Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
THE AUGUST WIND GUSTING through the night air almost made the heat bearable. Except every time it died down, it left Sully burning twice as hot in its absence. The dark expanse of the sky stretched overhead, scattered stars sparkling. The silver moon hung low in the trees.
Sully strolled down an eerily deserted path, the shivery sound of the leaves disturbed by the breeze and his own quiet footsteps cracked an occasional dry twig.
He shouldn’t be out after curfew, but it was his last night here, and anyway, one little use of power to keep anyone from noticing he was out here couldn’t hurt anything.
What was the worst they could do? They were already sending him to hell on earth, with a detour to the second last place he wanted to go first.
The idea of being back in New York even for a short time sat uncomfortably on his chest. Too many memories, good, bad, and horrific haunted the city.
Things he didn’t want to think about, people he couldn’t remember without dredging up debilitating pain when he desperately needed to be strong.
He didn’t have the time or patience to sort out his own emotions when everyone else’s had been increasingly weighing on him, fraying his nerves.
Sully pinched the bridge of his nose and massaged. Selecting a tree that seemed suitable, he wandered over and leaned against it. He huffed out a breath and struggled to empty his mind.
There was no use worrying. He was going to New York whether he liked it or not, same as he was going to France. There was nothing he could do to stop it. If he couldn’t block out the memories here, how would he do it with the once familiar scents, sounds, and sights of the city surrounding him?
Long minutes passed as he stared through the gray shadows of trees and brush until his mind felt marginally better shielded. Whether it would hold up was anyone’s guess.
Sully finally pushed off the tree and looked up at its robust branches. He’d never climbed one, and the brief playful urge to try struck him. Just as he reached up for a handhold, a confusing whirl of emotions skittered across his senses.
He glanced back down the path and noticed a familiar form frozen in the moonlight before it shifted and moved toward him.
Even without the moon, Sully would have recognized the feel of Elliot.
Over the past months, he’d become so attuned to the sensation, to the odd guilty pleasure Elliot vibrated whenever they crossed paths.
It frustrated him endlessly, wondering what made Elliot feel guilty.
He hadn’t picked any up the morning after their encounter, so he didn’t understand what triggered it or why it got more intense as time wore on and they marched closer to deployment.
Sully had to be misinterpreting the emotion. Maybe it wasn’t guilt at all. Sometimes he leapt to the worst conclusion from raw emotions. He couldn’t help it.
As Elliot stopped an arm’s length in front of him, Sully’s pulse sped and his stomach fluttered. It was pathetic how excited he was. Automatically, Sully wove an illusion around them, made sure they wouldn’t be spotted. He hoped.
For a silent moment they just stood there, Sully unabashedly drinking in the sight of Elliot in his uniform, feeling Elliot’s eyes on him too.
“You look good,” Sully murmured. His gaze caught on the glimmer of silver bars on Elliot’s shoulders. “Wow. Captain already. You must be doing great.”
Elliot ducked his chin, hiding his face with the brim of his service cap.
Sully would’ve bet he was blushing. Embarrassed by his success?
Because there was no way it was the comment about his looks.
He had to be used to people pointing out how beautiful he was.
“Not terribly. Listen, Warren, I’ve been wanting to speak to you. ”
Sully didn’t fight the smirk on his lips. “Never would’ve guessed with all those stares you sent me. Lucky for you I was paying attention, kept anyone else from noticing too.”
His eyes went wide. “You did?”
“Mhm…” Sully shifted closer, drawn forward against every self-protective instinct. It was late, no one else was out here. And Elliot kept showing up right when he needed a distraction. How many last nights were they going to get? “Made you a promise once, didn’t I?”
“You did,” Elliot said, his voice soft and warm. His white teeth sunk into his bottom lip and Sully was a goner.
Reaching up, he traced his fingers over Elliot’s jaw, the faintest trace of day’s end stubble tickling his skin.
Elliot’s eyelids flickered, drifted slowly shut as Sully leaned in, brow pinching in a heartbreaking, conflicted expression as dizzying flashes of emotion chased around him.
The strongest was want. It pulsed along Sully’s nerves, pushed out common sense.
Elliot’s breath was hot against his lips. Their mouths met in the barest brush. Just once. And Sully ached with it, how good it felt, how right. Then Elliot flinched away, his apology taking a moment for Sully to register.
“I can’t do this. Not without talking to you first. There’s something I have to tell you.” There was that guilt again, cloying, and overwhelming. Sully was sure of it this time, and it was confusing as hell.
“Okay.” Something skittered across Sully’s senses, and he cocked his head. “Hold on.” His tone must’ve conveyed seriousness because Elliot didn’t say another word.
Focusing intently on the source, Sully discovered a giddy sort of excitement not dissimilar to the way everyone at camp felt most of the time.
A sadistic undercurrent turned his stomach.
Laced into it was something hot and angry.
There were multiple sources, three, maybe four. What in the hell is that?
“There are people nearby, heading this way,” Sully whispered.
His heart hammered in his chest. He ought to pull Elliot deeper into the woods with him, forget he ever felt anything out of the ordinary.
It was none of his business what those soldiers were doing.
They could finish their conversation out of earshot.
Then he could get his mouth back on Elliot’s, burn off some of the desire he couldn’t seem to shake.
The ominous feeling that if he did, he’d regret it permeated him.
Maybe his mind wasn’t capable of determining exactly what rose the hairs on his arms, but it felt like trouble.
And he couldn’t ignore his gut. “Stay in the shadows. I’ve got to see what’s happening.
Something’s wrong. When it’s safe to come out, I’ll give you a sign. ”
“Warren, wait—shit.”
