by Meg Ripley
Leo cleared his throat, and she looked down to find him holding his golden brown hands up above hers.
“I think I can help you,” he said. “Please. Let me help.”
“No!” Jenna said, and he dropped his hands immediately but didn’t back away.
“Why not?” he asked patiently.
Because you’re a freak, she wanted to say, but she knew it was her pain and anger talking; mostly, anyway. Jenna was starting to think she had some toxic, deeply ingrained beliefs that helped her transform over five years from a bright, eager soldier to a jaded, lonely member of the warrior elite. She thought Leo was a freak—but why? Because their species had been fighting for as long as she’d been alive, and their ancestors had been fighting for even longer? If there was anything Jenna was good at, it was recognizing rock bottom, and she knew that this time, rock bottom was holding on to a red-hot hatred that was clearly burning her up from the inside.
Leo seemed to sense the shift in her attitude. He raised his hands again. “Can I please help you to feel better?”
Jenna started to nod, but it hurt too much. She spoke instead: “Please.”
Leo lowered his hands over hers and closed his eyes. Astoundingly, the soft glow in his skin brightened as heat started to roll from his skin in gentle waves, sliding over and around her body as though it were knitting a healing cocoon just for her. After a moment, she realized it might not be a bad analogy; the heat curled tighter around her and intensified, and her pain got lighter and less intense, until it finally bled away entirely. When he opened his eyes, Leo smiled, and Jenna saw that the bruise around his mouth was gone.
“How do you feel?” he asked softly, and there was a touch of anxiety in his voice.
“Better,” Jenna said, and she meant it. She shrugged her shoulders and moved her head from side to side. There was a light ache, but nothing she couldn’t manage. “Thank you…so much.” Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, and she cursed her aversion to this kind of moment.
Leo smiled. “No problem. It gave me a little kick, too.”
“Your bruise is gone,” Jenna pointed out.
“Cool.” Leo paused. “So, not that I’m not enjoying this, but could you let go? I kind of wanted to drink some water.”
Jenna looked down and saw that she’s turned her hands over and laced her fingers through his while he’d healed her. She snatched her hands back, mortified, but Leo laughed heartily and patted her leg.
“It’s ok. I’m flattered, really.”
“It’s not a side effect of the healing?” Jenna asked, avoiding his eyes. “I thought I heard about an aphrodisiac affect to your healing powers.”
“Another misconception,” Leo said, sounding tired. “And a kind of offensive one, at that, started by some women who couldn’t believe they were attracted to Yazulian trash.”
Jenna flinched, and the smile on Leo’s face grew sad.
“I know that’s what you call us.”
“I’m sorry,” Jenna said, feeling ashamed. “I don’t know why I’m such an asshole.”
Leo seemed to find that funny. “I don’t think you’re an asshole. Not anymore, anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…” Leo hesitated. “I used to believe stories from when I was a child about humans. They experimented on us for fun, for example, and caught bad Yazulian children and took them to science labs.”
“No!” Jenna gasped. “They told you that?”
“Yes,” Leo said simply. “I also heard that you were all allergic to the sun, and that was why you got darker underneath it, instead of brighter.”
Jenna giggled despite herself. “That would be sad. But those are some pretty wild rumors. How do you believe stuff like that?”
Leo smiled wryly. “How do you believe things such as a seductive healing power, or that we aren’t as smart as you? Doesn’t it just start by someone saying it’s true and another person accepting it? That’s all it takes.” He shrugged and crossed his legs in front of him.
Jenna dropped her gaze, and Leo seemed to see that he’d embarrassed her.
“And it isn’t your fault,” he continued hurriedly. “These things aren’t necessarily caused by you. It seems like you’re told a lot of things from birth…and a lot of things are held back.”
Jenna scoffed. “You keep saying that. What kind of things aren’t they telling us? And what are they lying to us about?”
Leo opened his mouth to speak, but the door to their cell swung open so fast the door crashed against the wall. They both jumped to their feet, but it was just a non-descript commander of one of the ground brigades. His round face was slightly red, and his beady eyes were bouncing between them as though he’d expected them to be doing something else.
