“Of course.”
Kayla and Seara sat down on the couch. Alec pulled up a chair to sit across from them and held out his hand for Kayla. Carl frowned when she slipped her hand into his.
“Kayla, you’ll need to connect to me the same way you did earlier,” Alec instructed.
She nodded. Closing her eyes, she gathered her threads of energy and connected them to Alec. The moment she connected to him, she felt the same familiar intimacy from before. This time she was more prepared for it. She couldn’t help but take a moment to revel in the sensation. The pull toward him was becoming stronger and she felt the urge to share energy with him again.
“I feel it too,”
he told her.
“It’s possible that even though we didn’t complete the connection earlier, it created a small bond between us. People don’t normally initiate a bond without completing it, so I can’t be sure.”
Kayla opened her eyes and bit her lip. It seemed like they were both in new territory. Seara looked between them and asked, “What’s wrong, Kayla?”
“Nothing,” Kayla replied. “It’s fine. Let’s do this.”
Kayla leaned forward to get a better look when Alec reached for Seara’s wrist to examine her bracelet. It was a small braided gold band interlaid with strange stones. The colors in the stones appeared to shift and change when it moved. It reminded her of the colors she saw when the energy threads blended together.
“Go ahead and send a large steady stream toward me, Kayla,” Alec instructed her.
She did as he asked and she could feel his urge to match her energy flow with his. He closed his eyes for a moment to control his desire before turning back to the bracelet. Kayla felt Alec manipulate her energy to gently probe the bracelet in the areas she had identified. She could see the small fluctuations of the energy surrounding the bracelet as he studied it.
After a long time, he lowered Seara’s hand. Kayla stopped the flow of energy and felt Alec’s longing from the withdrawal. He closed his eyes and she felt him trying to steady himself.
“Go ahead and break the connection,”
he told her.
She pulled back and broke the connection. He squeezed her hand before releasing it.
Seara watched them for a minute and then asked hopefully, “Will it work?”
Alec nodded. “Yes, but it’ll take a great deal of energy to deactivate them. We’ll have to wait for the masking program before we try anything though. I don’t want to risk alerting the High Council too soon.”
When Seara nodded in agreement, Kayla offered, “I can help Cruncher and Xatham write the masking program. It shouldn’t be too difficult if they already have your access codes.”
Carl pulled Kayla up and wrapped his arm around her waist. “I'll take Kayla back to my family’s quarters. She can work with them there. That is, unless you’re planning on raiding us again.”
Alec didn’t bother to hide his irritation at the question. He stood up. “It would be better if she stayed here in the Inner Sanctum. As long as she’s here and the High Council believes she’s willing to wear the bracelet, they won’t pursue her.”
Kayla scowled. Alec had a lot to learn if he thought she was going to roll over for the OmniLab bigwigs. “The High Council can kiss my ass. Seara’s quarters are under surveillance. At least if I’m with Carl, you don’t have bugs there. Besides, I need to be able to work with Xantham, Cruncher, and V to get this program going.”
“I’m afraid that won’t work, Kayla. The High Council will insist you remain in the Inner Sanctum until the bracelet is equipped. As long as you remain here, I can claim you’re cooperating fully and we’re waiting for the metabolic booster to leave your system. If you leave, they may employ more drastic measures.”
Seara had been quiet up until now. “Everyone could stay in our family’s quarters. We may have surveillance, but you could use the safe room while you’re working on the program.”
Alec’s eyes narrowed. “You have a safe room?”
Seara smiled. “Yes. My husband had a great many secrets, Alec. It was originally designed to be a hidden storage room. But Andrei had some concerns and turned it into a safe room.”
“What sort of concerns?” Carl asked.
Seara hesitated. “There were some political power pulls going on for a few years before he died. He suspected there was a plot to have him removed from the High Council.”
“From everything I’ve heard, Andrei Rath’Varein was a great leader. Why did they want to remove him?”
