Shadow Revealed (The Enlightened Species Book Two) (6 page)

Hans joined them. “Hey, sir, what brings you here? You come personally to get our report today?” He brushed past to plop into one of the chairs, his feet on the coffee table. Greyton took the other chair, leaving Umbrae the couch.

“Save your report. Your replacements are going to be here in about twenty minutes. You can debrief them at the same time.” Hans sat forward, confusion on his face.

Replacements? Why? Umbrae couldn’t speak. Old insecurities crept back up on her like bad sushi, but thankfully Hans asked the question. “Are we being reassigned?” Hope bloomed in her chest.
Please let it be a reassignment and not a release from active duty
. She needed this. She’d felt whole and useful for the first time in her life. Well ... close to whole anyway.

“Call it a mandatory vacation. You two will be back here in a few weeks. Before you get your panties in a bunch, Umbrae, you can thank your good buddy, Irsu.” Greyton held out an envelope. Her first thought was Irsu had been hurt somehow; she snatched the envelope out of Greyton’s hand, shredding the gold emblazed name on the front.

You are cordially invited to the First Annual Survivors Ball. Blahblahblah. Please return the included RSVP including full name and species, and who will be accompanying you by blahblahblah …

“What the hell is this?” She pointed the card at Greyton.

“An invitation to the ball, Cinderella.” He was chuckling at her. “Don’t bother RSVPing, Irsu did it for you. After pulling every string she had to get you replaced on this assignment.” He glanced over to Hans. “Lucky you, you’re Umbrae’s escort. Plus, they might let you judge the beauty contest.”

Hans looked back and forth between her and Greyton. He leaned back in his chair, linking his fingers behind his head. That didn’t fool her. He hated shit like this. Hans’s mother and sisters were deep into the social world of the Tellus. They’d dragged him to all sorts of event like this when he was younger, so at least he had some idea of what to expect; she was clueless, and bordering on a panic attack.

“Is your sister in the beauty pageant, sir?” Hans grinned. Greyton’s paired sibling Greycia was a weak spot for their Aquatie handler. Hans tried to goad him with her every chance he got. The female was a stunner, and dangerous as hell too. Greycia had recently taken a position at one of the Volaticus human-integration campuses. Seems the SOSC was working to make the training and sites available to all species. Umbrae had spent two years at one in Australia. Because of her history, she’d been given an exception to living in humanity until after specialized training.

“Like you’d ever have a shot with my sister.” Greyton laughed again. “Since we’ll be there too, you’re welcome to try.” There was a knock on the door; two males strolled in like they already owned the place, an Elven, who paused to check her out, and an Aquatie, who headed to the kitchen and opened the fridge.

“There’s no water in here.” The Aquatie turned and looked overly hurt. “You don’t seriously expect me to drink tap water, do you?” There was humor on his face. “Fine.” He strolled over and sat down on the couch next to Umbrae, grinning. “You packed yet?”

“We’re leaving now?” She turned to Greyton.

“Soon as you bring Bill and Ted here up to speed, you are headed to Mesa, Arizona.” Greyton shrugged.

Mesa? The invite was for somewhere in the Pacific. It didn’t even list a place, just a latitude and longitude with a geographical photo.

Hans laughed. “Excellent!” He thumbed-up the newcomers; they both gave him a disgusted look.

“The invitation doesn’t say anything about Mesa.” She ignored the ignoramuses.

“Apparently, Irsu thinks you need to go shopping with her before the shindig.”

“In Mesa?” Was Irsu deranged? Since when was Mesa the fashion capital of the world? Plus, Irsu knew how much Umbrae hated shopping. Hell, she couldn’t even keep bottled water in stock. She fully intended to kick Irsu’s ass as soon as she saw her. Then it dawned on her: Jerika, Irsu’s daughter, lived in Mesa. Irsu had tried to introduce them several times, but it just never worked out. Jerika lived near Irsu’s uncle, the commandant of a new integration campus. If she remembered correctly, the commandant was also Jerika’s mentor. Jerika was a police officer, or firefighter, or something. If her friend had gone to this much trouble, there was no way out—a fact Greyton was well aware of. He watched her, grinning.

Chapter Six

Enlil sat with Shane and Sam at the edge of the mat, watching Jerika and his protégé Jess spar. Jess was still learning to fight with her wings. Unlike Elven, who were born with wings, dentes, and directional hearing, Hulven like Jess were human until their mid-twenties, though many had some increased strength, speed, and psychic ability even in their youth.

