by Regine Abel
In a way, I shouldn’t be surprised that he occasionally acted awkward around me, especially at the times he appeared to be flirting with me, like he did every single time we had dinner together. After all, he had essentially no experience with females. I had never flat out asked, but I believed he might actually be a virgin. That thought was mind-blowing and was incredibly exciting. What would Chaos say if he knew that I was as well, and couldn’t think of any other man I would want to lose it to other than him?
Stepping out of the shower, I quickly dried myself. I slipped on a small negligee then brushed my hair before bed. Sitting in front of the mirror, I watched the brush untangle the wavy length of my locks and wondered what it would feel like to touch his short black hair. A part of me regretted that it wasn’t longer. I would have loved to slip my fingers through it and rub my face on its silky length. However, the military haircut Chaos sported not only suited him and made him look badass, it also matched his by-the-book personality.
A quick look at the clock indicated a few minutes after 10 PM. I was nowhere near sleepy. Being quite the night owl, I usually found my way to bed a little after midnight, later even if I didn’t have to be up early in the morning. Unfortunately, we would land on Khepri at first light. As excited as I felt at that prospect, having dreamt my whole life of earning that tremendous honor, I feared this would also be the moment I lost Chaos.
It was a strange thing to say considering I didn’t actually have him. And yet, over the past few days, we might as well have been joined at the hip. Once he returned to his homeworld, would he forget about me, or be swallowed up in his endless duties, preventing him from having any time for the newbie Aspirant I would now be? Aboard The Renegade, there hadn’t been that many other options to keep him busy since we’d been all but trapped inside the ship. But back on land, with countless dignitaries seeking his attention, the duties of being the face of the Vanguard alongside Legion, and above all, this very important rescue mission would all mean no more time for yours truly.
The worst part was wondering whether or not I would have a place on that team. He had already hesitated about bringing me on the initial mission to Fobos, so I couldn’t see him being any less reluctant for this upcoming one that was far riskier. And yet, he had stated that my performance had been stellar. I also had a unique connection with the Mimics. Surely, he would want to leverage that? I needed to think and list all the arguments why bringing me along would make sense. At the same time, I didn’t want to jeopardize my chances to earn my Vanguard insignia by being too much of a diva and making demands.
How the heck was I supposed to sleep with all this stuff going through my head?
Putting down the brush with a heavy sigh, I rose from my chair. I double-checked that all my belongings were packed, aside from the toiletries I would use in the morning, then made my way to my large bed. Just as I sat at the edge to remove my slippers, a strange tingling on my nape was the only warning I received before being swept up by that now familiar falling sensation.
This time, I braced for wherever Shuria was pulling me to. However, it struck me as insane that she would still manage to reach me. By now, she would be deep in Kryptid space, if not already at her destination, while we were at the very heart of the Coalition space, close to Khepri. Only Ayana had the psychic range to communicate with another psychic over such a huge distance.
The distant sound of water raining down reached my ears first, becoming more precise as my feet landed on a hard surface, and the dark veil before my eyes lifted. My heart all but stopped in my chest at the sight it revealed. I was nowhere near the Moon of Melibos, amongst mutant hatchlings and modified Mimics used as Kryptid Queens. My consciousness was standing four doors down the hallway, inside the bathroom of the Warrior that has been haunting my dreams—or rather the very naked Warrior that has been haunting my dreams.
Technically, that shouldn’t have fazed me; after all, Xian Warriors went to battle naked so that they wouldn’t tear their clothes or get stuck in them once they morphed into their battle form. But there was something different about the intimacy and sensuality of watching someone showering.
A wave of lust and frustrated desire—not my own—slammed into me. Had my physical body been here, my knees no doubt would have buckled beneath me. It was like a bucket of oil had been poured over the flame of arousal that had already been burning deep within. I stood transfixed, mesmerized by the embodiment of perfection on full display before me.
My brain finally unfroze but, to my everlasting shame, my eyes refused to avert themselves.
I need to get out of here before he notices my presence.
Whatever would Chaos think if he caught me? Would he ever believe that I had never intended to intrude on his privacy? That this once more occurred against my will? Just as that thought crossed my mind, Chaos sighed with relief as his loin plate parted, revealing his engorged cock proudly erect. The look on his face clearly expressed how uncomfortable his erection had been, trapped in its confines.
The scent of cinnamon and ginger wafted to me, strong and potent. My arousal immediately spiked as if I’d been injected with a dose of pure, concentrated lust. Reeling, I willed myself to return at once to my body. A tingling sensation washed over me as my consciousness attempted to leave, but something pulled at me, keeping me shackled; the same force that had brought me here to begin with: Chaos.
And yet, as Chaos closed one hand at the base of his shaft, squeezing it tightly, I was convinced he wasn’t even aware he’d drawn me to him with his desire. Leaning against the black tiles of the shower with his other hand, head bowed, the Warrior scrunched his face as if in pain while the water rained down on him. From the way he inhaled deeply before slowly breathing out, his right hand still tightly squeezing the base of his cock, Chaos was clearly trying to get his raging erection under control.
