Chapter Sixteen
Kyle crept softly down the hallway, glad they at least let her wear tennis shoes with the mid-calf skirt. Damn, she hated these clothes. But now wasn’t the time to sulk over wearing dresses. She recognized the male voices at the end of the hall, and she needed to hear what her father and Simon were planning. She sidled close to the door, her back pressed to the wall to keep watch in both directions.
“You were right that the larger cities would be the easiest to win. They are hungry for The Natural Order.”
“Didn’t I tell you that without resources for growing their own food, the city dwellers would fall in line as meek as sheep?” Simon’s gravelly voice was a sharp contrast to her father’s smooth baritone. “Food is power. We control almost a third of the world’s food distribution now. When we take the central warehouses in the Fourth Continent, we’ll control another third. They can join us or starve.”
“I take no pleasure in starving people, Simon, but The One has told me it is necessary to take care of our followers and recruit more. If others are hungry, it’s because they refuse to recognize the imperative to return to The Natural Order. Society cannot survive without a hierarchy and natural selection.”
Simon’s laugh was cruel. “Yeah. Natural selection. I miss my old life of capitalism and cutthroat politics.”
Cyrus growled. “This isn’t a game, Simon. This belief in a collective conscious is nothing more than dressed-up socialism that rewards the weak and strong equally. It’s unnatural. It steals drive and ambition. It’s not what The One intended when he created this world.”
“Game or not, you better have some strategy ready for when The World Council finally decides to fight back.”
Kyle was convinced that her father was insane, but Simon was the more dangerous of the two. He seemed to have no conscience. How many times did a soul have to be badly born to be that damaged?
Cyrus scoffed. “I’m not worried. They have no army, no general. Leadership requires vision and they have none. They’re just a bunch of quartermasters worrying over shipping schedules.”
“I already have reports of gatherings in the First Continent, the Second Continent, and near us in the lower Sierra Madre.”
“Stupid rumors.”
“No. Reliable reports from spies I pay good credits.”
There was a long silence, and Kyle heard footsteps behind her. Another minute and whoever was coming would round the corner and see her lurking outside the door. She had nowhere else to go, so she knocked softly on the wall and stepped into the doorway. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought Father was alone. I’ll come back later.”
“Kylie.” Cyrus frowned. He was sitting at his desk while Simon stood near a window. “Where’s Ruth? You should be in the women’s dormitory.”
She stepped into the room. “I, uh, was going to the personal facilities to shower.” She held up the towel and plastic bag of toiletries as evidence. Thank the stars she’d thought ahead. “I planned to speak to you tomorrow, but I was walking past and was hoping maybe I could see you tonight.” She made a show of ducking her head and looking embarrassed. “I’m rather anxious to speak to you about a personal matter.”
She had half listened as the footsteps grew closer and turned when Ruth appeared in the doorway. “Kylie. There you are. It’s almost time for the evening teaching.” She smiled at Cyrus and glanced nervously at Simon. Kyle wasn’t the only one who was cautious around him. “I hope she didn’t interrupt anything important.”
“Kylie said she wanted to speak to me about something,” he said.
“I can talk to you tomorrow,” she said, making a show of glancing nervously about the room.
“I have a full day of meetings tomorrow. You can speak freely in front of Ruth and Simon.”
Crap. She’d hoped she wouldn’t have to pull out her only ace so soon, but she had no choice. She offered a small smile to Ruth but wouldn’t even pretend to acknowledge Simon, no matter what the cost. “It’s just that, um, I wanted to speak to you about a young man I met.”
Ruth’s face lit up with a broad smile. “Will! I knew you two had hit it off.”
Kyle ducked her head again and nodded. She was getting good at this acting stuff. “He’s nice and I…I like him.”
Cyrus sat back in his chair, his eyes suspicious until Ruth spoke up.
“The young man joined the group at our last mission site. He was seeking help for his mother who was in very poor health and unfortunately passed away shortly after they arrived. I wasn’t sure he would stay, but I think he did because he seems quite taken with our Kylie.” She smiled again at Kyle. “He’s very handsome and well-mannered.”
