Page 31 of Jacob Michaels is Not Here

“No.” Lucas groaned pitifully. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t go outside to start it up. I mean…it’s really coming down.”

I stared through the darkness in Lucas’ general direction, my eyes starting to adjust to the darkness enough to see his shape on the other side of the counter.

“Hm.” I moaned. “Your hot water heater electric or gas?”

“Gas.” He said, and I saw his shadowed shoulders move. “Why?”

“We can still take that shower,” I replied playfully. “I don’t need any lights to take advantage of you, ya’ know.”

Lucas moved to walk around the counter, though I heard him more than saw him. His bare feet padded against the floorboards as I turned on my barstool so that I would be facing him as he came around to my side of the counter. Within seconds, I felt his hands reach out and land upon my chest, feeling his way towards me. Once his hands found me, he moved forward more confidently, his hips pushing between my legs until he was nearly pressed against me. My lips found his in the dark as my arms snaked around him so my hands could lay against the warm flesh of his back.

Sighing happily, Lucas returned my kiss and moved until he was pressed fully against me. I could feel his groin firm against me as his tongue rolled into my mouth, and his fingers twined through my hair aggressively. My fingers dug into the flesh of his back as I drank him in, suddenly overwhelmed with an urge to throw him down and do a number of things to his body right there in the kitchen. Lucas pulled back before I could continue this train of thought, as though he could look deeply into my eyes as he stood there.

“Why is that when I kiss you, all I can think about is all of the things I’d let you do to me?” He whispered from mere inches away.

It wasn’t nearly enough room for all of his body to not be touching me now.

“Do you want to tell me those things?” I asked in the same tone.

Lucas leaned back slightly, groaning with frustration.

“I want to be able to look at you as I show you those things.”

Whether or not it was instinct or an impulse that had lived inside of me since my teenage years, and I had merely forgotten during my ten years of memory loss, I put one hand between us, open wide, palm facing upwards. How I did it, I would never be able to explain since it seemed like such a fundamental part of who I was, but a flame slowly grew within my palm. Red and yellow, warm colors that put off no heat but lit the space between us. Lucas’ eyes sparkled in the light of the flame in my palm, though he did not look even the least bit surprised at my magic. I stared into his eyes as I held the flame in my hand without being burned.

“Is that better?” I asked softly.

“Every little thing you do is magic.” He said.

“What?”

My mind flashed back to a memory.

“From one minute to the next, I never know what you’ll do, Rob.” He sighed happily. “You surprise me at every turn.”

I just stared into his eyes as fiery shadows decorated his face.

“How do you do that?” He glanced at my hand then back to my eyes.

“I don’t know.”

I wasn’t lying. I really didn’t know. If he had asked if I had my memories back, my answer would have had to be different. But he hadn’t asked that. He didn’t ask if I had suddenly remembered that I could do magic at will and not just when attacked by werewolves. Of course, Lucas didn’t have his memories, so he didn’t remember all of the times I had done it before. That led to another problem. If Lucas didn’t remember all of the magics I had performed in the past, why wasn’t he surprised?

“When you saw me coming,” I began, “did you see this? Is that why this doesn’t surprise you?”

Lucas shrugged.

“That’s not an answer.”

He grinned wickedly.

“This isn’t me being playful,” I said softly. “Tell me. Oma said you saw me coming. What did you see?”

Lucas examined me for several moments, his eyes lingering on mine as my other hand stayed against his back, keeping him from escaping. Not that I expected Luas to make a break for it just to avoid a question, but I didn’t want him to think that I was going to let him off easy. For several moments, Lucas stared into my eyes over the flickering flame in my hand, his eyes showing the internal debate he was having with himself. Something Lucas had seen had bothered him, and he either didn’t understand it, didn’t want to tell me, or wasn’t sure he should tell me. Regardless, I was going to do my best to make sure that he shared it with me.

“I saw fire.”

“Fire?” I glanced down at my hand.