Rebellion (A Titan Romance Book 1) (5 page)

R
aemus and Akyra
leaned against the perimeter rail outside the barracks compound assigned to the Banshees for the night, in the elongated shadows of the remaining two armored troop carriers. The night grew dark quickly on Minora.

It was the first time the two of them were alone, but complete privacy would have to wait. Soldiers, military support personnel, and even the occasional Banshee out for fresh air would pass by, saying “Good evening, captains.” Some would see Raemus and Akyra against the rail together and actually stop, turn around, and briskly walk away without a word, proof that rumors of their initial chemistry had already made their way around.

Not surprisingly, their first off-duty conversation consisted entirely of life in the service: what planets had they served on, did they ever serve under so-and-so’s command, how long had they held their current command?

“Is Minora really bad enough to require a company of Titans?” Akyra asked.

“Minora? No, Minora’s not so bad. We use it as a launching point for most of what we do. It’s actually kinda cozy.”

“What about Xerxus? Doesn’t his coalition of infidels pose a threat to The Church’s power around here?”

“No, not him. If he presented any real threat, I’d have killed him. And everyone who follows his call. Trust me.”

“But what about the guys who ambushed us?” Akyra asked, shaking open her fur-trimmed coat to allow in some fresh, cold evening air. “I’d call that a threat, wouldn’t you?”

The top half of Akyra’s armor was off, and now that she regularly pulled open her coat, revealing a tight black tank top and tight little waist, Raemus was pleased to be talking to her even more. However, the sight of her half covered breasts and her exposed neck and shoulders wasn’t what got Raemus leaning in closer and closer.

That smell! It makes me insane!

Akyra repeated her question. “What’d you figure out about them?”

He leaned in more, as if to share a secret, inhaling the air around her. “Not a lot. The energy shields they used cost a lot, so I gotta agree with the point you made earlier. These weren’t low-level infidels trying to score a random hit on church contractors.” He pointed a finger at her. “But if they knew you, and more importantly knew what you carried, they’d have known you’d have a Titan escort. That doesn’t make sense.”

“Anything on the bodies point to their origins? A data nib? A type of food? What about Xerxus? Did anything make you think he was behind it?”

Raemus locked eyes with Akyra, then shook his head slightly. “Xerxus wouldn’t do it on his own. His goal is local power. He doesn’t need to tangle with the military might of The Church to get that.”

He wasn’t sure how much to hold back from this Sec-Ops captain. The default rule was: hold back everything. But he was going to have trouble holding back from Akyra.

Maybe this human could be of some use to us. Maybe I should keep her close after tonight. Maybe not. I’m not sure which part of me wants it more.

“You’re kind of a difficult personality to pin down,” he said.

“Don’t change the subject, captain.” Akyra rolled and leaned her back against the rail. Then grimaced playfully. “I’m not
that
complicated.”

“I beg to differ. You’ve got a lot going on in there,” he circled a finger at her heart. “I can tell. I’m a Titan, captain. If there’s any creature in the galaxy who understands a complicated heart, it’s a Titan.”

“And why did I assume you were violent, unrelenting killers?”

“We are, that’s why.”

“So there’s more in there, Captain Raemus?” she, in turn, circled a finger at
his
heart.

He smiled at her sass, and then he turned to watch some of his brothers chatting with Akyra’s off-duty Banshees, lingering just outside the barrack’s perimeter. “See Sergeants Levi and Aejax over there?”

“You mean your guys trying not to look interested in my girls?”

“Exactly. All the science, genetics, and Religious Oversight in the whole galaxy can’t keep them from feeling giddy to talk to a woman.”

“Like this?” She bumped his arm with her shoulder. “Like you and me?”

“Yes. Like you and me.” He laughed, replying with his own bump. But he didn’t bounce away. He held it. He stayed right up against her.

And she didn’t seem to mind. Not at all.

“Anyways, I’m not that complicated. Simple enough to enjoy a nice chat with a fellow officer. So there.”

