by Regine Abel
Raven pouted with the same expression he used to make in his childhood whenever his mother would tell him to come do his homework instead of pestering the Warriors.
“Havoc already has the rest of you acting excessively serious all the time. I’m the fun factor in his life,” Raven argued before looking back at his son. “Isn’t that right, buddy? Isn’t Daddy the coolest one here?”
Havoc pawed at his father’s face, grinning at him with the handful of teeth that were already peeking through his gums. Liena rolled her eyes as Raven came to kneel in front of her. Holding their son to the side, he leaned forward to kiss the twins gestating in her belly before handing his mate their son.
“See? No more poopy diaper!” Raven said proudly.
“Good man,” Liena said before kissing her son’s forehead. “Keep practicing, you’re going to need it for when these two come out.”
“Have no fear, my Beauty,” Raven said puffing out his chest. “The man who managed to sire the first twins in all of the Xian history will not be intimidated by stinky bottoms.”
This time, Liena and I both rolled our eyes in tandem. After being the first Xian Warrior born through natural conception, Raven took great pride at this second first under his belt. It was well-deserved. Under the same circumstances, any other among us would have boasted and strutted equally if not more than he was. But his numerous blessings only twisted in deeper the knife of my loneliness.
Last week, Legion, Doom, Wrath, Rage, Steele, and I had all celebrated the sixty-fourth anniversary of our births from our incubators. A dozen other of our brothers from that very first batch of successful Xian Warriors had also celebrated that day. Of the six of us—tight knit brood—Wrath and I remained single. While I would maintain my youthful appearance for ninety more years—eighty-six to be more precise—before I started showing the first signs of ageing, each passing year meant less time with my potential mate… if one even existed out there for me.
“Come on, Stud,” I said, extricating myself from the tangle of limbs of the little rug rats. “Enough bragging about your prowess; Legion awaits us. You know how grumpy he gets when we’re late.”
“No more than you do,” Raven replied teasingly before exchanging a tender kiss with Liena. “Don’t forget to call Mother or Ayana to look after the boys if you get too tired,” he said to his mate after ending the kiss. “I know you and your bad habit of overdoing it.”
“No worries,” she said sheepishly. “Both Ayana and Victoria gave me the same warning.”
“Good,” Raven said, giving her one last kiss.
I winked at Liena in goodbye then made my way to the foyer of their apartment, Phoenix and Defiant each hanging on to one of my legs. I allowed it until I reached the door, shaking them off to Raven’s amusement before leaving.
“Seriously, how is your mate doing?” I asked as we casually made our way to the lift.
“She’s doing fine, although chomping at the bit to be active again and regain her access to the lab,” Raven said with a sympathetic smile. “My mate is as much a workaholic as my mother. However, with the pregnancy, she cannot go anywhere near the lab or anything that could expose her to any form of viral agent. Essentially, she’s benched for the next few months.”
I chuckled. “That’s a good thing,” I said. “She has overworked herself from the day she got here, and especially acquiring all the knowledge she can from the Dragons. There’s still much she can do. Victoria was the same when she was pregnant with you.”
We entered the elevator and flew up to the penthouse level where Legion’s apartment was located.
“I can only imagine,” Raven said with a smirk. “You will be happy to hear that I will be cutting down on my participation in missions. Don’t give me that look,” he said as I raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “As much as I love the battlefield, Liena doesn’t need the added stress of me being in harm’s way during this pregnancy. Once the twins are born, we’ll see. Until then, I will only do the goody two shoes missions like this one.”
I gestured for him to exit the elevator first as the doors opened. He nodded in thanks and followed me down the short hallway to Legion’s front door.
“I’m quite happy to hear you say that,” I said, genuinely pleased. “And no, I don’t mean it the way you think. Your mate needs you right now. And as overly protective of you as we tend to be, you have more than earned a place on any mission you wish.”
Some tension bled from Raven’s shoulders, and the shadow of a smile on his lips told me my words had touched him. To this day, he remained a little sensitive about us babying him.
