Sun Touched (Diamara Book 1)

by J. C. Hart

  "If that's what you want."

  "Wait. Are they here?" She glanced around, trying to spot one of the creatures. The air felt thick with possibility, and if the buzz in her ears was anything to go by, there had to be some around.

  Garrett nodded. "They are. That was the point." He grinned wryly. "Let's get in the lake. The more relaxed you are, the better."

  "I thought Mother said there hadn't been enough experimenting done with this."

  "There hasn't." He reached down to grab the hem of his shirt, pulling it over his head and tossing it onto the grass.

  Madea had to force her jaw to stay shut—she didn't need him to know how much of a distraction his body was right now. Garrett unbuttoned his pants, letting them drop to his ankles before he kicked them off, leaving him only in boxers.

  "Coming? Or are you chicken?" The dare in his voice was impossible to resist.

  Madea stripped off her outer garments, throwing them next to his, then took off at a run, hoping to beat him to the lake. She could hear his melodic laugh behind her as he gave chase.

  It was impossible to try and keep her reasons for being here at the front of her mind when he was right behind her, more than half naked. She made it to the shore before he did and splashed into the water, gasping at the unexpected chill. She forced herself deeper, throwing herself under the surface of the lake before she really did chicken out.

  The water was slick against her body, seeping into her skin and clutching at her hair, her limbs. It had been years since she'd swum in an open body of water—not since leaving Earth—and she could have cried at the release she felt, if she hadn't been so thrilled by the sensations in her body. Her muscles felt good to be used again, like this, and it brought home for her how much of her life since coming here had been tied up in work and responsibilities. And how little in play.

  She looked through the clear violet tinged water behind her, taking in the sight of Garrett's lean body streaking towards her. She smiled, then pushed towards the surface, breaking through and taking a great gasp of air into her lungs. She kicked her feet, keeping herself in place as Garrett's head popped up beside her.

  "This is perfect," she said. "I never imagined that at a time like this I would be swimming with some guy in a lake in the middle of nowhere."

  "There is never a bad time for something like this." He grinned. "Now, what's this about some guy? Is that all I am to you?" He winked and she had no idea whether he was playing, or whether there was something more to his question.

  "Well, I guess you're really my hero, saving me from my evil father." She grinned back, then slapped the surface of the lake, splashing water into his face. His shocked expression made her laugh so hard that she bobbed down, catching a mouthful of water herself.

  "Oh, so that's how it is?" He shook his head, still smiling. "You shouldn't have done that."

  "What are you going to do about it?" She raised an eyebrow and bit her lip. The rest of the world could wait, every worry in her life could be damned for now.

  Garrett launched forward, grabbing her arms and pushing her into the water. Heat surged through her body and an ache she hadn't felt in a long time ripped through her core. She reached around him, drew him in and found his lips with hers, water seeping into their mouths between their lips, their teeth. They broke the surface, gasping, barely losing contact in the process. His hands caught in her hair and she moved hers to his hips, pulling him closer.

  The kiss blew every thought from her mind, every thought but the one that said she wanted more. She slid her fingers down the back of his boxers, but Garrett grabbed her hand and moved it to his chest, breaking the kiss as he did.

  "What?" she asked, confusion pushing her lust aside.

  "We came here for a reason." He said the words gently, but they weren't making any sense to her.

  She frowned. "What?"

  "The creatures. We came here so that you could see the creatures," Garret said, his voice husky. He pushed a strand of hair back from her face, tracing the curve of her cheek before dropping his hand to her hip.

  "Oh." Her cheeks flushed red, a different heat filling her. "Right. That was obviously what this was about. You must bring every recently Sun-Touched girl out to the middle of nowhere and swim half naked with them. Part of the process I guess. Silly me." She pushed his hands off her body, diving back under the water and swimming away from him as quickly as she could. She waited to hear the splash of his body as he came after her, but it didn't come. She fought back the urge to cry, tears of embarrassment, shame, guilt. She swallowed them down and pushed her body as hard as she could until she reached the shallows.

