by LeAnn Mason
A quick brush flitted along my left side. Then, he flicked my braid. I sent a leg out to my rear, hoping I’d read the direction right and he’d move along the arc. The heavy, painful mass that collided with my outstretched limb and the subsequent and correlative swishing thump indicated Seke’s body had hit the mat almost flush with my right side.
I pounced.
Legs spread to hopefully land astride my downed foe, I reached into my pant leg to retrieve my handy-dandy switchblade from its handy-dandy hidey-hole. Bending my legs once my toes touched the mat, I sat, pushing the air out of Seke with a groaning huff.
I leaned forward, knife in hand, and aimed where I hoped would be considered a vital spot, but I didn’t press forward because, well, I didn’t really want to hurt the god.
A moment later, the shadows fled my vision like wraiths and shot back to the crannies of the large space, seeking their homes where the bright overhead lighting couldn’t penetrate.
“Well done,” Seke praised, pride shining from those mischievous eyes below me before that naughty glimmer peeked from somewhere deep within. His fingers skimmed along the top of my work-out pants, brushing over my tattoo.
According to Raven — and for once, I trusted her — the swirling lines my parents had inked on my skin were the runes for death and bind, overlaid. The design’s powers had stopped working a few months ago, which was when I first met Seke.
I squeaked when my ass was engulfed by two large, splayed hands, one on each globe. He offered no explanation, just continued to stare at me with that look, almost like he was daring me.
Never get attached to others.
He is your captain, Aria.
My father’s lesson and my own inner voice berated my weakening resolve.
“Fuck it.” I bent forward, moving my arms — and my sharp object — to the floor on either side of Seke’s black, lustrous mane, and pushed my lips to his.
2
There was definitely something brewing between the captain and the new recruit.
Ember’s jaw clenched while watching the two smiling secret smiles at each other as the group convened in the meeting room. They thought the smiles were secret anyway, but her bird side gave her sharp vision. Having lived hundreds of lives in hundreds of places and interacting with several lifetimes of people had refined her ability to read body language, too.
A creaking of the chair in which she swiveled back and forth reminded the phoenix to loosen the grip her digits had taken on the arms. Letting go, Ember blew out a cooling breath through her nose, though its temperature was hot enough to escape as steam. Shutting her eyes against the blatant courtship, she tried counting down from ten. She trusted her captain. She had to. Seke was older and wise beyond his extensive years. He’d been around since the origination of the Harbingers of Death. He knew how to keep his work and professional life separate.
So, why wasn’t he?
Starting at ten again, Ember tried to clear her mind. Meditation was important for a hothead. She thought of the remote island on which she’d spent a decade or so after her first rebirth, tempering her inner turmoil. It wasn’t exactly a place with which she associated good memories; she visited each time she lost someone in her life, their mortality expiring while hers regenerated. But it was a solitary, peaceful place, and it soothed her fiery soul.
Even still, when she opened her eyes again after hitting zero, the arms of the plush leather chair were charred with singed holes where her fingers had rested.
“Jessica, please. I’d like to begin the debriefing.”
Folding her hands in her lap innocently, Ember cast her round eyes about the circular table that had caused Aria to call this “The War Room” when she first saw it, assessing each of her teammates.
Seke seemed more tense than usual despite his softness toward Aria, his jaw tight and hazel eyes shifting around the room, pausing on each member just like Ember.
Raven was tipped back in her chair, one foot on the seat with her knee bent, boot pressing into the edge of the table; the other lanky limb extended over the armrest as she investigated the ends of her sleek ebony locks.
Cole sat quietly with eyes shut and chin dipped toward his chest, arms crossed. Most would think him asleep. But Ember noticed the details that gave him away, like the bunching of his bulbous shoulder muscles, the coiled nature of his body, ready to spring into action. Cole was alert. The burly hellhound was still, focused, ready to jump at the first command from their captain.
