The Light-Field (9 page)

Mythric whacked Zeven across the head once again. ‘See!'

Zeven grabbed Mythric's wrist tightly. ‘Hit me again and I'll rearrange your face. You
know
I can do that.'

Clearly, Mythric didn't like that mental picture and sat back to admire the private garage their car was being deposited in. There was room alongside this for another vehicle, although the space was currently empty.

‘Thank the heavens I don't have to leave my baby in a public car park,' Zeven sighed, as the garage door closed behind them.

Two doors led from the lock-up — one had Zeven's apartment number on it, and the other led to Mythric's accommodation.

‘We should order Miss DeCadie a cab,' Mythric suggested, obviously afraid of how much information she would wrangle out of Zeven once left alone with him.

‘I'm really not in any hurry,' she assured them winningly.

Zeven looked back to Mythric with a big grin on his face, as he swiped his key card and his apartment door opened. ‘See you end of the week, old man.'

Mythric was not inclined to trust him, but Zeven was not his responsibility beyond work hours. ‘Whatever you say, boss,' he replied flatly as he unlocked his place, entered, and closed the door behind him.

 

‘You're the boss?' Aurora queried, as she entered the apartment and ascended a narrow set of stairs behind the pilot, who was a little unsteady on his feet.

‘We're partners, but as I tend to do what I — Whoa!' He stopped at the top of the stairs to admire his huge bedroom with sweeping views of the starlit desert sky.

‘It feels like we're in space!' Aurora came to a stop beside her host to marvel at the view also.

‘Just what I was thinking,' he concurred with a smile, obviously pleased about that. ‘I'm going to live in space one day.'

‘Could it be better than this? This room is bigger than my entire apartment!' Aurora turned in circles, taking it all in. ‘Whatever you do for the government, they certainly seem to appreciate it.'

Zeven dropped his bags to approach a rail that ran across the end of the room where the window was located, and look down into the rather large void between. ‘Check this out.' He waved Aurora over.

The huge window continued down another level, where it split the living area from the outside balcony.

‘This is a loft,' Aurora stated with envy.

To each side of the bedroom was a door. To the left was a large bathroom, which featured a floor-to-ceiling window that looked out to the larger window with the night sky view.

‘So this must be,' Zeven staggered to the door on the right side of the room, ‘the stairs down.'

Aurora clapped, delighted as she followed him down to the living area; its huge windows gave the illusion that the apartment was much bigger that it actually was.

‘There's a spa pool on your balcony.' Aurora gawked at the setup through the window, as Zeven checked out the bar that ran off the end of the open kitchen.

‘Yes!' he cheered upon discovering it was fully stocked, and having perused the huge selection of intoxicating substances on offer, he opted for a bottle of water. ‘Can I get you something?'

Aurora smiled at the query, realising there was nothing that could make this moment any better. ‘I'm just happy to be here.'

‘You say that as if you expected to find me?' He took another few long gulps of his water, while she considered her response.

Her head was telling her to shut up at this point, but her heart was urging her to be open and honest. ‘I'm just going to level with you, Airman Gudrun, and if you arrest me, so be it,' she began awkwardly.

‘My friends call me Starman.' he said, leaning on the bar for support as he came out from behind it to offer Aurora a seat on his lounge.

‘Starman,' she repeated, enchanted, but shook her head to decline the seat.

Her host, however, appeared to be having a little difficulty keeping himself upright, and so collapsed into the seat himself.

‘The truth is,' Aurora plucked up her courage, ‘ever since I saw your picture in the paper, I've been receiving dreams from you.'

‘Dreams
from
me?' Her host rubbed his eyes and then looked to her, puzzled by the remark.

‘No, not dreams.' Aurora turned away to find the right words. ‘More, experiences really. It's like I see things through your eyes … I've seen you testing cars, airships, bikes, and some huge prime-movers —' Aurora looked back to catch the pilot's reaction, to find him sleeping like a baby. ‘Starman?' She was annoyed for a second, but then the chance to observe her dream man up close drew her to him on tiptoes.

