Catalyst (13 page)

“Where’s Bastian?” Jacks kissed my neck.

I tilted my head to give him better access. “He went to get the belt we left outside.”

Jacks went deathly still, then turned me around, holding my arms. “He went out front?”

Frowning, I nodded.

“Shit!” He turned and ran.

I dropped the clothes and rushed after him. He tore through the hallways, knocking over and shattering a bowl of replicant crystals as he veered into the computer room. He opened one of the doors in a standing cabinet in the corner, grabbed two laser guns and handed them to me before grabbing two more. He spun toward the door, checking the charge levels as he ran.

“What’s going on?” I gripped the guns hard, looked down to see that both guns were fully charged. These were old-fashioned submachine-type lasers that carried one hundred blasts. He’d handed me two of them.

Jacks merely ran out of the room.

“Jacks!” I followed, glad I’d worn my boots when I had to skirt the sharp pieces of the broken bowl. “At least tell me something. You’re scaring me!”

“The typhons usually avoid the water, especially before a rain storm, but there’s one time of year they’re right by it. This time!” He sped up as we neared the cavernous room behind the waterfall that held the wall notches and ledges—the one I’d figured out was built as a lookout room. Jacks didn’t hesitate. He jumped tree limbs and raced out, squeezing behind the entrance to the waterfall. He slowed when he got to the shadowy part in the back and stopped to wait for me to catch up. We moved slower in the pitch-black and I kept my shoulder to the wall because it would be so easy to get turned around and end up where we started. We got to the next shadowy part and all I could think about was Bastian and those lizard things. I thought about not seeing that sweet smile or watching the way he threw his entire being into a simple touch.

I wouldn’t get over something happening to him.

The knowledge nearly sent me to my knees. I stopped to take a couple of deep breaths and Jacks sent me a concerned glance. All I could do was stare back, wide-eyed with fear. He turned and moved faster. The deafening noise of the waterfall cut out everything but sight, smell and touch. I concentrated on the play of sunlight coming through the thinner parts of the falls, the musty twang of wet stone and moss.

Bastian had to be okay.

We reached the end of the waterfall and Jacks turned, eyes pleading. He pulled me into the other cavern room and yelled at me. I still had to mostly read his lips because of the noise. “Don’t get too close. Use the guns. Aim for their faces or bellies.”

I nodded, then followed him as he turned and ran out of the cavern and around the lake. His heels kicked sand in my face and I had to spit and squint. The black clouds were moving in fast, the humidity so thick it felt like fur against my skin.

Jacks headed toward the stand of trees where Bastian and I had rested that first day in the rain, and when I looked ahead, my heart leapt into my throat.

Bastian stood in thigh-high water in the lake. Light glinted off the blade in his hand. Blood, shiny and wet, coated one of his arms. A dead typhon stretched flat on the shore while four others paced back and forth at the water’s edge. One of them kept looking toward the sky. Dark clouds rolled in fast.

Jacks yelled, pulling their attention to us, and three of them didn’t hesitate. They leapt into the air, legs pulling back into their bodies as they dove toward the ground. They slithered toward us, and Jacks dropped to his knees. He lined up the laser guns as he followed the sinuous movements of the typhons. He fired twice, missing both times.

Heart pounding, I aimed both laser guns at the creatures and began firing. The creatures were yards away, their legs starting to extend out of their bodies when Jacks hit one in the face, knocking some of its snout off in a gory clump. It fell to the ground, half-released legs twitching.

Sweat dripped into my eyes, making me blink, but I didn’t close them long. I kept firing, and when one reared up to attack me, I lowered both laser guns and blew out its belly. Without hesitating, I aimed at the one nearing Jacks, my lasers singeing its hide, but doing little to slow it. The thing twisted in the air and I don’t know whether my belly shot or Jacks’ head shot got it, but it finally collapsed to the ground. Red eyes stared at me as the life drained out of them.

Jacks jumped up and ran toward the last typhon. He fired as he ran, and the thing turned, sucked in its legs and slithered toward the forest.