Why isn’t he masturbating instead?
Whatever the reason, and despite the shock, panic, and arousal messing with my head, I felt oddly flattered that he didn’t. I believed beyond any doubt that thoughts of me had put him in this state. That he wouldn’t indulge in self-gratification while picturing me felt incredibly respectful.
Or is it merely because he won’t give in to lust for a woman who isn’t his soulmate?
That cut deep, all the deeper that it rang true.
Chaos suddenly lifted his head, as if listening for something, then jerked it right towards me. My stomach dropped to my feet as a horrified expression descended on his beautiful face. Although he couldn’t see me, it felt as if our eyes locked for a split second before the falling sensation swept me into darkness.
I fell heavily back into my body, which was still sitting at the edge of the bed. Jumping to my feet the way one sits up in bed when waking up with a start, I pressed both hands to my chest to keep my heart from beating its way out. My core still throbbed from the strength of the arousal I had felt, and my damp panties were further proof of my trespassing, both things I really didn’t need right now.
I stared wide-eyed at the door to my private quarters, wondering if Chaos would come banging it down in outrage, and if I would even hear it through the ruckus of my blood roaring in my ears.
I couldn’t tell if a second or ten minutes had gone by since my consciousness reintegrated my body, but the sound of Chaos’s voice in my mind nearly made me jump out of my skin.
“Sabra… You just paid me a visit.”
His voice was conversational, matter-of-fact, and devoid of any anger. For some reason, that freaked me out even more. It was like the calm before the mother of all storms.
“I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t mean to! It just happened! I can’t control this. I—”
“Hush, Sabra. It’s okay. You did nothing wrong.”
I exhaled a shuddering breath, and my shoulders slumped with relief. I could have cried from being so scared. The Vanguard was extremely strict on respecting other people’s privacy and not abusing one’s pow
ers. To be so close to reaching the goal I had worked my entire life towards only to have it taken away from me because of something I’d had no control over would have crushed me. Worse even, the thought of losing his respect would have been beyond devastating.
“Did you only feel a falling sensation again before it happened?” he asked.
“Yes. Once I realized where it took me, I tried to leave, but I couldn’t. There was a tug pulling at me, keeping me in place.”
Through our psychic link, I felt his embarrassment which made me immediately regret being so candid considering what I believed to have been the cause.
“I see,” Chaos said noncommittally. “Give me a second to make myself presentable, then I want you to try and come back the same way to wherever I’ll be standing. It was a mistake for us not to have started practicing this sooner. I had intended for Raven to work with you on it, but since we seem to have established a connection, let’s seize that opportunity. Unless you are too tired?”
“No, no!” I said quickly. “I’m more than willing to try now. I would like to get some control over this to avoid even more awkward situations in the future. I am truly sorry.”
Looking down at my skimpy outfit, I decided it wouldn’t do. Although he technically wouldn’t be able to see me if we succeeded in me Ghosting him again, I didn’t want to risk it, especially not after this little shower incident. My face heated again just at the thought of what I had witnessed. Maker! I had wondered what a Warrior’s privates might look like, but I’d never expected this. Well-endowed did not even begin to do him justice. As aroused as that image made me, the dull throbbing between my thighs rearing its head again, a part of me also cringed trying to imagine accommodating such girth.
Forcing my mind away from the gutter, I slipped on a pair of leggings and a sports bra. Before I was even done putting on my top, Chaos’s mind poked me, giving me the signal to go ahead.
I resumed my spot sitting at the edge of my bed, and focused on him, using his psychic signature to try and project myself to his quarters. I’d never seen the insides, so I didn’t quite know how that would translate, and where I would end up. How awkward if I appeared right on top of him, ethereal though I would be?
Within a second, darkness surrounded me, but instead of landing inside his room, I ended up inside his psychic void. The sight of his stunning soul, left bare and unshielded, took my breath away. The dancing lights that formed it swirled in a more or less spherical fashion. At the very center, a smaller sphere, golden in appearance, pulsated and seemed to act as a magnet around which the other lights coalesced.
Why would he leave himself open like this?
One didn’t expose their naked soul to anyone but their true mate. Was that a hint of some sort or merely wishful thinking on my part? Then again, I wasn’t supposed to enter his psychic void, but merely visit his quarters.
Despite being mesmerized by his beauty, I pulled out immediately and whispered an apology.
“Don’t worry, Sabra,” he said with something akin to a psychic caress, but so subtle I couldn’t swear to it. “We’re trying to figure this out. It is bound to fail a few times, but we’ll get there, together.”
Those words did funny things to me. I couldn’t feel his emotions anymore, nor was I trying to, but my instincts were sending me strong signals that didn’t merely feel like wishful thinking.
After a dozen more failed attempts all resulting in me entering his psychic void, Chaos suggested switching things around. This time, he would attempt to wish me by his side. I braced and waited for it.
It worked in a blink.
I couldn’t tell if our proximity influenced the speed at which my consciousness was transported to his quarters, or if the fact that I was waiting for and wanting that connection hastened the whole process, but I ended up in his room so fast I barely felt the falling sensation.
