From The Ashes (Life After War) (66 page)

Charlie followed her slow retreat. “But you care for him so much!”

“
Stop.” Angela couldn't stand to hear it–not from her mouth or his. “Human hearts are not confined by man's laws, Charlie. You can't set a limit on how many people you care for. If fate says to... love someone, you do.”

Angela held the flap up on her tent. “The only thing that matters, is reaction. I have a commitment, willingly made, and I'd never break it.”

Angela got him settled with a bottle of water and a bag of apple chips. “You don't have any limits. The female you're looking at isn't claimed or bound to someone. She's fair game, with no challenge or dishonor.”

Charlie was relieved to see that his mom knew his secret, but wasn't flipping out. He hadn't been sure. “What does she want?”

Angela leaned back in her seat. “Funny you should ask. I picked up a couple things a few nights back.”

Angela didn't feel guilty about the weaknesses she was set to reveal. The realization that her son was in love had brought a lot of thoughts out, but the most important was how to help him get what he needed. Today had reminded her of that goal and provided a prefect opportunity to deliver it.

“
She wants to be needed all the time, not just when a man wants to play with her.”

Another parent might have shut it down already, and Angela thought she would have gone that way, too, if not for a conversation she'd overheard.

“
I was on duty outside the showers. My girls haven't adjusted for the female Eagles on duty being able to get closer. I took advantage.”

“
And what you heard?”

Angela nodded, giving her approval. “It swung me in her favor.”

Angela connected them, let him hear the words for himself.

“
He put a flower in your tent again.”

Tracy sighed wistfully over the lightly running water. “That little man needs to grow up faster.”

Leslie understood what that meant and gasped. “No way Angie goes for it. Get it out of your mind now.”

“
I don't think he plans to tell her,” Tracy confided lowly.

Leslie was surprised. “You're encouraging him? You better stop it now. He's getting serious.”

Tracy's miserable sigh echoed. “I know. He's too young until October.”

“
Young, hell. He's going to be a leader here, Tracy. He can't have a whore for his...”

Silence fell for a moment, tense, and Angela was forced to consider her own bias.

“
I'll let him down soon,” Tracy confirmed unhappily. “And that's the only reason why. I won't hurt the dream.”

Leslie didn't understand.

“
You have Adrian, among others. Why would you want little Charlie?”

Angela stiffened at the confirmation, breath held in silence as she waited for the answer.

“
They don't really need me, not like Charlie. He already craves time with me, and it's never been sexual. When we... if we ever got that close, I might...”

Leslie pushed. “What? Fall in love with him?”

Tracy scoffed softly, thinking of the trinkets and poems she'd found on her pillow over the last months. They meant nothing compared to the way he looked at her. “How could anyone not love that Sweetheart? It's more of a satisfaction issue. He'll please me, instead of the other way around. And I don't mean sex.”

Leslie was shocked. “You can't pick Charlie in any way, and then go service Adrian. It would break Charlie's heart.”

Tracy stunned both women with the answer.

“
Maybe, if I had him, I wouldn't want to do that for these men anymore.”

Angela had finished the shift in deep contemplation. When it was over, she'd found herself looking for the right way to give them both what they wanted.

Charlie caught most of it through their connection and Angela regarded him tenderly. “You're a good son. I couldn't be prouder of you. If she's what you want, you have my blessing to try.”

Charlie was stunned to find out that he'd been making progress. “Thank you.”

Angela smiled. “Need her for more than fun, and you'll have a bond that will last.”

As she said it, Angela reluctantly accepted that she shared the same with Adrian. And after only months, it was unbreakable.

6

Samantha concentrated, falling into that beautiful place where only she and Nature existed. Sometimes called the ‘zone’ or the ‘groove’, she wished she could stay there forever.

The buzzing got louder, and Sam steeled herself. What she was doing would probably get her stung, but she was curious as to how the shield would be affected. They could make it go up with enough mental worry and keep it from going up if one of them was out of the perimeter, but how did it pick those boundaries? Did it recognize the caution tape? That was today’s question to be answered.

Sam had two female rookies with her, standing at the normal perimeter line. She’d had them adjust the caution tape to include the tree she was currently standing under. On one of its low branches, an enormous beehive was alive with violently protected activity.

When she tapped the hive, the mental concern from her and her witnesses should trigger the shield. They’d been instructed to observe, one each, the tape and the perimeter line, to discover where the shield came up.

Am I ready?
Sam was strangely ecstatic to be doing such a stupid thing. “Born that way.”

She sent out her senses, searching, reading what Nature had to say. It was easy to pick up the unease of the bees as she stood below them, and Sam jumped up quickly, punching the branch. She wasn’t crazy enough to hit the hive directly.

