Tessie leaned forward to kiss him, again, as Job maneuvered them over to the bed. Someone had stripped the sheets off of it, so he toppled her right onto the bare mattress. That broke through his haze for a moment. Really
not
the most romantic accommodations for the first time he Phazed with his Match. Tessie deserved more.
Job pulled back long enough to frown slightly, trying to rein in his swirling powers. “We could stop and find someplace else to do this...” He trailed off as the Earth energy tightened to the point where his eyes nearly crossed. It didn’t like him attempting to halt the Phazing, even temporarily.
“
Stop?!
” Tessie panted. “Are you drunk? We’re not fuckin’ stopping, Job.” She began to work the zipper of his pants. “This time we go all the way, understand? I can’t wait anymore.” She arched up against him and let out a small sound of frustration when the zipper stuck. “Stop being so thoughtful and concentrate on getting outta your clothes. Why do you have so many clothes on?”
Job’s heart turned over in his chest for no reason except Tessie made him happy. “Tess, I really, really love you.”
“Thanks. Take your pants off.”
Job laughed. He never imagined laughing the first time he Phazed with his Match, but then he never imagined being with someone as perfect as Tessie. This woman was the entire reason he was alive. Job moved back from Tessie just far enough to deal with his trousers
Tessie’s bright, dazzling powers swirled around him. The deeper pulse of the Earth forces slid against her bubbling energy and caused Job’s hands to shake from the force of it. He finally got the pants off and shoved them aside.
Tessie brushed her hair back from her face, her attention riveted on his erection. “This is
such
a good idea. How did I let you talk me out of Phazing right from the get-go?”
Job snorted. “Think back to our medicinal petting in the kitchen, Tess. I had to beg, bargain, and pray to even get
that
far.” He stared down at her stretched out on his bed. “And, my scheming was
incredibly
worth it, too.”
“Yeah, yeah. You completely manipulated me, honey. I was a naive pawn to your lechery.” Tessie shifted backwards on the mattress and parted her legs. “Shit.” She bit her bottom lip. “Can you gloat later? The energy is so tight.”
Her chest was going up and down as she tried to catch her breath. Her breasts heaving. Bouncing. Job stared at them and then at the warm, wet center of her, trying to concentrate above the roar in his head.
“It’s gonna get tighter. I’m trying to hold the powers back, but they’ll get free when we Phaze.” He didn’t even try to resist the urge to touch her. His hand slid against her core, just caressing. “God, you’re so soft.” He whispered, again.
Tessie gave a whimper and dug her heels into the mattress. “Job...?” Her voice broke and she pressed closer to him. “Okay, seriously. Don’t hold the Earth powers back anymore. I really, really need to hurry, now.” And, just in case, he missed that subtle urging, her hand came up to pet the sensitive green streak in his temple. “Please, Job.” Her fingers tugged at hair enticingly. “I want you inside of me.”
Job closed his eyes and his control slipped a bit. God, she was bad. He loved it. “Tess.” He gasped. “Tess, don’t...”
There was a pulse of Earth energy and Tessie gave a chocked cry. “Job! Yes, yes, yes, yes,
yes
.” Her tight entrance gave an appreciative ripple of pleasure against his fingers and grew even wetter. “Just like that, but
more
.”
Tessie’s body slid against his body. Her energy slid against his energy. Her hand slid against his hair. They really needed to hurry. She was right. They could go slow next time. Job’s hand continued to rub against Tessie’s hot flesh, even as he braced himself over her. Still, he felt like he had to give her one more chance to back out.
“Alright. I’m going to release the energy. When I do, it’ll combine with your powers and I don’t think we’ll be able to stop the full Phazing. So be sure, Tess. Once it happens, there’s nothing that can undo it. Be really sure.”
