ORDER OF SEVEN (15 page)

Ethan and I talk while he works. I’m amazed he can be so casual and relaxed about drawing something so permanent. Nodin would’ve been a goner, watching this.

“Doesn’t it hurt really bad?” I ask Ethan.

“For sure, but you gotta go to your Zen place.”

I glance at Baron. He looks asleep. “Are you in your Zen place, Baron?”

“Mmhmm,” he says, but he sounds like he’s humming. Ethan and I trade grins.

About two and a half hours later, it’s done and looking amazing.

“Damn, that’s bad to the bone,” Baron says, looking at it in the mirror.

“Thanks, man. Let’s get it wrapped up.” Ethan covers a square of gauze in antibiotic cream and then tapes it over the tattoo. “You know the routine.”

“I do.” Baron replaces his shirt and hands Ethan a wad of cash, thanking him again.

“No worries, man.”

“Nice to meet you, Ethan.” I reach out a hand.

He pushes my hand away and hugs me. “Remember, I get your cherry.”

“How could I forget?” I laugh.

We walk to the Jeep, and it hits me I have Baron alone again, and I’m pretty sure I’m levitating with excitement.

•◊
14
ץ

LIMITS

W
hen Baron starts the Jeep, the time illuminates: ten-forty. Sadness uncoils in my chest. We only have twenty more minutes together. I lace my fingers through his.

“I wish we could hang out longer,” I say.

“Me too.”

We drive in mostly silence and arrive at the hotel just before eleven. Baron parks. “Do you want me to walk you to your room?” he asks.

I shake my head. “That’s okay.”

He brings my hand to his mouth and kisses it. “Thank you again for your help.” We lean toward each other and kiss, soft and sensual. My insides evaporate.

I flinch when my cell rings with the ridiculous tune I assigned to Nodin. “Dammit,” I say before answering, “Yes?”

“Where are you?” Nodin asks.

“We just pulled up, psycho. Relax,” I say with a little more irritation in my voice than I intended. “I’ll be up in a sec.” I hang up on him and grab Baron’s hand. “I don’t want to leave you yet.”

He hesitates, staring at me with dark emerald eyes. “Trust me. I don’t want you to go either.”

“Come up then. Come to my room.”

He shakes his head. “We can’t.”

“We won’t. Just lay with me for a little while. Please. This can’t be all the time we have together for who knows how long.”

“What about Nodin?”

“I’ll take care of Nodin. Just give me a few minutes. I’ll call you when it’s safe to come up.”

“Okay,” he says with a little smile as I leave the Jeep.

I hurry back to my room and call Nodin with the hotel phone so he believes I’m in my room. “I’m back,” I say when he answers.

“How did it go?”

“Great. The tattoo is amazing. It turned out perfect.”

He yawns. “Good. Good.”

“I’m beyond exhausted. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Okay, yeah. I’ll meet you in the lobby at eight. Packed and ready. We have to check out before we pick up Baron.”

“Gotcha. See you then.” I hang up with Nodin, switch my boho top and jeans to yoga pants and a T-shirt and call Baron. “All clear.”

Four minutes later, a soft knock sounds at my door. I open it.

Baron’s eyes never leave mine as he steps inside and softly shuts the door with his heel. He takes my hand and we walk a few steps closer to the bed. “We’re going to be careful,” he says. His hands fall to my hips and pull me against him.

“Just lay with me,” I say, but I can barely convince myself. His lips look so edible and his scent is dizzyingly masculine.

We’re here. Alone. With a bed.

Like a magnetic certainty, our lips come together in a kiss so hot, my yoga pants ignite. I dig my fingertips into his back, hungry for more. He kisses his way to my neck, his rough scruff scratching my skin, ending with a soft bite above my collar bone that sends chills down my spine.

His every sensation and thought permeates my mind, raw and wild. I’m drunk with it.

I pull at fabric and buttons, anxious to explore him, yet he halts my roaming hands more than once. He wants to take his time. While we kiss, his hands move slow and deliberate over my curves, heating my flesh. This is new terrain for me. Nothing like my past experiences, rushed and selfish.

This is intimate.

