Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle)

by Lee Morgan

  “Is that wise?” Jillian asked as she looked towards Connor.

  “Not at all Jillian.” He answered with a grin and at that Jack started chuckling. “There isn’t another way for us to do it. It’s a part of our gifts and we need to learn to use them or else they will only become a hindrance to us when we are in great need.”

  While Jillian and Jack contemplated what he said Sarah contacted her mate’s mind. “Should we bring them with us, just incase?”

  “No.” He turned his head to lay his raptor like eyes on her. “This is something we need to develop on our own. They cannot help since they aren’t Pressure Balancers. Don’t worry, there isn’t anyone who knows what we are going through let alone be able help in any constructive way. They don’t have a manual for our circumstance so we need to make our own, Princess.”

  He did have a point. Sarah turned to see her parents watching them with curious eyes. “What are you up to?” her father asked with a childlike grin.

  Jokingly Connor said “Just thinking about what your future granddaughters might look like.” Sarah felt her face flame red, imagining a child they would one day conceive together. Unfortunately her parents took the joke the wrong way.

  Jack’s complexion turned a ghostly white yet he said nothing. Jillian’s face transformed into the exact opposite. Her gold eyes started glistening as a smile began spreading from ear to ear. She asked quickly “Sarah is it… Are you pregnant?”

  Sarah had to think quickly before this situation got any further out of hand. “No Mother, I’m not. We were just thinking what characteristics she might get from us.” She squeezed his hand hard. “Why did you do that? What possessed you to joke about that subject?”

  “I did it for you.”

  “Explain!” She wasn’t in a great mood at the moment, and he knew it.

  “I did it to get your mind off what we are about to do... Did it work?” Unfortunately he did get her mind off flying, but she wouldn’t tell him that.

  She looked back at her parents and her father gained back some color in his face from the false alarm. Her mother on the other hand began pouting and it was a pitiful sulk of disappointment. Her bottom lip puffed out like a cold who was told no as she said to herself “It would be great to have a grandchild. Not even Amber has conceived yet and she’s been mated for over two hundred years. I want a grandchild…”

  Connor stood, taking Sarah up as well by the hand. Jillian looked up at them with a questioning expression. “Jillian, I promise one day that you’ll be a terrific grandmother. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds.”

  She smiled as if she couldn’t wait till that day.

  Then they left soon after.

  They soon made it home and Sarah asked Connor when he’d like to get started.

  Flight and Grounded

  “How about we get started on it now?” Connor suggested to Sarah as she held him in those sexy emerald green eyes of hers. Such eyes have seen more than any normal living person and they alone captivated him more than any other.

  She slightly nodded as she gnawed on her bottom lip in worry and reluctance. Connor could feel her apprehension slipping through their link and fear of flying again after her last attempt made it worse. Sarah gracefully walked right up to him and held out each of her palms, face up. He took each of her hands into his own as she closed her eyes and sighed to push her dread to the side. “Don’t use as much energy this time.” He suggested in mild humor.

  Her eyes shot open in defiance to the sarcasm.

  “I won’t, as long as you don’t interrupt me.” She couldn’t keep a straight face and stay mad at him for too long. After all he wouldn’t leave her side. She started giggling as he grinned at her.

  Things were always so easier when it is only the two of them.

  When they eventually calmed their humored dispute, she shut her eyes again and Connor felt her emotions cool down a few degrees. He felt her calling forth her power and he did the same by matching her energy flow. His eyes remained fixed on her and his senses focused on her power output. At the same time she used Pressure to lift off the ground Connor did the same.

  As they hovered just inches above the ground he felt the energy directing down his legs to create a wind capable of flight. It was a constant stream of energy to hover and sustain his weight. To fly forced even more energy through the limbs. For now it remained constant. Recently his power reserves have been growing vaster as each day passed. The first time he popped a balloon using only solidified Pressure it took a lot out of him, but now it feels like he could do this continuously throughout the day without becoming tired.