“Level 17 Leo 17, you are free to go. You have been docked one thousand coins and are forbidden from the cafeteria for one month. A-Level Jenna Horizon, you are free to go. Here is your official warning insignia. If you are caught fighting again, you may be subject to further disciplinary action. You are both grounded on Luna for one week. Return to your barracks.”
The commander walked away, leaving the red patch to flutter to the ground as they both stared at the space where he’d been. Feeling numb, Jenna bent over and picked up the slim red square, peeling the patch from its backing before slapping it on the side of her jumpsuit. Sentencing usually happened in a separate cell with your own commander, but she’d never seen that man before in her life. And why had Leo been docked a thousand coins? Something wasn’t right here; Jenna started to down the hall after the commander, then froze in her tracks. Did he say both of them had been grounded? She turned around, intending to ask Leo what he planned to do, but he was already walking the other way, his broad back moving as fast as he could go. Annoyed, she sprinted after him, calling his name.
He turned and glanced at her, but he didn’t stop moving. She caught up with him when he was nearly to his barracks, and she wondered how he moved so fast.
“I was calling you,” Jenna huffed.
“I know.” The chill in Leo’s words was clear, and Jenna nearly tripped over her own feet in surprise. He’d been friendly in the cell, almost flirty, and that had been when they had no idea when they would get out. What had changed? Was it the sentencing?
“Leo, I don’t know why they charged you more than me,” she said pleadingly under her breath, trotting to keep up with his astoundingly quick pace. “Or why they banned you from the cafeteria. I’m sorry, but I didn’t—”
“No, I’m sorry,” Leo spat, stopping and rounding on her. “I guess I gave you the wrong impression back there. I don’t care, Horizon. I don’t give a shit.”
Jenna felt his words hit her like fists, and she fought the urge to let her pain and anger show. “Oh, I see,” she said bitterly. “You really were coming on to me back there. Putting the moves on me so I’d be all loosened up for your…your love muscle, is that it?”
Leo’s mask of anger slipped. “Love muscle?”
“And then we got interrupted, so you’re just done with me,” Jenna said. “I get it. Maybe I’m just trash to you, too.”
She turned and started to move away, but a hand on her arm stopped her. Jenna raised her right fist, ready to punch Leo again, but his golden-flecked eyes were wide and appeasing. He held a finger to his lips and pointed down an alley, where a gray door was set into a stone wall.
Jenna started to speak, but he hushed her again and pulled her quickly toward the door, keeping his steps silent on the gravel. Jenna hadn’t even noticed when they got into the Yazulian inhabited side of Luna’s barracks since everyone now had the same metal-stone hybrid buildings, but the gravel was always a dead giveaway.
Leo pressed his hand to the door, and it blinked red before disappearing entirely. Jenna opened her mouth in shock, and by the time she’d gasped in surprise, she was already behind the barrier. She spun around as Leo pulled her into the room, and she could see out for a second—the half mi
le of gravel they covered before synthetic soil took over and the human barracks stood against the brilliant sky—then the door shimmered back into reality, becoming a barely discernible part of the frame.
“Wow,” Jenna breathed. She turned to look at Leo and saw that he was grinning, enjoying her reaction to his high-tech entry way. “I’ve never seen a Yazulian door that worked that way. How long have you guys had this tech?”
“As long as you guys have,” Leo said. He walked over to a plain black couch in the middle of the room and plopped onto it, gesturing for her to sit beside him. “There’s a fridge behind you, by the way. You haven’t eaten, and there’s some stuff you can have.”
Jenna’s stomach was growling, but she couldn’t stop taking in the rest of the room. It wasn’t as plain as other barracks—it was in the wrong place, for one; they shouldn’t have reached Yazulian living space for three or four miles, but here was Leo’s room right at the edge of their territory and the humans’. It was also bigger than most single rooms, and it looked like it had been an office or even a storage room before; there was a door opposite the entrance that looked rather like a closet, and there were slim outlets everywhere. A bed was on the left side of the room about twenty feet from the couch, and a table took up the space to her right. She wandered over to the fridge and opened it, finally selecting a pre-wrapped sandwich and a cool canister of water before sitting at a rickety chair at the lonely table.