Violet eyes flashed up to lock on his. “Job, I think I was sure of you the first time you said, ‘I see’ in that ‘what the hell is she doing in my house?’ tone. You’re
it
for me, honey.” She kissed him softly. “You make me feel safe and like I belong. I almost risked the entire universe for you and I’d do it again in a
second
, because I love you with everything in me. You’re my Match. I’m very sure of it. So, release the energy before I start thinking that
you’re
a tease.”
Job dropped his forehead against hers. He wanted to say something –
anything
-- that might make him worthy of someone so special. Instead, he just released his barriers and let the Earth energy collide with hers.
It exploded like an atomic bomb, levelling everything that had come before and nearly lighting the air itself on fire with its force.
The Earth powers flowed into Tessie’s bright, sparkling energy and just... ignited. Their powers slammed into each other, swirling and combining into something new. It lit up the room and burned though Job’s bloodstream like lava. Like passion and love and life itself. It grew bigger and bigger, building into a symbiotic whole that was more beautiful than Job could have believed.
It was the closest that he would ever get to Gaia.
“JOB!” Tessie wailed. “Holy
shit!
” She didn’t order him to hurry or plead with him to go faster. Instead, she somehow flipped him over so she was on top and just impaled herself on him in one smooth movement. “Oh God,
yes!
”
It was Job turn to curse. “Holy shit.” He echoed. He gripped her waist and found it in him to laugh, even though the exquisite torture. “You’re spectacular, Tess.” There was real wonder in his voice.
She leaned down to kiss him and Job felt everything good and clean in the world pouring into him. All the hope and connections and colors of the universe just filled him, tying him to Tessie and her to him. Their separate energies combined into something so new and perfect that Job was momentarily blinded by it.
Then, he just couldn’t focus on anything but the feel of Tessie over him.
She came with a rush of power and a cry that made him feel invincible. She met his eyes and beamed at him like he’d found the cure for the Fall. That was all it took for Job to follow her. He exploded inside of her and swore to God he saw fireworks. Everything just came together like it was meant to be.
Which it was.
Tessie was his Match and he was hers and they belonged together. Their energies were no longer two, but a single whole with all the pieces in place.
It was perfect.
Tessie made a satisfied sound and slid down to rest against his chest.
They lay that way for a long moment, recuperating.
“Job?”
He still wasn’t sure he could speak at that point, but he managed a hoarse, “Yes?”
“Are you alive?”
“I don’t know. If I’m dead, though... I died happy.”
She snickered and tilted her head to smile at him. “Phazing
totally
comes natural to us. I think we could already go pro at it.” Her lips found the corner of his mouth. “Of course, we should still practise it
a lot
.”
“Tess, it’s just become my career goal.” He brushed a palm over her hair and looked around. “But, next time I’m pretty sure I can improve the ambiance for you. We need a bed with sheets. Maybe a room that hasn’t been ransacked.”
Tessie stroked his chest. “Oh, I don’t need that stuff.” She drawled. “Stick with me, honey. I can teach you to appreciate the messy, fun, finer things in life.”
“You already have. You make me alive.” Job sighed contentedly and soaked in the pleasure of her touch. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t lonely or cut off, but... complete. And filled with such joy that Job felt truly,
truly
blessed. “Which reminds me, I got you something.”
“A gift?”
“Yes.”
“Really? You got me a gift?”
“Nia told me to buy you something pretty, so I did. This morning, while I was waiting for you to wake-up, I went out for it. I just didn’t know how to give it to you.” Job leaned over the side of the bed to snag the cuff of his pants and drag them closer. Rooting around in his pocket he came up with a velvet jewelry box. “You lived with the humans for so long,” he flipped it open and held it out for her, “I thought you’d understand their traditions and what they mean.”
Tessie stared down at the engagement ring for a long moment. “That’s a massively big diamond.” She finally whispered.
“Well, I have an excellent credit rating.”
Her eyes travelled up to his and Job realized they were damp. “You bought this for me this morning? Before we went to Mayport Beach?”
“I did.” Job felt suddenly unsure. “I saw your necklace and I knew you must like jewelry. I even asked you about it, remember? Last night.”
