Talented

by Sophie Davis

  ”No,” I corrected. ”I haven’t had any interest in being friends with your friends.”

  “What’s wrong with my friends?” his mental voice was shouting.

  “Nothing is wrong with your friends, except that they’re your friends. Like Laris, since I assume that’s how you know I was drinking last night.”

  “Yes, that is in fact, who told me. Laris was worried, so he left me a comm. How do you think I felt when I came home last night to find out that my girlfriend was so drunk that she couldn’t walk herself home?” he demanded.

  “Oh Laris was worried? Worried?!? No, I doubt he was worried. He just couldn’t wait to call and tell you all about it!” I was so frustrated and angry that I was close to tears.

  “Don’t be mad at Laris. I sent you a ton of comms last night and this morning, and you didn’t return any of them. What were you doing? What happened after you went back to your cabin? And why were you drinking in the first place?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?!?! Nothing happened after I went back to my cabin. I passed out. And why is this such a big deal? Weren’t you drinking last night?”

  “Yes, I was drinking. But I drink. You don’t. And I don’t appreciate you getting drunk for the first time without me.”

  “This is ridiculous, Donavon. I don’t understand why you’re so pissed. I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m going back to my cabin. I cannot deal with you right now,” I started walking away.

  “Back to your cabin, or back to Erik?” Donavon screamed after me.

  “What?” I rounded on him. ”What does Erik have to do with this?”

  “I just find it a little convenient that Erik came home early last night. The first night he has ever left the city bars without a girl on his arm, just so happens to be the first night you ever get drunk?”

  “Have you lost it? I REFUSE to dignify that with a response.”

  I stomped towards my cabin. My head started throbbing again, but this time it was from the blood pounding in my ears and not from my hangover. Donavon called my name, but I didn’t care.

  I ran straight through the Hunters’ Village and down the same path I’d led Penny down the night before. I didn’t stop until I reached the water’s edge. A cold sweat was running down my back, sticking my shirt to my skin. My breath was ragged, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get it under control. I fell to my knees on the shore in front of the water, rocks biting into my skin through my thin pants.

  The audacity of Donavon to accuse me of inappropriate behavior infuriated me. I had refused to cry in front of Donavon, but now tears of frustration poured hot and angry, down my cheeks. I jumped to my feet and began pacing along the bank of the lake. My head was spinning so fast the world around me blurred into a collage of colors, made worse by the tears obscuring my vision. For a brief moment I hated myself for letting Donavon affect me so profoundly, and in my rage I wasn’t paying attention to my feet and I tripped. I was caught off guard and my superb reflexes failed me. Unable to get my hands out to break my fall, my forehead struck the trunk of a felled tree with a loud crack.

  Dazed and disoriented I laid in the dirt as the lake’s water lapped against my legs until I felt strong arms lift me from the ground. I didn’t have the energy to speak, so I settled for resting my head against the hard chest of my savior. My barely-conscious brain hoped that it was Henri; I couldn’t stand having Erik save me twice in one day.

  “She’s soaked,” I heard Henri’s voice comment.

  “What’s she doing out here?” Erik sounded perplexed.

  “Who knows? Let’s just get her back and dry her off,” Henri replied.

  I tried to speak, but found it difficult to form words over the pain in my head. I tried to focus on the rhythm of Henri’s footsteps, but I passed out before we made it more than a couple steps.

  I woke up in my bed sometime after the sun had set. I was wrapped in several blankets, including Henri’s quilt. Frantically I flipped back the covers and looked down at myself; I was dressed in dry clothes. I shot up and looked around the room in a panic. Erik chuckled from the corner of the cabin.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked, looking concerned.

  “Who dressed me?” I demanded, ignoring his question.

  “I did,” Henri said, coming through the door to the cabin.

  “I helped!” Penny’s voice came from somewhere behind Henri, but his massive frame blocked her out.

  “Don’t worry, Tal, I promise I didn’t enjoy it, you’re not really my type,” Henri joked.

