Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (4 page)

They are enchanting
and gives her hopes for her recently awakened sexuality
.

She
finally swallowed
the bite of
apple and
chirped “Always have and always will!”

He wrapped his massive arm around
her
lower back with a playful smile.
Heat from his flesh passed through layers of cloth and raised bumps where he touched. Suddenly he grabbed her
bottom and
effortlessly
sat
her
on top of his left thigh.
His
masculine
smell
began
assaulting
her
senses and it made
her
heart
begin to
pond behind her
ear
s
.
S
traddling his leg
, she
tried to get comfortable until he flexed his thigh muscles.
That erotic sensation
beneath her vee
sent
her
body in an intimate
and unexpected
direc
tion. Before l
osing control of
her
self,
she
entered his mind
quickly
before something bad happened
and she would be unable to stop herself
.
“Connor, don’t flex your leg. I’m barely holding myself back from jumping you right now.”

His leg st
opped moving as he understood her
dilemma
, but f
a
iled to hide his satisfaction
.
“Sorry about that. What about later?”

Sarah
finally felt a more comfortable seating arrangement on his leg.
She
turned
only her
head to look at him
with one eye
.
She
arched an eyebrow saying
“Then you can
flex
all you want!”
She
felt him shaking as he tried to not laugh.

Kara cleared he
r throat. She spoke as soon as Sarah’s
eyes turned back in her direction. “
You’re doing it again!
Are you two going to come back to our world anytime soon?”

She cleared her
out throat and clou
dy mind. “Sorry about that.” Sarah
took another
audible
bite of
the
apple.

“What’s on your mind, Kara?”
Connor asked calmly from behind. When he spoke Sarah
could also feel his vocal vibrations reverberating in
his
chest.

She took her feet off the table and sat forward. With her elbows on her knees
Kara
asked “I know you
’
r
e
going to meet the Mélange to find out what makes the two of you so very unique
. I was wondering if we could go with you?”

Sarah’s
mouth spoke before
her
mind
could stop itself
. “I’m not so sure that
would be a good idea
.”

Mark remained as quiet, emotionless and still as a marble statue. He had his silver eyes plastered only on his
young
mate. Kara’s head tilted in confusion. “Why not?”

“I have never heard of Changers and Balancer
s traveling anywhere together
,
let alone
going
to the meeting
. Our kinds
are
only
able
tolerate each other
, and even that is pushing it
.”
Sarah
said with a painful sigh
and then took another bite of
the
apple
. Kara’s eyes suddenly shifted.
Sarah
turned
her
head to see what she started
looking at.
She
recognized Connor
gazing
up
on
the ceiling, but his eyes weren’t focused.
Sarah
knew that
her
mate was processing this
new
inform
ation. He then looked down at Sarah
and smiled a smile that sa
id he figured the problem out.
Through their bond she could sense he found peace.
She
just had to ask
after swallowing the chewed apple
. “What did you piece together?”

He placed a hand to her
lower back gently. “
What if we’re not really Balancers?”

Sarah
became
stunned speechless at the audacity of that comment, but Mark w
asn’t. Mark’s statue melted after
Connor’s words
sunk in
. He leaned forward and spoke with intrigue. “Care to explain what you mean, Buddy?”

Sarah
looked back at
his achingly handsome
grin as he spoke. “Technically
,
Sarah was a Balancer at one time
,
until I became her mate.”
Her emerald
eyes went wide. “The two of us are
apparently unprecedented to everyone’s
knowledge because of all of the special attributes that we share.
Even with immortals who have centuries of experiences cannot seem to classify us.
” Connor grabbed
Sarah’s hips and pulled her
higher on his thigh and shifted his bottom to better look at his silver eyed
best
friend. “What if we aren’t
technically
Balancers anymore? What if we are
actually
something
else
altogether?”

Mark smiled in intrigue as he clasped his hands together. “Where did you come up with this
int
riguing idea
?”

Conversationally
Sarah’s
mate said “When I was human, I came to grips that Sarah was a
n
honest to goodness Balancer
who would live forever so long as an accident doesn’t happen
.” He wrapped an arm
around her
belly carefully and
her
stomach held in thousands of butterflies. They just kept fluttering. “The moment we became one, somewhere deep inside me knew that we were no longer your everyday Balancer.” Connor smiled at
his love
for a moment and went on. “Since we haven’t a clue as to what we are that means…”

Mark finished his sentence. “That
you
are neutral territory and
we
can travel together.” He turned his smile to his silver eyed mate and sounded even more excited. “Until we know exactly what your brother is, we can do whatever we want
together
and not have to worry about what our kind m
ight
think of us!
We’ll be exempt from many attacks
because of an unknown being
.
”

Kara looked at him and cautiously asked “Why would you care what the others think?”

