“Merrick,” she croaked then gasped.
He lifted her upper back, taking her hand.
“I am here.”
She closed her eyes against his compassion. She didn't want his pity, either.
“Are you well enough to jump?” His voice pierced her consciousness, and she realized with a start that she had slid into semi-consciousness.
Beth shook her head, and her gorge rose from the movement, her head swimming.
“No,” she whispered, hating how weak she was.
“The sun is out, and there is a body of water beside us, though it rushes.”
Beth could hear the sound, a great white noise of a thousand butterfly wings.
She floated.
“No—Jasper!” Merrick said in a harsh command. “I can pulse Calvin.”
Beth's eyes flew open.
Another inductee? She couldn't bear it.
“No,” she clutched his shirt, the cloth rough under her fingers.
“I can save you if you jump in this body of water.”
Seconds ticked by while she reconciled the current disaster.
“Take me to it.”
Merrick picked Beth up, and she bit her lip. Her muffled cry of pain was not wholly contained, and Merrick flinched but kept moving.
He hiked down an embankment, never slowing.
When Beth's breaths grew closer and more shallow, he laid her on the small pebbles along the edge of the water.
The Skagit River—it came to Beth like the fuzziest memory. Her mind was swallowed by cotton.
The sun broke through the clouds and hit the river. Tiny reflections like fractured crystals sparkled across its surface.
“Take my hand,” she told Merrick.
Beth had no confidence it would work. The reflections came and went, winking in and out of her line of sight.
Reflectives, who were immortal only in their own world, could die in other sectors. Beth Jasper lay dying on a pebbled shore far from her home.
Then Merrick's large warm hand was in her own.
The last thing she saw was a bright diamond of herself, flung for her retrieval and subsequent jump.
Her hand convulsed inside Merrick's, and they were gone.
Muffled shouts in the distance quieted inside the vacuum of the pathway.
Fire and ice beat down on Beth's abused body.
Safety was all around her, for Merrick held her fast.
Beth slept as her body traveled to whatever location she had thrown them.
It was not Papilio.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Beth was better prepared as they landed, tossing herself away from Merrick and rolling in the air. She spread her arms wide for balance, her eyes wide open.
Beth was running on solid ground before she knew she'd landed. She slowed to a walk then stopped, turning to look at Merrick.
His arms came around her, and she jumped from the unexpected contact.
“You're well.”
Merrick gave her a good once over, making sure she was indeed in one piece.
She nodded. Her near-death on Three had been even more terrifying than her potential death at Ryan's hand.
They broke apart awkwardly, and Merrick turned away from her.
Neither said anything.
“Don't make it personal, Merrick,” Beth said.
It was the bravest utterance she'd ever made. She didn't want to push away the first Reflective who had ever been decent to her.
He didn't respond as she’d thought he might.
“I'm trying.”
Beth was stunned, forgetting her surroundings. They could have been in the pit of doom, and she would have disregarded it.
“What are you saying?” she asked quietly. He couldn't… could Merrick have feelings for her?
No male wanted Beth. She was a mongrel Reflective. Merrick had been in the panties of every woman who resided in Papilio.
No, something else is at play.
He turned, and his eyes were hard specks of pewter. His hands went to his hips, and Beth was struck by his sheer size.
Merrick dwarfed her, but he did not diminish her.
He rolled his shoulders into a shrug. “I care.”
Beth nodded. “Of course, we're partners… I feel the same.”
Merrick met her eyes, blowing out an exhale like a windstorm. “I… I don't think we can partner any longer, Jasper.”
It was a sucker punch.
He’d had her back, he'd saved her, and he’d healed her with the last jump. They were a good team. She was the best jumper of their kind and an expert foreign-sector linguist. Merrick was renowned for his weaponry skills.
He could regenerate in a jump and heal those who traveled with him.
Beth filled her lungs; ribs and internal organs whole and well.
“No,” she said immediately.
His eyes flicked to hers then away. “It is not that you're not a superb Reflective…”
“Then what?”
“I can't get past the gender issue.”
Beth's chin jerked back.
Merrick scanned their surroundings.
“Let's find another place to talk about this.”
She searched for something more suitable. They were in a small quadrant and had captured the attention of dozens of younglings.
They'd landed in the middle of a youngling educational center.
Marie Sortun Elementary the building read.
The younglings’ eyes were very round as they observed the conversation between Beth and Merrick like a Ping-Pong match.
“Agreed.”
Merrick walked away, maintaining a distance that hadn't seemed to matter a few moments before.
Beth frowned, pulling out her pulse and firing it up. After the slim communicator had initialized, she thought her command.
Location required.
Characters formed. She flicked her eyes ahead, keeping tabs on Merrick as she followed.
Quadrant: East Hill- Kent, Washington. Greater Quadrant- America
Back in Kent. Excellent. They could jump to… she thought a new command into her pulse communicator.
