Open World (18 page)

With
an extended groan, Dolon forced her off, and pulled away from her.

A
moment later he had her on her back and rolled up the length of her dress. Sand
flew everywhere. She expected the rocky particles to be coarse against her
skin, but they weren’t. The grains were smooth, almost soothing, beneath her
legs and ass. She gazed upon the man who knelt between her thighs and watched
as he bent forward and made himself comfortable near her crotch.

The
touch of his tongue within the fissure of her labia sent her mind whirring with
ecstasy. And the kiss of his lips on her clit made her hips buck toward the bright
blue sky. As he lapped and suckled her vulva, she grabbed his hair, entwining
her fingers in the long, shaggy strands. The waves nipping at the edge of the
shore tickled the tips of her toes, adding to the pleasurable sensations
whizzing through her body.

She
gazed up at the sky again and gasped at the dazzling amber color swirling above
her and pulsating in time with her breath. She let go of Dolon’s hair and rose
slightly to look at him. He was encased in a brilliant, deep turquoise.

Glancing
up at her, he gave her a wink and the stream of colors joined together in
beautiful ribbons, swirling and pulsing like auroras. Going back to his task at
hand, he nipped the hair of her crotch and slid a couple of fingers
into
her canal. In and
out they moved, alternating, tongue, then finger, finger, then tongue. She
moaned and writhed under his arousing assault, never knowing that such pleasure
existed. She clutched the dry sand, digging into the grains more and more with
each stroke his fingers took.

The
sand was wet. She was wet. She wanted more.

“Dolon,
I want you inside of me. I want you to make love to me like there’s no
tomorrow.”

He
stopped his ministrations and adjusted himself to lie beside her in the sand.
“Not here.” He kissed her temple.

“What
do you mean not here?” She sat upright. “I can’t think of a better place to
bond than a beautiful deserted beach.”

“No, not here.”
He waved his arm as he sat up.
“Here.” He tapped the side of his head.

“What
the hell does that mean?”

He
didn’t get a chance to answer. A deafening roar, which seemed to cut through
time and space, swallowed the peaceful, tranquil lapping of waves and coos of
birds.

Dolon
slowly started to fade and lose substance in front of her eyes. His lips moved
as if speaking to her, but his voice was a whisper in the breeze. Not believing
she registered what he said, she asked him to repeat himself, but he
disappeared altogether before the words made it to her again.

Chapter Sixteen

Faith
woke to the noise of a throat clearing from her doorway. With a start, she sat
up and turned toward the sound. Big T leaned against the jamb. “How long have
you been standing there?” She ran her fingers through her bed hair to tame the
flyaway strands she knew were there.

“Not
long at all.” He strolled in and sat on the edge of the bed. “Did you sleep
well?”

She
shrugged, cuddled one of her large pillows to her midsection and took a couple
of moments to consider her answer to his question. Had she slept well? She
supposed so, considering she hadn’t been subjected to that man in her last
dream and what she had come to think of as his vampiric tendencies. Instead,
there was the other man, her sexy savior who helped her gain back control of
her dream. And what a dream it was.

Faith
looked into Big T’s brown eyes, which peered out of the eyeholes of the ski
mask, and smiled. “Yes. I did sleep well. I had some interesting dreams, but
for the most part, I feel rested and energized if that makes sense. I haven’t
felt this good upon waking in weeks.”

“That’s
great. So, do you want to go downstairs and make, umm,” he peeked at his watch,
“lunch with me?”

“Sure.
I’ll be down in a sec.” She shooed him from her room, changed from her plain
blue shirt and pant pajamas, thanking heaven she hadn’t worn the ones with the
bunnies and chicks on them, to a black tank top and a pair of khaki shorts.
Downstairs, she found Big T at the counter cutting up vegetables for a salad.

“Wouldn’t
it be nice to live on the coast and look out to see the sand and the waves?” He
rinsed off a cucumber.

When
he glanced at her, she raised an eyebrow. “Cassandra’s told you about my
daydream, the one with the ocean, hasn’t she?”

“Yes.”
He pulled out a knife from the holder and chopped the vegetable.

“Do
you know about my nightmares?” She grabbed his upper arm to get his attention
again.

“Yes,”
he stated with all seriousness, looking her straight in the eye. He put the
knife down and turned toward her. “It all ties into who you are, and where
you’re from.”

“What
the hell does that mean? Who I am and where I’m from? I’m Faith Collins, a born
and raised Nevada girl.”

He
scrunched his face and shrugged a shoulder. “It’s a bit hard to explain.”

“Well,
try.” She put her hands on her slender hips.

“Okay.
Hmm…” He paused for a moment. “We’re going to do a bit of an energy exercise.
Follow my lead. Do as I say. Hopefully this will help to make you receptive to
what I need to tell you.”

She
regarded him like he was crazy.

“Don’t
look at me that way. If you want to know, you have to play along with me. Close
your eyes, clap, then vigorously rub your hands together, and when they’re
heated, cup them, but don’t pull them apart. You should feel the air become a
cushiony mass, like a soft, yielding ball, within the center of your closed
hands.”

Reluctantly
Faith did as he said, all the while wondering how foolish this task made her
appear, but to her amazement the air
had
changed. As she formed her hands securely around the
ball
, she remarked, “Wow. This is so weird. It feels like it’s
pulsating.”

“Good.
Now, keep your eyes closed and slowly move your hands apart,” his voice spoke
quietly, hypnotic. “Let the ball grow and expand. And if you want, you can even
envision the ball being a certain color.”

As
her hands drifted apart, she imagined the pulsing mass the same color she had
seen floating above herself in her dream. A beautiful amber with its gold,
brownish yellow and fire orange colors shining in polished brilliance.

