by Abel, Regine
Raven blinked and stared at me with such wonder you’d think an angel had suddenly appeared before him in all her divine glory.
“I have never seen a soul like yours,” Raven said. “Your sphere is golden, like all the rank five psychics, but the surface is different. You did hurt yourself enough for it to have a few fissures. Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous,” he added quickly seeing my obvious dismay. “You will need some time to heal and strengthen your psychic muscles, but it gave me a glimpse of your aura. I want to dive in and wrap myself in it, in you.”
My stomach flip-flopped again, and my mouth felt dry. Psychics could see each other’s souls in their respective voids. It usually appeared in the form of a sphere, the protective shield that contained their actual soul. One had to deliberately remove that shield to reveal your true self. You only ever fully bared your soul to your soulmate; for Xian Warriors, it only happened with their bonded mate, the one female they pledged their life to until they drew their last breath. And you only wrapped your soul around your mate’s during intimacy.
In that single sentence, Raven had declared his intentions.
“But… You don’t know me,” I said, weakly.
“I will in time. My soul knows yours, and yours knows mine,” Raven said, brushing my hair aside from my face. “You felt it the first day we met, and still do, deep inside, every time we meet. Even your aura confirms it. We are soulmates.”
I licked my lips nervously, unsure how to answer. It thrilled me to know he was mine—or at least believed himself to be—but too much was happening for me to process right now.
“Do not worry your pretty little head,” Raven said brushing his lips against mine. “Tomorrow, we will start training your psychic muscles again, and then we’ll work through that trauma, together. All right?”
I nodded, feeling hope, excitement, and craving his mind inside me again.
Chapter 6
Raven
All of HQ buzzed with excitement. Using Liena’s method, Kazumi and Thanh had managed to see the ‘stars’ around the souls of the Warriors. Or rather, they had managed to see a single star… sometimes. Attuning to the soul’s psychic energy made him shine brighter, like Liena had witnessed. But the spark—the star—only showed once in a while. Sometimes it would be there from the beginning but so faint the women struggled to find it.
We now knew all the Asian psychics possessed the Shield ability but, unlike the Portals, training it proved more challenging. For the Portals, the spark had been inside their psychic void. All they had to do was push power into it in specific doses and intervals to train it. With the Shields, they actually needed a disembodied soul, who couldn’t remain in that state very long before coming to harm. As there existed no easy way of tearing a soul out of its Shell, training was beginning to take a toll on the Soulcatchers. We couldn’t keep giving them the neural disruptor drug for fear it would permanently harm them.
I didn’t doubt for a minute that, with hours of training, the women would grow stronger. They would eventually be able to create a Shield in seconds, like the Soulcatchers and Portals were able to use their own abilities in the blink of an eye. But we needed to find a solution to our training problems.
Three days had gone by since I’d declared my intentions to Liena. If we were making slow progress training all the Shields, my Beauty and I were growing closer by leaps and bounds. Every hour, she would allow me to enter her void for a few seconds. While she’d shown initial, knee-jerk signs of a panic attack during the first day, it waned over the second day, and she displayed none yesterday. She still completely fell apart if someone else attempted to do so, but at least she and I had broken that first barrier.
Her sphere had fully healed, and Liena had been diligent in training her psychic muscles with a series of non-intrusive exercises I had given her. Last night, she’d begun sending me telepathic messages. Just little pokes to which I wasn’t responding yet, as per our mutual agreement. She wasn’t ready yet for another voice in her head, but flexing her muscles didn’t hurt. At this rate, I hoped we could begin mind-speaking by the start of next week.
For now, she would join us in today’s training session. The good news in all of this was that unlike Portals and Soulcatchers, Liena could use her ability without having to let anyone inside her head.
The energy ran high in the Incubator, crowded with two dozen Soulcatchers and their Warriors, who stood behind the ten strongest Asian psychics currently in training. A bit of a hush fell over the room when my woman entered. None of the other women had managed to build a complete shield; only fizzling flashes, like an impact on a dome. With her mind rested and healed, and her muscles strengthened, we’d hoped for a repeat.
