Sensational Six: Action and Adventure in Sci Fi, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance

by Sasha White

  But she drew back to look at him. “You thought what?”

  For a moment, he debated saying what was on his mind. But as he met her large blue, compassionate eyes, he let himself go. “Because of my power, I was reconciled to living by myself. I never even thought about having a woman in my life. But now, I mean, this is so damn fast—” What else could he say that wouldn’t sound really stupid, like he’d known her twenty-four hours but could actually see himself being with her, loving her, spending the rest of his life with her?

  She kissed him, a long lingering kiss. When she pulled back again, she said, “I know what you mean. This is kind of ridiculous and so unexpected. But at the same time, extraordinary.”

  His heart grew buoyant, a balloon barely tethered in place.

  “You’re extraordinary,” he said, rubbing her arm lightly. He wanted to do this all over again. “I want to know everything about you.”

  Still looking at him from within his tight embrace, she caressed his face. He moaned softly and turned to kiss the palm of her hand.

  Enter my mind, she sent.

  Had he heard her right? He met her gaze again. “You want me to mind-dive? Deep mind engagement?”

  “I want you to know me. We’re in this, Samuel. And my instincts tell me that we’re in trouble, real trouble. The better you know who I am, the better we’ll be able to function together. But I can feel your hesitation.”

  Hesitation didn’t begin to describe what he felt. “I have to be honest with you; I’m completely opposed to the idea because I won’t be able to return the favor. My power is unstable. I’d never forgive myself if I hurt you. But beyond that, Vela, that prison was the worst nightmare you can imagine.”

  * * * * * * * * *

  Vela met his worried gaze, squinting as if in pain. “You’re afraid I’ll see those images.”

  “Mind-diving doesn’t just release one image, it releases from the pool of everything I’ve experienced. I doubt it’s controllable.”

  “No, I guess not.” She thought about her marriage. Samuel would see it all, the good and the bad, the love-making, the fights. She’d once thrown out an entire salmon dinner because of some comment Jeff had made.

  She chuckled softly.

  “What’s so funny? I don’t think this is funny at all.”

  So, she told him about the salmon and he started to laugh. He kept chuckling on and off. “Please don’t tell me you think that’s your worst flaw that you get ticked off and toss out perfectly good food.”

  “No, I guess not. But I’ll tell you what I do know; that I trust you enough to let you in, enough to let you see whatever is there.”

  She forced herself to relax, to breathe. She thought about her darkening ability, about Duncan and Merl, and that she had just had mind-blowing sex with Warrior Samuel. For months now, she’d been feeling an internal pressure, a need to be doing something, she just hadn’t known what. She had thought it would be related to Fiona’s rehab center, now she wasn’t sure at all because this felt right, being with Samuel and engaging her darkening power.

  A new path had grabbed her and she didn’t want to hold back, not now. She suspected that her life, her survival, would depend on forging ahead with strength and commitment, that nothing less would do.

  She shifted her body so that her legs slid off of his and she lay completely on her side next to him. She planted a hand on his muscular chest and for a split-second almost got lost in his physicality.

  She blinked a couple of times and cleared her head. “Do this, Samuel. I don’t know the why of it, but it’s important. Do some deep-mind engagement and let’s see what happens. Okay?”

  He shifted toward her and kissed her, then leaned back and closed his eyes. She watched him for a moment. He had fine lines beside his eyes and even now a certain tightness characterized his expression.

  When she felt his mind approach hers, she closed her eyes as well. But when she started to slide her hand off his chest, he caught and held it, which made her heart leap in a way she didn’t think was wise at all. The first flutter of love awakened in her heart. Was it too much to ask that she might actually fall in love with this man as well?

  She set the thought aside and relaxed her mind. She felt him approach like a soft caress. Mind-diving was so different from telepathy, which was essentially a mere laying of words over the mind.

