Blaize and the Maven: The Energetics Book 1 (35 page)

She tilted her head and frowned. “Don’t be silly Cuinn. It’s a hundred yards. Indigo’s gone.”

“I insist.” He put out his arm for her to take. She sighed and took it, her hand in the crook of his elbow. He swallowed as he pulled his arm in toward his body, her hand hot against his side.

They reached her door with no words yet exchanged. He felt tongue-tied, but as she opened her front door, he had to say something.
 

“I’m so sorry, Blaize.”

She turned to him. “For what?”

“Everything.”

Her eyebrow rose. “Everything?”

“You getting kidnapped, me not managing to save you sooner. Your injuries. Everything.”

“I’m sorry I got caught. I was careless. Stupid. Proud.” She looked away. “She took me by surprise.”

“But it’s not your fault,” they said simultaneously.
 

They regarded each other in silence.

“Huh,” said Blaize. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you call?”

“I thought you would want some time alone to heal. Without me.”

“I wouldn’t want to see you?”

“Did you?”

She didn’t say anything for a while, as she examined his face with a scrutiny that made him feel as if she was examining his soul.

Finally, she sighed. “I did.”

His stomach flipped, and a tiny spark of hope flashed inside him. He stepped forward slowly and took her hands.

Blaize was afraid to move. Cuinn was in front of her, living, breathing. She could smell mint on his cool, sweet breath, and the mixed male scent of his sweat and deodorant. It reminded her of moss and recently chopped firewood.
 

 
She breathed him in, as his cool, dry hands took hers. She loved the feel of his long fingers as they wrapped around hers. His firm but gentle grip gave her butterflies as he pulled her towards him. She didn’t lift her eyes from his chest as he brought her slowly closer.

One of his arms snaked around her, and his hand came to her chin to tilt her head up. Her gaze trailed from his chest up, past his strong collarbones to his elegant neck. His five o’clock shadow added to his usual aura of rumpled geek chic. She felt a surge of tenderness, delighting in his touch.

As she finally met his eyes, which today were dove grey, she saw a hint of vulnerability. Vulnerability that she suspected would be reflected in her own eyes. This was the start of something different. Something she'd never allowed herself before.

She put her hand on his cheek, enjoying the roughness of his facial hair, and rubbed her hand backwards and forwards. He tipped his head to one side, resting it more fully on her hand and placed his hand on the back of her neck.

“We have a lot to talk about.” His voice was pitched lower than usual.

“But perhaps we should talk later? I’ve heard we both need a lot of rest.” She stepped back into the house, pulling him inside with her, their hands still in place, locking them together.

“I agree. You can’t take chances with the injuries we’ve had.”

“A lot of bed rest.” She advanced up the stairs but stopped when she was a step above him, his hands now on her hips. He cocked an eyebrow at her, which rose exponentially as she stripped off the sweater she was wearing and dropped it beside her.

When she put her hands on his hips and tugged at his sweater, he raised his hands above his head, never breaking eye contact. She smiled.

She drew him after her, and they stumbled up the rest of the stairs, eyes locked and their hands keeping contact with each other’s bodies.
 

When her legs hit the bed, she fell backwards, taking him with her. Their mouths met, tongues tangling in a passionate joining.

They struggled with each other’s clothes, laughing at their efforts to strip each other as quickly as possible.
 

She threw an arm out to grope into her bedside table for a condom, barely taking her lips off his as he used his own hands to remove her delicate underwear.

Finally, they were skin to skin, their bodies moving together in time.
 

Startled, she looked up at him. She frowned, figuring it out. Huh. <
Yes?>
 

His grinned as their connection deepened further.
 

she sent with her mind.

She narrowed her eyes at him, and then reached down between their bodies to add her hands to everything else that was going on, and he stopped talking in a hurry.

***

Much later they lay together, sheets and limbs entwined, in her little cottage bedroom. She felt happier than she had for a long time as if her two energies had blended as she relaxed. She was warm and confident from her Manipura, but also insightful and perceptive from the Ajna.
 

She propped her chin on her hand and looked down at him. Her other hand traced circles on his stomach; then she trailed her fingers through the arrow of hair that led from his belly button down to other, more fascinating things.
 

“To be clear,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere. I'm with you now. Whatever’s to be faced, I’ll face it with you. I don’t need protecting. Or, sometimes I will, and sometimes I’ll protect you.”

He nodded. “I know. I also know that’s a very distracting view.” His gaze flickered to her breasts, which given their respective positions were presented quite close to his face.
 

She laughed.

“I also know that I love you, Blaize Blackfire.”

She flopped down next to him and snuggled into the crook of his outstretched arm. “Well. I still think this is all a bit fast, but hey, who am I to fight it? I love you too, Cuinn Ahern.”

He let out a relieved breath, and with his free arm he groped for a condom where she’d left them the night before. He slid it on and rolled on top of her, causing her to gasp. He moved again, slowly and smoothly, and the next sound she made was a moan.
 