  Sarah slowly opened her eyes and looked down. She didn’t jump or flinch like they were both expecting. “At least this time I’m not too far from the ground.” She admitted and sighed with relief as they continued hovering mere inches above the grass. Connor could see the grass flattening and getting pushing away from the currents that came down from his feet, like a helicopter taking off in a grassy field.

  They couldn’t see the wind they created, only the effects from the grass.

  “Let’s go a little higher.” Her hands instantly tightened into his after processing the confident request. She honestly didn’t want to, but she knew she had to learn. The best way to overcome is always to dive right into the problem. Circumventing it never works. Sarah knew nothing would happen to her so long as he was holding onto her.

  She nodded while still biting her bottom lip.

  Connor focused more energy to the bottoms of his feet, where he imagined two invisible jets of air coming out from each foot. When more energy began to flow down his legs he gained another foot off the ground.

  Sarah looked up and did the same thing and now flew together at eye level. Without saying anything he went higher and she mimicked the movements perfectly. She continuously kept her eyes locked onto his as Connor could see her maintaining focus and not succumb to the distraction of the ground.

  When they reached about twenty feet above the ground he said calmly “Princess, keep concentrating, but I want you to look down.” She took a deep breath and slowly downcast her eyes. When she saw how high they were her hands tightened even more, but she didn’t slip up. She began forcing herself to consciously breathe slowly as she returned her vision to his. “Very good, now let’s try moving in the air instead of hovering in one spot.” She resumed biting her bottom lip a little harder and her eyes were still revealing themselves to be deathly afraid.

  While watching her Connor manipulated the flow of power in his legs to push more energy through his toes, able to somehow fly and not blow his boots off. At the moment the flow changed he started to gently float backwards. Sarah’s eyes were wide as he intentionally led her with him until she became accustomed to this new sensation. They circled the clearing at their home twice before she became comfortable with the gentle glide. She asked weakly as he flew backwards “How are you managing to change direction?”

  “Concentrate on pushing more of your energy in a different direction on your feet. Think of it like a car. As you drive you need to turn only slightly by spinning the steering wheel. Slightly turn the source of your energy to alter direction.” When she understood Connor felt her energy change direction a little too quickly. She put too much energy into spinning counterclockwise.

  Before she could scream Connor pulled her close and swiftly slowed their rotation. He stuck his right leg to the side to stop the counterclockwise motion while he forced more energy into his left leg, which held their altitude. He put his right leg back down after the rotation stabilized and held their position by simply hovering. “I’m sorry.” She said softly into his chest.

  “Try it again.” He said and she shook her head vehemently in his chest. Connor replied to her answer by saying seriously “If you don’t try again, I am going to go higher and quickly. I can probably reach the clouds in a minute or so.”

  Her eyes shot up to his and pleaded for mercy. While maintai
ning their location and holding her hands he waited for her to relax. When she understood that he wasn’t bluffing her eyes slowly changed to determination. She then slowly added a slow rotation as he drifted back around the cottage. He quickly understood what she was trying to do.

  All she wanted an aerial dance.

  Connor ripped his hands from hers as he understood her intentions. Before she understood what he did Connor closed the distance and wrapped his hands around the small of her back. When she refocused her eyes on him she wrapped both of her hands around the back of his neck and smiled genuinely. “When did you know that I wanted to dance without reading my mind?” Her soft voice became the music to their dance.

  “After the second rotation. Aren’t you glad you tried flying once again? Even after my threat.” He smiled down at her with a peaceful expression. She closed her eyes and nodded and soon after she put her head against his chest.

  After four slow revolutions around the property they pulled away from each other. She said softly “I think I’m finally getting the hang of this.”

  Connor took that as his cue to let go. When he released her grip, she wobbled for a moment until she looked down at her feet and adjusted them to regain her balance. He pushed his left leg forward and slowly backed away from her until he flew far away for her to do this on her own yet remain close enough to catch her if she fell.