  But this, as Samuel pushed the barrier of her mind and slipped inside, was incredible. He was there now, a formidable presence in her mind, more than she’d expected. She understood something about him right then, that Samuel didn’t really know the extent of his dark power, this Third Earth ability birthed during his captivity.

  Of course, a new problem emerged since she really liked him being inside her mind. Her body heated up instantly, her breasts tingling.

  He chuckled softly. You like me here. Your scent is flowing from you.

  I’m tempted all over again. Next time, be inside me like this.

  He moaned. Okay, this isn’t helping. It seems to take so little.

  Right. She forced herself to breathe.

  Focus on where you were born.

  Good idea. She aimed her thoughts into the past, remembering her parents and living in Philadelphia Two in the early 1800s, in what was then, by comparison, a small town. Learning to fly, almost drowning when she flew too close to a lake and her wings got caught in the water, which had been a nightmare. Riding horses and loving it. Growing up and falling in and out of love. Learning to play the piano, expected of a woman in those days. Then choosing a life of travel for a long time, folding from town to town, getting to know her local American world, north and south, learning several languages.

  She’d had itchy feet, never wanting to stay long in one place. She’d taken many lovers and felt Samuel tense when a lovemaking image would flow through her thoughts.

  Then a close call with a death vampire in 1922, slain by a Militia Warrior, a man who had finally spoken to her heart deeply enough that she’d married him. Jeff Barker. The grief of being childless and overcoming that grief. Of living with him for decades until his death five-years-ago. How much she’d loved making their house a true home, which she still lived in, a small piece of property near the downtown Borderland. Without thinking, she fell into her grief, remembering how often she’d wept, screamed, shouted. At one point, she almost pulled back, but Samuel whispered through her mind, No, let me see it. Please.

  She felt his permission to just feel all that she had lost so she did. He caressed her hand at the same time. What surprised her was that as she remembered Jeff’s funeral pyre, Samuel’s presence within her mind became a tremendous comfort. He even reached for her and pulled her on top of him and held her in his arms as once again she wept for the man she had loved and lost to the war.

  Somewhere in that shedding of grief, Samuel withdrew from her mind so that when she stopped crying she felt an emptiness that stunned her. But he cradled her gently, the heat of his male body soothing her. She sighed heavily.

  “You loved him.”

  “So very much. But thank you for being with me like this. I don’t feel quite so heartsick right now.”

  “Good. You’re an amazing woman.”

  “No, I’m not.” She chuckled. “I’m just me. I know I don’t have Havily’s style and ambition or Endelle’s flamboyance and power. I don’t see myself fitting in with these incredible women. I’m just me.”

  “Then you don’t see yourself clearly, how you picked up and left home to travel at a time when even female ascenders didn’t move around all that much. And then when you married your warrior, how you gave yourself completely to marriage, nothing held back. That’s a great quality to have.”

  “But I have to work at it. The reason I traveled the way I did wasn’t just because I thought it would fun or enriching, but because when I almost drowned I became afraid of the world and afraid to live. Traveling was a way to overcome that.”

  “But don’t you see, most
people don’t even take that step. They stay stuck. Shit.”

  “What?”

  “Like me. I’m stuck. This is the first time I’ve seen even a pinpoint of light at the end of this tunnel.”

  “Maybe it would be a good thing to at least try a mind-dive with me. I mean, you had a life before being captured. Maybe you could just work to release those images.”

  She felt his resolution, however, that he was determined to keep his years of torture from her. So, she let it go.

  Instead, she asked him what his favorite food was - lasagna - and a dozen other things that he could answer freely, which he did. He’d been a Militia Warrior since his ascension out of St. Louis One in 1908. He’d served as part of many civic policing forces throughout North America Two, battling death vampires in a squad of four warriors night in and night out.

  He liked tequila, maybe a little too much. He spent plenty of time at the Blood and Bite, but refused to answer specific questions about the mortal women who frequented that establishment. He’d only been assigned to the Phoenix Metro area six months before he was taken.

  “I’ve been a warrior all my life. Even on Mortal Earth, I’d intended on becoming a Marine when I received my call to ascension.”

