Page 20 of Dark Medicine (Strange Gifts #2)

Returning to the hotel, the exhaustion that the team was feeling was positively overwhelming for all of them. Retiring to their rooms, Fiona unpacked her few items she knew she would need for the week and pulled one photo from her bag. The photo, taken when her brother was home on leave, showed smiling, happy faces. Her parents were desperately in love, and the pride for their children was evident on their faces.

“Your parents?” asked Adam.

“Yes. This was taken just a few weeks before my brother died.”

Adam took the photo from her grasp and stared at the faces. His first observation was that although Fiona and her brother looked very much alike, their parents were decidedly different.

The two children had flaming red hair and blue eyes, but both parents had black hair and brown eyes. A near impossibility from a genetics and medical perspective. Highly unlikely for both children to have blue eyes and red hair and the parents both be so dark.

“You have a beautiful family,” said Adam, trying to smile.

“Had. I had a beautiful family,” she said with a sad face. “They’re all dead and I’m still here.” Adam continued to stare at the photo as Fiona moved about the room.

“You and your brother look so similar,” Adam said, still staring at the photo.

Fiona appeared to be around eighteen in the photo, her skinny runner’s legs peaking beneath shorts. Her brother, although similar in facial features, was large and muscular in a Go Army t-shirt. Fiona stopped and turned to see him holding the gold frame that housed her beloved photo.

“I know what you’re thinking. We don’t look like Mum and Dad,” she said, watching him. “I guess I should have divulged that we were adopted, but it didn’t seem to matter at the time. Does it matter now?” she said, tilting her head slightly.

“I’m not sure. Maybe.” Adam continued to look at the photo and then up at her. “You must have been a baby when they adopted you.”

“I was. I think I was only two or three weeks old. Ian was about nine. Mum always said he struggled a bit at first, but she and Da were patient with him.” Fiona chuckled at the memory. Her brother was a handful even before he discovered his gifts.

“So, you didn’t know your biological parents?” he asked inquisitively.

“No. Mum and Da couldn’t have children of their own, so they adopted.”

“From here in Ireland?” asked Adam.

“Yes. St. Bernadette’s Home for Unwed Mothers. What a terrible name! Mum said there were dozens of young girls in the home, all expecting, and not one of them was able to keep their child. The Irish weren’t very supportive of single parenting thirty years ago.”

Adam gave a low hum and nodded his head.

“Have you ever tried to find your biological mother?”

“There was no need. My parents were told that my mother died giving birth to me. My father was nowhere to be found.”

Adam said nothing as he watched her flit about the room putting her things away. It might mean nothing, but it could be significant. If Fiona and Ian’s real mother possessed gifts as well, perhaps she was the clue to all of this. Yet how could that possibly tie to the rest of them and to the Depot?

“I can hear you thinking from all the way over here,” she said, smiling at him.

“I’m sorry. I guess I’m just looking for anything that might tie all this with a nice, neat bow, and I don’t think I’m going to find it.”

Fiona walked toward him, her lean body pressing close to his. Looking up at him, she gently laid her fingers against the rough five o’clock shadow on his cheeks, trailing a long finger along his bottom lip. The reaction was exactly as she hoped, his rigid cock pressed against her pelvis.

Threading her fingers through his hair, she pulled his head closer and let her tongue dance across his lips. A decidedly animal-like groan rumbled in his chest as he pulled Fiona closer. The smell of her perfume, hyacinth and lilac, filled his nostrils, and he inhaled deeply. He gripped her ass cheeks with both hands, pulling her thighs up to wrap around his waist.

Carrying her to the bed, he kissed her neck, her throat, her chin, and finally, took her lips with a passion and ferocity she’d never felt before.

“Wh-what’s happening with us?” she whispered.

“We’re falling in love,” he grinned against her mouth.

“W-we are?” she stuttered.

“We are, Fiona, and you know it. You’ve known it since the moment we first met. I knew it the moment I held your hand on that sidewalk. You’re mine, Fiona Graham, and I’m yours, forever.”

“Forever,” she whispered as he lay atop her on the mattress. “Forever.”

Adam and Fiona stripped their clothes as if they had no time at all, a tangle of legs and arms, lean muscle and hard body. By the time Adam entered Fiona, she was so wet it was dripping between her legs. His cock, hard and throbbing, pumped mercilessly into her, draining every ounce of juice she possessed.

Bucking wildly against him, Fiona begged for more. Harder, faster, deeper. Adam could do nothing but oblige. She possessed his soul and knew that they were joined in every way that mattered. He could feel her heartbeat, her lungs sucking in air, her body’s organs pumping fresh blood to her body parts desperate for fuel.

Wrapping her lean legs around his waist, she lifted her hips once more and felt him hit her very core, the hardness of his cock filling her, stretching her to unimaginable ends. Taking his mouth to drown her cries, he poured his seed into her. His body becoming one with her own, if only for a short time. Looking into her blue eyes, he kissed her sweet lips, his breath hot and heavy.

“You have bewitched me, Fiona Graham.”

“Careful, Adam Thorn. Here in Ireland, those are powerful words,” she said, smiling. He nodded with a small grin and kissed her again.

“Rest. Dinner is in a few hours. Let’s get in a well-deserved nap and then shower.” The words were not completed from his lips when he looked down to see her eyes closed, her breathing soft and even.

Adam smiled to himself and drifted off to sleep, but not before seeing the faces of Fiona’s family, the light and the dark.