Except for those greater intimacies in which they’d yet to indulge.
Their relationship was already undergoing a change, and plenty of things could happen now that she wasn’t nursing a broken limb. Once they were safely aboard Curly’s ship, sex with Aidan was a distinct possibility.
All they had to do was make it to the spaceport alive.
She’d already lost one lover. Surely, she couldn’t be so unlucky as to lose another, especially since their affair hadn’t truly even begun.
She wasn’t completely sure she was ready to risk giving her heart to someone else. A year had gone by, and although meeting Aidan had helped considerably, traces of the pain lingered. Before she could move on, she had to avenge Raj’s death and the deaths of countless others.
Have I set the bar to my own future happiness too high?
As she buckled herself in, Aidan reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. No words. No other gesture. Not even a reassuring smile.
But it was enough.
One step at a time.
“Even when cloaked, your heat signature can be tracked,” Onca cautioned. “And I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that not all tracking nanobots will show up on a scan.”
Aidan replied with a terse nod.
Onca thumped the hood of the speeder with his knuckles. “Be careful out there. Call me when you get to the spaceport and let me know where you left the speeder.” Chuckling, he added, “And don’t forget to leave it uncloaked.”
“Gotcha. It should be at docking bay ninety-four, but that may change.” Aidan fired up the engine and closed the canopy before engaging the cloak. Moments later, the garage door opened, and they flew out onto the street.
Speeder traffic was relatively light at that hour, and foot traffic was slow enough that Aidan didn’t appear to have any difficulty avoiding the pedestrians.
They’d reached the end of the well-lit street when he glanced toward the rear viewscreen. “Have we got a tail yet?”
“Don’t see one,” Abuti reported.
“Good. I’m going to stop and open the canopy.”
Sula gaped at him in disbelief. “What?”
Aidan grinned. “We’re going to fly the rest of the way. They might be able to track us, but they’ll never be able to keep up with us.”
“Way cool!” Abuti shouted, bouncing up and down with excitement. “Let’s fly this thing!”
Aidan steered the speeder down a deserted side street. “The trick will be keeping us level. Speeder wings aren’t exactly designed for flight.” He unbuckled his safety harness and glanced at Sula. “I’ll need you to drive.”
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”
“Nope. You flew a starship back from Ecos, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but I didn’t fly it manually,” Sula protested. “The ship pretty much flew itself. The only thing I did was tell it where I wanted to go.”
“This’ll be a little harder, but not by much. All you need to do is provide the forward thrust and control the direction. I’ll be the one keeping us aloft.” He hopped over the side of the speeder before fixing her with a quizzical gaze. “You have piloted a speeder before, haven’t you?”
“Of course I have,” Sula replied. “But this is…different.”
“I have the utmost faith in you,” he said. “Now, scoot over and fly this thing.”
Abuti peered over the side. “Are we still cloaked?”
Aidan nodded. “From where I’m standing, you ladies look like a couple of disembodied heads. From below, we should be invisible.”
With no clear idea how the cloak worked, all Sula could do was take him at his word. Negotiating the center console took a little doing—something she never could have done with her leg in a cast—but she finally settled into the pilot’s seat and buckled the safety harness.
Aidan jumped into the passenger seat, strapped himself in, and stuck his right hand out with his forearm parallel to the side of the speeder. “I’ll try to do this as gently as possible.”
“Gentle, hell,” Abuti exclaimed as the speeder shot up into the air, albeit with a slight roll to the left.
“Just give me a second to balance the updraft.”
“Does the wind come out of your hand or what?” Abuti sounded frightened but fascinated.
“I’ve never really been sure,” he replied. “Sometimes it seems that way. Sometimes not.”
“That was about as clear as Usbentian pond slime,” Abuti complained. “Let me know if you ever figure it out.”
“Will do,” Aidan replied.
Sula couldn’t tell that he was doing anything differently, but the speeder slowly assumed a level position.
“Okay, Sula,” he said. “Full speed ahead to docking bay ninety-four.”
“Wherever that is,” she muttered.
He nodded toward the navigation screen. “It’s that green dot. Keep it directly in your sights, and you can’t miss it.”
Sula was of the opinion that it would be quite easy to miss, but she slid her fingertip up the throttle control anyway. The speeder shot forward. A minimal adjustment in direction brought the green dot into the crosshairs. It wasn’t quite as cool as flying with Aidan when he was wearing his wings, but the sense of freedom was breathtaking. As they flew higher, the city lay like a dazzling map of moving lights beneath them.
“Wow! This almost makes me wish I were a pilot,” Sula exclaimed. “Incredible view.”
“Hey, you can fly me anytime you like.”
A quick glance caught Aidan’s grin before he turned away.
“That sounded kinda suggestive to me,” Abuti said. “If I were you, I’d take him up on the offer.”
Sula smiled to herself. “I just might.”
Excitement flowed through her body, making her nipples tingle and her clitoris ache. This adventure was so inconvenient. She and Aidan had better things to do than to outwit assassins and bring a genocidal maniac—or maniacs—to justice. Even with her gaze fixed firmly ahead, she could sense him sitting beside her, his entire tantalizing Zetithian self just waiting for her to pounce.
