Inamorato

by Keira Michelle Telford

  He needs the pain to subside.

  He needs to maneuver himself carefully, so as not to dislocate the joint. He lifts himself off her, and keeping his injured leg outstretched, he just about manages to lie back down on the blanket.

  Ella leans over him. “Are you okay?”

  He nods, but that’s obviously a lie.

  “Do you need me to get you anything?” she fusses.

  “It should be me taking care of you, not the other way around.”

  “Can’t it be both?” She rubs his chest affectionately. “Did you take the health and wellness class as an elective when you were in the Academy?”

  Alex shakes his head.

  “Well, I did.” She smiles proudly at him. “I know a few massage and physiotherapy techniques that might help with your hip. Do you want me to show you?”

  “Is this the kind of massage that comes with a happy ending?”

  Laughing, she instructs him to bend his knees and put both feet flat on the floor. Then, she takes his injured leg and crosses it over the good leg, making sure that the sole of his foot is planted flat on the floor again.

  Once he’s in position, she leans over him and pushes gently on the sore leg, slightly tilting him to his left.

  He winces. “Is it supposed to hurt?”

  “It’s supposed to feel tight and uncomfortable.”

  “Achieved. Can we try something different?”

  “You can’t stop just because it doesn’t feel good. This is about recovery, not enjoyment.”

  “Don’t make me beg. It’s undignified.”

  She releases him. “Fine. Roll over.”

  For the second position, Ella has him lie on his stomach. She raises his injured leg ninety degrees to the side, and then puts leftward pressure on his hip for five seconds.

  Alex whines. “This isn’t any better.”

  “Stop being so stubborn. It’s not supposed to feel good. It’s supposed to strengthen the muscles in your hip.”

  She does several repetitions of this pose before Alex calls it quits.

  “Okay. One more,” she insists.

  This time, she has him roll over onto his back and straighten his legs. Then, she moves in between and reaches for his butt.

  “Are we getting to the happy ending?” he hopes.

  She pokes him in his gluteal muscles.

  That wipes the enjoyment off his face. “Ow!”

  “Your gluts are essential for having strong hips. Are yours sore from spending so much time on your feet yesterday?”

  Alex moans when she touches him. “Yessssssss. And I think I pulled something when I flipped you over.”

  “Let that be a lesson to you: that’s what happens when you go from zero to sixty without any warning.”

  “It was worth it.”

  “Was it? You didn’t even get a chance to touch me before you seized up.”

  “For a split second, I got to remember what it feels like to take you that way. You felt it, too. I saw it in your eyes.”

  She won’t deny it.

  She likes it when he’s forceful.

  Pushing those thoughts aside, she strokes her hands along his thighs. “You’re going to try and tighten these muscles here, okay? When you do that, your gluts will tighten and it’ll raise your hips a little. Do it, and hold that position for five seconds.”

  “Did you really just remember all this from the Academy?”

  “I only finished the class a month ago, so it’s still pretty fresh. I signed up for it right after—” She stops herself.

  “Right after what?”

  “I was meant to take the explosives elective, but I switched classes at the last minute.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you got injured, and I figured I could help with your aftercare.”

  “Are you serious?”

  Ella nods. “The day you were hospitalized was the last day of signups. I went straight to the registration office after I left the hospital.”

  He stops doing the exercise.

  “Come here.” He motions for her to come closer.

  She leans forward and he pulls her into a kiss.

  He can’t get enough of her.

  “If you want to, we can.” He cups her face in his hands.

  “What?”

  “Have sex. Here. Right now.”

  As much as she selfishly wants to take him up on that offer, she shakes her head.

  “You’re hurt, and I don’t want to risk hurting you more.”

  “I want to make you happy.”

  “I am happy, Alex. We don’t have to have sex for that. In fact, I think we should refrain from the act until after your first physical therapy session. Make sure to ask your therapist how long before you’ll be able to … exert yourself properly.” She makes herself blush.

  “And until then?”

  “Until then, you could always do that thing you do to me.”

  “What thing?”

  “With your fingers. The way you touch me so deeply and intensely and … you know what I mean.”

  He knows exactly what she means.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Blind Danger

  Ella wakes before her alarm on Monday morning. She goes on a thirty minute jog, showers, dresses in her emblems, and hurries to class.

  She wants to be the first one there.

  She wants a steal a few precious moments alone with Alex.

  She’s disappointed.

  As per a last minute room change, she arrives at one of the Academy’s many outdoor arenas. Skipping up the steps to the spectator balcony, she expects to find Alex sitting on the viewing bench, sipping a coffee.

  Crap.

  The Hunter staring back at her isn’t Alex.

  It’s Lockie McKean.

  “Where’s Mr. King?” She tries to hide her concern.

  McKean shrugs. “Physical therapy, I think. Why? What’s your problem? I’m not as nice to look at?”

  He’s really not.

  Ella’s confused, though. “Why are you teaching? I thought you were released back to the line ages ago.”