“Are you still repulsed by me, or is it okay if I join you?” Leo was trying to keep his voice light, but Jenna could hear the hurt there, and she swore at herself.
“No, it’s fine; I’m sorry.” Jenna pressed her hands over her eyes, feeling wear all of a sudden. “I just want to know what’s going on.”
When she dropped her hands, Leo was standing next to the table, looking at her with a cautious expression. “What do you mean?”
Jenna threw her hands up in exasperation. “You keep saying I’m ignorant of things, and you’re right. I am ignorant. I was blind to Lizzie’s love for Victor, I was blind to Victor’s love for her, I was blind to all the anger and despair I still had inside of me…and I’m blind to what’s really happening in this war, apparently.” She raised her steely eyes to his, forcing herself to meet the little spots of golden flame in eyes. “I used to think I knew everything. I don’t even know the first thing about myself. What else don’t I know about the world I live in?”
Leo sighed, and relief settled into his features. He sat in the chair next to hers and folded his hands together. “Okay. Now you’re ready to know.”
Jenna’s heart skipped a beat. “Know what?”
He paused, and she almost wanted that pause to last forever; here in the pause, at least, she was relieved and not angry or hurt—neither of them were, in fact. Here, anything could be at the other end of that pause, even something wonderful, no matter how unlikely that could be. She was exhilarated and afraid all at once, but she was also faced with the terrifying knowledge that she was powerless to stop the progression of time; maybe that was why she suddenly lunged forward and kissed him.
Maybe it was the fear that she was slipping down a terrible spiral of destruction that she couldn’t pull herself out of—a spiral so marked with defeat and desperation that the vibe was repelling everyone she knew. Maybe it was the suspicion that after this, nothing would ever be the same again, and Jenna desperately needed something to change after today. But as Leo’s hands stripped off his own clothes and peeled away her jumpsuit to slide against her skin for the first time, she knew the primary reason wasn’t any of these things. He lifted her and carried her to the bed, and he was so gentle while lowering himself over her lean body that she wondered how deep she had to go to see this softness all the time. His golden brown skin was illuminated so brightly that her paler peach-toned skin was shining, like the way moon glowed from the rays of the sun. He’s so beautiful, she thought, but she was too mesmerized to speak. She felt the hardness of him against her, hot and throbbing, and Jenna’s pulse started to pound in double time. She suddenly couldn’t stand the wait any longer. Her hands slipped along his muscled arms and the broad strength of his back, felt the resting energy of his body and the raw potential in his lusty eyes. Jenna shivered, and he smiled and lowered his face to hers.
Leo kissed her, and the fullness of his lips surprised her; so did his tongue and its gentle, slow probing of her mouth. Her thighs were slick with juices as he pushed them apart with his strong hands, and Jenna closed her eyes when he pressed his long, golden member against her slick opening. She arched her back as his head slipped inside, crying out as the sharp pain quickly gave way to delicious pleasure.
“You’re breathtaking,” he whispered in her ear, but she couldn’t respond; as he slid back and forth inside her, the pleasure from being filled so completely stole all thought from her mind, and she gasped instead, wrapping her long legs around his hips as he pulled himself out and rushed deep inside her again.
“Leo!” Jenna moaned, pressing her face into his muscled chest as waves of pleasure shot through her body. She moved her slim hips upward against his eager strokes and started to pull on one of her nipples with her thumb and forefinger, sighing breathlessly at the sharp sensation.
Leo moaned low in his throat and quickened his strokes, slamming his hips against hers as he drove his thick shaft deep inside her again and again. His hands reached behind her to cup her round ass, steadying her as he beat into her flesh with his and moaned deliriously. He was picking up speed with every stroke, and her round breasts were bouncing from the force of his thrusts. His gaze connected with hers and she felt her heart stop for a second before it kicked into overdrive; her walls started to clench around his shaft, and Jenna threw her head back, bucking her hips wildly against Leo’s passionate strokes as an orgasm ripped through her core.
