Dominion 4 - Ascendance by Lissa Kasey Page A

was in the grass instead of on the kitchen floor. When the sound paused, I screamed, “Stop!”
    The noise didn’t come again. A few seconds later Caleb appeared, covered with sweat and leaves. I pulled myself upright, told Kelly quickly that I’d call him back, and turned to my lawn guy, feeling enough rage at that moment to level a city.
“Everything okay?” Caleb asked.
    The lower rungs of some of the largest trees had been cut, branches left where they were fallen, like a forest of severed limbs. The earth cried, and I had to fight back a sniffle myself. “I told you not to cut any trees.”
    He glanced back at the shaded backyard then wiped his brow with the bottom of his shirt. “I just trimmed them so you can walk under them. Didn’t cut any down.”
“No more trimming trees.” I’m sure he heard the anger in my voice because he paled beneath his Californian tan.
    “Okay. Sorry.” He turned back toward the area he was working, walking away as fast as he could without running. I closed the door, then leaned against it to catch my breath. That had never happened to me at home. Sure, the trees shared things with me, but never that kind of pain. Here, the house was the tree, the yard, the earth. Maybe that’s why the connection was so strong.
    When the sound of the equipment didn’t begin again, I dialed Kelly back to assure him all was okay. I really hoped Timothy worked out as a caretaker, because I was pretty sure I couldn’t stay here much longer without losing myself to the earth.
    After that, the day moved along incident free. Timothy had returned with his car full of things, and I decided it was a good time for a nap. The sun would be setting soon, which meant Gabe would be up in just a few hours. Maybe we’d go out and do something tonight, just the two of us. After all, we were in California; was that likely to happen again anytime soon?
    Timothy began hauling his things back into the caretaker’s house while I passed the windows upstairs to the secret room. He told me he’d clean it up. The stink of death probably still lingered inside. I wondered if Timothy knew anything about it, but didn’t ask. His secrets would come out eventually. Everyone’s did.
    Sam dozed on the cot, curled around a blanket, looking very human and young for once. Neither of them had left to go feed. Maybe the house and my power fueled him better than blood could. Another thought to ponder.
    Up in the attic room, Gabe lay sprawled on the bed, chest down, face buried in my pillow. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and glared at my short hair in the mirror before returning to the bed. Gabe had flung off the blankets as he usually did, and took up a good part of the huge mattress. Taking the blankets for myself, I swung them over myself and lay beside him, staring at the ceiling. The pain from the trees that had been cut still hurt, and all I could think about was how to destroy that awful ring. What if there wasn’t a way to break the magic? What if there were millions of rings all over the world being used this terrible way? How did I fix something I knew nothing about?
    Gabe inched closer, making me smile. I threw the link wide open between us and let him have all the jumbled thoughts. His trickled back warmth, hope, and desire. He wanted to snuggle. I let him throw his arm over me and pull me into a tight embrace. He adjusted the pillow beneath my head, breath soft and warm on my face. We stayed that way for a while, holding each other. He didn’t move much, but peppered my face with soft kisses. With the link wide open I could feel his excitement, but knew he’d only push for sex if I wanted it.
    “I’m sorry for being a hypocrite,” Gabe said against my hair. “I shouldn’t tell you to compromise and talk to me when I’m not doing the same. If I’d told you about the bar, we probably wouldn’t have had this fight.”
    “You love the bar.” I loved the bar. It was a second home to me. No one judged me.