Tessie sniffed like she was trying not to cry.
“So... do you like it?”
Tessie gave a short laugh and batted his arm. “Who wouldn’t like a boulder sized diamond? Of course, I like it!” She wiped at her cheeks. “I just... I can’t believe you bought this for me
before
you knew that I was really your Match.”
“You make me alive.” Job repeated firmly. “I love you. That’s not the Match. It’s Tessie. I would have wanted you, either way.”
She beamed at him and held out her hand. “Well, now you’re stuck with me, honey. So, put the ring on me and I’ll get redressed.”
“Don’t bother doing that on my account.”
“How can I strip the clothes off, again, if I don’t put them back on? This time I’m thinking you should rip the bra off of me with your teeth.”
Job blinked, imagining that and not finding any flaws with the plan. “Good idea.” He slid the ring onto her finger and grinned. “You were worth waiting a thousand years for, Tess.”
Three Weeks Later
When disaster strikes, some people accept what they cannot change and endure it. Other people never accept anything other than total victory, even if it means breaking Elemental laws, defying Gaia, and burning their lives to the ground in the process. It’s the stubborn, line-crossing, fuck-ups of this world who change history.
Daphne, of the Time House- “After the Fall: A History of the Dark War”
“So, it’s official. Because you’re a total fuck-up, Kay’s incapacitated. Completely useless. Probably forever.” Saxon glared over at Gion. “Nice work, asshole. Kingu can’t wake her up. He says he’s tried everything, now. She’s
gone
and we’re out our strongest ally.”
Gion looked right at Saxon. “Poor Kay.” He added more sugar to his coffee and smirked. “Why do the good always die so young?”
“She’s not dead! She’s in a mystical coma or something and it’s
your
fault!” Saxon roared. “You didn’t even know that it was really that bitch Teja in here and not the Quintessence! We chased her all over and gave Tessie a chance to get to Kay. All because of
you!
”
“Teja took advantage of my blind patriotism.” Gion sighed. “I
so
wanted to capture the Quintessence for our king. I’ve always been too trusting.”
Helping Tessie had made his life even more of a living hell than usual.
Air House flunkies were constantly taunting Gion about Teja and the Quintessence “tricking” him. Isaacs nagged him, insisting that they had to appease Parald or they’d both be dead. The rebels were getting stronger amid the discontent.
And, always, there was Ty.
Everyone wanted him to kidnap the Water Queen. Parald’s ranting demands for his ex-Match became more adamant by the hour. Isaacs’ whining set his teeth on edge. Saxon began to tell Parald that
he
could do a better job of hunting her down.
Things were coming to a head. Gion could feel the walls closing in.
“You son-of-a-bitch. I can see right through your bullshit.” Saxon jabbed a finger at him. “You don’t deserve to be an Air House general. You don’t even deserve to be walking around free, you murderer.”
Gion’s head snapped around to pin him with a deadly look. Very few people had the balls to call him that anymore. Saxon grew bolder all the time, pushing for a confrontation. Soon, the two of them would have it out and Gion would take another life. Deaths didn’t really bother him, anymore, but the endless fighting to stay alive wore him out.
Gion was tired.
Slipping.
All he really wanted was a chance to relax. But, he couldn’t do anything except hang on and…
Help me!
Gion heard Ty’s voice in his head, calling for him. It was always like that. He couldn’t explain it. He didn’t even want to. He just always knew when Ty was in real trouble.
He had to get to her.
Now.
The cup fell from his hand, crashing against the stone floor. Gion locked onto Ty in his mind, trying to jump right to her. That was another strange glitch of the connection he felt with the girl. He could always find her when she called him.
“Jesus!” Saxon swore fluidly as coffee and bits of ceramic hit his legs. “What the hell is your problem, dickwad?”
Gion ignored that.
When he tried to get to Ty, nothing happened. Which didn’t make any sense. He could jump into any realm he chose. Only Job exceeded his powers.
