by Regine Abel
“Can you reach the girls?”
I shook my head, giving him a questioning look. “I don’t know who they are.”
“Tabitha, Sonia, and Bridget, the Soulcatchers accompanying their Warriors on that mission.”
“I don’t know Bridget, so I won’t be able to target her, but I know the other two. Let me try.”
It took me seconds to find the two girls. However, unlike the Warriors, they didn’t have the ESP capacity to communicate from such a distance, not even to receive my messages, let alone respond to them. That didn’t prevent me from detecting something had also been done to them to block their ESP ability.
I relayed that new information to them. Victoria and Legion questioned me further about their location, but I had nothing else to offer. I hadn’t seen through Raven’s eyes, only felt his thoughts and emotions. After receiving a call back from Wrath, Legion reluctantly left my side to deal with the crisis.
Victoria demanded I remain in observation for a couple of hours. She gave me a mild sedative to help me doze off, but nothing that would knock me out. In spite of it, my body fully relaxed, whereas my mind remained fully awake. The sense of imminent danger gnawed at me. I should be doing something, but I didn’t know what.
Five minutes later—or rather what had felt as such—I jerked up in my bed the way someone suffering from acid reflux would when bile suddenly surged up, intent on invading their mouth. In my case, it was Raven’s soul racing for me. Except this time, I was prepared. Rather than try to stop it or run away from it like the first time, I embraced it.
He flowed through me… through my vortex, only to boomerang right back.
He’s dying and his soul has nowhere to go.
The darkness outside the window made me realize I had managed to fall asleep for at least an hour, if not more. Shooting to my feet, I glanced around the clinic. The sudden movement drew Victoria’s attention. She rose from her desk where she’d been working and hastened towards me, a concerned look on her face.
“He reached out to you again?” she asked, guessing from whatever expression my face currently displayed that something had gone amiss.
“I need to go to the Incubator,” I said, ignoring her question.
She recoiled, her face closing off. Eyes narrowing in suspicion, she studied my face as if looking for some answer.
“Look, I know that room is beyond my security clearance, but Raven is dying, and I suspect that his companions are as well.” I hugged myself as a cold shiver ran through me. “He’s trying to come to me, but I don’t have a vessel. I know this is a really long shot, but I have a hunch. It struck me just now, when he passed right through me then back out. The same has been happening with Legion. I can’t hold them, but what if I could direct them towards someone or something that could?”
Victoria’s eyes flicked left and right as she analyzed my words, her wheels spinning with intensity. Refocusing on me for a moment, the doctor seemed to come to a decision. Her eyes glazed over as she no doubt communicated with Legion.
“Let’s go,” she said, leading the way out with determined steps.
Half-running to keep up with her, I sent soothing waves at Raven, unsure if he would perceive them. The sense of urgency from him threatened to overwhelm me. We entered the elevator and Victoria placed her hand before the biometric scanner, then her face for the retinal scan. A beep resonated, then a small panel at the bottom of the floor selection screen slid open, revealing a few additional secret floors. The doctor pressed the second button which bore a strange symbol. I bit my lip but kept quiet, wondering how many more hidden locations the HQ and Vanguard City possessed.
The lift flew down to its destination, stopping smoothly but still giving me that lurching sensation in the pit of my stomach. The door opened to half a dozen Warriors waiting to escort us in. Among them, Legion. Where his expression held mostly confusion, the other men’s burned with suspicion. I couldn’t blame them for zealously protecting their means of resurrection. It still hurt that they would doubt me after I’d warned them about the assassination attempt and while trying to save one of theirs.
Raven came at me again. This time, my steps faltered and my knees nearly buckled. In the two seconds that he had flowed through me, excruciating pain had clawed at me. Not physical pain, but far deeper. His body had already died.
“Hurry! His soul is unraveling.”
That lit a fire under everyone. We raced down the short, white corridor, where more biometric security needed to be cleared before we could get in. The doors opened on a surreal scene fit for the movies.