Nearest body of water greater than one-tenth kilometer.
A grid solidified with the outline of a small lake just northeast of their position.
Lake Mercian, .11 kilometers, northwest 4.6 kilometers of current position.
They came to the edge of a great overgrowth of thorny bushes, small deciduous trees and scrub brush.
They still drew the attention of the younglings’ wandering gazes, but their ears could no longer hear what Beth and Jeb said. Beth wanted to switch to Latin but knew how dangerous that would be.
As it was, they'd dropped out of the sky in front of a hundred youngling witnesses, who were impervious to Merrick’s mind manipulation.
“Jasper…”
Beth held up her pulse; she would not hear about how she was an inadequate female once more.
“We can jump at this location.”
She handed Merrick her pulse, and he studied the grid.
“All right.” He handed it back to her.
“I'll pulse Calvin, or he'll jump to this quadrant.”
That's all I need. Their mission was already compromised six ways to Sunday. A hundred witnesses had seen their jump, she’d almost died because she couldn't handle herself against five Three males, and they had Three deaths. At least their deliberate interference to save a portion of the future population had been successful; the Zondorae brothers would be eliminated.
It was deplorable.
No wonder Merrick wanted to cut her loose. She'd screwed her first mission beyond hope.
Beth clammed up. If Merrick didn't want her, then fine. There were others. She thought of Ryan, and her mind stuttered over the reality of a less-than-neutral partner. Some Reflectives would hesitate to leave her on a non-reflective sector—like One.
And then Beth would be stranded on a world so violent that the Papilio
embassy there was fortified with a non-reflective metal mined only on Sector Seven. The fey of that sector—they had an intimate knowledge of natural deposits.
She was expendable. Rachett had assured her that Merrick was dependable.
To Beth’s shock, he was. He'd shown himself to be even-handed and compassionate, though not with those who would bring them harm. The Threes at the cafe had deserved his wrath.
Merrick had taken care of her twice. She would have fed him had he been wounded. Beth would have killed herself carrying him through battle. She would have jumped to heal him if she could.
None of that was inappropriate; it was true Reflective camaraderie.
Now Merrick was behaving as though something had broken along the way, and he couldn't fix it.
He was too self-contained for her to think he would be interested as a male would be. No two Reflectives were ever allowed to marry.
That was sacrilege.
The goal of meeting one’s soulmate belong to all Reflectives. It forbid anything but dalliances.
She was fine with that; anything else felt a little like cheating on her future spouse—that perfect half to make her whole. There were Reflectives who weren't worried about it. The prospect of finding their soul mate in another sector seemed too faraway to be real.
Yet it was. Beth had seen it happen. That lucky Reflective’s internal timepiece finally disintegrates after their combative service for The Cause is satisfied. They are free to jump, not for battle, policing, and protection but to find their other half.
Hard to imagine having happiness without conditions.
Most likely, Beth's other half was from the sector her mixed genetics hailed from. However, she would not be privy to that classified information.
Rachett knew. Who else?
“Jasper,” Merrick called to her.
She started.
“We can discuss this more later.”
Beth shook her head, changing her mind again. “I want to know before we jump why you won't work with me.”
She looked down at her feet, expelling a tight breath.
“Is it because I was injured too much… weak?” Beth said the last word quietly.
“No.”
Beth jerked her face up, and Merrick's was so close she could touch him.
But she didn't.
“Then what?” she asked, her voice low, her hands clasped behind her back.
“The truth?” he asked, swiping hair away from his face.
The younglings’ happy noise filled the air behind them, the humidity of the world clung to them like damp fingers, and the call of the nearby lake to jump home was almost unbearable.
Beth wanted to leave Sector Three.
She wanted to hear Merrick's thoughts more.
“Is there anything other than the truth?”
Her eyes searched his.
“Not with me, no.”
That's settled then. “Tell me.”
He hesitated. “I can't accomplish our missions with a Reflective I feel I have to protect.”
Beth retreated a step. “I escaped Ryan's assault… he would have killed me—”
“I know.”
“It can't be that. I had things under control with those Threes.”
Merrick shook his head.
“No, they caused internal damage.”
Beth turned, pacing away. Her eyes began to scan for something to jump from—anything.
She couldn’t stand the words Merrick used.
Inferior. Female. Mongrel. They’re not actually the words he used, but they’re what she heard, what she’ll always hear.
“Jasper!” he called out, his voice a strike against her, soft like velvet, low, and commanding.
“Beth.”
Stopping, she could feel Merrick approach.
His body heat moved ahead of him like a wave, blanketing the path as he drew nearer.
“What?” Her body tensed, ready for the strike.
“Face me.”
Beth turned, and he put his hands on her shoulders. “I am sorry. I'm not as good with words as you are.”
The words that fell out of her mouth were hurtful but factual. “Rachett will put me with someone like Ryan.”
Merrick squeezed her shoulders and let his hands drop.
