“I am sorry for how the other night went.” My heart started to break as I thought he was going to say he was sorry for kissing me. That was not what I wanted to hear. “I should not have said anything about Ash and you. And I should not have kissed you like that, I am your squad leader.” My heart continued to break as that was the last thing I wanted to hear at that moment.
“Lancer, don’t think about that. You just need to worry about getting better. I am so thankful that you are ok. I almost lost you both tonight. For a few minutes I thought I did. All that matters is that you focus on healing right now.” I couldn’t even look him in the eyes as mine were clouding up with tears that I did not want him to see.
“How is Ash, is he going to be ok?” Lancer asked me quietly and then started coughing again.
I took a moment to try and clear my eyes before looking at him again. I knew he could see the unshed tears in my eyes. “I will go and see what the doctors have to say.” As I got up to leave Lancer squeezed my hand a little bit and I reached down to hug him and kiss him on the cheek.
“I am just glad you both survived. I don’t know what I would have done if either of you didn’t make it.” I said as I turned around and walked out the door.
Chapter Six
Instead of going over to see Ash I walked back to my room and cried. I cried for almost losing the two most important men in my life today. I cried for losing all of those warriors, most of whom I didn’t even know. I cried as I just realized that Maliki and Benden were gone. They had become my friends and now they were gone. I didn’t think I could handle this lifestyle any more. If losses like this were going to happen all of the time I knew I couldn’t handle it. Then I realized it was my fault. Lancer and the rest would not have gone down into that tunnel if I hadn’t thrown a fit over the human girls. I knew Lancer and Ash did that for me. The rest just followed Lancer.
About thirty minutes later I realized I was still crying because Lancer broke my heart. I didn’t understand how he even had my heart after just one kiss, but he did. Why was I so upset that he regretted that wonderful, powerful kiss? It may have been just one kiss, but it was the kind that made the earth move. I was hoping to have more of those.
There was a knock at my door as I was cleaning up the evidence of my tears on my face. “Come in”.
Toren walked in at that moment and when he saw my red face he walked over and gave me a hug. It felt like the kind of a hug a dad would give his daughter. It was so warm and I felt safe. I hadn’t realized how despondent I felt until he wrapped his arms around me and just rubbed my back. I started crying again.
Once I was done with my crying I backed away and thanked him. “Did you need me for something?”
“Oh, yes I came here to let you know that Ash is awake now.” Once Toren told me that I ran as fast I could to his room.
The door to Ash’s room was open and I just ran inside and went right to the side of his bed. I reached down and hugged him gently as he wrapped his one good arm around me.
“Ash, how are you? What did the doctors say?” I looked at him with fresh tears in my eyes, but they were tears of joy. I had a giant smile on my face as I looked into his eyes and realized he was going to be ok.
“B’Lana, you know I’m always fine. Nothing could keep me away from you. When my bones heal I expect a great big hug from you. None of this super soft, barely touching me kind of hug like you just gave me.” I laughed as he said that and I knew he would be just fine.
Everyone left the room while we were talking and the healer said he would be back to check on him soon. Then he looked at me and said I could only stay a few minutes as Ash needed to rest.
I stayed until the nurses forced me out of there about twenty minutes later. Then I went to Lancer’s room to tell him the good news.
“B’Lana, what was all of that commotion? I heard running in the hall.” Lancer looked at me and my tear streaked red face and was worried.
“Ash woke up. I ran to his room when Toren told me he was awake. I have been there with him talking for the past twenty minutes. He is going to be OK. He has a lot of broken bones and a punctured lung, in addition to all of the scrapes and a concussion. But he is going to be fine! The healers think he will be up and about in just over a week.” I said while smiling and thinking about how happy I was that both Ash and Lancer were going to be ok.
“Good, I’m glad Ash is going to be ok so soon. He is going to need your support while he heals.” Lancer said while looking away from me.
“I’m going to be here for the both of you while you recover.” Then I looked down at my feet while I said. “I’m sorry you lost so many warriors tonight. I should have never asked you to go after those girls. It was all my fault you went down into that sewer. I know now that was a stupid move. I won’t ask you to do something like that again.”
Lancer reached out and grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to his bed. “Sit down. It wasn’t your fault. I chose to go after them. You were right. We need to think about the humans and making sure they are safe too. We are warriors who chose this life. Those girls did not choose to get abducted. None of the victims chose what happened to them. We need to start thinking about the bigger picture. And I know that every one of those men who lost their lives tonight would do it again if it meant a chance to save the humans.
“It used to be that way you know. We used to care about the humans and would do everything we could to save them. But over time we stopped caring for some reason. I don’t even know when it happened or why, but we did.” Lancer squeezed my hand and then let go.
“Is there anything I can get you or do for you? Do you need some water? Or food? How can I help?” I looked at him with nothing but sincerity in my eyes. I really did want to help him. I realized as I looked at him that I cared for him more than I should. But he was my squad leader. No matter how I felt, he could never feel anything more for me.
