And not a moment too soon.
Owen came into the kitchen. “Selena, I’d like a word with you in the den.”
She looked at Owen, then Jim and Russ, then nodded and followed her boss out of the kitchen.
I’m coming too, Bastion told her.
No. Dammit, Bastion. Were you in the kitchen just now?
He ignored her question. This situation is because of me.
No, it’s not. It’s because of the Omnis. I don’t need you to fight my fights. I got this. And quit skulking around.
Merde alors. They were both fighters. Fighters didn’t exist in a vacuum; there was always a hierarchy that had to be answered to, so of course she was going to have to face her boss. One thing Bastion knew about Selena was that she defined herself by her strength and her courage as a fighter. Take that away and she’d have a hard time understanding herself.
If they kick you off their team, you’ll have a place in ours.
I’m not afraid. It’s just Owen.
Your almost-lover.
My never-lover. And fine. Come along, but just keep the fuck quiet. I can’t talk to you and him at the same time.
Kit caught up to Selena in the hallway. His face was tense. He looked as if there were something he wanted to say to her, but he didn’t have a chance before they went into the den.
Bastion followed the three, keeping himself hidden.
Owen leaned against his desk. Clasping his hands together, one foot on the floor, one knee bent over the edge of the desk, he pinned Selena with a glare. “What happened? Why go AWOL?”
Kit leaned against the other end of the big mahogany desk and folded his arms.
Selena stood in front of them with her hands clasped behind her back, her legs slightly apart—the classic pose of a soldier facing her superiors. “I did what I had to do.”
Owen’s right brow lifted. “So you take orders from Bastion now?”
Selena’s eyes lowered to Owen’s chest, then to the surface of the desk. “No.”
Kit shook his head as he came forward. Touching Selena’s arm, he gestured toward the leather sofa and armchairs. “Sel, it’s just us. Let’s sit and talk this through.”
“No. I prefer to stand. I don’t want to feel at all comfortable with what’s happening.”
“Good,” Owen said. “So tell us what did happen. Start at the beginning, because an AWOL stint doesn’t come out of nowhere.”
“It started here. You’re aware of Bastion’s attempts to communicate with me. Well, he did more than that. He came to me. In person. Sort of. Remember when I thought you guys were messing with my head?”
“Sonofabitch,” Kit growled. “What did he do?”
“We just talked.” She sent Owen a pained look. “I liked his visits, but he wiped my memories of them. I thought I was losing my mind. The day he was caught in the traps, all those hidden memories came flooding back.”
“He used you to get to us,” Owen said.
I did not, Bastion interjected.
Yes, you did.
“He listened to me. I—I liked that about him.”
You did?
“We listen to you,” Kit said.
Selena huffed a breath. “Not at all the same, Kit. You’re my bosses. He was like a friend—”
I am a friend.
“—a secret friend, one who knows me and cares about me and puts me first.”
“That’s Spycraft 101, Sel,” Owen said. “I can’t believe you fell for that.”
“I didn’t. I resisted him.”
“Did he ever ask you for information?” Kit asked.
Selena nodded. “He wanted the Ratcliffs.”
“Motherfucker.” Kit’s eyes narrowed as he shot a look over to Owen. “It’s good we sent Sel away.”
“Not really. Bastion and I were—are—connected telepathically, so he was still able to communicate with me there. I learned that I can block him by shielding my thoughts. I did that as much as I could, but it’s hard to maintain. Though I knew I was at Addy’s house, I didn’t know where her house was. So there was that, at least. It was obviously in the Rockies somewhere, but that covers a huge swath of territory.”
“Jax said you spent days hiding in your closet,” Owen said.
I hated that. You wouldn’t let me help you.
Selena nodded. “The headaches I had here were even worse there. Sometimes, it was impossible to shield my thoughts, so I would hide in there or in my room, where I would keep the lights out so he couldn’t see or hear anything through me.”
Kit glared at Owen. “And this is the manipulative bastard you want to hook us up with, am I right?”
They have no choice. It’s us or Brett Flynn and his ghouls.
I’m getting there. Keep it cool, Bastion.
Selena felt the press of tears gathering. She ground her teeth, forcing herself to keep her emotions at bay. There was just so much at stake, and breaking down in front of her bosses would totally undermine the message she was trying to communicate. Besides, Owen and Kit, with their powerful alpha protective instincts, could only react with the limited understanding they had.
“Bastion wasn’t causing the headaches,” she said.
“So he has you believing,” Owen said.
Selena sighed. She was trying to choose her words so carefully, but the guys had their hackles up and were soon going to go for the pitchforks. Maybe she should have taken Kit’s offer to sit down and talk this out.
She sat on the coffee table. “There are so many forces at play, and we don’t even know the half of them. Not even a tenth of them. We thought we were fighting other humans in our battles with the Omnis. And perhaps we were, but even Lobo knew something was up with the human modifications. Didn’t you ever wonder why he insisted on the FBI taking custody of all our kills?”
Owen and Kit were frowning at her.