Liena came to stand next to me, and I took her hand in mine. I ignored the furtive glances and smiles from the Warriors. All of them had been filling my ears with advice on wooing a girl. It was rather annoying to be treated like the baby brother, although their intentions were good. I couldn’t really blame them, though: they had helped raise me.
Wrath volunteered again, lying down on the first rebirth table. Linette took position by the wall. Repeating the process, she caught his soul only to have it ejected when Nathalie gave her a shot of neural disruptor drug. As soon as Wrath’s soul appeared next to Linette, all the Asian women focused on him.
“Don’t push too hard,” I gently warned Liena.
“I see the stars,” she immediately answered. “It’s so much easier this time.” The awe and excitement in her voice spread like wildfire through the room. “I’m going to hit one of them.”
“Be careful,” I said, worry gnawing at me.
“You can look in whenever you want,” she said.
I smiled, and my chest tightened. The complete trust in her voice moved me to the core. The small hairs on her nape stood on end as she pushed her power into one of the stars that only she could see. A few large flashes appeared around Wrath. The entire room held its breath while Liena continued her efforts. Watching the flashes expand and heave reminded me of a revving engine, but with visual rather than audio.
And then the shield fully formed.
Wrath immediately seemed stronger, his face stripped of the previous strain. He looked awed, his ethereal hand reaching for the shield which shimmered under his touch.
“This feels like a vessel, but silent, without Linette’s presence surrounding me,” Wrath mind-spoke to me.
“Amazing,” I said out loud.
Wrath nodded, while excited murmurs spread around the room.
“How are you feeling, Beauty?” I asked, looking at Liena for any signs of distress.
“I’m fine,” she said.
Wrapping my right arm around her waist, I held her left hand with mine. “I’m going to look inside now, okay?”
She nodded with a soft smile, her eyes never straying from Wrath’s soul. It struck me once more what a long way we’d already come. But I would soon need her to start allowing one or two others to make psychic contact with her.
Pushing my consciousness towards hers, my vision blurred only to clear with the sight of the beautiful sphere that shielded her soul, floating in the endless, pitch-black sea of her psychic void. But something had changed.
No, something is changing.
Her sphere looked like it was turning into a Tesla ball, with golden electric current coiling all over its surface. As Liena continued to push her power into Wrath’s shield, the electric threads multiplied and thickened.
Asians don’t have a spark like the Black women, it’s all about their sphere!
“Can you still hold?” I asked Liena, withdrawing from her mind.
“Yes, but I’m getting a little tired,” she admitted.
“Okay, it won’t be much longer.” I turned to the other Asian women who stared back at me expectantly. “Do any of you see a spark?”
They all nodded or said yes.
“Actually, since Liena built the shield, I see a couple more spark
s, but one is very bright,” Kazumi said. “I think it might be the one she’s pushing her power into.”
“Same thing for me,” Thanh said while the others also confirmed. “I wanted to push some of my power into it, but I didn’t dare in case it messed things up.”
“Excellent idea, Thanh,” I said with undisguised admiration.
She blushed and puffed her chest. Petite and doll-like, it made her even more adorable-looking than usual.
“Liena?” I asked.
“Not a problem. Should I lessen how much energy I send?”
“No. Let’s see what happens first,” I said, my excitement rising. When we’d discovered Ayana’s power, experimenting with the different ways it could be used had been an exhilarating experience. “Go ahead, Thanh.”
“Okay,” she said, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.
Thanh’s eyes lowered to the general area of Wrath’s navel—no doubt where the spark was located—and she began pushing her power into it. The shield around the Warrior stuttered, electric coils slithering over its surface.
“I’m still fine,” Wrath mind-spoke to me.
I nodded. “Keep going, Thanh.”
She complied. And then the shield began to expand, giving Wrath room to move within it.
