Ultimate Warriors Read online

  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.

  Chapter Four

  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 e
lse," 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."

  Angel gasped, her eyes going wide. Strands of disbelief and confusion wound around her, almost but not completely masking a single strand of sadness and anger entwined.

  "Very interesting, don’t you think?" he asked.

  She nodded. "You must hate us," she whispered.

  Julien stroked her breast again. He should hate them, but with Angel in his arms, her consciousness touching his, hate was the last thing on his mind. "I want you," he admitted.

  Angel eased down his body. "Trust me as I trusted you."

  He barely had time to question what she meant when Angel’s mouth closed around his cock and slid deep around him. His hands fisted against the door, fisted on a condom that Julien vaguely realized he should put on. There was no fear of infection or pregnancy. Rather, without a physical body encasing him, Julien would come into the air, a mess he would have to eradicate later.

  He watched her taking him into the heat of her mouth, encasing him in a slice of paradise. This had always been his favorite way to come. Julien bit his lip. The condom be damned! He’d scrub at the stain before he’d make her stop what she was doing.

  Julien panted, as she became more insistent. The suction of her mouth increased, inviting him to forget his careful control. Long red, ringlets of her hair teased his inner thigh, and one of her breasts brushed the skin above his knee. Angel’s fingers traced the taut muscles of his legs, cupping the swollen sac beneath his cock. Her fingernails scraped lightly as she forced him deep inside.

  His lungs ceased to function for a moment, and bright colors swam before his eyes. The instant of release crashed over him. Julien allowed a shuddering groan to pass his lips as he gave in to the need to surrender control to her. Her mouth continued to move, forcing his body past the peak and toward another.

  Julien sank to his knees, and Angel went with him. He wound his hands in her hair, watching her take him ruthlessly. "Please," he begged. Anything. Almost anything, he corrected himself.

  The second climax came faster. There was a vague sensation of heat — a realization of fluid on his hands. Julien’s mind argued that she wasn’t real, but that thought was washed away as aftershocks shook him. Angel was real. She was more real than any person Julien had met since he started his training. There were no masks, no fake names, no fake emotions or lack of them.

  She released his length and pushed up his body, her breasts pressing to the wall of his chest and her breath hot on his mouth. Angel teased at his lips, sucking in first the top and then the bottom slowly. That simply, he wanted her again.

  Her hand feathered over his cheek. "You are completely unguarded, at your weakest physically and emotionally," she reminded him. "I want nothing but your trust." Angel kissed him passionately, stroking at his body. "Trust me, Soulchaser."

  "What must I do to prove that I trust you?" Almost anything…

  "You know how a Calante shows trust. Prove you trust me, and you will have everything you desire most."

  "What do I desire most?" he asked weakly.

  /"Family. Freedom. The truth." She brushed her curls over his half-grown cock. "And me."

  Julien nodded. She knew everything he wanted most, but he had a duty. Julien had taken vows. But, not of my own choice. If I didn’t serve, I would have been hunted down. "I—" I want to. Gods, how I want to.

  Angel nodded. "Come to me again."

  He groaned. Julien wanted her desperately, but having her meant breaking the most sacred of laws, trusting a Grellan and telling her his true name. "I shouldn’t," he replied miserably.

  "You will," she replied confidently. "Even if you don’t desire me that much, you want the other things I’ve offered. You want the truth."

  Julien gathered her close to his body. "I want you," he assured her.

  Angel faded from his arms then from his mind. "When you trust me." She was gone, the last of her strands disappearing with her.

  He growled in frustration. Julien knelt in a dim room, his come on his hands and the carpet. He wanted her desperately. What kind of a damned fool was he that he wanted her this much?

  Julien retrieved a cloth from the bathroom and started cleaning the evidence of his treason. He shouldn’t go to her again, but he would. Angel represented everything Julien wanted, but taking it would make him Grellan like she was.