The large room, bigger than a football field, resembled a mad scientist’s lab, with huge glass tanks containing naked Xian Warriors in stasis—Shells as they called them. They floated in weightlessness, large tubes connected to their spines. A couple of Warriors had just retrieved a Shell from a nearby tank and were carrying it to one of the examination tables at the center of the room. Hanging on the thirty foot high ceiling, hundreds of Xian Shells floated inside liquid-filled, giant glass spheres. Curled up in fetal positions, these Shells were still in the process of maturing.
As much as I wanted to wonder at all the high tech equipment in the room, Raven’s state had reached a critical point. Raven rushed at me again, this time, much weaker than before, only to bounce right off.
The Warriors laid the Shell I assumed belonged to Raven on the table. But I didn’t feel any pull from it, not like with Legion when he crossed through my vortex. Even as he passed through me, I always remained aware of his body wanting him back, but not here. Cold dread slithered down my spine as I realized that my assumption—which had always been a long shot—might have been wrong after all.
One of the two Warriors tapped some instructions into the control panel appended to the examination table before they both stepped back. Legion kept me from getting any closer, stopping us two meters away. By then, I could barely feel Raven anymore. A keening sound rose from the table, followed by a zapping sound. The Shell tensed under a powerful electric discharge, then his eyes and mouth popped open. He drew in a loud breath through his mouth, followed by a couple more then his body relaxed and he closed his mouth, breathing normally. At the same time the red light at the head of the examination table turned green, I felt the pull from the Shell, like the rabid hunger of the famished screaming for sustenance. And behind it, Raven…
Pulling out of Legion’s grasp, I ran to the Shell, an identical twin to Raven, except for the absence of the small scar at the base of his neck. It baffled me that my mind would pick up such details in a time of crisis, but I had no time to dwell on it. With what strength he had left, Raven was coming at me, hard and fast. Placing my hands on the Shell’s shoulders, I leaned over him and peered into his vacant, black eyes. As Raven’s soul poured through me, I pushed it forward towards the Shell. It drew him in with greed. His back arched violently while an agonizing scream poured out of his mouth.
“Raven!” Dr. Lashan shouted.
Shoving me out of the way, she rushed to her son’s side and cupped his face in her hands. Legion protectively wrapped his arms around me, his eyes studying my face for signs of any adverse effect. The Warriors already in the room, and those who had followed us in, kept looking back and forth between Raven and me, shock and wonder plastered on their faces.
Pain contorted Raven’s features as he struggled to sit up, despite the spasms coursing through his body.
“G… get… others…” he said, sounding winded like he’d just completed a triathlon. “Chaos. Xenon. Get… them out.”
Without hesitation, the Warriors present split into two groups that rushed towards two tanks, each located on opposite sides of the room.
“Can you get them, too? Do you have the strength to save them?” Legion’s concern for my welfare and barely suppressed worry for Chaos and Xenon, both close friends of his, permeated his voice.
“I’m fine, physically, but I don’t know how to reach them. I’ve never tou
ched their minds. How do I connect to them?”
“Let me show you,” he said, cupping my face.
His mind touched mine, the familiar shiver of pleasure coursing through me at the intimate contact. Legion pushed his thoughts at me, and the image of Chaos took form. I couldn’t quite say for sure, but it felt like he attempted to reach out to Chaos. A wispy white thread, similar to what I saw when trying to reach a mind into the distance, shot out into the infinite. I knew it to be Legion’s and saw how it struggled to flow towards its destination, as if fighting back against strong winds.
Male-to-male communication push back.
Jumping onto the thread, a clear current drew my consciousness forward, my own thread leaving Legion’s behind as it raced towards its target. In seconds, I felt Chaos and locked onto him.
“Got him,” I said, exiting our mind meld. Blinking, I refocused on the room where the Warriors were laying down Chaos’ and Xenon’s Shells on two separate examination tables. “Hurry, we’re losing him.”
