Cursed (Demon Kissed #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

smack into my arm.
    “ Al, this is pointless,” I
said. “Asking me to relax is like trying to talk to a kid jacked up
on Pixie Stix—there’s no point. I just can’t. I’m surrounded by
people who want to kill me. It’s not exactly a relaxing
environment.” We’d eaten dinner in the room, and I’d yet to see
Shannon. I don’t know what I’d expected, but I thought that Shannon
would come and tell me what was going on right away. Either she
couldn’t get away yet, or they weren’t letting her. Either way, I
was glad Al was with me.
    Al sat down on the couch in front of
me. I was on the floor with my legs folded in a meditating pose.
Her ancient eyes sparkled when she spoke. “I know it’s hard, but if
you can control your visions here, you can control them in other
less than ideal situations too. Seeing visions is a power—a rare
power. If you can learn to do this, you’ll be able to glean more
information from the things you see and I suspect that you can do
more than merely see visions. Your powers aren’t manifesting like a
typical Martis. It’s possible that you’ll be able to speak to me
through your visions, even if I’m not there.”
    “ What are you saying?” I
asked. “That I can just dial you up and leave a message, and you’ll
get it the next time you see a vision?”
    She nodded, “Something like that.
Visions are complex. While some are of the future, others are
warnings, while others are noise. I think you could possibly leave
some of that noise I have to sift through to get to the heart of
the visions.” She shrugged.
    “ So you think I can leave
you a message in the noise that surrounds your visions? I don’t
have noise around mine. There’s only mist. Thick black mist. It
seals out the things around me so that I can only focus on whatever
it is that the vision is trying to show me.”
    “ Black mist, huh?” Al
replied looking perplexed. “You may see things differently
altogether then. We might have the same Martis powers, but they
sure don’t work the same way.”
    This seemed like grasping at straws,
but I wanted to know what I was capable of, and communicating with
Al when she wasn’t around seemed like a good idea at the time. “Ya
know, I’m never sitting up when I have a vision. It’s not really
sleep. It just kind of knocks me out.”
    She nodded, saying, “Try lying down.
Can’t hurt. Nothing can hurt at this point, Ivy.”
    She tossed me a throw pillow. Before I
flopped onto my back, I tucked the pillow under my head. Now I had
to wait. I closed my eyes and listened to the noises of the room. I
couldn’t hear any of the sounds on the street. After a while the
only sound I heard was my own breathing, and the tension washed
away from my shoulders. I remembered this feeling. It’s the place
between slumber and wake; the place where dreams feel vivid and
nightmares seem real. Lingering in that relaxed mental state, I
wondered what I was supposed to do. I knew that sleep wouldn’t
come. Sleep wasn’t required anymore, but this was
different.
    Warmth slid down my arms and caressed
my back. I felt like I was floating downward, light as a feather.
Then it was black, and the sounds of the room changed. A thin
shroud of black mist dissipated revealing the vision had started.
Dripping water was around me, but I couldn’t see where it was
coming from. Moisture tickled my nose and coldness chilled me to
the bone.
    But, where was I? Too afraid to speak,
I tried to focus on something. Seeing anything would be great.
Although the mist cleared, the space was covered in a darkness that
my eyes could not penetrate. I knew I was somewhere else. This
wasn’t the Villa. That place was warm and bright, and quite the
opposite of where I was now.
    I felt my way through the
darkness. This wasn’t the same as my other visions. Nothing came
into focus, and the black mist that usually blocked my view
surrounding the vision wasn’t there. It burned off almost as soon
as it