Jessica, in juxtaposition, was tugging at her bra, attempting to adjust the push-up for maximum cleavage, staring at the exposed tops of her plump tits with studious seriousness. A frown pulled at her red lips as if what she found there was displeasing.
Ember rolled her eyes and reached out a hand to slap at the siren’s shoulder.
She jerked her chin up, looked around, and shrugged. “Girl’s gotta look her best for the show.”
“Does appearance matter when you’ve got that alluring... perfume?” Aria asked, her question equal parts coy and curious.
Jessica beamed. “Look at you! Ya remembered. The old dog can be taught new tricks.” She winked.
“I’m not really the dog here.”
Cole gave a low growl in response to Aria’s retort without shifting from his faux-respite pose.
“Doubt she’d forget not to call it “body odor” again,” Raven commented with an amused snort. “You tossed her on her ass the last time.”
“Right before I kicked those long stems out from under her,” Aria argued, but her bright, teal-clad lips tipped up in a self-satisfied smile.
Ember watched Seke’s hand reach across the table and pat Aria in a proud manner. The phoenix’s eyes narrowed, scrutinizing him closer.
“Now that’s some girl-on-girl action I’d like to see again.” Cole had opened his eyes without lifting his head, and his amber eyes twinkled beneath his brows.
Aria’s lip curled, and the ring there glinted. Ember wasn’t the only one who noticed; Seke seemed to be fixated on the banshee’s mouth as well. “Well, at least, you could see it,” the banshee snarked. The hellhound’s inclination to snatch her ability to see from her without any notice was a sore spot.
“You need to be ready to handle any disadvantage,” he argued.
“Guys,” Ember butted in, snapping her fingers over the table. She could see Seke’s patience beginning to wane by the thinning of his lips. “The mission?”
“Thank you, Ember.” Seke gave her a respectful nod, which she returned, gesturing at him to proceed with the debriefing. “I am delighted to see you all working together. It gives me confidence that you are ready.” The tightness didn’t leave his jaw, and Ember crisscrossed her legs in the chair, leaning forward.
“What’s the mission this time?” She cocked her head, ready to ingest the necessary details.
Seke folded his hands on the table. When he remained silent for a full minute, inspecting his thumbs, Raven whistled.
“That bad?”
Jessica pouted. “It’s gonna be somewhere gross, isn’t it? One of those dirty dungeons with poor funding and even poorer sewage systems in a tiny, godforsaken, backwoods township again?”
Seke shook his head. “No. The prison is situated in a large metropolis.” His eyes lifted, and he looked at Jessica for a long moment before pinning each member with his stare, ensuring he had their full attention. Completing the alpha game, his inspecting eyes landed last, more softly, on their newest teammate. Again. The banshee’s eyes were round in response, and he gave her an encouraging smile while she worried the piercing in her lip with her tongue.
Ember almost snapped her fingers again to ensnare their captain’s attention, but Seke collected himself and continued.
“This mission will be more complicated than I’d like for your first official mission with Aria.”
At some point over the last few months, their captain had switched to using Aria’s first name instead of calling her Miss Gre
y as he had in the first weeks of her union with the team. All of the HDPU members’ familiarity with the banshee had grown, Aria settling into the family, and the bunker, over time. Ember couldn’t remember when, exactly, Seke switched to the informal moniker but had a suspicion it occurred after the first one-on-one mentoring session he’d held with the rookie in the library.
The pair met there, alone, every evening after group dinner to get the new kid up to speed on supes and work on her abilities.
Raven insisted that, one night, she’d been shooed out of the pool by a swimsuit-clad Seke so that Aria could use it as a “sensory deprivation chamber” to concentrate her mind on accessing visions intentionally. The four of them had been drinking around the outdoor fire pit when Raven revealed that happenstance, so Ember didn’t wholly trust the story.
“How so?” Cole questioned.
Seke raised his forefinger and middle finger. “You will have two targets at this location.”
Jessica flapped one hand as she curled platinum strands around a red-tipped finger on her other. “Easy as pie, Cap’n. We’re old hat at that.”
