Mystically Bound (Frostbite, Book Three) (10 page)

He grunted. “Safer.”

“
For who?” I gasped.

“
You…and me.”

Pleasure threatened to make my thoughts
nonexistent, but I focused to get the answers I needed. To beg him
to come home. To fight against this horrific situation. “I don’t
want to leave you again.”

He groaned as my center clamped against him,
my nails dug into his powerful thick biceps and the valleys of
muscles there as his thrusts quickened. “You must.”

Now Gretchen’s worry became reality. Could I
leave Kipp here? “Why won’t you come back with me?” I gasped as
heady sensations overtook me. “What danger is there?”

As much as I yearned to stay right here with
Kipp, he didn’t live here, and I craved more for him to be alive.
While this time with him was more than my heart could possibly
survive and I knew the after blow of this would be a brutal crush
to my soul, the future with him remained a solid wall of focus in
my mind.

I wanted to love Kipp as a man.

“
Tess,” he said sharply, snapping me right
out of the pleasure he was forcing upon me.

I blinked, suddenly realizing the level of
pleasure wasn’t as intense as it had been. The slick feel of him
within me remained, but the pressure, which built to orgasm, had
vanished. “What–”

His voice was urgent, expression twisted, and
the sky above him appeared more gray than black, the stars no
longer twinkled. “Did you learn about your ability to travel here
on your own?”

My grip on him shifted. His arms were still
solid beneath my fingertips, but the definition of his muscles
ceased to exist. His body pressing into me seemed lighter, so I
hurried along and hoped my explanation would be enough for him to
understand. “Dane and the others.”

Kipp’s eyes widened before he started to blur
in front of me. “It’s happened.” I stared at him and could barely
hear him say, “Trust no one.”

“
What?” I shouted. The same tingles I
experienced when I entered the Netherworld whipped through my body
like a loud roar in my ears, and pulled me farther and farther away
from him. “Why?”

His expression became frantic and even though
I could tell he screamed at me, it only sounded like a dull
whisper. “Dane was the one…”

Right then, a blast of cold energy swept
across me, removing any of the heat Kipp had built and iciness
struck me to my very core. With an earsplitting cry, the only touch
I wanted to stay with forever…vanished.

“No,” I screamed, shooting up in bed.

Gretchen lurched off the mattress and
clutched at her chest. I drew in loud deep breaths, settling my
hammering heart, too. The lamp next to me on the nightstand table
cast a warm glow through the room and the bedspread was no longer
covering me. In fact, at a quick glance, the sheets were completely
kicked off the bed—clearly, my sleep had been restless. “I need to
go back.”

She sighed, since I had clearly scared the
bejesus out of her, and then she returned to the bed. “You were in
REM sleep for almost an hour.” She shook her head, taking up my
trembling hand in hers. “I couldn’t chance letting you be there any
longer.”

My lip quivered as the reality of what I had
experienced settled in and the emotional break I expected hit me in
full force. My entire body quaked and I yanked my hands away,
grasping them on my lap. I shut my eyes and inhaled, swearing I
could still feel Kipp, sore in all the right places.

Dropping my face into my hands, I sobbed. “Oh
god, Gretchen, I touched him.” With my eyes closed, surrounded by
darkness, I could almost feel the brush of his lips against my
skin, the way his body was joined with mine, and even how roughly
he had taken me. His touch seemed imprinted on my body and I
mourned the loss of connection.

Gretchen waited until my weeping quieted to
light tears before she asked, “You found Kipp, then?”

I lowered my hands and could barely see her
through my blurry eyes. “I think he found me.”

A frown marred her face at my pain, even if
she said, “I’m so glad it worked.”

I wiped my tears, pulled myself together and
relished in my achy body. It’d been so long since I had
real
sex
, I savored how my body hurt now. Even if it pleased me to
no end that it worked, too, and more so, that I remembered my
experience. “But it wasn’t enough time. I needed more answers.”

She tilted her head and the soft light lit up
the side of her face, revealing her sad eyes. “You were out for a
while, Tess. How much more time did you need?”

