A digital frame sat on my dresser, the photographs changing every few seconds. One showed my mother laughing, then another of her with a baby with a mop of red hair. Me? I lifted it up and studied the pictures. I must have received Valafar’s present.
Mom appeared happy in the photographs. Valafar too. In fact, they looked like normal, doting parents. Not that I knew anything about regular parents. Grampa had raised me by himself and he was a demon hunter.
Putting the frame back, I pulled the dagger from its sheath and placed it on the bed.
It didn’t move. It usually obeyed me.
Extending my hand toward it, I recited the words I used when I’d first commanded the dagger.
Nothing. My dagger, the most feared and coveted Nephilim weapon, just sat there like an ordinary kitchen knife, the link between us gone.
Refusing to panic, I moved on to my other abilities. Placing the computer chair at the other end of the room, I stepped back. Just a small lightning bolt to melt the leather seat, something Remy could fix later, I told myself.
Several large bolts appeared from thin air, zipped across the room and incinerated the chair with a blinding explosion, leaving behind a giant hole on my bedroom floor. Oh, crapola. That was too easy and over the top.
A pounding came from the front door, causing me to jump. A psi scan told who my visitors were—Security Team. I raced to answer the door. A man and woman stared at me with scowls. “Yes?”
“The psi-dar detected an energy surge in your house, Cardinal Lil,” the man said. “Is everything okay?”
My face warmed, but I tried to give them a relaxed smile. “Oh yeah. I had a little accident, that’s all.”
“Do you need our help?” the woman asked.
Then the entire enclave would know about it. I didn’t think so. “No, thanks. It’s nothing. Really. I already took care of it.”
They didn’t look convinced, but nodded and apologized for disturbing me, then left. Exhaling, I closed the door and headed back to my bedroom. For a moment, I just studied the charred carpet. I could see the guest room under my bedroom through the gaping hole. Those were some serious bolts. Giggling, I mentally checked off energy abilities.
Moving on, I lifted things around the room, starting with lighter then moving to heavier objects until I finished with my bed. Once again, the entire exercise was effortless. All my abilities were heightened, but my connection with the dagger was gone. It didn’t make sense.
I got a wad of sticky notes from my desk drawer and quickly scribbled what I could and couldn’t do, how many months of my memories were gone. On the last pad, I added what I’d told Izzy word for word. Just in case I met the same demons and more of my memories got erased, I’d have these notes for reference.
Feeling better, I went to my closet to get a fresh towel. As I turned to reenter my room, the box tucked away on the top shelf caught my attention.
Instead of heading to the showers, I grabbed it and sat on the lounge. Two manila envelopes were wedged between layers of white packaging foam. A memory teased me, but it disappeared fast, before I could grasp it. I pulled from the last envelope pictures of me with my parents. They were the same pictures that were on the digital frame on my dresser.
I reached for the second envelope. It had VHS tapes inside, which explained the VHS player. Popping one in, I pressed play and watched, smiling at some of my antics, frowning at the others. I was a healthy baby with riotous red hair. Who would have guessed Valafar loved to read to me when I was a baby? But my favorite part was when he videotaped me asleep in my mother’s arms while she read. She had a beautiful voice, yet I couldn’t remember hearing her voice before or watching these movies.
“Hey,” Bran said from my bedroom doorway. In his hand were my beach bag and flip-flops. “I brought your stuff.”
“Thanks.” I pressed the remote control to pause the replay as he dropped the colorful bag by the door and met him across the room. He still wore his swim trunks and no T-shirt. He was all muscles, lean and hard. Beautiful.
“You’re not ready?” he asked.
“I was rediscovering my room, which I obviously changed.”
“So as not to remind you of the one Valafar kept you in on Jarvis Island,” Bran explained. “We repainted the wall, and you even insisted on changing the car…whoa, what happened?”
I winced at his shocked expression. “I tested my powers to see which ones were still working. You think Remy might fix it before Grampa gets home?”
“Sure.” Bran walked to the edge of the hole and peered below. “That’s a big hole.”
“They were big lightning bolts.”
He cocked his right eyebrow at me. “What else?”
“My dagger is not responding to me yet and my other abilities are on hyperdrive. The bolts appeared too easily. I can also slow down my teleport, which is both cool and weird. While we were at the beach, I tried to raise my shield and block emotions from you guys and failed. I think my empathic abilities are over the charts too.”
“That is strange,” Bran said then joined me. “When Solange’s minions attacked you, your powers were drained.”
“And I was okay within twenty-four hours.”
“Maybe that’s all you need for your powers to stabilize. How is your head?”
“It’s getting better, just at a snail’s pace.” I waved toward the TV screen, where the replay was on pause. “Did I ever watch that?”
Bran chuckled. “Over and over again the last few months.”
“And the digital frame?”
“I got that for you and scanned the pictures a couple of months ago. It was a surprise. You loved it.”
Another precious moment gone. “I want my memories back,” I griped.
“You will get them back,” Bran vowed, wrapped his arms around me and held me close.
My heightened senses picked up on everything—the way his warm skin felt against mine, his pounding heart, his scent. But it was more than that. I tapped into his inner feelings without meaning to. He was worried about me, but his love for me shone brighter and purer than anything I’d ever felt. My senses leaped in response.
“We should head to HQ,” he said, leaning back.
“Not yet.” I cupped his face, leaned forward and kissed him. “We need to make some new memories.”
“Lil, we…” his voice trailed off as though he forgot what he was about to say. We kissed, breathing impossible as we got lost in sensations.
How many moments like this had I lost? Would I ever get them back?
Something snapped inside me and I threw my arms around his neck, making him lose his balance. He landed on the lounge with me on the top.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“No, you’re not.” His eyes went to my lips. “You got me exactly where you want me.”
“You don’t have to sound so tortured about it,” I teased. “I’m making things easy for you.”
“The opposite.” Then he kissed me. Really, really kissed me without holding anything back. The kiss mushroomed into something both scary and exciting. Heat surged through me like a giant wave. I wasn’t sure whether what I felt was my reaction to him, his reaction to me, or a combination of our needs. My wacky empathic senses just soaked it all in until I thought I would explode.
Heat followed his hands across my skin, making me squirm and press against him. Then he tugged the string holding my bikini top and we both froze. Confusion flashed in his eyes as though he wasn’t sure about what we were doing and how we got on the lounge.
“I should go.” He spoke slowly, his breathing uneven against my skin.
“Why?” I whispered, feeling hot and cold at the same time, wanting him to kiss me again, to make me forget all problems, even for just a moment.
Emerald eyes met mine and begged for forgiveness. “Because we shouldn’t be doing this now, not when you