Upon reaching maturity, they went through a horrifically painful change, called “Becoming.” Their bodies developed wings, sanguindentes (blood-teeth), and directional hearing. Like a born Elven, Jess could now pivot her ears similar to the way far-hearing animals do, giving her full surround sound and the ability to pick up sounds from many miles away, and on multiple frequency levels. The muscle development to allow the directionality of hearing was an especially painful part of Becoming.

Jerika tried to lunge at Jess for the third time, again without success. At five foot two and a hundred pounds, Jess had a talent for using her opponents’ body weight and momentum against them, and to her advantage. She had earned a reputation as one of the fiercest and dirtiest fighters within the Volaticus warrior ranks, after only a year. She also had a gift of siphoning the energy off her enemies, whereby weakening her challengers even more. That particular ability matched his own. Enlil smiled with pride every time he reflected on the fear his pint-sized protégé struck into the hearts of warriors of all experience levels, gender, species and size.

“Jerika, you have tried similar maneuvers already and they have been unsuccessful. Try a different tactic,” Shane instructed. Jerika was Shane’s protégé—a challenge for any male whose protégé was currently battling his beloved bloodmate. Enlil did not envy Shane’s position in today’s training. “You are not evaluating your opponent for her weakness.”

“She has no weakness.” Jerika said at the same time Jess stated, “I have no weakness,” causing everyone but Enlil to laugh. Enlil was aware of some of Jess’s weaknesses, probably more than Shane was privy to. Since he’d only been working with her for a few months, he knew there were more that had not been revealed.

Enlil remained serious in the face of the other male’s humor. “Perhaps your confidence is your weakness, Jess.”

Jerika peered over at Jess, obviously wondering if perhaps Enlil was right. Jess lifted an eyebrow defiantly. “If I can convince my opponent I have no weakness, whether false bravado or not, they will ultimately defeat themselves.” Smart girl, yes, a pain in the ass, yes. Enlil might love her as his granddaughter, but that didn’t mean he would go soft on her as her mentor. Nor would he call her on her erroneous declaration in front of others. Not even her mate could interfere with a mentor/protégé relationship.

Sam piped up, “I think Jerika’s right. Jess has no weakness.” Sam had been an undercover informant for the SOSC in a rouge Elven cult-like organization until last year. Now that he was able to live mainstream, he was learning how to be a mentor from Shane and Enlil in hopes that one day he could mentor his nephew, Nathan.

“Can I just shoot her?” Jerika whined. “I’m a better shot than she is.” Shane jumped up, joining the girls. “Let me show you Jess’s weakness.”

“Eeewww.” Jerika crunched her nose up. “I do not need to see you two get funky.” Rolling her eyes. “Again.”

Enlil too had seen the mated pair “get funky.” On the couple’s bonding day, he’d been sent by his twin sister Ninlil to take the couple fighting clothes. Now he often wondered if Etana would have liked to have been spanked the way it seemed Jess did. He missed Etana so much.

Jerika had been staying with the newly mated couple right before she graduated the police academy six months earlier. According to her prior whining, Jess and Shane had been enjoying each other in the Jacuzzi when Jerika had come out to the deck. She had gone on and on about how Shane and Jess’s coupling had traumatized her for all time.

“You can’t say ‘ewww’ to our getting funky when you’ve been known to get down yourself, chickie.” Jess called Jerika on her bullshit while Sam blushed a deep shade of crimson. Enlil couldn’t figure out if the overly shy male was attracted to Jerika or Jess’s best friend Aymee, who happened to be human. Maybe it was the fact that both females were overly confident in their sexuality, a phenomenon completely alien to both he and Sam. Not that Enlil would judge another; these were different times.

Until recently, Enlil was pretty sure Sam had rudimentary if any sexual knowledge. He’d lived in a place where sex was only a means for procreation, even if the females were … resistant … to the idea. Since Hulven males were sterile, odds were good he had never partaken. His constant blushing guaranteed that Jerika and Aymee would make him the target for shock at every chance they got.

Shane swept Jerika’s feet when he stepped past her, ass planting his protégé onto the mat. “You let your guard down,” he said, tsking. “And that particular skill of Jess’s could never be considered her weakness.” He winked to his mate, who was watching him approach with suspicion. Her hand on her hip, she looked fully relaxed, but Enlil knew better. Her innocent, “I’m tiny and delicate” facade was one of Jess’s most powerful tools, usually.