  * * * *

  Angel launched off of the bed, pulling on her robe. They damn well should have told me, she fumed. She stormed into the main room, taking in the hazy sunshine filtering through the vines over the windows in annoyance.

  Debra looked at her in concern. "What is it?"

  "They told him we killed his father," Angel exploded. "How am I supposed to get him to trust me this way?"

  Paul sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between two callused fingers. "What did you expect them to tell him? The truth?"

  "Soulchaser—" Angel blushed. She wasn’t talking to him now. "Sorry. I have to think of him as Soulchaser. If I don’t, I may say something stupid."

  Debra nodded. "He has to offer his name willingly. The shock of hearing it from you without that step could be catastrophic to him. Julien has not heard his name spoken aloud since the night Jake died."

  "He is so fragile," Angel whispered.

  Paul nodded. "It is what the Calante do to their kind, what the Academies and their service do."

  Debra sighed. "We made a promise to Jake — The adults did, but you are not bound by it. If you would rather not do this—"

  "No," Angel gasped. "No. I owe Jake that much. I — owe Jake everything." She retreated to her room, pressing a shaking hand to her stomach, glad that Anthony was off somewhere with Sylvia and not here to feel her reliving that horrible moment. Even if Angel didn’t want Julien, she owed it to Jake to save his son. The moment Jake placed himself between her and death, Angel vowed as much.

  Chapter Five

  Julien smiled as Jennifer collapsed in a giggling fit. He motioned to the book in her hand. "It’s true. There was a time on Earth when there were no powers. People depended solely on human police and weapons to keep themselves safe. There were wars and violence in the streets — not like we have now. I mean that there were murders every week in any large city you visited. It was a truly frightening way to live."

  "Is that why our people came to Suraden?" she asked solemnly.

  He nodded. "Earth had torn itself apart before the age of the powers. When Dr. Suraden discovered this world, those with the means to make the trip came here for a new life."

  "But there were no powers among them?" she asked curiously.

  "No. There were not. According to the early histories of our world, the powers stayed on Earth to protect those who needed them most."

  "Then how did the powers get here? Did they settle the upheavals on Earth and come to help us?"

  Julien sighed. He’d always thought that even pure humans should be taught the tales. As it was, the only cadets who came to the Academy with a firm grasp of history were those who were raised by parents who were both operatives, those few who chose to live inside the main c
omplex.

  "Every human has within them the potential to mutate to a power — to a higher form of being with the ability to protect. It only took a few dozen generations for the mutants to begin appearing among us, the blessed first few who formed the first Academy."

  Jennifer nodded, taking up the stories she’d only recently learned. "Anicore, who was once known as Calan, Sky Father, who was once known as Thomas, and Mind Mother, who was once known as Grelda."

  He nodded his approval. "Go on."

  "They disagreed. Anicore believed that the Academy should adopt the ideals set forth by the ancients on Earth. Mind Mother wanted to start fresh, to create a new system for a new world. In the end, they battled. Sky Father and the others who supported Anicore gathered in the inner cities and called themselves the Calante. Those who supported Mind Mother mobilized in the outer ring cities and called themselves the Grellan.

  "The tales don’t say why they disagreed. Why would Mind Mother reject a system that had worked so well on Earth? The massive wars before the time of the powers all but destroyed Earth, but humans were gaining peace and prosperity under the powers’ protection."

  "On a broken world that would take centuries to fix, if it could be fixed at all," Julien reminded her. "I don’t know why Mind Mother balked at the system."

  Then why am I questioning it so much lately? It was treason to question the laws that guided the Calante, but the more Julien looked at his existence — at the world he and those like him inhabited, the more seemingly unnecessary hardships he noticed. Was this what the Mind Mother foresaw? Perhaps the Academies on Earth hadn’t been in place long enough to gauge long-term psychological effects.

  Julien shook off that thought. No matter what her reasons, Mind Mother led a civil uprising against the Academy. The battles of the first few generations were bloody and brutal. What possible defense could there be for causing such unrest on a peaceful world?