Chapter 39 #2
He hesitates, then tries to recover from it. “No harm done. Just surprised a fragile little party girl like you can move that fast.”
I let the silence stretch between us, waiting to see how much rope he’ll give me. “A fragile girl like me, huh?”
He shrugs. “Not a lot of women in this field, especially those who are… human. I figured maybe you’d be more… careful… about who you run into.”
I move like lightning, pinning the unlucky recruit against the wall.
He smells like a third-year, and I give him a disgusted look as I hold Precious to his jugular.
“Assuming that I didn’t earn my spot is a mistake—you get one mistake.
Saying the pitifully idiotic things that run through your microscopic brain while I’m in the building is your second.
I dare you to make a third and see if your parts remain attached in their original configuration. ”
Raising my foot, I use my silver heel to grind into his kneecap. My flexibility allows me to pin him without releasing the top half of his body, and I hear the other recruits in the hallway whispering. I stomp my spiky shoe into his knee again, eliciting a howl of pain from the idiot.
“That’s what I thought. Allow this to serve as a reminder that I will gleefully kick all of your scrawny asses whether I’m in heels, fatigues, a ball gown, or a bikini.
If you make it through me—which is doubtful—good luck with my husband and my mate.
Talia is furious when people look at me wrong, and Taurus has been known to play with his food.
Just a thought, gentlemen.” Shaking off my irritation, I stalk down the hall and disapparate, headed for my next destination.
I have several visits to the other side planned, and if I’m lucky, I won’t get zapped home to prevent a tsunami.
If I’m lucky…
Once I finish up at The Company, I head home.
I put away my fancy clothes in the closet and plop onto my bed in loungewear.
I’ve got a mountain of files to go over for recent assignments, plus I’ve been getting emails from Lily all afternoon.
Apparently, our lovely community members have decided we need to have a town meeting to have their grievances addressed
I’ll give you two guesses who gave them that idea, and one doesn’t count.
Sari will use this forum to air dirty laundry. She got Lily to agree we’d come without clones or droids along. Just the humans and I, sitting around like some idiotic coffee klatch, as Sari vents her bile. I’d rather slice open my gut and let my innards fall on the floor.
Unfortunately, I have to do it, so I’ll persevere. I rub my temples. I haven’t decided if I’m all in on working to get the deserters back, but figuring out what their issues are versus what Sari’s slinging couldn’t hurt.
“Knock, knock,” Talia says, looking in from the doorframe to the main bedroom.
I look up, remembering the important conversation I need to have today. We gotta talk about yesterday and how to prevent that from ever happening again.
“Since when do you have to knock?” I smile, putting down my phone.
My mate’s got something behind her back, and I watch her walk over to set it on the counter. “The thief’s not around, right?”
Chuckling, I shake my head. “No, Twist is off with Aradia. She’s got a saddle bag of seeds she’s using to re-populate the gardens. He’s giving back today instead of stealing. Call it… penance.”
She dips her chin and murmurs, “I didn’t mean to ruin your space. Taurus was pretty clear that I fucked up something you worked hard on.”
I blink. “That’s the beauty of nature. Take her down and she comes back stronger than ever. I haven’t gone out there to add my special touch, but after that, it won’t be long. It’ll be beautiful in no time.”
Padding in, she shrugs. “Still, it was my fault.”
I sigh, leaning back on one arm as I stretch my legs. “I don’t think you did it on purpose. It sounds like you got the riot act from the boys.”
“Yeah,” she says, fiddling with her shirt hem.
She’s not wearing any of her blades and since Wilde’s return, she rarely takes them off. It must be difficult for her to not have anything on hand to dispel her energy with. Spinning her blades always calms and focuses her.
“Did you think I was going to bitch you out, too?”
Talia doesn’t answer, only shrugs and walks over to the bar. After she grabs a water, she arches a brow at me. “I heard you saw the shaky doc this morning.”
The good doc blew my cover by filing a report, and now Taurus is going to skin me alive for going without him. “I did. It’s still early... only eight weeks, according to him. No need for fanfare; everything looked fine.”
“You should tell us when you’re going for check-ups. Taurus got an alert while he was bitching me out and he’s not thrilled. It might be early, but your little miracle there is far beyond the pale.”
“Of course she is.” I rub my hand over my stomach, feeling Maeve touch me inside in response. “She has powers far beyond what I would have expected. That’s why one of my errands was to set up a magickal midwife who will monitor me alongside Marvin.”
Her eyes widen. “That’s why you’ve been seeing magickal people on the other side. He ranted about that for a while, too.”
“Yep. I want to learn how my own powers work, so I’ll be able to help my darling girl learn to use hers. Plus, networking is part of what I do now, right? Missions go easier when you have assets. I pull mine from both the mundane and the mystic. It gives me an edge.”
My mate comes a little closer. “Are those the shoes you were wearing at HQ? Mikhail said you had a run-in with third years after your de-brief. The rumor mill is spreading that you nearly decapitated Graham for mouthing off to you.”
I snort, covering my mouth. “No. Way.”
A giggle escapes her lips, and she nods. “Oh, yeah. Khan told Mikhail that you threatened to let me skin anyone who looked at you so Taurus could make soup out of them. It’s all over the building.”
Collapsing on the bed as I hold my gut and laugh, I beam.
“That is rich. I’ve been fighting for independence and respect from those lunk heads for weeks.
And this gets their attention? I decapitated—which I did not, I knee-capped him—a third-year with a couture high heel and had my mates cook the leftovers. What’s Mickey got to say?”
I grin in satisfaction. “That will teach him to lead a bunch of idiots gossiping about how I got my job, how I don’t deserve it, and blah blah blah, while they undress me with their eyes.”
The hiss startles me. “Undresssssss you? I’ll take his other kneecap.”
“That’s what I told them. Promise.”
“Do you want to see what I brought? It might help your conundrum.”
Nodding, I murmur, “I do, but I want to have a talk about last night, too.” I float the tube she left on the counter over to her hands. “Whatever this is, we can talk about it after I ask you a favor.”
She blinks. “Okay...”
“Next time you get truly distraught, you need to do something for me. You can run; you can get into fights; you can even hide. But if you’re that upset, you must build shields around our connection.
They need to be ones meant to keep you from accessing my magick while emotional until I teach you to use it. ”
Her mouth is hanging open in shock. I won’t be a hypocrite and tell her to behave better than I do. That’s pointless and pedantic. All I need her to do is to keep her empathy from sucking us dry.
“What’s happened so far is small compared to what could happen once I get a feel for my power. I don’t know where the bottom is, but it could get very dangerous. I will teach you how to use it like I’ve been teaching Taurus. But until you learn, you can’t access it unless it’s a dire emergency.”
“I didn’t mean to!” she thumps the bed and looks upset.
“I know you didn’t. Your pain and rage about Wilde touched something inside me that should not have been out of its cage. Once you hit that, it floored me. I couldn’t get control back.”
“It worries me that there’s something so dark that you cage it,” she whispers.
I look at her and shake my head. “I can’t let it out. It’s not time yet. Everyone has deep darks, my love. This one is not ready to see the light.”
She sighs and nods. “Okay. But when you are ready, we’ll be here.”
I smile and tilt my head. “Thank you, love. Now, tell me about this tube.”