She’d never been so forward with a man before, although considering what she knew about Zetithian mating behavior, pouncing was precisely what she needed to do. She’d already bitten him. Funny how Kim and Onca hadn’t commented on the blood on his neck. Were they only being polite, or had they actually not seen it?
Another stolen glance proved she hadn’t been imagining things. Granted, he was no longer bleeding, and most of the blood had dried and flaked off, but she’d definitely tasted it. If he hadn’t been Zetithian, the flavor wouldn’t have been the least bit stimulating. However, she suspected that his blood contained an even more powerful chemical attractant than his alluring scent. And because sustained exposure seemed to increase her sensitivity, before long, resisting him would be impossible.
Sounds like a win-win scenario.
* * *
With Abuti giggling her head off in the rear seat and Sula sitting beside him, it was a wonder Aidan could control anything, let alone the wind. He’d had several reasons for leaving the canopy open, not the least of which was to allow Sula’s intoxicating scent to dissipate. This was not the time to let his attention wander. Even so, he caught himself thinking ahead to a day when he could drink in Sula’s scent and actually make love with her, reveling in the feel of his cock snug inside her wet warmth. Nothing else could possibly compare. He was certain of it.
When a sudden gust of real wind caused them to roll to the left and veer off course, Sula’s gasp of dismay was followed by a prompt course correction. Abuti finally stopped laughing.
A tilt of Aidan’s hand adjusted the attitude. “This is different from the way I normally fly. Being off-center makes it hard to keep us level. If I was in the middle of the backseat, I could stick a
hand out on either side and get better balance.”
“Wish you’d thought of that sooner,” Abuti said. “Too late now.”
“Yeah. Let’s see if I can’t fine-tune this a bit.” In the past, he’d only had to maintain sufficient upward thrust to overcome gravity and allow him to glide forward using his wings. This method required a little more finesse. Extending his arm straight out to the side, he aimed his palm backward at a slight angle. The nose of the speeder dipped a degree or two and rolled a tad to the left, but they continued to move forward with even greater speed. A minor rotation in the other direction was like tapping the brakes. Using both hands, he could probably create enough forward and upward thrust to fly the speeder even without the engine.
Another gust threatened their stability. “How far to the spaceport?” he asked.
Sula peered at the dashboard. “Two point seven kilometers and closing.”
Her lilting tone caught his attention. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“I believe I am,” she replied. “This is a whole lot more fun than flying a starship.”
Aidan nodded. “There’s just something about having the wind in your hair.” He paused. “Less forgiving, though. There isn’t much to run into in space. No gravity, either.”
“Or wind.” She shot a brief glance in his direction. “Are your arms getting tired?”
“Not yet,” he replied. “I’ve flown a lot farther than the spaceport before.”
“While holding up a speeder?”
“I’m not exactly holding it up with my own strength,” he explained. “It’s more of a mental power than a physical one.” To be perfectly honest, he thought it might actually be a sort of sixth sense that was impossible to convey to someone who didn’t possess the same capability. Another Mordrial might know exactly what he meant, but the concept would be out of context for anyone else.
I really should talk to Althea.
She would understand. Controlling the wind wasn’t such a big deal anyway. Plenty of Mordrials had the same talent. It was the fortune-telling part he didn’t want to reveal.
“Which means we probably shouldn’t distract him.” Once she’d stopped giggling, Abuti had shown no sign of starting again, anxiety having apparently won out over excitement. Sula, on the other hand, seemed to be thriving. She truly was special.
“Yeah,” Sula said, glancing at the rearview display. “Especially since someone with similar powers seems to be following us.”
Chapter 18
Aidan’s heart took a dive, and the speeder dipped along with it. “Let me see.”
Sula angled the screen toward him. “Whatever it is doesn’t seem to be as fast as we are, but there’s definitely something behind us. A police flyer, maybe?”
There were plenty of smaller vehicles capable of actual flight—the police force had several compact flyers—but air traffic control was such a bitch that, like cloaked speeders, their use was severely restricted.
“Possibly,” he said. “Although I wouldn’t have thought we’d show up on any location systems. I mean, we are cloaked.”
“Don’t forget the open canopy and our heat signature,” Sula reminded him. “They could also be tracking your comlink or my nanobots—which, despite what the scanner said, I’m convinced I must have. Nothing else could explain why they keep finding me so easily.”
Each of those possibilities was as chilling as the next, although having had the presence of mind to power down his personal link, Aidan could rule out at least one of them. Until he remembered that the speeder’s link was still active.
Damn.
Unfortunately, even if they shut down the speeder completely, there was no way to mask their own heat signatures. The nanobot theory continued to gain credibility.
“Whatever it is, we seem to be able to outfly it,” he said. “If it starts catching up, I could blast it out of the sky, but I’d rather not endanger anyone else.”
“Think you could slow it down?” Sula asked.
“Maybe. Although increasing our own speed is probably the best alternative.”
