Drake Sisters 07 - Hidden Currents

shook him, across that same distance, but up close, he was always so careful y control ed.
    â€œCome into the house,†Sarah said, her voice gentle, almost as if she knew what he was feeling. “Standing in the entryway isn’t going to help. You have to commit to us, Jackson. We can’t help if you don’t give us your ful commitment, and it seems to me, as close as we are to El e, you’re her soul mate and you’re the one that’s going to find her.â€
    There was that waiting again. The silence. He lived in silence. Understood it. These people in this room had opened their lives to him, shared their world, yet he had always stood apart by choice, refusing to go al the way with the very commitment Sarah was asking of him. He didn’t understand people. He wasn’t comfortable being around them. The desert, the mountains, the sandy dunes above the ocean were places he sought and understood.
    Emotions were kept at a distance, yet this family, these people who always welcomed him, kept emotions close and intense, and every moment he spent with them made him feel both cared for and yet isolated and apart. For El e he went deeper into the room, into the circle of her family.
    The candles made a pattern on the floor, the flames flickering with life. He looked around the house. It would be his home. His life would be here when he married El e. He walked across the room and laid his hand on the wal . It was an old house, yet always appeared new. He had seen the house come to life, protecting those who dwel ed inside. When he laid his palm on the wal , he felt energy, strong and pulsing. Little sparks danced around his fingers and across the back of his hand.
    If you’re alive, the way the Drakes believe, help us find her. Help me find her.
    Beneath his palm, the wal s undulated, and for a moment he thought he heard the sound of feminine voices rising in the distance.
    He turned to look at the Drake sisters, but they were looking at one another, their eyes wide, their faces slightly shocked. He dropped his hand and moved back to the center of the room. “The storm is nearly overhead. Let’s get this done.â€
    â€œThe house spoke to you,†Sarah said. “Jackson, do you know what that means?â€
    His dark eyes slid over her face, noting her astonishment. “Did you real y think El e didn’t belong to me?†His voice was quiet. Low. Soft even.
    The menace there reverberated through the room, enough that Damon stirred from his place against the wal and limped over to Sarah, his cane supporting his weight as he put one arm around her.
    â€œJackson, we al know you’re meant for El e,†Sarah said softly. “You’re the one who is holding back, not us.â€
    He felt the arrow in the pit of his stomach. Damn her, she was right. They said she could see into the future at times, and right now she looked a little fey.
    She was seeing too much and what was inside of him wasn’t fit for a woman to see, least of al a Drake and the sister of the woman he was going to marry.
    He could smel the scent of the herbs each sister had used to cleanse herself before the ceremony. The pentagram was laid out with the mosaic tiles in the center of the circle. Candles lit the way in four directions. He took a deep breath and forced himself forward when Hannah gestured to him to come take his place in the center. Each sister sat near a point of the star and Jonah and Ilya sank down beside their women, close, thighs touching.
    Abigail’s husband, Aleksandr, threw open the double doors to al ow the storm into the house. This was not his way, but it was the Drakes’ way, as it had been for hundreds of years. It was El e’s way and he needed the strength of her family to send the summons, create the bridge and gain the information they so desperately needed.
    Outside the wind shrieked and moaned, rising and fal ing like the churning waves. Jackson took a deep breath, drawing in the salty mist. The rain began to fal , a light drizzle, promising a much more ferocious downpour. Thunder boomed just as a wave crashed against the rocks and white water formed a geyser, hurling into the air. Jackson could see the white foam bursting above the cliff and then fal ing out of sight again.
    Unconsciously he rubbed his palm along the floor, over the mosaic tiles El e’s ancestors had placed a hundred years earlier. He felt