His thoughts reveal the extent of his feelings for me. It melts my heart, but I can’t help thinking I’ve robbed him of the opportunity to tell me how he feels on
his
terms. I’m weighted with guilt for not being truthful about arcing. I will tell him. But not tonight.

Baron stops and looks at me, brows crushed together with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” I lie. I know I’m shaking. I felt the storm brewing in my aura, but I hoped I could fly under the radar and be okay.

“We should chill.” He glances above me. “Those aren’t good colors, Devi.”

I’m so damn sick of energy being in control. “No. I’m good, I promise.” I lace a hand behind his head and pull his face to mine in another ravenous kiss. He doesn’t resist, but his doubts trickle into my thoughts. He feels responsible for me and is trying to be careful. I feel protected. Cherished, even.

But I don’t want to be careful.

The thundering energy entwined with arousal and sentiment makes it difficult to think straight. Every nerve ending is frayed and humming like a live wire. I burrow my hand under his shirt and feel his hard chest and six-pack.
Lord help me.

He breaks our kiss and checks my aura. “You’re red.” His arms drop to his sides. With reluctance, I do the same. We stand inches apart, eyes locked, breath heavy with want. My heart hammers in my chest and throat. The air between us is alive. Electric.

At last, my energy calms. He cups my face and kisses me again, slow, sensual. I don’t fight the pace this time.
Slow is good,
I remind myself. We have all night.

Bending slightly, he wraps his arms around me and then straightens, lifting me with him. I pull my legs up and around his waist, snug. His simmering eyes bore into mine, pinning me to this moment. He turns to the bed, his hand supporting my back as he lowers me to the sheets.

PAIN.

Shocking, excruciating pain explodes across my chest as I’m hit with a force so titanic, I’m knocked backward onto the bed, taking Baron with me. I clutch my stomach, gasping for the air that’s been slugged right out of my lungs.

Slowly the pressure eases and I realize Baron is next to me, brushing my hair from my face, panicking.

That was beyond anything I’ve ever experienced, beyond cosmic energy. That was pure kinetic force.

“Devi, are you okay?” he asks, more urgent this time.

“I think so.” I inhale deep and touch my chest. It hurts
bad
.

His head collapses forward with relief.

Tears fill my eyes. “What the fuck?”

“You’re okay. You’re okay,” he soothes.

I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand, exhaling slowly. “My energy didn’t do this. What just happened?”

Baron shakes his head. “I think we just saw your limit.”

“What?”

“The energy. It gets blocked and starts to back up, distressing your aura. Clearly, there’s a limit to how much you can tolerate before you blow. That arc of energy could’ve just as easily hit me.”

“That’s just fucking great,” I say.

Baron puts his hand over my chest where I’ve been hit. “Whatever came at you, I heard it.”

“You did?”

“It sounded like a fastball whistling past me and smacking into a glove. Are you sure you don’t have a cracked rib?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never had one.”

“Can you take a deep breath?”

I try. “It hurts, but I can do it.”

“Good, then I don’t think anything’s cracked. Let me see where you were hit.”

I sit up and pull down the neck of my T-shirt, revealing an explosion of black, blue and red covering my entire chest, from the top of my breasts to my collar bone.

“Jesus,” I say, awed. “I look like I’ve been tie-dyed.”

He runs his fingers softly over the bruising and then leans in, leaving a trail of feathery kisses across my angry skin.

“Is this how you run your practice?”

“Most definitely,” he says in a near-whisper.

“If you don’t stop that, I’m gonna get hit with another fastball,” I moan.

He lifts his head, eyes serious, and lays his hand flat over my bruised skin again, pushing slightly, urging me to lie back down. “Stay still for a minute. Take slow breaths.”

“What are you doing?”

“Shhhh.” Concentration relaxes his face as he closes his eyes. His palm feels cool. He holds it there another ten seconds or so and then lifts it, hovering just over my skin.

Warmth spreads over my chest like melted wax. What feels like a full minute goes by before he presses his palm against my skin again, holding it there another minute. I wait, taking slow breaths as instructed. He lifts his hand and opens his eyes. I inspect his work. My skin looks less irritated and the edges of the bruising have begun to yellow, the black nearly gone.

“Damn, that’s insane,” I say, and grin a little despite the severity of the situation.

“Better?” he asks.

I nod.

