Seven Psychics Read online

It would take too long to assemble my rifle, so I drew my handgun instead. I’d managed to hit the cop at five hundred yards and if I was very quiet, I might be able to sneak up close enough to be able to put a bullet in Lust’s heart as well.

  Tiptoeing up to the door, I peeked into the dark opening. The building had been abandoned years ago and there was little to see inside. The bare concrete floor was encrusted with dirt and debris. Most of the windows were broken and glass glittered dully among the rest of the rubbish.

  Catching movement in the shadows towards the far end of the building, I realized that my target had almost reached the far door. If I lost sight of her, she’d disappear again and I wasn’t about to let that happen.

  Hurrying inside, I was halfway across the floor when I stepped on a shard of glass. My target spun around as I lifted my gun. Her power welled up and surrounded me.

  “You don’t want to shoot me,” Lust said in a husky, persuasive voice that made me hesitate to pull the trigger. “You have something far more important to do.” She retraced her steps until she was standing only a few feet away from me. She was even more beautiful in real life than her photos had portrayed. I’d expected her to be cold and detached, but her expression was warm and animated as she stared into my eyes.

  “What could be more important than shooting you?” I asked. My words were slurred and thinking was difficult. I felt fuzzy and had trouble focusing on her as she stalked closer.

  “We’ll get to that,” she replied and circled around me. “You must be one of the four creatures that have been hunting my friends down.” She came to a stop in front of me and gazed into my eyes. “What are you? Why can’t I sense you?”

  “I’m just a normal teenager,” I replied, baffled by her question. “I don’t know why you can’t sense me.”

  She stared at me intently and I felt her probing at my mind, searching for information. She grinned when she found something that amused her. “I see that you are practically still an innocent,” Lust said. “I think it’s time for you to have some extensive sex education.” Moving in so close that her lips brushed my ear, she whispered an order that I couldn’t possibly refuse. “Find the man who desires you the least, strip him naked and use your hands, mouth and body on him until he cries out in pleasure and reaches his climax.”

  I shook my head and fought against the overwhelming compulsion that I’d just been given. “I don’t want to do that,” I protested. Yet some part of me wanted to do exactly that. Garrett’s face flashed into my mind and I couldn’t banish it.

  Lust frowned, unhappy that I’d defied her. “Do it,” she said and sent a wave of compulsion at me that drove me to my knees. Noise behind me made her glance up sharply. From the corner of my eye, I saw the familiar silhouette of Reece framed in the doorway. The telepath turned and fled with a trilling laugh that echoed inside the empty building.

  Garrett ignored the psychic and ran to me instead of going in pursuit of his target. Mark had directed his team to keep me safe and he was obeying his order. I was vaguely aware of him hunkering down beside me, taking the gun from my lax hand and placing it in my backpack. I started when he put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you ok, Lexi?”

  I heard his words, but I couldn’t respond to them. I’d been ordered to have sex with the one person who desired me the least and, out of all the men I’d ever met, Garrett was at the top of the list. Even in my dazed state, I couldn’t do that to him again. Putting my hands over my face might block him from my sight, but I could still feel his hands on me. The contact made it that much harder to deny the compulsion to tear my clothes off and to throw myself at him.

  “I’m taking you back to the base,” he said and swung me into his arms.

  My hair whipped back as he sprinted along the sidewalk far faster than should have been humanly possible. I heard a car pulling to a stop just ahead then Reece sat me down on the ground. I peeked through my fingers as he snuck up behind a man as he climbed out of his car. He snaked his arm around the man’s throat and pulled him backwards into the shadows. It didn’t take long for the man’s struggles to cease and for him to pass out.

  Garrett dragged the unconscious driver into the bushes beside his house, stole his keys then returned for me. I tried to fight him when he picked me up, but I might as well have been a kitten for all the effect I had. Being around him was making it increasingly difficult to fight the command that I’d been given.

