“But tonight is another trial run in putting you in and pulling you out. So it’s important for our research, but there is nothing for you to do. Just relax and do what you would normally do. We will be monitoring you, but all we can see is your heart rate and respiration, brain activity etcetera. It’s not like we’re eavesdropping or anything. All right, we have things to do before we get there, so, we’ll get going. You have things to do, I suppose. So we’ll see you tonight. Enjoy your day.” She stood up and grabbed her things and moved away from her chair, turned on her heels, and stalked off.
“You have seconds to follow me, Watchman,” she sang over her shoulder.
Her Watchman chuckled ruefully and got up to follow her. His eyes had never left her as she walked away from him. “More beautiful every day, coming and going,” he said aside to Nathan just before he hurried to catch up.
Nathan shook his head and finished his coffee. He got up and dumped his plate, mug, and cutlery in the washing area. He took a deep breath and considered his options for the day. He had energy roiling under his skin. A long workout was definitely in order. Pie and coffee might not be a great breakfast, but hell he’d eat something better later on. He headed back to his current quarters to change into some loose cottons for his workout.
Three hours later he was starving. He hit the showers and washed off the sweat he’d worked up. He happily stood under the water for a few minutes to just let it sluice over his body, arms braced on the tile wall, head down, and ignoring the hunger growling at him. The water felt too good to cut short. His workout had lasted for almost two hours without any flagging of his energy. After that he’d played spotter for some of his friends, talking and laughing as he hadn’t for a long time.
He pulled himself away from the wall and ran the unscented shower gel over his body. He relished the feeling of touching his skin without it feeling so sensitive it almost hurt. His skin had evened out as soon as he’d met Kian. By the next morning he’d felt basically normal. It made sense. If the docs were right, then Kian was his. He was just somehow jumping around in time because Gaia and Lady Luck wanted them to get together. And now they were going to try to bring Kian forward. He shook his head at his life.
They had to find a way to bring Kian here. The death notice he’d found said Kian had died on New Year’s Eve 1999. He’d been found in the alleyway behind his shop. Nathan had stopped looking after that. He couldn’t keep looking. His eyes had stayed on the date of the death notice. If he was right, then when he went back tonight, it would be the day before Kian died. That meant they had next to no time to find a way to bring him forward. Nathan knew he would die without Kian. Watchmen didn’t survive long without their Balance. Mother Nature obviously had her issues. When a Watchman Enhanced, he or she had a limited time in which to find their Balance. And once they found each other, they couldn’t survive the other’s death.
Nathan didn’t know any Watchman who wanted to survive the death of their Balance. The two were too intertwined. Couples that had been together a long time even had a synchronized heart and breathing rate and refused to be separated from each other for long periods of time. The fact was that couples eventually retired together and most times ended up as instructors in the various Towers around the world. It gave the Newly Enhanced hope for finding their Balance when they felt lost in a new and confusing world.
That was how Nathan had felt anyway, all those years ago when he had woken up one day and could smell chicken congee cooking for breakfast, six houses away. His parents had taken him to be tested that morning, and by the next day, a bewildered seventeen-year-old Nathan had been unpacking his clothes in his room at the Alcatraz Tower. He’d had that room for ten years. It was in the part of the Tower where Unbalanced Watchmen lived. If things went well, then he and Kian would move into new family quarters soon, so soon.
“Hey, Nate, we’re going to play a game of pickup basketball. Wanna join? Make it three on three?’ Watchman Liam Bennet was leaning against the locker when Nathan came out with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“Sounds good. Let me get dressed and I’ll meet you on the court.”
Liam nodded and walked away. Nathan knew he had too much energy to sit still for now. Food would have to wait a little longer. He threw on some clean sweats and ran out to the court area.
He found five Watchmen waiting for him. He and Liam were the only males. Chou Roberts, Sara Moore, Sophia Peterson, and Kath Collins were four of the rare and truly dangerous female Watchmen at the Alcatraz Tower. They all had the Enhanced speed and strength that all Watchmen had, and beyond that, however, they were all Aurally Enhanced. Their extended and superior hearing made them invaluable as operatives. In fact, each lead her own team in the field and often worked with either the police forces or armed forces because there was literally nothing they couldn’t hear in the field.
