Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Evelyn tossed and turned, silky sheets twisting around her legs. She’d lain there in her room, awake, for two hours. No matter how deeply she breathed, how gently she relaxed her limbs, sleep would not come to her.
This was a problem she had never had before. She’d always been an excellent sleeper. She could fall asleep anywhere, on any mode of transportation.
It was a real problem on an unfamiliar bus route. She’d missed her stop more than once when she’d first set up residence in Vegas.
She rolled over and cracked an eye to read the ship’s time. Somehow, only five minutes had passed since the last time she’d checked. It had felt like at least three times that.
Not sleeping would be a lot more fun with a partner.
She couldn’t chalk up her sudden bout of insomnia to nerves. While the endeavor they were starting upon was enough to give the most serene monk anxiety, it was the energy pulsing through her body that was the culprit here.
It had been three days since she’d started experimenting with the box of electronics that Corrie had left her.
She’d been successful at draining all the knickknacks of their energy supplies, but without knowing where the energy she had absorbed was being stored in her own body, she couldn’t figure out how to get it back out again.
I need a psychic x-ray machine.
She was used to feeling drained after she Amplified, but now her veins thrummed with the energy she’d taken, setting off every self disparaging thought on a loop in her head.
What are you even good for, Evelyn? Can’t do anything right. Children manage their talents better than you do.
At least she was getting marginally better at jumping rope.
Fuck this.
Evelyn threw the covers off and got out of bed. Grabbing her bottle of water, she headed back to her storage closet, not bothering to change out of her satin pajama set. She removed a box from the shelf and peeked inside. Books. She set it to one side and grabbed another.
Aiden found her six hours later.
He’d been trying to temper his constant desire to hover around Evelyn, knowing that his presence would distract her in her endeavors.
He had helped Tariel source a specific bolt of wool he wanted to make her some sort of costume and had arranged for Veselko and Elenor to pick up a shipment of blasters to arm civilians on Tanalia when the time came.
He’d also been reading the more well-loved books in Evelyn’s collection, having had L.I.N.D.A. add them to his tablet.
Staying away was driving him crazy, but he was trying desperately to not fuck up Evelyn’s fledgling training schedule.
He’d satisfied himself with taking little peeks at the security feeds, checking to see that she’d eaten.
He sneaked water into her vicinity, noticing that she would drink it if appeared.
If he stayed away any longer, he’d have to actively start sitting on his hands.
So when he saw her on his view screen, feverishly organizing media in her supply closet, Aiden decided that enough was enough.
She had alphabetized her books and had moved on to the movie disks. The sleeves of her pajama jacket were rolled up to the elbows. Her hair was in a chaotic knot at the top of her head, flopping from side to side with every turn of her head. He clocked three empty water bottles on the desk.
Need to replenish the supply.
“Busy night?”
Evelyn jumped, dropping the movie box she’d been about to shelve. Aiden strode across the room to pick it up for her.
“Couldn’t sleep. I originally shelved everything by vibe, but that’d make it super difficult if anyone wants to borrow anything, so I’m redoing it.”
“I don’t know,” he said, considering her state more than the possible implications of her lending library. “Maybe making it more difficult for potential borrowers of your treasures would be a good thing. Make ’em work for it.”
She snorted. “I’m not putting it back. I’ve been chanting the alphabet in my head for two hours. Never again.”
“Yeah. Fuck the alphabet.”
He handed her the disk box, noticing that her hands trembled as she went to shelve it.
Frowning, he gave her a more thorough once over.
She was covered in a fine sheen of perspiration.
The trembling wasn’t isolated to her hands.
Her whole body was quaking. He didn’t like it.
This unsteadiness was a new element, and he wondered if it had to do with her training.
Siphoning all that energy and not putting it back couldn’t be good.
If this is how her hands are taking the strain, her heart must be doing the fucking samba.
Studying Evelyn was not a sacrifice on his part. Aiden relished looking at her. He adored cataloging her responses to things, her little sighs of contentment, the way her nose wrinkled in displeasure.
But watching her tremble like a leaf in a windstorm chilled him to the bone.
Learning to use her abilities was a necessity, but doing so without guardrails felt incredibly foolish.
Aiden would never forgive himself if she came to harm under his watch, even self-inflicted.
He mentally sped through his options, desperate to help her.
