Over the next few weeks, we grew closer and closer, our sexual intimacy taking down the final barrier that had remained between us. It was a golden period, in a sense, with nothing to interrupt a steady stream of discovery, love, and happiness. With Corey still in jail, there was no dark cloud over Julia’s mind and we luxuriated in our ability to be together.I fielded a call from an unknown number three days after the riverbank rescue – the kind of thing I rarely answer, but for some reason did – and it turned out to a man named Ray Killian, the father of Sara, the girl we’d saved, and her brother Mark.He wanted to meet us, to thank us, although I assured him it was unnecessary, and I initially demurred, figuring it would be embarrassing; we’d only done what anyone would do, after all, given the right set of circumstances. Blind luck – and perhaps a higher power – had been on our side, the only reasons we’d succeeded.I finally caved, acquiescing only when he explained that Sara insisted on meeting me again, to say thanks and to talk. We met them a couple of evenings later at a local restaurant, where they insisted on buying our dinner. It was embarrassing – her parent’s gratitude knew no bounds – but there was so much relief, happiness, and thankfulness in their hearts and minds that it was, overall, a good experience.The highlight of the evening was the opportunity that Julia and I had to talk to Sara – a beautiful young lady now that she was not soaking wet and near death – alone, at her insistence; she had questions – how I’d been with her in the darkness, how we’d somehow, all of us working together, pulled her back from death’s door. Why she’d smelled lilacs, the only sensation she’d had for a time alone there in the dark.I explained as best I could, swearing her to secrecy before opening up. I told her about my own death – or deaths – the lightning and my resulting fall, and my long recovery. I told her about the abilities I now had, for reasons unknown, and how I’d used them to reach out to her, even though I didn’t fully understand it myself.I told her that I couldn’t do it, it was beyond my abilities until her brother helped, reaching out to her to call her back, and how much he loved her, how devastated he’d been. We also talked about how all the others, from Julia tirelessly perfoming CPR to the other guy that had done it first, and all the people that had pulled her out of the river or gone for help. She’d brought everyone together to save her, and it had been a very special experience… mostly because she’d survived!I explained too about the lilacs, how they had been my mother’s favorite and that it was my opinion that she’d somehow helped both of us simply because it just wasn’t our time yet. We’d both found the scent of the lilacs reassuring somehow.She seemed to accept it and when we hugged I felt only happiness, her terror and anguish now gone, her mind at peace. I received and returned a kiss on the cheek, and we made a promise to stay in touch. A real promise, I could sense it, not one of those ‘let’s do lunch’ kinds of promises. So as I said, overall a worthwhile evening, although it was still embarrassing to receive so much unbridled gratitude Şerifali Escort for something I’d been so very glad we’d been able to accomplish!As the date of Corey’s release from jail drew closer, I could feel the darkness and trepidation moving again into Julia’s mind, the fear and anguish growing, and I hated it – and him, as a result. The D.A. himself called her to let her know when her ex got out, but assured her that he seemed contrite, understood the consequences if he again violated the restraining order, and that he’d gone home to the city where he lived, 300 miles away.It wasn’t terribly reassuring, all in all, and we both stayed on guard – and armed – as much as we possibly could. I was less worried about me because I didn’t think he wanted anything to do with me and that he would do everything in his power to catch Julia alone, especially after the last fiasco outside her self-defense class.I had no doubt that he’d try to take me too, if necessary, as her current lover and the reason he’d gouged the words ‘cunt’ and ‘whore’ into the paint of her car, but that I’d just be collateral damage; she was his obsession and his target, I had no illusions about that.I couldn’t have been much more wrong, though, as it turned out. We heard nothing from him for several weeks and had no incidents of further vandalism or threats of any kind. I don’t think we let our guard down, but we did continue our relationship openly and intimately. I didn’t know – or much care – if we’d get married and Julia felt the same, but I think we both knew that we’d found a forever thing and, for now, were happy to simply bask in that knowledge and explore the relationship in every way possible.We spent most of our nights together, either at my place or hers, only rarely missing one when she had to work early the next day or something. I still wasn’t back at work, the tree trimming business going into its slower winter season, and considerable doubt remaining about my ability to do the high work; absent that, I wasn’t too interested in the business any more.I’d begun visiting nursing homes and rehab centers as a volunteer, using my abilities to help people, cheer them up, whatever I could do. Julia joked that I should become a sex therapist, that I could make a fortune when word got out, but I wasn’t ready to go to school for the years necessary to earn a degree to legally do that. Might be fun, though!In any event, she was at my place. We’d discussed moving in together earlier in the evening, agreeing we should, then had a long wonderful evening of making love before we exhausted each other and fell asleep naked, in each other’s arms. We definitely had the randiness of a couple of horny teenagers, if not their endurance, and even now, fully aware of how I could play in her mind, she enjoyed it and had powerful orgasms!Sometime in the wee hours, we were awakened suddenly and rudely when the door to the bedroom was kicked open and the overhead light flicked on; we were both instantly wide awake, I think, a massive flood of adrenaline pumped instantly into our bloodstreams.Her ex-husband was framed in the doorwy; he was angry, dishevelled, and Şerifali Escort Bayan looked about the size of The Incredible Hulk – and about as crazy.Julia screamed “Corey! Get