“Truth is, fatherhood has a way of changing your priorities,” Raven admitted. “We’ve never had Xian twins before. A single fetus can be quite taxing for the mother because of their psychic link. Who knows how dealing with two minds will affect Liena? The next few months might be critical, and I don’t want to be away if things get complicated with this pregnancy. After that, my mate and I will discuss how we handle things moving forward.”
I smiled, feeling stupidly proud like a father gazing upon his grown son. Raven wasn’t my child, but the way things were going, he would remain the closest thing I’d ever had to experiencing fatherhood. We all had a hand in his upbringing, and our boy had certainly grown into a fine man.
“I couldn’t agree more,” I said, before stopping in front of Legion’s door. “Even Doom, your ever-bloodthirsty father, is starting to show signs of wanting to come home. He missed out on a lot of your youth due to the crazy wars at the time. Not two days ago, he was saying that he doesn’t want to miss out on as much of your young brother and of your sons’ early years. It will be good for Victoria to see more of him.”
“Agreed,” Raven said. “But you need to get a replacement Soulcatcher yesterday. The competition to take Tabitha’s place is getting ridiculous.”
I cringed and scrunched my face, wishing he’d not reminded me of this. “I know,” I said, feeling slightly discouraged. “But it’s a long-term commitment, and I don’t feel a connection with any of them the way I did with Tabitha.”
“Stop looking for a clone of Tabitha, old man. You’ll never find one,” Raven said mockingly. “Now, get your shit together and pick one,” he added, slapping the back of my shoulder in encouragement.
I grunted in agreement and pressed on Legion’s doorbell. Although we both had full access to the apartment, and despite knowing Ayana was out working—at least according to her schedule—we no longer simply entered his place without ringing now that he was mated.
“Come in,” Legion mind-spoke to me as soon as I rang.
Despite having a proper meeting room in the lower floors of the Vanguard HQ, we still made it a habit to have the small meetings in Legion’s office. As he and I equally shared the ‘informal’ role of leaders of the Vanguard, we should technically have alternated between meeting at his place and mine. However, Legion had earned his highly coveted penthouse apartment by winning a challenge we’d all entered into. As the rest of us all had the standard—although luxurious—Warrior apartments, we all vied for a chance to hang out in his posh place.
I’d eventually also earned one of the five penthouse apartments at the top of the HQ building but, by then, we’d all grown used to just meeting at Legion’s. Not to mention my place was the typical, bare bachelor pad. I could have leveraged the services of one of the interior decorators of the Vanguard but, for some silly reason, I didn’t want a random stranger defining what my living space—my home and haven—would look like. Its minimalist décor was a reminder that one day, a special woman and I would make it ours, with warmth, life, and a love reflecting the one that would burn between us.
Wishful thinking…
Walking past the plush living room in his black and gold apartment—matching the colors of the Vanguard—we made our way to the door between the paneled walls at the back. I didn’t bother knocking and opened the door to find Legion leaning against the wall by the floor-to
-ceiling window next to his large darkwood desk. Bane was sitting at Raven’s usual spot in the sitting area across from the desk. It had of course been deliberate. With the close friendship between his mate Tabitha—my former Soulcatcher—and Raven’s mate Liena, the two men had developed the type of bratty friendship often witnessed between siblings.
In many ways, it made sense, with both of them being the first naturally born individuals of their respective species—Raven as a Xian and Bane as a Dragon—and having only a one-year age difference. Although Raven said nothing, the look he gave Bane promised he’d get even in the not too distant future. It was incredible how much living in a safe, happy, and loving environment had softened the leader of the Dragons. He’d probably flip his lid if he knew that all the first generations Xian Warriors, including myself, considered him and his brothers like our sons through their mothers, our former Soulcatchers.
“Good, you’re here,” Legion said. “Early, too! I’m impressed.” Ignoring the face Raven made at him, he gestured for us to take a seat. “Let’s get this done so that I can get back to sorting out the massive headache that has become parental leave.”