  “I get to work the third line three days a week as part of my back-to-work program. It’s supposed to help me build my strength back up.” He pulls a face at her. “Thanks for your concern.”

  He’s obviously still holding a grudge.

  Subdued, Ella sits down at the end of the bench and waits for the rest of her class to arrive.

  An awkward silence descends.

  She attempts to break it.

  “So what’re we doing today?” She consults her timetable. “I’m guessing it’s not going to be the military strategy test we were scheduled for?”

  McKean downs the last of his coffee, crushes his to-go cup in his fist, and bounces it off the wall into a trash can. “I’m picking up where King left off.”

  “You’re gonna beat us with a foam mallet and pelt us with balls?”

  “I’d love to.” He says that with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm.

  Ella doesn’t know how to respond.

  Thankfully, other Cadets soon start to arrive.

  Still dejected that Alex isn’t teaching, Ella hopes to be left alone by the rest of the class. She wants to get through the next four hours as easily as possible, then check on the health of her lover.

  No such luck.

  Jax slides onto the bench beside her, intent on trapping her in conversation.

  “How did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Stop them from kicking me out.”

  “What makes you think I did that?”

  “I was expelled. I was stripped of my emblems and booted out of the Academy. Then, all of a sudden, my expulsion was revoked. My punishment was reduced to a sixteen week suspension, and I was given the name of a private tutor.”

  Ella tries to remain aloof. “You got lucky, then.”

  “Your father is the only man powerful enough to do that.”

&n
bsp; “You didn’t deserve to be expelled.”

  “I owe you.”

  “We’ll call it even.”

  “I have to repeat my final semester, but when I do graduate, you’ll have my loyalty always.”

  Ella takes those words with a pinch of salt.

  Class starts a few minutes later, and it looks as though McKean’s intent on throwing them all in at the deep end. In Alex’s last class, he’d blindfolded them and attempted to teach them several concentration techniques that would help them to block and counter attacks on the line.

  When McKean said he was picking up where Alex left off, he wasn’t joking. He plans to blindfold the Cadets one-by-one and send them into the arena to fight a Chimera—twice.

  The first time, the fight is to be conducted in silence. The second time, the fight is to be conducted with a looped recording of a first line Hunter Division unit playing in the background.

  As usual, the failsafe is in place.

  Cyanide capsules.

  If any of the Cadets are ever in life threatening danger, all McKean has to do is press a button to save them from being eaten alive.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  When it’s Ella’s turn for her first fight, she’s feeling confident. She’d watched six Cadets go before her. Of those, four failed and two managed to kill their opponent—one of which was Red.

  Supplied with Academy weapons on loan from the armory, McKean had thrust a gun at Ella just before she’d entered the arena. Now, holding it in her hand, she waits patiently for the Chimera to advance on her.

  The Chimera let into the arena by McKean is large. Ella can tell that by the sound its footsteps make on the ground: heavy and thunderous. She hears it huff, and by the pitch of the huff, she guesses that it’s female.

  It’s ahead of her.

  Fifty yards or so.

  She raises the gun and waits for it to make another sound.

  It scrapes one of its front feet against the ground, raises its nose into the air and shrills.

  Ella fires.

  It lunges toward her and begins to run.

  Ella fires again.

  She empties the clip.

  The Chimera’s still coming.

  Ella can feel the vibration of its footsteps against the ground. Its pace hasn’t even slowed.

  Uh-oh.

  As the vibrations suddenly stop, Ella knows the animal is in the air, leaping toward her. She dives for the ground, and she feels the distortion of the air around her as the creature flies over the top of her head.

  Now what?

  She has no other weapons, and she can’t see a damn thing. She tries to maneuver away from it, but she didn’t memorize the layout of the arena.

  That was a mistake.

  She doesn’t plan on making another.

  She tries to utilize the same tactic she employed on the Chimera in the rink, and she attempts to run at the wall of the arena and launch herself over the creature’s head. She senses how close she is to the wall by the echo of her footsteps and the motion of the air around her.

  It works.

  Sort of.

  She guesses the placement of the wall perfectly, but has no way of knowing that the Chimera didn’t fall for her trick. When she lands back down on the dirt, the Chimera—waiting patiently—digs its talons into her ankle and pulls her down onto her back.

  Shit.

  Ella hits the dirt with a thud. She feels the creature pin her to the ground, and she tries to fend it off, but it’s not working as well as she’d like. As her hand brushes against one of its nipples, she can tell that it’s swollen.

  The whole breast is enlarged and … oozing.

  This creature is pregnant.

  That explains the extra weight. Ella can barely move beneath it.

  Not to worry.

  McKean will press the button.

  Won’t he?

  Nothing happens.

  The attack continues.

  Fuck it.

  Taking matters into her own hands, Ella—holding the Chimera’s teeth at bay with one hand against its throat—tears off her blindfold and faces her opponent eye-to-eye. Now she can see that it’s not only pregnant, but heavily pregnant. It’s ready to give birth, in fact.

  Ella knees it in the stomach.

  It squeals.

