The Space Within (The Book of Phoenix #3) (29 page)

Chapter 30

4 Weeks Later

Leni jumped out of the Camaro after me, and I’d barely had a chance to shut the door before Brock peeled away. After several weeks of being stuck at the manor, we were all ready for freedom and privacy. While some of us had to physically heal, others cleaned up the manor after the big battle. We burned the Dark creatures’ bodies. We buried our own after sending their souls to the Space Between. Yoshi and Tasha almost hadn’t survived. Mat and Kel hadn’t. Neither had Uri and Melinda. We said “Until we meet again” more times than I wanted to remember, but I would remember anyway. Every single one of them.

After we mourned them and Sissy, we celebrated. We celebrated our victory and our comrades’ lives. We celebrated the fact that we may not be able to lead normal lives, exactly, but with Enyxa and the Lakari no longer a threat to this world, we might actually be able to live to old age with our Twin Flames. Something we’d never been able to do in the past. We all planned to take full advantage of this.

We all were ready to celebrate this fact alone with our other halves.

“I can’t believe I’m home!” Leni squealed as she threw open the door of her Airstream camper after jimmying the lock with the edge of an envelope that had been stuck to the door. She stepped in and spun in a circle with her arms held out. “So many times I thought I’d never see this place again. Hell, I thought I’d never see
Earth
again.” She turned toward me and beamed, her sea-green eyes brighter than I’d ever seen them. “Or your gorgeous face.”

I shut the door behind me with a big, dorky grin. Seeing my girl and her love for me would never get old. I’d cherish both for as long as I existed in this body and beyond. I opened my arms for her, and she danced her way over to me. My dick was already beginning to swell.

“What’s in the envelope?” I asked, looking for a distraction so I could contain my excitement.

Although our souls had Bonded often, we hadn’t been able to be together physically until now. The healers hadn’t allowed it until two days ago, but then Leni made us wait until we could be truly alone. The past two days had been nearly as torturous as when she’d been gone. So now that I could finally make love to her in all possible ways, I didn’t want it to end before it even began. I wanted it to last as long as I could possibly draw it out.

Her caramel curls fell over her face as she looked down at the paper still in her hand. She slid a finger under the flap to open it and pulled out a card. We read it together.

“Hope’s invited us to a party. A field party.” Her voice sounded as perplexed as I felt. “Isn’t that Ty’s property? Did you ever find anything …?”

I rubbed my brow ring. “Yeah. And no. Maybe Hope has something up her sleeve.”

“She has lots of those, doesn’t she?”

She swung her arms around my neck and looked up at me. Her boobs pressed against my chest as she leaned into my body. My arms fell around her, resting on the small of her back, my hands on her round ass. She wasn’t looking for an answer. The question had been rhetorical. She was looking for a kiss. At least, I hoped that’s what she wanted because I leaned down and crushed my mouth to hers. The invitation fell to the floor, quickly forgotten.

Her full lips were soft and delicious as always, but I needed more. I licked at them, pressing into the seam between them, until her mouth parted. I sucked her bottom lip into my mouth, and she let out a little whimper before nipping at my own. Her tongue found mine. Her fingers tangled in my hair and pulled. Her body pressed into me, her tits rubbing against my chest. I moved one hand up her back and into her curls while grabbing her ass with the other and holding her pelvis against me as I jerked against her belly, my dick straining against my jeans.

“Damn it, Leni,” I groaned against her lips. “I want to fuck every inch of your body with my mouth before I make love to you. I want to make you forget every moment you were in Hell and show you heaven again. But it’s been so fucking long, and I’m about to come right now.”

She giggled as her hand slid down my neck, my chest, my abs, and to my cock. She cupped the bulge and stroked it. I groaned again.

“We have as long as we want to do it as many times as we want,” she said as her fingers moved to the button of my jeans and deftly popped it from the hole. Her hand slid under the waistband, pushing the zipper down, her fingers teasing me, and I about came undone.

“Uh-huh,” I said, wrapping my hands over her wrists and pulling her hands far, far away.

She smiled mischievously, her green eyes twinkling.

“Okay.” She sank downward, her nose skimming over my shirt as she went down to her knees. “I’ll do it this way.”

My dick wanted to jump into her mouth, only inches away, but it was still trapped by cotton and denim.

“You’re gonna kill me,” I said.

I reached down, grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up, all the way off the ground. I threw her over my shoulder and held her with one arm across her thighs. My hand smacked her ass, and she squealed and kicked and laughed as I carried her back to the bedroom. I spanked her again before tossing her onto the bed. She landed on her back and smiled up at me.