“Good.” He kisses the top of my head and sits up.

“Are you leaving?”

“No. I don’t want to leave you alone.” He reaches for the hotel alarm clock. “We should try to sleep. I’ll set the alarm.”

“You better set four alarms. If Nodin catches you here, we’re screwed.”

Baron smiles while fidgeting with the buttons, then announces he has set it for five. He turns out the light and crawls into bed.

“Think you can keep your hands off me?” I joke as he lies next to me.

“If it means keeping you safe, yes.”

I snuggle next to him, my head on that perfect nook, just under the shoulder where his arm meets his chest. “How do you do that? The healing thing?”

“Well,” he says, “you have seven energy areas of your body, called chakras. You’ve heard of those, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know exactly what they are.”

He strokes my shoulder while he talks. “They’re the seven energy centers starting at the base of your spine and ending at the top of the head, the crown. They’re responsible for everything. All organ functions, your mental abilities, emotions and intuitions.” The rumbles of his voice against my cheek soothe me.

“Anyway, it gets complicated and probably boring,” he says, “but essentially, when the energy wheels are harmoniously working, so are you. When they’re blocked or disrupted, you’ll start to see breakdowns in your system, depending on which center is most affected.” He pauses. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

“Yes, I promise. It’s interesting,” I say, and mean it. “So, how do you help people whose chakras aren’t in balance?”

“I manipulate the frequency, altering the flow of energy, speeding it, heating it or whatever, depending on the outcome I want. When there’s a physical injury, a minor one like yours, I can do the same thing to get blood flow to the area which speeds the healing process. Does that make any sense?”

“That’s some crazy shit, dude.”

He chuckles. “This coming from someone who channels life energy through trees. Yeah.”

We lie there in silence a few minutes. “Baron?”

“Mmm?”

“What are we gonna do? Seriously.” I reach for his hand, twining my fingers with his. “There was no warning. No way to know that was coming at me.”

“Next time could be worse than bruising.” His chest rises with a deep inhale. “No more playing around.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. “For how long?”

“I don’t know,” he says, in a way I take as indefinitely.

I wince from head to toe.

“Remember what I told you before?” he asks. “About how we’re being led by something bigger than us?”

I nod.

“You have to trust that.” He tilts my chin up and looks into my eyes. “You
have
to.”

I decide to believe him. It’s the only way to keep my sanity.

•◊•◊•

What feels like a blink later, the alarm buzzes. We stretch like sleepy cubs, winding into each other.

“I don’t want you to go,” I whisper against Baron’s neck.

He squeezes me tight. “I don’t either. But if we fall back asleep, we’re toast.”

“You’re right.” I sit up and stretch my arms over my head. “Ouch!” I flinch, pulling my hands down over my chest. “I forgot.”

“You okay?” he asks, inspecting the bruise.

“Yeah, it’s just sore.” And then something occurs to me. “Hey, can’t you do your healing thing with tattoos?”

“I can, but I won’t. I feel like the pain and healing process are part of the ritual. I know it probably sounds weird—”

“No. I get it.”

He does one more healing session on my bruise before leaving. We embrace at the door like we’ll never see each other again, even though it’ll only be a few hours.

After he leaves, I inspect my chest in the bathroom mirror and my mouth falls open when I see nothing but a little red skin.

I yawn and my eyes water. I’m exhausted. It wasn’t easy to sleep while in bed next to Baron.

I try to go back to sleep, but I can’t stop thinking about what happened. I reflect on my old tree in Odessa, then slip out of bed, dig the hematite skull from my suitcase and crawl back in the sheets. I’m asleep in minutes.

•◊
15
ץ

SIBLING RIVALRY

N
odin calls at seven to make sure I’m awake. My body sags with fatigue. I could sleep another eight hours.

I meet him in the lobby with all my things at ten past eight. He tells me I look like hell. I tell him to piss off.

We decide to eat breakfast at the nearest IHOP before picking up Baron for a final round of practice.

Nodin orders coffee, eggs and pancakes. I order orange juice and an English muffin. The waitress brings his coffee, steam rising off the surface. He takes a sip. “Ben called me this morning.”

Terror grips me.
How strong is Ben’s connection with me?
“What did he have to say?”