by Kate Rudolph
“Don’t bring the ceiling down on us!” His wings had flared out around them, bigger than seemed possible.
Lena wanted to run her fingers through them, but that was apparently a no-no. She clenched her hands into fists and kept them pointed towards the floor. “Just like a firearm. Got it. Won’t do it again.”
Solan retracted his wings and Lena concentrated her power once more. She didn’t think she could hit anything but the closest target, so she aimed for that again. And again. And again.
She lost count of how many times she tried. Her arms ached and sweat poured down her face, but she wasn’t going to give up. Solan didn’t try to stop her, though he did offer her a small glass of water after a while. She drank gratefully and returned to her task.
And on the hundredth or thousandth try the paper target went up in flames.
She would have jumped for joy if she had the energy. Solan nodded, but offered no more congratulations.
She was ready to turn to the next target when a buzzer beeped.
“Braz,” said Solan. “That’s our time. I only reserved the room for five hours. We’ll come back tomorrow.”
“We’ve been here for five hours?” An hour on Aorsa was roughly as long as an hour on Earth, but Lena had completely lost track of time.
“Yes,” he confirmed. “I need to go over our training plan to adjust some things. Same time tomorrow.” He gave no other farewell before leaving Lena there.
She looked at the charred paper target and tried to conjure up a sense of accomplishment. Instead she could only focus on what they hadn’t done. She’d only hit one target, not three. And they hadn’t even tried to use their powers together.
She’d thought this training thing would be easy. Now she was beginning to fear they’d be stuck here for a long time.
SOLAN DIDN’T WANT TO be frustrated with Lena. By most standards she’d performed well and come far in a handful of days. But he was being stifled. Until she was field ready, he wouldn’t be able to go on any missions. Their powers were tied together, and unless they were together, or their bond was broken, his power would never completely be his own. And since he didn’t want Lena to die so the bond could break, that meant training her.
Perhaps it had been unrealistic to expect her to take to the training as quickly as a Zulir military recruit. Her own frustrations were making things even more difficult. From the dark circles under her eyes, he was almost certain she was staying up late to continue training, running herself to the point of exhaustion to try and get the control she needed.
Exhaustion led to mistakes. He was just waiting for one to happen. She wouldn’t listen to caution until there was a cost.
After the first three days of training she’d managed to hit three targets, and now they were working on hitting the targets together.
She had a sharp look of concentration on her face while he explained the mechanics of the exercise, and Solan tried to ignore his body’s response to her presence.
He was having his own concentration issues. And it wasn’t thoughts of training keeping him up at night.
He wasn’t going to let anything happen between them. He refused to be ruled by his primal urges and become like his father. But while he slept, his mind wasn’t under such strict control. And Lena joined him in his dreams. Under him, on top of him, kissing and caressing and leaving him hard and panting for more every morning.
The intensity of the dreams had him questioning his resolve to keep things professional. Did she have the same attraction? Could they balance a working relationship with something more?
They’d never find out. Solan refused to cross that line. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.
Things were working out fine. With a little more practice they’d be ready for the field, and then his mind would settle. It had to. Or he’d need to find someone to relieve the desire he was feeling.
His spark cracked in him, sending a shot of pain down his spine. He jolted. “Was that you?”
“Was what me?” Lena was on the ground stretching. For the first handful of mornings they’d trained together, he’d walked in on her doing the same things. Then he’d decided to arrive early enough for them to use her warm up time to get prepared for the rest of the day.
“Did you reach for my spark?” It had never caused him pain before, but the momentary discomfort was already dissipating.
She shook her head and got to her feet. “No. Do you want me to? I think I’m ready today.”
He hoped she was. Once they conquered this obstacle, they’d be ready to really begin their training. He could almost envision the two of them outside fighting the Apsyns, who were gearing up for war while they were stuck inside doing target practice.
He took a calming breath to get his spark to settle. “I want you to reach for my power, just like you did when we bonded, and use it instead of your own to aim for the target. Once you’ve done it, I’ll do the same to you.”
“What’s the point?” She rolled her shoulders a few times until her wings came out. They’d need to work on that before it became a habit. She needed to be able to call her wings without moving at all.
“Our power combined is stronger than either one of us alone. There may come an instance where one of us is using the spark while the other is busy with something else.” There were a hundred scenarios where it could happen, but he didn’t want to spend all day talking about it. They’d get to it when they moved to the next phase of their training.
“Makes sense.” Her fingers flared out before curling into fists. “Let me try.” That was all the warning he got before he felt Lena reach deep inside him and wrench his power toward her. She took enough that he could feel his energy draining, and still she was taking more, molding it into a perfect line of energy that she shot off towards the nearest target, incinerating the paper like it was nothing.
If Solan could pull in a deep enough breath, he would have congratulated her, but his vision was going blurry around the corners and he stumbled forward.