“Are you going to behave?” I asked.

Her grin widened. “Hell no!”

She sprang up at me, somehow tearing her top off as she did. Then she reached for the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head while I undid her bra, freeing those perfect tits that I loved so much. I wanted to spend time with each globe and its pinkish-brown nipple, already hard and pulled tight, showing them just how much I missed and loved them. But she was already finishing the job of undoing my jeans and pulling them down, taking my boxer briefs with them. The freedom was unbelievable, but the ache for release only intensified by a million, especially when she grabbed my balls with one hand and wrapped her hand around my shaft with the other and squeezed. She began to sink to her knees again, her lips already parting and her tongue slipping out. I’d be a goner if she so much as touched me with that pink tongue.

So I pushed her back onto the bed, curled my fingers over the waistband of her yoga pants and panties, and yanked them both off. She squirmed, her boobs bouncing side to side, as she pulled her legs free. Then she bent them at the knees and let each fall to the side, opening herself for me.

“Fuck me now, and then we can make love,” she said, her hand reaching up to stroke my chest.

“How do I argue with that?”

She pinched my nipple, then pulled on the ring. “You don’t.”

Unable to fight it, I crawled onto the bed over her, pausing at her chest. I just couldn’t let them go another second. My elbows bent, and I dropped down to flick her pebbled nipple with my tongue. Shit. That was too much of a tease. I swirled my tongue around it, but it tasted too damn good to let it go at that. My lips clamped around the whole thing, and I sucked it into my mouth, cupping the softness of her boob with my hand as my tongue rolled her nipple and my teeth scraped over it. She moaned and whimpered, and her pelvis lifted toward me, trapping my dick between us. She stroked herself, slick and hot, against it as my mouth devoured her tit.

“It’s been too long for me, too,” she cried. “I
need
you, Jeric. I need you inside me. Now!
Please
.”

One of her hands grabbed my hair, pulling my head up to hers, while the other reached between us and caressed me while guiding my tip to her opening. Her whole body trembled underneath me. She gazed at me with hooded eyes, and then lifted her shoulders off the bed and melded her mouth over mine. Her tongue plunged into my mouth as my cock plunged into her. She was tight and slick and fucking perfect. I filled her all the way, feeling her squeeze and convulse around me. We both moaned, and with only a few more strokes, we were shouting each other’s names.

“Harder, Jeric,
faster
,” she cried, and I pumped into her as hard and as fast as I could, feeling the build for both of us.

A few thrusts after that, and the earth quaked. I exploded inside her, and our souls shot out of our bodies.

“Now we make love,” she whispered once we came down from the high and lay side by side, panting.

Her fingers trailed over one of the tattoos on my arm—the puzzle piece showing a heart with a lock on it.

“And tomorrow, I’m getting a real tattoo,” she said as her green-eyed gaze lifted to mine. “Do I still get the key?”

I rolled onto my side and cupped my hand to her face. “You already have the key. You have my whole damn heart, Leni. And my soul. My everything.”

“You
are
my everything, Jeric.”

I rubbed my thumb over her bottom lip. “Damn straight. I am yours forever. And you are mine.”

“Yours. Always. Now make love to me.” She sucked my thumb into her mouth, and I did just that. Made love to her all night long with the intention of doing so every night for as long as we both lived … hopefully until we were old and gray.

Epilogue

Hayden sat on my old, grungy, plaid couch, his brows pulled down over his eyes as he stared at the screen of a tablet the Guardians had given us. I’d tried explaining computers and the Internet and everything to him, but it was a lot to take for someone coming from his world. It was kind of fun to watch him look at everything here with a childlike wonder. My old friends would probably say if brains were leather, he wouldn’t be able to saddle a june bug, but I thought it was sweet. We both had a healthy appreciation for the simple things in life, like being able to live in this trailer. I’d been embarrassed to bring him here at first, but Hayden had never had a home to live in before. It may as well have been a palace to him.

Of course, we were only able to live here because of help from the Guardians. We didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of, literally. Uncle Troy had disowned me, acted like he never knew me. Hope and Leni had explained that it was part of what we go through as Phoenix Guardians—everyone forgets we ever existed. Since he was my last living relative that I knew of, it kind of hurt when Uncle Troy failed to recognize me, but I never liked him much anyway. It was annoying, though, that we had to pay rent to live in the trailer that had been my own mama’s.