“Where’d you come from?”

Akyra looked up sideways at him. “Dehlosse-5.” She squinted at him, on the defensive. “I thought we covered that earlier.”

“Before that.”

“Ahh… now we’re getting personal.”

Raemus laughed. “Yes. Let’s get personal.”

“No sweat, captain.” Akyra flushed more cool air into her coat, shooting him a wry smile. “Like most of us ladies in the Sec-Op Division, I don’t remember much before showing up at the Academy.”

“Which one?”

Akyra paused a moment, knowing the memories were going to begin flooding back if she allowed herself to discuss it. But that was okay. She could open up with Raemus. He seemed safe.
Hopefully.

“Wahiri Academy… on Ermina.”

“Ermina? Beautiful planet.”

“Yes. Planet’s nice. My experiences at Academy were… a little up and down.”

“We got time. Why don’t you pick a few and fill me in.”

“Okay, captain. From the time I was eight,” Akyra tucked her chin in hesitation, “…there were two things I cared for: God and entering the holy breeding program. The first one, I’m good. The second one, well…” She patted her chest, where her captain’s insignia would have been if she’d been in uniform.

“The breeding program? Really? That just threw me for a loop.”

“Did it? I always thought I’d be good for it.”

“Not my area of expertise. Remember, I didn’t have a mother.”

“Me neither. Just a feeling. A deep feeling of what it’s supposed to be like. When my class became teenagers, I naturally took on the role with the girls. Some of the boys, too. If someone had a scraped knee anywhere in Wahiri Academy, you’d find them at my room getting bandaged up. Teenaged tribulations? Little kids who could barely feed themselves? I got ‘em all.”

“Nice.”

“Kinda. I guess I loved it. Caused me to catch the wandering eye of our patriarch. He liked watching me… in my motherly, nurturing role, if you catch my meaning.”

Raemus grinned broadly and leaned in close. “You had an affair with an Academy patriarch? Damn.”

“Started when I was sixteen.”

“You
are
quite the overachiever. Do I say sorry or well done?”

“It wasn’t all bad. He was my
first
love, even if I realize now it’s a little gross. He used to call me ‘Little Miss Roux.’ I was the only girl at Academy who got a pet name… out of four thousand girls. I’m no dummy, and I was old enough to know better. But he taught me to be a leader. Can’t regret that. Not now.” Akyra motioned toward the Banshees outside the barracks. “He taught me to be a grown up. I mean, he was creepy, I get that now, but it wasn’t entirely bad. But I probably wasn’t the first, and I probably wasn’t the last girl to fit snuggly under a patriarch’s wing.” Suddenly, Akyra burst out with a laugh. “My
idea of sex
is probably all fucked up… but it’s where I learned it.”

Akyra laughed again. And Raemus allowed himself to laugh with her, just enough to ease her mind.

“Doesn’t matter,” Akyra went on. “I still pray everyday to serve The Church every way I can. Nothing will shake my devotion to The Almighty. I just wish The Church’s plans included time…. you know, for a relationship.”

“You’d give all this up?” Raemus pointed to the cluttered mess of the vehicle maintenance shed they’d been facing the whole time, “for a family?”

Akyra shrugged. “Family isn’t an option anymore.” She rubbed the birth control bolt deep in the skin of her shoulder, the one engineered with a homing beacon that would bring arrest, conviction, and death if removed from her body. “Being really good at fighting for The Church is all I got.” She felt pressure behind her eyes, and her nose began to itch, but she shook it off. “That’s why I’m the best commander I can be.” Akyra rubbed her hands against the intensifying cold. “What’s your excuse?”

Raemus didn’t miss any signs of sadness spreading over Akyra’s body, the slight slouch, the successive blinks, the three irregular deep breaths. “I’m with you,” he said. “I get it. When shooting bad guys gets you through the day, might as well become the best at it.”

She laughed through the frog in her throat. “Yes. Exactly.”

“Well, let’s see… I can let you shoot Levi over there if that’ll make you feel any better.”