Now, with the reality of what had happened
and what I should’ve been doing, I wanted to smack myself. Instead
of talking and getting the answers I so desperately sought, the
need to feel Kipp consumed me and I wasted valuable time. “We…we
were…”

Gretchen’s eyebrows rose, a knowing look
crossing her face, and she finally grinned. “Well, I suppose that’s
one thing you could do when you found him.” She patted my leg, her
eyes warming. “So, you could touch him that much, huh?”

I nodded, wiping at the remainder of the
tears flooding my cheeks. “It was overwhelming.”

“I imagine it would’ve been,” she murmured
softly, shifting on the bed and pulling her legs up underneath her.
“Did he tell you anything at all?”

Sucking in a huge breath, I sent the sadness
away for now and slid my strength back into place. If I allowed
myself to have the breakdown I knew was coming, I suspected I might
hide out under the blankets for a couple days, not something I
could do now. I thought back and remembered what he told me. “He
said to trust no one once he heard I was here with the Animus.”

Gretchen’s eyebrows furrowed. “Did he?”

I nodded, then stared at the bedroom door to
fight through the memory. “It seemed like he knew I’d come here,
which I can’t understand.” I looked at Gretchen. “But at the very
end he mentioned Dane—something like,
Dane was the one
.”

Her eyes widened. “He
did
spellbind
Kipp?”

Nothing would please me more to know I could
blame Dane, but I couldn’t. “I’d say yes, since it does sound like
that’s what Kipp meant, but I asked him outright if Dane had done a
spell on him. He said no.”

She stared at me for a long moment before she
said, “While what Dane’s done to you is horrible, I honestly don’t
believe he would use magic in such a dark way. You’re right—Kipp
must’ve meant something else.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “But I’m growing tired of
not knowing what that
something
is.” Frustrating me even
more, if Gretchen hadn’t woke me up I would’ve had the answer.
Rubbing my face to ease my tired eyes, I sighed. “Feels like we’re
running in circles.” I dropped my hands and gave Gretchen a long
look. “Kipp said enough that he’s safe in the Netherworld, so for
now, I have to let that go and we need to stick to figuring
this
world
out.”

She gave a firm nod. “You said it seemed like
he knew you’d come here, that it was safer for him and you if he
stayed away.” Her head cocked. “Did you get any sense why he thinks
you’re both in danger?”

“I didn’t get a chance to ask,” I muttered.
“But I could see that he’s concerned. Although, clearly not too
concerned because he’s not back here right now ordering me to
leave.”

“There is that.” She nodded agreement. “If he
honestly feared for your life, he would return and tell you as
much. In fact, I doubt Kipp would have left you knowing you were in
danger.”

I didn’t like where my thoughts took me.
“Meaning, he’s in danger.” I shook my head the second it came out
of my mouth. “But how could he be in danger, he’s already in a coma
and a ghost?”

Gretchen nibbled her lip, then finally said,
“A very good question.”

“All right.” I gave my arms a good shake,
shedding all the confusion from my mind. We needed to stay focused.
Only focusing on what Kipp had said wouldn’t get us anywhere. ”So,
what next?”

She hesitated a moment, her eyes glancing at
the tray ceiling before looking at me. “Even if we didn’t need the
Lux from Wayde, I’d still beg you to help with Alexander. I hate to
see him in this condition of unrest.”

Which was why Dane was a full-out idiot
because if he thought it over, knew my loyalty to my friends, just
Gretchen asking me probably would’ve sealed the deal. Of course,
with Kipp gone, it gave me more motivation since I’d likely tell
her to wait until I solved Kipp’s problem first. But we were all in
this together now and just needed to figure this shit out. “Okay,
I’m on board with helping him—more than just my need to fix
Kipp—but I have no clue where to start.”

“As I see it, we need to get Alexander
stronger so we can ask him more questions and get solid answers.”
She continued to worry her bottom lip. “But I’m afraid I’ve never
conjured such a spell. In truth, he’s the best one to answer that
question. Like I’ve told you, he was the most talented spell caster
I knew.”

“See, and that’s it, too; if we could get him
back to being a normal ghost instead of this freaky apparition
thingy, then maybe he could tell us more of what happened to him.”
I waited for her nod, then I added, “So, we start there tomorrow?
Finding a way to strengthen him?”

