Parallel Fire (2 page)

Of course, here it was almost a year later, and he wasn't so sure he'd made the right choice after all. His sexuality churned within him daily, driving him harder and harder, practically to the brink of insanity. Without a partner or mate, he had no outlet for channeling the intense sexual transformation within his Refarian body. What he needed was to bond, to take a lifemate who would accept his dizzying physical lusts. The question was how could he ever approach Anna now that so many years had drifted past them both? He hardly knew her at all, and from every indication the young lieutenant could barely stand to be in the same room as he, forever fidgeting or sputtering uncomfortably like she'd done in the meeting chamber earlier.

Nevin draped the damp towel about his hips, feeling the tired muscles in his body ache from the harsh workout he'd subjected himself to. The thing was, Anna didn't know him, he thought, examining his nearly naked body in the mirror, the battlefield of scars across his dusky skin. She knew nothing of the man he was in private. They needed a chance to get to know one another; time alone where they might let down their respective guards.

With a sudden burst of resolve, he glanced at his communicator, and arrived at a plan—a perfect plan, in fact, if only he could enact it without raising Anna's suspicions.

Chapter One

Four months later

“It's just a short sortie over to the mitres, in and out of the location to examine the chamber's exterior.” Anika described the mission, reading instructions from her handheld.

Of all the assignments.
Anna shook her head in disbelief, nodding toward the far side of the hangar where Nevin Daniels went through pre-flight check. “With him?” she complained. “Anika, you know what he—”

But her twin cut her off with a raised hand. “Commander Bennett requested you to accompany Lieutenant Daniels. Specifically.”

Anna's face burned. “What am I supposed to talk to the guy about, huh? It's the fourth mission in as many months—and he never says a word to me.”

“He's serious, that's all.”

“He intimidates me—I admit it.”

Her twin sister's nose scrunched up, a strange smile lighting her face. “I didn't think anyone could ever intimidate you. At least not for long.”

“I'm telling you, Nevin Daniels does not
talk
to me. Nada. Stuck in the aircraft, pitch black dark, he won't say a thing.” Anna threw both hands in the air, frustrated and…feeling something she didn't care to examine too closely. “Oh,
Medshki
!”

Her sister placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “Can't you just tune out and think about something else?”

Anna made an exasperated cry. “Not when I'm that close to him. Gods, no.”

Her sister gave a sly, knowing smile. “Uh-huh.”

“It will be my own personal hell, that's what I'm saying.”

“Really? And here I was thinking you'd be shrieking with joy just to have another assignment with the fine lieutenant.”

“Oh, please shut up.” Anna ducked out of her twin's grasp. “Ever since Riley moved onto base, you've been insufferable.”

“Because I want my sister happy? To know what it's like to have a bondmate?”

Anna cringed. “You do realize you're talking about one of our most superior officers, right?”

Her sister's warm eyes lit with mischief. “The same officer you've been interested in for months?”

Make that years
, she wanted to add, but only shook her head. “Based on what? A glance across a meeting table?”

Anika gazed across the hangar, watching as Nevin looked over a flight check list. “Doesn't it seem odd to you that he'd be requesting you, over and over,” her sister asked, “on these routine assignments?”

“Wait a minute.” Anna poked at the air between them significantly. “You said the commander was pairing me up with Daniels.”

Anika shrugged. “I'm not sure how it's coming down exactly; I just know it keeps happening and it didn't used to before that meeting room”—Anika formed quotation marks in the air with her fingers—“incident.”

Anna sighed, glancing across the hangar deck to where the devil himself stood inspecting the small, stealth aircraft that would carry them to the mitres location some time after nightfall. “He's too serious, never laughs,” she complained. “Plus, he's not even nice.”

Anika's gaze tracked across the hangar once again, lingering on the lieutenant, and she laughed. “He certainly
looks
nice.”

“From this far away, sure.” Anna snorted.

“Well, you'd know—you've been looking at him from this distance for long enough.”