“I’m just beginning to learn what’s going on. I’m not the right person to speak about all of this. I will tell you that I trust Bastion. I’ve met his team. They are as fierce and protective as we are. We’re on the same side of this fight—only they’re about a hundred levels above us. They want to share their knowledge. They want to help us.”
“In exchange for what?” Owen asked.
Selena shrugged. “Ask them. You can’t resist them. Trust me, I’ve tried.”
“So what made you leave Addy’s?” Owen asked. “I still don’t get that.”
“The headaches were worsening into crippling migraines. I couldn’t move or think or sleep or eat. I started to hallucinate.”
I hate that you went through this. I tried to get them to tell me where you were. I failed you. The only job I had to do as your mate, and I couldn’t help you.
It’s okay. It’s over now. I hope.
“What do you mean, ‘hallucinate’?” Kit asked.
“I started to see an orange glow outside, in the distance. I thought it was a forest fire or a campfire, but it was bitterly cold outside, and no one was reporting a fire in the area. I noticed, though, that every time I looked at it, my headache eased, like it was summoning me.”
That was the Matchmaker. So you did see that fiend.
“A couple of weeks into all of this, I felt the most terrible pain in my shins. It was crippling. I couldn’t walk. I didn’t know what was happening.”
It was me. You were feeling my pain.
“The pain was Bastion’s. I couldn’t reach him for days. I think his team was keeping him in a coma or something. Then this morning, they sent one of their guys for me. As soon as I left with him, my headaches stopped. I haven’t had one since. Acier, Bastion’s friend, took me to the Legion’s fort in Colorado. I met his team. His boss, Liege, showed me things that you need to see. And now, we are where we are.”
“At the bottom of a deep pit,” Kit said.
We will help them, my love. We are not their enemies.
Selena looked at Owen. “We need the Legion—if only to help us better und
erstand how the Omnis are leveling up and where we fit in their new schemes. There may be no place for us, but if that’s the case, we need to know that as well.”
Owen nodded. He rubbed his chin as his eyes took on a faraway look. “We’ll start with a meetup and go from there.”
“She’s right, O,” Kit said. “None of us expected any of this, but the Ratcliffs did warn us.”
“Yeah,” Owen said. “They did. But who in his right mind would have believed that all of this could really be a thing?”
Selena knew who it was knocking on her door later that night. She’d showered and changed into a tank top and a pair of flannel pajama bottoms. After that, she’d spent a half-hour pacing, wondering if Bastion would come to her so they could finally face this thing happening to them.
What were they to each other—besides strangers? Or, at least, he was to her.
She opened her door. Geez, he was a big guy. She stepped back to let him into the short entry hallway, but didn’t move deeper into her room, didn’t want to give him the wrong idea about anything. Instead, she shut the door and backed up to the wall, waiting for him to speak first.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.”
“I wanted to say goodnight.”
She nodded and pressed her hands behind her hips to keep herself from reaching for him. “Night.”
“It was a big day today.”
“It was.”
“It’s good to be out of hiding. I do not like being invisible.”
Bastion was a vibrant, noisy man. Selena didn’t know how he had ever survived being silent for as long as he had.
“It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” he said, responding to her thoughts.
“More so than becoming a mutant?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I was not given a choice in that, so it was just a matter of getting through it.”
“Did you have a choice in your assignment here?”
“Non. But I did have a choice in whether to reveal myself to you.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“I was afraid. Of wrecking it. Of blowing my chance with you. Of putting us ahead of our team obligations. I’m glad we are together now.”
“We aren’t together, Bastion.”
“We are more so now than over the past several weeks. Or months.”
“I can’t get past the pain you imposed on me. The headaches, the fear, the paranoia.”
“It was not I. I would not—could not—harm my light.”
“You gave the guys headaches.”
Again that brief shrug, this time accompanied by a slight grin. “I did not like them near you. But it was not always coming from me, their pain. And never yours.”
“Then from whom?”
“I suspect it was the Matchmaker.”
“I don’t believe in that myth.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you do or not. He’s real. He’s who matched Liege and Summer. You saw his orange glow.”
“She was a regular human, wasn’t she, when they were first matched?”
“Yes. That’s true.”
Selena wondered what that said about her own future. Would it be as a human or a mutant?
“I think that’s your choice. The change is risky. I don’t want you modified.”
And, of course, because he didn’t want that for her, she wanted it for herself. How foolish was that? She didn’t even know what it entailed. She was letting her arrogance lead her.
She moved away from the wall and went into her room. “You were here with me some nights.”
“Some.”
Selena looked up at the ceiling. “I had crazy dreams. Like the outside was inside my room.”
“Like this?” Bastion cast an illusion of a summer sky, complete with a mild breeze and the sound of crickets. He shut off the lights, leaving only the soft glow of his illusion.
It was beautiful.
“Selena, could we sit down? This is the first day I’ve been up and around since the bear traps.”