“Fuck me…” I muttered, giddy by the possible implication. “Kazumi, join in.”
“Yes, Raven,” she said, then began pushing her power into the shield as well.
The same scenario occurred, with the electric coils forming a webbed network over the surface of the shield before it grew again in size, taking on an oval shape.
“Liena, how are you doing?” I asked.
“Still good. This is amazing!”
Despite the weariness settling in, she still looked determined and not in any distress.
“Peeping in again,” I warned and then dove in when she nodded.
One of the coils had lifted above her sphere, forming an electric ring around it. The others continued to sizzle on the surface, which remained smooth, showing no signs of fissures or damage. Reassured, I pulled out and checked on Kazumi’s sphere. There, too, electric coils had begun forming on the surface of her sphere.
“Legion,” I called out, gesturing for him to approach.
Without needing further instruction, he came and peered into Kazumi’s psychic void.
“Is that—?”
“Yes,” I interrupted. “The same thing is happening on a much larger scale on Liena’s sphere.”
“With training, they will match?” Legion asked, although it came out more like a statement.
“I believe so.” Turning to the other women, I gestured to the young Korean next to Thanh. “Kyung Mi, join in as well.”
No sooner had she begun to push her power than dark tendrils appeared over the shield, which seemed to begin losing its integrity.
“STOP!” I shouted, louder than I’d intended. Kyung Mi started and cast a worried glance towards me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout. Please try again but very slowly. If the dark lines appear again, stop immediately, okay?”
She nodded, but I could see the fear in her eyes; fear that she might be broken or that her power might be toxic. As soon as she tried, the same thing happened. She stopped and hugged herself, shame plain to see on her face. Walking up to her, I caressed her hair and rested my hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“You did nothing wrong, Kyung Mi. We’re all trying to figure this thing out, so don’t beat yourself up, okay?”
She nodded, but her eyes glistened with barely repressed tears. Giving her a sympathetic smile, I turned to her neighbor, Suyin, and gestured for her to give it a go. The same dark lines appeared, forcing her to stop immediately.
“The shield has reached its capacity,” Legion said.
I nodded in agreement. But for further confirmation, Legion asked two more women to try with the same result. I turned to Kyung Mi and winked at her.
“See? You did nothing wrong,” I said.
She gave me a bashful smile, but relief was plain to see on her face.
“Liena,” I said, returning to my woman’s side, “reduce your power gradually, but not fully. Kyung Mi, start pushing yours in when she does.”
“Okay,” they both said.
The shield immediately began to decrease in size before stabilizing as Kyung Mi started compensating. By the time I made Liena fully pull out, the shield, although still stable, had become smaller. A fourth woman was needed to bring it back to its maximum size, confirming psychic power level influenced it.
This discovery significantly turned the tide for us training the women. As long as the shield was maintained, we didn’t have to go through dozens of Warriors, and we didn’t have to put so much of a strain on Liena. To our great delight, neural inhibitor devices didn’t block the Shield ability, but the drugs still did.
We spent the next couple of hours training the other women to create the shield from scratch. It proved challenging with Liena still having to step in, either to help them see the spark or to form the initial shield that the other women would then take over.
Although I gave the other Soulcatchers and Warriors leave to go back to their business, most of them stayed, too eager to watch.
It turned out to be a good thing, too.
We were in the midst of having the women walk around with a shielded Wrath when Ayana and my mother walked in, having probably completed Ayana’s routine medical check. With Xian Warrior pregnancies being so few and far between, we didn’t take any chances.
Ayana made a beeline for her mate but stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wide and lips parted in shock. Legion gave her a questioning look.
“It’s like a vessel!” she exclaimed, looking at the shield.
“Yes,” Legion said, closing the distance with his mate. “It behaves exactly like one.”
“No,” she said, leaning against her mate. “I mean, it feels exactly the same as a vessel to me, like when I draw a soul from a vessel or direct it towards one.”