As she touched the ground, the bees exploded from the hive, and Sam found herself being jerked away from them and pushed into the creek she’d planned to jump into if chased.

Jeremy dove in after her, grabbing her arm and pulling her body tightly up against his. The bees flew over, and he hit the button on his air horn.

The blast sent the bees fleeing, and Jeremy lumbered to his feet, dragging Sam up, too. He pulled them onto the bank quickly, ready to defend them against the things that sometimes came out of the water.

Sam gasped air into her lungs, coughing. She’d hit the water with her mouth open in surprise.

Jeremy waved the rookies back as they came to the bank. “Keep the camp away. Tell them someone fell in the creek and we fished them out. No danger.”

The two women left with slightly envious glances as Jeremy gave her a rough shake.

“
Stop being crazy, and do it right now!”

Samantha, who thought she’d had things under control until he interfered, surprised them both by laughing.

Jeremy was instantly offended, and it broke through the cool reserve he’d been treating her with. He jerked her forward and kissed her hard.

Samantha had chosen Neil by the lines he and Adrian had noticed, but the deciding factor had been one they hadn’t known to use because they weren’t female. In her lifetime, few men had roused true passion in Sam. Rick, her shame, and Neil, her light, were two of only four men she’d ever felt lust for. At that moment, with Jeremy breaking the rules and tasting her like she was the best dessert he’d ever had–his small groans were enough to tighten her chest and send heat into her stomach–he became the fifth. She’d sensed it all along, that they were more than a match, physically.

Sam curled her arms around his neck, and caught a fiery gasp with her mouth. When she kissed him back, he shuddered against her hip and sealed her decision. She would have them both.

Jeremy drew back, expression wild. “What do you want from me?”

Her skin glistened with water, chest heaving. Sam swallowed the pity. In this new world,
she
made the future. “Friendship.”

She wrapped her arms tighter around him, letting him feel that impossible-to-fight lure of a woman determined to have her way. “And relief.”

It was a line he’d recently used–successfully–on a camp groupie, but hadn’t followed through.

Sam waited, letting the temptation of her being in his arms do the heavy work.

Jeremy fought… for seconds, and then he was caving. He wanted her too much to refuse whatever she would give. He’d never been so lonely. “How does this work? He and I alternate nights and start fighting again?”

Sam let her hair brush his cheek and saw his jaw muscle tighten. “How does it usually work when two Eagles pick the same female… friend?”

Jeremy didn’t want to answer.

Sam did it for him. “It’s my choice as to who or when. It always has been.”

Jeremy was layered in the humiliation of cheap use.
Like the camp whores must feel,
he realized with shame that he hadn’t known he should be carrying. He would never treat them the same again.

“
Has
he
agreed?”

Sam grunted, not moving out of his arms even though she knew the two males were locked now in eye-to-eye combat. Neil was the senior guard over this area. “About as much as you have.”

She heard the trooper leave them in peace and was flooded with shame and elation in equal measures. She finished the scene as gently as she could. “I’m greedy, Jeremy, and it’s so wrong for me to ask this of you. If you can’t handle it, I understand, and I’d never hold it…”

Jeremy kissed her again, unable to take the rest of the speech that each of the Eagles had given to their chosen relief source at one time or another. It was humiliating. And, he couldn’t wait to be called to serve.

Jeremy drew back. He didn't have to stay away from her anymore. “It follows our perimeter, meaning the Eagles, not the tape. Next time, just ask. Adrian and Angela have been running tests on the shield since it appeared.”

Part Three

Provocation
:

*An action or words likely to cause physical retaliation

Chapter Nineteen

5 miles West of Little Rock

6/27

1

“
She fits my qualifications.”

Angela shrugged at the seven furious, stunned, confused, angry faces without sympathy. Her team list had come out an hour ago, and they’d all come to express their displeasure. She had indicated they should wait.

Now that the final piece–her new XO and escort–had just come in, Angela stood up. “I chose based on the things I need. Organization, communication, willingness to follow
my
moral line, and the devotion to follow orders.”

Many of the females started to protest, but Angela interrupted. “To some degree, all of you have that, which is why you made the cut in the first place. To be honored with my right, however, you have to be overflowing with that last one. And frankly–you guys can’t give me that.”

“
What makes you think she can?” Leslie sneered, used to fighting dirty to get what she wanted. “Hell, she might die squeezing out those Mexican puppies!”

Angela spun around.

Thud!

Leslie fell backwards and landed on the canvas floor, holding her bloody nose. “Oww!”

“
Three strikes and you’re gone. That's one.” Angela didn't think any of them would need demonstration this again, but if they did, she could handle it now. “The same goes for everyone. If I have to hit you that many times, you’re too dumb for what I need.”