Chapter 44 #2
A suffocating stillness gripped the room as a shield bubbled around her, and Vega knew who’d be behind her when she stood up straight, pink water stained with blood dripping onto the counter.
Bridger’s onyx eyes were fixed on hers in the mirror, the tick of his jaw catching the fluorescent lighting.
“You can lie to them, Vega.” Gods, his voice was deep.
Deeper than usual from sleep and… anger?
“I’ll gladly lie to them for you if that’s what you want, but you won’t lie to me.
” He reached out and gripped her shoulder rougher than she’d expected, twisting her around and slamming the small of her back against the counter.
Vega gasped as Bridger caged her in, his hands gripping the counter edge behind her. “I didn’t lie. I had a nightmare.” She thought if she kept saying it out loud, she’d convince herself of it and she wouldn’t be afraid to go back to sleep.
She wouldn’t be afraid to face what the voices had said… what they’d made her realize.
Your soul was mine before you begged for the power to kill her. It was right in front of her face.
“I know what nightmares look like. I’ve had plenty. That wasn’t a nightmare.”
Vega stood as still as she could, glancing down at the bulging veins of Bridger’s forearms and his bare chest’s steady rise and fall from the deep breaths he took.
“Why are you half naked?” she asked, her eyes dragging slowly back to his after she noticed he was in nothing but a loose fit pair of black sleep pants.
Bridger cocked his head, his mood not dulling. Everything about him was rigid—every muscle in his body tight with an anger Vega knew he was keeping at bay. “Because I woke up to the sound of you screaming down the bond, begging someone to let you out. I woke up because Death came and got me.”
Vega went numb.
Death stilled inside her, worried she’d be mad.
“It came to you?” Vega exhaled.
“Yes. It slipped through our open door and snatched me from my sleep. So excuse me for forgetting to completely suit up.” Bridger leaned in, getting inches from her face. “Now, tell me what the fuck that was before I drag Death out and demand answers.”
Death perked at its name on Bridger’s lips. Its wings shivered, fluttering overhead in a flitted stretch before it sauntered over and rubbed its shadowed body against the doorframe to Bridger.
It didn’t have scales like a dragon or fur like a cat, but its actions were becoming more feline by the day.
Vega closed her eyes, took a breath, and told him everything she could remember. From the way everything felt, to hearing Death screeching from above like she was stuck in the pit.
“It’s the gods I took from Marlena. Diana and Vulcan.” Fear made Vega go cold at their words… at what they’d told Vega without saying anything at all. “They told me if I used their powers, we could defeat him. We could save my soul from the one who bonded me.”
Death roared down the pit again, rattling Vega’s mind.
She blinked away the fuzz of its shared outrage with Bridger.
“I begged for the power to bind us, to kill her. I asked for Marlena’s death.
” Her voice was so small, so scared. “And I was saved… unable to be killed by the death curse already placed on me. He didn’t bind you all to me.
It was the other way around.” Her body went cold.
“He bound my life to the three of you so I wouldn’t die, in hopes that I’d find a way to kill my sister and send the dead gods to the underworld with her…
” Vega knew the second it clicked for Bridger.
She could almost see the image he had inside his head.
Vega, Bridger, Arlet, and Khort around a fire. Their bloody hands linked together. Willing to do whatever it took to save their world from Marlena’s wrath.
She’d never found anything about Remus or his curse… because Remus never made it to Tolevarre.
“Bridger,” Vega whispered. Her voice quivered. “I don’t think it was Remus we summoned.”
Only the sound of their shaky breaths filled the space between them. Vega was too afraid to say another word.
“Me neither…”
Vega felt her eyes glaze over, losing herself inside her mind. She’d been so young, so desperate to keep everyone safe from her sister. Vega hadn’t known what she was doing—she wasn’t the sister who’d spent years researching.
“Look at me,” Bridger said softly.
Vega hauled her head up, finding Bridger already staring at her. “We can’t change anything from before. Whatever happened… we move forward.”
She had no idea what to say, at a complete loss for words. Why did things have to be so fucking complicated all the time?
“They can’t control you if you don’t let them.” He stared at her pointedly. “Keep fighting.” His eyes trailed over her face, and he sighed, reaching around her.
Vega turned her head to see him flipping the faucet behind her and dunking a washcloth under its running water.
After winging the cloth out, Bridger brought it to her face and gently wiped around her hairline, cleaning the blood Vega hadn’t gotten before he interrupted her.
When he was done with her face, he moved down her neck and then to her chest, half exposed by the too-big sweater draping off her shoulder.
“Lift your arms,” he told her, putting the damp cloth on the counter.
He gripped her by the hips, gently placing her on the edge next to the sink, and then slipped his hands under the hem of her sweater.
Bridger slid her out of the top and cleaned the dry blood marks that had dripped down her bare chest.
Vega leaned back on her arms, giving Bridger access to the marks sliding past her navel. He was laser focused on getting every streak off her skin.
Her nipples perked when the warm rag brushed against the peak of her breasts. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the mirror, the brush of her down hair across her collarbone sending shivers down her spine.