“I think that’s a good first step,” she
agreed. “I’ll go over my spells tonight and see if anything stands
out that could help him.” She stood off the bed, smiling down at
me. “I’ll go back to my room and study a bit before calling it a
night.”

A nasty cold sweat washed over my body at the
idea of being alone in this house and as she turned, I jumped off
the bed in a rush and tightened my fingers around her arm. “Can you
stay?”

Gretchen winced, glancing between her arm and
the bed, before she settled her wide-eyed gaze on me. “Here, in the
bed with you?”

I looked over the fancy room and the only
bed, too, then I shoved away my embarrassment and nodded at her.
“Okay, yes, very weird. But I don’t want to be alone. What if the
person who did this to Alexander comes back? Sorry, but I’d rather
have four fists than two.”

I didn’t need pride. I needed sleep. I felt
myself growing more and more tired as the seconds drew on. Going
into the Netherworld clearly drained my energy and I suspected
crying didn’t help either, nor did the emotional experience of
seeing Kipp again. I’d feel a lot more comfortable with Gretchen
there.

After a long search of my eyes, her
expression softened, and she smiled in her sweet way. “Sure, I can
stay. Let me put my pajamas on, grab my book, and I’ll be
back.”

“Thanks,” I exhaled, releasing her arm, which
I seemed to have had a death grip on, and I hoped I didn’t bruise
her. Leaving me behind, she shut the bedroom door behind her. The
old floor squeaked under her footsteps as she headed down the
hallway. I returned to the bed, grabbed the blankets off the floor,
and remade the bed.

After I finished with fluffing up Gretchen’s
pillow on the left, I did the same to mine, and then a soft voice
said, “Hi.”

I gasped, spun around, and spotted the woman
ghost I’d seen out at the swamp, Victoria. Her blue eyes were warm
and her smile friendly. “Oh no. Not this again. Go—”

She rushed forward at a speed a live person
couldn’t match. “Don’t send me away.” She reached for my arm, but
her hand went right through my flesh, causing icy shivers to wash
through me.

“Do you mind?” I snapped, jumping back. “I’m
not in any mood to be frostbitten.” Especially by some ghost I
didn’t know, when I would’ve preferred it to be from the ghost I
loved.

Victoria stared at her hand a moment longer
before her gaze lifted to mine, and sadness filled her eyes. “Is it
true—you can help us?”

I wrapped my arms around myself to warm the
coldness out of my body and I scowled. “Yes, I can, but,” and this
was a big
but,
“only if you promise to leave me alone until
I say so.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “Please.” Her voice
trembled. “Don’t send me away again. I need you to help me.”

I shut my eyes, drawing in a long breath to
settle the slight annoyance flittering through my veins. I honestly
had enough going on and didn’t want to take on anything else, but
she didn’t deserve to be lashed out at, even if I so wanted to.

After I controlled my raw emotions, I opened
my eyes to her and found her crying. “Okay, what do you need?” I
softened my voice. “But please, be quick about it. I’m so tired and
need to go to bed.”

“I lost a necklace,” she stated.

I stared at her, waiting for her to say more,
but she didn’t. “You lost a necklace and…?”

She took the final steps to reach me, since
my jumping at her touch had put a good distance between us. “I
found it.”

I waited yet again to understand exactly what
she was asking of me, but she continued to stare at me as if I
should know, which I hadn’t a clue. Another long second passed
before I waved her on. “And?”

“I need you to take it to my grave.”

Oh, yeah I heard her. I wished I hadn’t.

I blinked, looking for any humor in her eyes
to suggest this was a joke. None appeared. “You
are
kidding?”

She shook her head slowly with a nervous
smile. “There’s a cemetery over that way.” Pointing to the right,
she gestured to the window by the bathroom door. “Can you take the
necklace there?”

“Now?” I gasped, backing up another step and
banging into the bed behind me. “Go and walk in the dark to a
cemetery?”

Her expression became pinched as she took a
step forward and matched my retreat. “I know if you bring me the
necklace, then I’ll finally leave here.” Her bottom lip trembled.
“I
need
to leave here.”

The desperation in her eyes and voice always
got to me. Every ghost that begged to cross over had it, exactly
why I always ended up helping them. “Why is this necklace so
important to you?”