Meadow's Keep (The Gatekeepers Series) (36 page)

“Yes. Very much.” She stopped long enough to take a sip of the black coffee Eryk had set in front of her. “
About everything,” she added.

“
Are you all right?” Teresa’s question edged toward the less talked about.

Jasmine knew what she meant. She looked at Eryk and knowing
how attuned his hearing was, there was no way, no matter where she sent him, that he wouldn’t hear her. “I’m fine. I think Eryk thought my problem when I was crouched next to the tub was a flashback from the attack by Rob or what had just happened between us. To be honest with you, other than right at the beginning—and I really think that was more my expecting it than it happening—I haven’t had any problems separating the attack and rape from what’s going on with Eryk.” She used the words rape and attack because Dr. Browne had told her that using the word rape, not just attack, vocalized it. At first, it had been difficult. This time it came out as a word, without the anger.

Jasmine turned the question around.
“How are you doing? Really.”

“I’m sad. Bill and I spent a lot of years together. You completed our little family. He was a good husband and father. A little strange
, mind you, but a good man.” She laughed at her own joke—a descendant calling another descendant strange.

His reclusiveness had become more and more difficult in the last few years
. Jasmine now wondered if he might have known things about himself that he wasn’t willing to share, even with family.

“We’ll have a big memorial
as soon as I make sure Lily is safe,” Jasmine promised.

“You do what you must. I’m fine. You
r next priority, of course, will be Morgan and Dorian. She’s big as a house and about ready to pop. Don’t tell her I said that,” she chuckled.

“I won’t. Thanks, Teresa. I love you.”

“I love you, too, we’an.” Teresa threw in a bit of brogue around her Scottish endearment. “I just want to make sure Eryk takes good care of my girl.”

Before she could answer, Eryk called out, “I will. Count on it.”

Chapter Fifteen

Slipping the phone back in her pocket, Jasmine took a large gulp of lukewarm coffee before turning to Eryk.
When she did, he was within arm’s length and looked so hot she felt her own temperature rise. The shower had left his black hair with an errant wave that hung just above his brow, giving him a devil-may-care look. His green eyes moved from her eyes to her mouth and remained fixed there. She couldn’t help but lick her lips. In one swift motion, he had her by her arms and pulled her forward, his mouth crushing down on hers. She thought she would drown in the taste of him. Parting her lips, she invited him to share his intensity, which sent them both into overdrive. Mouths and hands moved all over one another. The air sizzled with their lust. He was yanking her sweater up when her phone went off.

Jasmine leapt back and pulled down her sweater, then pulled the offending instrument from her jeans pocket.
She glanced at it. Bask. She answered and watched Eryk stick his head under the running faucet, at first taking a drink, then just letting the water splash over his head.

“Yeah,” she tried to sound sedate, but the sight of Eryk put a chuckle in her voice.

“I just got off the phone with Teresa,” he began. “Look, if this is too difficult for you, I can send in another team.”

Jasmine frowned. Just how long had she an
d Eryk been going at each other. “No.” She waited, hoping he would give her a hint.

“I know you’ve never done this sort of thing. Teresa said it could be damn intense.”

“Yeah….”
To say the least.
She felt the drops of water hit her as Eryk shook his hair, having dried it with a paper towel.

“We don’t have a lot on psychometry—”

“Ohhhh…” Jasmine laughed. He wasn’t talking about their sex drive, thank God. “No. We’ll be fine. We really haven’t had a chance to go through the entire place, yet.” She felt her face flush. They hadn’t gotten out of the kitchen.

“Okay. Call me when you have.” He hung up.

“Does that man ever sleep?”

“I woke him once. That may be the only time I’ve ever known him to actually be asleep.”

When he took a step forward, she held up her hand. “Apparently, you still reek of truffle. Stay away or we won’t get anything done. I’m going to guzzle coffee. You go in the great room and see if you can pick up anything. Take one side and I’ll take the other. If we get something, the other person can try. THEN,” she almost shouted the word, “and only then, we’ll try touching it together.”

“How long does this last?” He said as he walked toward the
great room.

“A lifetime.” She replied to his back.

He stopped dead in his tracks and laughed. “S-w-eet!”

They went around the room twice. Nothing affected them like in the bathroom upstairs, or the back door knob. She grew impatient as frustration seeped in. Lily was somewhere but they didn’t have a clue where. She didn’t know if what she’d felt upstairs what Lily or someone else.