Vega concentrated on the sound of Bridger’s calm breaths, the sureness of his touch. This was the gentleness she remembered—the man Bridger had been when it was just the two of them. The obsessive need to please, the desperation to be seen for who he was and not what he was supposed to be.
He dragged the cloth up the slope of Vega’s neck. The air had cooled the once warm fabric, and though the temperature of her body wasn’t as heated as it had been when she’d woken from the void, the nearness of Bridger and his delicate touch kept it elevated.
Chill bumps raced across Vega’s skin.
“Bridger,” she hummed, her eyes fluttering open to see him sitting on a short stool he must have pulled out from under the sink, placing kisses on her thighs, his hands gripping tightly at her hips.
“Yes, Kitten?” he asked, his voice scratching something inside her brain.
“Kiss m—”
Bridger’s lips were on hers before the demand was even out of her mouth. He consumed her, kissing her like he’d truly been worried Vega wouldn’t come back from the dream.
The strokes of his tongue, the ravenous hunger Vega could feel down the bond was too much. She lost herself in him, in the feel of rough hands sliding up her shirtless sides, the tangle of his hand at the back of her head where the hair met her neck.
Vega wanted Bridger. Her body needed him… but not like this.
She was on overdrive and couldn’t get her emotions under control. Vega turned her head, breaking their kiss. Bridger kissed down her neck, biting intently on the places he knew would drive Vega wild.
And they did. She gasped, rolling her body against his mouth. “Bridger, I…”
He felt the urgency in her tone, his lips leaving her skin to search the meaning behind whatever look she was giving him.
“What do you need?” he asked, releasing his hold from the back of her head. “Tell me and I’ll do it.” So much hunger burned behind his dark eyes.
Vega rested her arms on his shoulders and looked up at him when he stood to his full height, stepping between her spread legs on the counter. “I want you.” She put her hand on his chest. “But not like this. Not with my head like this.”
His grip on her hips loosened, his hunger settling to understanding, and he smiled a small, sweet smile just for her.
The left side of his lip pulled slightly higher than the other, and the tiniest dimple formed. Vega leaned up and placed a kiss over it, her hands holding Bridger’s exposed hips.
Bridger moved, and Vega saw him reach for her blood-soaked black sweater. “Put this on. I know the perfect distraction.” Bridger stepped back, adjusted himself—which Vega would have been a fool not to notice—and held his hand out for her to take.
Vega threw the sweater over her head, grabbed Bridger’s hand, and felt the shield he’d been holding up around them fall as they stepped through the doorway back into the hall.
Before they turned the corner, Vega paused. “I don’t want them to know about…” Her voice trailed off.
“It can be our little secret for now,” Bridger promised. “We’ll tell them when we’re sure.”
Vega was sure… She nodded her head anyway, happy to avoid it until she couldn’t anymore.
Arlet and Khort stood outside the open door of Khort’s room, Nora peeking out as they approached. Vega let his hand go and flexed her fingers while Bridger spoke.
“Assuming none of you are going back to sleep, we should probably utilize all the free time we have to train.”
“I’m awake,” Khort said, staring down at Vega like she was lost at sea. He longed for a person who no longer existed, and it was written on every worry line etched across his face.
Arlet nodded. “Nora could use some hand-to-hand training too.”
Khort opened his mouth to object, but Nora spoke for herself. “Tav has taught me some. Since I haven’t manifested yet, we’ve kept most of my training to a minimum.” She pushed her dark curls behind one ear.
“At this point, everyone needs to be trained to fight. Being weak and underestimating the battles to come are how you get killed.” Bridger nodded towards the elevator at the end of the hall. “I have the perfect opponent for her.”
Twenty minutes later, everyone was suited up in fresh, brand-new training gear, and they stood in the middle of the most insane gym Vega had ever seen in her life.
This was it. This was Bridger’s dream.
Everything he’d told Vega he wanted to do when his father finally stepped down.
She looked around in awe at the well-lit, multi-level facility circling around in a big dome.
On the top floor was something similar to what Vega would have seen on Earth with all the complicated equipment regular people had to Google how to use before going in, hoping they wouldn’t embarrass themselves.
The middle level had a track where soldiers jogged or sprinted, more cardio equipment in the center.
While the bottom floor, which was the biggest, was covered in training rings of different sizes. The largest ring sat in the center, a cylinder with a barely visible shield around it.
Halo yawned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Commander, no disrespect, but what was I dragged out of bed for again?”
“Because you’re a string bean and I’ve seen ten-year-olds fight better than you,” he blurted, coming to stand next to Vega.
Arlet filled her cheeks with a puff of air and slapped her hand over her mouth.
Vega side-eyed her, rolling her lips between her teeth and biting down to hide the laugh threatening to spill out.
“Noted.” Halo blushed, crossing his arms and doing what he could to make himself small and slink behind everyone.
“Warm up and meet me at the center mat in ten minutes.” Bridger glanced at Vega, brushing his fingers against hers as he walked away.