Avert (7 page)

These are the marks of our kind. No one should keep them who is not one of us.

I see. Do you know where you are taking me?

Sky could feel the creature moving around on her neck.
The Orb has given me an image, so I will take you there. It looks comfortable, but how will you reproduce?

Amusement coloured the shavirel’s thoughts.
I am asexual. The eggs mature and grow and lose their addictive properties, but the remaining population never let them grow and live to reproduce on their own.

That is sad.

It is. I kept hoping that some would survive, but the occupants grew more and more desperate for distraction. They are stranded and no one is coming for them.

Sky moved between times and worlds, taking the shavirel with her.
I thought that there were more ships coming.

No more ships can pass through the solar storms. They will die.

Aw hells. We will have to look into that. For now, welcome to your new home.

Sky removed her solar shield, folding it neatly and tucking it under one arm.

The creature came out of the fur and the wave of happiness was unmistakable.
This is wonderful. It is like my home when it was green and alive.

It is your home when it was green and alive. Your species is too dangerous to leave its home, but you can live here for thirty thousand years before one settler sets foot on this world.

Thank you, Nameless. I honour you and my daughters will honour you.

The creature scampered down her arm and Sky fought a shudder at the feathery-light feet. Having a sudden urge to scream and fling the creature into the forest next to her, she instead throttled down her instincts and held her hand out letting the shavirel scamper onto the leaves.

Thank you again, Nameless. You may want to shake out the eggs in that fur. I dropped a few while you were pulling the dagger. I was nervous.

Knowing a good idea when she heard it, Sky shook out the fur and watched a dozen tiny gems fly out and settle on the loamy ground.
Thank you for that. I don’t think that the other Nameless would appreciate the little ones sprouting and running about.

The shavirel chuckled, waved a tiny arm and scuttled into the undergrowth.

Sky sighed and returned Home with only a slight shudder at how close she had been with a large spider-caterpillar-praying mantis mix.

As soon as she returned to her prison, she went looking for Tavik. He was sitting up in bed and when she came in, he grinned, “I am guessing that you were successful.”

She laughed. “I was. The creature is safe and we are Home. I will take a shower and try to see how much of me got scorched.”

Sky draped his belt and knife across the edge of the bed at his feet. “Here you go.”

Before he could say anything, she sashayed across the floor and into the lav. She showered and winced as her skin prickled from the near baking heat. The cooling water washed the grime and dust from her skin and her body ceased to hate her for a while.

Heat had never been her favourite temperature. Sky had always preferred the silence and solitude of ice and snow.

When her body was clean and the dehydrated skin soothed, she turned off the shower and wrapped herself in a towel.

Humming, she dried her hair with a smaller towel and sorted it a little with her fingers. Her hair never enjoyed the strain of being brushed, but she could and did fluff it with long combs when she could.

Clean, dry and still bright pink from the heat, she returned to the bedroom and dropped the towel on the floor before sliding between the sheets. It was difficult pretending to not notice that Tavik had watched her every step and shift as she wandered toward the bed.

He turned toward her and propped his head on his hand. “You are very pink.”

“I am. I turn this colour when I am exposed to heat.”

Concern coloured his features. “Are you all right? Were you burned?”

She chuckled. “Not like you were. I was lucky that you weren’t burned under your arms or your skin would have peeled off.”

Tavik reached out and caressed her cheek. “Are you in need of healing?”

She smiled, “I think I am fine.”

“As your tutor, it is my duty to keep you in peak physical condition. I think I should conduct a detailed examination.”

Sky shivered as his hands slowly stroked over her, the prickle of energy flowed into her via her skin and she arched into his touch.

She shifted her thighs together and when he moved toward her, she lifted her leg and draped it over his hip.

His erection prodded at her belly and when Sky rocked her hips upward, he slid against the petals of her sex.

“I thought we had to wait.” Her mouth said one thing, but she shifted and reached down to open herself completely while he slowly slid home.

He laughed and pressed kisses along her neck, biting her slowly as he thrust into her in short, pulsing increments.

The corkscrewing, twisting of his hips combined with the pressure on her neck to take her senses to the edge, and she shrieked, then sobbed as her release struck her.

He continued to thrust, pumping into her over and over as she whimpered at first, before she gripped his hips to pull him into her and keep him there.

“Using your hands is cheating, Sky.” He pulled her hands from his hips and pinned them over her head, using his forearms to brace his weight.

With a gasp, she said, “I didn’t know this was a competition, Tavik.”

He chuckled low and deep, his body rocking rhythmically against hers. “All life is a competition and if you play right, everybody wins.”

He nipped and sucked his way up her neck as he increased his speed and as she shrieked her second release, he joined her with a groan and a shudder.

A strange swelling occurred at her entrance and they locked together. Sky blinked up at him. “You have a knot?”

“Your men don’t?”

She shook her head as he leaned in to kiss her. “How long does it last?”

“Why, are you in a hurry?” He looked offended.

She smiled and leaned up to complete the kiss. “No, but if the Orb sends us on a mission, I don’t want us arriving like this.”

He laughed and leaned in to suck her lower lip into his mouth. Tavik followed up on their kiss, flicking his tongue against hers as their heartbeats synched and slowed to a resting beat.

“The Orb would not send us off like this, it wants us together, or I wouldn’t be here.”