She blurted out a big laugh.

Her smile!
Raemus thought.
Rich and honest. So… real.

He watched her laugh subside to a few small nods. She peeked at him thoughtfully from the corner of her eyes, obviously relieved to be talking openly, her face positively radiated happiness.

Yet
s
o much sadness hidden underneath.

“I suppose I shoot bad guys to fill the love gap, too,” he said.

Akyra stood up straight, not believing she just heard those words come from one of the most successful military commanders in the galaxy. “Love gap? Is that a thing?”

“No, I just made it up.”

“Not much love around for a guy with your… background?”

“I try to compensate by helping others. I… try to love others, as far as I know what it means. I try to
serve
as best I can.” He shrugged. “Yeah, it’s tough for guy with my ‘background’.”

“Tough? You mean, like when your day job is killing large swaths of infidels all over the galaxy?”

“Something like that.”

“Pardon my huge, gaping ignorance, Captain Raemus, but I always thought church engineers designed Titans not to have
those
feelings.”

“Genetics isn’t a perfect science.”

“
You’re
the strange one because you get feelings?”

Raemus paused. “We have feelings. We’re not droids, Captain Roux. We have feelings.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean it like that.”

“No, it’s okay. But we do have feelings. Besides, have you seen my brothers? We’re an entire series of alpha males. Gets a bit messy, I can assure you. Kicking their ass on a regular basis just shows them how much I care.”

Raemus and Akyra shared a sweet goodnight stare.

She put a hand up to his cheek, dragged two finger tips along his temple. “Call me Akyra from now on, okay?”

“Okay. And you can call me… Raemus.” They both laughed since it was, after all, what she’d called him all day.

While he watched her laugh, a thought consumed him,
I want to kiss her so badly!

Instead of a kiss, however, he pulled her hand down, opening her small palm flat on his own. He drew a sun within her palm with his fingertip, then rolled it closed and held it with both hands. And squeezed.

When he looked down at her face, still holding her hand against the cold, in the midst of their vaporous breath, she stared intensely into his eyes. He said, “I’m glad to have met you today.”

“Me too, Raemus. Thank you. I’m very happy to have met you, my very first Titan…
friend
.” She smiled big enough to hurt.

To both of them, compared to how they already felt toward each other, the word ‘friend’ sounded merely like a sad consolation. Divided by centuries of genetic and cultural segregation, the unrelenting demands of The Church, their duties, these two had no choice but to remain devoted to their destinies.

And love, they’d told themselves over and over again, wasn’t found there.

But the moment came quickly to an end. In their line of work, nothing good can last forever. Or even a brief evening alone.

Raemus’ eyes shot upward, frowning.

Akyra caught his expression and stiffened. “What is it?”

Raemus watched several small, dark forms buzz across the dark sky. He sucked in a deep breath, pulling Akyra in close, wrapping his arms around her. “Hold on.” He kept looking up, holding both of them motionless. “Something bad is happening.”

Akyra followed Raemus' eyes upward, saw the long, dark shapes—insect-styled drones of some sort—and knew from their dark silhouettes that they
were not
standard church military equipment. She sucked a breath, pushing back into Raemus. “What are they?”

“Dragonflies. Four wings and hard to shoot. Not from around here, but looks like they’re flying recon on the base. They’re looking for something.”

“Think they belong to Xerxus?”

“He’s rich. Not
that
rich.” Raemus watched them zip around, momentarily hover, then zip away, hundreds of calculations and conclusions running through his own genetically-enhanced brain. “Akyra…you’d better get your team together.” Raemus worked his fingers between hers, pulling her close, knowing it was now or never.

Raemus kissed Akyra—tenderly, just as he’d been imagining since he first saw her.

When his lips felt the warm eagerness from Akyra’s mouth, he pressed in for more.

He managed to keep control of the kiss, keeping it gentle and soft—but there was no doubt that all the force of his pounding heart was behind it.

Raemus squeezed both her small hands. “We need to go. Now.”