  “Thanks,” I smiled, feeling more than a little humiliated.

  “Penny and I brought dinner, so I hope you’re hungry,” Henri continued, ignoring my discomfort.

  “What are you doing here Penny?” I asked, then immediately felt bad since she’d obviously been a helpful earlier.

  “She was blowing up your communicator, so I answered and she insisted on coming over,” Erik answered for her.

  “She proved very useful when it came to getting you cleaned-up and dressed,” Henri said pointedly.

  “Did everybody see me naked?” I asked, completely mortified.

  “Unfortunately, I didn’t have the pleasure,” Erik quipped.

  “You must be hungry. Take your pick,” Henri said, changing the subject. He held out four wrapped, deli sandwiches, and I grabbed one at random. Henri handed one to Penny and took the other two to the table, sitting opposite Erik. Penny sat on the end of my bed and spread out her dinner.

  We all dug in, and the room was quiet except for the sound of crinkling paper and chewing.

  The four of spent the night hanging out, playing cards and talking. I was able to put the fight with Donavon out of mind and actually enjoy myself. I couldn’t actually remember the last night that I had so much fun.

  Sometime just before curfew, Henri offered to walk Penny back to her apartment.

  “Thanks for tonight,” I said to Erik after they’d left.

  “No big deal,” he looked uncharacteristically embarrassed.

  “Yes, it is. I’m sure you and Henri would have preferred going out in the city, instead of spending the night with me and Penny.”

  “Nah, I needed a break. And Penny’s cooler than I would’ve thought. A little hyper but nice,” he sounded amused when he talked about Penny, and brief jolt of something that I thought might be jealousy, hit me. I quickly dismissed it.

  “Thanks all the same.”

  “Night, Talia,” he called, pulling the covers up and turning to face the wall.

  “Night.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep, but my mind was replaying the fight with Donavon. I briefly contemplated reaching out to him. He hadn’t left me any communications, so I figured he was still mad. We never fought, so I didn’t know what to expect.

  Curiosity finally got the better of me, and I opened my mind. Donavon was in his cabin and he was definitely still seething; my good mood vanished. I closed my mind and again, willed myself to fall asleep. I had never actually attempt to force my will on myself, so I doubted it would work, but to my surprise I was fast asleep before Henri returned.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The next morning I was up bright and early and back to training. We spent the morning, in the usual way, working on our mental connection. By lunchtime, I was mentally exhausted but felt good about our progress. I’d successfully maintained the connection the whole morning, and my physical strength had barely waned. Thankfully, our afternoon schedule included a session with the Brains.

  Erik and Henri had both been trained extensively in the use of the portable electronic devices, so the training was just a refresher for them. I spent the first half of the afternoon just learning how to use a portable computer. An older Crypto, named Bhen, demonstrated, no less than five times, the sequence I needed to follow just to log in. Next, he showed me the appropriate technique for typing on the keyboard. I thought he was treating me like a moron, until I tried it m
yself and realized that, only every fourth letter or number I hit registered. He showed me again.

  Sometimes, on Missions, Hunters were compromised, necessitating a hasty retreat. In rare cases, leaving behind belongings, like Crypto gadgets, couldn’t be avoided. The tools held so much vital data that it would be disastrous to Toxic if it fell in enemy hands. The only way to prevent this was to put biometric fail-safes on all of the devices. Prior to departing for each Hunt, Cryptos would program scans of each team member, so that we were the only people who could access the equipment.

  “What am I doing wrong?” I begged him, frustrated when I still couldn’t get it.

  “You need to be sure that your whole finger hits the key so the tiny sensor has enough time to register your fingerprint. If the computer can’t register your print, it won’t type the letter,” he explained. “It’s hard at first, but you’ll get used to it.” I looked at him doubtfully but kept at it, refusing to admit defeat.

  Next, we moved on to heat scanners. He walked me around Headquarters, letting me scan buildings and observe the images that displayed on the screen, showing outlines of all the people inside. While I’d never actually used a heat scanner before, it was far more simple than typing; much to my dismay, we didn’t spend to long with it.