Lena took aim at the next target and shot out. Solan tried to close off the connection, but their bonding made it impossible. He didn’t know what would happen if he lost consciousness, and he didn’t want to find out. He tugged on the line of power between them and Lena tugged back. She was trying to draw even more. Way too much.
“Stop!” he gasped. He fell to one knee and reached out, dragging his hand across her leg.
Lena looked down and sank to her knees. The drain on his power stopped as if it had never happened in the first place and she looked horrified. “What did I do? I’m so sorry!”
Already things were better. His vision was clearing and his limbs stopped shaking. He stood and stretched his neck from side to side, giving himself another minute to recover.
Lena was right on the edge of his awareness, not touching him, but not backing away, ready to reach out if he fell again.
“That was good,” he finally said.
“Good? I almost knocked you out.” Her arms crossed and she was ready to argue. He didn’t yet know her well, but he could recognize that stance.
“You hit the target.” He couldn’t help but grin. “Try it again but draw less power this time. Just enough to feel it, not enough to send me to the floor.” He didn’t let any doubt into his voice. Lena had done exactly what she needed; she was so close to a breakthrough, and he wasn’t going to let a stupid thing like the limitations of his body stop them from moving forward.
“If you’re sure about that.” She only gave him three seconds to try and contradict her. He didn’t.
The pull came slower this time and he thought she had it. But the pull didn’t stop, and the longer it went, the more she took. Solan yanked his power back before she could shoot and took some of hers with it, his fingers lighting up with her spark’s power.
Lena whirled to face him and waved her arms. “What the hell, man? I was doing it.”
“You can’t take that much.” He couldn’t yell. He k
new if he did, it would set her tumbling down whatever cliff she was standing on. His woman—no, his partner—wasn’t used to failure.
“Then you do it if it’s so easy. I can’t even tell how much I’m taking.” Her wings rustled, still so tightly bound up in her emotions that they gave everything away.
He wanted her to get this right. He needed them to get this right. But maybe if he showed her what she needed to do, she’d understand how she was going too far. And it would help Solan understand the process better. It wasn’t like he’d ever done this either.
Should he ask for help?
The thought taunted him, but he pushed it aside. They were fine. They would be fine. And in no time they’d be out in the field, defending the Synnrs from any Apsyn incursion. But they had to train hard and fast if they were going to be ready when the war came.
Solan focused, going deep into his spark and following it through the new pathways in his mind, into where it mixed with Lena and beyond. Her spark waited, glowing faintly, but bigger now than it had been when they’d first bonded. Her spark would take some time to mature. It was still only a few days old. But he looked forward to seeing what she would be able to do when the time came.
He reached for a wisp of her power, careful not to take too much. It should have been easy, but her power followed after him as he pulled the spark into the open and let it loose, incinerating the closest target. More power flowed into his hand like water out of an open faucet, and he couldn’t stop it. He heard Lena grunt and then felt a tug as she wrenched her spark away from him just as he’d done to her.
“Not so easy, is it?” she panted. Her hands were on her knees and she was bent over, chest heaving. Her brown skin had grown pale and she looked ready to fall over.
“One more time,” he said. He went as slowly as he could, as carefully as possible. And when he pulled her power this time, he made sure to take only a little and not let any extra flow. He hit the closest target. Barely.
“I’ve got an idea,” Lena said. Her color was coming back and her breathing had evened. “My turn.” That was all the warning he got before something tugged at his power. He stumbled, but before the loss could take him to his knees, the soothing balm of Lena’s spark bolstered him, giving him the energy he needed to stay upright.
She hit the three targets like it was nothing and then let go of his power. “Easy.”
He wasn’t about to be shown up. Solan reached for her spark and sent his own along with it, supplementing her power with his own. Then he hit all five targets in the room, starting with the one furthest away. He shot her a satisfied smile when he was done. “Easy.”
Lena narrowed her eyes and her spark crackled in the air around them. “It’s on.”
They went back and forth, calling on each other’s power and obliterating the targets. Once they had the hang of that, they tried to get fancy. Solan sent his spark out in waves, slowly incinerating a paper target with the kind of control that took years to master. Lena took a more aggressive approach, calling on a burst of his power to take out all the targets at once.
After an hour of practice, they were both exhausted, but for the first time they ended the day with smiles. Success. They’d actually been successful.
“I’ll report on our progress,” he said as he took a drink from his water and watched Lena stretch. He shouldn’t have been staring at the curve of her muscle or watching as her shirt rode up to expose one of her sides, but his eyes wouldn’t look away.
“And what about the failures before that?” She switched sides and her shirt moved with her.
His mouth watered. He wanted to taste her skin. He had to clench his fists tight to keep his cock under control, but he doubted it would work for long if he kept looking at her like this. So why couldn’t he look away? “No one needs to know about the failures.” He managed to turn and pick up a towel to wipe off his sweat. It was an abrasive fabric, almost like it was punishing him for daring to perspire.
Lena sprang to her feet. “I still owe you that beer. Why don’t we head out and get it? Celebrate a hard day’s work?”