Although he sounded dejected at the thought of tackling that chore, his joy at our growing numbers couldn’t be mistaken.
“That’s a nice problem to have,” I said teasingly.
“Indeed. Maybe I should dump that task on you, partner,” Legion said with false annoyance.
“You’re better for the job,” I said casually while strolling towards the other couch in his seating area.
“Actually, as the self-admitted OCD nitpicker, you would be the one better suited for this,” Legion argued. “We both know you’ll be reviewing what I do and giving me an earful because I didn’t cross this t or skipped dotting that i.”
“He will,” Raven said with a long-suffering expression on his face. “And then he’ll run your ears down about being more thorough in the future.”
Bane and Legion laughed just as Wrath was walking into the room.
“What did I miss?” he asked while taking a seat next to Bane.
“They’re picking on me,” I mumbled.
“Why? Did you nitpick about something again?” Wrath asked, matter-of-factly.
The others’ laughter cranked up a notch. Repressing the smile that wanted to blossom on my lips, I forced myself to glare at my brothers.
“My nitpicking saved your collective asses more times than I can count, Mr. I-forgot-to-replenish-my-depleted-DNA-reserves,” I said, giving Wrath a pointed look.
“I never said your OCD didn’t serve a purpose,” he retorted teasingly.
“And those skills are about to be put to the test,” Legion intervened, suddenly sobered, his eyes locked with mine. “I know that you and Bane were planning on going to Thirilia for their first qualification test. And I won’t try to stop you,” he added quickly when I frowned. “You need a new permanent Soulcatcher, and we need more backups to replace all the ones going on maternity leave. But once you’re done, I would like you to make a little detour by the primitive planet Fobos nearby. Our scouts have reported some odd activity on the surface after what they’d mistakenly taken for a small asteroid ended up landing instead of crashing.”
“Kryptids?” I asked, immediately tensing.
“Yes, but there’s something fishy,” Legion answered. He walked to the front of his desk to lean against the edge as was often his habit when addressing us in his office. “The Kryptids always travel in packs whenever they cross into Coalition space. Our allies’ scouts found none other in the vicinity. There have been no incoming or outgoing communications—or at least none that could be intercepted, not even encrypted ones. The ship didn’t crash, it landed in an extremely low population area—all of it small wildlife.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said pensively. “They always choose inconspicuous places near cities or villages so that their Drone Swarms can have easy access to their prey once they’ve hatched.”
“Exactly,” Legion replied. “They are running some disruptor, preventing us from getting a headcount of how many are down there or what they’re up to.”
“We have Vanguard patrols near Thirilia. Why not send them to investigate?” Raven asked.
“Because of another report we received from Thirilia itself, this time,” Legion said matter-of-factly. “Which is why I wanted both you and Bane here.”
The two younger Warriors exchanged a surprised look before turning back to Legion. Wrath and I stared at him with the same curiosity.
“Initially, I wanted you two to join Chaos on Thirilia so that Bane could introduce himself—and the Dragons in general— to Martin Galbrek, the head of the program there. A lot of your younger brothers will be reaching psychic maturity soon and will require a Soulcatcher,” Legion continued, looking at the hybrid before turning to Raven. “As for you, it was so that you could evaluate the efficiency of their program and the overall level of their graduates to see if adjustments were required. But then Martin sent me this an hour ago.”
Legion pulled out his com system, tapped a few commands on its interface, then all of our coms beeped with an incoming message.
“He wanted to keep the surprise until Chaos’s arrival in two days for the test, but something strange has happened with their top candidate; a young woman called Sabra,” Legion continued while we all glanced at the message.
“Rank five psychic?” Wrath asked, both impressed and slightly dubious.
“Martin and her trainers believe so, although we will only have confirmation from the test,” Legion explained. “They haven’t communicated that to her, though.”