Anna glared at her twin, who only grinned back at her, and had the distinct impression that it wasn't the commander who'd even issued this particular assignment—but her own damned sister.

 

 

 

The helmet would leave her hair mashed and her face imprinted. Ridiculous, but that was pretty much the level of Anna's thoughts as Nevin launched them out of the hangar and into the inky mountainside nighttime. They would be completely undetectable in this small, sleek craft—their test pilots had taken these Phoenix models all around the earth in order to test their stealth capabilities. None of the planes had ever popped up on the humans' radar.

At least she knew she was in good hands, she thought wryly, listening to the heavy sound of her own breathing inside the oxygen mask.
What if he thinks I'm breathing heavier than normal? What if he knows that he's got my heart beating like crazy?

She watched over Nevin's shoulder as he worked the controls. Damn, even his hands turned her on, what with the black gloves fitting like a second skin, making him seem all fighter pilot. She couldn't help it—pilots in general had always, always turned her on—and Nevin's taking her on these sorties had done absolutely nothing to dampen her enthusiasm for
him
in particular.

He startled her when he cut right over the mountains, and with his left hand, rapped on the canopy. With a gesture, he indicated the view below, and she pressed up against the dark glass to discover the twinkling lights of town.

“Very pretty,” she breathed through the comm.

“It's always beautiful to me.” His husky voice, so immediate and right in her ears, was like the feel of velvet across her skin. She shivered, and he continued, “Everything here is still so pure, so…pristine. Especially the snow.”

By the gods, the lieutenant was actually conversing with her—and opening up to her. It was the first time in all these months, the first little breakthrough since their “moment” in the meeting room.

“Do you miss it?” She leaned forward in her seat, just slightly, yearning to be closer to him.

“Miss our home?” He shook his head. “Not very much, I'm afraid. It's easy to grow accustomed to our more peaceful existence here.”

Peaceful? They spent all their time on the run from Antousians and humans, while trying to just protect humanity from the same fate that had befallen their own planet.

“I'm surprised you would call things on Earth peaceful.”

“I haven't been shot in the six years I've spent here.” His husky, throaty laugh rang in both her ears.

“You were shot back on Refaria?” she asked incredulously. This was something she'd never once heard about the man.

“Three times,” he told her in a formal, clipped tone.

After a long moment of waiting for him to elaborate, she pressed, “When? Which battles?”

He made a sudden adjustment with the throttle, and her unanswered question hung suspended between them for what felt a near-eternity. “Sir?” She reached forward and touched his shoulder, wondering if perhaps he'd not heard her question. “Which battles?”

She kept her gaze trained on the back of his helmet, watched as he turned to glance at her hand briefly. Still, he said nothing.

Blowing out a heavy sigh, she stared at the black sky above the plane's canopy. Probably way too loud—so loud, in fact, that the lieutenant could read her frustration with him.

“Lieutenant Draekus,” he told her gently, “as my fellow soldier, surely you understand the ghosts that still haunt me…ghosts from our home.”

Unbidden, tears prickled Anna's eyes. Tears of comprehension and sympathy; tears of the connection that they shared in their lost home world. Nothing on Refaria would ever be the same again, and she understood that it wasn't the battles so much; it was the heartbreak of what had befallen them all that kept Nevin Daniels from talking.

“Of course, sir,” she whispered into the comm link, and gave his shoulder a slight pat before removing her hand.

 

 

 

He brought the craft in low over the lake, and it was a perfect, routine approach until the last moment when a loud scraping sound began beneath the underbelly of the plane. There was a jolting jerk that sent Anna's head slamming into the side of the canopy. For what seemed a long time, everything went black until she heard herself muttering a string of expletives in low Refarian. Her head felt as if a grenade had exploded inside her helmet, and strange lights were flashing in front of her eyes. She clasped at her helmet, wishing she could rub the side of her skull.

“What's going on?” she slurred, feeling the craft tilt and gyrate. Dimly, she realized the terrain below looked all wrong, that they weren't anywhere near their planned landing area.

