Blaize and the Maven: The Energetics Book 1 (21 page)

“My parents.” She stopped.

“I know what happened to your parents, Blaize.” He bit into his burger.

“Yeah. I guess the story got around.” She flared for a moment, angry. She gritted her teeth and stabbed at a potato. “There’s more that not many people know. And I’d like to share the whole story with you.”

“You don’t have to. And I know because of my friendship with Marius, nothing more.”
 

She shrugged. “If we’re going to be bound, you need to know it all. It’s the last secret. I think, anyway.”

“And are we?” He’d stopped eating, his eyebrows high. Her anger died as she saw that he had been genuine about his offer to release her from their agreement to be Maven-Adherent.
 

“Yes. It’s the right thing to do. If I—we—can help to protect our whole race, why wouldn’t we?”

“You have the right to say no.”

“I know. I’m making a choice, don’t worry. But you’d better help me train as quickly as possible so I can protect myself. I’m a Warrior—I don’t like it when others have to protect me.” She really hadn’t liked the experience in the alley. She was proud—justifiably—of her fighting abilities. To be beaten like that had been a difficult experience. She needed to know how to beat Indigo when she next came up against her. To bring her in so she couldn’t do that to anyone else.

“You have a great deal of Ajna power. I could sense it when we were in your Haven. It won’t be long before you’re able to create barriers and protect yourself with energetic wardings.” He leaned in towards her, sketching walls in the air with his hands. “But, you can still change your mind. We’ll provisionally schedule the ritual for a couple of days’ time. But promise me you’ll sleep on it. You can still back out. It’s not something to be taken lightly.”

“Fine by me. But the answer will be the same.” She took her own small forkful of food. Her stomach felt tight, knotted. She chewed. She would learn. And she would take Indigo down.
 

Tierra put another spoonful of fried potatoes on Cuinn’s plate. “Eat.”

He did so, digging into them. “This is great.”

Tierra nodded. “Blaize, love, carry on.”

Blaize drew in a deep breath and put her own knife and fork down. “My parents … my parents were Aria McCarthy and Aden Blackfire. A couple very much in love. Eyes only for each other, they were together many decades before they had me.”
 

She shifted in her chair. “When I was nine, my mother went on retreat as she did most years. I was left with her brother, Marius, and my father. One night, I overheard them arguing, and my father stormed out. That was the last time I saw him.”

These were her blackest memories. She’d had a good childhood, before and eventually after this. But this tragedy still incited her anger. She just didn’t know how her father’s energy could have twisted so badly. That he could have committed those terrible actions.
 

And whether that potential is in me, too.

“Later, Marius told me what happened,” she said. “My father’s jealousy had got out of control. He’d made up his mind that my mother wasn’t on retreat, but with a lover. He left the house to find her and bring her back to where she belonged, with him.”

Her pulse sped a little.
Breathe.

“Without her Anahata energy to ground him, his energy overpowered him, and he went Rogue. He found her on her retreat, alone, as she’d said she would be.” Another breath. “A few days later, Marius found the two of them, dead.”

“I’m so sorry Blaize,” Tierra murmured.

“None of this is the point.” Blaize pushed her chair out and stood, adrenalin washing around her body as if she was about to defend herself to the death.
I want to run. To move. Or to fight.
“I’m telling you this because before they were married, a Seer gave them a personal prophecy that not many people are aware of. The prophecy said their marriage was likely to be the source of both great good and great harm. That they would suffer, but that that suffering would bring about a greater positive change in the world. That they still had a choice as to whether or not they married, but the odds weren’t in their personal favour. And that a man would come between them in some way.

“My Father, never that interested in Seers, ignored it, but my mother felt the greater good was worth her suffering, and felt her love for my father would be enough. But, as is often the way with prophecies, the seed planted by the Seer that a man would come between them stayed with my father. Eventually, it was what tipped him into a Rogue state. He was convinced that there was a man. But in fact, the words just meant that the idea of a man would come between them. There was no man.”

She walked over to the back door and threw it open. She stood in the cold draft, breathing deeply.
 

“So I’m not sure how I feel about prophecies. They caused a lot of damage in my own life. And destroyed my parents. They’re twisty things. Slippery, hard to pin down, and cause as much harm as good.”
 

Silence.
 

“I’m sorry Blaize. I had never heard about the prophecy.” Cuinn looked at her with compassion. She rubbed her arms and blamed the cold air for the fact that her body was shaking. She held her elbows and looked away from the cosy scene inside the kitchen. She had a feeling none of them would eat much this evening.

“Thankfully, Marius and Fai adopted me into their family without question and always showed me just as much love as they showed Nixie, their own daughter, and my cousin. You’d love her Tierra. A gorgeous spirit.” She smiled briefly. “And so here we are. With me still wondering, thirty or so years later, what exactly the greater good was that came out of their deaths. Because it all seemed pretty senseless.” She took one hand away from her body, and gestured, palm down. Tiny sparks flew from her hand, her energy making its presence known. She felt a sense of unease and spooled the power tightly inside her. She hadn't shaken off the dreams yet, and she wasn't ready to use her power.

“You can never know.” Cuinn’s words were quiet but gentle. “The butterfly effect is a simplistic idea that explains something very complicated—how one tiny action can leave traces on all kinds of other things. It’s hard to know what the greater good might have been—it could have been something small that affected many people, or perhaps it’s still to come.”

He and Tierra exchanged a thoughtful look, which Blaize caught as she turned back into the kitchen, no longer shaking, some of her adrenalin burned away. “Yeah. Grandmother thought that I must be the greater good. It’s one of the reasons she wanted me trained to be a Guild Leader. But it seems pretty unlikely to me.”

