The Darkness Within Read Free Page B

stepped up her already racing heartbeat. He wanted her, that’s what that hard ridge pressing against her stomach told her.
    His hands moved down her arms, to her sides, thumbs brushing the curves of her small breasts. She leaned into him, rubbing her pelvis against his . . . My God, she’d done that to him, made him hard. She wanted him, too, and the forbidden lure, the thought of going there washed over her like hot, thick honey.
    “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this,” he said, his voice low and rich.
    “Me, too,” she said between kisses.
    Vaguely she heard the sound, one she realized later was the door opening. But Tuck’s mouth was on her ear, his breath hot and moist, and then on her neck, so she didn’t give it much thought because her mom wasn’t due back for an hour—
    “What are you doing?”
    They both lurched at the screeched words. Her mom stood at the door, looking shocked and betrayed.
    “Mom . . .”
    Carrie threw her purse down, sending a tube of lipstick and a pen skittering across the floor. “No. You are not doing this.”
    He stood rigid, hands clasped in front of him. “We haven’t done anything.”
    “Yet. If I hadn’t come home, you sure as hell would have.”
    “Miss Carrie, I know you don’t want us involved, and I tried, I did. But Del’s an amazing girl. She—”
    Carrie’s gaze had dropped to the bills on the floor. “What’s this?” She pinned him with furious eyes. “You’re still gambling. And you, Del . . . you’re doing it with him, aren’t you?”
    “She was trying to talk me out of it,” Tuck said.
    Carrie’s anger morphed to sadness, resignation, and somehow that alarmed Del more than the anger. “I should have known. Put a boy and a girl together, throw in hormones . . .”
    He’d called her amazing. The word echoed, warming the coldness that gripped her. “Mom, Tucker’s special. Okay, he gambles, but only with jerks who deserve to lose their money. This is the first time we’ve done this. Any of it.”
    “It’ll be the last.”
    “Why? You’re always saying what a great kid he is, how far he’s come. He is great. And I like him. A lot.”
    Carrie took them in. “Sit down.”
    Was she going to give them the talk? Use condoms, be responsible. Wasn’t that what she was worried about?
    They sat next to each other, but a respectable distance apart.
    Carrie sank wearily to the chair across from them. “I need to tell you both something. I’ve been putting it off, but it’s time. Past time.” She clasped her hands together. “You’re not like the other kids. You know that. You both have abilities. Gifts, I called them. But they are not gifts; they’re curses. Not because of what they are, but where they came from.”
    She twined her fingers, staring at them for a moment before looking at them. “Have you heard of string theory, quantum physics? There are respected scientists who believe in other dimensions, worlds that exist side by side with this one. I’m from one of those other dimensions. Tuck, so is your father. We are human; at least that’s the theory. But centuries ago, our people descended far below the surface. The Earth’s magnetic energy changed us. It gave us a different body consistency, and the ability to manipulate energy. Or read it. Both of you hold the essence of a Callorian. That’s what we’re called.”
    Carrie turned to Tuck. “When I met you, I knew you had Callorian blood. We can feel each other, like the vibration of a strong electrical current. I also suspected your father is my former husband, Elgin. You have his eyes and facial structure. He would go to the casinos and find the prostitutes who worked there. I’d rather he go to other women for that. Callorians have no feelings, or at least we are taught to bury them. But some of the people who came here hold an energy called Darkness. Elgin didn’t have it when we married; he came by it later. I don’t know what it is; he