The memory was obviously painful for Seara. She twisted her hands in her lap, her voice quiet. “Some people weren’t happy with the pace we were obtaining new resources. There were arguments that we should be more aggressive and even target other communities. My husband believed we could locate new resources using our talents cooperatively rather than coercing other communities into submission.”
Kayla asked, “Is that why he took me into the ruins?”
Seara nodded and offered a sad smile. “When we realized you had the talent for locating objects, the High Council urged your father to take you into the ruins. He had some reservations because of your age, but the council put a lot of pressure on him. He finally decided he would take you himself with several handpicked people he trusted.”
Seara stood and took Kayla’s hand in her own. “I don’t know what happened or what went wrong. Everyone who went on the expedition was killed. We were monitoring it from here and everything appeared stable. We sent out an additional team immediately, but it was too late. I’m just thankful you survived.”
She turned to Alec and asked, “Is there any objection to Kayla returning with me and having her friends join us? It would give me a chance to spend more time with her.”
“I suppose there wouldn’t be any objections,” Alec said in resignation.
Seara inclined her head. “Carl, why don’t you get your friends and have them join us? I’ll let an attendant know they have access to the priority elevators. We should head back now so they can continue working on this project.”
Kayla walked back into the Rath’Varein family quarters with Alec and Seara. Carl had gone off to retrieve the rest of the crew.
“I’m going to go make sure the rooms are set up for our guests. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Please make yourself at home.”
After Seara disappeared, Alec walked over to the bar area and poured himself a drink. He turned to Kayla and asked, “Would you like something?”
“Sure, I guess.”
He poured her a glass and brought it over to her. Taking a sip, she said, “So, I didn’t get a chance to ask you about that girl.”
“Who?”
Kayla made another bad attempt at fluttering her eyelashes. “You know, the tall, leggy blonde hanging all over you earlier?”
Alec chuckled. “You must mean Celeste.”
“Right. Her.” She swirled the drink around her glass. It probably wasn't any of her business, but she couldn't help being curious. “Who is she anyway? Do you two go to dinner together a lot?”
Alec considered the question for a moment before responding. “Yes, we go to dinner together every now and then.”
Kayla nodded and observed, “It seemed like you two are pretty close.”
Alec raised an eyebrow. “We’ve spent time together and enjoyed one another’s company.”
She bit her lip and peered up at him. “You can connect with her the same way you do with me?”
“She’s part of the Inner Circle,” he said with a chuckle. “Everyone with our backgrounds has the ability to link with someone. Some people are more desirable based on the amount of energy they can channel. We’re naturally drawn to those who are either close to or exceed our same level of power.”
“Have you done that? With her, I mean?”
Alec stepped closer and said disapprovingly, “I don’t ask you what goes on between you and Carl.”
“Point taken,” Kayla muttered and looked away. She deserved the verbal slap. It wasn't logical but she didn't like the thought of Celeste sharing the same sort of connection she'd had with Alec. She wasn't sure if she was ready to examine the reasons though.
“When you’re ready to get rid of your distractions, I’ll get rid of mine,” he challenged.
She gave him a sharp look, putting her glass down a little harder than she intended. “Carl is not a distraction. I was just curious about how this works.”
“So you say,” he replied, calling her bluff. He took another sip of his drink. “Is there anything else you’d like to know?”
Damn him. He’s got that whole mysterious and sexy thing going on.
Alec chuckled. “Thank you.”
Kayla scowled. “Get out of my head.”
“You still have a small connection with me. You never removed it.”
She sat down on the couch with a sigh. Sure, she could remove the connection but the thought of separating herself from him was upsetting. Alec walked over and sat down next to her. Draping his arm over the back of the couch, he said, “I don’t mind. I rather enjoy it. But then again, I don’t have any problem admitting I’m incredibly attracted to you.”
Kayla frowned. “You make my life confusing.”
He leaned closer to her. “I know you’re attracted to Carl and have feelings for him. But I also know you’re attracted to me and have feelings for me.”