“Jenna!” Leo screamed, angling himself inside her. He was pounding against her g-spot, and the ecstasy was so intense that she couldn’t draw a deep breath. Leo was gasping as he emptied himself between her legs, twitching and rolling his hips weakly for a moment after he was spent. He gazed down at her, watching his long shaft disappear between her legs a few more times before he finally slowed to a stop. Then he pulled his head down and kissed her again, sighing happily before moving to lie beside her on the bed.
Jenna stared at the ceiling, noting how different it looked from the cell, even though it was the same shade of gray. “Wow,” she said quietly.
Leo laughed. “Why do I feel like you were more impressed by the door?”
Jenna blushed and turned to him. “No, it’s not that…” she began, but she trailed off when she saw that he was joking. She smiled, and it felt odd on her face—when was the last time she’d smiled like that?
“You were wonderful,” she tried again. “And I’m sorry I interrupted you. But it felt so amazing that I’m wondering why I don’t feel like that more often.”
“You don’t have sex?” Leo asked, his tone one of surprise.
“I do sometimes,” Jenna said, blushing. “I’m 26, I’ve had boyfriends. I used to have casual sex with my friend Victor sometimes, and even with—” ‘my old commander,’ she started to say, but that hadn’t felt like sex with Victor. As matter of fact, Victor had been unlike anyone else she’d ever met, befriended, or lain with—until now. And their sex had been familiar and happy because of their strong friendship—and Jenna’s strong love, it turned out. But Victor didn’t love her; was that why sex with Leo had been different?
But Leo doesn’t love you, she reminded herself. She looked at him, and he was gazing at her steadily, unashamed of his staring. He smiled easily, and her heart did an odd tumble in her chest; he made her feel giddy, but this wasn’t love yet. So, what was it? Why did he feel so right to her?
It struck her then; it was because they were both carrying flame from the same burning branch—they were made from the same fury and resolve that made soft skin into scar tissue and turned sweet ciders
into bitter brews. They were the same sort of person. Jenna lifted her eyes to his.
“What did you decide I was ready to know?” she asked.
Leo sat up and nodded, pulling his shirt from the floor to put it on again. He tossed her jumpsuit to her, and they both got dressed to sit on the couch again. The silence made Jenna nervous, and she pulled on her shoulder length curls as he gathered his thoughts and drew a breath to speak again, this time sitting much closer to her than before.
Leo started to speak. “This war that’s happening isn’t real. It never was. It was always a front. My people approached humankind about their aggressive colonization attempts, not once, but three times; the third time was after a rogue branch of humans destroyed a sacred structure on a planet we’ve owned for centuries in a bid to gain ownership over it. They went unpunished, and when we demanded justice, we received none. Then we tried to break alliance, and were punished. That is when the war began, and it has finally been winding down. There was no coup, no attempt by the Yazulians to wrest power from Earth and take your soil. It was the other way around.”
Jenna shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
Leo sighed. “I thought you wouldn’t. May I?” he raised his hand toward her head, but she moved away.
“What are you doing?”
“I can share knowledge with you,” Leo said, narrowing his eyes. “You didn’t learn this about us?”
Jenna’s cheeks flamed red. “No, I…I didn’t learn that. They hardly taught us anything.” I wonder why that was? chimed a small voice in her head. Jenna squashed it, but her heart started racing nonetheless. “Okay,” she said nervously. “Share your knowledge.”
Leo stretched his hand toward her forehead and placed his warm hands on her skin for the second time that day. A surge of electricity shimmered through her body, but it was nothing like the Gray Men’s prod—it was joyous, pleasant, light. Suddenly she was seeing a series of moving images, and sound cut in sharply, sharpening until she saw she was looking at a video. Then bile rose in her throat when she realized what it was: news clips of humans discussing the first strikes against Yazul, taken at a low angle that showed it was most likely from a spy cam. Six humans sat around a table wearing wrinkled suits, eyes glazed over from lack of sleep but listening intently to a slim man standing at the center of the room, shouting about putting Yazulians down in their place. More clips followed, but Jenna didn’t need to see more; she pulled away from Leo’s hand, gasping in psychic pain far greater than she’d ever been burdened with. How could we have let this happen? she thought, and then: there’s your answer. We let this happen.
