He clenched his hands into fists. He was frustrated, but she knew it wasn’t with her. His lack of memories was the real cause of his anger. She reached out and touched his clenched hands.
When she spoke, it was in soft tones, “It is all right, Warren. I don’t know how the atramento works, but there is a reason.”
He shook his head and put the book aside. “I’m hiding, Natasha. I should go back to the University and face my enemy. I’m in limbo here and will remain so as long as I run away.”
She sat down next to him. “It isn’t running, Warren. Well, not at this time. You need to be better before you return. At least wait until you have all the atramento.”
She lightly touched her chest. Hal had just finished that day putting the last atramento on her. She felt better now she had all the atramento they knew worked.
The senses one had been put on a few days before and she had been exploring its gifts on herself. She reached out again and placed her hand on top of his. His hand was warm beneath her own. He stunned her by turning his hand over and holding her hand.
His voice was bleak as he said, “It is still running away. I’m running away from my past. I’m running away from discovering my memories again. It was painful, Natasha, finding out about my mother. Like it was yesterday she died. It has been a year, but for a while it felt like yesterday. I know they are all going to be like that. Each little memory is a sharp bite and so I’m running.”
He smiled at her, but it was a weak imitation of his usual half grin. “You just make it easy to hide here. But I will have to stop running and go back to all of that.”
Natasha looked at his sad eyes and without thinking, she leaned in and kissed him. His free hand went to her cheek and pulled her closer.
She forgot for a while the risk she took, of being rejected, and just enjoyed the feel of his velvet lips against her own. Maybe she had made a mistake. He hadn’t given her any other signals to say he was interested in her.
After a long time, she pulled back. Warren’s eyes were dark with emotion. She went to say something, but he only shook his head and pulled her back, so he could kiss her again. That answered her question, anyway.
___
Warren tucked his arms under his head as he lay down on the tattoo chair.
He asked, “So, what is this atramento going to do?”
Hal leaned against the wall and watched as Natasha nervously moved things on the tray. Hal had insisted it was time for her to use her sight in putting in an atramento.
Natasha finished sorting out the gear and answered, “This one we are putting in is to enhance your senses.”
She had already practiced this one on Hal. Since Hal’s aura was calm, it hadn’t been a difficult task. Warren was a different case altogether.
Hal said from her perch, “We will put the strength one on later. You are still healing and the scars will interact with the atramento. I’m not sure if that will be a good interaction or something we haven’t seen before. Fun, new experiments.”
Natasha motioned for him to roll over. It would be easier to access the back of his neck where the atramento would be placed.
Warren shifted so he lay on his stomach and turned his head to look at her for a while.
“Do you have this one?” he sounded comfortable.
Natasha said, “You’ll like it. Misha is the one to first try it and he swears by it.”
His voice serious, “What about you?”
She looked up from the inks she worked with.
She chewed on her lip as she tried to articulate what the sense atramento did. “It makes everything more real. From every breath you take to the feel of sunshine on your face. It is just more.”
Warren reached out and lightly touched her hand. Hal snorted from the edge of the room, making them both jump as they had forgotten she was there. “If you are trying to be covert in your canoodling you aren’t very good at it. Get to work, Natasha.”
Warren glanced at her. “Canoodling?”
Hal waved her hand to indicate the two of them. “Yeah, yeah, you two are hot for each other. But I don’t have time for you two to be all gooley eyed.”
Natasha snorted a short laugh. “Gooley eyed?”
Hal waved it off. “Whatever, you know what I mean.”
Hal flicked towards Warren. “Start the atramento. You know what to do, but I want to see if you have the intuitiveness needed to work around someone’s EM field.”
Natasha knew what she meant. There were flickers of pink in his aura which curled towards her. She knew what that meant as well, though she hadn’t mentioned it to Warren. As pink meant love. She thought maybe she was wrong as it could be a superficial kind of love for the person who had saved him. She wasn’t ready to find out though.
She turned Warren’s head away, so she could access the back of his neck. Her own aura interacted with his and she used this to guide the pink flares away, she could see the normal flow of aura underneath.
Natasha was exhausted when she finished. She clenched and unclenched her hands which had a cramp from being in a position they weren’t used to.
She looked up to see Hal had already left. She must have done all right for Hal to be confident enough to leave Natasha alone.
Warren made a soft sound. He must already be reacting to the sense atramento. She knew what it could feel like and decided to play. She put aside her tools and ran her hand up into his hair.
He groaned. “Oh, my goodness. This is heaven. I know you tried to explain, but this just feels amazing.”
He sat up slowly and ran his hands through his hair where her own hands had just caressed.
“This is being alive,” he said in a reverent voice.
Warren turned to look at her. His eyes dark with emotion. “I see why you wanted me to have this one. Do you give it to many?”
Natasha said, “Just to friends.”
His face softened. “Am I a friend?”
