She could almost hear his mental yawn. I’ll see who’s around.
Quick, if possible. Kyle needs attention.
Functioning now.
His casual tone had disappeared.
I’ll get somebody to you.
She was surprised when Haley arrived fifteen minutes later in the same battered transport from that morning.
“Rough day?” she asked as they maneuvered Kyle into the vehicle.
“Not too bad,” Tan said.
“Looks like somebody cut you pretty good,” she said, eyeing Tan’s ripped and bloody sleeve.
“You should see the other guy.”
Haley climbed behind the controls and slipped smoothly into traffic. “Kyle get hit, too?”
“No. She took out the guy that nailed me.” Tan glanced back where Kyle was curled into a ball on the rear seat. “She saved my skin. It’s her first time…taking another life. She’s still processing that.”
“Man. That’s real darkstar.”
“Yeah. Darkstar.” The popular slang for “the worst that could happen” could have been an appropriate nickname for Tan. She seemed to carry and spread the worst karma of anyone she knew. She mentally rewound her entry into the house and tortured herself with a dozen scenarios of what she could have done differently to spare Kyle. The truth of it? Kyle was destined to be a warrior and would eventually have taken a life at some point. She glanced back. Kyle’s eyes were open and unblinking, even though she was curled up as if to sleep. Tan recognized what lurked behind Kyle’s blank eyes. She’d felt it in many lifetimes.
When they arrived, she guided Kyle toward their room, waving off Haley, Zack, and others who wanted to swap information.
“We need some downtime. It can wait.”
Zack looked to Haley for a few seconds, obviously reading her thoughts, then nodded. “It’ll keep.”
“Thanks.” She dug through their packs for the things she needed. “Haley, can you clear out anyone in the personal facility down the hall so we can have some privacy for about thirty minutes?”
“Sure. We’ve got two others people can use.” Haley eyed Kyle, still silent as she slumped against the wall. She was pale and sweating. “Is she going to be okay?”
“Yeah. She needs to hydrate and rest, but she’ll come around.” She opened her med-pack and filled a hypospray injector from several of the medicine canisters. “While we’re cleaning up, can you drop off a couple bottles of water here in the room? She needs fluids.”
“You got it.”
Haley left, and Tan gently grasped Kyle’s arm to press the hypospray against the vein at the inside of her elbow, where it would enter her bloodstream quickest. Kyle blinked, panic again flooding her eyes. At least it was emotion rather than that disturbing flat, vacant stare.
“No.”
The hoarse plea tore at Tan. “It’s not a sedative, Kyle. It’s only something for nausea and electrolytes. You need the electrolytes to balance your body chemistry so you can raise your temperature. You’re too cold for a pyro.” She gathered the clothing and the med-pack. “Let’s go shower. We both need to clean off, and it’ll help you warm up.”
Tan made a mental note to find a way to thank Haley when she found the personal facility warmer than usual and empty. She locked the door and started the jets in the first shower stall to let the water heat. Kyle stood listlessly as Tan carefully undressed her, then shed her own clothes. She hissed in pain when she tugged her shirt over her head and her wound reopened where sleeve, blood, and damaged tissue had dried together. The sight seemed to wake Kyle from her sluggish state.
“Stars, Tan. You’re hurt.”
“It’s just a graze.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Let’s get in the shower, eh? We’ll clean up, and you can help me seal it.”
The wound seemed to give Kyle a sense of purpose as they moved under the gentle spray. Tan watched her face as Kyle filled her hands with body soap and carefully washed the blood and dirt away from Tan’s shoulder. Her hands were sure and gentle, and were beginning to warm. Kyle would need to deal with her feelings at some point, but perhaps this respite from thinking about taking the believer’s life was what she needed right now.
She filled her hands with soap and began to wash Kyle’s body. Kyle’s gaze jerked up to meet hers. A million questions swirled in the blue depths of her eyes. Tan had no answers, only that—for this moment—it felt right. She touched her cheek against Kyle’s, wordless, and they continued bathing each other until both were clean. They stood under the drying vents together side by side, and then Kyle held Tan’s wound together while the adhesive bonded.
“I love the color of your skin,” Kyle said, releasing the sealed wound and trailing her fingers across Tan’s bare shoulders.