  She does it again.

  Its talons begin to tear into her shoulder.

  She knees it one more time, and then something happens.

  A burst of fluid spews out from its genitals.

  Great.

  Its water just broke.

  As it looks beneath itself to see what just happened, Ella takes advantage of its confusion and flips it over onto its back. She climbs on top of it, placing all her weight on its chest and stomach.

  It shrieks.

  All of a sudden, as she’s about the choke the animal to death, she feels something give. Something moves beneath her, and she loses her grip momentarily.

  She looks back over her shoulder, repulsed to see an ugly, writhing baby Chimera, covered in amniotic fluid.

  Gross.

  Desperate to tend to her offspring, the mother Chimera tries to shake Ella off her chest. She’s partially successful, and Ella topples backwards. As the creature rolls onto its stomach—as yet unable to get to its feet—Ella thinks fast.

  She grabs the baby Chimera by its umbilical cord and tugs the rest of it out of the mother—all the afterbirth, and all the gunk that comes with it. She crawls onto the Chimera’s back, wraps the umbilical cord around its neck and throttles it.

  It chokes.

  It dies.

  The baby, dangling on the end of the cord, is whimpering.

  Sitting back on the dead Chimera’s shoulders, Ella pulls the baby toward her and puts it out of its misery.

  She pops its skull.

  Compressing it as hard as she can, she crushes the newborn’s head and squeezes abstergent serum from its eyes onto her wounded shoulder before tossing the corpse away like trash.

  Finally, she relaxes.

  She considers this a win.

  McKean has other ideas.

  He storms into the arena and drags her to her feet by her vest.

  “What the hell was that?!”

  “A two-for-one?”

  “You still don’t want to play by the rules, do you?”

  “What’re you talking about? First of all, the weapon you gave me was faulty. Second of all, you should’ve terminated the fight when that thing”—Ella points to it—“had me pinned down. Third of all, I should get a commendation for thinking on my feet and improvising when I had no weapon.”

  “Only you would think that you should get extra praise for going off book.” He practically throws her out of the arena. “There was nothing wrong with the gun, you’re just a lousy shot. And I didn’t press the button because I wanted to see if you could redeem yourself. It’s a shame you’d already given up.”

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?!”

  “Did you really just do that? Did you really just curse out an Academy teacher? Well done: your one week suspension just became two.” He waves her away. “Get out of my class.”

  “Are you serious?” Ella is floored.

  “Get lost,” he snarls at her. “Your suspension starts now.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Mistletoe & Whine

  It’s the night of the official Dual Division Christmas party.

  It’s Christmas Eve, and the first day after the end of Ella’s two-week suspension from the Academy. She’s been grounded since her suspension started, and this is the first chance she’s had to do anything even remotely social. Prohibited from entering the Academy grounds, she’s been working with a private tutor for eight hours every day—including today—so that she wouldn’t fall behind.

  She’s exhausted, but as soon as she sees Alex arrive at the party, she’s glad she made the effort to come. He spots her immediately.

  This is the
first time they’ve seen each other since that night in the Fringe District, and as he makes his way over to her, she can see that his limp is already much better. Not only that, but he looks healthier. He’s put back on some of the muscle he’d lost since his hospitalization, and her stomach does a somersault.

  As he gets closer, she looks him up and down. He’s wearing the same suit he wore when he took her out to dinner, cufflinks and all. His hair’s tousled and he hasn’t shaved.

  Her stomach tumbles again.

  As he slides into the seat beside her, he presses an appropriately restrained kiss against her cheek. “Good evening, Silver.”

  She smiles at his use of her new nickname. “You look very dapper tonight.”

  “Dapper?”

  “It’s a compliment. Just take it.” She finishes her drink and orders up another.

  Meanwhile, Alex checks her out: Hunter Division boots, pants, push-up bra, tight black tank top, dog tags nestled in her bountiful cleavage.

  “You look … different.”

  She quirks an eyebrow at him. “I’d take dapper over different.”

  “No, I mean a nice kind of different. You look nice. Why don’t you let your hair down?”

  “So that I’ll look more like a girl, you mean.”

  “Trust me, you look like a girl.” He pries his eyes off her breasts and orders himself a drink. “I was really hoping you’d be here tonight. I’ve missed you.”

  “The feeling is mutual.”

  “What the hell happened to you?”

  “I’ve been on lockdown. I haven’t been allowed on Academy property, or anywhere near the Hunter Division. I was grounded, and Maydevine took my cell phone.”

  “Did you remind him that you’re an adult now?”

  “I did, but since I’m less than six months away from graduation, he’s being a little overbearing. I can’t afford to fuck this year up, and he’s had me working with a private tutor every daylight hour. You didn’t think I’d just disappeared off the radar again, did you?”

  Alex shakes his head. “I knew you were suspended, and Maydevine gave me the heads up that you were gonna be incommunicado for a while. But what happened to you? What did you do? Your Academy record says that you were suspended for cheating.”

  Ella rolls her eyes. “Of course it does.”