The two of them spent the rest of the day making sure each of them got a great deal of bed rest.

***

Cuinn didn’t leave Blaize’s cottage that day or night, and they were late to breakfast the next morning, coming in holding hands. Blaize met the other women’s eyes, a hint of colour in her cheeks, and they smiled back—Tierra with love, and Cara approvingly. Fintan opened his mouth to say something, but Cuinn narrowed his eyes at him and shut him up before anything came out.

After heaping his plate with food that Tierra and, to his surprise, Fintan, had put together, Cuinn got everyone’s attention. He made eye contact with each of them.

“I need to share some information with you all. But it has to stay in this room for now. It’s incomplete, and I don’t yet know the meaning of it.”

He talked them through Indigo’s last words, and what he thought the implications were—mainly that most of them in the room appeared to be involved in the prophecy. There was silence for a while after this, as each of them digested the information.

 
“I spent much of the day yesterday back at the house where Blaize was held, because my team had suggested some disturbing findings when they went through it the first time.” Adam, a large, solid man, with the same dark hair and eyes as his sister, had no problem commanding the room.
 

Cuinn frowned. The situation was already bad and Adam wasn’t prone to exaggeration. Cuinn braced for more bad news.
 

“I don’t think Indigo was working alone. And worse, I believe the other person was the driving force. Indigo was just the patsy.”

Blaize squeezed Cuinn’s hand tightly, her face sombre. “You’re probably right. It’s hard to remember everything clearly, but a couple of times she seemed to hint that there was someone else involved. And one time, she looked almost frightened by the fact she’d implied it.”

Adam nodded. “There’s someone else.”

“This attempt to take Blaize was almost certainly tied into the prophecy. And now, so are all of you.” Cuinn met each of their gazes again. “I need your help. This prophecy is a threat not only to us as individuals—because, make no mistake, Blaize’s experience tells us there is personal danger here—but to our whole race. The enemy, whoever that is, seems to know more than we do. We may be the only thing standing between our race and its extinction.”

The others around the table looked at him after his speech, their serious faces reflecting back his words. He was sorry to put this burden on them, dumping them in this mess without asking.
 

Despite the guilt, he was also glad, glad to share the burden with the people he trusted most in the world.

“I’m here. I’ll see this through with you. Where you go, I go.” Blaize lifted his hand to her soft lips and kissed it.

Tierra was next. “Whatever you need Cuinn, I’m here.”

Her brother just nodded his head, as if it were a given.

Fintan, his face graver than Cuinn had seen it in many years, the usual mischievous twinkle in his eye absent, said, “Whatever you need, Cuinn.”

Cara’s warm, soft voice added her assent.

Something inside Cuinn relaxed. With the people in this room, he had a much better chance of working through whatever was to come. He hated putting them in danger, but he couldn’t solve this puzzle on his own. Their combined energies and efforts would give them a real advantage in whatever was to come.

He hoped that it would be enough.

1851 BC

Erasma heard the muffled noise of building in the distance and sighed. Another long day was coming to a close, one in which she had inspected building projects, arbitrated disagreements, met with other Circle members, and now faced the task she hated most of all.
 

Judgment.

Her people had settled in Egypt, one of the world’s largest civilisations now Atlantis was lost, and one with whom Atlantis had had a trading relationship. The Egyptians, and their ruler Senusret III, had not been keen to have the Atlanteans come to live on his land, and Erasma had had to trade hard to gain her people the right to live here. The energetics had shared secrets including their alphabet and a form of wheeled chariot, two precious and advanced inventions, to maintain peace.

But it was worth it. The energetics now had a home while they sent scouts out to find other places to locate their Guilds and people. They would no longer have their own lands, but be dispersed around the world in other’s countries. Perhaps if they no longer ruled over land, there would be less possibility of in-fighting.
 

Anahata Guild, which Erasma continued to lead, would be here in Egypt. The heart Chakra, and the heart of their new world.

Iskander ever at her side, Erasma examined the energetic kneeling in front of her who was bound and warded so he could no longer access even his two active Chakras. His eyes protruded, and his nostrils flared as he breathed noisily through them.

"In the ceremony that everyone of us went through, you picked Anahata as your dominant, and Svadisthana as your auxiliary. This puts you in my domain." Erasma tapped her fingers against her thigh. She could feel a headache blossoming at her temples. It was the fifteenth time she had done this in a matter of months.

For some, binding them to only two energies had seemed to focus their power. Since Iskander had chosen Ajna as one of his two energies, for example, he’d been plagued by a flood of prophecy dreams. The latest was about a group of peculiarly dressed energetics he was calling the Twelve.

But not everyone was like Iskander. For others, binding them to only two energies had caused a reduction in their power. Like this poor fool in front of her.

“You broke the law when you tried to draw on energy from another Chakra. The penalty for this is for your powers to be bound at their lowest level,” she said.

The energetic in front of her moaned.
 

Erasma clenched her jaw. “Do you have anything to say?”