  For any other Pledge, the day would’ve ended with Bhen teaching me to use the ear pieces that most Hunters employed to communicate while on a mission. Since that was not necessary, on account of our built-in telecommunication system, he taught me to use a medical body scanner instead.

  The body scanner allowed us to see a person’s organs and innards, through clothing and skin. That way, if one of us was injured, we’d be able to assess the internal damage. Bhen let me run the scanner over his mid-section, so I could see his kidneys, stomach, intestines and all that other good stuff. I also ran the imager over his legs and arms to see the bones – it was oddly fascinating.

  By the end of the afternoon, my brain was buzzing with all of the newly-acquired knowledge. The new technologies I’d been acquainted with unnerved me. As if all of the other things I had to remember weren’t enough, now I had to learn to use all of these new contraptions too? Maybe I’d ask Penny for help with the portable computer; the one she used every day had the same fingerprint-scan technology.

  That evening, the three of us sat on the wooden floor of our cabin, pouring over floor plans and intel that the Cryptos had accumulated for our upcoming mission. A lot of the time was spent with Henri explaining to me how to read the intel documents, since they mostly looked like gibberish to the untrained eye, which mine was. When I finally crawled into bed, long past midnight, my eyes were red-rimmed and dry from all of the laborious staring; my muscles were knotted from sitting in the same, hunched-over, position for so long.

  Donavon hadn’t even attempted to talk to me all day. I didn’t reach out to him either. I felt that I was owed an apology, and my stubborn nature demanded that I not be the first one to crack. Right before I drifted off to sleep, I opened my mind, just to take a peek in to his, to see if he was thinking about me, and feeling sorry about the way he’d acted. Unfortunately, he was asleep.

  The rest of the week progressed in the same manner: mental communication training, practicing with the gadgets, studying intel. By the end of the week, I felt pretty comfortable with all three.

  Several days before we left, I visited Medical, where Erik’s friend Zach taught me very basic first aid. Mostly, it was “simple stuff”: stitching up a cut, making a tourniquet, splinting a broken bone. It made me nauseous. The thought of inflicting injuries that drew blood didn’t really bother me; that was what I’d been training for. But dealing with the aftermath? That made me queasy, like my intestines had turned to eels swimming in my stomach. I was positive that even if push-came-to-shove, I’d never be able to perform any of these acts without losing my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

  Donavon and I didn’t speak all week; it was the longest I’d ever gone without seeing him, talking to him, and touching him. I felt lost without the comfortable mental connection that I had grown accustomed to. Sure, he left me a couple of messages on my communicator, but they were brief, and none contained an apology. I kept promising myself that I would wait for him to come to me, heart-in-hand, to say he was sorry. But without fail, every night before bed my resolve weakened, and I opened my mind to search for Donavon. Since we were up so late going over intel, he was always asleep.

  At the end of the week we were for scheduled two days off to relax and catch up on our sleep before we set off for our mission.

  After we finished the last day of training for the week, both Henri and Erik left immediately for the city. Henri, I presumed, was going to spend the night with Frederick. Erik, I assumed, was going to see if he could find a nice warm bed with a nice-looking city girl. I planned on spending the night hanging out with Penny and her friends. I hoped that Laris wasn’t there – I didn’t need any reminders that Donavon still wasn’t talking to me. I also didn’t want any tattle-tales running back, reporting my every cough and sneeze to him.

  I decided to eat dine alone in my cabin, since Penny had a training exercise that would run through dinnertime. I was sitting at the small table in the cabin, eating my meal and reading a book, when I heard a soft knock on my door. I figured it must be Penny so I called for her to come in. Instead of opening the door, Penny knocked again. I opened my mind as I walked to the door, and abruptly froze, mid-step. It wasn’t Penny on the other side of the door – it was Donavon. I was suddenly nervous. This was what I’d wanted, him coming to beg me for forgiveness, admitting he’d been jealous and irrational, conceding that he’d overreacted just a tad, right? But what if that wasn’t what he wanted? What if he was here for Round Two? Would he really wait an entire week before coming to yell at me again?