Everything in Tan went very still. Kyle’s touch was different than any she could remember. Each of her senses strained to decipher the reason for this without visibly reacting and revealing her confusion. Then the rough pad of Kyle’s index finger traced the curve of her ear, thumb joining to tug slightly on her sensitive lobe. An involuntary shiver ran through her.
“Everything about you is stunning.”
Tan turned to face her. They were still naked. She’d seen many magnificent warrior women in their natural state—ranging from heavily muscular to voluptuously curvy. Kyle’s body was leanly muscled, almost boyish with her small breasts and narrow hips. But the smooth, flowing lines of her face and body were too graceful to be anything but female. “Kyle.” Her wistful tone surprised her and erased anything further she’d thought to say.
It didn’t matter because Kyle seemed to be fading again. She pressed her cheek against Tan’s, then kissed her neck and rested her forehead on Tan’s uninjured shoulder. “I’m so tired.” Her words were faint and shaky.
Tan embraced Kyle, stroking her hands along her back to comfort her, to assure that Kyle’s temperature was returning to normal. Or was it to reassure herself, to feel the odd combination of exhilaration and calm that she experienced every time she opened herself even a small bit to this unexpected enigma?
She reluctantly released Kyle and dressed them both in soft T-shirts and boxers. Kyle needed to rest, and, even though Tan needed to check in with Jael and Zack, she wouldn’t leave Kyle to wake up from the inevitable nightmares alone.
Tan closed the door and extinguished the light to their room as Kyle stretched out on her sleeping pad without protest and rolled onto her side facing the wall. Her eyes remained open, but Tan hoped the dark room and fatigue would win out and Kyle would eventually sleep. She settled onto her own pad and listened in the stillness. She’d drifted into that drowsy twilight between waking and sleep when something catapulted her to full alert. She listened, barely breathing. The distant sounds of footfalls and voices beyond their door were normal background noise. Then she heard it—a faint hitching breath. She waited. Even in the dim light, Tan didn’t miss the slight spasm in the outline of Kyle’s back that came with the next muffled sound. Kyle was still turned toward the wall but curled into a tight ball like in the transport.
Tan rolled to her knees and crawled the short distance to her. Kyle shrank away when Tan’s fingers met cool, bare skin because Kyle’s shirt was pulled up and bunched in her hand to cover her mouth and muffle another choked sob. Something Tan couldn’t define flooded through her. She wanted to absorb Kyle’s pain into her own body, to melt into Kyle’s wounded places and heal them. Kyle apparently didn’t want anyone to see her so emotionally exposed. Tan understood. She’d felt the same when Kyle came to her in the cave. Still, Kyle had ignored her efforts to shut her out and met her need with no judgment, only passion and caring. She wanted, no, needed to do the same for her.
Tugging her shirt off, she raised her body heat and curled against Kyle’s cool back. She stroked Kyle’s short hair and gave in to her impulse to kiss the smooth curve of her neck. She spoke low and soft. “I’ve been a warrior for many lifetimes but didn�
��t start to remember previous lives until I reached adulthood in my first life as a pyro. I was twelve in that incarnation when I first took another life, and it’s that moment that’s burned in my memory for all of time.”
Kyle stiffened and edged away as her body jerked with another strangled sob, but Tan dropped her arm down and held her in a tight hug.
“I knew I had some pyro ability but had hidden it because I thought it was black magic. Then one day, a very bad militia group, Boko Haram, came to the village where I lived. They killed the men—my father and brothers—and forced the women into slavery they called marriage. The man who claimed me dragged me away from my mother and sisters to a hut on the outskirts of the village. He threw me on the dirt floor and ordered me to take my clothes off. I was only twelve and so scared, I just cowered. He slapped and kicked me, then began to tear my clothes off. Then he took his clothes off to show me his erection. I remember crying for my mother, but he only hit me more.”
Another sob escaped, but Kyle’s hand slid down to cover Tan’s. Her chilled hand trembled, and Tan entwined their fingers to steady her.