“I won't let him.”
“That's what you don't get. It won't matter. I need to jump, and I have to jump with someone.” Her voice turned bitter.
“It'll be some other male who hates what I represent.”
Beth bit her lip then reached out, putting her hand on Merrick's arm. “I'd rather have your resentful protection than abuse through the neglect I'll receive from another Reflective.”
Merrick swallowed, glancing at her hand.
She took it off his forearm as if it burned.
“Calvin won't hurt you.”
He was an inductee, like her. I don't think so, Beth thought. “I can't jump with him. He’s who you'll want back. Your trainee.”
Merrick grunted. “You know I can't go backward. Rachett will select another trainee for me.”
“When does your timepiece run out?”
Merrick knew the minute his ran out; every Reflective did. Why he didn't give Beth an immediate date was perplexing.
“Don't be a pain in the ass. Just tell me. And for the record, I think it's pathetic that we have to worry about me being abused by our own kind.”
Lance Ryan had proved that it was her reality.
“I have one year.”
“So it's degrading now.”
Merrick nodded.
“It's part of the transition. You know the gig. After four years of faithful service—”
“Perfect merit.”
He nodded.
“We can have the opportunity to find the One.”
Beth couldn't help the roll of her eyes.
Merrick frowned at her expression of disbelief.
“Don't dispute it, Jasper. There is a male out there just as perfect for you as there is a female for me.”
Beth shook her head.
“No, it's not that.”
She considered his sincere face and decided to tread more softly than she'd intended. “You've been around.”
She made a loop with her index finger.
Merrick shrugged.
“I don't deny it.”
Beth laughed. “I'm sure ʽthe Oneʼ is going to feel like one of many with your man-whoring.”
“And you're perfect, Jasper?” Irritation had crept into his voice.
He doesn't need to know what I’ve done. It's a big fat zero.
Jebediah Merrick was on a need-to-know basis about the void of her sexual experience.
And he didn't need to know.
She shook her head, beginning to move away from him.
“No, as I've been told, time and again—I'm so far from perfect, it's a tragedy I'm part of the Reflective. But I am discerning.”
Merrick said nothing.
A Three male approached and she noticed the school grounds had fallen silent.
She'd been so embroiled in her discussion with Merrick that she hadn't noticed recess for the younglings had ended. Their close proximity to the group had no doubt risen what the Threes called a “red flag.”
Wonderful, just what we need. Or what I need.
She had a partner who wanted to dump her, a new partnering with someone completely untrustworthy, and a Three male they couldn't jump in front of.
Merrick muttered it best, swearing under his breath.
“Fourth: jump only when unobserved.”
“We blew that all to Hades.”
“You two,” the male addressed them loudly.
“Let me talk,” Beth said and Merrick gave her a look. She was angry, the lake was approximately four and a half kilometers away and this rent-an-officer would be their undoing.
Of course, they had both let the emotional upheaval of an out of control jump and mission lead them around
by the nose. She was actually surprised that Merrick hadn't been more single-minded and insisted on returning immediately to Papilio. What an unmitigated disaster.
“These are closed school grounds.”
Five feet eleven, moderate mastery of indigenous handgun, right hand dominant, fatty layer interferes with optimum condition. IQ: one hundred ten.
Beth swallowed.
She hated the marginally smarter Threes. At least he wasn't a Sensitive. That would have been another disaster waiting to happen.
“Just passinʼ through,” Beth said in perfect local quadrant dialect.
“Odd place to pass through.”
Beth smiled, forcing warmth into her eyes for this stranger. She knew that Merrick would be tired from using his mental manipulation against so many, so he was essentially useless.
She hoped that being female would be enough.
She drew closer, and he never flinched. Beth was irritated that her body had never intimidated anyone. It never would. She was dangerous—deadly even. She just didn't look it.
He didn't palm his holstered weapon at her approach and was completely at ease.
“We're not sure where Lake Mercian is? Hoping you knew.”
His gaze swept their clothing, which was definitely the worse for wear.
“Yeah?” His eyes held disbelief.
“Not looking like you're taking a day at the beach on a Tuesday.”
Beth's mind scrambled for what that meant.
She began to panic.
Merrick answered. “We work the weekends.”
He’d sounded stiff but passable.
Beth's shoulders relaxed.
The guard appeared to weigh Merrick’s sheer physical potential.
“Yeah… okay.”
He dismissed Merrick, his eyes moving to Beth.
He drove them down the front of her, and heat rose to the surface of her skin.
She'd had males look at her with disregard, disparagement and indifference. But this frank appraisal was wholly different—and even more unwelcome.
She saw Merrick's hand tighten into fists and gave a little shake of her head.
The Three suddenly grinned.
“IDs.”
Beth's head swiveled to Merrick.
“I'm afraid I don't have mine,” Merrick said in carefully enunciated English.
Beth had hers.
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