Do not look back at him.
He was watching her. She knew it. The urge to glance over her shoulder consumed every thought, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction.
He’s telepathic.
She stumbled on a hidden rock embedded in the grass. She’d inherited the gift from her mum and had never met anyone else with that talent.
Not that it was something she’d ever asked anyone. The last thing she’d wanted as a kid was to draw any more unwanted attention to herself. It was hard enough being known as the daughter of the village’s eccentric environmentalists without her classmates accusing her of being a witch and reading their minds. Or an alien. She’d always known of her unique heritage and that she could never share her secret with anyone. And yet she’d always craved to find someone who understood.
Like that would ever happen.
Her obsession with genetics had been the driving force for the last four years while she’d been at Uni studying for her BSc in interdisciplinary physics and biochemistry. The lectures analyzing quantum mechanics had been fascinating but ultimately frustrating, since they offered no concrete answers.
But none of her research, either academic or personal, had concluded telepathy actually existed in humans on this Earth.
Her mum used to love telling her stories about her own home. A world that seemed so similar to this, and yet at some point during their evolution, their DNA had gone in a different direction. People communicated telepathically as easily as they spoke aloud, and her mum found it strange that on Earth nobody ever did.
It was just one of the many reasons why she’d desperately wanted to find her mother’s people. After all, it wasn’t as though she was attempting to access a purely theoretical world. Half of her DNA originated from that world. Her fingers tightened around the silver photo frame she’d hoped—unscientifically—would be a talisman in her quest today.
Could it really be coincidence that the day she put her years of research into practice, she finally met someone who was telepathic? Shouldn’t she at least ask him about it, instead of backing off because he was so damn hot and out of her league?
That’s not why I left him. Anyone who thought it perfectly acceptable to invade a mind without asking first was a total wanker. She was probably the first person who’d ever called him on it.
Slowly, she turned, and he was still sprawled on the grass, watching her. The sunlight dazzled her, and for an eternal second, she could have sworn he was surrounded by a glowing aura.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she blinked a couple of times to clear her vision. His gaze remained fixed on her, and there was a satisfied smile on his face, as if he’d never doubted she would retrace her steps.
Ego, much? She had the ridiculous urge to turn her back on him again, to prove she wasn’t spellbound by his magical eyes, breathtaking body, or lethal sexual magnetism.
Good plan. That would show him.
She took a couple of steps toward him before she even realized.
Whether he was telepathic or not was a side issue. She still had no idea how he’d suddenly appeared from nowhere. But what was more baffling was the fact he didn’t seem at all fazed by it.
Any of it.
An uneasy shiver snaked along her arms. Maybe her experiment had somehow dragged him here. The question was—from where?
Was that terrifying shaking on the astral planes my fault?
“Did you forget something?” he said, mockery dripping from each word.
She was standing right next to him. When had that happened? His mesmeric eyes ensnared her, and her knees had the alarming urge to wobble. Maybe she’d just sit down beside him and forget about his annoying arrogance. All she really wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and kiss his beautiful mouth.
Focus. She wasn’t falling for his deadly charm, remember? Even if her damn feet hadn’t got the memo to keep her distance. She’d keep this impersonal and to the point. Who was he and what did he know about telepathy?
“I need to know what happened. You’re the first person outside of my family I’ve met with telepathic ability.”
He didn’t answer, but his gaze smoldered. The oxygen evaporated from her lungs and she sucked in a ragged breath, which didn’t help with the whole breathing thing.
How could he turn her blood to liquid fire with just one look? He must have had plenty of practice. She’d die before she let him know how much he affected her.
He didn’t answer her, either. What a surprise. Except she hadn’t asked him a question, had she?
Bugger.
She tried again. “Do you know any other telepaths?”
Silence stretched between them, as though he was weighing up options. She held her breath, which was ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it. Was she finally going to discover there was a whole secret society of people just like her?
Get real. How likely was that? Then again, how likely was anything that had happened this morning?
And then he spoke. “Is all your family telepathic?”
It was the second time he’d avoided answering her question. But maybe it was because, like her, he’d never talked about it with a stranger before?
Somehow, she found that explanation hard to believe, but she’d give him the benefit of the doubt. “No. Just my mum. What about you?”
His grin was mirthless and didn’t reach his eyes, but the feral danger that radiated from him was so damn sexy she almost melted. “I was fostered.”
“I’m sorry.” Wait, was that the right response? “I mean, you never knew your parents?” Am I digging this hole deeper, or what?
“I didn’t say that.”
It was obvious he didn’t want to talk about it. He probably thought she was being a nosy bitch. After all, there was no way he could know how much this meant to her.