That’s sort of my whole gig in this coup, anyway.
Not wanting her to hear how worried he was, he kept his tone light as he said, “You ready for a break?”
“I’m almost done. No sense in stopping now.”
He gave her shoulder a squeeze and murmured that he’d return in a few before hurrying back to his office and locking the door. He engaged the privacy protocols and pulled up his communications center to dial Corvinia’s secure line, his worry turning to anger.
How dare Vinnie be so fucking reckless with Evelyn’s life? He spent the next five minutes convincing himself that Evelyn’s heart wouldn’t explode in her chest before they found a way to dispel the energy her body was trying desperately to work off. It was touch and go.
The call connected, and his screen filled with Vinnie’s face.
She appeared to be at the helm of her ship.
It threw him a bit to see her in a T-shirt, her greying auburn hair shoved behind her ears.
The woman he knew as Vinnie was always dressed to the nines.
Crisp shirts, bespoke suits, elaborately knotted ties.
“Problem?” she asked.
“Yes, there’s a fucking problem,” he hissed. Aiden didn’t know why he was bothering to whisper. His door was locked. The room was soundproofed.
“Would you care to elaborate?” Vinnie took a sip of her coffee. Well, Aiden assumed it was coffee. The mug screamed coffee, but for all he knew it could be full of scotch.
“Evelyn is currently so buzzed on energy transfers that she’s literally vibrating.
For fucks’ sake. Is she ever going to be able to sleep again?
Does this shit have a half-life? Is there any reference data anywhere you could point her to?
Are there any safety protocols in your rinky-dink spy organization?
Oh, and great advice, by the way. ‘Figure it out’ is the most thorough training regimen I’ve ever seen. ”
Aiden’s voice had risen in volume by the time he stopped to take a breath. Realizing how close to yelling he was, he pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, inhaling slowly. Feeling vaguely more centered, he opened them.
Corvinia had set her coffee mug down and was now leaning closer to the screen. “What do you mean she’s vibrating?”
Aiden described the way her hands were trembling as she’d shelved movie disks. “I don’t think she’s slept since we left Vegas. She looks like she snorted a pile of stimulants.”
“Well, fuck.”
“Brilliant summation.”
She rolled her eyes. “Normally when people with martial talents are identified on Tanalia, we get them enrolled in a special boarding school.”
Hope sprung up in Aiden’s chest. “So there is some training course available?”
Vinnie bit her lower lip. “Um. Not really.”
“Not really?” Aiden’s screech reminded him of a small bird of prey.
“Everyone is different! There’s a lot of trial and error.
The contact that you’re meeting on 14 And.
should be able to help her out. In the meantime, you’re going to have to help her expel the energy back into the sources or burn it off some other way.
Her system needs to learn to recalibrate itself. ”
Aiden was quiet for a moment. While he wanted to hurl the contents of his desk against the wall, the resulting mess would only put off helping Evelyn.
How would he help her if any other electrical object was acting up? Lillian was a brilliant hacker, but Elenor fought with electronics all the time. Aiden had done his fair share of troubleshooting.
“Are you suggesting,” he said, speaking every word deliberately, “That I figure out a way to . . . turn her off and back on again?”
Vinnie snapped her fingers. “Exactly!”
Turn her off and on again. Fuck’s sake.
How was he going to do that?
Oh.
Oh.
Delicious, inappropriate possibilities flooded his mind. He shifted his focus to the view screen, very glad the camera could only capture him from the chest up.
Clearing his throat, he said, “You do realize if this hurts her in any way, I’m holding you responsible? And then the moms will be in line behind me?”
“Relax, sticky fingers. She’ll be fine. If everything goes according to plan, she’s not even going to have to use this particular skill.”
“That’s a big ‘if’, Vinnie.”
“Which is why we’re orchestrating contingencies.”
Aiden nodded and cut the communication off.
He leaned back in his chair and tugged on his beard as he brainstormed ways to help Evelyn relax.
He had no problems coming up with ways to turn Evelyn on.
He’d been cataloging her responses to his presence.
When it had been grossly unethical to pursue her, he’d considered the knowledge money in the bank. Seduction techniques for a rainy day.
It was fucking pouring now.
He levitated some markers and let his thoughts drift back on his interactions with Evelyn, waiting for inspiration to strike.
Strike.
And like a ball hitting nine pins, everything fell into place.