“We had three once,” Ember added, and Jessica pointed her way in agreement to the impressiveness.
Seke inclined his head. “Indeed. However, Aria has not.”
“We did two targets in our simulation the other week,” Aria interjected in objection.
A hand slapped down on the table. “And we failed.” Raven’s black eyes nearly spit fire at Aria. “We didn’t get to the second ‘target’ before his soul had resorbed into his fucking corpse. You remember what happens if we don’t escort the soul across the veil in time, Silver?”
Aria answered quietly. “Vampire.”
“That’s right. Vampire. And no one wants any of those fuckers again.”
Ember gave a shudder, eyes catching on the Egyptian god’s. Out of all the supernatural beings present at the table, only she and Seke were old enough to remember when vampires roamed the Earth. She hadn’t had as close a contact with them as he had, but she’d encountered one or two, during her many lives. They’d even been the cause of one such death. While Ember could relate to the coming-back-from-the-dead thing, it wasn’t the same. Their bodies were not designed to keep running, and their souls were rendered insane after such a harrowing experience. They were just wrong. Abominations. Vamps shouldn’t exist.
And that was why the harbingers the world over had made it their mission to ensure no souls got stuck on this side of the veil, walking the earth as a reanimated zombie, in a sense.
Aria’s chin tipped up. “We only failed the first time. We got him the second time we attempted the simulation.”
“We only get one shot in real life.” Cole’s voice was cold. Like Ember, he wasn’t fond of imperfections, mistakes.
If Cole failed to protect anyone, it ate him up inside. He’d admitted it to her one night when she asked why he muttered a name in cheers each time he cracked a beer. He drank to the memory of each person he’d let down in his eyes.
“That is why I need you all to be in top form for this mission,” Seke said, taking control of the conversation again. “We can’t afford any distractions.” One brow raised at Jessica, who flipped her hair in feigned ignorance.
“I’m excellent at multitasking,” the siren insisted. “I don’t need my lips to keep an eye on the surroundings.” She puckered said lips to make her point.
“I mean it. Nothing.”
Ember sat up tall. “We will all focus entirely on the mission,” she promised and cast a sharp commanding stare around at her companions. “Right?”
“Duh,” Raven droned.
Cole nodded once, dreads swinging.
Jessica sighed but said, “Fine. I’ll withhold playtime ‘til we’re done. How ‘bout you, sugar? You won’t get distracted by any handsome men, will ya?”
So, Ember wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the tension between Aria and Seke.
Aria blushed and avoided looking at the captain. “Of course not.” She tossed her long silver strands, now tipped in teal dye. “You forget, I’m used to working alone.”
“Yeah, and screaming your head off. You sure she’s ready, Cap?” Raven asked blithely.
Seke considered the question seriously, lips tipping down. “I believe so. We are still working on her vision control, but Aria has gotten much better at recognizing when a scream is impending and how to interpret that power and use it to the advantage of the team.”
“Oh, yeah. I bet she’s real good at keeping her screams quiet when she needs to so no one hears.”
Ember bit her lip to keep from laughing at Raven’s muttered comment.
“What was that, Brenna?” Seke asked.
Raven lifted her voice above the former breathy mumble. “Nothing, Cap.”
“Mmhm.” Seke didn’t buy that, but Ember suspected that from across the massive table, her bird friend’s snarky comment had not been completely audible. “We will control as much as we can to cater to everyone’s strengths. Since our targets are female, Ember, Raven, Jessica, and Aria, we will process you as inmates. You may decide how familiar you are with each other in your criminal personas, but I recommend staying close to each other.”
“Yesss. Girl gang.” Raven high-fived Ember with a devious grin.
Jessica rubbed her palms together, flashing full-on shark teeth. “Time to bring back the Kill Queens.”
“Whatever you need to do to keep close,” Seke reiterated. “Especially Aria. Cole, you will reprise your role as corrections officer. In order to keep watch, I will be on scene this time, standing in the role of prison warden. Understood?”