“Nice!” Raven said with enthusiasm. “I wonder if she’ll have as great a Portal range as Ayana.”
“Not so fast, kiddo,” I said, involuntarily giving Raven the pet name he hated. “I’m starting to think that Martin had a few drinks too many while filling out her profile. This says Soulcatcher,” I said to Legion, my frown deepening.
“Correct,” he answered matter-of-factly.
Raven and Wrath recoiled, both of them now catching up to what was troubling me. Bane, having also noticed right away, was merely staring expectantly at Legion.
“That’s impossible,” I argued.
“That’s what I thought as well, and messaged him back about that mistake,” Legion replied. “I received his response ten minutes ago in which he confirms that, despite being Black, Sabra is indeed a Soulcatcher, not a Portal.”
“Fuck me,” Raven whispered, as stunned as the rest of us.
“But how?” Wrath asked. “It’s been thirty-four years since we’ve begun administering the enzyme to humans to make them psychic. In all those years, there’s never been a Black or Asian Soulcatcher.”
“And during the first thirty of those years, we thought they could only be Operators, until my Ayana,” Legion countered. “Even back then, we’d all felt it hadn’t made sense. During Ayana’s qualification test, I’d told her we’d never found any biological reason why non-Caucasians couldn’t be Soulcatchers. All we knew was that it had nothing to do with skin color specifically. However, the levels of three basic types of melanin do affect a number of systems in the body. Victoria believes that melanin combined with a specific cluster of genetic markers within each subgroup is responsible for it. The problem is finding out which cluster and what systems, targeted by which type of melanin. Maybe Sabra will help us figure that out.”
“Can you imagine if we were able to give all three abilities to our girls?” Raven asked with enthusiasm.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Bane said teasingly. “Let’s first confirm that she truly is a Soulcatcher and take it from there.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Does she also have the Portal ability?”
“No, only Soulcathing,” Legion confirmed.
“Mmhmm. But why the fuck did he delay telling us until now? And why not wait for the ‘surprise’ in two days as he’d originally intended?” I a
sked.
“Because Sabra entered a Dream Walk involving Shuria and another of the modified Mimics that are still unaccounted for,” Legion said grimly.
“WHAT?!” Bane and Wrath exclaimed simultaneously.
Bane straightened on his seat, his light grey skin becoming slightly paler, while Raven was content to stare at Legion, disbelievingly.
“Does she know where they were in that dream?” I asked.
Legion shook his head. “No, she didn’t recognize the forest, but it wasn’t on Thirilia. The real concern is that Shuria wasn’t aware of her presence at first. When she did, she psychically attacked Sabra, who remained unconscious for nearly sixteen hours. Martin sent me this message immediately after she woke up and was able to explain what had caused her massive psychic bruising.”
“They should keep her unconscious until she’s healed a bit more,” Raven said with a concerned voice. “If Shuria didn’t know she’d been there, then she either lured Sabra in unconsciously, or Sabra is indeed a rank five with some insane power to be able to hack into someone else’s Dream Walk. Even the Scelks cannot enter; only create a door and entice you to open it to let them in.”
My eyes widened with sudden understanding, and my head jerked towards Legion.
“You think Shuria is on Fobos! You think it was her ship that landed there!” I said, impressed by my brother’s thinking. “Tabitha will not appreciate you trying to outperform her as our best analyst.”
Both Bane and Legion snorted.
“Wait, what? Why?” Wrath asked, confused.
“Of course,” Raven whispered, catching on. “The distance. If Sabra is indeed a rank five, she might be able to establish a psychic contact all the way to Fobos. It would beat the alternative that Shuria is actually on Thirilia.”
I shuddered at the thought. “We need to go talk to Sabra and get the full story from her. And then we need to go deal with Shuria.”
“If by ‘deal’ with Shuria you mean capture her and bring her back ‘unharmed’ to be deconditioned, then yes,” Bane said in a stern voice, his multifaceted eyes leveling me with a hard stare.