Walking around my own hometown of Lake Haven as a complete stranger was the weirdest thing of all. Everyone kept wondering how I knew their names, and I just couldn’t believe they didn’t remember me in the slightest. But after everything I’d been through—I’d been to Hell and back and had brought the other half of my soul with me!—I supposed it wasn’t really that big of a deal. Still, this life would take some adjusting to.

At least I had Hayden. I felt like I could survive anything with him by my side. We had a lot of getting to know each other to do, so we were taking things slow, at least on a physical level. But Bonding our souls together was more intimate than anything I’d ever experienced, and more pleasurable, too. So we were doing just fine with that, while learning all about each other. The best thing was knowing he was mine. All mine. And I was his. Our love and our connection went deeper than anything anyone could understand, and nobody could take that away from us.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked him as I strode across the kitchen and into the living room.

“You’re excited for this, aren’t you …?” His voice trailed off when he looked up at me, and his brows rose high up on his forehead.

I thrilled at the look in his gray eyes as he took me in, wearing a halter-top, low-slung, cut-off shorts, and cowboy boots. The weather wouldn’t allow me to wear my favorite outfit much longer, and I already had a sweater packed in my bag for tonight, when the air would cool off after sunset. But right now, late October in Florida was still pretty hot.

But not as hot as Hayden’s gaze made me feel. Ironically, I wanted to shiver under the heat of his eyes as they moved down and back up. He cocked his head to the side.

“This is normal attire for these parties?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Pretty much. Of course, I don’t know what this one is gonna be like. Hope didn’t exactly call it a K-bomb, and since nobody in town knows us, I don’t know who’s even gonna be there. It’s all kinda weird, but knowing Hope, I’m sure she’s got something planned. I’m super curious, though, because it’s on Ty’s property. I wonder if …”

I shook my head, cutting myself off. I’d been trying not to let my hopes soar too high that Ty was okay. Not after Leni and Brock had told me his truck had been found by the springs. That’s where dead bodies had been found in the past, too, although his hadn’t. Jeric and Asia had driven out there while we were gone, and never saw Ty’s truck, so I could only hope he had moved on. Where, I didn’t know, especially since he’d just bought that property, but nobody in town had seen him. At least, that’s what they told Jeric, who they knew had been training Ty for his fights. They wouldn’t talk to me at all, thinking I was some stranger trying to stick my nose where it didn’t belong.

A horn blared outside, and Hayden stood up. I couldn’t help my smile. Or the way my thighs clenched. One of these days, I would have that man inside me. We were quickly failing at taking it slow. It had become harder and harder to do so. He may have been from a different world, but he was all man—one fine specimen, too. Several inches over six feet tall, short, light-brown hair, and chiseled features like a god. His light gray eyes were especially striking against his deeply tanned skin, and I always felt like he was piercing my soul with his gaze. Well, I guess he kind of was. And he was so protective of me. I always felt safe, like I was wrapped in a cocoon when he was nearby.

I took his hand and led him outside to Brock and Asia’s Camaro. The Orlando authorities had confiscated my car from asshole’s condo parking lot, believing that it had belonged to my poor Sissy, and since I had no ID they’d accept, I’d never be able to get it out of the tow yard. So for now, we relied on others for transportation.

Asia slid out of the passenger seat, her hair a beautiful lilac-silver and a pair of big shades covering her eyes, and climbed into the backseat. She wasn’t wearing her normal all black, but a white tank that slid off her shoulders with a denim skirt that barely covered her girl parts. She did have on her combat boots, though. I followed in after her, and Hayden’s big body sat in the front. Even if he wasn’t too big to sit back here, we would have let him have shotgun. So far, nothing had excited him as much as riding in the Camaro.

Like I said, we were taking things slow. Before long, I’d be the big excitement of his day. He reached around the seat and placed his hand around my calf and squeezed. An electric spark jolted through me, and I could feel what he was telling me:
You already are
. God, I loved this man.

“Good thing I brought sunscreen,” I said to Asia, pulling a bottle out of my bag as Brock drove us through town. “Your skin’s whiter than mine.”

“Trust me, I’ve already drenched myself in it. I don’t know what I was thinking, wearing this.”

“You look hot,” I said, nudging her shoulder with my own. “Are you feeling better?”

“Perfect.” She grinned. She had such a pretty smile that I’d never seen much of in the past. She really was doing better in all kinds of ways. “You?”

I returned her smile. “Perfect. I am kind of nervous about this party, though. Hope really hasn’t told ya’ll what’s going on?”

Asia shook her head. “Nope. But I sure hope we’re about to find out.”

