! So much energy coursing through me I don’t know what to do with it. This is fucking amazing.”
“Walker is dead?” Blake’s voice echoed down the shaft.
“No. He’s still breathing, but barely. I’m letting him live so I can continue to use him. God damn this feels like…wow!”
“I know.” She heard the smile in his voice, the eagerness of a lonely man to share his secret life with someone at last.
“So why don’t you get me out of here and we’ll talk?”
“Not so fast. How do I know you won’t turn your new power against me?”
“You don’t. You’ll just have to trust that I forgive you for throwing me down here and testing me like this. Besides, what am I gonna do? I’ve got a little power, but you’re still way stronger than me. If you’re really my brother, I want to sit down face to face and talk about what all this means, about what we’re going to do.”
There was a long pause. She held her breath, waiting for his decision. Would his need for companionship, for an ally to share his vision, outweigh the good sense that warned him not to trust her?
He’d made it clear he wanted some kind of relationship, a kinship he’d never had before. Well, he couldn’t have that if he left her here to rot. She simply had to earn his trust.
“Evan,” she prompted gently in a soft voice. “I know that’s your real name. The shifter told me.” She purposely didn’t call John by name, demonstrating that she was distancing herself from seeing him as a person. “I understand how hard it must have been for you living among them, always alone. I understand because I’ve always been alone too, just faking fitting in.” That part wasn’t far from the truth so it was easy to inject conviction into her voice. She waited again, listening, but still Blake didn’t say anything.
“Listen, this was your idea. You wanted to share our power and be like family. So why won’t you trust me now? What good am I to you down here?”
She felt her accrued power swirling around inside her, charging through her cells like a herd of wild mustangs. If she released it, she could probably lift herself out of this pit, but it might not leave her with enough juice to defeat Blake so she patiently waited.
Suddenly she felt her body begin to rise, ascending on the air like it was weightless. It felt the same as when she traveled in her astral form, except her bulky body was dragging along with her. The light grew brighter as she neared the mouth of the shaft then she was out and settling gently on her feet on the rocky ground.
She looked at Evan Blake, careful to make eye contact and not allow her gaze to dodge away.
Reaching out, she offered her hand to him. He lowered the flashlight so the beam wasn’t shining in her eyes and took her hand. Sherrie let just a trickle of energy flow through her fingertips into him. He gasped and stiffened as it entered him.
She smiled. “You were right. We can have anything…everything we ever dreamed of. There’s nothing to stop us.”
Hand in hand, they walked out of the cavern toward the mouth of the cave. The sunlight shone into the wide opening, burnishing everything a molten gold. It was late afternoon. Unbelievable that the trek up the mountain and everything that followed had transpired in a day’s time. She hoped Grant was out there waiting for her signal to come rushing in. She was afraid she’d need some muscle to complete her plan.