  Madea flopped down on the grass by the edge of the lake, her feet still immersed in the water. She flung an arm over eyes that were closed tight, a double layer of protection against anything that she might see. To think that she thought he was interested in her—to think that she had blown off all her responsibilities on the off chance he would make love to her and eradicate her worries.

  No, she was in this alone, she knew that now more than ever. She had to look after herself, and Jaxon, and this unborn baby. Look after Sarai and Rickard if she could, though they were grown-ups, they could take care of themselves. No one else really mattered. Not her father, not her mother, and certainly not Garrett.

  She felt the press of his body on the grass beside her. He tried to pull her arm from her eyes but she wouldn't let him.

  "Madea, I didn't mean to hurt you." She could hear him swallow, feel his breath across her skin.

  "It's the baby. Isn't it?" She let out the breath she had been holding since he arrived. "You can't deny it. It's too much."

  "What?"

  She flung her arm away and sat up, glaring at him. "You can't handle the fact that I'm pregnant, it makes me unattractive. I get it. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Her jaw locked in anger. She wanted to scream at him, wanted to cry.

  "No, Madea. No," he said, his words firm. He gripped her arm and pulled her towards him. "I...I owe your mother so much, and I can't repay her like this. I was meant to bring you here to show you the creatures and...I got distracted. You're quite the distraction..."

  "So, where are they then? Or was this a complete waste of your time?" She knew he was trying to be kind, but she couldn't stop herself. She was so mad at him, so mad at him for stirring this desire in her, for making her think that he wanted her too. She should have known he was trouble from the moment she met him out in the herb fields. The fact that he worked for her mother was a huge mark against him as well. The air was positively vibrating around her, the buzz in her head externalized.

  "Madea. Maddy, look at me." He reached out and placed a hand on each side of her face, forcing her to look at him. "You're thinking too much. Can you push those thoughts away? Push everything away and just be here, now."

  "No! I can't!" She pushed his hands away and scowled. "You have no idea, no idea at all what is going on up here." She tapped her head and leaned towards him. "Don't you tell me to—"

  He pulled her towards him, pushed his lips against her and kissed her complaints away. She fought back for a moment before she forgot what she was fighting against and had to give up, give in to his lips, his tongue and the press of his hand against her head.

  When he let her go, she flopped back to the ground, taking deep breaths to try and stop her head from spinning.

  "I don't—"

  "Shh, don't speak. Don't open your eyes yet, just listen to me. Okay?"

  She swallowed her irritation at being told to shush. "Okay."

  "I want you to take three long, slow breaths, and then open your eyes. Don't look at me, relax as best you can and look up."

  "Fine." She rolled her eyes behind her lids. She could humour him. She could do this one small thing, and then maybe he could explain what was going on between them. She inhaled, exhaled, the requisite number of times, letting her arms go limp on the ground beside her. When she had pushed aside all the thoughts she c
ould, she opened her eyes and stared into the sky above.

  The deep orange sun had turned red and sunk below the treeline, and the trees seemed to loom above her, dark shapes in the dusk light. She could hear the beat of her heart, could feel the blood rushing through her veins, but she didn't see anything different, anything new.

  Madea sighed, shaking her head slightly, vision swimming as she tried to squash her disappointment. She turned to Garrett and it was only then that she saw it, hovering, tendrils of...something, stretched out toward him, into him. She stifled a scream, pressed her hands to her stomach in an attempt to quell the nausea that threatened to overcome her.

  "Shh, shh. It's okay," Garrett said, his words soft. He stretched his hand out to her, placing it on her thigh and letting his warmth seep into her. "You can see it, can't you? It's not hurting me, it's curious. About me, and about you."