Chaos was standing next to a small working desk in the left corner of his room. Naked but for a pair of training shorts, hands clasped behind his back, feet slightly apart, he exuded military discipline that was such a defining part of his personality. I was standing directly in front of him, maybe two meters away. A strong sense of anticipation and excitement emanated from him. And yet, he clearly could not feel my presence.
I took a second to glance around the room, amused to find it meticulously organized. I bet that if I peeped in the bathroom, the towels would be perfectly aligned on the rack, and the labels of whatever toiletries he may have left there would all be facing the same direction.
“It worked!” I mind-spoke to him.
His eyes widened, and he glanced around the room, trying to sense me.
“That’s great! Don’t tell me where you are. Let’s see if I can detect you.”
“Okay,” I replied, his excitement enhancing mine.
He started moving in a direction opposite from me, heading around the crazy, massive bed and towards the small sitting area at the back, his deadly gait elegant, almost feline as he prowled around the two-piece couch set. His eyes flicked this way and that, looking for his prey. It was oddly thrilling, almost like playing hide and seek, but doing so in plain sight. I bit my tongue not to tell him “you’re getting colder” as he approached the breakfast table opposite the seating area. As Chaos moved back towards the desk, which was right next to the door leading to his en suite bathroom, I braced for what would happen once he reached me. I was standing right in his path, counting his steps, the pulse of my ethereal form picking up the pace.
Electric shocks ran through my spine when he stepped through me. He gasped and recoiled, taking a few steps back to look at me, or rather right through me.
“I just walked through you, didn’t I?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied, “and it felt every shade of messed up.”
He chuckled. “I still can’t feel you, though. I wonder why that is.”
“Shuria also couldn’t feel me at all, until a few minutes had passed,” I mused. “Actually, that’s inaccurate. She only seemed to sense me while going through an emotional moment. The first time she had just killed the young mutant named Loumin and was grieving her loss. The second time, she was injecting the mutants to keep them from turning again. She hated that she was causing them pain and seemed desperate that there was nothing more she could do. Maybe try to get strongly emotional about something?”
I felt silly suggesting it, and therefore gave myself a teasing tone as I spoke those words, even though they felt logical to me. My assumption was that only a strong emotional state was pushing them to seek me in some way. For Shuria, it had been the distress over the young Mimics, and for some reason, both she and Herina had seen me as a kindred spirit of sorts. For him, it had been his burning desire for me.
Of all the emotions he could have chosen, I did not expect the crushing wave of sorrow that crashed over me. Although his face showed nothing of what memory had provoked it, Chaos had tapped into a deep wound of the type that either took a lifetime to heal or maybe never did.
He blinked and then his face lit up.
“I feel you,” he said out loud. “I can’t see you, but I can most definitely feel you. Your presence is so strong, I believe that if I reached out, I could actually touch you.”
“Try?” I suggested.
As soon as he did, the same lightning coursed through me, followed by a tingling sensation for the whole time his hand moved through the empty space where my ghostly form stood.
“Go back and let’s try this again,” Chaos said.
“Okay,” I whispered, still reeling from the depth of his sorrow and fighting back the urge to ask him about the source.
This time, I had no problem returning to my room. My attempts to return to him myself failed a couple more times before he wished me to him again. It took us awhile to figure it out but asking him to wish me with less intensity slowed down the process of me teleporting to his room. That gave me a chance to actually feel the tug that was getting me to Ghost,
which was quite different than following a psychic signature, which is what I had been doing. Using that instead, I finally managed to initiate the Ghosting without his intervention. After I was able to reproduce it a couple of times, Chaos called it a night.
“Excellent work, Sabra. You continue to impress me,” he said in a strange tone that made me tingle in all my naughty places. “Go sleep. A busy day awaits you tomorrow. I can’t wait to hear what you think of Khepri.”
“I’m the one who should thank you for spending so much time helping me figure this out,” I said with genuine gratitude. “Sweet dreams, Chaos.”
I willed myself to return to my body and swiftly changed back into my sleeping gown. As I slipped under the covers and lay down on my heavenly mattress, I chewed on my bottom lip, wondering if I should be so bold as to send him one last message.
“You should shield your soul,” I mind-spoke to him at last, unable to resist the urge. “While I was honored to see it first-hand, it felt like trespassing.”
A mixed bag of emotions seeped through our psychic link, curiosity, uncertainty, and an underlying determination that left me confused.
“No one sees my soul unless I wish it.” Chaos finally said after a beat. “I have nothing to hide from you, Sabra. Nothing. Sweet dreams.”
With these last enigmatic words, the wretched man disconnected from my mind. Sleep did not come quickly.
Chapter 10
Sabra
Heart pounding, I followed Chaos’s tall frame onto the ramp into the large docking bay on Khepri. Surprisingly, instead of the usual black and gold color palette of the Vanguard, steely-blue walls enclosed the massive ship hangar, with dark-gray metal plates covering the floor. The collection of vessels lining the outer walls of the huge space was a pilot’s wet dream.