“Thank you for sticking your necks out for me. I’m touched. Truly. Oh, before I forget… my com is Oliver Void and the code is Forgotten.”
“Does Elder Void sound good to everyone?” Talon laid back down after programming him in and she and others gave their codes.
“Sounds good to me.” The eldest said and his words sealed the discussion Oliver heard last as he left to walk down the stairs.
In several minutes the walk coupled with the roaring waterfall settle the tangled web within the mind. Sitting bright in the village was a sign depicting red cross over white and he made straight for it.
Renee turned her head as the door slid open. She stopped breathing for a moment as she stared at a bare chest Oliver to find her mouth watering and she swallowed before drooling all over the patient she attended. His bronze skin was so much healthier than before and made her imagine how delicious it would taste to run her tongue across. Two days worth of beard darkly shadowed his squared jaw rather than the twenty plus during tracking he removed during the shuttle ride back. But in the month since she first saw him she noticed he would have a head of thick, dark brown hair. The bare chest had no hairs and his arms had just the right amount. Smoldering amber eyes burned through her breast and as she saw his nose flare she knew there was no point in denying she creamed her panties again at the mere sight of him. Oxygen deprivation started to burn and the intake of fresh air helped get delicious images from becoming a reality.
Hating her own reactions made her arousal turn to irritation. “Give me a few minutes, Idiot.” She went back and focused on her patient, very aware of him now. It didn’t affect her work, but she had begun to miss having him close and for weeks she missed him, not that she’d ever admit. At first she couldn’t send him away fast enough, but now she realized other disturbing thoughts. Damn my libido. He’s just so male. Why can’t I push him away anymore? Oh right, I haven’t had a good balls to the wall fuckfest in years. “All done, Kiddo.” She ruffled a small Hunter boy’s head.
“Thanks.” He grinned and sped outside.
Next thing Renee knew Oliver was laying down on the table the boy vacated and didn’t make a sound. “And just what the hell are you doing?”
“You’re going to ask to scan me anyway. You always do.”
“Oh.” She used her chip to activate the machine to drop from the building’s white ceiling. She especially looked at all the puncture wounds already healed over and nodded satisfactorily there would be no marks by morning.
As it worked he asked “So what have I missed since I was gone?”
“Aside from me delivering Vanessa’s beautiful baby girl, Taylor, I’ve fixed three broken arms, repaired the cornea of someone struck in the eye and gave a few injections… it’s been boring. Most sat around watching you on large holo-screens… you will have no lasting damage. The nanites did a great job putting you back together again.” He sat up and smiled, her eyes dropped slightly to the bulge in his pants and she looked back up quickly. “What about you?” she took another blood sample. “What did all the old Hunters have to say?”
“Not too much. They wanted to hear my story personally and then they sent me down to you. Apparently they won’t trust me till I can shield from telepaths…” He looked down.
“Spit it out? If you want to ask if I’ve read your mind then yes, but only once.”
“What did you see?”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before in horny teens. I was just curious why you were so confident the day you caught me and I saw you kick Stone’s ass. Don’t worry. Your date you’ve been thinking of remains secret.”
“Whew. I’m glad or you would give in to my advances without a fight.”
Renee’s lips quirked. “You’re that confident in your plans eh?” his smile widened and her heart about exploded. Stars! Not dimples! Fuck, he’s got dimples! She cleared her throat. “I’ll stay out of your head then. If I find out and fuck your brains out and you fail to deliver on the date I’ll be pissed and castrate you for deceiving me.”
The dimples deepened. “You’re mine already, Red. You just won’t admit it aloud.”
“Oooh? I think even if you do believe we’ll be together, you still have no concept of my tastes or even if after a few romps I’ll kick you out of bed and you’ll pine for me while I move on to a new shiny toy and shake his stars too.”
His smile vanished and he glared. “No you won’t or you would have mated the other Hunters, but they don’t look at you like I do. You’re the type of person to mate for life and are hostile to others sniffing around what belongs to you. In your head you may think otherwise, but I know the truth. I arouse you, but when I aroused the other women the day I left to hunt I smelled your anger to them when they stated they want me. I wanted to hurt them all for making you upset, but you would hurt them more and I could not make them like you if they knew I will be with only you. Every night when we spoke I could see only you and I know that I will not find another. I’m going to win you correctly and show you I’m not taking you as a mate. I will make you my wife like Jessica and Stephanie. I cannot explain why, but I know there will never be another. And I might not know your story, but I know you.”
Oliver gently poked a finger over her left breast, where her heart lay hammering. “This does not lie to me. You may pretend to hate me and call me names and treat me worse than anyone else, but I know fear of rejection. It is the same as my fear of being all alone again. You isolate yourself on purpose and put on a tough armor, but I’ve found the crack in it. You won’t be alone so long as I live and woe to the male that comes near what belongs to me. You’ve seen how I react to Beasts. Any pursuers will meet the same fate.”
“Drop the chauvinistic shit.” She didn’t slap his hand away from pointing at her heart that had a mind of its own. “You don’t know a thing about me, Oliver.”
