Ultimate Warriors (14 page)

     
He
darkened.
"Nothing.
Nothing
that you haven’t already told us."

     
Julien
dropped into the chair closest to his desk, rubbing his neck. "You all but
ruined my ability to read the strands and got nothing in return?" he asked
acidly. "Why did you waste my time?"

     
"All
but ruined it?" Adrien questioned. "Then you got something?"

     
"Despite your meddling."
It wouldn’t do to claim
that he hadn’t gotten anything. Adrien might decide to reassign him. "The
fifth Grellan is named Starfire. He is a boy. I’d estimate him at roughly
seventeen years old, but he’s powerful. He also has an ailment that I haven’t
managed to nail down yet."

     
Adrien
nodded.
"Anything else?"

     
"Everything
else was muddled, trampled. Sending in the others destroys the spin and weave
of the strands. Not for the others but for Starfire and Starseeker."

     
"Very well.
I will give you an untainted field next
time. You have my word. In trade—" Adrien stroked his chin, seemingly deep
in thought.

     
Julien
raised an eyebrow. The old man knew better than to place pressure on an
operative when he wanted something. "Yes?"

     
"Find
out how they travel in and out of the city without being detected by the
checkpoints and identi-card checks."

     
"I’ll
do my best. You know I can only read what is in the strands."

     
"I
know. Get some sleep. You look worn."

     
Julien
smiled weakly and left the office.

     
He
ambled toward his quarters, taking time to watch the younger cadets training
with their mentors. Most operatives were given classes to teach once they
graduated from police service. Julien was only assigned to the most stubborn of
the cadets. Anything else was deemed a waste of his time. At the moment, no one
was considered enough of a problem to be sent his way. On some level, it
bothered Julien that it was considered a punishment to be one of his students.

     
Sky
Master had three fourth-year students in the smaller skydome, the one with mesh
blocking the open sky-panels and a padded floor. Water Demon had her hands full
with a reluctant first-year sea-mutant. Many students feared their powers and
their trainers, at first. It wasn’t unusual, but that didn’t make ignoring
their distress any easier.

     
Julien
sighed and turned into the training room. The strands of fear from this one
were especially strong. If Julien didn’t step in now, the child would be sent
to the old man, then most likely, assigned to Julien. If he acted now, he might
be able to save her the embarrassment and terror of facing Adrien.

     
Water
Demon nodded to him. "You need to speak to me, Soulchaser?" she
rasped. As always, she sounded out of breath. The strain of forcing human
speech past her uncooperative body style was not something he felt she should
attempt.

     
The
child looked at him, stark fear in her pretty lavender eyes.

     
Julien
sank to his knees, ignoring the seawater soaking his pantlegs; the heavy liquid
pungent in proteins, electrolytes, and minerals that even the purification
system for drinking water couldn’t completely remove. He shook his head,
reaching to uncover the child’s face. She wasn’t a gilled mutant like Water
Demon was, and her cover was equipped to let her breathe underwater.

     
"Her
name is Sealife," Water Demon offered.

     
Sealife
darkened, her eyes disappearing behind the frosted sea-lenses that most
sea-mutants had. It was a protective response that they learned to overcome
with time. Sealife forced the lenses back, going a deeper crimson in
embarrassment that she had succumbed to that childlike response. Children can
be very cruel, Patrice. Yes. If the other young cadets had seen that, they
would have been cruel to her, though they might still do it themselves in the
same situation.

     
"Am
I in trouble?" she asked meekly.

     
He
smiled. "No. Even if you were, I am not your trainer or one of the
trustees. People don’t get assigned to me until they have been sent to the
trustees. I simply want you to be at ease with your training."
And with me.
I don’t want the children to fear me.

     
Julien
closed his eyes and stroked her bare cheek, letting Sealife’s strands weave
into his being. She was ten, typical for a first-year cadet. Her powers were
primarily in communication with sea animals. The change was jarring, the loss
of her life and identity. She was unhappy at the Academy as most first-
years were, knowing
that they would train for eight years
and serve their lifetimes, always alone.

     
Sealife
was more alone than most. She came to the Academy as an orphan. Julien felt for
her. When he left his home, he tried to convince himself that he’d see his
mother again. The law said he would. The old man said he would. But the old man
and the law couldn’t hold a candle to fate. Before his first visiting day
arrived, Patrice was dead, the victim of a murder that was never solved. His
trainers claimed that Julien had simply been a victim of circumstance. There
was no chance that he was a precognitive. The tests never revealed that he was,
and Julien was thankful for that. That was one power he had never wanted.

     
He
leaned close to her ear, peeling the synth-cloth back over her deep brown hair
without opening his eyes. "Do you trust me?" he whispered.

     
She
sucked in her breath in surprise, latching onto his hidden meaning.
"Yes." She did. She was desperate for someone she could trust.

     
"Then
I will call you Jennifer — when no one else can hear." Julien opened his
eyes as her joy assaulted him. "Would you like that?" he offered loud
enough for Water Demon to overhear.

     
Jennifer
threw her arms around his neck and hugged Julien to her damp body. "Yes.
Thank you, Soulchaser."