Cyrus drummed his fingers lightly on the desk.
“I was hoping you could meet him and give us permission to sit together at services,” Kyle said, twirling a lock of hair around one finger in what she hoped would appear as a girlish nervous gesture.
The finger-drumming stopped.
“I tell you what,” Cyrus said. “I am arranging a trip to affirm our mission in the Fourth Continent.” He glanced at Simon. “Simon had the brilliant idea of traveling by solar train so we can stop in the towns along the way to personally carry the message of The One to everyone.” He looked back at Kyle. “Your young man may come along with the other men I’ve chosen so I can get to know him. You and Ruth, and two other women Ruth selects, will accompany us to take care of domestic chores for the group.”
She didn’t have to pretend this time. Her smile was genuine. “Father! Thank you. The Fourth Continent! I’ve never been there.” He couldn’t know that his trip would be taking her within hiking distance of her goal. “This is so exciting. I can’t wait to tell Will. I need to pack.”
Ruth laughed at Kyle’s enthusiasm. “I’m sure you have plenty of time. Now, go shower quickly so you won’t miss evening teaching.”
Cyrus stood. “Do as Ruth says. We won’t be leaving until day after tomorrow.”
Kyle stepped forward tentatively, then gave her father a quick hug. He jerked in surprise before closing his arm around her. “Thank you, Father,” she whispered against his chest.
She surprised Ruth, too, with a quick peck on the cheek before she fled the room and nearly floated to the showers. Meeting Will had been sheer luck. Or was it fate that had brought their paths together? He was tall and muscular, ruggedly handsome, intelligent, funny…and one hundred percent same-sex oriented.
*
She fell to her knees, head bowed as the funeral pyres burned around her, their flames jagged against the night sky. Warriors’ shields glowed red hot at the base of each pyre, identifying the dead. The shield in front of her was her own, but she was not the human torch at the top of the pyre, and the shield strapped to her own arm wasn’t hers. Second. They were gone, all gone. She had failed.
The heat seared her skin. The absence of voices, the thoughts of her army was a maddening, hollow silence. Embers riding on the wind stung her skin like fiery needles. She deserved the pain and so much more. She welcomed it.
A scream tore at the quiet, and she staggered to her feet. Specter! She wasn’t alone. Not yet. She ran, weaving through a hundred pyres, her lungs burning, her legs threatening to collapse. She could see him, his breath a blue-white flame as it ignited still another pyre. But there was no shield at the base of this pyre. A profound dread filled her as Specter fanned the flames with his great wings, and she raised her eyes to the shroud laid atop the frame of the traditional open pyre for a warrior.
The shroud moved and fell away as the figure sat up. Dark-red spikes contrasted against the blue-white flames, and forest-green eyes stared down at her. Jael. Jael.
“Jael. Jael. No, it’s okay.” Soft hands caressed her face, her neck, as a soothing blanket of calm wrapped around her terror. “It was just a dream.”
She blinked to focus in the dim light, her rapid breaths harsh in the quiet. No, it wasn’t quiet. She never thought she’d be happy about white noise of a
hundred thoughts bouncing off her mental shields, but it was a million times better than that horrible silence. A halo of red spikes and concerned green eyes filled her vision, but these were real. She surged upward and wrapped Alyssa in a desperate hug, burying her face against her cool neck. She smelled of coconut and vanilla.
“Honey. What is it? You’re drenched and shaking.”
She couldn’t say it. If she shared her doubts, it would give them root…as if they weren’t already growing in her subconscious. She’d never doubted before. Not like this. She’d second-guessed tactics, even retreated to regroup. But she’d never doubted success in the end. This was the most important battle of her many lives, and she was losing her nerve. It would mean sure disaster for those who followed her.
“I’m sorry.” She let go, swinging her legs over the side of her bed and turning away from her embarrassing display. Dung. She was clinging like a baby to a first-life who had more confidence than she.
“No, I’m sorry.” Alyssa’s hand pressed against her sweaty back.
