Three Worlds 01 - Seduce Me In Dreams (35 page)

“I‟m ready. I‟d like to see him try to start his crap with me. I‟ll rig his door with a paint grenade.” The harmless grenades were used in training exercises and blew out paint in a wide circle to represent explosive force and shrapnel discharge. They made a huge mess but would get the message across. “Besides, we‟re going to start him in base training tomorrow. He‟ll be too worn out at the end of the day to cause much trouble.”

“Good,” Bronse said. “We‟ll work in a shift schedule. One of us will have to sacrifice their day cycle and be awake during the night to keep an ear out on the hallways.”

“I‟ll do it,” Justice said. “You‟ll be busy watching over the group during the day.

Besides, you have a kid on school scheduling. Leave me to do night shift. Domino can take care of himself during the day when he‟s with his trainers or the docs. Ender needs to be on deck when Kith is out of training to keep the kid in check, so I‟m the best choice.”

“Sounds like a plan. So,” Bronse turned to Ravenna and grinned, “wanna go play in the real world?”

“Very much so! I‟ll get the others!”

They left lockdown as a group and made it to their new quarters without a single incident.

Everyone split up to settle in, leaving Bronse alone with Devan and, for the first time in nearly three weeks, Ravenna.

“Devan, go find your room,” he encouraged her, pointing through the front room to the back hallway. The young girl squeaked with excitement and ran for her room. Bronse waited until he heard the door hiss shut, and then he shot across the room to grab hold of Rave.

They were in a clinch instantly, each desperately grasping at the other as they kissed. It was as though they‟d been drowning for a long time, and the moment their lips touched, it was like coming up for a much-needed gasp of air.

Ravenna felt more needed in that moment than she had ever been needed by her collection of Chosen Ones. Her heart pounded beneath her breast as his hands ran fast and hungry up the long length of her back, leaving chills of satisfaction in their wake. How had she ever managed not to touch him for all of this time? How had she survived those brutally long nights outside of his bed? She‟d barely had time to be with him to start with, but she had become a fast and thorough addict.

“Bronse,” she murmured over and over again, wishing she could climb inside of him and, even more, wishing he would climb inside of her. But they knew that Devan would soon be back, and what they really wanted would have to wait until the young girl was in bed and asleep.

“How could I see you every single day and yet feel like I was missing you?” he demanded of her. “It was making me crazy.” He brushed hot fingers down the side of her neck, turning them over her shoulder and stroking through the thin material of her militia uniform shirt.

Every one of the Chosen Ones of majority age was now required to wear one. Not just because it helped them to blend in, but because they were official members of the militia and it was the required dress. “Have I told you how sexy you look in uniform?” he asked her with a low, predatory growl.

“I can‟t look half as good as you do,” she countered, drawing him down for an even deeper kiss.

“Wow. Guys, you‟re burning my impressionable brain!”

They broke apart at Devan‟s tease, each of them coloring guiltily. But she waved it off with a bouncing hug for each of them.

“That‟s okay. I‟ll get used to it,” she said happily. “I love my room! It‟s much bigger than the one at the temple, and the bed is great. There are clothes in there and everything!” She made a face. “And there‟s a VidPad that has the name of a school etched into it.”

“Ah. Your schoolbooks have arrived. You have a bit of catching up to do, so you might want to start reading tonight. You‟ll start attending classes tomorrow,” Bronse said.

Devan shuddered delicately. “I‟m not looking forward to this. I was always schooled with the village children. I grew up with them. I don‟t know anything about how to make new friends.”

“You‟ll learn,” Bronse assured her. “Don‟t worry about it. You‟re a bright and funny girl.

People are going to love that about you. You‟ll have new friends in no time.”

“Just because you say it doesn‟t always make it true,” the young girl said gravely, the pearl of wisdom telling him that her trust for him had grown, but she wasn‟t yet willing to believe his word as law. Bronse didn‟t mind. It just made her more clever than before in his eyes.

“We‟ll just have to wait and see then, won‟t we?”

She shrugged. “Sure.” Then she hopped back off to her bedroom. Just before she stepped through the door, she said, “Oh, I‟m going to try a bunch of clothes on in here. Then do some reading. I don‟t expect I‟ll come out for a good long while.”

