Supernova (21 page)

His eyes were closed, and his sable hair was in total disarray as he tilted his head forward and swayed with the beat. He was humming along to the song, his lips moving ever so slightly to form the words. His voice was like nothing she had ever heard before. Pure, unadulterated. It made her want to strip naked and crawl into his lap.

Watching Dominic in his natural habitat made Kerrigan feel like the wind had been knocked out of her, but life being breathed into her for the first time all at once. So many conflicting emotions overcame her. Be still and observe, or pounce and play. What was a woman to do? He hadn’t seen her yet, and Kerrigan felt remiss to disturb such a tranquil scene. This was his world. She was an uninvited guest witnessing the vulnerability he undoubtedly never intended for anyone else to see.

Kerrigan shifted her weight from one foot to the other, ruining the moment when a floorboard creaked under her foot. Dominic flinched and turned his head in her direction, his singing, his playing coming to an abrupt halt. The magical spell had been broken.

“S-sorry.” When he didn’t reply, she tried to break the silence. “Um, your voice sort of sounds like…well,
lust
.” It just slipped out, and as embarrassed as she was to have said it, she couldn’t take it back because it was the truth.

Dominic dropped his pick, but didn’t attempt to retrieve it from the floor beneath his feet. He was stunned into silence by the sensual tone in her voice as she caught him unaware. The only other person that had ever heard him sing was his little brother, Colton, when he had tried to calm him down and get him to go to sleep after one of their mother’s dramatic bouts with the booze.

Kerrigan took a timid step forward. “Before I forget, I want to show you something.” She reached for the waistband of her shorts at her right hip and pushed it down a little bit.

Please do
, Dominic thought.

He managed to get his mind out of the gutter and cleared his throat, prepared to protest if she had planned to remove them altogether. Because no good could come of that, or maybe a whole lot of good could come from it, but he wasn’t sure if he was prepared to find out. God, he hoped he wasn’t drooling.

Kerrigan saw the apprehension written all over his face and giggled a little in response. She loved that she could, for once, make him as tongue-tied and flustered as he did to her on a regular basis.

When she pushed the cotton down to reveal the birthmark on her right hip, Dominic’s eyes followed her motions and he furrowed his brow in confusion.

“How is that possible?”

“You tell me.”

Dominic removed the guitar from his lap and propped it up next to his stereo. He patted the spot next to him on the futon, motioning for her to sit down. Kerrigan did as he asked and crossed her legs to get comfortable.

“How much of your dream about your grandmother do you remember?”

“Every single little detail of it. But the real question here is how do
you
know about it?”

Dominic nodded his head. “That’s a fair question.”

“And do you intend to answer it?”

“Availia confided in me about a lot of things, Kerrigan. She seemed to think that I could help you find out who you’re meant to be once she was gone.” He paused to think about how to say the next thing, but felt it was best to just say it. “She said that she would come to you, but that you would think it was just a dream and would need reassurance that you’re not losing your mind…that it’s real. I hope you don’t freak out on me, but I’ve been around Availia long enough, and seen and heard her talk about a lot of things that shouldn’t be possible, but they are.”

Kerrigan started fidgeting with her fingers in her lap, unsure of how she should react. Deep down, she knew there was something different about her. Grammy had always treated her like she was some sort of prize to be treasured in a way that went beyond maternal love.

Sensing her trepidation, Dominic reached under the futon cushion and pulled out the wrinkled envelope that he had secured there. “Here, maybe you should just let Availia tell you in her own words.”

Kerrigan’s hands shook as she reached for the envelope and opened it. She recognized the stationary as the same kind Grammy had used to write the first letter the attorney had given her the day she arrived in St. Augustine. She unfolded the letter with care and took a deep breath before she began to read it.

Kerrigan read over the letter three more times. Dominic watched as a plethora of emotions washed over her face. Although he hadn’t read the letter himself, because it wasn’t addressed to him, he knew how vague Availia could be. He just hoped that Kerrigan would give him the chance to explain further.

