Rising Tides

by Rebecca Royce

  I stroked him once.

  “Shit.” He flared his nostrils. “Amber. I love you.”

  I sent him all of my love, hoping he’d feel it, and he did. Shane closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, his dark depths bore into me like he’d taken control of my soul for a second. “You love me that much, Amber?”

  “I do.” I had to say something, and I found my voice. “And I will not lose you.”

  He kissed my neck. “You won’t. Ever.”

  I wrapped my legs around him, drawing him near until he entered me. This was what I needed. Him. In me.

  “Ride me hard. So hard. You can’t break me. I need it.”

  He drew me toward him until I was on my elbows. “If that’s what you want, then that’s what I want.”

  Shane listened. He fucked me until I couldn’t think, until the day was behind me, until I was sure this was all not about to blow up in my face and I would be alone again. He fucked and fucked me because that was what I needed and he loved me that much.

  And then finally, we came together. I dug my fingers into his back, probably hard enough to draw blood, but he never let go of me, never objected. Shane loved me. I adored him. And his heart was safe and secure.

  I was going to keep it that way.

  I lay across his body, neither of us sleeping. Footsteps in the hall caught my attention, and I recognized them as Amari. He had the surest gate of all of my husbands. They stopped when he must have gone into Hunter’s room with the girls.

  “Come with me.” I drew Shane up, and he didn’t question me.

  We dressed quickly, in as much as we needed to sleep, and walked quietly into the bedroom. Hunter still snored, his hand on Katie’s back. He hadn’t moved. Amari looked up; he was on the left side of the bed next to Josie.

  I touched his hand, and he squeezed it.

  Hunter’s eyes flew open. He sat up, slowly, not disturbing the babies. For a moment, the three of us didn’t move. Then Hunter nodded toward the floor. His brothers rose, and I followed suit. They sat, and Amari patted the floor next to him. I joined him down there, realization hitting me. They wanted to meditate. We were all together. It was time.

  “I’m still not as good at this as you guys are.”

  Shane grinned at me. “You threw your consciousness through space. I think you’re plenty good at this.”

  Okay, that was true.

  Amari took my hand in his, and Shane took the other one. I met Hunter’s gaze, and he winked at me. I doubted very much the three of them held hands when they did this, considering that they weren’t holding Hunter’s hand.

  Amari grinned. “This makes up for standing me up outside on the porch.”

  I nudged him. “I got distracted, and then I heard you come inside.”

  He still smiled. “I’m not upset. This is perfect.”

  I closed my eyes, and we all seemed to breathe together. I concentrated on my hands, on my legs, on how my stomach felt. I really was much better at this than I’d been when I’d first tried it. I didn’t need direction to know when to take my thoughts outside my body to the universe. I thought about my girls. They really were doing so much better, and discovering Katie’s heart issue meant that was never going to cause her problems. I could almost sense their sleeping energy. Josie’s quieter, easier personality. Katie’s ability to control the feelings of everyone in the room with either her charm or her anger. In some ways, they were very similar to Paloma and me. I’d never given that any thought before. As much as they were Chens, and it was hard for me to see otherwise, they were mine as well.

  There were parts of their life that would be dictated by the fact that I was their mother.

  I moved on. There were problems in the universe. Evander wasn’t gone. I wanted to help, and I also didn’t want to leave, didn’t want my people to leave. I couldn’t fix this by myself. I couldn’t make Evander go back through the black hole and never return. I was one person and I didn’t have those answers.

  Still, I concentrated until I felt my consciousness naturally drift back to the here and now.

  It must have hit all of us at the same time. My guys all opened their beautiful, dark eyes. My own vision adjusted to the darkness while I meditated and now it was like I could see as easily as I did during the day.

  Amari kissed my cheek before he rose and returned to the bed. Hunter placed his kiss on my lips but got back next to Katie where he’d been. Shane squeezed my hand before he placed a small kiss on the spot where my neck met my shoulder. I shuddered. I loved how these men loved me, and I hoped they could feel how much that was returned.