She stepped closer to him and he put his hands on her waist. She liked that he was quick to touch her without her having to guide him.
Natasha asked, “I thought we were more than friends, aren’t we?”
His hands moved to more interesting places as he said, “Finding you was the best thing that has happened to me.”
She chuckled. “As I recall you don’t remember anything before that, of course I am the best thing that has happened to you. I’m the only thing to happen to you.”
He said, “I mean it, Natasha.”
She lightly touched his cheek where a faint flicker of pink curled around his health atramento. “I know, Warren.”
Natasha bent down and kissed him to make sure he wouldn’t ask more about her comment. Besides, she wasn’t ready for any other words between them. That would force her to articulate her own feelings and frankly that scared her.
Chapter Three
Whatinga March, 2087
Warren looked over Hal’s shoulder as she worked. He was able to walk around the warehouses easily now, but his chest still ached whenever he moved suddenly or laughed.
He interrupted, “I remember when we first met.”
Hal didn’t even shift to acknowledge his words. Instead, she said, “And yet you still dated that woman, even after I warned you, she thought you were an idiot. even warned you she was a bloody viper.”
He had to agree with her, though he didn’t remember his full relationship with Isabelle. He said, “I was an idiot to date her. My mother thought she was a good match and since there wasn’t anyone else, I kind of let her opinions rule. Besides, Digger was my best friend and we kind of all hung out together.”
Hal stopped her work and spun around to look at him. Her eyes still had that clarity he had recognised as a child. “Was your friend? Did something happen?”
Warren frowned when he realised he had used the past tense on his relationship with Digger. He tried to push harder on his memories to see if he could remember more about Digger. Instead, he only ma
naged to give himself a headache.
He looked up when Hal touched his arm lightly with concern. She frowned at him. “Don’t push yourself. Your brain is delicate and it needs time to heal. Your memory will return and you are safe here while you wait. You have time.”
He growled. “I don’t feel like I have time.”
“Are we still friends, Warren?” she asked him. Her voice very serious.
“Yes, though I should be angry at you. You left without saying goodbye to anyone, eight years ago. You could have trusted me. I thought you had died of cancer. I mourned you.” He remembered being quite upset by her death. Though, all the memories around that time still weren’t whole.
She waved it off with a hand gesture he was so familiar with, now his memory of her had returned.
Hal explained in a soft and unsure voice, “My father embezzled funds from the University. He took a lot of money and there were a lot of angry people looking for him. To stay in the city, I had to cut all ties with the University. If you had known where I was, they could have found me and they would have tried to reach my dad, through me. At the very least they would have made my life horrible. They could have even tried to make me pay back what my father had stolen.”
Warren let out a deep breath. “I understand. I think I did something along the same lines. Enforcer Harold said my father didn’t know why I left. He must be worried about me.”
He still didn’t remember his father, but he hadn’t tried either. He knew he would feel guilty and that thought niggled in the back of his head and kept the memory away.
She patted his shoulder and turned back to her work. “He knows now and he will forgive you. Now trust me, you have time to heal. Go cuddle with Natasha. That will make your headache go away.”
He blushed but went to find Natasha.
___
Warren found Natasha deeper in the warehouses. She was high up with her head inside the water house for the hydroponics. Natasha asked, “Can you pass me a wrench?”
There were several wrenches, he picked the one on the top and passed it to the waving hand and hoped it was the right one. When she didn’t complain he assumed it was the right one. There was some noise from inside and he asked, “What are you doing?”
Her voice was a little strained as she spoke, “There was a leak and the efficiency of the filter was down by twelve percent. I thought I would tweak it all, so we use less water and don’t have to…”
She made a grunting noise and continued, “And don’t have to use so much fertiliser.”
He looked her over. She was wearing a set of overalls which were stretched over her rear as she leaned into the water house. He watched her for a while longer and hardly realised he said, “You have a nice ass.”
There was a bang and some swearing before Natasha looked at him. “What did you say?”
He felt his cheeks heat. “Umm. I said you had a nice ass. Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” he added in a rush.
Her eyes had an emotion he was unable to recognize. She then said, “Okay.”
She handed him the wrench and asked, “Pass me the screwdriver, please.”
He took the wrench and barked his knuckles on the tool chest as he looked for the screwdriver. Eventually he found one and passed it to her. She finished and came down off the ladder.
She put the screwdriver away and said, “You have a nice ass to.”
He couldn’t help himself and snorted a laugh. She smiled at him and he pulled her closer to him. He said in a deeper voice, “You want to go somewhere private and make out like teenagers?”
Natasha giggled. “You can be silly, Warren. I don’t know how you do that when you act so serious the rest of the time.”
Warren kissed her and said against her lips, “Maybe it is you who brings out the silliness in me.”
She made a sound of pleasure in the back of her throat as he kissed her again. With her eyes still closed she asked in a raspy voice, “Is that a good thing?”