Brock drove us out to the dirt road that ended in the middle of nowhere. Leni’s old red pickup already sat in the grass, but no other vehicles. Brock and Asia had brought some lawn chairs and a cooler that the guys unloaded from the trunk, and we made our way through the field to the lake.

Jeric and Leni had apparently just arrived, too, because Jeric was setting their cooler down next to a picnic table, and Leni was dropping their chairs to the ground. But then I noticed the rest of the spread—a hog roasting in the pit and a table covered in food that could feed a whole town.

“Did ya’ll do this?” I asked with surprise.

Leni shook her head, her light brown curls bobbing over her shoulders. “Not us. Must have been Hope.”

I looked around. “Did you see her?”

“Not yet,” Jeric said.

“Asia, babe,” Brock said, “maybe you should have reminded her about her own party.”

She laughed. “I haven’t worked for her in ages.”

“But you know how she is. She’s my mom, and I love her, but she can be pretty flaky.”

“I think that was a show.”

Brock shrugged, but let it go. I was glad to see he was coming back around to Hope. He’d been pretty mad at her at first, confused and angry, especially about Connor, and none of us could blame him. As far as I knew, she hadn’t really explained much yet. We were all hoping she’d be doing that today. But Hope was his mama, and family was precious. Although my lesson had been most recent, we’d all learned this the hard way. Now, we were each other’s family.

We set up our chairs in front of the lake, and each sat down with a beer in hand, and then the silence settled on us. It was eerily quiet with no music playing like there usually was. Even the birds seemed to have fallen silent. Everyone but Hayden and me stiffened, moving to the edges of their chairs. They all turned their heads up toward the sky, as though expecting something to drop from it—something not good.

But the unexpected movement came from the lake in front of us. A geyser sprayed up several feet into the air, making us all gasp.

“Never seen that before,” I said, my hand gripping Hayden’s. He’d already jumped to his feet, ready to protect me.

When the water fell, though, Hope stood out there in the middle of the lake. And she wasn’t alone.

“
Ty?
” I shrieked. “Ty Daniels?”

I ran for the water, but he beat me to the shore. Ty’s arms wrapped around me, and he swooped me off my feet and spun me around.

“You’re okay?” I asked breathlessly once he set me back on the ground. My gaze traveled from his head to his feet and back up, making sure. He wore his usual t-shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots, and somehow, they weren’t wet. And he looked perfectly fine.

“Life’s been … interesting lately,” he said. “But, yeah, I’m good, Bex.”

“And you remember me!” I squealed, clapping my hands together.

“How could I ever forget you?” The sweet look he gave me was different than those he’d always given me in the past. He knew things had changed between us, but I still backed up to Hayden and took his hand before introducing them. The others then welcomed both Ty and Hope, and Ty grabbed a beer before we all sat down again, except for Ty and Hope, who stood in front of us.

“How did this—” Jeric motioned his hands toward Ty and Hope “—happen?”

Ty looked at Hope, and she gave him a slight nod.

“I’m like ya’ll,” he said with a proud smile.

We all stared at him stupidly with our mouths hanging open so wide, we could have caught flies.

Hope snickered at our reaction. “I’d like you all to meet Tobialaric, who you’ve known as Ty. He and his other half were one of the Original Seven.”

“
What?
” I jumped up and ran over to give Ty another hug.

“That’s why I was always pulled to you,” he said after letting me go again. “I guess my soul recognized yours, just not in the way I thought.”

“So where is she?”

Ty frowned. “I don’t know yet.”

“She’s here, though,” Hope assured. “On this world. The timing is right. I made sure of it. He just has to find her.”

“How …?” Jeric asked again.

Hayden pulled me over to sit on his lap so Ty could have my chair as Hope began.

“I explained to you before and you all saw that I was able to find the other half of Ny’xan and bring him back to this world. Well, I’ve been able to do that with the rest of the Original Seven. It’s been my goal to reunite you, but it’s been difficult. The timing with everyone’s souls returning to Earth at about the same time has been nearly impossible. I’ve had to keep the souls contained until I could capture their mate’s soul, too. During your last cycle, I was able to get Tobialaric’s and his other half’s pieces and send them to the Space Between together. I’ve just recently sent the other two pairs into the Space Between—two of them you haven’t seen in many, many life cycles, but you do know the others. One as Connor and the other as Sissy.”

My breath caught in my throat, and my hand flew to my mouth. Tears filled my eyes as I looked over at Brock and Asia. They beamed at each other, their eyes lit up with hope.