  By now she lay on her side next to him, leaning her head on her hand, her elbow on the bed supporting her so she could look at him as he spoke. He still lay on his back, his arm over his head.

  “What was that like?” she asked, curious as all Twolings were, born on Second Earth, about the experience of a rite of ascension. “I’d love to mind-dive just to see what it was like for you. Did you have a Guardian of Ascension?” All really powerful ascenders received Guardians of Ascension to keep them safe from the enemy who wanted to either subvert them and use their power or to kill them outright.

  He shook his head. “No, not at all. Nothing like that. I had a liaison officer who was so bored with her job that I—” He cut off his thought.

  “What?” she cried. Then she shoved him with her hand. “You bonked her.”

  He smiled but he looked embarrassed as well. “What can I say? That pretty much summed up my rite of ascension. I spent three days in the sack with her.”

  Vela laughed. “She didn’t want more afterwards?”

  “No. We both knew it was just sex and besides, I went into the Militia Warrior Training Camp right afterward.”

  “Straight away? Not even one question that this was the right path?”

  “Nope. I knew what I was. But let me tell you, the day I mounted my wings for the first time was unbelievable.” He turned to look at her, his arm still angled over the top of his head. “You want to go flying some time?”

  She moaned softly. “I’d love it. I haven’t been flying—” she broke off, took a deep breath, then added, “Not in five years. I mount my wings of course to keep them healthy, but no, I haven’t been flying in a long time.”

  “Then we’ll go. Have you ever flown off the Mogollon Rim in Sedona?”

  “One of my favorites, catching the currents that stream down all those gullies, and inlets, through the canyon.”

  “We’ll do that,” he repeated, nodding.

  He was more open than she’d supposed he would be. Then he turned the tables, but instead of asking her questions, he told her what he knew about her from mind-diving. He spoke for a long time as he recalled the images he’d seen.

  She laughed at some, was embarrassed by others, let a few more tears fall, and finally got all worked up when he mentioned a couple of her lovers and began growling against her neck. One thing led to another and he was inside her again, thrusting hard and making her groan, whimper, and cry out all over again.

  She fell asleep afterwards, not even aware she’d done so.

  Samuel woke her up much later by caressing her arm gently and whispering, “It’s eleven thirty. Our chain-smoking host will be back soon.”

  * * * * * * * * *

  Samuel heard Merl calling to him, just as Vela emerged from the bathroom, her thick blond hair, now loose with that wild look he really liked. She wore fresh clothes; a pair of dark blue jeans and a light blue tank. She shrugged into a mottled blue sweater. She wore black flats. He had to restrain a sudden impulse to take her in his arms again.

  He cleared his throat. “Merl’s back.”

  He felt her tense up immediately, aware, just as he was, that they’d be taking their next step right now.

  He took her hand. “We’ll figure this out.” He’d been making war a long time, but Vela had no experience at all, which set his nerves on edge. From the brief encounter he’d had with the darkening, the wreckers had power, skill, and deadly intent. And he had no idea how they’d be able to get around them to secure Duncan and pull him out of his Third prison.

  But then again, some problems could only be solved one step at a time.

  He led her back to the open, tall-ceilinged living room, but he didn’t get far. Damn that Merl. The bastard was dressed to kill in a too-tight black t-shirt, his pecs flexing below the ceiling pot-lights. He wore black leather pants and boots with silver goddamn buckles. His dark hair, combed straight back, gave him that come-and-get-it look.

  And he wore his smirk with fucking pride, his hazel eyes flashing with challenge.

  Still holding Vela’s hand, Samuel pulled her close, but she shoved at him. “You’re hurting me.”

  He turned to her scowling. “What?”

  She held up their joined hands. “This hurts. Let go. Now.”

  “Fuck. Sorry.” The breh-hedden had fired up his caveman instincts, putting them in overdrive. He released her hand, but he couldn’t help stepping in front of her just a little.