Sully took off in the direction of the strange emotions. There was a commotion. Rustling, muffled curses, a grunt of pain that matched a flare of annoyance.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t think I’d be such a challenge?” A voice Sully recognized shouted. Allison, the one other soldier Sully didn’t mind chatting with. Sully’s eyebrows flew up, surprised. “Expected you’d have the advantage, huh? Ain’t that bad luck.”
A shaky trickle of fear from him pushed Sully to action. He jogged forward, it sounded as if Allison was facing several attackers, somehow holding his own. Sully needed to disarm the crisis as quickly and quietly as possible before they all got in a whole hell of a mess.
Rounding the next bend, Sully threw up an illusion just as he came into view, impersonating an officer.
Allison, as suspected, was engaged in a fight.
He was winning against four much larger men, moving a lot faster than anyone ought to be able to.
Little bursts of speed allowed him to duck out of the way of punches and land his own.
Sully would’ve been more impressed if he hadn’t seen Allison manipulating the air around himself for months.
One of the men snuck up behind Allison, a rock in his meaty hand, split lip glistening with blood. If it wasn’t for the impending braining, Allison had been doing good for himself. A vicious stab of anger blossomed in Sully’s gut at the dirty fighter, and he sprang into action.
“Privates!” he barked out sharply, and all of them froze.
He almost smirked at how quickly they all snapped to.
“What, precisely, am I witnessing here? Because what it looks like is four men ganging up on a fellow soldier. Does that strike any of you as appropriate?” A chorus of no-sirs met his question.
“I don’t give a good goddamn what any of you thought you were doing, it’s over.
Do I make myself clear?” he growled. The four burly attackers were pale, nodding and chirping out their agreement.
Allison’s head cocked slightly, a knowing gleam in his eyes.
“You four,” Sully pointed at them. “Get the devil back to the barracks and thank your lucky stars I don’t have the time to deal with you further.
If any of you approach this soldier again with anything other than utmost respect, I’ll have you dishonorably discharged immediately, and don’t think I won’t.
I don’t care how badly this army needs men, it doesn’t need the kind who turn against their own, you useless maggots.
Now get the hell out of my sight before I decide to have you thrown out forthwith. ”
Was that too much? It was probably too much.
All four men practically pissed themselves thanking him and rushing off to the barracks. As soon as they were out of sight, Sully dropped the act. Allison’s eyes went unfocused for a half a second as he adjusted to what he was seeing, and then he let out a bark of ecstatic laughter.
There was a scrape on Allison’s cheek. His shirt appeared to have been stretched by grasping hands. He didn’t even have pants on, only the shorts he’d been sleeping in.
“What the hell were they doing?” Sully demanded, harsh with fury. Did he need to track down and eviscerate the sorry bastards?
Allison looked down at himself, then up at Sully, his eyes comically huge.
“Oh, no, no, not what you’re thinking. Dixon was livid I beat his time today on the course.
Says I musta cheated.” The way Allison smirked made it clear he had.
Sully rolled his eyes. What’d happened to the nervous, shy kid he met his first day here?
“Hey, it’s the last day. And that foul-mouthed asshole has had it out for me from day one, so I worked even harder to win. I didn’t need to cheat.”
“Oh, really? So how come he thinks you did?”
“’Cause he hates that I’m better than him at anything, thinks I jumped the gun.
Which is bunk by the way. I’m not a cheater.
I manipulated the air to move myself faster, jump higher, like always, maybe pushed it a little farther than I shoulda.
Takes the life right outta me, using it that way, but I was mad enough to.
That’s how they got the jump on me in the barracks.
Never would’ve let ’em get their grubby meathooks on me if I’d been alert, but I was out cold. ”
“So, what? They decided to kick the snot out of you, and you just let ’em drag you out here?”
“Lay off. There were four of ’em and everyone else was asleep. One of them got his stupid hand over my mouth. And by the time I realized what was happening, they already had me outside.”
Sully tiredly rubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah, and if I hadn’t come along your brains would be scattered all over the dirt right now. That louse was about to smash in your skull with a rock.”
If anything Allison’s grin grew wider. “Guess I’m lucky you came along then, ain’t I? Though I can’t believe you risked impersonating an officer. Are you out of your mind? What if someone saw through it?”
“Almost no one ever does.” He recalled the strange look on Allison’s face earlier. Sully jabbed a finger at him. “You did though, or not exactly, but you knew it was off.”
Allison shrugged, arms lifting wide, palms up. “It’s the air, I can sense things through it. Movement or mass or something like it didn’t line up to what you were projecting.” He frowned, considering. “It was wrong.”
Shite. That meant he couldn’t hide Elliot from Allison, and he couldn’t let him go back to the barracks alone in case Dixon and his buddies were waiting for him. “Not many people even notice that much. We ought to head back before we get caught for real.”
“Ought to,” Allison agreed. “But c’mon, if you can do that, can’t you just do it again?”
Narrowing his eyes at him, Sully crossed his arms, irritation flashing.
He was losing out on what could be his last chance with Elliot, and he hated it.
Like hell he was gonna stay out here with Allison while Elliot had to wait in the shadows for them to leave.
“Can, but I’m not going to. If I’ve got to keep an eye on them and you, I want some damn sleep first.”
Allison appraised him, then gave in with another shrug, seeming to accept Sully’s offer of protection.
Not that he apparently needed it much. However reluctantly, Sully did care about Allison’s welfare.
Somewhere along the way, he’d become a friend.
Sully didn’t have many of those for good reason.
Now two people he was attached to were headed into danger.
Damn it all to hell. This was why he was better off not letting anyone get close.
As they headed back down the path, he sent a signal to Elliot. Used an illusion to write letters in the air for him, “Sorry, got to go. Be safe.”
He wished there was time for more.