     
He
sobered. Julien could trust Jennifer enough to give her his name, but now was
not the time to give the old man a hold over him. Julien had avoided that for
half of his life. "For every deal, payment comes due," he warned her.
"You promise to follow Water Demon’s instructions?"

     
"I
do." Jennifer scrambled to the edge of the seawater pool and straightened
her synth-cloth cover over her head and face. She slid into the water with a
wave at Julien.

     
Water
Demon watched her go, her short, pointed teeth showing in her gaping mouth.
"What did you promise her?"

     
Julien
pushed to his feet. "A little normal conversation," he lied.

     
"Thank
you for your assistance. I would have had to send her to the old man
soon."

     
"Your
unit is your family," he quoted the Academy teachings.

     
Julien left quickly, something nameless eating at his gut.
No. His relationship with Water Demon wasn’t a family. His new friendship with
Jennifer was more of a family than his unit was to him. He’d never considered
telling his unit his true name. It never hurt to hold it back from them. He
wanted to tell Jennifer, and he wanted to tell Angel. What Angel had with her
unit was a family. No one was afraid to use anyone else’s true name.

     
He shook
away that thought. Julien remembered family, though it was a family where he
couldn’t call his father by his true name. He also remembered how fragile that
link was. Julien should have had two more years with his mother, but after the
Grellan killed his father, the old man convinced his mother to turn him over
early — for his protection.

     
Julien
still wondered at that. The Grellan were seldom seen. They seldom killed
Calante. Even if Empathen was one of the rare casualties, why would Julien be
in danger? At the time, he had been nothing but an untrained child.

     
Julien
closed the door to the living quarters, cursing himself for his lack of
patience. It had been ten days since he’d contacted Angel, but it felt like
months. His dreams had been full of nothing but her, and Julien had woken hard
and needing more nights than he cared to remember.

     
He
kicked off his shoes, letting the carpet caress the soles of his feet. The
strands surrounded him, making his senses swim in the flood of knowledge. He
knew these people intimately — all but the two he needed to know. Julien laid
his jacket on the back of a chair, stopping long enough to take in a clear
memory of Angel. She hated blackberries with a passion.

     
Julien
smiled as he unzipped his cover, sliding it off his shoulders. He tossed it
over the jacket then pulled a packet from the pocket. Julien picked up the
beacon, letting it lay heavily in his hand for a long moment. No. Angel wanted
proof of his trust. If he was going to prove that, he had to go to her
conspicuously empty-handed. He shoved the beacon back in the cover pocket and
fingered the condom he still held. Well, not entirely empty-handed.

     
He took
a deep breath and strode to the bedroom door. Her scent tantalized him. The
feeling of her body surrounded him. Julien closed his eyes, giving himself up
to the connection.

     
Angel’s
mouth was on his; tasting, teasing, demanding. Her hands traced over his chest
and pushed, guiding him back to the door. Julien moaned as her mouth left his.
She nipped at his jaw, rubbing the tips of her breasts over his male nipples.
Julien’s half-erect cock rose, matching his skyrocketing need. He bent his
knees, capturing her mouth as he rubbed the head in the moisture gathering for
him. Angel gasped as she rocked over him in invitation.

     
"You
know what I want," Julien whispered. He reminded himself that he should
remain in control, but something about Angel defied that concept.

     
"No.
We can’t. Not unless you trust me."

     
Julien
cupped her buttocks, pulling Angel’s body tight to his. The urge to ease inside
her beat at his tenuous self-control. He wanted it too much, much more than was
prudent. And, she’d refused. Julien couldn’t take her, even this way, without
permission.

     
He
nipped at her ear. "What do you want from me? Why do you want me to come
to you like this?" A sneaking suspicion that she was trying to drive him
crazy settled in his mind.

     
"You
have to trust me."

     
"I
can’t. You know that I can’t."

     
"You’re
here with me. You’re completely unguarded." Her smile widened. "You
even left your beacon behind, yet I have made no move to injure you. Part of
you wants to trust me."

     
Angel
rocked against his length, coating him in the sensation of her fluids. "Or
maybe you just want this," she mused.

     
Yes. Oh,
gods alive, yes! "No. Trust me, and I will trust you."

     
"How?"

     
"Tell
me how you travel. How do you get in and out of the city without being
seen?"

     
"When
you trust me completely, I will trust you with that." Angel bit at his lower
lip. "Ask something else," she invited.

     
"How
did you form your family?" The question was out before Julien analyzed why
he would want to know it.

     
Angel
looked at him in surprise. She kissed him, her tongue tangling with his. Julien
gasped as memories of Angel and Anthony stumbling through the wilderness sifted
into his mind. They were ragged, dirty, and bloodied. Debra found them and took
them to the others.

     
Julien
nodded.
"And your parents?"

     
"Dead.
Killed by the Calante."
There was no animosity in that statement, just a deep sadness.

     
"Interesting,"
he noted. Julien found her breast more interesting, the nipple turning to a
peak at his touch.

     
"Is
it?" she asked, mirroring motions with the same results from his body.

     
Julien
met her eyes. "It is
.."
He watched her for a
response, carefully gauging her emotions in the strands that surrounded them.
"Your parents were killed by Calante. My father was killed by
Grellan."