His eyebrows slashed down. “Did you feel that?”
Mine shot upward. “I know you’re upset, vampire.” His anger always brought out his elemental powers. Or was it Rorie giving off magic?
“I am, but our connection is more than that. Are you still feeling the energy?”
I nodded. “But it’s you, not me. Or is it our daughter?” It felt like a million electrical pulses throbbed along my arm.
He studied our conjoined hands, then glanced at Rorie. “It’s not me. My powers only go one way. You’re the one zapping me. Or maybe it is Rorie feeding you power.”
“I could understand if she was. After all, the babies had given me my banshee scream and mind control abilities.” I wondered if I would continue to have those magical powers.
Sam stood up, and the electrical charge vanished. “It’s happened twice before. Once when I joined hands with you at Intech’s loading dock in Chicago and again at Intech’s lab when I rescued you. But then, you were pregnant.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re worried about this?” It wasn’t a big deal. I hoped I continued to have powers. If my mom was right and Sam and I were the ones to ensure humanity survived, then I would need a magical ability or two.
“You mistake my worry for curiosity. Is it your power or Rorie’s?” He gave me a thigh-squeezing grin. “I hope it’s youandher. I want each of you to have a way to protect yourself. Not that she can yet. And I can’t help but wonder if you have any dormant magic in you that the pregnancy might have kick-started. After all, your Vel-negative blood type indicates you come from a line of witches.”
I was digging that idea, which wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. My mom had visions on her deathbed. Did that mean she had witch magic all along but never used it?
He resumed sitting in the rocker. “If in fact you are the one with power and it’s not Rorie, then our connection will have the same impact as when Jo and I join hands. Our enemies won’t know what hit them.” His excitement was bleeding through his words and gleaming in his forest-green eyes.
I licked my lips. “What can you and Jo do together?” His enthusiasm was heightening my own.
“Remember when Roman stormed the base?”
“How could I forget,” I said, conjuring up that snowy morning in early February. “You were mind-blowingly scary.”
Jordyn had been wrapped in C4. Roman Brown had sliced off my uncle Ray’s thumb, and I’d seen Sam in all his elemental glory. The earth had shaken like a strong earthquake, and the wind whipped around like a Category 3 hurricane. Then Sam raised his arms high above his head and unleashed his fury—an elemental storm unlike anything I’d ever seen, and Roman was smack-dab in the middle as he clutched his throat, laboring for oxygen, barricaded by a ring of fire. I’d learned afterward that Sam had gone easy on Roman.
“Then multiply my powers from that day by five. That’s how powerful Jo and I are together,” Sam said.
If my eyes weren’t somewhere in the back of my head from the initial zap of electricity, they were now. “Surely, you’re not saying you and I can have an impact like you and Jo?”
He shrugged. “Anything is possible.”
Ever since I had started living in his world, that statement had never been truer. “Then we should practice to see if I have any magic in me.”
“We have work to do. You need to physically train, including with weapons, and we’ll test your magical abilities for sure. First, you need to heal.” A frown marred his handsome features.
I made a move to stand up, and Sam was right in front of me, taking Rorie from me. After he set her in her bassinet, he returned to help me out of the chair.
“You know I can walk,” I teased.
He wrapped me in his strong, protective arms and buried his nose in my hair. “Maybe I want to hold my wife.”
I sighed as I inhaled his woodsy scent, craning my neck upward. “No complaints here. I love you, Sam. You’re my safe anchor and will always be no matter the storm.” I rose on my toes and ghosted my lips over his. Lips that promised heated nights of wicked sensuality and gentle, loving butterfly kisses dipped in love and devotion. A contrast for sure but one that Sam delivered in spades whenever we were naked between the sheets. Though it had been a long time since we had any nights of passion. “I’m ready for our new beginning.”
He threaded his fingers through my hair as his green eyes sparked with concern. Not the reaction I was going for.
I flattened my hand on his chest. His heart was beating furiously, which only caused mine to do the same. “What’s wrong? Did I miss something other than my sister’s stunt?”
He studied me. “Rianne’s alive.”
Blood rushed through my veins as I gasped. We knew she could be, but I was retraumatized at the thought that she could be here. “Is she on base?”
He kept me securely in his embrace. Good thing. My legs were trembling. “She’s not anywhere remotely close. Rianne just spoke at Adam’s press conference outside Intech in Chicago. She told the nation that you’ve been compelled to fall in love with me and have my baby.”
Sam’s lips were moving, but I could barely hear what he was saying over the loud buzzing noise in my head. My brain froze. My heart stopped, and my blood solidified into gel. I took back what I said earlier—that I didn’t want Sam or anyone to treat me with kid gloves. I was wrong. I wasn’t ready to face my enemies—in particular, my deranged sister—at least not until I was in fighting shape.
