Dominion 4 - Ascendance (3 page)

No one had called. No one texted. Tears burned my eyes, but I refused to let them go.

After stuffing my bag in the bin, I took the window seat, strapped on the belt, and closed the little flap to the dark outside world. Hopefully I’d get through the four-hour flight without a panic attack. The new book I’d begun earlier in the day was about fallen angels and lifetimes of hard living to find true love. The sex every ten pages or so got old fast, but maybe it could keep my mind off things. Real life was never filled with that much sex, no matter how much I wanted it to be. Sigh.

The time passed quickly. I finished the first book and began another before arrival was announced. After flipping up the little shade, I stared out at the bright lights of Los Angeles. From this angle it looked a lot like the Twin Cities, with the exception of the dark stretch that seemed to be the ocean in the distance. I hoped there would be trees, grass, blooming flowers, and lively critters to make me feel like I was whole again.

The plane landed without incident. I followed the trickle of passengers to the exit, my little yellow bag in tow. There were several taxis hanging around, but I didn’t have an address. Maybe I could call the lawyer again? I was beat, more emotionally than physically. I could just go to a hotel for the night.

“Mr. Rou?” a voice asked.

I turned to blink at a young man with brown hair and pale-blue eyes. He looked like the kid of a movie star, breathtaking in that too-beautiful-to-be-real way. “Yes?”

He held out his hand. “Timothy Merth. Charles was my dad. Jonathon said you were coming, and I told him I’d take you to the house. I’m sure you’re tired.”

I shook his hand. He felt normal enough. “Okay.” Perhaps he’d tell me a little more on the way.

“My car’s over here.” He motioned us away from the cabs and across to the parking lot and his Chevy Malibu. He put my bag in the backseat and opened the passenger door before I could get there.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” He handed me a business card after he

got inside and started the car. “Call me if you need anything. My work is sort of sporadic, so I’m usually available.”

“Mr. Odagiri said something about the estate?” I prodded. He drove us out of the airport lot, paid the parking fee, and headed toward a highway and the lights of the city.

“Yes. That is where I’m taking you now. It will be yours if you sign the papers. It was your dad’s, but he left it in my dad’s keeping. He really should have handed it over to you a few years ago, when you turned twenty-one.”

Right, his dad had just died, shit. “I’m sorry about your dad.”

Timothy shrugged. “We weren’t close. I know he cared about me, and I cared about him, but he was never really there, so it’s not much different. You know what I mean?”

Sounded like my mom. “Yeah.”

“So anyway, the estate is a really big house on about two acres of land. It’s probably a mess, so let me know if you need to hire cleaners or something to help you. There’s a pretty big trust account to help with the maintenance. You could turn it into a bed-and-breakfast or sell it for a pretty good profit.”

“No one lives there?”

“No. My dad lived alone for years, pretty much confined to just a few rooms. In fact, I think your dad’s rooms are the way he left them. My dad didn’t like others around him much. He had some paranoia issues.”

Maybe my emotional problems came from my dad’s side of the family. Did that mean it was just going to get worse? “How did your dad pass, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Heart attack.”

“I’m sorry.” It was never easy to lose people you knew, whether you liked them or not. “Do you know why my dad didn’t leave my older brother the house?”

“He gave Jamie money. Your dad was always generous with that. Maybe he just thought you were better suited to the house.”

I sighed internally. What would I do with the house? Sell it, probably. I couldn’t see needing a home in California. As much as I grumbled, Minnesota was my home, four seasons and all. Maybe I could spend some time learning about my dad before I left it all behind.

At least here the earth pulsed strong and awake. Sure, many trees had lost their leaves, but the grass was still green and bushes bloomed. Maybe that’s why my dad had lived out here. The distance made me wonder how he and my mom met.