Chapter Seven
Over the next few days we had a lot of different fae coming and going who were investigating the “incident”, as they called it. When the clean-up crew went to the sewer to extract the bodies of warriors they discovered that Maliki was still alive, but just barely. He was taken out and medevac’d to Sendryl where they had better facilities to take care of him. The Commander told me that they expected Maliki to pull through but it would be a long road to recovery and he might not be back in the field again.
Lancer and Ash were very happy when I was able to share that news with them. But once Lancer was out of bed, I hardly saw him. He was in meetings all day long and then slept a lot as he was still recovering.
Since there were no missions going on during this time, we didn’t have new members assigned to our squad yet. I didn’t want to interact with the fae who were conducting the investigation unless I had to. My only time with them was more like an interrogation of a prisoner, than questioning of someone on the team. I didn’t like them. And I hated how they were treating Lancer. He should have been able to get more rest and recover before they subjected him to fifteen hours of questioning every day.
So I spent most of my day either in my room, or with Ash. He didn’t mind, he enjoyed my company. We played a lot of board games and even a few games of poker. He tried playing strip poker but I wasn’t going to fall for his tricks.
After about five days of questioning I heard that Lancer was sent home for further investigation. He was called back by the council. He never said goodbye to me. Instead, while I was training with Cash in hand to hand combat he went to say goodbye to Ash and asked him to relay the message to me. He expected to be back within a week, two weeks tops.
I was pretty upset and Ash knew it. He was still confined to bed but he talked me into laying down with him so he could hug me. I fell for it. I have no clue what I was thinking when I crawled into bed with the biggest flirt on two planets.
I fell asleep in his arms and ended up getting the best two hours of sleep I had seen since the explosion. Sleep had b
een difficult as I had nightmares every night and could only get a few hours of fitful sleep.
Since the explosion, I had dreamed about watching Lancer and Ash die over and over. I also dreamed about my time with the master. Sometimes I would dream that I was the cause of the explosion, and other times I was in the explosion.
I was starting to look haggard. My eyes had bags under them and I was very short tempered.
After that, Ash talked me into spending three nights with him. It started out to see if I could sleep without nightmares. When it worked, I ended up spending the next two nights with him. Most of the medical staff was fine with it since we couldn’t get into any trouble. There was no privacy.
Sadly, I was kicked out on the fourth night when the night nurse discovered that Ash’s blood pressure was too high. Turned out he was a bit too excited with me in his bed. So I wasn’t allowed to sleep with him again. The nightmares returned and I didn’t get much sleep after that.
Until Ash was released from the infirmary. Then he snuck into my room every night and wrapped his arms around me so we could both sleep the whole night through. Apparently he was having nightmares as well. He would joke with me and flirt, but I knew he needed the sleep more than I did. And it was about the sleep more than anything else.
On the fourth night in my room he got a little too flirty.
“Care to give me a goodnight kiss? I bet we both sleep much better after a kiss. You know what they say, a kiss a day keeps the nightmares away.” He said while turning me towards him. He was snuggling up to my neck and ear and was coming closer to my lips. However, all I could think about was the kiss I shared with Lancer, even though Ash’s actions were raising my blood pressure. I was very confused.
“I’m not going to kiss you Ash.” I said while laughing. “Come on, we both agreed to just sleep so that we wouldn’t have nightmares. If you can’t behave I will have to kick you out of my bed.”
“Alright spoil sport. I know you want to kiss me. You are just too afraid you won’t be able to stop yourself from ravaging my awesome body.”
I started to seriously laugh and turned over so we could spoon. I was thankful I didn’t buy a twin size bed, but really wished we had gotten something bigger than a double.
Want to know what happens next? Keep reading for an excerpt from book 3, The Eclipse of Power, an Interdimensional Saga.
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I will also post the special short stories on my blog once I have enough reviews on Amazon, so be sure to review my books!
Author’s Notes
Again, I have to thank you all for picking up my book and reading it all the way to end. I truly hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! At this point I can’t decide who I like more, Lancer or Ash?! Who do you like more? Have you come up with a shipper name? Or do you think you know who B’Lana will end up with? Come hang out with me on my website and chat about it all at: https://jlhendricksblog.wordpress.com/blog/
I will be offering shorts on my site for every 25 reviews I receive. If you have a question about a scene and want to know more, maybe that could be one of my shorts. Be sure to visit my blog to check out the latest shorts I release and see what is coming soon.
As planned, in the book 3 Author’s Notes I will post Amazon reviews. If there are questions for me in those reviews, I will answer them as well. Whether you liked my book or not, be sure to post a review!
As of today, April 8, 2016, I have written about 1/4 of book 3 and boy is there a big battle coming up! Be sure to pre-order Book 3, The Eclipse of Power, when it is available.
Check out my blog for sneak peaks as well as my Facebook page!
Acknowledgements
No independent author could survive without his or her beta readers/editors. I was very lucky to be mentored by Michael Anderle as he put me in touch with some of his beta readers. A huge thank you to Michael and his readers/friends for all of their help!
My beta readers are awesome! You guys pointed out some tweaks to words that turned out to improve a scene or a mood. I can’t thank you all enough! Huge shout out to: Dorene Johnson, Diane Velasquez, Dawnya Goode, Bree Buras, Andrew Rowe, and Brandi Stone.