“Oh. Yes. I’m sorry.” She gestured toward the armchairs that flanked a small table. Too late, she realized he’d rather sit with her on the bed. She wasn’t ready for that intimacy, even if nothing happened between them. He was everything she’d wished for in a man—magical, entertaining, funny, kind, powerful. And terrifying.
She could lose herself in him, and that was very, very dangerous.
He sat at the small table and set his crutches to the side. “Why do I terrify you?”
Of course he’d heard that thought. She crawled to the middle of her bed and gathered herself into a tight ball against her headboard, her arms wrapped around her folded legs. “Because of everything. What you can do. What I can’t do. There is no parity between us. I don’t know where our boundaries are.”
“Nor do I. I only know that being without you makes me crazy.”
No man had ever put her first. Ever. She’d always been second—or last—in their lives.
“This scares me,” she said.
He nodded. “Me too.”
“I like you…I think.”
His white teeth flashed at her. “This is good. It is a start.”
“What if we do get together—”
“You mean when we get together.”
“No. If. What then?”
“I don’t know. We are both warriors. I guess we will do what we do.”
“I don’t know how to do this. The couple thing.”
“You have never had a boyfriend?”
“Not really. Some dates, here and there. Nothing that lasted.”
“You liked two of the blonds here.”
Selena laughed. “Not exactly. I wanted to…I don’t now…have someone who cared about me.” She shrugged. “It didn’t work out. For any of us. The chemistry was wrong.”
“It is true. You and I have powerful chemistry. You would not have meshed with anyone but me.”
“So you say.”
“So I know.”
“I don’t want to rush into anything.” She could feel the heat of his stare.
“I’m not sure I can do slow, Selena, having been near—but not with—you for so long, and then surviving the time we were apart.”
“Slow’s the only option you’ve got, Bastion. Take it or leave it.”
He grinned. “I will take it, and I will change your mind. Now, can we go to sleep?”
“Sure. Which room are you in?”
“Yours.”
She choked out a disbelieving huff. “What did I just say about going slowly?”
“I said sleep, not fuck. You’ll know when it’s time for fucking. Tonight is not it.”
“You don’t get to decide that. Not unilaterally.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He hoisted himself up and limped over to the bed, leaving her the side closest to the door. The mattress shifted as he settled next to her. She scooted close to the edge on her side, but she needn’t have worried—he rolled to his side and seemed to forget all about her.
He had to be exhausted, this being his first day up and about after his injury. She had to admit that he’d dealt with her team like an expert in human relations, never taking umbrage at their blustering behavior.
She looked at his wide back. It wasn’t the first time she’d had a man in her bed—but it was the first time in a long time.
Her relationships had been complicated things she’d never relaxed into. She had stringent rules that were mood killers—no nudity, no lights, no sleepovers.
She’d had sex but never a real boyfriend.
“I can work with rules.” His voice was just a whisper. In fact, she wasn’t sure if he’d spoken or if she’d heard his thought. Already, she didn’t know where she ended and he began, so blended were their minds.
When the meaning of his words hit her, she realized he’d just lied. He and rules were like oil and water. “What happens tomorrow?” she asked.
“Tomorrow
happens tomorrow.”
“I mean with us.” No answer from him. “I don’t want to want you.” She didn’t…but she did.
Bastion rolled onto his back. He stared up at the illusion he’d set on her ceiling. “Is wanting me so terrible? You tried fighting it, but that caused you terrible pain.”
“I hate being forced or coerced or tricked into anything.”
“Then I will hunt the Matchmaker down and kill him to free you from his curse.”
“And free you.”
Bastion rolled over to his side again. “I don’t want to be freed. I’ve wanted you my whole life.”
Selena looked at the stars twinkling overhead. It was just like sleeping outside under a summer stars-cape. She had the strangest yearning to move nearer to Bastion, to feel his heat, to feel him. She fought the feeling for a long time, but when his breathing became soft and regular, she did move closer to him, close enough to feel the length of him all along her side.
She shut her eyes, soaking in the deliciousness of being near him. After a moment, she turned on her side, facing him. Keeping her hands fisted between their bodies, she rubbed her cheek against his back, breathing in the hint of clover that covered him.
Bastion smiled, then clamped his jaw to tamp his emotions down. He stayed on his side, not daring to move. His light was full of fear, but he knew she was also capable of great love.
He couldn’t wait until she knew it too.
25
Bastion was gone when Selena woke the next morning. She felt exactly as she had the mornings after those strange and wonderful dreams she’d had while he was stalking the team.
Empty.
Except there was one major difference. He hadn’t wiped her memory. He’d been with her the whole night, near her, touching her, but never asking anything from her.
And for the first time in a long time, she woke without her perpetual headache.
A knock sounded on her door. She heard it open. “Just me,” Ace said.
“Get in here!”
Ace hurried into her room and sat on her bed. Her pale green eyes moved all over Selena, but paused as she studied Selena’s expression.
“I’m fine,” Selena said, chuckling.
Bastion: O-Men: Liege’s Legion Page 22