Later that afternoon Cuinn went down to the gym to see what Blaize was doing. She was trained as a Manipura Warrior, and he wanted to see her in action.
 

He told himself it was to see what her skills were like, and whether she might be able to translate some of them into the dreamscape.
Yeah, right.
The thought of that strong, toned body had intruded one too many times on his consciousness in the last few days.
 

He pushed the door to the gym and it opened smoothly, letting a little of the stale air-conditioned air out. He felt the temperature drop as he moved into the space. The sound changed too. The underground gym was soundproofed, and opening the door let out a blast of some kind of alternative rock, high energy and angry.

Blaize pounded on the heavy bag with a number of sharp elbow strikes and punches that looked like some kind of martial art.

Dressed in a black and red sports bra and some kind of tight workout pants that came half-way between her ankle and knee, she moved like danger. Her power was sleek and deadly, and she flew through the moves in a blur. It was a completely different side to her.

He thought she hadn’t noticed him, but after a few minutes of watching her, fire in motion, she stopped. She wiped the sweat from her face with a small towel and turned to him. Her mouth moved, but he couldn’t make out what she said over the music.

But even if he had, he wasn’t sure if he’d have been able to answer. He’d only seen her back as she had been facing the bag up to now. Getting a front-view of her in her workout clothes had given him a punch that was just as effective as any she’d given the bag.

She dripped with sweat, her flame-red hair slicked back in a rough pony tail, and her workout gear showing off every curve on her lean body. He was transfixed. She stepped closer to him, and he wanted to pull her towards him by her hips and press her up against the door behind him.

He was still possessed by the idea when she waved a hand in front of his face in puzzlement. “Cuinn?”
 

He had an image of pushing the sports bra up and licking the sweat off her stomach and breasts.
Where the hell did that come from?
He shook his head and turned away from Blaize. He reached for the music volume knob on the wall behind him.

His cheeks hot, he turned back to her and pushed his hand through his hair.

“Is everything okay?” Blaize held the towel in one hand and her water bottle in the other. “Did you need something?”

“I just came … to check that you were alright.”

Blaize’s frown deepened, and she touched the base of her neck. That drew Cuinn’s eyes down again to the trickle of moisture running down from her neck until he realised and snapped his eyes back up again.
 

“Thanks. But Tierra showed me around when she turned everything on earlier.” She took a drink from the bottle and wiped her face again. “Really, are you okay?”

“I’ll leave you to it.” He turned quickly—and walked into the door.
 

“Bollocks.” Luckily he’d been leading with his shoulder, so the damage wasn’t too bad. He checked his arm, but it all seemed fine. Apart from the bruise he’d probably have tomorrow, as well as the gaping wound in his pride.

A muffled laugh came from behind him. “Still okay?”

“I’ll be fine.”
Just as soon as I get out of here.

“Maybe you should do some exercise. You seem to be a bit off. More grounding needed?”

“Thanks. I’m fine.” He turned back to face her. She was much closer than she had been. So close, in fact that they were almost touching. He could smell her, very faintly, spicy with hints of sandalwood. He looked down at her, and she put one hand up to touch his face.
 

“Really? Because I have to say Cuinn, you don’t seem … fine.” That lilting laughter was still in her voice, and he closed his eyes for a second as skin met skin. As always, she was hot to the touch, and his whole being focused on that one spot on his cheek, his bruised shoulder forgotten.

When he opened his eyes again, her other hand moved up to his face, and before he could form any words, she’d drawn him down to her mouth.

And then, all thought vanished. There was just sensation. Her soft lips. Her mouth, sweet and spicy at the same time. Her scent, the sandalwood much stronger now.

At first he just dipped his head as her fingers guided and let her lead the kiss. And then her tongue flicked out, gently insistent, and he parted his lips to give her access. Their tongues danced, coiling around each other in a heated sensual tangle.

And he lost his mind again.

He brought his arms up swiftly and pulled her in towards him. She gasped, and he took the opportunity to explore her mouth more thoroughly.
 

She put one arm around his waist, and rested it just above the jut of his hip, and pressed their bodies close. His hands roamed around her back, especially the damp and naked skin between the waist of her workout pants and her top.
 

She moaned. The sound was erotic, and he wanted to worship her, to lay her down on the floor and praise every inch with his tongue and fingers. He wanted to hear her moan again, more frequently and with renewed volume.
 

And just as he was considering doing exactly that, her hands swept down his back, below his hips, and he lost his reason again. But as quickly as she’d shifted them down and brushed his ass, she moved her hands again, and pushed and spun him at the same time. It left him a few feet away, dazed and confused, with her now between him and the door.

This time she didn’t stifle the laugh.
 

“I thought I’d better help ground you. I’m going to shower now. See you at dinner.” And with a grin, she blew him a kiss and disappeared through the door, leaving him staring after her.

***

Perhaps Cuinn was right, and Blaize needed to think more about strategy. It probably hadn’t been that clever to kiss him. She was starting to think she might be quite comfortable having a sexual relationship with him without any other complications, but somehow she doubted a casual relationship would be enough for him.

And then there was the issue of Sophea. She hadn’t been thinking of Sophea when she’d kissed him, and Blaize was damn sure he hadn’t been either. But he was sure to afterwards. It had been one of the reasons she’d decided to eat alone this evening. That, and she was sure Tierra had some kind of radar for this kind of thing, and Blaize wasn’t ready to discuss it.