  He heard her groan and he was pretty sure she’d just rolled her eyes. She breezed past him anyway, which ignited two disparate sensations at once: a sudden profound desire to haul her back to the bedroom and teach her what she needed to know about being his woman and pride that she wasn’t cowed by his stupid behavior.

  Conflicted as he was, he followed after her and somehow managed to keep his hands to himself. At least she had the good sense to stop fifteen-feet away from Merl. Any closer, and he’d be wrestling all over again with a man who clearly had more power than he did. But like hell he would care about that. Maybe he’d tap into more of his power and wouldn’t that be a kick in the balls for the asshole still smirking at him.

  “Don’t tell me you wasted all this time I gave you in a perfectly empty house,” Merl taunted. “What? Couldn’t get it up?”

  That did it. He started to release his dark power when suddenly Vela stood in front of him, both hands planted on his chest. “We are so not doing this,” she shouted.

  He took a step back. He even lifted both hands in surrender.

  He was about to start apologizing or something, but Vela then turned all that feminine rage on Merl. “And you! You’re the worst. Why do you taunt my man like that?”

  Her man? She’d called him her man? He started growling a soft kind of purr as he moved in behind her.

  But she jerked away from him again and shook her finger at him. “Would you please get hold of this caveman shit before I go ballistic.” She turned the same menacing finger on Merl. “Both of you!”

  When Merl also did his face-the-sheriff stance, hands up, she flared her nostrils in the prettiest way, lifted one brow, then shifted slowly in Merl’s direction. “Okay, that’s a little better. Now what did your Third refugee associates have to say about our little predicament? How do we get to Duncan?”

  “I hate to tell you this, but after debating your situation for the past several hours, we don’t have an answer. You can’t get to him.”

  “What? What do you mean we can’t?”

  He shrugged. “You fucking can’t. Ascender Alison closed up the Gateway to Third right after she opened it. And I think Sixth Ascender, James or Braulio, or whatever the hell his name is, added his own mojo. That baby’s locked up tight. No one in, no one out.”

&
nbsp; “But you said Third Ascenders have been making their way into this dimension.”

  “I think Sharav may have rigged something up, but I sure as hell don’t know how to access it.”

  “I just don’t understand,” Vela said. “I know that Grace could fold to Fourth, no problem.”

  “Fourth is a more advanced, open society. They went through the Council of Sixth, millennia ago, and as a society agreed to open their Gateway. The Council has a say in all Gateway matters. But Fourth is the exception.

  “And since Second Earth contains generally less powerful entities, except Endelle of course and Thorne, who is showing immense promise, well, it looks like Sharav, no doubt with Chustaffus’s blessing, has found a way through.”

  Vela looked back at the wall that held the darkening gate. “What if we got hold of a wrecker’s shotgun. We could then blow a hole in the darkening wall of Duncan’s prison and bring him out that way.”

  “What a great plan,” Merl said sarcastically. At the same time, he drew a lit cigarette into his hand from who knew where. He took a long pull, one eye squinting. “Just tell me one thing: How are you going to get a weapon away from a goddamn wrecker?”

  Vela narrowed her gaze. “You know, for a man with power, you sure don’t show much game.”

  Samuel snorted. Merl blew smoke in Vela’s direction. “I’m gonna let that go because you have no idea what would be involved.”

  “Then tell us, so we can be astounded at how stupid my suggestion was.”

  He sank into what seemed to be his favorite corner chair, leaning his head against the back cushion. He stared at Vela, but no smirk this time. Samuel liked him like this, less smooth, more I’m pissed at you.

  “Fine. Your first problem is that wrecker weapons are identified, like swords. And I don’t know anyone who can alter an identification like that.”

  But Vela glanced at Samuel. “I do. Alison altered Leto’s sword identification at the Tolleson arena battle.”

  “That’s right.” Samuel hadn’t yet escaped from his captivity when Alison went through her rite of ascension, a process that for her had involved battling Warrior Leto in an arena, sword-on-sword. “I heard about that.”