Various sounds and motions of assent came in reply.
“I’d like you all to do your best on this mission. We want clean crossovers; keep an eye out for each other. Agreed?”
A chill tripped up Ember’s spine, and considering that she always ran a bit hotter than anyone else, the sensation hooked her attention.
Fear arose regularly before each mission — she didn’t allow herself to note such weakness in the heat of the moment. She might be able to respawn. However, dying wasn’t the most pleasurable experience, and her teammates couldn’t come back. Even if they could, they had a job to do.
When no one answered, Seke repeated himself. “Agreed? You all recall what I said when Aria first joined us? If you cannot look out for each other, then you may leave.”
“Agreed,” the team chorused.
“Very well. That is all for tonight. You are dismissed. Everyone should get a good night’s sleep.”
Everyone moved to stand, shuffling their way out of the room, discussing the next day.
“Jessica?” Seke called, and the siren turned at the door. The captain crooked a finger. “A word, please?”
Raven slapped Jessica on the ass as she detoured around the frozen female to vacate the room. “Now you’ve done it. You’re going to have to wear a chastity belt until you can be trusted to deny your lascivious urges.”
Cole chuckled as he left the room, patting the siren on the shoulder in a brotherly, reassuring gesture.
Jessica rolled her eyes but approached their captain.
Ember noticed Aria lingering by their leader, too. While surreptitiously passing behind his chair on her way to the door, the redhead overheard him tell their new member in a deep voice, “I will come find you shortly to see if you have any last questions before tomorrow. I have confidence in you.”
Ember linked an arm through Aria’s, pulling her away from Seke. “You’ll be fine, kid,” the phoenix promised. “You’ll be with us.”
“And don’t think we’ll let you forget it,” Raven yelled from halfway up the stairs. “I call top bunk this time.”
“Maybe we should switch things up. Ember and I can be cellmates instead,” Aria suggested hopefully.
Ember laughed, pulling her arm out of Aria’s. “You sure you want that? I snore.”
She dashed up the stairs, taking them
two at a time. Raven picked up on the race and increased her speed, feet stomping as fast as Ember’s. The sound was like a herd of elephants thundering up the wooden staircase. They nearly plowed over Cole outside his bedroom when they reached the unspoken finish-line at the next floor landing.
“Woo! I am the champion, my friends,” Raven sang, lifting her fists in the air in triumph.
“Play nice, girls. I don’t want to have to pull you off each other as well as any other inmates.”
Raven snorted, turning to Cole. “Yes, you do. You love getting to break up fights.”
“Only if there’s a betting pool. Chicken fights are no fun unless I can win off them,” he retorted haughtily and disappeared into his abode.
Raven made to follow him, but he was quick to slam the door in her face. No one had seen inside his room — ever. “Watch who you’re calling a chicken, dog.” Raven pounded a few times on the door for emphasis before catching up with Ember. “Think the new girl is going to fuck up?”
“Without a doubt,” Ember replied after glancing over her shoulder to ensure the banshee hadn’t caught up. “Remember how many times you did when you first joined?”
While she hadn’t been a part of the Harbingers of Death in the origination like Seke, Ember had been around long enough to observe its evolution into the current team-based system. She’d been present to witness each of the new additions to the HDPU. Their break-in periods all including uncertainty… and, more often than not, disaster.
Raven grumbled in annoyance as she veered off toward the aviary, usually preferring to sleep in bird form. “Well then, I hope you’re up for another resurrection.”
“Just don’t forget the ice cream.” Ember chortled despite the nauseous feeling in her gut that accompanied thinking about her deaths.
They were not equally unpleasant; a few stood out in her memories as particularly nightmare-inducing. She just hoped that if she was killed in action yet again, it would be quick and painless. It was the torturously slow demises with painful suffering that she dreaded. Though, to be fair, the resurrection part wasn’t a cakewalk either.