I also want to thank all of the authors in my 20books to50K group! You guys have rooted me on and provided invaluable feedback! Independent authors helping each other are just amazing! Let’s keep it going!
Book cover images purchased from Dreamstime: http://dreamstime.com and 123RF: www.123rf.com
Cover illustration by Michael Anderle and Dawnya Goode
Chapter One
Lancer – Sendryl High Court
Home. On the one hand I am excited to be here. But on the other, not so much. I miss Earth and her. I shouldn’t miss either. Earth isn’t my home. Her people aren’t my people. And she is off limits. I imagine by now she is sharing Ash’s bed and has forgotten about me. But I miss her craziness. I miss how she cares for everyone and I really miss how she makes me want to be a better male and a better leader.
When I left Earth two months ago I thought it would be only two weeks. But I should have known I wouldn’t be going back. I am stuck here in my own prison awaiting trial for the deaths of so many warriors. I shouldn’t have gone down that sewer. But I heard her crying out for those women and I couldn’t help myself. I wonder what happened to them? They are probably hybrid rippers by now. All of that pain and loss for nothing! I should be mad at her, but I can’t be. I miss her…
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“What? What was that noise? Guards! What is going on out there?” All I could hear was the scraping of boots as the guards ran outside.
“Please tell me that was some military drills and not a real bomb going off?” I yelled over my shoulder as I jumped up to the window trying to see outside, but I couldn’t see anything other than smoke. I heard a lot of screams but couldn’t tell where they came from.
◊◊◊
B’Lana - Los Angeles, CA
“Ash, how far away are you now?” I asked as I rubbed my temples. “I think it is time for a break, there are too many minds around you. It’s giving me a migraine.”
“I’m about two miles out and there are a lot of people around me. Looks like everyone is getting off work about now. All of the office buildings are starting to empty out.” Ash replied over the phone. We used cell phones when not on a mission.
Today we were just testing my “psychic abilities” to hear him from a distance. Sadly, I also picked up on everyone around him. Even though I tried to just focus on his mind.
“Ash, are you indoors? I swear I can hear rippers near you! Get outside right away if you are.” Am I going crazy? Why am I hearing rippers when the sun is still out?
“B’Lana, I’m outside. You can’t be hearing rippers, not with all of this sunlight.”
“Are you standing over a sewer tunnel? Maybe they’re right below you waiting for the sunset?” I know I sounded worried, but who could blame me? Since Lancer left for the home planet over two months ago we have lost a number of fae warriors to the rippers. They certainly upped their attacks on humans.
“Hang on a sec, I’m going to pull up the sewer maps on my phone and see if I’m over one now. Don’t call this in yet, unless you are ready for the Commander to know about your extra ‘gifts’.”
I chewed on my nails while impatiently waiting for Ash to tell me I was crazy. I hoped that I was just picking up on some sick people who only wanted to be vampires. LA had its share of wannabe vamps that we came across a few times already. But this nagging sensation in the back of my mind wouldn’t let me calm down.
“B’Lana, your mental abilities might really be improving. I’m above a sewer tunnel that leads to a large junction less than half a mile from here. I’m on my way back to you right now and we
are going to get two squads to recon this area right at sunset.” I could tell Ash was hurrying back as he was breathing heavy over the phone.
“Maybe we should bring everyone? Ash, it felt like I was ‘hearing’ a lot of rippers. Something like twenty to thirty voices thinking about blood and destruction.” Chills were going up my spine as I thought about what I heard. I sure hoped I was wrong about the number. It felt like they were just waiting to attack.
Once we were safely back at headquarters I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. What I heard had me on edge and I didn’t know what to do about it. I just hoped that the commander would be alright with us taking all of the squads out to the same place and not ask too many questions.
If he wouldn’t allow it, then I would have to come clean. If that happened then the general would know about at least one of my special abilities. Ash told me not to let on about the mind reading as that would just lead to the rest coming out. I did not want to become the poster child for human pincushions.
Before Lancer left he told me that if the general knew about my special abilities I would be taken back to Sendryl for testing and might never come home. I almost started crying thinking about that. It was hard enough not being able to talk to DeeDee, who was just like a sister to me. Now I only had Ash to confide in.
Thank God, Lancer only knew about the mind reading!
“Ash, have you heard anything from Lancer? I miss him and his grumpiness.” Since Lancer left Ash had taken over leadership of Squad 1 and was doing all of my training.
“B, don’t worry about Lancer. He can take care of himself. He has been a warrior for a long time. There are a lot of fae who will back him. His trial is just a political move. He won’t be in any trouble. There is a group of fae who are supporting some of the more radical members of society so this is just to show that we are taking all complaints seriously.” Several of the parents got together when Lancer arrived back home to complain about how he got their children killed here on Earth. So an investigation was ordered. Lancer was stuck on Sendryl. I didn’t know if he would ever come back.
Eclipse of the Soul: The Interdimensional Saga, Book 2 Page 6