He reached up and lightly caressed her face, sending chills through her. “The difference is,” he said softly, running his thumb over her bottom lip. “I can touch you in ways he never can.”
Kayla closed her eyes when he sent a trickle of energy through her. She shook her head and jumped up. “Okay, you need to keep your distance. You’re confusing as hell. I don’t need any more confusion in my life.”
“Very well,” he chuckled. “Would you like to learn how to defend yourself?”
Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, I could handle kicking your ass right now.”
Alec smiled and stood up. His eyes twinkled in amusement. “Go ahead and try it, dear.”
She concentrated and threw a large amount of energy at him. She felt him grab it and twist it back around toward her almost immediately. He wrapped her in it and her eyes narrowed.
“Break my hold if you can,”
he taunted her.
She pushed more energy toward him and he wrapped that around her too. She felt stifled but could also feel his exertion as he continued to suppress her.
“You have two choices,”
he instructed her. “
You can either keep pushing more energy toward me until it possibly breaks or you can study your prison and look for a weakness.”
She paused, realizing the wisdom of his words. She took a moment to study the way he wrapped energy around her. He had somehow used his own threads to create a tight barrier around her. It was her own energy imprisoning her and not the other way around.
“It’s a reverse shielding technique,”
he explained when he felt her examining the energy threads.
“It’s purely defensive. Pull back your energy and you’ll see what I mean.”
Kayla withdrew her assault and frowned. She wasn't truly imprisoned. She sent out a tiny burst of energy and it bounced off the shield before wrapping back around her.
Alec nodded encouragingly and asked,
“Do you want to try it?”
“Wait,”
she told him.
“I want to try something.”
He kept his shield in place while she took her time exploring it. Some areas appeared weaker than others did, but for the most part, it appeared extremely well crafted.
“If I sent a hard burst toward one of your weaker areas, would that break through your wall?”
“Yes, if it was strong enough and precise enough. But if someone senses your exploration of their shield, they can reinforce the areas you’ve discovered.”
She nodded and said aloud, “Okay. I want to build my own shield now.”
He walked her through the steps of weaving a tightly knit group of energy threads together and then showed her how to surround him. When she finally had the shield in place, she let him know she was ready.
Alec sent out a strong pulse of energy and she felt it bounce off her shield. She could see it wrap around him and he quickly withdrew his energy. Her eyes danced in excitement when she realized it worked.
“This is awesome,” she exclaimed.
He chuckled at her enthusiasm. “Do you want me to try it again?”
“Yeah. Send more.” She gave an eager nod.
He sent out a larger and more powerful burst of energy. Kayla felt her shield ripple slightly but it remained intact.
“Good,” he encouraged. “But you need to concentrate to maintain your shield. If someone is truly attacking you, they won’t hold back. It takes years of training to be able to craft a strong shield. This will require a great deal of concentration on your part until you’ve mastered it.”
Seara came back into the room. She looked back and forth between them and asked, “You’re teaching her how to shield?”
“As a precaution, yes.”
“That’s probably wise,” Seara admitted. “It can’t hurt anyway.”
Kayla looked at Seara. “From what I’ve seen, everyone seems to have specific talents. What’s yours?”
Seara smiled and walked across the room to stand next to one of the plants. She held out her hand toward the plant. Nothing happened right away. After a moment, the plant began to grow and blossom. “I can connect with plant energy. It’s one of my passions. We have a garden room, if you’d like to see it sometime.”
Kayla's jaw dropped. The implications of such an ability were extraordinary. No wonder they were able to grow their own food to feed all of OmniLab. “That’s freaking amazing. How did you do that?”
“I’ll show you,” Seara offered and took Kayla's hand. “You’ll need to go ahead and create a small connection with me.”
Kayla used one of her threads to create a small connection with Seara and was surprised at the feeling. The connection between Seara felt distinctly different than the one she shared with Alec. A flash of a memory crept into Kayla’s mind and she gasped, remembering a large room filled with plants and Seara’s smiling face.