Bastian slumped in the water. Jacks reached him, pulled him up and wrapped his arms around him. He held him like that a long time and the surprise and pleasure that crossed Bastian’s face as he returned the embrace sent my heart pounding. Jacks finally pulled back, looking for the source of the blood on Bastian’s arm. The wound must not have been bad, because Bastian framed Jacks’ face with his hands. I couldn’t hear their words, could only tell that Bastian was assuring Jacks that he was okay. Jacks hugged him again before releasing him to walk over to the dead typhon, gesturing at it before slapping his hand on Bastian’s shoulder. This time, sunlight glinted off the whites of Bastian’s teeth as he grinned.

It took forever for the two men to reach me and when they did, I dropped the guns, stood on tiptoe and wrapped my arms around Bastian’s neck. He hugged me, then stepped back to stare into my eyes. When I reached for his arm, he shook his head and pointed to the dead typhon. “The blood isn’t mine,” he yelled over the roar of the waterfall.

I slumped against him in relief, turning my head against his chest to feel his heartbeat against my ear. After a minute, I picked up the guns. We turned and headed back.

Jacks’ eyes were chips of blue ice, sharp, intense. I felt them scraping along my skin as if he could cut through the surface and see my secrets. He’d watched me silently all evening, dark hair wet and dripping onto his face. Earlier, when we’d returned to the caverns, he’d explained what had happened.

“Adult typhons can’t handle the water, but once a year, the females get close enough to the edge to lay eggs. They look for depressions in the sand that will fill with water when the lake expands with a rain. The eggs wash into the water. The babies later swim to the shore and move into the forest. It’s the only time the typhons ever get near the water. I should have told you.”

Bastian had touched his shoulder. “You didn’t know I’d go after the belt. I thought it would be safe as long as I stayed near the water. They surprised me—came at me fast from the trees.”

“I can’t believe you took one out with a knife.”

“I’d grabbed one of Vala’s. Just in case.” He held it out. “She killed a typhon with her knives when we first got here.”

“You bashed its head in, so it was a joint effort,” I added to be fair.

Jacks took the knife, turned it over in his hands and ran his thumb over the smooth surface of the stone. “It’s beautiful.” He handed it back. I noticed his hands were shaking as he walked away from us. “I have something I have to work on now.”

“Wait. Do you have any alcohol in that simulator?” I asked, still shaken up myself.

“Fagra wine and ale from the Toquerian Sector.”

I threaded my fingers with Bastian’s. “Don’t know about you, but I need a drink.”

Bastian hesitated, his gaze on Jacks. He didn’t want him to leave and I understood—I didn’t either. But something in Jacks’ expression told me he needed to be alone. I tugged on Bastian’s hand until he looked at me, then offered a smile. “Have a glass of wine with me?”

He nodded, throwing Jacks one last look.

Now, Jacks and I sat in the lounge chairs outside, drying off after a swim. He was right, the warm water from the rain made the pools feel like a saunobath. Jacks, a tube of Toquerian ale in hand, stared at me, looking like he wanted to say something, but Bastian chose that moment to step out from behind a huge green swathe of leaves. Jacks’ body tightened and if I hadn’t been studying him so closely, I would have missed it—missed the slight opening of his lips as he took in the beauty that stunned me every time I saw Bastian stripped down.

Bastian’s loose-limbed gait held a grace, a stunning elegance, which drew attention and held it. It was nearly impossible to look away. Broad shoulders flowed into arms that looked as if the gods had designed them, with taut biceps and a silky, smattering of red-tinted hair on his forearms. His waist was narrow, chest broad, and there was that intriguing V of muscle that framed his belly and led to a trail of auburn hair. The loose pants hid the cock Jacks couldn’t see—but I knew what was under there and my nipples hardened with the memory even as I watched Jacks’ eyes narrow. He followed Bastian’s every movement as he touched the shirt he’d hung from a jutting rock under the stone overhang, testing it’s dryness before tugging it down.

The slight grunt of disappointment that escaped Jacks’ lips when Bastian slid his arms into the sleeves made me grin.