“I have an idea. There are some clothes upstairs that I would bet are Lily’s. Let’s go see what we get off them. Then we’ll have something to judge other readings by.”

“Sounds good to me. How are you feel
ing?”

“Better. I have a terrible headache but I do
n’t feel nearly as horny.”

“Darn. Remind me to buy some truffles down the road.”

Jasmine smirked. “Yeah, right.” She brushed past him, letting her body touch his as she passed, just to let him know she could. She didn’t let it show that the current that flashed through her was so intense it almost made her stumble.

Upstairs, Jasmine pulled open the closet doors. “These look like her style and about her size.
” She ran her hand over one of the tops. The sensation was very faint. “I need to find something that she liked to wear. Try to find something worn looking.”

Eryk moved to the dresser while Jasmine
kept going through the closet. “Hey,” he called, removing the lid to a wicker basket. Think I found a laundry hamper.” He reached in and pulled out an oversized KISS T-shirt. “Got something.”

Jasmine moved over to him and reached for the
T-shirt. With him still holding it, the moment she touched it, the sensation was immediate and strong. Although she hadn’t experienced this ability when she worked with Lily, she knew instinctively it was Lily. That sweet teenage enthusiasm filled her body. She pulled the garment away from Eryk and hugged it to her. The feelings weakened, until it was just a faint sensation.

“Damn, I’m gonna need you to do this.”

“Hey, I love you, too.” He said it as a joke but it stopped them both. He put everything he had into dampening his energy, having no idea if it would work for this, and cupped her face in his hands. “Listen,” he said softly, looking into her eyes. “Once we’ve got Lily, we’ll talk. I care about you. Really care. Not just the sex—which, by the way is beyond great—but the connection. It’s going to be all right.” He saw the worry sweep across her obsidian eyes and disappear. “Stop worrying. Trust me.” He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her mouth, then moved back. It took everything he had to move back that one step.

“What say you
we rummage through some dirty laundry?” With that, he lifted up the hamper and dumped the small pile of clothing on the floor.

She was still smiling as the both knelt and felt each piece, making sure they touched each garment together.
A big, fuzzy robe held the most energy. The turmoil set Jasmine back on her heels. There was anger and pain and sadness all rolled into one big glob of energy. It
had
been Lily sitting on the side of that tub. Jasmine felt tears well in her eyes and brushed them away. Someone had physically hurt her. She might not have been wearing the robe when it happened but she’d had it on shortly afterward. There was no energy other than Lily’s on the garment.

Jasmine threw everything back into the hamper. “We need to search the other rooms.
” Angry now, she headed to the master bedroom. If Lily’s father had caused the injuries she’d seen….

They went through Porter Greeson’s closet and chest of drawers. There was nothing of his in the hamper. They didn’t get anything except sadness and confusion.
He’d definitely been ill, but he wasn’t violent.

They assumed the other closet held Beverly
Greeson’s clothes. Jasmine recognized the couture immediately—Chanel, Dior, Lauren, Givenchy. Only faint sensations, even with Eryk holding the same piece. There was sadness, frustration, and fear.

They moved on
to the one other room that held anything. This had to be Morna’s room—the elusive stepsister. Jasmine threw open the closet and took a cursory glance. The clothing was expensive but erratic. Where Beverly’s was top couture and reserved, Lily’s had been fresh and young, and as expected, experimental. Here was chaos. Wild colors, or gray and brown. Expensive, then something from Walmart. She reached in and grabbed a funky sweater. It was all she could do to hold on. Vibrations ran up her arm, manically slamming a myriad of emotions into her. When Eryk touched the same garment, everything intensified. She would have fallen had Eryk not caught her.

“Shit!”
The force of her unexpected fall shoved him back until they were on the bed with Jasmine sitting between his legs.

“I know this isn’t the time, but you smell really good,” he said into her neck.

For an instant, she leaned back into him. His arm came around her and he brushed the sweater. The same violent chaos rushed through them.

“Damn,” he whispered.

Jasmine started to get up.

“No.” He held her in place. “Don’t move. I’m getting an image
.”

Jasmine froze and held onto the sweater, trying not the feel the heat from his groin against her butt. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. All she got was chaos. “What do you see?”

He stood, nearly dumping her from his lap and grabbed her arm, looking around the room. Still holding Jasmine, he moved to the dresser and stooped over the side. Leaning against the side of the dresser was a riding crop. He picked it up and put part of it in Jasmine’s hand. The anger and hatred took her breath away.