out! Get the fuck out!”He was clearly drunk – I could smell it as well as see it in his clumsy movements – but he had an ax. A fucking ax! He was not going to hear anything we said.He was screaming back at her, his voice slurred, calling her a cunt, a whore, a fucking slut, a bitch, a filthy pig, saying he could smell the stink of sex on her, even as she and I both scrambled to get out of bed, the sheet and blanket tangling around us an enormous hindrance. My gun was in my nightstand, as was Julia’s on her side, but getting to it before the ax fell was not going to be easy.He swung the ax at me, clearly seeing me as a threat to be dealt with so that he could take his time on her, but he didn’t allow for the ceiling and hit it, the ax glancing off sideways in a shower of plaster dust.As he pulled it back to swing again, Julia, 105 pounds of naked fury, hurled herself at him, but he swatted her aside like a fly and I saw her bounce off the wall, infuriating me. I’d just managed to get free of the blanket when he swung, and although it again glanced off the ceiling it descended on me at a horrifying speed; instinctively, I threw up my arm, and the shaft of the ax, about six inches below the head, crashed down onto my left forearm.I both heard and felt the bone break, the same place it had broken in my fall, but I didn’t feel any pain – yet – no doubt a result of the surge of adrenaline. It did serve to deflect the blade to the side, and it bounced harmlessly off the bed. One thing Julia had been right about; her ex was huge, and strong, and was out of his mind with alcoholic rage.When he pulled it back for another try, Julia again hurled herself at him and this time got punched and knocked down. She changed tactics and scrambled for the nightstand, where her gun was stashed, the same thing I was going for on my side if I could avoid the ax long enough. Unencumbered by her, he swung the ax a third time, lunging forward as he did.I threw up my broken arm again, knowing it probably wouldn’t be enough, but his lunge had brought him too close and he overreached, the blade of the ax biting deep into the wooden headboard, sticking fast before the shaft could hit me. In a panic now, with him right over me, I seized his arm with my right hand, trying to prevent him from freeing the ax.When I grabbed him my first impression was of how huge and strong he was, but my second was of his mind, filled with rage, with hatred, with the desire to harm and rend and kill. My own anger, already roused, flared brightly and I felt him hesitate, the strange sensation of my anger hitting his mind.The next thing I felt from him was his desire to hurt Julia, to punish her, to make her pay; there was a sick, perverted sexual arousal behind it and I knew he was hard, erect, and that he had planned to force her, to take her and hurt her and make her suffer in that way. With that knowledge, knowing he’d planned to perhaps kill me and then assault her, my anger and shock exploded into Escort Şerifali a wild rage as powerful as his.In the next tiny fraction of a second, my mind gathered up all of the darkness and pain it had ever experienced, from my mind or from others. I pulled together the sadness and loneliness and sense of loss that I’d felt from Ella when she was mourning for me, the fear and darkness that hung over Julia when I was first able to read her, the primal, atavistic terror of monsters that I’d felt when I’d scooped up little Hayley as she’d seen the giant dog bearing down on her.I rolled that in with the depression and loneliness and sense of coming death that I sometimes felt in older people, especially the sickly ones at the rehab center where I’d stayed, or now, at nursing homes I visited.I wrapped it all with the panic and shock of Sara when she’d fallen in the river, the desperation as she was unable to fight the power of the water, vertigo and disorientation of it tumbling her downstream and over the falls, and the terror, the horror of being held down, pinned to the bottom as her oxygen was exhausted and her body forced her into that last desperate attempt to breathe, drowning her.All of that came together in my mind in less than the blink of an eye, fueled by adrenaline, rage, and my fear for Julia, and without a moment’s hesitation I pounded it all into him, smashed that horror and blackness into his brain, trying my best to destroy his very soul.I felt the searing, explosive pain in my head again, like I had when I’d demanded Sara come back to us except stronger, and his body went rigid. The ax fell from his suddenly lifeless fingers and his head was thrown back, only the whites of his eyes showing as he stared blindly at the ceiling.By then, Julia had recovered her handgun from the drawer and was aiming it at him, her hands almost unnaturally steady; my Amazon warrior, so incredibly impressive! I have no idea how someone so soft and loving can have such a steel core.I quickly held up my hand to stop her from shooting him, since he seemed to be frozen and helpless, and just then he began to tremble as if having a seizure. He fell down, but was instantly back up, a terrified, unintelligible scream coming from his mouth as he turned to run, crashed into the dresser, went down again and again sprang to his feet.He hit the doorframe as he tried to escape and went down again, but was up immediately, running down the hall, his screams reverberating. The next sound was the glass of the front storm door shattering as he went through it, still screaming in horror and pain.Julia was right on his heels, her gun in a strong grip leading the way, oblivious to her nudity. I grabbed her robe and my own gun and followed, my broken left arm hanging limply at my side, later realizing that I was oblivious to my own nudity. At the front door there was broken glass everywhere, as well as obvious signs that he’d jimmied the lock on the inner door to gain access. We slipped on our shoes that we kept near the door and walked through the glass shards, Julia slipping into her short robe as we went.Corey was down in the front yard, bleeding from a dozen or more cuts on his face and arms, curled into a fetal position, arms over his head, trembling and moaning. He’d wet his pants, a dark, wet stain spreading and the scent of his urine pervasive.Julia looked at him, then at me, the side of her face red and swollen where he’d hit her. “Jesus. What did you do to him?”