There was no sound of doubt in his answer. “Always.” As he kissed her again.
___
Warren looked around the large glass filled space and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been here before?”
Natasha laughed at his mention of remembering anything. He was getting back his memory in spurts though he still didn’t remember everything. He said, “I don’t mean it that way. Rather, I know I haven’t been here before. What is this place?”
She caught his arm and tucked it in around her.
“It is the mall,” she explained and enjoyed that she had to.
When she had first visited here, she had thought she had gone to a different world entirely. She knew it wasn’t anything amazing compared to Warren’s world and what his world could offer. While his memories were gone, she wanted to share with him her own sense of wonder.
He stared like a tourist and she warmed at the new experiences she could give him.
“There are all sorts of people here,” he said with a voice filled with amazement.
Natasha said, “There are some high-end stores here as well, but there are other stores here that I like to visit. It means you get a mix of different people from all over the city. The mall is like an interface with the rest of the city with the trade district.”
She took him to the stores she liked. They were high-end in their own way, only they catered to the gadgets she and Hal liked. Even Misha didn’t understand her fascination with the way things moved or connected to other things.
Warren went still for a while and she asked, “What is it?”
His eyes searched the crowds. “I think I saw someone I knew. But that can’t be right.”
She looked around, but all she could see was a sea of the usual people. If it was someone who he would recognize here, they would probably stand out. Instead, Natasha brushed it off lightly.
“Oh, why is that? You are getting your memory back more each day. Maybe there really was someone from the University.”
Warren said, “I doubt anyone I know comes here. Certainly not this person.”
Natasha ached at the offhanded comment he made. Was she really that much of a stranger to his world that even the most glamorous part of her life was still far from his?
He said, “Isabelle is such a snob, she would never be caught dead here.”
She asked, “Isabelle? You really are starting to remember things. Who is she?”
She knew when she asked, that no matter what his answer was, she wasn’t going to like it.
Natasha knew she was right when he said, “Isabelle was the woman my mother wanted me to marry. I even went as far as asking her to marry me. Then I came to my senses. I had such an argument with my mother. Dad had to step in and I have no idea what he said to her, but afterwards she was fine with me not marrying Isabelle. Isabelle on the other hand never forgave me. Though we still managed to stay friends. Of a sort.”
Natasha wanted to ask if he loved her, but that would be too telling, instead she asked, “So, why didn’t you want to marry her?”
She tried to sound casual, but the answer was very important to her.
“Well, you know how I said she was a snob. That was the main reason. She was terrible to people who were supposedly her equal and she was even worse to those she deemed to be below her. I couldn’t love someone who could hate as much as she did.” He grinned at her. “Let us forget her and you can tell me what we are going to do next.”
“Gelato.” Glad for the change in subject, Natasha smiled as she spoke.
He said, “I don’t think I’ve had that either.”
She laughed. “If you have had a frozen dessert, it was probably gelato.”
He said, “I don’t think so. I do know I’ve had ice-cream.”
She stilled a second, then decided she wouldn’t let it worry her. She didn’t know anyone who could afford anything with real cream. Not from a cow anyway.
Her mother had told her about it as there had still been a f
ew cows around when she was younger. But most cows were kept now for the rich and privileged.
___
They were waiting for the bus after their trip to the mall. Warren had his arm around her waist. She liked having him close. His other hand was filled with some gear Hal had wanted them to buy for her workshop.
“You know I can’t stay much longer,” he said out of the blue.
Natasha sighed. “I know. Most of your memory is back and the scars should be healed up in a few days for you to get the strength tattoos. Once that is done there won’t be anything keeping you here.”
Warren tilted her chin up, so he could look in her eyes. “I wish I could stay here with you forever.”
She said, “You have a life out there away from me. You have your place and I have my own.”
She ached with the thought as she considered him leaving her. She steeled her heart because she knew it was going to happen. She worried though it might already be too late to save herself.
A black SUV pulled up to the bus stop and several people jumped out. They had the colours of one of the local gangs, but Natasha knew something wasn’t right.
The men were young and had suspicious bulges which announced that they probably carried guns. That meant they were serious gang members as the Enforcers and the Cops were severe about crushing gun crime in the city.
They surrounded them, but then hesitated to approach the two of them.
One of the young men whispered to the others harshly, “You never said they were marked. You know, man, I don’t deal with people who are marked.”
One of the men approached cautiously, his hand tapping a pipe in his other hand. “Are you Warren Nasser?”
The fact that he had a pipe instead of a gun out meant these men had been hired for something specific and killing them in public wasn’t one of them.
Warren nodded his head slightly. “Are you looking for me?”
Natasha sighed at his cluelessness, but at the same time in awe that anyone in this day and age could remain that innocent. She placed a hand on Warren’s chest to keep him back.
She said, “Someone ordered you to rough us up a bit, yeah?”
Betrayed Hero (Atramento Book 2) Page 3