I already missed Gabe, had been missing him for weeks, in fact. But I didn’t dare open the link between the two of us; no telling how he’d react. I didn’t want him to be mad. He did this silent stewing kind of anger he’d let build up until he could get away. I never knew where he went and what he did to get out his anger. When he came back he’d be calmer, sometimes talk about what had been bothering him. Most of the time, he said nothing until I pointed out my own mistake and tried to fix it. I just wanted him to miss me a little. Making our relationship work would be so much easier if he’d just talk to me.
We pulled up to a gate that had probably been blackpainted metal at one time. Now it was overgrown with thick ivy and dark branches. The house beyond towered through the trees in glimpses of windows and pale-beige stucco. The trees loomed as large as the house. The overgrown grass that bent over the path made me cringe and was reminiscent of a dying cornfield before the harvest. The smell of fallen leaves and dirt comforted me a little. The earth had really gone wild here. If this was the outside, how bad would the inside be?

Timothy held out a ring of keys for me. “Big one is for the gate. The small one with the red ending is for the main door. The power and water is on, but I don’t know how livable it is. I haven’t been inside in years. Do you want me to take you to a hotel for now?”

I took the keys from him and stared at the house, wondering what sort of secrets about my family it held. Had my dad known how difficult my life would be? Would he still love me now if he could see how incredibly fucked up I’d become? “I’d like to stay here, I think.”

“You’ll need food for sure. There’s a 24-hour grocery store just up a couple of blocks. You want me to drive you there and back?”

“I’ll Google a pizza place on my phone if I get hungry. Thanks for the ride, Timothy.”

 

He smiled at me, jumped out, and got my bag out of the backseat. “Don’t forget to call me if you need anything.”

“I won’t, thanks.” I stepped up to the gate, unlocked it, and pushed it far enough for me to squeeze inside before shutting it again. Timothy waited only a few more seconds before taking off. I turned toward the house, which looked more than a little spooky in the dark. The earth that surrounded it and grew up around it in wild patches told me it was free of human life. The power here was strong, beyond anything I’d felt before, but contained, waiting, it almost seemed like, for something to release it.

I sent a thought out to any critter kinds who might have made the house home, asking them politely to vacate. No need to hire exterminators. Animals gladly moved on when nudged. When I opened the door, the eerie creak reminded me of a horror movie. Stupid overactive brain.

Using my cellphone as a flashlight, I searched the walls until I found a light switch. When light flooded the main foyer, I stood in awe. This put my mom’s house to shame. The wide-open area housed a large oak tree. The leaves had fallen, scattered around the scarred wood and tile floor and the staircase that curved around it to the second level. But the trunk was wide enough around to look like one of those ancient trees you could drive a car through. Branches stretched across the room and around corners into other areas.

I touched the base and let the power wash through me. Peace, utter, nondisruptable peace. The tree napped, the earth telling me it was time for most trees to rest and renew. My watch beeped 3:00 a.m., and I figured I should probably sleep too.

I carefully made my way upstairs, opening doors, revealing a mass of rooms, one after another. This place wasn’t a house, it was a mansion. At the end of the hall to the left, a door made me pause. The faded old sign on it read:

Peace to all who enter, in heart, spirit, and soul.
—Dorien

The black ink was faded, but the scrawl still had an elegant flair. My dad wrote this. Was this his bedroom? I opened the door, found the light, and stared at the room. Sadly it didn’t appear much different than any of the other rooms I’d passed. My bright yellow bag stood out as modern and loud compared to the very traditional furniture.

A little red bug that looked like a large ladybug landed on the bag and crawled around a bit. The dust made me sneeze a dozen times. The bug didn’t move. I wondered how it had gotten inside, but I opened the window and carefully let it crawl into my hand so I could let it outside. The damn thing bit me before it flew out into the darkness toward an overgrowth of weeds in the back of the house. Obviously not a ladybug, then. Must have been an Asian beetle or something. At least with the window open, the soft breeze eased the musty smell of the house.

The bed was already stripped of linens, but covered with a dust cloth. I carefully peeled it back, then dug in all the closets until I came across sheets that didn’t smell like they’d been put away for years, and made the bed. The bathroom needed dusting too but was otherwise clean.

I stripped out of my clothes and slid into bed, too tired to think about anything else. Sleepiness took over even while I missed Gabe’s arms around me. Some adventures just weren’t lollipops and rainbows, and that was okay. I closed my eyes and let sleep take the self-doubt away.