Nathan bumped fists or shook hands with everyone before they split up and played for the next hour.
* * * *
Fresh from another hot shower, Nathan and his basketball buddies filled their trays with copious amounts of food and sank down in their chairs at the commissary.
“So have the ants stopped crawling?” Kath Collins asked Nathan, gesturing at her own arms. “They don’t tell you that for the first few days it feels like that all over. Almost like all this extra energy is pooling just under your skin. I had so much energy in the first few days after I Bonded with my Balance I couldn’t sit still. It’s that way for most of us. We are so happy to find our Balance and then have all this energy. Most of us spend a lot of time in bed, but there is only so much sex you can have before you get kicked out of bed. The Watchman gets all this energy, but the Balance is all normal for the first few months. They don’t get their extra fitness and stamina until later,” she finished, looking at the others around them.
Nathan followed her eyes with his own to see the Watchmen around him nodding solemnly and seriously.
“So where is your Balance?” Sara asked, looking around and smiling at the man who came up to her.
Her Balance was six feet to her five feet and built like a bodybuilder, where she was a tiny and trim pocket rocket. The table shifted as the Balances sat with their Watchmen. Nathan looked at his colleagues around him. Each Watchman with his or her Balance. Malcolm and Sara were the only opposite sex pair at the table. Most Watchman/Balance pairs ran toward a same sex pairing, but occasionally a male- female pair was found. This Tower had quite a few.
“Nate?” Sophia prompted. Nathan looked at her, and before he knew, he had spilled everything.
He took a swallow of his water and looked around the table. No one was speaking. They were flabbergasted.
Kath cleared her throat and spoke first. “You’re not lying. This is incredible. Tell Doctors Scott if they need help to let us know.”
No one spoke beyond that, and Nathan concentrated on his meal. He did notice that each pairing sat closer together, touching each other, most likely thankful that time had got it together at least for them.
They were quietly chatting inanely at the table when Nathan found himself stifling a yawn. He rubbed at his eyes. He heard Liam chuckle beside him.
“Time for you to get to bed, Sleeping Beauty. Say hey to your man for us. Can’t wait to meet him.”
And with that, Nathan found himself pushed to his feet and toward the door. He waved his good-night and went back to his rooms. He shucked his clothes and climbed into bed. He hugged his pillow to him. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
* * * *
He turned around and saw a familiar door. He pushed through into Kian’s shop and looked for his lover. Kian wasn’t behind the counter. Nathan looked around the dining room. It was empty. Looking at the clock on the wall, Nathan saw it was past closing time.
“Kian?” Nathan called, suddenly worried. He couldn’t hear anything. He could smell something burning and made his way to the kitchen. He turned off the pot of cherry filling that was burning
on the stove and put the pot on the stainless steel counter. A quick check and he turned off the oven, as well. He stood back and wrung his hands. “Kian, Kian where are you?” Nathan called again.
He extended his hearing, trying to find Kian. He heard nothing inside the shop. He targeted his hearing upstairs and again heard nothing but quiet. In a cold sweat, he pushed his hearing out toward the back alleyway, and then his breathing caught. He heard a low moan and scrambled for the back door. He tripped over some spilled flour on the floor and pushed himself through the back door.
His breath left him, and he dropped to his knees beside Kian, who was lying on the ground, a knife sticking out of his stomach. There was blood everywhere it seemed. There was blood pooling under Kian. He turned his face and looked at Nathan. Nathan pulled his shirt off and carefully wadded it up around the knife. He heard himself saying something, He almost laughed when he realized it was, “Fuck fuck fuck fuck,” but it was either that or scream and cry.
“Hey, you…I didn’t know if I’d get to see you again,” Kian whispered, one hand lifting to Nathan’s face. Nathan grabbed it and kissed it frantically.
