Onidus 17
I have to get us out of here, or I’m at risk of taking Solara.
And that isn’t right. But it is a side of me that I don’t think she sees, a broken moral barrier that I struggle to rein in when I’m compromised by battle.
Humans would call it adrenaline dumping.
Except when Isonians get it, it makes us lose control over our power.
It consumes us and makes us reactive, instinctual, and forget our civility.
“Onidus…” she whines as I grab her hand and fight my way through the maze, with my rifle in my other hand. I take out everyone ahead of us as I track the egg’s aura through the hedges.
I can see it. We’re so close.
But I’m also running from the moment we’ve shared because I’m afraid that when the haze fades, she’s going to remember what I looked like and change her mind about me.
Her light chocolate flavor lingers on my lips. The urge to give up on the mission, find a quiet corner, and make her mine burns hot inside me. I bury it, but it bursts out again.
I grip her hand harder to reassure myself she’s still with me. Then I push my energy into the mission.
Track the egg.
Find a passage there.
Take out everyone in our way.
Solara fires loosely with her rifle, misses, swears, and flings a candy grenade behind us. It puffs a purple cloud that appears to stop our followers.
Finally, I break through the maze into an open area with the golden egg on a pedestal in the center.
Solara shouts in celebration beside me as we run for it. But as we approach, so does another team. A Caligno male smashes sideways into a Ginarigon, knocking him off course. Then he picks up his female, slings her onto his back, and charges for the egg.
As we sprint toward the platform, the egg rises on a hoverdrone. Panels lift like stairs around it.
“Go!” Solara wrenches her hand free of mine. “I’ve got your back. But you’re faster!”
I hate that she’s pulling away from me, but I see her logic. And as I look back and see her lifting her rifle the way I taught her, I think she’ll be okay.
The Caligno bounds toward the rising steps and leaps upward. I do the same. General Viriden told me to win to help maintain our position as a superior force, a reliable force even though we have had rough battles in recent years.
We are a proud species. That can be a fault. But it’s why they train us hard and push us until we break because that’s what will happen in the field.
I catch the edge of a hoverpad and haul myself up. The Caligno and his female are on the opposite side of the egg from me. I’m lighter, but he’s stronger. I race up the steps as fast as I can go. I slide onto the larger hoverplatform and steal the egg off the pedestal just as they climb up.
“Damn it.” He sighs.
Ohni zooms in on her hoverpad. “Onidus! I should have suspected it would be you.”
A shout below makes me look over the pad and see Solara firing rapidly at an entrance in the hedge. “Bitch!”
“Can I give the prize away?” I hurriedly ask. “I already found what I want.”
She squints at me. “Yes. But do you not want a week’s vacation?”
“Take it!” I toss the egg to the Caligno male. The shock on his face and the surprise in his female’s eyes are the reason I keep very little for myself.
I jump over the edge and fall several stories through the lunar breeze to the lawn below. I run into the hedge after Solara.
I catch up to her just as a portal opens between us.
“An Isonian, huh?” A woman asks as she steps out.
Solara freezes, wheels around, and growls. “Leave me alone, Lashina!”
“But it’s too much fun, harassing you.” The woman is dressed in skin-tight pastels and iridescent crystals with hot pink manicured nails too long for her to close her fists.
Solara crosses her arms as I Mask myself and lurk around the hedges, repositioning myself. “You’re blowing your money on males I’m now rejecting.”
“I figured it was the only way you’d get any attention,” Lashina pouts.
She’s being sarcastic.
“We can’t have that, sister.”
She doesn’t really care.
“We are not sisters. You are not my family.” Solara wrinkles her nose and fans the air as Lashina sucks on a vape. “Ugh. I’ll take hormonal powder over pancreatitis-in-a-breath any day.”
“A shame that you’re alone. But teaming up with an Isonian. How did you manage that?” Lashina reaches toward one of Solara’s pearl shoulder bands.
I’m done with her harassment, so I catch her hand.
She stares at her wrist in mortification like she can’t understand how she’s stuck.
I fizzle out of my Mask and shove her back.
Then I turn to Solara, remove my mask, and draw her into a deep kiss, making certain she knows just how badly I want her.
Solara gasps in surprise, then hums a moan into my mouth, and it takes every shred of control I have to stay focused on the mission. It is easy to get lost in her supple flesh, the taste of her kiss, and the way her body melts against mine.