  Taking my backpack off, he placed it on the backseat and buckled me in next to it. Dusk was only an hour away now and the setting sun held a heavy significance for reasons that I didn’t understand. Something was going to happen when darkness finally held sway, but I didn’t know what it would be. I had the unshakable feeling that it was going to transform my life forever.

  The car went into motion and I rocked backwards and forwards with my eyes squeezed shut as I struggled against the hold that Lust had over my mind. I fought it for as long as I could and I knew I was going to lose. I was desperate to feel Garrett’s hands on me again. In despair, I lunged for the door. It was the only way I could think of to avoid doing the unthinkable.

  My plan would have worked except for one small detail, I forgot to take my seatbelt off. The car screeched to a halt on the side of the highway when I threw the door open. “Are you crazy?” Reece shouted as I clawed my way free of the seatbelt and clambered outside.

  I managed to run half a dozen steps before he caught me by the wrist and whirled me around. I lunged to the side, frantically trying to break free from his grip, but he held me easily. “I can’t do it,” I sobbed.

  “You can’t do what?” he asked. His hands were strong enough to crush me, but he held me gently. I must have been stronger than I thought because he had to tighten his grip when I almost pulled free.

  “I can’t have sex with you,” I moaned. I almost said ‘again’, but swallowed it down. Lust’s compulsion hadn’t wiped all of my ability to think away, just most of it.

  His expression was thunderstruck. “Does it have to be me?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said in anguish.

  “Why?”

  Like me, he was desperate for any other solution. I squeezed my eyes shut so I didn’t have to see his distaste at the idea of getting naked with me. “It can only be you,” I whispered. Surely I didn’t have to spell out why. He knew Lust’s tricks as well as I did and he had to know why he was the only choice for me.

  With my eyes shut, I couldn’t see his shudder but I felt it. He’d just been placed in a horrible predicament with only two choices. He didn’t want to sleep with me, but if he didn’t, I’d die. No one would be able to do anything to stop my mental meltdown if I didn’t obey Lust’s command. There was only one thing that could save me and he was the only person who could do it. I’d been faced with the same dilemma a month ago, but sleeping with Garrett hadn’t exactly been a hardship for me. Not physically anyway. Being in his arms had fulfilled my greatest fantasy. For him, being with me would be his greatest nightmare.

  “Ok,” he said after a long period of silence and my eyes sprang open in surprise. As soon as I saw his face, the command to be with him almost took me to my knees again. His hand on my wrist was the only thing holding me up. “If we’re going to do this, it won’t be on the side of the road where everyone can see us,” he said and led me back to the car.

  Joy welled up in me and my maddening compulsion to tear his clothes off eased a fraction. I slid into the backseat and didn’t complain when he buckled me in again. My eyes remained on him as he resumed driving towards the base. Turning off before the usual exit, he drove down a little used dirt road and parked behind a copse of trees. I couldn’t blame him for not wanting the rest of the squad to know what was soon going to take place between us. Something this shameful should be kept private.

  Leaving the keys in the ignition, Reece turned the engine off and pressed his palms over his eyes. As far as he knew, I was still a virgin. His memory of our night together ha
d been wiped away and he had no idea that he’d already divested me of my innocence.

  It suddenly occurred to me that I wouldn’t even remember our second time together, which was both a blessing and a curse. I wanted to savor this moment for as long as I could, but I was ultimately doomed to forget that it had ever happened. The moment that he reached his climax, I’d fall unconscious. I’d wake up some time later with no recollection of being commanded to have sex with him at all.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I waited for Garrett to make a move with increasing impatience. My fever was back and it was worse than ever. My whole body felt as if it was burning up. Cool air washed over me when Reece finally opened the door. He’d taken his shirt off and his shoulders seemed almost too wide to fit into the car. He pushed my backpack to the floor and crawled in beside me. Almost incapable of coherent thought now, I reached for him and was again constrained by the seatbelt. I made frustrated noises until he hit the release button and I was freed from my confinement.