He kept pressure around the knife in Kian but knew he didn’t know what to do otherwise. He didn’t have any of those little medical devices from his time on him and wouldn’t know how to use them in any case.
“I knew I couldn’t keep putting the gangs off for much longer…asshole came at me as I was throwing out the rubbish…I’m sorry, sweetheart, I don’t think I’ll ever see your world…I love you…” Kian kept whispering until he trailed off.
Nathan saw Kian close his eyes and screamed. He had no words, only pain.
“Move out of the way, Watchman,” was ordered into his ear as hands pulled him away from Kian and other hands started to examine the wound. “There’s not much time. He’s lost a lot of blood. We need to get him into surgery now.” The voices were talking, but it made no sense to Nathan.
Suddenly Kian was being wheeled away. Nathan made to follow and growled as hands held him back. He turned around to see Watchman Kath Collins holding him back. He turned back and watched Drs. Noah and Chloe pushing his Kian away.
“I don’t…I don’t understand…” he trailed off.
Kath nodded and released him. “Walk with me,” she said, and he fell in beside her. Her Balance beside him put a hand on the back of his neck, helping to keep him calm. “I don’t know the full story, but your doctors woke us up ten minutes ago. They thought you would need help staying calm and in control and we might be able to help with your control. They pulled you out of the dream when your heart rate went insane, and when you woke up, you had Kian with you. They pulled you off him, and they’ve taken him to surgery. They’ll do everything they can. You need to keep it together. Got it?” Her voice was hard and in control.
Nathan responded in kind. She was a powerful Watchman, and Nathan responded to her strength. He shored up his emotional shields and pulled himself together. He had to be strong. His Balance would need him to be strong.
Kath pushed him into a seat outside the med bay, and she and her Balance flanked him. Slowly, other friends, both Balanced and not, trickled in as word spread through the Tower of what had happened.
When Dr. Chloe stepped out of med bay to speak with Nathan, she stopped short at seeing the corridor packed with people. The silence was eerie for so many people. Nathan’s eyes were trained on her. He saw her take a sharp breath and push back her shoulders. She walked up to him.
“Nathan, Kian’s still under anesthesia. We’ll wait for him to wake up and then run some tests. You can sit with him if you want. We think he’s out of the woods, but we can’t know how he’s going to react. So far, so good, however,” she told him quietly.
She motioned for him to follow her and led him inside to where a chair had been placed beside the bed Kian was in. He looked so small and pale it made a whine escape Nathan. Kian had monitor cables attaching him to machines. Nathan found a clear spot and took Kian’s hand in his and kissed it repeatedly. He was whispering nonsense but couldn’t stop himself.
Kian had been cleaned of the blood. His sheets were standard Watchman hospital-white. The cotton blanket was soft and warm and tucked over his chest and under his arms. Both arms were hooked up to monitors. Nathan contented himself to listening to those monitors as they projected Kian’s health. The steady beeps and bleeps were in a way comforting, and Nathan felt himself sink into the rhythmic sounds, his breathing automatically following the rise and fall of Kian’s chest.
He lost track of time. The only thing keeping him there were the beeps and bleeps. When they went crazy, he snapped himself back. His hands were still closed around Kian’s, but Kian was…transparent, for lack of a better word. Nathan could see through him. He was fading from Nathan, growing less and less substantial by the moment. Nathan knew he was losing Kian. He was going. Kian was going. Nathan knew he was panicking. He didn’t notice he was screaming. Howling his pain at the universe at losing his lover, his partner, his Balance right before his eyes. Not even knowing he would follow this man into their next phase was any consolation.
“No, Kian, no! I’ve only just found you. You can’t leave me yet. Not yet. Kian, please,” he begged, hands grabbing at Kian’s shoulders and shaking him roughly.
Nathan barely noticed the med bay staff surrounding them, trying to pull him away from their fast fading patient. He just grabbed a hold of his man and shook him, yelled at him, screaming, “Kian, wake up! You need to wake up and stay with me.”