My heart pounded as I struggled even harder to hold on to Chaos than I had with Raven. His soul was unraveling at frightening speed and felt like sand trickling between my fingers. As soon as the electric discharge set the two hearts of his Shell beating, I threw myself at him. Where Raven’s soul had rushed at me, only requiring that I direct it to the right vessel, Chaos’ slumped like a drowning victim I needed to drag out of the water to give him CPR. He was so flimsy and slippery, I kept losing my grip and had to latch on quickly again before his soul retreated back too fast. As it drew closer to home, the resistance receded, and I finally managed to reel him in and propel him into his Shell.
Chaos’ eyelids fluttered and a painful rasp rose from his chest from a sharp intake of breath. His eyes rolled in his head giving off the impression of someone fighting off heavy sedation. Having done all I could for Chaos, I couldn’t worry about him anymore. One last Warrior’s soul was decaying without a corporeal vessel to maintain its integrity.
I turned towards Legion. Without a word, he cupped my face again and repeated the previous process, showing me Xenon this time. It took me a moment to see the white thread, so thin it was almost translucent. It hardly moved forward. I didn’t have to ask why. Throwing myself at it, I rode it as fast as I could.
My throat tightened at the flickering light I found. Almost nothing remained of him but a sliver of consciousness. It fluttered over me with the softness of a butterfly’s wings. I felt his dying thought more than heard it.
“Save the girls.”
His light flared, the bright glow spearing right through me like sun rays through water, then it faded, severing the flimsy thread that connected us. I emerged from the semi-trance shaken to my core. My gaze connected with Legion’s, and the sorrow I found there broke my heart even more.
My vision blurred with tears. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! I tried, but…”
“Hush, Sweetling.” Legion said softly. “It’s not your fault.”
He brushed his lips against mine as tears flowed freely on my cheeks, then pulled me into his embrace. I buried my face in his neck and let go. Xenon had been a stranger to me, yet, seconds ago, my soul had touched his only to feel him pass away. When he’d gone supernova, a part of him had left an imprint within me that I instinctively knew would never die. I didn’t know him and yet, somehow I did, and my heart bled for him.
Legion held me close against his muscular body. The scales on his chest felt surprisingly soft against my cheek. His free hand gently stroked my hair, the caress soothing me.
“He was already too far gone. I could barely sense him. Even his Soulcatcher couldn’t have saved him at this point,” Legion whispered against my hair. Pulling back, he wiped the tears from my face with his thumb. Despite the sadness still lurking in his eyes, a look of wonder dominated. “But you did bring back two of my brothers from certain death. What you have done is nothing short of a miracle. We can never thank you enough.”
I gave him a sad smile, but that thought did lessen some of the sorrow eating at me. I didn’t know Chaos well, but I had bonded with Raven and his mother. Peering over Legion’s shoulder, my gaze landed on Victoria helping Chaos to sit up. He still looked dazed and groggy, but otherwise fine. Raven, appearing fully recovered, stared with anguish at his fellow Warriors taking away Xenon’s Shell.
An intense wave of weariness swept over me. Sensing my weakness, Legion picked me up like a bride and carried me out of the room under the almost reverent gaze of the other Warriors.
* * *
I woke up to the sound of Legion’s hearts beating peacefully, my head resting on his broad, naked chest. It took me a second to realize we were both only wearing our undergarments. I stirred, and the thumb of his hand resting on my back caressed me in a slow, gentle motion. Lifting my head, my eyes connected with the endless somber depths of his. He smiled and I responded in kind. Propping myself up, I brushed my lips against his. Legion immediately tightened his embrace, the fingers of his other hand slipping through my hair. Our kiss deepened, lighting a spark in the pit of my stomach that ignited a timid flame.
Cool air hit my back as Legion tossed aside the comforter covering us. His hand roamed up and down my back before resting on my bottom, pressing me against him. It startled me at first not to feel his shaft, but then I remembered Raven’s naked body and the loin plate that had covered his manhood. I chased off the thoughts of Chaos and Xenon creeping in, threatening to snuff out the embers of my arousal.
Sensing my shifting mood, Legion rolled us over. “Stay with me,” he whispered against my lips.