“Hang on, Anna!” Nevin worked frantically with the controls, flipping switches and struggling to control the craft. A bright red warning light flashed within the cockpit, then a woman's urgent voice began, listing off a series of malfunctions. Funny, but even though she should have been upset, Anna felt oddly calm, noticing that the emergency warnings were programmed in English, not Refarian.
Maybe in case the plane is ever captured by human officials.

Capture
, she thought dully, the world growing dim again.
Sure hope we don't get our asses captured after we crash…

 

 

 

Nevin circled the downed craft, trying to assess what, precisely, had gone wrong. Trailing his fingertips along the plane's side, he emitted his natural energy, working to power the machine. No reaction. With a quick glance back at where Anna lay off to the side, unconscious—he'd carried her there immediately in case the craft blew—he opened both of his palms.

Dropping to the ground so he wouldn't have to steady himself, he concentrated on his open hands. He cupped them in front of his chest, closed his eyes, and allowed his natural energy to build. It was his one true blessing from All, his gift of energy; that it was such a markedly unusual one only made it all the more special. Perhaps now it would be the thing that could save both their lives; if his natural power could somehow infuse the craft—if it had been a simple matter of a ruptured tank—then he might be able to power them back out of this isolated place.

A glowing ball of pure energy formed between his hands, and manipulating it carefully, he began directing it toward the plane.

Behind him, Anna's soft voice startled him. “I've never seen anything quite like that before.”

He focused his entire being on wielding the power sphere, but nevertheless, it changed hues from a bright golden shade to a warmer and richer one. Of course his energy would react to Anna; if there were any woman alive on this planet who could cause a reaction like that, it would be her.

“I have to…use it. Wait.”

“It's your energy, isn't it?”

“Anna…a moment,” he barely managed to gasp before finally catapulting the powerful orb of energy into the craft. He watched as it seemed to explode into a million pinpricks of glowing power, then hoisted himself back into the cockpit and, in vain, attempted to start the damned thing once again. After several long moments of manipulating the controls, he dropped back to the ground, and strode purposefully to Anna's side.

“How are you feeling?” He took her bare hand into his own gloved one. “You took quite a nasty hit to the head.”

She smiled up at him wanly. “Not so good.”

Searching the area around them, he knew he had to get her someplace safe for the night. Bears were already coming out of hibernation, and there were wolves and other predators. “We could sleep in the plane,” he suggested. “Probably the safest bet tonight.”

Her eyes drifted shut. “I wanna lie down.”

“You don't really need that, Anna. In fact, you should stay awake until we can determine the extent of your injuries.”

“Can we at least warm up? Make a fire or something first?” She struggled to sit up. “Wait! I have an idea. I just need to shapeshift, then I can go for help.”

Anna pressed a hand to her temple. “I know I can,” she insisted, but by the way her face drained of color, she was obviously fighting a wave of nausea, “Just a minute…” she attempted weakly.

Nevin cupped her shoulder, aware that the warmth of his body radiated through his glove and her uniform, but he didn't move his hand. He liked the idea of her feeling his heat, and besides, he had the perfect excuse: She needed his warm touch after tonight's shock.

“You need to rest, Anna. It would be dangerous for you to shapeshift and make that long trek back to base. You might grow too weak.”

“I'd be fine,” she tried to argue, but he cut her off.

“Lieutenant, I am ordering you to stay here, with the downed craft, and pass the nighttime hours within the cockpit.” His voice was stern and pointed. “Understood?”

From where she lay staring up at him, she gave him a weak salute. This earned her a grudging, sideways smile from her commanding officer. “Good work, soldier,” he said, returning her salute.

Looking back over his shoulder at the craft, he thought through the logistics of the cramped space. He had to determine the best way to help Anna recuperate without putting her through any more pain—and without winding up holding her in his arms which was, truthfully, the thing he wanted most desperately of all. More, even, than getting the craft working again. It was pure insanity, but once he'd landed safely his first thoughts had been of Anna. Of having her all to himself, here in the wilds, of them being alone for some period of time. It had taken everything within him to assume command of the situation as his training dictated.