“Tell me what you know,” she finally said. She was relinquishing control to Dominic because her grandmother trusted him as much as she did. Truthfully, she was relieved to be doing so, although, she was scared to death that she would never be able to live up to the expectations that seemed to have been built up around her.

“From what I understand, this gift you have has been handed down through the generations of women in your bloodline. Availia inherited it from her mother, who got it from her mother, and so on. When Availia had your father, and then her husband died, leaving no possibility that she would ever have a daughter of her own, she thought the gift would die with her. But then you came along. She said she knew the moment that Priscilla and Hudson told her they were pregnant that they were having a girl.”

Kerrigan sighed and slouched back onto the futon. “Okay, so I’m assuming by
gift
, you’re referring to the Light?”

Dominic nodded.

“What, am I supposed to be able to like zap things or something? I’ve got super powers?”

He couldn’t help but laugh at her sarcasm. “The Light is sort of like a super power, but it’s
your
Light, which means that you make it what it is. With its help, you can make things happen by sheer willpower alone.”

“Like I can make you dance ballet right now?”

Dominic chuckled at her absurdity. “I suppose, if that’s what you really want. But, you have to develop and fine tune your ability first, or it will drain you of all your energy, which is dangerous.”

“That’s what happened at the lighthouse,” Kerrigan said, finally understanding. “But I didn’t do anything. At least I don’t think I did.”

“No, your energy attracted a spirit,” he explained. “See, spirits need energy to manifest, and you’ve got tons of it. Basically, you were like a beacon…you
became
the lighthouse.”

“Okay, so I’m like just this big ball of light, and creepy old ghost men want to suck on me? Ew, that’s just gross.” She scrunched her nose up in disgust.

Dominic laughed at her misinterpretation. “No, they need your energy, but I’d say William was a bit greedier than most would be. But, whatever. That’s not your purpose anyway.”

“Then what is it that I’m supposed to do, and how am I supposed to do it?” She was exasperated by all the secrecy. Why couldn’t someone just be straight forward for once?

“I can help you with the
how
, but I don’t have a clue as to the
what
. I think we should work on developing your gift a little bit each day until you can control it. And then, when the
what
comes, you’ll be ready.”

“Okay, so when do we start? Do you want to try something tonight?”

Dominic looked at his watch and noted how late it was getting. “Actually, it’s a little late to do anything tonight. How about if we start out fresh tomorrow?”

“Another date?” Kerrigan did nothing to disguise her jealousy.

He gave her a wide smile and shook his head. “I haven’t been going on dates, Querida.” Dominic pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’ve been going to work.”

He had no idea where that came from, but he was glad he thought of it when he saw the look of relief flash across her face. It could work. People worked third shift all the time, right?

“You have a job?”

“Most red-blooded Americans do. Not all of us are lucky enough to be gifted a rather sizable inheritance,” he chuckled sarcastically.

“Oh,” Kerrigan said, exaggerating the ‘o’ shape of her mouth. “Well, where do you work?”

The problem with thinking on your feet and letting lies spill from your mouth without pre-planning the questions that could possibly arise, was that more lies were needed to cover the first lie, and so the endless cycle begins to spiral out of control.

“Um, I’d really prefer not to say. It’s sort of embarrassing.”

There, that should work, right?
he thought to himself.

“Come on, Dom. You don’t have to be embarrassed.”

Okay, apparently not
.

He looked at his watch and noted the time, seeing an easy out.

“Actually, I need to be leaving pretty soon.” He stepped to his wardrobe and pulled out a T-shirt to emphasize his point. “So, after I get some sleep in the morning, we’ll start your training.”

“Training? That doesn’t sound formal at all,” she deadpanned.

He slipped the shirt over his head. Kerrigan pouted a little on the inside at the loss of the visual.

He shrugged as he pulled a pair of clean pants out of his wardrobe. “Well, that’s what it is.” With his hand on the top button of his jeans, he turned to look at her expectantly, as if hinting that she should go.