A Deep and Dark December by Beth Yarnall Page A

here. “What’s the real reason?”
    Aunt Cerie huffed out a breath. “My mother, your grandmother had some… issues with her ability shortly before she died.”
    “What kind of issues ?”
    “I never told you because I didn’t want to worry you. A few months before her death her abilities started shorting out. Very much like what’s been happening to us today. She was never the same after that. I always worried I might fall into the same kind of madness that eventually took her life.”
    “Do you think what happened to your mother might be happening to us?
    “I don’t know. Tell me exactly what’s been happening to you.”
    “Normally I have to concentrate to put my ability in action, but today, all of a sudden, the visions starting coming to me without me calling them up. That hasn’t happened since I first came into my ability, before I learned to control them. And there was that pain you described.”
    “This is going to sound strange, but does it feel deliberate to you?”
    “What do you mean, deliberate?”
    “Like someone is actively messing with your abilities, trying to control them.”
    It felt exactly like that. Like someone or something shoving the visions at her. But that was impossible. Outside of the December family, she didn’t know anyone else in San Rey who had abilities.
    “Auntie, could there be—” Keith knocked on Erin’s bedroom door. She never discussed her and her family’s abilities with Keith or anyone else who wasn’t a December. Never. “I’ve got to go,” she told her aunt. “But I think there’s a possibility here we haven’t discussed.”
    “Come over tomorrow. Your father wants to see you.”
    Keith opened the bedroom door. “Dinner’s ready.”
    Erin held up a finger for Keith to wait. “I’ll stop by after work,” she told her aunt.
    “Bye, chicken. Take care of yourself.”
    “You, too, Auntie. Bye.”
    Erin ended the call and got up from the edge of her bed, smiling at Keith through her new worries. “I’m starving. What are we having?”
    “Meatloaf sandwiches. I thought you could use some comfort food.”
    “Sounds good.” She walked into his arms, needing more comfort than food could give her.
    He smoothed a hand down her hair. “I have some vacation time coming. Why don’t we take a few days and go somewhere? We could go up to Santa Cruz or down to Los Angeles.”
    She pulled back to look up at him. “I just started my job. I can’t take time off right now.” He had nice hazel eyes with no wicked dark ring like Graham’s. Where did that thought come from?
    “We could leave on a Friday after work and come back Sunday,” he continued to press. “I’d really like to take some time, just the two of us. What do you say?”
    She knew what he was getting at, what he wanted. He wanted to take things to a level she wasn’t sure she was ready for. The panic started as a low hum, a tightening in her chest. She pressed her face to his shirt and closed her eyes. She could do this. She should do this. It was normal for girlfriends to want to have sex with their boyfriends. They’d been dating long enough that his suggestion wasn’t out of the norm. Except she couldn’t seem to drum up any excitement for it. He was handsome, attractive. Everyone thought so. What was wrong with her? Why wasn’t she sexually attracted to him?
    Maybe if she just gave it a try, the attraction would come. His heart beat as steady as he was and she found herself agreeing.
    “Yes. Okay.”
    He tightened his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll make the arrangements. Would you like me to surprise you?”
    “I’d like that. I like surprises.” She needed someone like him and his normal.
    He turned them and guided her toward the kitchen. “Then it’s all set. Come and eat your dinner. Later we’ll watch some TV or a movie.”
    She sat down at her small kitchen table. Keith sat across from her. He seemed a little lighter, a little happier. If