When I break the kiss, I look Solara in the eyes so she can see me lift my aural mask again as I place my gold mask back over my face. Then I turn to Lashina. “No one owns me. No one controls me. My general tries. And I desire Solara for everything that she is, and you are not.”
Lashina sucks on her vape, puffing out violet, candy-scented clouds. “And what’s that?”
“Guess that’s your mission,” I tell her. “To figure it out.”
Then I shove her back through her portal, lift a hand, open myself to the Vibrance of the portal, and close it.
Solara exhales with relief. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Really. I’m not supposed to wield magic. So we need to move.”
We sneak off through the hedges.
“Did you get the egg?” Solara asks.
“Yes, but I gave it away to the couple that I beat up there by just a matter of seconds. Work is my life, so a vacation isn’t really a logical dream. And I already have one I may never use. This is as much of a vacation as I’m likely to get.”
“And you’re working,” Solara chuckles. “Shit. And your job was to protect me, which has turned out to be mostly from my family.”
“It does seem like enough of a task on its own,” I say with a slight laugh.
“But honestly, I think General Viriden sensed this and that I needed to be here. Sometimes, Isonians get these aural premonitions, things we sense. Because we can’t prove them with facts, we send crews to do recon.
It’s why it’s so important that we are skilled in many things, from detecting lies and telepathy to combat and manipulation of tech, portals, weapons, and the like. ”
“Because you could literally find yourself in any situation,” she offers.
“Yeah. Which means I could die on literally any mission. I still don’t know why he picked me or what he saw that meant I had to be the one he sent.”
“He sensed a balance in the energy of the universe,” She shrugs. “Something I remember him saying once.”
“Maybe he sensed we needed to find each other,” I suggest. “He said it was because I knew you and you would trust me to protect you. But it’s been so long that I didn’t think you’d recognize me, especially with all the masks.”
She leads me back to the huts, where they have a dessert bar set out in the field. “But why care about me when there are so many more important people to protect? Guilt?”
“Guilt?” I ask. “Over what?”
“I begged him not to take me back to Earth.” Solara squeezes my hand in excitement as she peruses the ice cream cups, popsicles, and fudge bars.
My core is still thrumming from the candy hormone powder, but it stirs again with hope. She didn’t want to go home. She wanted to stay. She really wants to be with our fleet?
Solara picks a yellow popsicle and winks at me. “Banana. My favorite flavor and color.”
My heart beats faster as I take the same, to see what she likes.
“There’s a reason I was on Delsfein with my father,” she says as she releases my hand to take the wrapper off of her popsicle.
“My parents were divorced, and I chose my father. But by Federation standards, I wasn’t old enough to choose my home after his death.
I had to go live with my closest relatives, which was bullshit.
I understand that General Viriden was doing what he was supposed to do.
I just like your species far more than my own. ”
I lift the lower portion of my mask and bite off a chunk of the popsicle, savoring the sweet cold treat. “We have our karats, too.”
Solara licks the end of the popsicle, then swirls her tongue around it before pushing it deep into her mouth and slurping the melted surface all the way off.
My core fires up. Heat rushes into my cock. I’m instantly hard and breathless. “Fucking hell.”
Solara winks at me. I’m not sure she heard my reaction.
A wisp of a flame betrays my control and licks off of my shoulder. Shit! I pat it out. But it’s too late. My suit is charred.
Solara arches a brow and smirks at me. “Afterburn?”
“You remember.”
“I do. I had never seen a humanoid phoenix before. More like an angel on fire. Wild.” She licks the length of her popsicle again.
She is going to ruin me if she keeps this up.
Might ruin this race suit. I turn away and try to tuck myself in a more covert position.
“Something I said?” she simpers.
“I can’t watch you eat that. It’s…distracting.”
Her dark giggle makes my chest swell with energy I desperately want to release with her.
I take a big bite of my popsicle to cool myself down. And it works a little too well. Pain rushes into my forehead. “Ow.”
Solara rubs my back as she circles me. “Brain freeze?”
I grunt out a yes.
“Rub your tongue on the roof of your mouth to warm up the nerves faster. Or…” She curls her tongue around the tip of her popsicle and watches me closely.
My whole body heats and flickers with growing light, easing my headache.
“That’s better.” Solara licks her lips and casually finishes her treat. I don’t think she truly knows what she’s done to me.
“See you for dinner?” she drags a fingernail down my chest. “It’s formal tonight.”
Maybe she does.