  “Talia, I know you’re in there; I can feel you,” Donavon called through the door, sounding impatient.

  I sighed. There’s no time like the present to get this over with, I thought. I willed the door to open, keeping my feet firmly on the floor. The door swung open, but Donavon didn’t enter.

  “Can I come in?” he asked, tentatively.

  “I suppose,” I replied tersely.

  Donavon shuffled in, his eyes preoccupied with his sneakers, and sat at the table I’d just vacated. I turned around to face him, but made no move to sit down. After a long moment he raised his head, and met my eyes. We stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, but I didn’t want to be the one to break the silence.

  “Tal, I’m so sorry,” Donavon finally said, his voice wavering slightly.

  “I don’t know how you could accuse me of . . . well I don’t even know what exactly you were accusing me of!” I yelled. So much for calm and collected.

  “I just freaked out, Tal. Erik has such a reputation and no girl seems immune to him. I know I was wrong. I’m so sorry. You have to believe me,” his blue eyes were pleading with me.

  I purposely kept my mind blocked, refusing any mental communication; I didn’t want to feel his emotions. But the look in his eyes broke my resistance, and I dropped my guard. I could feel how much he cared about me, how sorry he was. His emotions were so strong they nearly overwhelmed me. Before I’d made a conscious decision, my feet were already moving me towards him. Our lips met, his arms wrapped around my waist, and I lost my fingers in his hair. He stood up, careful not to break contact with me, and lifted me up by the waist. I wrapped my legs above his hips as he walked with me to my bed. He carefully sat me on the edge and gently pushed me back until I was flat on my back, and he was leaning completely over me. I disentangled my fingers from his hair, and ran my hands up under his shirt, over the smooth skin of his back. He broke away just long enough to yank his shirt over his head. Donavon leaned back down, placing one hand next to my head as he dropped his lips back to mine. His other hand toyed with the edge of my tank top. He slowly ran his thumb across my stomach, my muscles tightened and trembled. I l
ooped my legs around his waist again and pulled him towards me. He laughed as he collapsed on top of me. He pushed my tank top higher, until there was no clothing separating our stomachs.

  “Skin to skin,” I whispered.

  “Skin to skin,” he whispered back. I loved the way his skin felt against mine, warm and reassuring.

  He worked my tank top up and over my head. I started shaking harder. Donavon’s lips found mine again, and I relaxed against him. He reluctantly pulled back from me and stared hard into my eyes. He smoothed loose pieces of hair back from my face. He leaned down again but instead of kissing me, he laid his cheek against mine and fluttered his eyelashes against my cheekbone. My whole body tingled, every synapse firing. I giggled, partially because his eyelashes tickled and partially out of nerves. He replaced his eyelashes with his lips. He dropped kisses from my jaw bone down my neck, and onto my collarbone.

  “Hey Talia, are you ---" Penny stopped mid-sentence. She’d opened the door without knocking. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry.” Penny’s face flamed to match the color of her hair. Donavon used his chest to cover me while I scrambled to find my tank top.

  “It’s okay, Penny,” I called around Donavon. “Just give me a minute.”

  “I’ll wait outside. I’m sorry,” she apologized again.

  I burst out laughing as she closed the door, a little relieved at the interruption.

  “Oops,” I smirked.

  “Get dressed before she barges back in here,” Donavon said handing me my tank top; at least he was smiling.

  We spent the evening with Penny and the other Pledges. We sat by the lake again, but this time I refrained from drinking. I enjoyed myself, and was pleased to see that Donavon did too. He walked me back to my cabin at curfew, and kissed me goodnight outside. I wasn’t surprised to find my cabin empty when I went inside. I got ready for bed and crawled under the covers, then I opened my mind.

  “Wanna come cuddle?” I asked when I could feel Donavon, awake, in his cabin.