  Shane lay down on the other side of Katie. These beds were huge, and I was grateful for it. I climbed through the middle, onto Hunter, and then slid to his side so I was between him and Josie. Hunter rolled slightly, his other arm going across my stomach and holding on. It didn’t take long before they were all settled down. Hunter’s deep breathing turned to light snores in no time, and the shift of energy in the room told me they were all out cold. How could they sleep when so much energy still buzzed through my veins?

  I closed my eyes and just breathed. This was my family. We were all safe, we were all in this bed. Everyone would be okay until the morning.

  I just listened to them. The slow, strong breath that was Amari. Hunter’s light snores. The way that Shane sighed in his sleep. The girls made sweet baby noises.

  My family was everything to me.

  I’d almost lost it so many times.

  The girls I should never had have if not for Hunter’s genius being transformed into a medical miracle. If I touched my lower abdomen, I could almost feel the device implanted inside of me. It was a small, hard box. It was amazing. Not quite nanotech but close.

  Funny how one day back at it and my mind turned back to medicine. Like a light switch going on, I thought of Sienna. She was dying somewhere in the galaxy, in a med machine that wouldn’t heal her unless we came up with a cure for the G strand of flu. That wasn’t happening anytime soon. Cash had cured Flu F, once. One strand of it. But he’d had nothing but time and no wars to content with. If we stuck him in a room, which Diana would never allow, and let him do nothing else, he might have an answer in ten years.

  But there were immune enhancers. Evander did that to the Super Soldiers. It was why they didn’t get sick. Could we… nano that? Like the way Ari had healed Canyon’s eyes?

  I sat forward. Immune enhancement in a nano tech that was put in a box like mine that was forever feeding nanos into her body and suppressing the illness until it could be cured. I chewed on my bottom lip.

  Wade would need nanos. He could tap into a Super Soldier’s immune system. He had four of them there with him, and I could upload the schematic of what was inside of me. The problem was the nanos.

  He was going to have to get to The Farm and get some from Canyon’s eyes.

  We could save Sienna long enough that they could wake her up and find out why the hell Evander wanted her.

  Was I crazy? Could it work? No, I was smart. I was capable. I’d been trained by the best minds in the universe.

  I stared at my daughters. By the universe, they would grow up to be confident, to be sure of themselves. Well, of course they would. They were Chen daughters and the Chens were never short of confidence. It was one of the things I loved about them so fucking much.

  This was why Ari had said I had to wait to wake her. He knew in the future that I would have an epiphany. An a-ha moment. This was it.

  I hated time travel but right at this moment I loved it. So fucking hard. I had clarity. There was something that only I could do for the universe.

  15 Two Evander Ships

  My sister stood at the door, holding a pot of something she set down in my kitchen before she whirled around, her hands on her hips. “Where are the girls?”

  “They’re sleeping. It’s very early.” I hadn’t even had any coffee yet. My husbands were up, but I wasn’t used to seeing Paloma this e
arly. In fact, I hadn’t seen her very much at all lately. “You’re coming to tell me you’re leaving.”

  She shook her head. “What? No. Just the opposite, actually.”

  My sister prepared me coffee. I watched her, my brain trying to catch up to this moment. “What does that mean?”

  “Tommy is going to speak to Amari about this today.” She handed me the coffee. “Drink that. It’s good.”

  I sipped. She was right. It was heaven. How was it that my sister could make the same coffee I made every morning and it tasted so good when she did it and like sludge when I did? I shook my head. She was gifted in the kitchen. Everything she touched was perfection. I needed to stay away from the room all together.

  “It’s wonderful. What is he going to talk to him about?”

  She grinned at me, a piece of her long brown hair falling over her shoulder. Applesauce jumped up on the counter, rubbing against her. She petted him for a second before coming to me. We were seeing the cat more and more since the crying stopped.