  Garrett sucked in a surprised breath when I crawled across the seat and straddled him. Apparently, this wasn’t the normal actions of an inexperienced girl. I kissed him with a desperation that left him dazed. He had to be thinking that my passion wasn’t real, that it had been induced by mind control, but that wasn’t true at all. The passion was all mine. It had just been given a boost by the telepath.

  I slid my hands from his shoulders down his chest to his abdomen. His muscles clenched in response when I slowly ran them back up his torso again, enjoying the sensation of his silky skin against my palms. Reece drew my hands back down just as slowly, stopping at the waistband of his pants. My fingers undid the button and I drew his zipper down. He lifted himself up long enough for me to draw his pants and boxer shorts down to his feet. I felt no fright at seeing him completely naked again. I already knew what it felt like to have him inside me and I was eager to feel it again.

  I thought he’d want to get this over with as quickly as possible, but he pulled me forward and kissed me. He pushed my jacket off, undid my harness and dropped them both to the floor. He then slid my shirt upwards with agonizing slowness. Our kiss broke long enough for him to pull my shirt over my head. Then my bra landed on the floor and his hands were cupping my breasts. A sound escaped me that was part moan and part needful sob.

  “Shh,” he whispered in my ear. “I promise I won’t hurt you, Alexis.”

  Turning my head, my mouth met his and we were suddenly devouring each other. The heat inside me flared and I sensed an answering heat inside him. He lifted me up high enough to remove my jeans and underwear then settled me on his lap again.

  He looked into my eyes and his almost seemed to shine in the moonlight that flooded into the car. His expression was almost as hungry as mine as he positioned me over him. Slowly and carefully, he pulled me down until we were fully joined. His eyes widened when he didn’t feel the barrier that he was expecting. “I’m not your first,” he said and sounded almost disappointed by that fact.

  It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that he had been the first man to pierce my body. Instead, I kissed his jaw and he groaned when my breasts brushed against his chest. His hands went to my hips and he lifted me up then drove me back down onto him. I made a startled sound and he froze, worried that he’d hurt me. It wasn’t pain that had made me gasp, but intense pleasure.

  With very little idea of what I was supposed to do, I repeated what he’d just shown me. It grew easier to slide up and down him with practice and the heat inside me escalated with each stroke. Garrett’s entire body was tense and he watched me ride him with wondering eyes. His hands tightened on my hips and I increased my pace.

  Tilting his head back, he moved with me, driving himself in deep and bringing a moan of need from me. Putting my mouth on his shoulder, my teeth sank into him as an orgasm ripped through me and I lost control. Reece held my hips tightly and thrust into me deeply, wresting another, stronger orgasm from me. He shuddered and groaned when he reached his peak.

  With Lust’s command now fulfilled, the fog that had been clouding my mind lifted. I looked down to see our bodies still joined. My eyes shifted to the teeth marks on his right shoulder. A thin trickle of blood ran down his chest. Realizing what I’d just put him through, I gave a low moan of despair then everything blessedly went dark as I lost consciousness.

  Rousing sometime later, I looked through the open door to see Reece standing a few feet away from the car. He was fully clothed and his shoulders were slumped in abject dejection. Just as I’d guessed, he was disgusted that he’d forced himself to have intercourse with me.

  He’d taken the time to dress me as well before laying me down on the seat. I doubted it was from simple kindness. He probably just didn’t want to see me naked for any longer than he’d had to.

  Unable to face his self-disgust, I climbed through to the driver’s seat and started the car. Garrett gave a startled shout when I put my foot down and sped away. The back door slammed shut, muffling his protest.

  I glanced back into the rearview mirror to see him taking his cell phone out of his pocket. He was stranded miles away from the base, but one of the others would be able to pick him up. My face burned as I wondered what excuse he’d come up with to explain why he was on foot.

  Alternately feeling hot and cold, I drove along the unfamiliar road and took a few turns at random. I couldn’t go back to the base now and I didn’t see how I could ever face Reece again. I was supposed to have fallen unconscious and to have no memory of this night, but it was still crystal clear in my mind.