Every time she considered how handsome he was, her heart did a flutter and she was sick to her stomach at the thought of having to leave his company. She knelt beside him and held her fingers out toward his face, then hesitated to make contact.
Worst that could happen is that he'll wake up.
As she made skin contact, a warm wave of feeling surged through her, that felt wonderful and yet scary at once. She gasped on the amazing feeling and, overwhelmed, she withdrew to standing. Why was she fearful? Was she afraid of falling so deeply in love with the wondrous energy of this stranger that she would lose herself in her own desire? ‘I was about to admit to being psychic,' she whispered under her breath, and placed both hands over her mouth, as if to ward herself away from ever disclosing such a theory to a total stranger!
Shit, Aurora, you idiot!
she scolded herself.
You are so
not
in control of this situation
.
Call a cab and go now, before you get yourself in any real trouble!

She reached for her communicator, but as her sights turned back to Starman, her paranoia ebbed and she calmed inside.
He's not going to remember any of this in the morning
, she realised; should she hang around, get some answers, and risk exposing herself to danger, or get out while the going was good?
How much do you really want to know about your connection with this man?

 

When Zeven awoke late the next day, his head was pounding, his eyes stung and his mouth felt as dry as the desert beyond the large windows in front of him. He looked around the room, having absolutely no idea of where he was, or how he got there.

His mind rolled back to arriving at the club the previous evening; he'd drunk heavily with Mythric, had some food, saw a band —

Zeven gasped when his inner eye spat forth a vision of Aurora singing on stage and then handing him his car key. The ensuing flashes of Aurora dancing around him, driving his car and standing in this very room, sent shockwaves so powerful through his form that Zeven couldn't feel his throbbing head a moment.

‘I am
never
drinking again,' he scolded, as he shook his head at his own stupidity and then stopped the movement abruptly, as it made the throbbing worse. ‘I have no idea what I said to her. What happened when she left?'
Or even, if she left?
he noted quietly.

The prospect drove him to stand, and bracing his head for support, he staggered about in search of her.

Scaling the stairs to the loft level was laborious, but Zeven figured that even if he didn't find Aurora, he'd find a shower. He couldn't decide if he wanted to find her or not. A flash of memory from another life, of Aurora's sheet-swathed body curled up on his bed, made him smile. Then the notion of answering Rory's zillions of questions in his current state put an end to his fancy. ‘
Not
would be easier right now.' He opened the bedroom door to find the bed had not been slept in. ‘
Not
it is,' he uttered, relieved in so far as he could continue straight through to the bathroom.

After a shower, some fresh clothes and a couple of glasses of juice, Zeven felt ready to go yell at Mythric.

He grabbed his keys and exited via the back door to see his new car safe and sound. This lifted Zeven's spirits, as he did a walk around it to be sure it was unscathed, before knocking on the door next to his in the carport.

‘There is a front door, you realise?' Mythric complained. ‘And you promised I didn't have to see you for —'

‘
You promised
you wouldn't let me do anything stupid!' Zeven stormed past him and inside to say his piece.

‘I didn't let you drive your car home?' Mythric closed the garage door, playing ignorant, then followed Zeven up through the bedroom and down into the main house.

‘
No
, you let my ex drive me home! Who I am not supposed to meet for another
five
years!' Zeven exclaimed. ‘And then you left me alone with her!'

Mythric shrugged. ‘I suggested we get her a cab, but she was in no hurry and you wanted her to stay.' He threw his hands up, absolving himself of all responsibility for the outcome.

‘You wouldn't let me fly into a black hole just because I wanted to,' Zeven said. ‘The enigma that is Aurora is just as precarious.'

Mythric shrugged again. ‘Then stay away from her.'

‘I can't,' Zeven was quick to say, and when Mythric queried this with a glance, Zeven plucked a rational reason from the ethers. ‘I have to find out how much I told her about me.'

‘Why? Who is she going to tell?' Mythric argued.

Mythric's newly found carefree attitude was starting to annoy Zeven. ‘Since when did you not care about exposing ourselves?'