“Then he pushed me facedown to the floor and climbed on top of me.” Tan paused and took a deep breath. The memory from several lifetimes ago was vivid. “The next thing I remember is standing in that mud hut with blood running down my legs and his charred corpse on the floor. My hands were in front of me, flames still shooting from my fingers. I was so afraid for what I’d done. As bad as he was, I was scared that I was even worse to have taken another life. I fled because I was terrified I’d be executed as a witch. But they did worse. They tortured and murdered my mother and sisters as punishment for me killing that man.”
Kyle made a strangled noise and vehemently shook her head. She turned in Tan’s arms, her eyes finally meeting Tan’s. Her gaze was bright and fierce again, and Tan’s heart soared to see it. “You were a child. Sun and stars, he violated you. You only defended yourself.” Kyle’s voice was hoarse and tight. “I would have killed him for you if I’d been there.” The fire in her eyes died as soon as she realized her words.
“Don’t.” Tan stroked Kyle’s cheek and gave in to the need to touch her lips to Kyle’s. “Don’t punish yourself for wanting to protect a child, for protecting me today. If you hadn’t reacted as quickly as you did today, his bullets would have hit me, too, when the big man fell. I would have bled out on that floor along with his friend.”
This time, she lingered as she gently caressed Kyle’s lips with hers, then tasted Kyle’s mouth when she opened to her. She gently disengaged and held Kyle’s gaze. “What happened today will never go away, Kyle. But when it haunts your dreams, I want you to dream about this instead, because I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t protected me.”
Tan rolled slowly to hover over Kyle. Sun and stars, she was both handsome and beautiful at once. Her eyes were a swirl of emotion. Desire? Fear? Self-incrimination? Tan hesitated. She wished she were empathic or telepathic. Was this what Kyle needed or what she needed?
“Please.”
Kyle’s whispered plea and the lift of her hips affirmed Tan’s decision. Despite Kyle’s disgust with what she’d done, the adrenaline of the morning was likely fueling some residual battle lust. Still, Kyle was fragile. Tan traced a finger along her thin brow, then across her smooth cheekbone. She looked into Kyle’s eyes and smiled. “You’re a very striking woman.”
Kyle’s face flushed, and she averted her eyes.
“No one’s ever told you?” Tan asked softly.
Kyle gave a slight shake of her head. “Too tall. Too boyish.”
“No. You’re a magnificent warrior woman.” She tilted her head to capture Kyle’s elusive gaze and held it. “You’re so beautiful, you make me ache inside.” She hadn’t realized the truth of it until her words hung in the air between them.
Naked vulnerability flared in Kyle’s eyes, and unfamiliar panic rose in Tan’s gut. Dung, she’d said too much, revealed too much. She couldn’t blame this situation on breeding fever. She wanted to bolt for the door, summon Phyrrhos and fly very far away from this blazer who somehow made her burn hotter, purer inside than ever before.
Kyle’s fingers trembled as they touched Tan’s cheek. “The first time I saw you without your war paint, I couldn’t take my eyes from you—so elegant, so exotic. Like pureblood royalty.” Kyle’s eyes—irises blue as a cloudless sky, pupils dark as starless midnight—reached out to Tan in a way that felt familiar and right. She pushed the panic away. She wanted this as badly as Kyle needed to replace her memory of incinerating the believer’s head.
She captured Kyle’s mouth again, drinking in her sweet taste, breathing warmth into Kyle’s chilled body. The delicate curve of Kyle’s ear, the soft throb of her neck and strong slope of her shoulder enticed Tan, and she savored each until Kyle moaned and her hands clutched at Tan’s hips. Tan gently massaged Kyle’s small breasts, then used teeth and tongue to torture the dusky pink nipples into rigid peaks. She rose to her knees and curled over to tickle her soft Mohawk along Kyle’s taut belly and smiled at the shiver it produced. Tan lifted Kyle’s legs and shouldered under her knees. Kyle’s arousal filled her senses, moist and musky. She breathed her in and stared down the length of Kyle’s long body, into her eyes, dark with desire.
“Please, Tan.” Kyle’s eyes were iridescent, begging in the dim light.
Tan took her carefully in her mouth, bathing every inch of Kyle’s sex with the flat of her tongue except where she needed her most. Kyle writhed and whimpered, but Tan held fast to her hips. When Kyle’s moans changed to a broken sob, she relented and raked her teeth against the engorged clit. She sucked the bundle of nerves hard and slid one long finger inside to massage that rough spot she knew should send Kyle rocketing to release.