“Since you can all live long lives now,” Hope continued, “which means the possibility of raising your own families, you may be lucky enough that their souls find you again, maybe upon conception.”

The smiles on Brock and Asia’s faces couldn’t have grown any bigger without breaking their faces. Jeric and Leni exchanged a look, too. Hayden tightened his arms around me, and I leaned against his hard chest.

“Maybe someday,” he whispered against my ear, and a new excitement for the future ran through me. I may not have my Sissy any more, but hopefully I’d meet her soul again soon.

“These halves, like Ty, have been Separated for many life cycles,” Hope continued. “You saw how Enyxa and Gabrixander were. She hadn’t even sensed him on me until I actually showed him to her. It’s going to be hard for these others to find each other and believe in their Bond. That’s why when I found Ty coming around the springs, I took the risk to reach out and help him. It took me weeks to convince him.”

“What were you doin’ at the springs, anyway, Ty?” I asked. “You know how dangerous they are.”

He shrugged. “I couldn’t help myself. I guess my soul knew Hope was there … and the others.”

Our heads all snapped back to Hope.

“Others?” Leni asked.

“The ones I just sent back,” Hope said, and her lips twitched at the corners. “The springs aren’t really dangerous. The bodies that had been found hadn’t even been real—if you struck one in the right place, it would blow up in smoke. They belonged to Lakari who had come too close, and I used them to keep curious town folk away. You see, the springs are my safe place. My refuge. A haven for Guardians’ souls, as well, where I keep them safe when nowhere else, not even the Space Between, can help them. This is where I came to recover from the accident—an accident caused by Lakari, of course. I brought Connor’s soul here, too, and kept it with the others until the timing was right. I went out for Sissy’s, and that’s when Mirangela and Theodethan found me, returning here. Just in time, too.”

“She said that’s why we all end up here in Lake Haven,” Ty said. “Our souls naturally gravitate to this place.”

“Because the rest of the Seven were here?” Asia asked.

Hope nodded. “That and because the artifacts are here, too, when they’re not safely with their owners. The Book, the Orb, the Stone, the Cup … there are several. But those are for another time. Right now, it’s time to celebrate.”

She lifted her chin, and her gaze focused behind us. We turned to look over our shoulders. Several vehicles were pulling up to the dead end, and people were spilling out, grabbing their coolers and chairs. Some guys were already unloading a cargo van and a big truck with band equipment. I jumped off Hayden’s lap with surprise, and everyone else stood, too.

“I invited the town,” Hope said. “Thought you all should get to know them. I think you’ll be staying here a while since the Gate is taken care of.”

“Will we really get to live long together?” Jeric asked, taking Leni’s hand.

“I can’t guarantee anything, of course,” Hope said, “but the odds are definitely in your favor now.”

“And we can have families?” Asia asked, hope high in her voice.

“You better,” Hope said. “I miss my grandson. I think he’s ready to return.” She gave Asia and Brock a wink. “One more thing I’m sure you’re all interested in. Mason Hayes stabbed another prisoner and killed him. The State’s seeking the death penalty, but no matter what, he’ll be behind bars for the rest of his life. He won’t be buying his way out of this, I guarantee it.”

I hadn’t realized just how heavily this had weighed on me until she shared that bit of news. I suddenly felt five hundred pounds lighter. I felt like I could truly heal and move on and not forever be looking over my shoulder, wondering if he was close. With a laugh that bubbled out of my soul and over my heart, I threw my arms around Hayden’s neck, and he pulled me off the ground in a hug. My life could go on now, and I couldn’t wait to start it with him.

The crowd began pouring into the party area, but before we joined them, I grabbed Ty’s wrist.

“We’ll help you find your girl,” I promised him.

He gave me a nod and a smile. “I know. I was pretty damn disappointed when I found out you weren’t her, but then so much made sense. She’s out there, Bex. I feel it.”

We shared another hug before I took Hayden’s hand, and we joined the others in greeting the newcomers. Pretty much everyone I’d grown up with, known since preschool, was there, but they had no idea who I was. Even Kaylee and her husband and the rest of our high school class, and Aunt Faye and Elizabeth, who had apparently moved back when the Darkness had receded from Lake Haven.

But that was how things were for us, the Phoenix Guardians. And they were my new family. My sisters and brothers who I’d known for millennia, and with whom I’d been to Hell and back. And Sissy would be joining us soon, I hoped, maybe as my own child, or maybe as Leni’s or Asia’s. I prayed her soul would find us so we could protect her as she grew up. That was for another day, though. A future that looked brighter than ever.