“You’re such an ass, Shane.” Jerika picked herself off the ground, dusting off her “Mesa PD” sweat pants, and headed over to take a seat next to Enlil and Sam, ready to watch the show down between bloodmates.

Shane and Jess bowed to each other, taking position on the balls of their feet. Enlil sat forward. If Shane found a weakness in Jess, mate or no, it was his responsibility to ensure that she minimize or eliminate any weakness she had. Teaching a protégé to protect against weakness, whether psychic, physical, or emotional, was one of the biggest responsibilities a warrior mentor had. Being Jess’s mentor was the central focus of Enlil’s life. Well, that and the hunt for the Morsdente that killed his Etana centuries earlier.

Jess and Shane were circling each other. Circling, Circling. Neither being the aggressor. Sure enough, Jess stepped into Shane in an attempt to draw him into engaging her. Shane just shifted away, circling some more.

Frustrated, Jess straightened. “How are you going to show my weakness, dancing around me like a pansy?” As soon as the words left her lips Shane lunged, staying at the furthest point of his reach, left then right, the tips of his fingers hitting at the center of her sternum in quick succession. He pushed her back just an inch, and then she was back in her crouch. Circling.

“You see,” Shane said to the three observers now sitting forward attentively, “Jess is weakest when she can’t get her hands on you. If you can keep just outside of her reach and still engage—” touch, touch, fingertips to sternum, setting her back another inch “—you might have a chance against her.”

Jess dropped to the ground in a back-bend, balancing her weight with her wings, pushing off with her fingertips to the ground. Her flat foot kicked Shane in the leg. Not really wanting to hurt him, she took his leg out by connecting center-thigh rather than the knee, and down he went.

“Or not,” Shane finished.

Sam whooped and Jerika pointed, announcing, “See, I told you. Jess is a force of nature.”

Enlil recognized that, although Jess had regained the upper hand against Shane, the reach thing was a weakness for her. Jess’s strength lay in her ability to defend. She lost the upper hand in a fight if the opponent failed to initiate the aggression. A patient, reactive rather than proactive opponent might indeed gain the advantage on Jess. Enlil was pretty sure, if Shane had just waited a few more minutes, Jess would have engaged against him. In which case Shane would have prevailed, of that Enlil had no doubt.

Jess denied the remark. “Naw, he went easy on me.” She sat on the mat beside her mate, nuzzling his neck. Enlil felt a pang of longing agony, and Etana’s beautiful smile blurred behind his tear-filled vision as he turned away from the sight of the new bloodmates.

The energy rippling of a port arrival squelched his pain momentarily. Enlil’s twin sister, Ninlil, and her bloodmate, Sargon, appeared in the small practice room beneath Jess and Shane’s home. Sargon, a giant of a man, made his mate appear even more feminine than she was already.

Jess bounced up, clapping her hands. “Did you decide to join us for planning girls night out, Nin?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows up and down. Enlil was wondering if he would be bailing Jess and every other female he knew out of jail by the end of the night. Of course, he and a few dozen of Shane’s closest friends would be partaking in some fun of their own in the form of a no-limit poker tournament.

Being with Jess and Ninlil in the same space never failed to make him happy. All three had different hair color. Nin’s was light red, Enlil’s was a dark strawberry blonde, and Jess’s was blonde with subtle strawberry highlights. All three had the exact same eyes, emerald green with a multipoint, gold star-burst pattern in the center. The green-to-gold ratio was a tell-sign of their emotional barometers. Enlil grinned at the enthusiasm of his new-found family member.

The females were getting together under the pretense of planning for a survivors ball. Two days of activities, games, raffles, etc. Enlil was certain Jess had designed it more as a meet-and-greet. The final night would be wrapped up with a formal dance and, of course, fireworks. A fitting celebration, and one the SOSC hoped would become an annual event.

Last year, the SOSC had planned and successfully raided several blood/breeding labs, rescuing female victims of a madman. Fualth had been trying to build his own army through the wombs of the females. Most of the females were Hulven like Jess. Hulvens had the ability to reproduce both full Elven offspring during their estrus, which occurred every twenty-five years or so, or Hulven offspring during their monthly human ovulation. There had also been a few human women targeted for breeding because of a specific line in the palm of their hand that indicated they were able to carry the fetus of a half-human/half-Elven. The palm line indicated the human women were what Volaticus species called heredity line or simply heredity.