  Paloma finally answered me. “He is going to talk about us staying here on Earth. Amari put a call out for businesses. We traveled around Chen Empire looking for spots. I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case they changed their minds. But we’ve all found spots that would work for us. So assuming Amari would be okay with having the Sandlers here, we want to stay.”

  I threw my arms around her. I didn’t even know I was going to do that, but I did because my sister was staying. “Evander is still out there, and you’re going to stay.”

  She squeezed me. “Evander is still out there, and we’re going to stay. Help secure Earth, maybe, with what Tommy is going to do. He’s going to build ships. Here. They’ll be available for defense.”

  I stared at her. “I… I can’t speak for Amari. I don’t know what he’s going to say.”

  “We’ll work out the details.” Amari walked in. Paloma poured him coffee. He was really never going to want mine again. “I’m never going to tell my brothers-in-law they can’t stay on Earth. I don’t own Earth. As for Chen Empire, yes they can build here. It’s a great idea. Clay’s going to practice law. Keith will teach. What about Quinn?”

  She sighed. “That’s where it gets complicated. He wants to open a casino.”

  Amari blinked. “On the edge I bet. Of the Empire. We’ll make it a vacation destination.”

  Her mouth fell open. “That’s what he wanted.”

  “Great. I’ll meet with them this morning. Good coffee.” He bent over to kiss my cheek. “But I like the horrible stuff your sister concocts. She’s going to save the whole universe. Did she tell you she figured out how to save Sienna and possibly revolutionize the treatment of the flu forever? At three in the morning?”

  Paloma stared at me. “No. She never tells me anything like that. She just does amazing things quietly and moves on with her life as though she didn’t do anything substantial at all. Come on, Amber, brag.”

  I might have been incapable of it. “Are you going to open a restaurant?”

  She clapped her hands together. “I am.”

  This was the best morning. It really was. If only there weren’t two Evander ships still out there in the universe, plowing through the Dark Planets, that we couldn’t do anything about, couldn’t see, couldn’t find.

  Cold wafted over me, making goosebumps run over my arms. “That is awesome, Paloma. I’m… I’m having a hard time with the idea that you want to stay here? Not The Farm with Diana?”

  “A Farm on a remote part of the universe was Diana’s idea. Not mine. It was… refuge but not how I want to spend life. Even with Evander out there, in the Dark Planets, and Diana getting ready to launch another fleet after them, I want to make plans for my children, how we’re going to live.” She smiled at me. “You’re my sister. Unless you don’t want me here, Amber, I thought maybe we could do a restart on The Delacroix family together. Raise our babies differently, together.”

  I loved that idea. Still, I had to say. “You know we’re not done. I can’t see it. When the reckoning comes in the Dark Planets, I just have this feeling, we’re all going to be there.”

  She nodded. “I have the same feeling and… this is going to sound weird.”

  Whatever she was going to say couldn’t have been any weirder than hearing Sienna in my head. “Tell me.”

  “I feel like it was always going to come down to the Dark Planets—that place that even those who live there feel like they don’t know. I’ve never been there. It’s… it’s exactly where they would hide and maybe we should have always known that.”

  I took another sip of my coffee. “I’ve been there. I was shot there. And I’ll be honest, I’m worried. I don’t know if Artemis got my message about Sienna. I don’t know if Trenton can pilot her around those unknown places, or if even the Super Soldiers on that ship will know what to do out there.”

  She took my hand. “Oh come on, Amber. It’s Artemis. She’s got this.” Paloma covered her mouth. “I’m talking about the ship like she’s living. Sorry. Maybe I’m super tired. Aaron is teething again. Where are the girls? Wake them up already.”

  I set down my coffee. If it was possible to survive what was happening out there in the Dark Planets, Artemis was the ship to do it with. C.J. had taken Malice with him. Two ships from the other side of the galaxy. So far from home. Helping us try to set things right.

  “I’ll get the girls.”