Unless, Ty was somewhere that Gion
couldn’t
jump to from here. Unless, she was already
in
the Air Kingdom.
Isaacs
.
Gion’s eyes widened.
He turned and stalked out of the room.
“Where are you going, now?” Saxon called. “What? Are you having some kind of breakdown?”
Gion didn’t even hear that.
He didn’t run. He couldn’t draw attention to himself.
Too many people in the Air House watched him, even on normal days. He kept his face impassive. Kept his steps measure. Kept everything externally normal. But, he couldn’t stop his heart from racing or the panic from suffocating him.
Ty was in the Air Kingdom. Trapped and at the mercy of Parald.
Gion made his way upstairs, the trip taking far too long. Every second ate at him like acid, his desperation mounting. He’d screwed up and Ty would pay for it, unless he found her quickly.
He burst into Isaacs’ room without bothering to knock.
The other man sat on the edge of his bed, staring at nothing.
“I had a feeling I’d be seeing your smiling face.” Isaacs gaze stayed fixed on the blank stone wall for a beat and then he flashed Gion a sideways look. “After all your bitching and moaning about how hard it was to capture Ty, I did it in -like- five minutes. It was
simple
. You wanna tell me again what a loyal solider you are?”
Gion’s response to that was short and to the point. He slammed Isaacs into the ceiling. The Air energy picked the other man up and propelled Isaacs ten feet off the ground, pinning him there.
“Holy shit!” Isaacs’ eyes wide, not just in fear but with something like wonder. “Jesus, how are you doing that? I didn’t know anybody but Job could do something so…”
“Where is she?” Gion closed the door behind him and stared up at Isaacs. “Where’d you put her? Is she with Parald?”
There was no need to ask who “her” was.
“No. He was busy getting a blow-job from his loyal subjects when we got back. I didn’t want to disturb him.”
That actually penetrated Gion’s haze of frantic terror. “
Disturb
him?”
Ridiculous.
Parald had been after Ty for years. He would have left any other woman in a millisecond to have her, no matter how skilled the mouth on his latest conquest. Everyone knew that.
Was Isaacs lying?
He had to be.
Gion dropped Isaacs several feet and then crashed him against the ceiling, again. “I’m not in the mood for you to fuck with me, right now. Trust me. You don’t want to test how far I’ll go for that woman.” It was a flat statement of fact.
“I’m not fucking with you, you moron.” Isaacs struggled against Gion’s energy for a moment and then gave-up with a sigh. “Jesus.” He repeated. “I don’t know how you’re doing that, but,
if
I help you, you’re gonna have to promise to do even worse to Saxon.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I see the way things are headed around here. I want you to help me get rid of Saxon before he gets rid of us.” Isaacs arched a brow. “It’s just a matter days before he makes his move. I can feel it. You’re
obviously
strong enough to help me stop the son-of-a-bitch.”
Gion didn’t have time for this. “Where’s Ty?”
“You want the woman. I’ve known that for a long while. Anyone paying attention would see you’re obsessed with her.” Isaacs spoke quickly as if he realized that Gion was reaching the end of his patience. “You wouldn’t bring her here and you wouldn’t listen to me. I
had
to do this, to get your attention.”
“I will fucking kill you.”
“Look, I didn’t take her to Parald immediately, because I’ll
help
you, okay? It’s not like I
want
him to have Ty. I
like
the kid! We can make a deal. I’ll help you get Ty out of here and you can keep her for yourself, so long as you agree to help me kill Saxon or Parald or
both
, so we…”
“
Where. Is. She?
” Gion interrupted savagely. Each word was delivered with another smash into the stone ceiling.
Blood poured from the back of Isaacs’ skull, dripping down onto the floor below. “God! Calm down, I put her in the dungeon. That’s all. She’s fine.”
Under other circumstances, Gion might have rolled his eyes at that cliché. He yanked his powers back and dropped Isaacs like a stone. Ignoring the shouted cursing as Isaacs hit the ground, Gion headed out the door.