  “Are you ready for stage two?” He asked as she refocused on him again.

  As she hovered above the stream that’s travels beside the cottage she asked “What’s stage two? You never said anything about this…”

  “You’re going to manipulate two elements at once.” He said while smiling at her.

  “And just how am I going to hope to accomplish something like that?” She crossed her arms slowly while trying to not make big corrections. At least she didn’t continue to bite her lip anymore.

  “Let me alter my previous analogy. Think of it this way, when you drive your car, you are actually doing four or five things at the same time.” She tilted her head and her green eyes were boring intently at him. “When you drive, your eyes are watching everything, your foot is on the accelerator or brake to judge the speed at what you wish to travel, your hands are steering the vehicle and your ears are listening to everything around you; all at the same time. What you’re actually doing is splitting up your mind up to do accomplish different tasks. That is what you need to do with your abilities. Break them down into smaller tasks.” Connor looked around for another good example. “Like this!” He looked down at the water below her feet. He focused on the water and felt a cool flowing energy descend down his left arm. An orb of water separated from the flowing stream below Sarah and accumulated in his hand as a rotating ball of water.

  When he looked up she smiled and he could feel that she understood the example. She said while still smiling “So you are telling me to portion my mind to multitask?” he nodded and she asked “Can you stand on the ground below me as I attempt something?”

  Without questioning her he eased the flow of energy from his legs and began to drop. When he touched down on the solid ground he walked to the water’s edge and looked up at her. “I’m ready down here.” Connor called up and still felt that he had surplus of energy to spare, even after everything that he’s done so far.

  He could see that she closed her eyes to concentrate and could feel that she was maintaining her energy flow to stay afloat while she gathered more for a different purpose. When her eyes opened again he saw two separate streams of water funneling up towards Sarah and encasing her bare arms in the liquid. It looked like she had two clear sleeves of water over her arms. The water stopped just before it touched her sleeveless black shirt and got wet.

  Then she began giggling. “I did it!”

  Connor felt so immensely proud of her that he shot skyward and scooped her into his arms. She lost her concentration as he felt the water sleeves splash against his shirt. For a moment she looked up at him with wide eyes until they both started laughing. He kissed her for doing so well. And he gently glided them back to the ground and were content enough to lay on the cool grass as they watched the clouds going by.

  An hour later, after they relaxed enough, Sarah sat up and asked “Can we do an experiment or two?”

  “What do you have in mind?” He sat up as well and tucked some of her loose hair behind her ear. She smiled pleasurably.

  “Well let’s start with…”

  Waking up in the morning, Connor fixed breakfast as Sarah took a shower. When she finally stepped out she saw that both Mark and Kara were sitting at the dining table. “Good Morning, Sarah.” Mark said with a full mouth of bread. And Kara chastised him for talking with a full mouth.

  Mark wore his leather pants again and Kara attired her usual pink top and white shorts. It was still amazing how toned her legs are, especially for a girl her size. She also brought her bow and quiver again.

  Sarah sat down and the four of them ate together. Kara looked at Connor and asked “Did you get your business started, Brother?” He nodded and told her about his new number along with waiting until he gets his first customers.

  After they ate a hearty breakfast they all walked together instead of running to the practice field. It took longer than Sarah expected, but the four finally made it there almost at the same time as her parents. She now appreciated being mated for she never knew just how much more efficient it was until that long walk.

  “Good morning kids.” Jillian said in greeting as they walked over. She still brought her bikini top, but this time it showed to be blue and she also had on red short shorts.

  Jack waved and smiled. He said to Connor “Ready to get roasted, boy”

  Connor grinned. “Like the taste of dirt do ya?”

  “You’re feeling frisky this morning aren’t you?” Sarah said while entering his mind.