“I’m trying to work out if the fact we’re both telepathic is the reason you ended up here.”
That possibility had sounded so much more feasible inside her head. She should’ve left it there.
Her fingers curled around her butterfly necklace. It had been specially commissioned six years ago, an extravagant eighteenth birthday present from her parents, but for the first time its familiar touch didn’t give her any brilliant ideas. The smirk on his face didn’t help, either.
“Doubtful.” With that dismissive response, he stood, and her mouth dried. He towered over her, and raw, sexual, power charged the air like invisible lightning. He rolled his shoulders, and she tried not to ogle his magnificent biceps as they flexed beneath his shirt.
Fail.
It wouldn’t be long before the locals were out, and while she didn’t care if they saw her with the most spectacular man in existence, it would also prompt a flood of questions. No way did she want him telling them about the astral planes, or his version of events.
Whatever his version might be, since he still hadn’t deigned to tell her anything.
She had to get him back to the house. Maybe he’d be more cooperative there.
And that’s the only reason you want to take him back home?
“So, how about that cup of tea?” She took a backward step in the desperate hope it might help clear the lust drenched fog in her brain. It didn’t. “We can work out what just happened.”
Just shut up. She was making a total prat of herself, and he obviously agreed, since his delicious mouth quirked as though he was trying not to laugh.
She swallowed a defeated groan and walked away from him. Unfortunately, his lethal magnetism was just as strong even when she wasn’t looking at him.
“This way.” She gave a vague wave of her hand but managed not to glance over her shoulder to see if he was following or not. It was up to him, but at least she’d made the effort to help and not left him stranded.
Stop with the guilt. This wasn’t her fault. Coincidences, even inexplicable ones, happened all the time.
Gabe
It was the second time she’d walked away from him. He couldn’t figure out why he was watching her cute butt, instead of getting his own ass out of here. Sure, she had a smart mouth he found oddly fascinating, and he conceded it was intriguing that she didn’t fall at his feet. And he’d give a lot to study the unique construct of her telepathic web.
But she was only a mortal.
He exhaled an impatient breath and turned his back on her. He appeared to be in a meadow, and an expanse of woodland greeted him. It grated his nerves that he could still see the beauty on Earth. But then, it wasn’t the planet he despised.
Just its human inhabitants.
An alien crackling filled his head, sending streaks of fire along his arms. Ancient dread gripped his chest, and he froze as disbelief thudded through his brain.
Not happening. Not here, not now. Let me be wrong.
Slowly, he turned, even though it went against every primitive survival instinct. Unholy terror slammed through him as his worst fears were confirmed. Suspended a couple of feet from the ground, a jagged, violet fracture, like static lightning, split reality.
It was the gateway into a hell he never wanted to see again. The twisted realm of the self-styled Guardians, misbegotten creatures whose species went back a billion years to the sunrise of time itself. Their hatred of every lifeform that had evolved after them was absolute.
And Aurora stood in front of the rapidly expanding fissure, mesmerized, unaware of the phenomena’s significance, as the grass around the gateway withered and died.
“Get away from there.” His voice was harsh, but she didn’t move, and the primal imperative to leave right now thundered through every atom of his being.
It didn’t matter if she ran. The Guardians had singled her out. She would be taken.
He couldn’t interfere. It went against ancient protocols, the bedrock of the tenuous peace that existed between every living creature in the universe—and those perverted miscreants of nature. Aberrations, whose only pleasure was to torture their captives in order to satisfy their sick craving to soak in a mortal’s terror.
Unease slithered through him. The Guardians were random in their pickings, but was it possible they’d zeroed in on Aurora because they sensed she had been in contact, knowingly or not, with Mephisto?
With me?
He couldn’t save her. There was nothing he could do, yet he was by her side before he knew it. “Aurora.”
“Stay back.” Her voice was hoarse with fear and her arm swung out, hitting his chest, the gesture one of instinctive protectiveness.
Shock slashed through him and he forgot about the Guardians, forgot about the dark energy seeping from the fracture. This fragile human had just attempted to push him from the face of danger.
No one pushed him from the face of danger. It had been millennia since anyone had cared enough to even try.
She had no idea he didn’t need her protection, or that even if they wanted to, the Guardians couldn’t touch him. She didn’t know who he was, and she didn’t care about him, but she’d still tried to keep him safe.
A strange, acidic fire scorched his chest. She didn’t deserve the fate that awaited her, just because she’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Fuck ancient protocols. He wouldn’t stand by and let a mortal who had tried to save him be taken by the universe’s worst nightmare. Some humans deserved it. But not this one.
He wrapped his arm around her and dragged her against his chest. There was only one place he could be sure that they would never find her.
His sanctuary.