A yes was on the tip of his tongue. He could imagine Lena beside him in a dark booth at his favorite bar, the privacy curtains pulled as they sat close and shared secrets. And more. But he didn’t trust himself outside of their training. They had to keep things professional. “Not today.”
Her shoulders sank and a look flashed across her face too quickly for him to read. “Colleagues can get beer together,” she offered.
“I can’t.” He wanted to be convinced. He wanted her to tell him that his rules were ridiculous. He wanted to kiss her and see where things led. But he had to control his passions. He left and tried not to look at Lena as he passed her.
He was beginning to think they should have never bonded.
CHAPTER NINE
SOLAN DIDN’T WANT TO be friends. Lena needed to get that fact through her thick skull. He didn’t want to shoot the shit or get a beer after work. They were supposed to show up, do the job, and then go their separate ways.
Why was that so hard for her to understand?
Whatever relationship they had off the job, they needed to find a way to make it mesh. Things had started going so well at their last training session that she hoped they could build on it. Progress was progress, but she wanted to be moving faster. She wanted real assignments. Real ways to stretch her wings. Literally.
When she arrived at the training facility she was confused when the door attendant directed her away from the dressing rooms and down a hallway she’d never ventured before. But maybe Solan had different ideas for the day. She wasn’t in charge. It hadn’t chafed yet, but she was sure it would when she had control over her powers. That was a problem for future Lena.
She found Solan sitting on a bench in a large office and took a seat beside him. “What’s going on?”
“Not sure.”
They didn’t have to wait for long. A few minutes later a Zulir woman walked in and closed the door behind her. “You’re looking good, Solan. Matching suits you.”
“Major Ozar.” He smiled. “I was hoping it was you who called us in.”
Ozar. Was this woman related to Oz? Lena looked closely. She supposed there could be a resemblance, but she wasn’t sure.
The major took a seat on a bench of her own. “Command is accelerating the training schedules. You’ve been cleared for your first field mission.”
Lena grinned. Yes. This was what she wanted. Her excitement caught the major’s attention.
“Neither of you are ready, if I’m interpreting Zadra’s reports correctly. If it were up to me I’d keep you here for another month.” It wasn’t exactly a rebuke; she didn’t look at Lena harshly. But Lena still wanted to sink into the floor.
“I won’t disappoint you,” she promised. She’d never met this woman in her life, but with just a few sentences she already didn’t want to let her down.
The major nodded. “You’re on a short leash. Prove yourselves and you’ll be given more responsibility. Fail and we’ll need to look into... other options.” She gave Solan a pointed look.
Lena had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but from the way Solan stiffened, he knew. Under other circumstances, Lena would have asked then and there, but they were about to go into the field and she didn’t want to risk the assignment being taken away. The major let them go after giving them the basics: they’d be the backup of the backup of the backup for a guard unit going to apprehend the head of a thievery ring that had been terrorizing Osais for months. If things went perfectly, they wouldn’t have to do anything.
Things rarely went perfectly.
Lena was even more excited a short time later when she got her uniform and saw it came with a blaster. Sure she had her wings, but she was still getting the hang of using them and feeling the reassuring weight of the weapon in her hand was a comfort she hadn’t realized she was missing.
She and Solan took a borrowed guard vehicle to t
heir location, a narrow alley that smelled of rotting fish and urine. How could she be hundreds if not thousands of light years away from Earth if the alleys smelled exactly the same?
Solan leaned against one wall while Lena took a seat on a kicked over crate. They had at least an hour before the main team approached the building and it was time to get comfortable. “You don’t look too happy,” she said.
Solan played with a flap on his jacket, glancing toward the main street every so often. Lena had a clear line of sight to the street on the other side of the alley. If their perp came either way, he wouldn’t last long. “I’m glad we’re in the field, but this is grunt work. There are a hundred trainees they could stick here. We’re unlikely to do anything but waste a day where we could be training.”
Lena groaned. Training. Training. Training. She understood the need, but if they kept up their schedule for much longer she was going to go crazy. “I’ll take the break,” she said. She had her blaster out and was studying the power mechanism. It was more like a Taser than a gun, meant to be nonlethal and powered by electricity. As an extra security measure the grip was keyed to her and Solan, so if she lost it in a scuffle it couldn’t be used against her.
They lapsed into silence, but it didn’t last long. And somehow they got on the topic of Solan’s brother’s wedding. Lena listened in horrified fascination as he went through every detail. It sounded like every rich person’s wedding she’d ever paid attention to and she was more than happy not to worry about the planning.
“And on top of everything he’s inviting our father. He’s the last person I’d want there, but...” Solan shook his head and then looked back towards the main street as if he could summon a running criminal with his mind.
“Not a good relationship?” There was finally a fact to hold onto. Lena could describe the flower arrangements and the food for the wedding of a man she’d never met, but Solan had been tight lipped about anything that had to do with him. She assumed he liked his brother, if he knew so much about the wedding, but knowing he hated his father was more interesting.