Someone put a shoulder to Nathan’s chest and pushed while someone else wrapped their arms around him and pulled, and Nathan found himself struggling with two large med bay security guards, fighting to get back to what was his. He snarled and growled and fought like a madman. He felt the hypo-spray at his neck and kept fighting anyway. He had to get back to Kian. He had to. He heard them screaming to sedate him while Drs. Chloe and Noah were yelling to set him free.
“Let him go, right the fuck now.”
The voice was new and ice cold. It caused everyone to stop and look around. They looked to the bed where Kian’s eyes were open and flashing his anger at the two men still holding Nathan. “Did I stutter, or are you just stupid? I said let…him…go,” he said again slowly.
The two men released Nathan, and Nathan ran back to Kian’s bed, falling to his knees beside it. He ran his hands over Kian, anywhere he could reach and touch. Kian pushed into Nathan’s hands as much as he could.
“Shit, Nathan, I feel about as well as you look. I have so much to tell you.”
“You…” Nathan croaked. He stopped and cleared his throat. “You were fading, leaving me.” He practically sobbed the last words.
Kian nodded. He reached his hands to Nathan’s face and wiped at the tears there. “I know, sweetheart. Gaia and your Lady Luck, and the other Sisters of God-knows-what, had to explain what to do. They showed me what was happening, what had happened behind my store. It took me a while to understand it all, but eventually I understood, and it was going to be my choice to stay here. I had to choose it with everything I am. I had to choose you and this world if I was going to stay. I didn’t understand how to do that until I saw they were going to hurt you, and then I got it. It fell into place. Gaia told me I was locked here now, just before I woke up.”
He looked away from Nathan and at the people around them. His eyes lasered on the two security guards still standing behind the medical staff. “If I see you two anywhere around my Watchman, I’ll make you regret it. You took him away from me, and you were happy about it. I don’t trust you around what’s mine, so I suggest you stay away. And you can wipe those smirks off your faces. If you think a Balance can’t make your life miserable, you’d be very wrong. The Balances of this time haven’t exercised their power. Lady Luck says that changes now. A properly trained Balance is an Empath. We can see into the soul of a person and know their worth. You can’t hide from a Balance. I suggest you take a hard look at your
selves and make some fundamental changes. Now get the hell out of my sight,” Kian ordered, and the two men fell into each other trying to get away.
Nathan stood there, shocked with everyone else, his hands still on Kian. He felt Dr. Chloe come up to them. She put some ice chips into Kian’s mouth and smiled. “I was wondering why I kept getting funny vibes off some people,” she muttered.
Kian nodded “There’s going to be training involved. Gaia said every Balance has that talent, to be able to fully help our Watchman, but for some reason, no one has paid any attention to it. She’s pissed about that. She also told me to tell you that there are ways to find a Watchman’s balance. Every Watchman dreams about their Balance. If not the person, then at least the area they live in or about their lives. A Balance and Watchman are linked throughout time. If you question the Balanced Watchmen, they’ll tell you they had recurring dreams about a place or something like that. Always the same dream over and over until they find their Balance. Now unhook me from whatever you can. I need Nathan in here with me. He feels like he’s about to lose it.”
Dr. Chloe nodded to her Watchman, and they unhooked and re-hooked whatever was needed, and in minutes, Nathan was in bed and wrapped around Kian, humming happily. Kian chuckled and patted his Watchman’s shoulder.
“Rest, Watchman. I’m here to stay,” Kian whispered.
Chapter Nine
Nathan watched as Kian looked around their new home. He had Kian bundled in blankets on the sofa in their living area. He’d been able to bring his Balance home a few hours ago. They’d kept Kian for five days, running tests and monitoring his progress from the knife wound. At one point an infection had started, but they had dealt with that quickly enough. He had also been hypo-sprayed with all the inoculations and vaccinations he would need in this time. He had even started to give the hypo=sprays filthy looks whenever he saw the little devices.
The Watchman of Alcatraz (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 7