She sighed and wrapped her arms around him, spreading tiny kisses along his jaw and neck. If she was going to be stuck to one man for the rest of her time, she couldn’t have picked a better one than Tavik.

Perhaps one day, she would check his history in the library and see what he got up to when he was younger. There might be a fantasy he was interested in reliving and she was up for it provided that he eventually return the favour.

As they started to talk and she explained her experiences, comparing his arrival to hers as well as his reception. Their talk and joining lasted far into the night and when dawn spread, Sky knew one thing, if she was in prison, there was no one else she would rather be locked up with.

Epilogue

Sky crept quietly through the jungle and kept an eye out for watchers.

The young woman standing in the garden brought a smile to Sky’s face. As Sky stepped out of the shadows, the woman turned, smiled and ran forward. “Aunty Sky! I have been hoping that you would make an appearance. How have you been?”

“Veema, you grow taller and more lovely every time I see you. I have been well. Is your mother here?”

Veema rolled her eyes. “She and Father are at the base sending more samples and spending a night at the pleasure hotel. It seems that now that I am old enough to survive on my own, they want me to try it.”

Sky wandered over to the bench that had been replaced twice since she had first dropped the scared girl off in the jungle outpost. Veema sat next to her and took her hand.

“How are your studies going? It seems you are doing well in the botany segment of it.”

Sky spent hours listening to Veema, making her dinner and sitting with her while she described a young Azon who had started to make excuses to visit.

When she argued with Tavik or saw a horrific battle or the devastation of a plague, she came to Veema and watching her grow and thrive was better than any cure that the Alliance had ever developed.

She was still in prison, still being sent across the universe to pick out one bright life and keep it burning. Having Veema growing and living and learning to love was reward enough.

Tomorrow might bring a horror and unless the Orb willed it, Sky would not be able to avert disaster.

Veema asked, “Will you stay the night?”

“No. I am afraid that I am being called to duty.” Her skin glowed pink and she pressed a kiss to Veema’s forehead. “Be safe and sleep well. I am so proud of you.”

Veema blushed, “Thank you, Aunty. I hope that your life brings you things to make you smile. You are far too serious. Take the time to enjoy life.”

Sky started to gather her power as her next assignment coalesced in her mind. “I am restricted from taking time, but every now and again, I can give it. I will see you soon, darling. Good night.”

* * * *

Veema watched her rescuer disappear in a flash of light. Since she had grown old enough to read the data streams, Veema had looked into the origin of the mysterious woman who had taken her from certain death and brought her to safety.

Aunty Sky was a study in contrasts. She was a Nameless, a Sentinel, a Guardian of Time, but she had gone into a battle and taken a child that was supposed to die.

Memories of that night were fuzzy at best, but Veema remembered Sky’s caring arms and calm words to her grandmother. She remembered bright light and being taken to Teilia, the kindest woman that Veema could have wished for.

With every bit of research into the Nameless, Veema found references to a woman who didn’t wear a dagger but rather a pair of scissors at her waist. Aunty Sky wore those scissors every time she visited.

Veema also smiled at the fact that her aunty didn’t age. Sky looked the same as she had that first night and it confirmed the thought that her aunty moved through time.

Veema put the last of the dishes away, locked up and went to her room. Sketches of her aunty lined the walls as well as images of her grandmother. Teilia appeared here and there but mostly it was Sky.

As Veema lay down, she smiled at the one omission that spoke volumes about her aunt. Despite what folks normally said in those situations, Sky had not said the one thing that Veema would never had been able to handle. She had never told a girl who had lost everyone she had ever known that everything would be all right.

Having lost everything in her life at that point, if someone had told her that everything would have been all right, she would have put up walls and kept herself from feeling. Without that platitude, she was able to accept her grief and the comfort that was offered.

Her soul had healed, her body had grown, and it was due to the small visits by Aunty Sky that she kept moving forward in her life and education.

Whatever had sent Sky to her world that day had touched her life and Veema was grateful. Her life held possibilities now that her old world would never have offered and if she had a Nameless to thank, then she was glad to have a name to put with the creature of legend.

The Nameless would always be welcome in her home and the home of any of her family. It was the least she could do.

* * * *

Sky watched the image of Veema as she rolled over with a smile on her face. The young woman had locked up and then gone to bed.

“Who are you watching?”

She jerked her hand away from the frame and turned to Tavik. “An old friend, or she will be.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed a kiss to the wound on her shoulder. “I can heal this for you.”

She laughed. “I know, but I want you inside me when you do. If we are going to be stuck together, we may as well multitask.”

He hooted with laughter and lifted her in his arms, carrying her to their bed.

They spent some quality time arguing about who was winning and then he slid into her, using the internal contact to spread the power of the Orb through her.

As they surged together, she felt the wound on her shoulder heal and she smiled into her bondmate’s eyes. They were unable to formally register their union due to the sentence that she laboured in, but they both knew that throughout their time in the Nameless, there would be no one else for them.

Meeting Tavik on her deathbed was the only moment in her life that she didn’t want to tweak.

Author’s Note

Frolicking with time is tricky, so please pardon my gaffs. They will be plentiful.

Veema will make an appearance in a later book, but I can’t say when, because I am not sure. Be on the lookout for a cross over with Tales of the Citadel in December of 2012.

Thanks for Reading,

Viola Grace

[email protected]

www.violagrace.com

www.exasybooks.com

About the Author

Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.

Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.