Page 11 of Elemental Love (Warlocks #1)

Perhaps there was something in Aggie’s tea that brought on hallucinations.

Dominic tried to find a logical explanation for his experience.

His mind needed a reason before it would settle.

Sure, he was tired, but he usually was after a hard day’s work and he’d never had weird dreams before.

He could have touched a poisonous plant without realizing it—that was plausible, more so than Aggie giving him something unsafe.

Unwilling to go back to bed naked, he pulled on a pair of thin, cotton sleep pants that rarely saw the light of day.

He plumped up his pillows and grabbed a seed catalog that he’d been meaning to browse through, then took a breath and lay down.

For a few minutes, he stared blindly at the catalog, convinced that his bed was going to start sprouting shoots any minute.

When nothing happened he relaxed a little.

The clock told him that it was only slightly after ten.

Still early. Dominic resolved to read for a while, then he’d attempt to sleep. With the light on.

Evrain lifted his fineliner pen from the paper and shoved it behind his ear.

He took a step back from his table to get a better view of the piece he’d been working on.

The surface was slightly tilted with a lip at the bottom edge holding his layouts in place.

The double-page spread he regarded with a critical eye was from a graphic novel—a personal project rather than one of the book covers or advertising designs he earned his living from.

He smiled, satisfied that he had achieved exactly the expression he wanted.

Dominic Castine’s pretty face now adorned his central character.

He was the perfect muse for debauched innocence, his eyes yaoi-huge, glistening with unshed tears.

Evrain wished the scenes he had been drawing could be real. Dark green leaves and curling stems against that creamy skin would look delicious. He could almost feel Dominic’s indignation at being tied down and ravished against his will.

“I think you’d secretly enjoy it, Dominic,” Evrain whispered to himself.

“You’d fight but you would submit eventually and take pleasure from every illicit touch.

” He cast a critical eye across his work.

Just because it was for his eyes only didn’t mean that he lost any of his perfectionist streak.

He knew the work was good. It came easily to him, even more so since he’d come into his powers.

If he used natural inks, he could move the fluid on the page with a thought.

It was one of the few things he could manage with any degree of control, probably because when he worked he could blank out all distractions and focus absolutely.

Gregory assured him that natural talent underpinned what he did, it was just enhanced by his gift.

It had been one of their more normal telephone conversations.

“Evrain, you’ll learn that there are ways to use your power to your advantage without frightening the natives. Warlocks do not exist outside fiction to 99.999 percent recurring of the population. Please try to remember that.”

“I’m hardly going to forget, Gregory. I don’t want to be consigned to Arkham along with the rest of the fictional psychopaths for the rest of my life, but there has to be some advantage to being a freak of nature.”

Gregory had sighed. “You— we —are not freaks. We are…anomalies. A slight aberration in the evolutionary process and of course there are advantages, you are just not proficient enough to realize them yet.”

“So how do you benefit from what you can do, Gregory?” It had been something they hadn’t discussed.

“I have interests in several companies and own a great deal of real estate, but that’s not how I made my money,” Gregory had said.

“After I graduated I went into the oil exploration business. I’m closest to water and earth elements.

I can feel the earth, sense changes in density below ground.

Once I’d felt one oil deposit, I could recognize another and another.

I gained a reputation as an expert in oil discovery and that’s a very lucrative career when you keep getting it right.

It can also be explained by science, technology and, to a certain extent, luck. ”

“Hmm. I don’t really fancy being the next J.R. Ewing, or moving to Texas. Too bloody hot.”

“You’ve yet to work out where your strongest elemental affinities lie, Evrain. When you do, then you can worry about how to use your powers to your advantage. Without harming others, mind you. We can be selfish to some extent but not deliberately to the detriment of others, that’s a big no-no.”

“So there is a dark side to all this then?”

“Evrain, you are not too old to get a spanking, and believe me, if you start quoting Star Wars at me I will be on the next flight up there just to deliver one.”

There had been a pause while Evrain had taken that in. Spanking was something he often fantasized about delivering. He had no desire to be the recipient.

“You’re rolling your eyes, aren’t you?” Gregory had added. “Stop it.”

“Do you have cameras hidden in my apartment, Gregory? Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

Evrain had ended the conversation quickly after that.

He was still no closer to understanding which elements might become his favorites—he was equally drawn to all four.

In the meantime, if he could improve his artwork even a little, he’d take it.

He checked his watch. It was almost half past ten, so too late to drive back to Hood River in order to deliver his grandmother’s pot of balm to the delicious Dominic Castine.

He would save that treat for the morning.

The next day was Saturday. He wasn’t sure if Dominic worked weekends but he’d take a chance and call in before going for a hike.

Of course, if Dominic invited him in, he wouldn’t turn down an alternative form of exercise.