Abuti leaned forward, peering at the screen from the rear seat. “I dunno…I don’t think it’s a police flyer. Looks more like a big bird.”
Aidan studied the screen again. “Shit. It’s Val.” For a moment, the speeder slowed as his wind control faltered. “Why would he be following us?”
“Maybe he wants to join the team,” Abuti suggested. “You know how dedicated he is to fighting for the downtrodden.”
Aidan didn’t have to ask why Abuti would think of the Avian in that light. As a member of Onca’s gang in the battle to expose the use of kidnapped street kids in the sex trade, Val was one of the orphanage’s heroes. This adventure was exactly the sort of cause he would find appealing.
“But I haven’t talked to Val in weeks,” Aidan protested. “He couldn’t possibly know—”
“Maybe Rashe or Onca told him,” Abuti said. “I got the distinct impression they both would’ve come with us if they hadn’t been needed at the orphanage.”
“You’re probably right,” Aidan said. “I should’ve recruited him myself, but I’m not slowing down to talk to him now. He’ll have to wait until we’re aboard Curly’s ship. Can you tell if anything else is following him?”
“Not from here,” Abuti replied. “Guess we should’ve brought along some binoculars.”
“I have a pair,” Sula said. “They’re in my pack somewhere.”
“I’ll see if I can get to them,” Abuti said.
“Don’t bother,” Aidan said sharply. “We’re flying with an open canopy. I don’t want you falling out.”
“Have you ever seen a Norludian fall out of anything?” Abuti said with a heavy note of sarcasm in her voice.
“No, I haven’t,” he admitted, their sucker-tipped fingers being the obvious reason for that. “But I’d rather not start now. We’re not far from the spaceport anyway. Your eyes are keen enough to tell a bird from a vehicle, so keep a lookout to the rear—and do not take off your safety harness.”
“Aye, Captain,” Abuti said. The subsequent sound he heard was undoubtedly the result of her popping a fingertip off her forehead in a mock salute.
“Save the captain crap for Curly,” Aidan said. “He might be impressed by it. I’m not.”
“Ooh, getting a bit testy, are we?”
Testy was an understatement. With his patience already stretched to the limit from trying to keep them aloft, level, and moving forward, the Norludian girl was getting on his last nerve.
“Drop it,” Sula warned before Aidan could retort. “Unless you want him to let us fall out of the sky.”
“Okay, okay,” Abuti grumbled. “I’ll try looking over my shoulder. It’ll give me a horrendous crick in my neck, but—”
“Look, Abuti,” Aidan said, “I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’m a little preoccupied at the moment.”
“I know. I was only trying to lighten the mood.”
“And I appreciate that. But silence would help more.”
“Gotcha. Mum’s the word. Won’t say another thing. Until later. Maybe tomorrow.”
To his surprise, Aidan caught himself chuckling. Even more surprising was the sudden increase in their altitude and speed.
Abuti cackled along with him. “See? Laughing helps, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, I suppose it does.”
“This is such a fantastic adventure,” Abuti went on. “I feel like an intrepid explorer, off to find bizarre new worlds and weird alien species.”
“That’s what Raj and I did,” Sula said. “Trust me, exploration isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. If we get out of this alive, I may never leave home again.”
Abuti’s head appeared at his side. “You have a house?”
“No, I don’t,” Sula replied. “
Figure of speech.”
“Must be nice to have a home. I don’t think I ever had one, even when I was little. Can’t remember it, anyway.”
“You have a home at the orphanage now,” Aidan reminded her.
“Not the same,” Abuti said, her spirits seeming to sink along with the pitch of her voice. “Besides, I’ll have to leave it eventually. Not sure where I’ll go when I do.”
“Onca and Kim won’t kick you out. They’ll find you a job and a place to live when you’re old enough.” Aidan tried to sound upbeat, but the dimming of his wind power proved he hadn’t been entirely successful, as did Abuti’s rather lukewarm response.
He’d never noticed how much his mood affected his abilities before. A glance at Sula reminded him of yet another change his life had recently undergone. Was she also responsible for an increase in his strength? The flight from the condor’s cave suggested she might be. He’d been unprepared for that powerful updraft. Had her effect on him been that immediate?
More important, without her by his side, would he have been able to lift the speeder? He hadn’t grown up experimenting and honing his Mordrial talents, so he truly didn’t know for sure.
I shouldn’t have been so secretive. But with the wind control would come some form of telepathy or, as in Althea’s case, empathy. She hadn’t been able to control fire as a child. Perhaps he could finally admit to his ability with the caveat that it had been thrust upon him as an adult.
No child should have witnessed some of the things he’d seen.
Sula’s voice not only interrupted his thoughts, it calmed his emotional response to them. “We’re coming up on the spaceport. Any idea what we should do next?”
“I’ll set us down somewhere nearby, then we can decloak and proceed normally. Too much traffic around the spaceport to remain cloaked.”
Aidan hadn’t been to the spaceport in over a year. Traffic had been heavy enough then. On a night like this, there would probably be even more. An active nightlife was, after all, one of Damenk’s claims to fame.
Mystic Page 17