Then she disappeared through the door. Bronse and Rave looked at each other.

“Did she just give us permission to have sex?” he asked.

“Yes.” Ravenna giggled. “She thinks she‟s being clever.”

Bronse narrowed darkening eyes on Ravenna. “I think she‟s brilliant.”

Rave stepped back when he stepped forward. “It‟s the middle of the day cycle!”

“So?” His look was positively predatory. He reached out to snag her wrist in his hand and continued to advance for every step she retreated.

“But Devan—”

“You heard her. She‟ll be busy.” He grinned, teeth gleaming between his lips.

“What if one of the others comes to the door?” she persisted.

“If any of them are less savvy than a fourteen-year-old girl, they deserve to be ignored.”

He leapt forward and grabbed her, making her squeal as he scooped her up over his shoulder and began to march for the hallway.

“Bronse! Put me down!” She laughed, squirming under the hand that patted her upturned bottom.

“Just as soon as I get my bed underneath you.”

It was three nights after that when Ravenna woke to a noise in the outer room. Devan had taken to getting up for nighttime snacks, so she didn‟t think anything of it as she slid out from under Bronse‟s arm and slipped on a robe. She left their bedroom and walked through the darkness to the living area. She thought it odd that no lights were on—until she reached for the panel that would turn them on and felt someone grab her wrist.

She was spun around so hard that her arm was shoved up her back as she was pushed into a wall. Every tendon protested as they resisted the impossible position. She opened her mouth to yell for Bronse, but the muzzle of a laser pistol shoved up under the point of her chin made the scream die in her throat.

“One sound,” she heard a man whisper between the tight clench of teeth, “and I‟ll kill everyone I find in this house.”

Afraid for Devan and Bronse, she nodded her acquiescence.

“Good girl,” he said softly. “Now tell me where I can find Chapel and I‟ll leave you be.”

Ravenna knew instantly that it was a lie. Whether she was reading him or not, she didn‟t know, but every instinct screamed a warning that she could not and should not believe a single word that came out of his mouth. Who was this person? Was there random crime on a space station like this?

No. Not random at all. He was looking specifically for Bronse.

That was when she knew he was an assassin and this was yet another attempt to kill the man who had defied death again and again despite the powerful hands trying to wield it. This was JuJuren‟s work.

Ravenna panicked. Not because she was afraid for herself or Bronse, but because she was afraid for the freedom of the Chosen Ones. If something like this got back to the higher-ups, they might jerk them all back into lockdown.

The idea made her angry. It made her bold.

“He isn‟t here. He‟s on a mission,” she said, knowing it was the most plausible excuse.

“You‟re a liar. I saw him come home with you earlier.” The pistol became so insistent under her chin that she had to stretch her neck to accommodate it. “If I have to start searching rooms, I can‟t take you with me. That means you‟re dead. Tell me where he is right now.”

“Behind you.”

The snap and whip of the garrote bracelet Bronse always wore was as fast as lightning.

Ravenna bolted to the right as Bronse looped the wire around the assassin‟s neck and yanked him back off balance. Taken so off guard, the would-be killer squeezed the trigger. The shot was so close that it singed Ravenna‟s hair. But within an instant the man dropped the weapon and grasped for the wire that was embedded in his throat and cutting off his air supply.

Still afraid, still needing to feel safe, Ravenna reached out her hand and called the weapon to her. It came up from the floor and flew straight into her palm. She was hoping that the darkness would hide the trick as she turned to point the pistol at the chest of the intruder.

Even in the dimness, she could see the light periwinkle eyes of her lover, as well as the shock and accusation that now emanated from them.

So much for hiding tricks, she thought.

Bronse turned all of his attention on the man he was struggling with. He was big, rather like Ender, and had a decent muscle mass. Strong. But without oxygen he was nothing. Less than nothing. And the intruder knew it. He stopped struggling to win and focused solely on making the effort to breathe against the incredible power of Bronse‟s grip.

“Who sent you?” Bronse demanded. He was not about to just turn him over to the justice branch and let them handle this incessant breach in security and the threats to his personal safety.