Chapter 4

I
STROLLED
through an unfamiliar garden, not remembering how I’d found my way there to begin with. Flowers bloomed in some Wonderland mystery, towering above my head. The sound of water flowing nearby relaxed me to the very core of my being. Bugs as large as me passed, ignoring me in favor of their work. The ground beneath my feet shifted like freshly turned soil, yet I seemed to float over it without stumbling.

Wandering through the towering flowers, I watched the sky’s dark-blue light weave between the giant blossoms and leaves. It changed to day gradually, like a slow-moving picture. The world spun as though it were moon free, restrictive magnetic waves gone. The change could have taken me at any moment, only I feared I’d trample some of the divine growth, so I fought it. Everything glowed with power, life, and strength. I used the light of the blooms above to guide my way, though I had no idea where I was headed.

“Lost?” a masculine voice asked me.

I jumped back a step and looked around until I found a man leaning against the large stalk of an overgrown daisy. He almost seemed to blend in with the stem, though his skin was a pale cinnamon tone and his hair blood red. He wore only a pair of loose-fitting pants of some soft material that clung in places I was sure it had to be cheating to look at. His arms, shoulders, and chest were defined like a man who worked out regularly but not obsessively. His stomach was flat, with only the faintest outline of muscles, which led to straight hips, a nicely outlined package, and long legs.

“Like what you see, Alice?” he teased, forcing my eyes back up. His smile was bright. He shook his head, sending a cascade of his long red hair rippling down his back like some shampoo commercial.

“Alice?” I couldn’t help but study his face, triangular in shape. It bordered on beautiful with just the slight edge of handsome that saved him from really looking like a woman. His dark eyes, framed by a soft fringe of lashes, met mine without hesitation. Somehow I’d gotten closer to him, just feet away.

“Like the story. The little girl who got lost in a forest of oversized adventures.” He shifted and closed the distance between us. “I don’t think my ‘drink me’ potion is going to make you bigger than the flowers, but I’m sure I can show you a good time.” He looked to my crotch. “Maybe it
will
make you a little bigger. Temporarily, at least.”

His words hit me like a rush of lust. My body tingled and responded, cock hard enough to hurt, nipples taut and sensitive, heart pounding. He wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me against him. His lips touched my cheek. I should have been pissed that he’d just called me a girl, but none of that seemed to matter while touching him felt like being wrapped up in the earth on a warm summer day. Nothing had ever been so perfect.

His fingers wove through my hair, which was somehow long again, but weightless. He didn’t try for more, just stared me in the eye, breathing my breath, offering his to me. “What is it you long for the most, little Alice?”

“My name’s not Alice,” I whispered, afraid to break whatever sort of bond we had. “It’s Seiran.” Would he kiss me? What would he do if I kissed him? Nothing mattered at that moment but how I needed to settle in him. Just like the earth, he was wound completely through my soul.

“Hmm,” he mumbled, nuzzling my cheek with his bowshaped lips. “Never had one like you. So strong. What do you long for, Seiran?” He repeated his question, my name sounding both foreign and heavenly on his lips.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

He pressed his hips into my stomach. He was only a few inches taller than me, but everything about him seemed larger than the world. My cock ground into his thigh. A sigh escaped my lips as he gripped my ass. For the first time I realized I wore the same thing he did, just a soft pair of pants with no shirt. My hair was piled on top of my head in some odd updo that left the length of the back to tumble free and loose. I reached out to touch the black curls. They felt like silky darkness and my hand glowed with a pale inner light. What the hell?

I looked back to the red-haired man. “Who are you? What are you?”

His smile was sincere. He spoke, but I couldn’t hear him. The night from above turned into brightness so harsh it blocked out everything else.

The sun shining through the window brought me awake like a flower opening for the first time. I stretched, rolled over, and basked in the luminosity of the morning sun for a while. Instead of waking up with a hard-on due to the erotic dream, I felt rested and satisfied. Odd.

The digital clock beside the bed, though ancient, still seemed to work; it read just after 7:00 a.m. Was it all a dream? Never in my life had I dreamt something so real. I could almost still feel his heat, recall the scent of his breath and the power on my skin.