“I know I unsettle you more than anyone else. And I know you don’t smell like the other females who smell of multiple men. You have the smell of a single pairing, like Stephanie, Jessica and Vanessa. You require more than sex unlike all the others around us. I have told you the truth. You will be mine as I will be yours. There is no doubt in my mind. Mating will just physically signify our union. And once I have you, I will never let you go. I will peruse you like the Fire Wyrm, only with more desire and love in my heart.”
Renee was completely and utterly rendered speechless and felt her cheeks burn, but could not halt the flush that colored.
Oliver closed his eyes as he got up and sat on the ground. All but a pair of boxers hid his manhood. He seemed larger somehow like that. “Let’s begin before we regret the topic.”
Again she cleared her throat and held a stiffened palm hand to him and his expression changed. “What’s that look for?”
“Aren’t you going to remove your clothes?”
“Not going to happen.” Her words were sharp. “Right now you’re calm. You need to work on this now and if I strip to a bra and panties we’ll both regret it. Besides, I’m much stronger so I don’t need to worry about clothes rubbing my skin to feel the gathering. It’s as easy as breathing to me now.”
“I’ve heard that word before. Gathering.”
“It’s a simple term to gather up psionic energies to use outwardly. You’ll learn how to use what you can gather to help fortify your mind and one day affect the world around you. Now close your eyes and…”
Oliver listened to her smooth feminine voice softening. It did feel uplifting telling her his intent and enjoying the reaction it made. He liked doing it to her and her alone. He was also true in telling her how he’d react to another male other than himself. He likely would kill and not think twice.
Sitting on the cold, hard floor he noticed something he never felt before. Had he not spoken his desire, calmed and could think clearly again, he wouldn’t have sensed it. Like a mental lever holding back a stream of dammed water. The barest trickles came out from below.
The mental image helpe
d and he grabbed hold and pulled. It didn’t budge at first. Then as he felt Renee’s power begin tingling the lever seemed to loosen some rust around gears and get oiled. He pulled and the stream began to gush.
Renee’s crackling hand got a sudden shock as a tiny spark zapped from Oliver’s forehead to her hand and her eyes widened with realization.
Oliver though could only open the floodgates so far, but the feeling the stream gave was spectacular. It was like the feeling of running and letting go. It was freeing. The sensation of energy though was building in a barren lake that seemed to have no ending depth or end, but the water didn’t disappear. His mind just knew what it had to do. Doing what felt right over teachings of another.
Like the first night Elder Scythe worked with him, Oliver craved to have and hold that feeling all the time. The vibrating sensation moved from head to toe, but moved faster than he intended. It was natural though and soon his whole body hummed with invisible power. As he opened his eyes he smiled calmly. “I’m doing it, Renee. I’m finally doing it.”
“How? How are you doing it? You should be able to grasp and gather after six months, no three weeks… ugh. You’ve given me another fucking headache.” She pinched the bridge of her lightly freckled nose.
“Don’t question the how. I couldn’t pull the lever till I felt your help.”
“You imagine a lever and valve of water too?” Her green eyes flashed with a momentary increase of energy, but more from a bit of indecipherable fear. He nodded. “I thought I was the only one… my Phantom teachers couldn’t explain why I saw the lever when other kids couldn’t… no one in the program imagined anything…” She shook her head as his earlier words of belonging together echoed in her mind, ringing like a struck bell. “Tell me right now, did it open all the way?”
He shook his head. “No. It stopped as soon as you ended doing whatever you did to send it to me.”
“Good. This is good.”
“Why?”
“Because using a little is perfect to learn how to mold compared to a massive load. I should know, I’ve learned the hard way when mine flooded an empty lake and I nearly killed myself trying to control it. I barely got it closed and I was knocked out for nearly a week. It was the only time I can remember seeing my Papa look worried.” She held a hand to stop him from asking more. “Think of whittling a piece of wood to shape it. A stick is easier to shape than using a whole tree trunk.”
“I’ve not done it yet.”
“Ugh… fine. Uh… the gravity training you did. You learned how to first really balance yourself in zero gees. Gathering is a lot like that. You need to start small and work your way up. Find your balance first. Otherwise you’ll bust your ass like you did before Stone and the others hooked themselves to you and hopped around deck like a group of fleas. I can already feel you saturating your body. I’m sensitive enough to feel yours this close. So you don’t need me to teach how to shield from projection that caused your psionic sickness. Do this if you feel in any sort of danger. Most cannot sustain the vibrations for more than a few minutes at a time for a class one psionic. Do this and no one can disrupt your body nor pierce your mind without serious skill. Only Drakes can pierce the mind no matter what you do. I want you to hold this feeling for as long as you possibly can. When you start getting lightheaded, close the lever. If not, I’ll close it for you.”
“I can do that.” He smiled. “While we wait, where are Sparky and Rose?”
Renee shrugged, her lovely eyes holding his in a serious rather than lustful way at the moment. Ruby rosebud lips moved and he was still spellbound. “Doing whatever a Drake wants. Sparky and I are connected telepathic and empathically, but we don’t always communicate. Right now he’s probably playing with a group of Hunter children. I feel his excitement and love for youth. Either that or he just made Rose a rather satisfied female. I’ll know more if he falls asleep in the next few minutes. He’s a rather horny Drake, but I still love the old lizard.”