Kyle grabbed her T-shirt and bunched it over her mouth to muffle her cry when Tan felt her body go rigid with orgasm. She watched the muscles in Kyle’s abdomen tense and define as she peaked. But she felt cheated because the shirt had hidden Kyle’s face from her. She wanted, needed to see Kyle’s eyes when she came. Tan dropped Kyle’s hips down to the sleeping mat and straddled her thigh. Kyle was slick and open as she shuddered through the last waves of climax, and Tan couldn’t wait. She filled Kyle with two, then three fingers and thrust rhythmically in and out as she rode Kyle’s thigh.
“Tan, Tan.” Kyle’s words came in short pants. Her body was warm now, her temperature still rising as she hooked her free leg around Tan’s hips, opening herself. “Oh, stars. I’m going to come again.”
Tan, her voice tight with the effort to hold off her own climax, stared down at Kyle. “Don’t cover your face, baby. I want to watch you come.”
Kyle blinked, and then her eyes lost focus and began to roll upward. “Oh, stars. Tan. I’m—”
Tan stroked deeper as Kyle’s body closed around her fingers, and she bore down as she slid her hypersensitive flesh along Kyle’s slick thigh. She could let go now. Kyle had let go. Kyle had seen her weakness in the cave. But she’d seen Kyle’s now, too. Kyle bowed under her, her cheeks flushed, mouth slightly open in a silent cry and half-lidded eyes soft and unfocused. So incredibly beautiful. The thought barely registered when the air was sucked from her lungs and her belly balled into a fist of pleasure so intense she thought her heart had stopped beating. Then the fist let go, and she jerked and shuddered with wave after tingling wave of sensation.
She collapsed onto Kyle, breathless and trying to sort out what had just happened. Kyle stirred under her and Tan rolled off to the side. Kyle was taller, but Tan’s muscle probably weighed a bit more and was likely squishing Kyle.
“Don’t go,” Kyle said, her voice low and sleepy. She turned on her side and snuggled against Tan, resting her head on Tan’s shoulder. Tan tentatively wrapped an arm around Kyle’s shoulders, then relaxed when she felt Kyle do the same.
“I’ve got you, Blaze baby.” She stroked her hand down Kyle’s long, naked back. “We’ll dream together, eh? Picture you and
me on Phyrrhos, gliding along in the warm jet stream under a midnight sky and a trillion stars.”
“I’m on my dragon horse,” Kyle muttered.
Tan chuckled quietly. “Okay. I’m on Phyrrhos, and you’re riding your dragon horse, eh?”
“Sunfire. Her name is Sunfire. She says she can fly during the day, too.”
Tan played along. “And when did she tell you this?”
Kyle’s deep, relaxed breathing was the only reply. Tan kissed the brow of the woman resting safe in her arms, the woman who had earlier kept her safe, and joined her in sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Fifty dragon horses and their silver-clad warriors gathered on the training field was an impressive sight, no matter how many times Alyssa sat on the overlook to watch Jael, Second, and Michael guide the recruits through maneuvers. While huge solar spotlights illuminated the field where more mundane instruction was given, the aerial exercises were fantastic displays of flame against the night sky. That’s what she came to see. Well, that and the First Warrior commanding her troops. Jael had an instinct for leadership, when to be tough and formal or when to offer personal instruction and an individual word of encouragement. She made sure her officers identified the individual talents of each soldier and made the best use of them.
“Alyssa?”
She twisted toward the trail at her back and squinted to adjust her vision to the darkness. “Toni, hey. Were you looking for me? Everything okay at the clinic?”
Toni glanced around the large, flat stone outcropping that overlooked the dragon-horse army’s encampment. “Oh, sure. Everything’s fine. I was just, uh—” She looked up at the sky again and adjusted the straps of a backpack she was wearing.
Alyssa stood and brushed the dust from her pants. The backpack looked heavy. “Are you going somewhere?” She didn’t like the nervous, secretive emotions she was sensing from Toni. She was fond of the young woman and had hoped Toni had finally felt accepted in her role as Alyssa’s assistant and hospital quartermaster.
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