Chapter 2 #2
Evelyn’s eyes widened in delight. “Levitation? As in, you’re telekinetic?” She could work with this. She was literally born for situations like this. Her Amplification was the entire reason Emil had wanted her in the first place.
Aiden nodded. “I am, but I’m not that powerful. People on my planet only started exhibiting these kinds of extrasensory abilities in the last fifty years or so.”
Evelyn offered Aiden her hand. “I can help with that. Do they have bowling where you’re from?”
“Bowling? Sure. Great shirts. What…” He looked at her like she’d sprouted a second head. “I can’t bowl a droid. I’m not that strong.”
“Ah, but I can make you better. Faster. Stronger,” she said. He looked confused. It was sort of adorable. “I can enhance your abilities, but I need to touch your body. It’s a temporary effect until you burn through the excess energy.”
Aiden squinted at her, a dubious look on his face, but he took her hand anyway.
The moment they made skin contact, a shiver went through Evelyn.
She saw the fine hairs on the back of Aiden’s hand stand up and knew he felt the same electrifying rush.
Warmth spread throughout her body as she pushed energy into Aiden.
This was the right way to use her talents.
Filling up the tanks with stored Amplification never felt as correct as connecting another person to the potential of the universe did.
His pupils dilated, and he gave his head a little shake to settle himself.
“Okay, Plan C. We head down, and I shove us a clear path to the airlock. We zip you into a spacewalk suit, and we get as far away from this sector as possible.”
Evelyn gestured to the stairs with a grin. “After you, then.”
Aiden crept his way down the first half of the staircase, his left hand dangling behind his back to maintain the contact.
Unnecessary, as the energy transfer was complete, but his hand in hers was a steadying force.
Evelyn followed. The droids had finally stopped pouring out of the STORAGE door.
He waited a beat to let the last group fully enter one of the labs, then he picked up the pace and darted down the hallway.
Evelyn was close enough to Aiden’s back that she was picking up what sounded like amused directions coming from the small bud lodged in his left ear.
She could also pick up what she suspected was the scent of his shampoo, something like cedar and rosemary, and a small cluster of freckles on the back of his neck.
Evelyn assumed her brain was trying to give her more pleasant details to focus on than the shriek of the klaxon and the droning of the droids demanding that she return to her chamber.
File away hot thief details later. Getting off the vessel is more important than freckle-licking fantasies.
She breathed in cedar and kept creeping along behind Aiden, amazed at his knack for dodging the droids as they patrolled. He probably was a very good thief under normal circumstances. Well, normal theft circumstances.
They reached the entrance chamber without incident, but Evelyn knew they weren’t free from danger yet.
She had to shove herself into a spacewalk suit while they were completely exposed.
Aiden led her to the rack of suits and she fumbled through the offerings for one that would fit over her robe.
Grabbing one, she stepped into the airtight onesie.
This is ghastly. This suit is not an upgrade from pajamas.
She had it halfway zipped up when the droids’ footfalls started getting closer — from both sides of the corridor.
Her eyes widened. She was flooded with the certainty that if they found her trying to leave, they’d kill them.
The droids had never had reason to level their blasters at her before, but she knew they all had them.
Heart threatening to pound its way out of her chest, she pulled the zipper up faster, but it caught on the terrycloth of her robe. She swore and tugged the zipper back down with trembling fingers.
Emil had kept her decades beyond their agreed upon terms — and that was the least of what he was capable of.
It was just for her to escape this floating pit and get on with her life.
She’d done her part. It wasn’t even escape.
It was overdue departure. Still, she knew that leaving like this was kicking the hornet’s nest.
Can’t be helped.
Aiden shoved his helmet back on and winked at Evelyn through the viewfinder. “You got this, dollface. Zip on up.”
Evelyn felt her face flush, and her stomach did a little flip at the nickname. Casual flirtation was not in her wheelhouse. It was far too close to deliberately exposing one’s feelings.
She did as she was told, calming herself as she maneuvered the zipper over her robe until it was secured. She found a helmet on the rack and busied herself with jamming it onto her head, leaving the glove for her right hand dangling from the arm of the suit.
The footsteps were closing in, their incessant demand that she return to her chamber becoming deafening as they neared.
The imposing force made her reconsider how much energy she had pulsed into Aiden.
She moved closer until she stood behind him, and put her hand on the back of his neck, startling when he shuddered at the contact.
“Is this okay?” she whispered. “I don’t want you to run out of juice mid strike.”
He nodded.
“Return to your chamber. Return to your chamber. Return to your chamber,” echoed throughout the entrance of the vessel, an obnoxious chorus set to the klaxon blare.
Evelyn didn’t know what he was waiting for. They could finally see the droids coming at them, each synchronized step driving her heart rate up a little more.
When the droids were ten feet away, she was pretty sure she’d stopped breathing. Did he have performance anxiety?
A droid in front of them raised its blaster and Evelyn flinched in panic, but maintained her contact on the back of Aiden’s neck.
At the same moment, his hand flew forward, and the droid hurtled toward the formation down the hall.
Metal bodies were lifted off their feet as the droid Aiden controlled soared through the air and crashed down the line.
He selected another droid and repeated the process. Another. Two at once. Sparks flew as their chest housings were compressed. A bizarre smoking sculpture of vaguely humanoid bits replaced the reception desk as the focal point of the entryway.
“Well, it’s not subtle, but it does make a statement.” Aiden brushed his hands off and turned around toward Evelyn. “Ready to go?”
Evelyn laughed for the first time in what she was sure was a century and walked into the airlock.