Jael sprang to her feet and moved across the room. She didn’t deserve the connection, the comfort it gave her. But Alyssa followed, pressing against Jael’s back and wrapping her arms around Jael’s waist, preventing further escape.
“This is my fault. I’m responsible for your doubts. I planted the seed for that horrible dream.”
Jael shivered at the light kisses peppering her bare shoulders. She’d been sleeping as usual, clad in only her low-cut briefs. “You could see my dream?” Nakedness never bothered her, but Alyssa’s hands gently stroking along her stomach were making it hard to think. She felt Alyssa shudder.
“It was horrible. You were thrashing about and I only intended to calm you. But when I touched you, it was like when you showed me your past lives.” She shuddered again. “I’m so, so sorry. I was angry and hurt, but I was wrong to say such awful things.”
Jael turned in her arms and drew her against her chest. “You only said what you believe. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m the one who’s wrong. Things are different after a hundred years of peace. Maybe my time has passed.”
“Neither of us is wrong, and neither is right,” Alyssa murmured, her cheek rubbing against Jael’s nipple.
She buried her face in Alyssa’s soft spikes and stroked her hands down Alyssa’s back.
“Jael?”
“Huh?” Sun and moon, she felt good. Cool against Jael’s overheated skin. She felt like—
“Can we figure this out later? I don’t think I can focus right now.”
Dragon dung. What was she thinking? Alyssa had seen the same dream. She must be even more shaken than Jael. She tightened her arms around her. “Are you okay?”
“No. No, I’m not.” Her breath skated across Jael’s chest, tightening her nipples and groin. “You’re kind of naked and making me crazy.”
She looked up, desire burning in her eyes, a flame drawing Jael down and swallowing her in its heat as their tongues met and stroked and stoked their burning.
“Bed,” Alyssa breathed. “Make love to me, Jael.”
She wanted to. Stars, she needed to. “Second will be coming up for bed in just a minute.”
“No. She’s not. She’s sleeping in your office tonight.”
She swept Alyssa off her feet and into her arms in one swift move, then carried her back to the rumpled sheets. She’d think later about the conspiracy behind this rare privacy or the narrow bed designed for one. She wanted this woman with a need so deep, she could wait no longer.
She lowered her gently to the bed, holding Alyssa’s gaze as she drew her pants and briefs down her legs and tossed them on the floor. Alyssa sat up to shed her tunic and Jael stepped out of her briefs. They stared at each other for a long minute, and then Alyssa held out her arms. Jael carefully lowered herself so that they were on their sides, facing each other.
This was about finding passion rather than relieving need, so she would go slowly.
She traced the curve of Alyssa’s hip, smoothed her hand along the arch of her back. She claimed her mouth with a soft brush of her lips, then a slow, languid swirl of their tongues. She tasted the lobe of her ear and sucked gently at the throbbing pulse of her neck while she traced the firm slope of her shoulder.
“You’re so beautiful.” Her words were too ordinary for such an exquisite woman, but no words existed that would suffice.
She took a taut nipple in her mouth and turned her hand to brush the soft backs of her fingers against the other. Then Alyssa stopped her, turning Jael’s hand and opening it to cover her swollen breast.
“I want all of you, even the calluses on your hands.” Her hand covering Jael’s, she rubbed it against her skin, across the hardened nipple, and moaned. “It feels good. So good.”
Her moan was Jael’s undoing. She could go slow next time. She slid down and shouldered her thighs apart. Alyssa’s hips lifted with a jerk when Jael closed her hand around her breast again and nipped at the inside of her tender thigh.
“Please, Jael. I need you.”
Jael growled when Alyssa reached down to open herself to her lover. She was hot and slick and heavy with desire. She breathed in her scent, musky and sweet, and tasted her in long strokes. She slid inside her, stretching and massaging the firm walls.
“Oh, stars, I can’t, I’m going to—” Alyssa grabbed the pillow under her head and covered her face, screaming into it as Jael thrust deep, sucking her swollen clit against her teeth.