“You know who!” The man gagged. Bronse eased up only enough to give him air for his next sentence.

“I want to know why that miserable fuck is out to get me! What the hell did I do?”

“I don‟t know!” the assailant squeaked. “But he knows you have a woman and child now!”

The implication was clear. JuJuren would stop at nothing to get to Bronse. Even going through Ravenna and Devan to get to him.

Bronse and Rave‟s gazes clashed. They both knew instantly what that would mean. Rave and Devan and the other Chosen Ones were too hot a commodity to allow any kind of danger near them.

The IM would pull Bronse off their detail if they found out about this.

Unable to stomach the idea, his rage and frustration taking over, Bronse strangled the bastard to within an inch of his life. It was only because Ravenna jumped in to stop him that the intruder was left to drop to the floor in an unconscious heap instead of a dead one.

Bronse whipped the garrote free of the assassin‟s neck, and it retracted back into the whole bracelet again with a deadly snap. Breathing hard from exertion and the bushel of pure fear that had been dumped into his system when he had come out of the bedroom to find Rave with a gun to her face, Bronse leaned back against a near wall and let Ravenna come up to him with concern.

“It‟s over,” he said, his voice dead and cold. “They‟ll separate us and I won‟t be allowed within a mile of you as long as JuJuren‟s at large.”

“Then we have to see to it that he isn‟t at large,” Rave shot back, the equally wintry nature of her voice telling him just how serious she was.

Anger snapped through him instantly. “What do you suggest? I take you with me and we go hunt him down? Spec Ops would just love that! I‟d be court-martialed so fast—” He broke off and glared at her. “You‟ve been lying to me.”

“It wasn‟t a lie,” she insisted. “I told you I could take care of myself if I wanted to!”

“What was that?” he wanted to know. “Some kind of telekinesis? You can move shit with your mind, Ravenna!”

“Shh!” she hushed him worriedly, looking toward the front door and knowing that Justice was awake and alert across the hall. “Yes, I can move things with my mind. A great many things.

I can do things you probably can‟t even imagine—that‟s how strong it is! But I won‟t give that kind of weapon to just anyone, now will I? I can‟t show it to anyone! I didn‟t even want to show it to you! I didn‟t want to put you in the position of having to decide between keeping a secret I have and reporting honestly to your superiors. Once I know I can trust the people around me, then maybe I‟ll tell them about it. I‟m hoping I can trust you not to say anything.”

“Fuck!” he swore violently, running agitated hands through his hair. “It doesn‟t matter.

As soon as he talks to anyone else, they‟re going to yank me out of here.”

“I won‟t let them. I won‟t let that happen!” She reached out and smacked her hand against the panel, lighting the room. “Stay here with him. I‟ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” he demanded.

“Just let me handle this!”

Rave marched out of their quarters and headed straight for Ender and Fallon‟s room. The last thing she wanted was to wake up her testy brother and bring him in on this, but she doubted that she was going to get that lucky. She waited impatiently for Ender to answer the door call, and wasn‟t surprised when Justice came out of her quarters as well.

“What‟s going on?” she asked.

“Not here,” Rave silenced her as the door finally opened to reveal a tousled Ender with a pistol in his hand. “I need Fallon. Right now.”

Ender didn‟t bother to question her. He hurried back to where the boys‟ rooms were and came back with Fallon. As expected, Kith was also awake, his empathic senses too keen to miss the emotional uproar going on right outside his door. Rave turned to Justice. “You might as well get Lasher and the others and have them come to our quarters. We have trouble and I have the solution.”

She grabbed up Fallon‟s hand and marched him back across the hall.

Minutes later, everyone was awake and staring down at the assassin who had come for Bronse. He was still out cold as he lay there on the floor, but that would change.

“Fallon, wake him up.” She reached out a hand, spreading a palm wide, using her power to hold the turncoat down to the floor. They all knew they were looking at an IM soldier.

Possibly even ETF by the look of him and if the stealth he had used to get past Justice was anything to go by. He probably hadn‟t even really made a noise in the outer room. Rave had probably been awakened by her own abilities, the warning coming to her in the most likely way to prompt her to get up and act.