Dungeon. They’d left Ty in the fucking dungeon. Idiots.
“Shit.” Isaacs pulled himself off the ground and gave his head a clearing shake. “Gion, wait! You can’t just go
down
there. There are guards. They’ll fucking
see
you. You need to stop and think.”
Gion was beyond rational thought. He had to get Ty away from the Air Kingdom. That was the only thing that mattered to him. He stalked back into the hall.
“Parald will know that you did this!” Isaacs shouted after him. “They’ll be no way you can hide it or explain it away. I can’t believe you’re being so
stupid
. You’re acting crazy!”
Gion knew that. He’d always known that his obsession with Ty would be the death of him. But, it didn’t matter. Not at all.
Ty, of the Water House was the only thing that he’d ever believed in.
Urgency beat at him. Against his better judgment, Gion felt his steps growing faster as bounded down the stairs.
He needed to find Ty.
*****
The manacles in the dungeon were made of plastic.
Thick, white plastic.
Plastic wasn’t an Element. Phases couldn’t manipulate it. Instead, it bit into Ty’s left wrist, anchoring her to the stone wall. No matter how she twisted, it kept her chained like a dog by about two feet of plastic chain. Ty ripped off several layers of skin trying to squeeze the solid cuff over her palm, but it wouldn’t budge.
Shit.
Angry tears burned the back of her eyes. Ty dropped her head forward so it thudded against the damp rocks of her cell.
Help me, help me, help me
.
The words chanted in her mind, instinctively reaching out for somebody. Only no one could come. She knew that. It would take a while for her family to realize that she was gone. Then, Tessie would need to get them past the Air House barriers. There would be a fight. More people would die because of her.
She couldn’t handle that.
Ty needed to get out of this herself.
She’d hack her hand off at the wrist, if she only had something sharp enough to do the cutting. She’d thought about using the lens of her glasses, but they wouldn’t be able to cut through bone.
The cell was eight or nine feet wide. Like all self-respecting dungeons, it contained mold and creepy bugs that Ty would just as soon not examine too closely. Other than that, there was just stone and the sound of dripping water.
She had to do something. Had to figure out a way to escape. She’d do anything to get away from Parald.
Ty would rather die than be in his clutches.
This was her fault. She’d been getting too complacent. Too secure in the belief that Gion would’ve already taken her to Parald if he ever planned on doing it. She’d felt safer. Plus, the human drug counseling helped far more than Ty could have guessed. In the past few weeks, she’d been seeing things clearer and feeling stronger. She didn’t take the useless anxiety pills, anymore. She’d only had a few panic attacks.
Ty had just wanted to be
normal
, for once.
Just sit by the vast ocean in the human realm and quietly think.
That had been a mistake.
Parald’s men had gotten her. Not Gion, but Isaacs.
Brokk would blame himself. Her poor bodyguard took his job seriously and Ty was so hard to watch. She was always defiant at the worse times. She
had
to escape if for no other reason than Brokk didn’t deserve to feel like a failure because of her screw up.
Ty needed a weapon.
She’d kill Parald the second she got a chance and for that she needed a weapon. Her own powers weren’t strong enough. Water Phases’s energy never worked well in a fight. They were a peaceful House. And Ty had the honor of being one of the weakest Water Phases in all recorded history.
Too weak.
She was always too weak.
Ty swallowed against more tears and struggled to think. She was smarter than Parald. She knew that. She could beat him. She just couldn’t give into panic.
Already, her heart pounded irregularly. Her breath sawed in and out. The tips of her fingers tingled. She couldn’t breathe. No air. All signs of an attack.
No, no, no, no, no.
Ty’s jaw locked.
She could fight this. All her struggles, all her efforts to overcome her panic attacks, were for this very moment.
This
was the reason she’d been trying so hard to be stronger. Because, in her heart, Ty always knew that Parald would find her.