  Six months later…

  “I can’t believe this is happening.” My sister wore her Sandler red, looking stunning, like something out of fiction, not real life. I’d put myself together as best I could, but it had been so long since I’d dressed up I’d hardly remembered how to do it.

  Shane liked me in black so that was what I’d donned, with purple touches to speak of the Z. Paloma and I stared at each other.

  “Why are we doing this again?”

  “Evander wanted a meeting. They’re getting one.” I hated this as much as she did and the pomp Amari pulled out to greet them. It was all for show but still… I’d have rather stayed home for this and done just about anything else.

  He wouldn’t even tell me what he was going to say.

  Hunter and Quinn met us by the door. Quinn took Paloma’s arm, and Hunter linked his fingers with mine. He whispered in my ear. “If I could have picked anything in the world for you to wear tonight it would have been this.”

  “Thank you.” I had too many butterflies for compliments right then. “Why are we doing this?”

  “Evander wanted a meeting.” He kissed my hand. “They’re getting one they’ll never forget.”

  I hadn’t been in the conference hall since we’d rebuilt it. Now a separate building unto itself, it was an impressive structure. I hadn’t designed it. This was all my husbands. They had specific things they’d wanted. Shane nodded at me as I entered even as he undressed me with his eyes. My nipples hardened. I never ceased to desire my men. I didn’t think I ever would.

  The room was crowded, filled with members of the Chen Empire and the Z, as well as the five people here on behalf of Evander. I sat down in the front, in seats designated for Paloma and me. Leaning over, I whispered to my sister. “Anything short of surrender seems nonsensical to me.”

  She nodded. “Look. They have a feed going.” She nodded toward the monitors at the top of the room. “Who do you think Amari invited to watch?”

  “When he goes tight lipped like he has over this, I get a little nervous.”

  She took my hand in hers. “Do you suppose these guys would be intimidated if they’d seen him last night holding Josie while she threw applesauce all over him?”

  I preferred those times to these. “Do you think people would believe Tommy lets Ben ride him like a horse?”

  Her smile was huge. “Probably not.”

  “Let’s get started.” Amari rose and the room fell silent. “We’re here today because representatives from Evander Corporation asked for a meeting.” He nodded toward
them. “Gentlemen, we’re here. We’re listening.”

  The royal we. Hunter sat to his left with Shane on his right. The Sandlers were on the stage, too. Around the room were small waterfalls, meant to represent the Chens’ relationship with water on our planet. Or at least that was what I assumed. I was pretty sure I’d been nursing and exhausted when they’d designed this.

  If I’d heard the discussion, I really didn’t remember.

  The representative rose. He was a tall man with blond hair and brown eyes. He wore the insignia of Evander on his shirt.

  “We are here today to open a dialogue with you about doing business with Evander Corporation. Our new CEO, Steven Segwick, sees opportunity for us all to make profit.”

  Amari tilted his head just slightly. “You people change CEOs like most people use tissues.”

  Everyone in the room laughed, everyone but me. Amari wasn’t funny. He didn’t make jokes. This was deadly serious to him.

  The representative nodded. “There has been a lot of upheaval lately, but the board is solidified.”

  “I see. And now you want to do business with the Chen Empire? That’s what you’re saying to me?”

  My body tingled with alertness. Amari didn’t ask people questions in public he didn’t already know the answers to. What was he doing?

  “Yes.” The man bowed again. It was an affect, not at all the same as the way the Z bowed to each other, almost like someone had told him the Chens walked around bowing the whole time.

  Amari rose slowly. “I might be interested in doing business with you except for a few… small… problems.”

  The man approached Amari, talking fast. “Perhaps we can negotiate through those issues.”

  “Maybe we can.” Amari nodded. “You tell me how we can work through how you destroyed Oceania, killing thousands upon thousands of people, my wife almost one of them.”

  People around me shifted in their seats, but I stayed unmoving, my face passive. This was about to go very badly for the representative from Evander.