“How did you two bond… if you don’t mind me asking about that story? I read Drakes don’t commonly take on riders.”
“Funny story actually.” Renee chuckled as she leaned back in her chair, her eyes losing a little of their serious edge remembering the fond events. “I had just finished Phantom training and was finishing my last school credits in medic training when my class gathered and traveled to Drakken Prime ten years ago. I was an ignorant and lively twenty year old woman finally visiting the Drake home world for the first time and thought I knew it all.” She shook her head, smiling of past events. “As you know I’m a rather solitary person and I diverted from my group to go explore rather than listen to the lifeless drone of my teacher. Papa told me of the Drake caves, past the glowing forest left in perpetual night.
“So I went down the path I thought was the right way, but went down another to a rather dangerous place where the only apex predator above even Drakes live. Next thing I know I hear a strange sound and just manage to throw up a barrier before a Serpenthinine, the snake with eight spidery legs, dropped down on me from its web. I blew it apart with no real problem, but I wound up trapped in their heart. Their largest lair. And I had no way out.
“Psionics have limits and endurance, like a muscle. You can exercise it, but eventually you’ll get exhausted without food and rest.
“Well here I was, all cocky twenty years old firing massive kinetic blasts every few seconds that could level skyscrapers while keeping a whole host of Serpenthinine from making me their next meal and tiring faster and faster. When I saw there was no end to them I worried.
“Sparky picked up on my distress and didn’t hesitate to fly right in and snatch me up in his talons. His glow was the last thing I saw before I felt his mental touch. Combine his soothing thoughts with my exhaustion and I collapsed midair.
“When I finally woke up I found myself in his lair with Rose tending a few of his wounds from the rescue. As you know, female Drake saliva is a natural antiseptic.” He nodded. “He first berated me as I know my father would have for leaving the group. But Sparky and I were connected. Our mental connection is identical and his sensing of my distress bonded us together. Before he met me he was a ruling Drake elder of the second largest colony on Drakken Prime. He’s also one of the oldest Drakes too. But his connection to me gave him the out he had been searching for to finally leave Drake political affairs. Bonded companions are the freest to do as they will and have the fewest binding laws. Rose could come with us as his mate, but she had to give up her nest of young. But she is fine now. She wants a few centuries not worrying about being a mother, now that she is on birth control. One day though she’ll want babies again, but for now she is enjoying being free to travel with Sparky and me aboard the Dorgenox.”
Oliver smiled at the story. “But why name him Sparky?”
“Because before we were recognized by the Drake council he’d piss me off and I’d shoot sparks to get him off my case. The name rather stuck. Since Drake names are impossible for human’s to vocalize, Sparky is fine. Rose got hers, not for her scales, but loves the smell of rose oils she sometimes rubs into her pink scales.”
“I’m starting to feel lightheaded.” He announced after the nice story.
“Okay. Close the lever and cut the flow.”
Closing his eyes, Oliver found the mental lever, pushed and like before it was difficult. Renee saw his grimace of exertion and held out her crackling hand, but held her palm over his forehead and didn’t jerk away as she was shocked again and again. She added her own atop his and the lever was lubricated enough to close. As soon as it was, he sighed and no longer was Renee being electrocuted. With the stream closed and no longer pooling, the feeling stopped worsening.
“Much better.” His chest swelled with air and deflated.
“Keep breathing just like that till the sensation passes. You actually did fairly well. Three minutes four seconds.”
“A compliment from Renee Dorgen. Someone add it to the record books.” He t
eased.
“Shut it.” Her shoe kicked him in the shin with more than necessary force. His yelp made her grin and cross her long legs with one ankle behind her calf muscle.
In about ten minutes he said, still on the hard floor “I’m back to normal. Can we do it again?”
“Work it on your own. I’ll help loosen the block, but the more you do on your own, the sooner you’ll be able to pull the lever without my aid.” He closed his eyes and struggled for a few minutes till she added herself and the gateway widened within him.
For the next eight hours Oliver sat in front of Renee doing the exercise over and over, still needing her aid opening and closing. They parted on better terms, talking throughout the session, but she still didn’t reveal much of herself. Nevertheless, the exercises had drained Oliver to the point when his head hit the pillow in the guestroom, he was asleep.
“Time to get your ass out of bed, Brother. My man is ready outside to get started.”
Oliver looked down to the open door to find Grand Elder Talon in the doorway wearing nothing more than a loose silk bath robe. Her long blonde hair wasn’t braided so early in the morning, but she remained an intimidating figure in strength and beauty. He sat up, rubbing crust from his eyes. “Thank you. I forgot to set my com to wake me up.”
“Not to worry. Ms. Dorgen already informed us you achieved the initial basics of gathering energies. I still remember how tired I was when I discovered how to do it myself. I didn’t want to wake up either. Hop in the shower, clean up and meet him out back.” She smirked.
Cutlass Sharpened Page 23