  Sweat beaded on my brow and ran into my eyes. Wiping it away with my sleeve, a tree appeared right in front of me and I swerved to miss it. I stomped on the brake and had to acknowledge that I was in no condition to drive. My fever was back and my vision was blurry.

  Making out a driveway ahead, I slowly nudged the car onto it and parked behind a dilapidated old barn, hiding the car from anyone who might happen by. The burnt remains of a house sat near the barn, but there were no other signs of habitation in the area. Dense woods were beginning to encroach on the property. It was isolated and alone and it suited me just fine in my current state of misery.

  Climbing out of the car, I felt hot again so removed my jacket and tossed it onto the backseat then shut the door. It was fully dark now and the moon was just a faint sliver on the horizon. Watching it slowly rise, I was captivated by its beauty. It seemed to grow closer and closer as it rose until it seemed to be looming directly over me.

  When the moon became fully visible, sudden pain flared inside me everywhere at once. No part of my body escaped from the torment and I screamed in agony as a thousand invisible knives stabbed me. I looked down at my hands when the pain flared even more and saw my fingers swelling and my nails becoming elongated. Something popped in my spine and I hunched over with another screech of pain.

  My clothes became too tight and I frantically toed my sneakers off then tore my jeans and shirt off as well. Feeling my spine with my grotesquely lengthened fingers, I felt knobs on my back that had never been there before. Lurching over to the car, I beheld my reflection in the window and shrieked in terror. Thick black hair had sprouted all over my face and body. I didn’t look like a human anymore, but more like a hideous beast.

  Fresh pain burst through my face as my jaw lengthened into a snout. My gums burned as my teeth grew longer and multiplied. Sobbing in terror, I watched as my face transformed into something from a horror movie. My normally dark brown eyes lightened to gold and glowed eerily. They were strangely familiar and I knew I’d seen a pair just like them recently, but I couldn’t quite remember where.

  Shying away from my reflection, I threw my head back and screamed as my body continued to change into something else. My shriek changed in pitch and volume, becoming guttural and almost poignant. It wasn’t a scream at all now, but a howl.

  With cracks and pops, my body finished its transformation an
d I stood to my new height, towering over the car. Sniffing the air, I detected thousands of scents that I’d never smelled before. One caught my attention and hunger made my stomach cramp. There was an animal nearby that would be able to drive my hunger away.

  Dropping down onto all fours, I loped across the field on much longer feet and entered the woods. My nose led me to prey and I watched from the shadows as a small herd of deer slept in a huddle. My low growl woke them and they froze in terror. Their alarm was exciting and I found I didn’t just want to eat them, I wanted to chase them first. My growl grew louder and they scattered. Choosing my prey, I nipped at its heels, forcing it away from the herd and out into the open. Finally growing bored with the chase, I leaped onto its back and took it to the ground. My teeth closed around its neck, choking off its scream. Blood spurted, my teeth rent tender flesh and I fed deeply until I was full.

  My ears cocked when I heard a howl in the distance. A low growl emerged from my throat and I hunkered over my kill. This was my territory and I would defend it with my life if I had to, even if the call belonged to a creature that I sensed was somehow my kin.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Waking slowly, I stretched and groaned when my body protested at the movement. Everything hurt, including my very bones. Opening my eyes, I was confused when I didn’t see my bedroom. Instead, I was surrounded by a dense fog that almost obscured the trees and grass. A mixture of birch and pine, they didn’t seem familiar this time. Wherever I was, I had a feeling that I wasn’t in the compound. This whole sleepwalking deal was starting to become a serious issue.

  It was just past dawn and the moist air was cool. Instead of being too cold, it felt nice against my skin. Still disoriented, it took me a moment to realize that I was naked. Looking down, I saw a sticky red substance covering my hands and chest. My mind shied away from identifying it, but the smell was too distinctive to deny. I was covered in blood. A metallic aftertaste was in my mouth as well. I swiped the back of my hand across my chin and it came away bloody.