Her head was dizzy, her groin aching with Alyssa’s muffled cry and the wave of pleasure she projected. She couldn’t wait, didn’t want to wait. She rose and opened herself to bring them together. She was throbbing and slid easily against her lover’s sex.
Alyssa’s heels dug into her thighs. “Yes, baby, like that. Sun! I’m going to come again.”
She thrust wildly, bearing down to assuage the burning pain of unimaginable yearning. When Alyssa’s fingers pinched hard on her nipple, the world exploded in light and color and passion that roared in her ears and screamed through her veins. And she knew she would never be the same.
*
The weak rays of dawn beckoned Jael from a dream so sweet she could feel the cool weight of a lover, the brush of silk tickling her breasts and the gentle exhalation of breath on her belly. She didn’t want to open her eyes and leave this imagined bliss. She felt rested. No. She felt restored. The nightmare from the evening before was a faint memory, a tiger without teeth or claws.
But as the light grew stronger, her eyelids could no longer keep it at bay. Reluctantly, she blinked slowly at the ceiling. She was wet and aroused. She must not really be awake. She moved her legs, but a pleasant weight pinned her to the bed. She looked down and stilled. All she could see were wild red-gold spikes and a long bare back that begged to be stroked. It wasn’t a dream.
They hadn’t exactly sorted out their differences, but Alyssa had come to her. That had to mean something, didn’t it? She closed her eyes and took a careful, deep breath. Their joining last night meant more than she was ready to admit.
They were dark and light. Ice and fire. A sharp blade and a slender reed. So different, yet a perfect fit. Alyssa was the melody to her percussion. She was a churning sea against Alyssa’s calm, blue sky. Alyssa was the north star in Jael’s velvet black night.
And it was wrong, too wrong. Her soul was so old and Alyssa’s so young.
Sharp teeth tugged at the skin on her belly. “I can hear you thinking.”
Jael opened her eyes again, this time to Alyssa’s affectionate gaze. “When did you become telepathic?”
“It doesn’t take a telepath to feel the tension in your body, and you’re worrying loud enough for any amateur empath to sense.”
“Alyssa—”
“If you’re thinking that last night was a mistake, then think again, First Warrior.”
Jael looked away, unable to say what she needed while she was drowning in those green eyes. “There’s one thing you stil
l don’t know.”
“Then tell me.” Alyssa grasped her chin and gave her a small shake. “No more secrets, Jael.” It was a soft plea.
Jael traced the rosy blush that colored Alyssa’s creamy cheek. “What we shared last night…it was more than…I don’t know. Just more.” She stilled her finger and stared into those beautiful eyes. “This is my last incarnation, Alyssa. You are only in your first. If I…if we allow this between us, then you could spend the rest of many lives alone, like Second.”
“Does Second regret her soul bond?”
“No. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Are you a seer, too?”
“No, but—”
“Then how do you know this is your last incarnation? How do you know I must live many more?”
“I just know. You’re not being reasonable.”
“Oh, sweetie, there’s nothing reasonable about this. The world has gone crazy. People are hoarding and fighting over food. In a society advanced enough for green energy, a worldwide digital network, and medical care that can cure almost any disease, we’re preparing an army that will ride flying, fire-breathing horses.”
Jael gently launched her last fireball. “My mission hasn’t changed,” she said quietly.
Alyssa sighed. “Neither has mine. But fate has paired us for a reason, and I’m done questioning it.” She lowered her mouth to Jael’s. “And I’m through talking.”
Jael sucked in a breath when Alyssa’s fingers dipped between her legs. She was full and ready and too weak to fight her any longer. Alyssa’s kisses trailed down her belly. Her defenses were shattered. She closed her eyes as Alyssa’s mouth claimed her flesh, her fingers filled her body, and her affection infused her soul.
She was out flanked by The Collective Council, by their mission, by this bewitching Advocate, and by her own need. She could do nothing but surrender.
Chapter Seventeen
“Is there something on the back of my shirt?” Will turned his back to Kyle and looked expectantly at her over his shoulder.
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