  Madea didn't trust herself to speak. She opened her mouth, closed it. Swallowed. Licked her lips. There didn't seem to be an appropriate response—her body didn't know what to do, and her brain didn't know what to think.

  "I...I can see it," she whispered. It looked like some kind of eel, if eels were made of light and swam through the air instead of water. One minute it was compact, and the next it stretched tendrils out in all directions, touching not only Garrett, but herself, the lake, the trees, connecting them all. She could feel a thrum in her chest where it touched her. Then it was smaller again, swimming through Garrett, extending out the back of him and then gone in a flash. "What...?"

  "It's okay," Garrett said. He smiled at her. "I'm okay. See?" He twisted his torso to prove that there was no gaping wound where the creature had gone through him. She could see it now, behind him, hovering. If it had a face, she couldn't perceive it in the mass of glowing tendrils. Her initial shock was wearing off now and she could see the beauty in this creature, its ethereal nature as it floated in space, visible but translucent.

  Madea swallowed the last of her fear and reached a hand towards it, as she might for an unfamiliar animal. It floated through the air, nudging closer and then pulling back as though getting a taste of her energy. Uncertainty sated, it moved forward more confidently, breaching her skin and entering her body, her being. Madea gasped, restrained herself from fleeing and was flooded with stimulation. She could hear a vague whispering in her ears, undecipherable words, fleeting thoughts, stronger than before. Emotions blazed through her brain; sorrow, anger, confusion, pure joy. Exhilaration. She couldn't determine which feelings were her own, and which were emanating from the thing within her.

  Every inhalation seemed tinged with some essence of this creature. Her vision swam but this time with tears which poured down her face. She wrapped her arms across her chest, trying to hold herself together, trying to keep the bits of her that she knew were her separate from these other thoughts, other visions and feelings which invaded her body.

  And then, when she thought that she was going to shake apart with everything that was happening inside her, a sense of peace swept over her and she found herself lying back on the grass, staring up at the stars, her muscles more relaxed than they had been in weeks.

  "Is it always like that?" she asked, after a few minutes had passed and the intensity of the experience had faded away.

  "No, not always. The first time you connect with one is the hardest, and then every time you connect with a new one, it's similar, like they need to search through your being, and once they know who you are, they can relax. That's probably not a very good way to explain it, but it's the best I can manage."

  "It makes sense, I guess..." She let out a long breath and brought her hands to her face, rubbing at her eyes, suddenly exhausted. "Do you think we could sleep here? I don't know if I have the energy to get back."

  "I could carry you, if you wanted?"

  "You could cuddle me, if you wanted," she replied, rolling onto her side and crossing her arms over her chest. The smell of the grass was divine, fresh, as if she were smelling it anew. Garrett slid his arm around her.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Madea woke to the smell of grass, struggling to remember why she was outside. The last time she had fallen asleep out of the domes was the time she had been exposed. That had been Garrett's doing, in part, and this time, it was his fault as well. Apparently he had decided that cuddling her was easier than carrying her.

  She levered his arm off her waist and wriggled away, placing it gently beside him. He looked peaceful, for a crazy man. She smiled to herself, then pushed up from the ground, surveying the clearing from her knees.

  There were creatures here, half a dozen of them floating lazily through the morning haze. Madea wondered if they had a consciousness, a purpose, or whether they were simply existing. She got to her feet and moved towards one, thinking that she might forge another connection. She wanted to experience that again, and yet...maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Who really knew what this was all about?

  The lake beckoned to her, sunlight glinting off the surface, the breeze carrying the scent of water to her nose. She headed to it, ignoring the chill of the water on her feet, but unable to stop a shiver when it hit her thighs. It seemed less fun now, more full of potential danger, but she couldn't resist the lure. She dove under, then surfaced, lying back, content to float where the water would take her.

  Madea breathed deeply, exhaled, listened to the sound of it with the water in her ears. How was it that doing the starfish on another planet was the same as doing it on Earth?