We all gaped at her, understanding dawning on us.
“I need a volunteer!” I shouted.
Many raised their hands, but Chaos imposed himself, lying on the rebirth table next to Wrath’s Shell. Wrath needed to return to his Shell soon. Although we currently had it on life support, a soulless Shell would eventually begin to shut down, sustaining a chain reaction of organ failures even while hooked to life support.
This time, we didn’t need to use Tabitha, his Soulcatcher. As a Portal, Ayana could transfer his soul directly into another valid vessel. Within seconds of giving them the go-ahead, Chaos’s soul appeared inside the shield next to Wrath. The shield shuddered and, for a moment, appeared on the verge of collapsing, but steadied itself. A victorious roar resounded through the room as the general excitement mounted.
“Another,” Legion said.
Rage lay down on a rebirth table and Ayana successfully portaled him into the shield. It began to collapse. The remaining women pushed their power into the spark but rather than stabilizing it, it made it go supernova, probably from some kind of overload.
With Liena’s aid, they quickly rebuilt the shield. Further testing demonstrated that three was the maximum number of souls that a single shield could contain… at least for now. Wrath returned to his Shell, having pushed it to its limits.
Just as we were wrapping things for the day, the doors to the Incubator opened, and the tall silhouette of my father walked in, accompanied by two Warriors from his Unit and Stran—his loyal Crekel.
“Doom!” my mother shouted.
She ran towards him, her long, colorful-patterned dress flowing behind her. She threw herself into his arms. He effortlessly caught her, lifted her up, and twirled around. Despite the awkwardness, I didn’t avert my eyes, watching them exchange a passionate kiss. The unshakable love between my parents, after so many years, always moved me. On instinct, I wrapped my arm around Liena’s waist and pulled her
against me. She reciprocated, leaning her head against my chest while smiling at my parents’ public display of affection.
I knew how difficult it was for my mother to wait days, weeks, and sometimes even months for my father to return from a mission, worrying the whole time that he might not. Although a Caucasian psychic, Mother didn’t qualify as a Soulcatcher. She’d begun taking the enzyme that enabled the ability far too late in life. While taking it granted her some telepathic powers, she would always remain a low-level psychic.
Stran, one of the few war animals still actively in service with the Vanguard, rolled his pangolin-like body—although scaled up to the height of a big dog—into a ball and spun around my parents in a celebratory dance.
They finally broke their kiss and rested their foreheads against each other’s, savoring a short moment of tenderness after over six weeks apart. Putting her down at last, Father tucked Mother under his arm. She looked tiny next to him as they walked towards us.
My chest tightened as I stared at my sire, who nodded at the other Warriors as he approached us. Just like Legion, he had been among the great heroes who had helped liberate Earth from the Kryptid invasion, which was where he met my mother. Having distinguished himself in countless battles over the years, the rest of the Warriors held him in high esteem. He had been considered as the potential leader of the Vanguard but had gladly stepped aside in favor of Legion, the call of the battlefield being too strong for him.
Eyes locked with my father, I released Liena to embrace him. Even though I was 6’6—tall for humans, but on the shorter side for Warriors—my father towered over me by three more inches. He gave me one of his typical bruising holds, the complete opposite from how he handled Mother. Releasing me, he took a step back, his hands resting on my shoulders, at the edge of my bone spikes, and studied my face.
“Pretty as always, my son, like the rest of them,” Father said in a teasing tone, gesturing at the other Warriors with his head.
I snorted and shook my head. I was my father’s spitting image except for my mother’s pointier chin. But Father was referring to my flawless skin. Warriors took great pride in their scars, and Father held the record in how many he bore. A single scar testified the Warrior had survived battle with his current Shell. The more scars, the more badass the Warrior. And my Father held the highest survival streak. I almost felt sorry for him when the day came that he would need a different Shell. With rebirth, came a new, flawless body. It shamed me to admit I’d been going through my Shells at an alarming rate.