“The woman who owns this beat the crap out of Lily, using the wrong end.”

“You can see it? How?”

“I don’t know. It’s like I’m looking through her eyes. I can see the
whip and Lily in the doorway, her arms crossed in front of her face in defense. The person with the whip has an issue with uncontrolled fury.”

Jasmine broke
the contact. She ran her hand through her hair. “How are we going to find Lily? There has to be something here that will give us a clue.” She rushed to the desk sitting in front of the window. It had papers piled all over the top and crammed in the drawers. She took one side and Eryk took the other. He stood, staring at a piece of paper.

“Didn’t Bask say Porter Greeson was in a place in Sweden?”

“Yeah. What have you got?”

“I’m not sure. But it’s got a place listed and two phone numbers,
one scratched through.”

Jasmine grabbed the piece of paper and pulled out her phone. This time she pulled a “Bask.” Barely waiting until he answered, she started feeding him the information.

“Anything else?”

“I don’t know. Eryk had a vision of a woman beating Lily with the wrong end of a riding crop.
"

“I’ll look into this. You keep looking.” He hung up.

“Did you see a computer anywhere?” Eryk asked.

“In the office downstairs.
” They both headed downstairs. This time she got sensations from the handrail, but they were confused, mussed together. Still, she was getting more and more. Maybe there was a learning curve. She ran into the office and turned on the desktop tower. Waiting for it to come up, they looked through the desk drawers. They were neat, with not much in them. This was not the office Greeson used for business.

Eryk sat in front of the screen
, his fingers flying. Screen after screen popped up. “No good,” he said, “she’s wiped all her history.”

Behind him, Jasmine turned on the printer. It came to life and sh
ot out a page, blank except with a line of printed information at the bottom. The date was four days ago. She handed it to Eryk.

“Call Bask. Have him
contact the ISP. She was looking for something.”

Jasmine had him on
the phone before Eryk finished and hung up almost as quickly. “He’ll get back to us.” She started pacing, nibbling on her thumbnail. “I don’t think she had Lily here. But you get visions of her.” She paced some more, stopped and turned to him.

Eryk watched as she moved back and forth. He could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. Even distracted, worrying her nail as she did, she was a study in fluid grace.
He could feel the energy pouring off her—the anguish for Lily and the natural sensuality that was Jasmine. Just watching her made his jeans tighten uncomfortably.

“What?” She cocked her hea
d and studied his face. Her eyes focused on his. “Oh. Concentrate, will you?”

“Trust me, I am.” He smiled at her.

“On the task at hand.” Then she narrowed her eyes, daring him to comment. “Let’s try the control thing for the garage door. Or, the back door again. I want to see if we can…you can see something more.”

“Good idea.”

The door to the garage was off the kitchen and, sure enough, there was a box on the wall. They stood close to one another, fighting the current racing through them as they both put fingers on the button. Jasmine watched Eryk close his eyes and weave slightly. Sensation after sensation rushed through her. Anger, determination, joy. The last one baffled her. It didn’t fit with the others, yet it did.

“What do you see?”

“There’s some sort of perverse happiness going on. She—I’m assuming it’s Morna—has a piece of paper in her hand and a backpack or something.” He moved his hand to the door knob. Jasmine followed. “She opened the door. I can see the garage door going up. I’m looking at a silver SUV.”

“Can you see the license plate?”

“No. She moved too fast. She’s tossing the backpack in the back. Getting in the vehicle and getting ready to leave. I think she’s headed to the first place we went. But, that’s just a feeling. She’s excited. Whatever it is, she’s definitely chosen a course of action and I don’t like what I’m feeling. I think she’s mad. As in crazy mad.”

Jasmine pulled back her hand. Her gut twisted. All she could think of was Rob and the madness that had overcome him
, precipitating the attack on her. Yet, Rob wasn’t connected to Ruthorford, except that he’d been hired by a descendant to study the portal. His madness came from contact with the Gulatega. Descendants weren’t affected by them. From the picture she’d seen, Morna was a descendant, with abilities. A mad descendant? She suddenly questioned whether Ian had been crazy. Morgan and Dorian had said he was dying and desperate when he’d kidnapped Morgan. They also said that the illness that took Bill had similar symptoms. Was there a connection? Would Bill have gone mad?