Mind Tricks Read Online Free PDF

fingers through his dark hair, cupping his skull. She was going to get
those damn memories out of him if it was the last thing she did.
    Beneath her hand, Jake went still.
    Pulling her willpower together and
mentally lashing herself to her own mind, she stepped again into the black well
of last night’s memories. Shadows tugged her in deeper, grabbing her like a
midnight riptide that she could feel but couldn’t see. Swept farther into the
dizzying blackness, she sensed the cord between her thoughts and herself stretching
thinner and thinner, now nearly a cobweb.…
    For a moment she dangled in utter
blackness, unable to find her way back. Then a thin silver thread crossed her
mind’s eye, and she mentally grabbed at it. With a gasp, she fled back into her
self.
    She lifted her trembling hand off
his head and stepped away, as if physical distance could make her safer.
    Lord. That had been terrifying, and
not exactly the easy assurance of Jake’s innocence that she’d expected.
    Maybe she should smooth out his
energy, as she had told him she would, and then try to go back in.
    Closing her eyes, she breathed
deeply, centering herself and polishing out the jagged emotions clanking around
inside her. When she worked on pets, she could sense their energy flow through
her fingers and palms, feeling where it was moving evenly and where it was
bunching up in tight coils, leading to stress and pain. Half opening her eyes,
she placed her spread palms over Jake’s spine, one at the top and one at the
bottom, and concentrated on feeling his energy flow.
    Huh. Nothing.
    She slowly swept her hands over his
head, neck, and back. Still nothing, as if he were a mannequin, not a live
creature.
    This was almost scary.
    Tucking her hands behind her back,
she said, “This isn’t working. I’m sorry.”
    He rolled over. It felt strange,
standing over him while he was lying on her bed. Well, not her bed, but one of the beds she owned. It’d be more strange if he
was actually on her bed.
    “What did you expect to happen?” he
asked.
    “I expected to feel your energy.
But I didn’t feel anything.”
    “Is that unusual?”
    “Very unusual. Basically, you feel
dead.”
    Jake grimaced. “Fantastic.”
    “But maybe I’m out of practice.
Maybe—” She swallowed as an idea struck her. Was she being lassoed by her
hormones, or was she being truly brilliant? “We could try it with your clothes
off.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?”
    Earth to Emma: Bad idea. But she’d
already stoked this train of thought; might as well ride it to the end.
“Animals don’t have clothes, and I’m used to working with animals these days.
Maybe clothing interferes with energy flow.”
    He pressed his lips together. Was
he angry? She hadn’t expected that reaction. Incredulous, yes. Annoyed, maybe.
Skeptical, absolutely.
    Then the corners of his mouth
quivered, prompting a similar response in the pit of her stomach. Already she
was forgetting that he thought her to be crazy. “I’ll have to remember that if
I ever do bring a date to see my kitten posters. ‘Clothing interferes with
energy flow.’”
    “Hey, if you don’t want to do this—”
    “Do you have a towel or a robe?”
    “Well, yes. But they’re pink.” She
wasn’t a fan of pink except in the bathroom, and there she had gone overboard,
perhaps compensating for the lack of the color in the rest of the house. Even
her sister had laughed when she’d seen it. “It’s the bathroom to Barbie’s dream
house,” she’d chortled.
    “ All of them?” And this time incredulity, annoyance, and skepticism
flickered through his dark eyes.
    “I have sheets. Those aren’t pink.
Look, the bed is made,” she pointed out. “Why not take off everything—uh,
except your underwear—and get under the sheets? I can move the sheets down as I
need to.”
    “All right.”
    She waited to see if he’d say more,
but he just stared expectantly at her. Oh, right. She was supposed to leave