As if he sensed it, Jacks turned to me. I lifted an eyebrow and the silent agreement over the beauty before us passed between us like a whispered secret. We both watched Bastian as he leaned to the side and squeezed moisture from hair that touched the small of his back when dry but hung lower from the weight of the water. He tied that long strip of thick, soaked hair into a knot at the back of his neck and reached for the first connector at the bottom of his shirt. He hesitated when he caught Jacks staring, and I could almost hear him willing Bastian to leave that strip of defined stomach bare, because even flashes of that alabaster skin were better than none at all.

Bastian looked from Jacks to me and desire flared between us, instant, powerful. I couldn’t stop the roll to my feet. I skirted the small, square pool, the wide, leafy plants that had outgrown the water to rest on the stone sides, and walked close enough to slide my hands over his stomach, under his open shirt and around his waist. Tilting my head back, I watched his expressive features as he reacted to my touch. I moved my hands up his back, loving the smooth, warm skin. His eyes closed and he tilted his head to the side.

I knew him now, knew that he did that to better focus on the feel of skin on skin.

For a second I remembered his story of not being touched for so long, then being touched against his will. I waited for him to open his eyes and look at me, and when he did, I let my love for him shine through. His lips parted and I fully accepted that the body under my hands was a man’s. A man I loved with all my heart.

I stepped closer, wishing my breasts were bare as they pressed to his chest. I curved my hands up and around his shoulders, cupping bone with the silk of his shirt brushing the back of my hands. He moaned, his breath flowing over my cheek and I stood on tiptoe and nuzzled his neck—wishing I carried the height of most of my race so I could reach his mouth. As if he read my mind, he leaned down and kissed me. Not the gentle exploration of a kiss he usually started with—but one that said he knew exactly what he wanted and he wanted it
now
.

Heat curled in my gut. I opened my mouth and met the slide of his tongue with a moan and he took over the kiss, showing me once again how wrong I’d been all those times I’d thought he knew nothing, that I’d have to teach him. My head went back as I opened wide and I let him make love to my mouth. Long, strong fingers slid under the loose neckline of my T-shirt to stroke the skin of my upper breast while his other hand slid under my hair and cupped the back of my head.

When I finally pulled away long enough to breathe, my gaze locked with his and the fluttering in my belly, the sudden trembling of my hands, showed me that this wasn’t a mere dalliance anymore. The intensity in his stare showed me it had never been for him. I slowly turned to look back at Jacks.

He’d come up on his knees, his hands in fists at his sides as if he’d had to fight to keep himself from coming to us. I wasn’t the least embarrassed about showing my passion for Bastian like this, and in fact, found a gritty sort of excitement at the thought of him watching us. Glancing back, I found Bastian watching Jacks too and he slowly lifted my T-shirt and let it drop at our feet. He never took his eyes off Jacks as he slid his thumbs over the hard nubs of my nipples.

I sucked in a breath, held it. Bastian smiled, something gloriously wicked in his expression as he shrugged out of his shirt, and pulled me back against his chest, my naked front bared to Jacks’ avid stare. Bastian gathered my hair and draped it to the side before cupping my shoulders and sliding his palms down to stroke my breasts. I shivered as he leaned down to put his mouth on my neck. Hot, slow kisses moved from the hollow behind my ear down to the highly sensitive place where my neck met torso. I watched Jacks through slitted eyes, taking in the heavy breathing causing his T-shirt to mold to his muscled chest. My gaze slid down and widened when I saw the rigid proof of his reaction to us. Nice, very nice. I licked my lips, jerking my gaze back to his face at the sudden, loud groan that came from him.

He stood, determination tightening his lips as he slowly, deliberately moved toward us. Like Bastian, lean muscles covered his body, but they were heavier in places where he’d used the most exertion. His thighs from climbing the huge tree roots that invaded the surface of this planet, his arms from whacking down plant growth that seemed to double in the night.

At sixteen, I’d craved this man with a desire that kept me awake at night, desperate to understand the overpowering need. I’d hated that he’d brushed me off then and again two years later when he’d kissed me, awakening something in me I’d finally accepted would never, ever go away. That one kiss had seared into my soul and left his imprint there to ruin every relationship I’d had after.