The weight of his body pinning me to the mattress didn’t make me feel trapped but sheltered, protected. I wrapped my arms around him, my hand running down the smooth scales on his back and the rounded bone spikes lining his spine. His chest vibrated against mine, his mating song sending my senses into overdrive. My body quivered from his fingertips merely brushing along my side down to my waist. His lips trailed my jawline before sucking on my earlobe.
The cinnamon scent of his pheromones fanned the flame building in my belly. I moaned his name, wanting more, needing more. Legion shifted to the side to give his hand access to my chest. I arched into his caress as his large palm covered my breast over my bra. With three flicks of his thumb, he turned my nipple into a hard, achy pebble.
“Touch me,” I whispered, hungry for the direct contact against my skin.
He chuckled, sounding smug. Reaching a hand behind me, he released the magnetic clasp of my bra while his mouth traced a burning path down my neck to my collar bone. At last, his oddly soft hand slipped beneath my bra to close over my naked breast.
“Yes,” I said breathily, my fingers combing through his hair.
Legion lifted his head, then sat on his haunches, forcing me to let go. Feeling bereft, I almost complained when he reached for my shoulders to drag down the straps of my bra and free me of the annoying garment. Leaning back over me, his mouth closed over my left nipple, while he pinched and rolled the right one between two fingers.
I arched into him again, my hand finding its way back into his thick mane. I moaned his name as a soft throbbing blossomed in my core. Legion sucked and nipped at my nipple, each circular motion of his tongue sending a fiery wave of pleasure to my groin. With one final lick, he released my hard bud and gently rubbed the scales of his forehead in the valley of my breasts. A surge of lust exploded in the pit of my stomach and goosebumps covered my skin.
“Please,” I whispered, the throbbing having doubled in intensity.
Legion softly raked his nails over the delicate skin of my stomach, rendered even more sensitive by the effects of the mating song. He stopped right below my navel before covering my mound with his palm. I gasped, my pelvis instinctively lifting to meet his touch. He rubbed his hand over my panties a few times while his tongue traced swirling patterns over my abdomen.
“Please,” I said again, the pleading in my voice unmistakable this time.
> His hand slipped inside my panties and a choked cry escaped me as his long, thick fingers teased and caressed my slit. When two of them dipped inside me, my inner walls contracted, yearning for more. Legion’s mouth trailed back up to mine while my hips moved with a will of their own under his touch.
“Look at me,” he whispered, breaking the kiss.
I struggled to open my eyelids, lost in a maelstrom of sensations, only to drown in the dark sea of his eyes. The motion of his hand making love to me accelerated while his mind touched mine. Legion didn’t demand I let him in, didn’t ask for me to open a door into the deepest part of me; he simply wrapped himself around me, infusing my soul with the depth of his feelings for me, and the burning desire I awoke in him.
I’d never felt so worshipped by any man. In that instant, I lost myself to him and the powerful wave of pleasure building in my core. My body trembled, and my nails clawed at the scales on his back as I crested. His name tore out of my throat in a drawn out cry. The room spun around me, and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. Electric sparks ran the length of my body, setting my skin on fire.
“Do you have any idea how beautiful you are, my mate? How my soul sings and my hearts beat for you?”
I couldn’t even respond, too overwhelmed by sensations—not that he’d really expected a reply, but my own feelings bled through our mental bond. Over the past month in Khepri, my insane crush on Legion had morphed into an emotion I refused to name yet, but that had been as inevitable as the sun rising every morning.
When the tremors of pleasure finally abated, and my mind came back from its high, I realized Legion had stripped me of my underwear. He nuzzled my clit before giving it a gentle nip. My legs shook and my stomach quivered. The sound of my own labored, moaning breath, and my heart pounding in my ears replaced the mating song that had stopped sometime before. His tongue explored me, devoured me, bringing me to the edge then toppling me over.
My body thrummed with a sensual haze as Legion climbed on top of me, his hearts pounding against mine. His loin plate parted and my breath caught in my throat as his pre-lubricated shaft extruded, pressing on my stomach. My lover’s gaze bore into mine. Without a word, I wrapped my legs around his waist, granting him my consent. The love in his eyes had my chest constricting and my heart bursting.