  “I just can’t wait to show him my new moves princess. You’ve given me all kinds of great ideas after yesterday’s trials.” He smiled and handed her Tool and Jack handed Haunt over to his mate. The two men eagerly started walking away from the group to begin the day off right, with a fight.

  Yesterday Sarah talked Connor into working with her to develop abilities. She suggested they try some aerial combat and defense. It took her awhile to get accustomed to flying and shooting water at him while he dodged and did the same for her. She couldn’t believe how adept he was. It was as if he had been born to fly. She finally got the hang of doing two elements simultaneously, but doing three at the same time proved too much of a challenge at this point. She was looking forward to hopefully being able to do all five at the same time one day.

  As Jack and Connor continued walking away Sarah heard snapping. She turned and saw that Mark began changing into his other form. She had to ask “Mark if I may; what do you call that form?”

  He barked a laugh and said in his deep animalistic voice “Just call this form what it looks like, a wolf.” Kara walked up and started scratching his pelt absentmindedly; just like you would stroke your pet’s back. He kept his hair fine and loose instead of fused together like when in combat. Sarah knew he did it for his girl and by the grin on his muzzle he was deeply enjoying the simple scratch.

  Sarah turned to see the two men at the center of the rocky clearing standing off.

  Jack started the match by creating two long whips of angry looking fire. Connor stood there and studied this new development. The two whips were each attached to her father’s hands and they were blazing a deep reddish orange color. Jack whipped the twenty foot twin strands of fire back and forth and at the apex of each snap a small ball of fire would escape the ends of the whip. The small balls of fire would only be dangerous at close range because they would dissolve after five yards or so. If one were caught before it fizzled, the orb would still incinerate the opponent. “I’ve been saving this for a very long time! Let’s see you copy this.” He shouted at Connor and for other’s to hear.

  Sarah’s husba
nd laughed and instantly made his own whip without effort. His single whip wasn’t only longer, but burned much more intensely. He turned his back to her father, throwing the whip back and swiftly threw it forward. When the fire whip cracked the sound barrier, a beach ball sized flame shot from the end of the whip and disappeared twenty yards away. Sarah could feel him cut the flow to his power and the whip vanished. “Not bad, but it doesn’t feel all that accurate!” He shouted to her stunned father as he turned back around.

  Sarah entered her father’s mind for a moment just to hear what he had to really say. This can’t be possible. He saw it only once and made it far more powerful than I ever could have. This child has just surpassed my only trump card. She saw her father smile as he wouldn’t accept defeat just yet.

  Jack threw the flaming whips behind him and started barreling at Connor. As he whipped his left arm forward to ensnare his opponent, Connor took to the sky. Sarah heard her father curse up at Connor as he kept gaining altitude. Connor kept going straight up without looking back. He was on a mission and no one could stop him. Connor then vanished into a low hanging cloud.

  “What’s Brother up to?” Kara asked the group.

  “I got it!” Jillian stated as she turned to see Sarah while smiling. He did it to Sarah yesterday when they were practicing outside.

  Sarah pointed to the cloud. “He’s done. Watch this.” She saw the cloud he entered quickly began to disappear and in its place hung a small dot in the sky. Connor was holding a gigantic sphere of water he pulled from the cloud.

  Connor plummeted to earth with the sphere twice his own height. When Jack realized what Connor had in store, it was too late to run away. Connor hurled the water and completely encased Jack for a moment before saturating the entire area around him. Connor did what he aimed for; he put out the flaming whips.

  Jack quickly stood up, still not ready to admit defeat. He threw a softball sized sphere of hungry fire up at Connor as he still floated in the air. Connor easily dodged the flame and shot one of his own. Jack didn’t dodge as Sarah expected. He made the fire shield that Connor taught him; he put the shield up to protect his face. As Connor’s flame struck the shield it started spinning faster to absorb the energy back into her father. When the shield absorbed the flame Jack lowered his arm away from his face and then he froze as he saw Connor.