Connor answered for Mark. “Because
your
kind runs more on
primal
instin
ct than we do. When an animal, especially a predator,
senses weakness within
their
group the others will remove the weak
er
one
s
from the collective.
Survival of the fittest.
If the two of you are seen with us, it could be seen as a sign of weakness.
Changer’s are truly the Apex of all predators.
”

Kara only picked out a small portion of his explanation. “We run more on our instincts?”

“Yes. I have noticed that your fighting style has changed and became more slash and charge rather than stand in one place and hold your ground. That is your fight and flight instinct. When both you and Mark transform into your other shape
,
c
ertain patterns started revealing themselves
in your movements
.” Connor’s explanation made Kara’s eyes more confused
than ever
, so he simplified matters
. “
When you attack
,
you charge at
your opponent and make them lo
se
their
balance. Then you strike with your claws
or teeth
.
Your sense of smell is unparalleled.
You
’
r
e
also
using your advanced weight
and intimidation
to your advantage. When you turn into a Fwen, you dive bomb your enemy and disorient them to collide with the ground before they knew what hit them.” Connor’s voice softened. “Kara, your species relies on your natural instincts to win
a fight
. You’re now a predator and if
you
are, so too are other Changers and some are
very
old and probably rely on their instincts only.”

Mark gently touched her leg. “Sweetheart, what he says is all
completely
true.
Some of us lose our humanity all together
and to save lives they had to be put down
.
Some have a hard time balancing rational thought with instinct.
At one time
,
in my younger day
s as a new Changer
,
I saw other C
hangers kill another
of our species
because he was in a fight with a Balancer and lost a leg. He didn’t have time to regenerate
the limb
and the others saw him as weak because a single Balancer won the fight.
To our brethren
,
that cannot be allowed so they eliminated him before we would be considered weak. If we are challenged we will fight to the death, there is no other way as some of them see it. We are different
because we embrace our human and animal aspects without sacrificing ourselves. A
nd that might be seen as a weakness if we are caught associating with Balancers.
”

Kara smiled vanished and suddenly her pupils began to glow.
H
er nails on both of her hands beginning to grow, lengthen, curl and sharpen at the tips. Her fingernails became lethal and dangerous claws. Her silver eyes
seemed to
darken and in a menacing voice she s
aid “Let them come and see how
Weak
I really am!”

Connor, Mark and Sarah
started chuckling.
Kara’s
features softened as Mark grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. Mark said in a light tone “With an intent that dangerous and menacing, the other Changers will quake in their fur.”

Kara’s eyes began glowing when she finally smiled in a feral
, satisfied
manner.
As soon as she reabsorbed her claws back into her body she asked “Brother, when are we going to head out?”

Sarah
finished another apple while Connor looked at the roof and formulated a
series of
plan
s
.
She
glanced into his mind as he
started
formu
lating what needed to be done. She watched
him disregard certain thoughts because they were worthless. Some thoughts he liked and stored them off to the side. When he had enough plans figured, he collected the ones he stored to the side and rearranged them in the best order possible. He thought through every angle and every strategy at his disposal
, creating an intricate web of ideas with few ways to fail
.
The speed at which the information was utilized was nearly too fast to follow. She
felt
so proud to know she
didn’t
permanently
bond to a blockhead of a mate and just go for
his
looks.

When his penetrating hazel eyes returned to the group he started off his mental itinerary.
Even
the
guests were surprised at all they heard.
“There will need to be a lot to do before we can just leave.” He took a deep breath into his massive chest
and focused his sights on Mark
. “First
ly,
we need
to call our customers and tell them that we will be gone for awhile and we’ll advise them upon our return.
We will need to store up our energy and nutrient levels before we leave.
Next we need to go shopping and buy new things because it will be a long journey to our destination. We will need supplies, food, clothing, and other essentials that will be required. We will need to let our family, friends and coworker
s know
that we’ll be gone for at least six months. Also we will need to make sure our homes are secure for our little excursion.” Connor turned his
piercing
eyes on Sarah
. “Will we need a passport
to enter into the Canadian territory
?”