‘I'm not indisposed,' Mythric poured coffee, ‘you are.'

‘But the boss sent you to
protect
me …' Zeven began and then humbled himself, ‘… from myself. So what do you advise I do?'

Mythric chuckled at this. ‘Since when do you listen to my advice?'

‘Since I'm actually asking for it.'

Mythric took up his coffee and headed out onto the balcony.

Zeven followed him outside, where Mythric took a seat at the table to gaze out at the view. ‘Why do you really want to seek Aurora out?'

Zeven sat across the table, facing Mythric, rather than the view. ‘It's my Juju, it wants me to, when every other woman …' He shrugged in conclusion.

‘Then go, do that.' Mythric nursed his sore head. ‘Maybe she is one of us?'

‘But I know she doesn't want to end up like us and if she's exposed to the Juju …?' Zeven's mind boggled at the thought of how angry Aurora would be when he couldn't go back in time and reverse what he'd done to her. ‘Besides, an insightful man once told me that
Aurora was not the one I was meant to be with, as the woman I was looking for would encourage me to be all that I can be.'

‘Well, Aurora didn't seem that opposed to the subject of the Powers yesterday,' Mythric commented, staring out at the desert. ‘Nor was she shy about driving your car as recklessly —'

‘We spoke about Powers?'

‘It's okay, I slapped you about the head every time you nearly gave something away … that is, until you threatened to rearrange my face,' Mythric concluded with a frown of disapproval.

‘Sorry about that.' Zeven smiled weakly. ‘Tell me what to do?'

Mythric was clearly growing tired of the argument Zeven was having with himself. ‘If I say one thing, you'll probably do the other, agreed?'

‘Please don't play a head fuck game with me right now, Mythric,' Zeven pleaded wearily, but Mythric's smile only broadened in challenge — he liked to play mind games when he got bored with a conversation, or wanted to avoid stating an opinion.

‘I say, go for it.'

Zeven was bemused. ‘So what you really think is that I should avoid the precarious situation altogether.'

‘It's my job to have that view, to avoid unnecessary risks.' Mythric finished his coffee, placed the cup aside and headed for his cool spa bath. ‘Is she an unnecessary risk at this stage of the game? Yes. Could you be putting her at risk? Yes.' Mythric raised a brow in conclusion as he sank into the cool water. ‘Still … she is very alluring, yes?' He smiled and submerged completely.

‘That was unhelpful, thank you, Mythric.' Zeven gave a deep sigh and lay back in a chair to rethink the situation yet again.

 

As Aurora had procrastinated until dawn over whether she had done the right thing in leaving Starman's place before he awoke, she slept through until afternoon — when Zanthie's clattering about in the kitchenette woke her. ‘It's okay, Zanth, I'm awake, you can stop banging things now.'

In a second her roommate was at her bedside with coffee, which she placed on the table, ahead of plonking herself on Aurora's bed. ‘So what happened?'

Aurora groaned at the notion of having to think, but grinned as ‘he' came to mind.

‘
So
spill.' Zanthie gripped Aurora's nightshirt to shake it out of her if need be. ‘What's his name?'

The answer made Aurora's secretive smile all the broader, as her gaze drifted to the sky outside. ‘I don't think I'm permitted to know.'

‘You mean he
is
secret service?' Zanthie let Aurora go and reached for the coffee.

Aurora shrugged, still lost in her pleasant memories of the night before. ‘He told me they call him
Starman
,' she said with mystical exuberance, as she ventured to sit up.

‘Wow.' Zanthie handed the coffee to Aurora, eager to hear more. ‘So did you kiss?'

‘No,' Aurora stated emphatically: she'd wanted to kiss him, but if just touching his skin was enough to send her into euphoria, what would kissing him do? Sex with the man would surely mean death by pleasure.
Good name for a song
, she thought. ‘I just drove him home and he passed out.' Aurora sipped the coffee and then placed it aside in a scramble to get past Zanthie to check her clothes from the night before.