“You’re
doing very well, Faith. Your orb is almost the size of a soccer ball. Now see
if you can split it into two parts.”

With
an innate ease she complied, and in her hands, two tennis size balls
materialized. Slowly, so as not to disturb her process, she opened her eyes. The
small amber globes rolled on her palms. Imagining a third, it appeared. She
maneuvered the balls up and down her arms and on the backs of her hand. A
giggle escaped. In her amusement, she juggled them, tossing the orbs into the
air and catching them two handed, then repeating the process one handed. She
threw them in the air, spun and caught them behind her back in one hand.

Big
T watched her with a huge grin on his face. Happier than she’d been in ages,
she returned the expression. Again she closed her eyes, continued to juggle the
shining spheres and hummed the tune from the dream she had the night before.

“Zya,”
Tavis whispered proudly.

She
popped her eye open and stared at him, astonished. The orbs came to rest in her
hands. She stepped toward
him,
the tops of her
fingertips barely touching his chest with the spheres stilled in her palms, and
opened her mouth to speak.

“Nice
set of balls you have there in your hands, Faith,” Cassandra commented from the
entrance to the kitchen before her cousin could get a word out.

Faith
and Big T dropped their balls like they were two kids in trouble for having
something they shouldn’t. As the orbs hit the floor, they dissipated into the
air.

Cassandra
shook her head. “I don’t know about you two. Every time I come in here, I catch
you guys up to something. Well, have at it. Alden is off fetching Hope. I’m
heading out to Morrigan’s property. Then we’re off to the temple. Since I’ll be
with my friend, you won’t have to babysit me, Big T.” She gave each one a
cursory glance again, then left.

Once
the front door closed, Faith gathered her wits and focused back on Big T. She
gasped. “You’re glowing!”

“Describe
it for me.”

The
rich, deep timbre of his voice reverberated through her core, reminding her of
the passion she’d shared with her new dream man. She took a deep, steadying
breath. “It’s like a fog edging your body. Not a thick fog because I can still
make out some detail behind you, but enough of a haze to be defining. It’s a
gorgeous turquoise. It ebbs and flows with your breaths.”

“Well,
my dear, you’re glowing, too. Your hue is
a beautiful
amber, like that of your energy globes.” He took her hand in his.

“This
is too weird,” she commented as the colors swirled and blended together. “It’s
like what happened in my dream. Maybe I need some more sleep.”

“No,
Faith, you don’t need more sleep. You need to find your
eyes
, look with your soul,
then
you’ll see
the truth and the path which is already before you.” He stepped in toward her
and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Your salvation from Mabuz’s world
and the ties that bind you there lie in choosing the right course of action,
deciding between good and evil.”

She
quivered under his touch, her body aching for more, aching to be caressed,
stroked. “But I have chosen the path of good,” she said shakily. “I mean I go
to church. I follow the commandments.”

“That’s
all well and good, but haven’t you ever felt there was something else?” he
asked and inched closer, his face mere centimeters from hers.
“More to the church’s teachings?
More to
life?
More to yourself?”

His
breath made the hairs near her forehead caress her skin. She sighed at the
brief contact. His sharp and spicy cologne, with hints of citrus and lavender,
set her blood churning with a wanton pulse of desire. “Yes, of course I’ve
wondered if there was more to life,” she whispered in response. “But doesn’t
everyone go through a period of questioning?”

“No, not everyone.”
He kissed the tip of her nose,
then backed away to sit in a chair at the table. “I wish I could open your mind…make
you see who you really are.”

There
was that phrase again,
who I really am
.
Who was she? She wasn’t normal Faith any more, that’s for sure. She wiggled her
fingers. The glow of her amber color stream ran down her arm and consumed her
hand.

In
her hand appeared another small ball. The amber sphere rolled in counter
clockwise circles on her palm, then weaved in and out of her fingers. The
little globe traveled over and under her hand. “How can this be?” she asked in
amazement as she conjured another and let it roll around with the first. “How
am I doing this?”

“It’s
because you’ve started the process.”

“The process?”
She tossed him a ball. He caught
it,
then
tossed it right back.

“The
process of becoming enlightened, of understanding there is something greater about
you, of knowing everything is connected. You come from a great clan. But you’ve
closed your inner eye and have repressed your gifts and have been too immersed
in your human nature.”

“But
why now? Why am I able to do this?” She held up her hands with the orbs
floating above them. “Why now?”

“Maybe because I’m here.
Maybe because
you’re ready for your truth to shine.”
He cocked his head to one side as
if studying her like a work of art.

“You
know what I think? I think you’re here to do more than be my friend and protect
me and Cassandra.”

“Why
do you say that?”

“Because
I just figured out what the guy in my dream was trying to tell me. The hunk
told me when I woke I’d be with the one who was truly meant for me.” The balls
in her hand brightened. She caught Big T restraining a chuckle, only his
shoulders pitching. There was a twinkle in his eye.

“Hunk, eh?”

“Yeah, a sexy one at that.”
She ripped out the words in
irritation over his not taking her dream situation seriously and was about to comment
more when a stabbing pain tore through her midsection.

She
dropped to her knees as images of the beach flashed in her mind, of her
performing in front of cheering crowds, of her sitting on a council. The orbs
floated in the air in front of her face, reflecting her image, reminding her of
the life she had in the Statiochapel clan as a mystic and minstrel. She and
Dolon were to have a life together. He was her protector.

A
profound revelation sprouted and flourished in her mind and soul. She gazed up
at Big T, warm tears streaming down her face, salty on her lips. “Please, take
off your mask.” She knelt forward and clutched the outer portions of his
thighs. “I need to see you. I need to see who you are to complete my…” Her
inner voice whispered a word in the back of her mind.
“My
Satori
, my enlightenment.”