  Something nudged at her and she startled, swinging upright and looking around. She was still alone in the water, but there beneath the surface, she could see one of the creatures. She hadn't felt it yesterday when it reached for her, she had been too caught up in the new sensations flooding through her body and mind. It nudged at her again, more of a mental nudge she realized, and she frowned, unsure of how to proceed.

  "Are you asking my permission?" The words sounded ridiculous, but she continued anyway. "It's okay, if you want to...you know."

  The creature hesitated for a moment before entering her body. It broached the skin of her chest, half disappearing. She felt sick, watching it, so she closed her eyes. The same sensations as yesterday crashed over her and she lost the ability to tread water. She began to sink, catching a mouthful of liquid before finding herself buoyed by the creature. It wasn't doing anything that she could see, and yet it was the only explanation Madea could think of. She felt lighter, stable, despite the emotions that were overwhelming her.

  Slowly, the feelings abated, leaving behind one thought, one image—Janae, cuddling Jaxon.

  Madea tried to push the image aside but the creature was insistent on showing it to her. She had to watch as it played out. Janae, singing him a lullaby and tucking him into bed. Janae, watching from the doorway as he slipped into slumber. Love coursed through her veins, her whole body warmed by the intensity of the emotion. Tears pricked at her eyes as she thought of him at home, waiting for her to return—and yet here in this memory, he was happy, secure. She wished more than anything that she could give that back to him. Give him the love that she felt thrumming through her whole being.

  The image flashed, jumped backwards in time to show a younger Janae—much younger—she was lying naked on a bed, beckoning to someone who moved swiftly to her side, climbed onto the bed and began laying ardent kisses on her breasts, her neck, her mouth. A different heat sparked in Madea's body despite the chill of the water, and then Janae's lover glanced up at her and Madea couldn't breathe for shock.

  It was Rickard. Rickard's beautiful, youthful face, his lean body and his boyish grin. He was devouring Janae with his eyes, pressing as much of his body against hers as though he couldn't get enough.

  "Stop!" Madea cried, wishing that she could push this creature from her being, expel it from her body, make it take these images away. Make it erase them from her mind, Hollow them out of her if that was what it took.

  The pictures faded and the sense of r
elaxation she felt yesterday overtook her body. She went limp, exhausted from the connection, drained from the new knowledge she had been given. It made her sick to her core to think of the repercussions, but now, more than ever, it was important for her to get back, to get Jaxon and keep him safe. She didn't want to believe Rickard was capable of sending someone to be Hollowed to hide that he had a child, but what other explanation was there?

  The ether creature withdrew and she had to summon the strength to swim back to shallower water. The beast swam around her, its tendrils expanding to reach out to her, each strand sending a tiny stream of calm into her body. By the time Madea could place her feet on the ground, her head was clear enough to start processing what she'd learned.

  "Thank you," she said. On some level, this being understood her. Perhaps it could feel her emotions, respond to the chemicals coursing through her brain. Something. She probably didn't need to say the words, but she felt better for it, all the same.

  Somehow, this creature had reached inside her, had pulled the images of Janae, of Jaxon, of Rickard and given her connecting memories. Madea's mind raced, trying to put the pieces together. If these creatures made connections, if they could touch human memories, human thoughts, if they fed off...

  Maybe this creature, this one in particular, had touched Janae...Maybe it had fed off her memories, absorbed them somehow. And then, on reaching inside Madea, had seen some of the same faces and transferred those images to her—

  "Madea!" Garrett's voice shook her out of her thoughts and she spun to the shoreline to see him standing ankle deep in the water, waving his arms at her. "We should go."

  "Okay," she called back. She glanced around her but the creature was gone.

  Garrett held out her clothes and she pulled them on with difficulty, the fabric clinging to her wet body.

  "Right, then. Guess we go back and find a plan to get this boy of yours," Garrett said.

  "Jaxon," Madea corrected. "The sooner I can go and get him, the better."