Catalyst (3 page)

Harring’s senses went on alert. “I will locate her.”

The young female lifted a light. “Do you need illumination?”

He shook his head. “No. I will track her by scent.”

The professor frowned. “How?”

He grinned, “I will simply track the scent of the only non-Tuulor in the site.”

The gathered feathered beings nodded, and Harring moved past them, following the scent of Maeryn.

For the last two years, every night had been filled with memories of her in his arms. The rich scent of her skin was embedded in his mind, and his body would have followed that scent no matter what his mind thought. He wished that he was coming to her unblemished, but he had been through over a dozen battles since they parted, and he wore the scars of time on Brokhan.

Harring walked through the open chamber of the research centre’s commissary and followed Mae’s scent to the wall. It took him a few minutes, but he managed to find the trigger, and as the door slid open, the woman of his dreams was crouched over in front of him with one hand lifted to block the brighter light.

“Thop? Is that you?” Maeryn stepped forward and touched his chest. Her body stiffened, and funnily enough, so did his.

“This isn’t Thop. It is good to see you again, Agent Lassiter. Welcome to Creyar.”

Harring watched her face grow pale by dramatic increases until she wilted against him in a very un-Lassiter-like manoeuvre.

* * * *

Mae couldn’t believe that Nothven rescued her. The fact that he stood still and let her grope him was a disturbing turn of events.

Her fainting fit was not characteristic, but when she touched him, her body flooded with a thousand memories and emotions that she hadn’t experienced yet. Her mind shut down at the overload, and when she came to, he was cradling her in his arms, stroking her hair back from her forehead.

This was the man she had waited for, claw marks edged down the left side of his face and his neck. She swallowed hard before she spoke. “Hello, Commander Harring.”

His pale eyes looked at her with concern. “Are you all right?”

“Just a little overloaded. What are you doing here?” Her voice was low and husky, even to her own ears.

He paused, and she could almost see him formulating a reasonable excuse. “Do you mean here on Creyar or here at the site?”

Mae struggled to sit up, but he held her securely. “Either, both.”

“I was shipped home after the battle of Brokhan. My family helped with my recovery, and the colony offered me a security post.” He continued to stroke her hair absently. “How is it that you are here but the colony council was not apprised of a Terran in their vicinity?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t want to face endless rounds of flirting with men who can shift into something and tear me in half. Some folks don’t like to take no for an answer.”

He blinked and a smile crept across his features. “I suppose that would be right. We can be very determined when we finally find the female for us.”

Mae squirmed against him. “Can you let me up now? This is not really appropriate.”

He sighed and released her so she could get up. “I believe that I am the better judge of what is appropriate on Creyar.”

She took a few steps away from him, and her knees wobbled as another wave of memories of things that had not yet happened washed through her. Mae leaned heavily against the wall.

“What is wrong with you?” Commander Harring was next to her in an instant.

“It’s exceedingly embarrassing. I am not sure that it is something you want me to share.” She ran a hand over her hair.

“You always do that when you are thinking about sex.” He leaned against the wall next to her.

Mae jolted as if he had shocked her. She didn’t realize that it was that obvious.

He chuckled. “I was only with you for a few weeks, but I watched you carefully.”

She licked her lips nervously. “Why?”

He shifted, and she was pinned between him and the wall. He leaned down until his mouth was next to her jawline, and she heard him inhale sharply. After his inhalation, he groaned low and pressed his forehead to her shoulder.

“You know, I thought I had imagined it.” He pressed a hand to her waist and tightened his grip. “I like the new suit.”

She chuckled weakly. “Thank you. It is a living design provided by the Sector Guard. It is easier to move in than standard enforcer leathers.”

“Are these branches?”

She smiled as his hands ostensibly explored the exterior of her suit. “They are. Green installed them. They provide more resilience when I fall from heights.”

His scowl could have peeled paint. “Why are you falling from heights?”

She licked her lips again out of nervous habit. “I have gotten more of a grip on my talent. A properly started fire in a mountain range can save a city, a rock placed in the right spot on a road can trigger the cascade of progress that sends a civilization to the stars.”

“You control the destiny of planets now?” He moved his face to the other side of hers and inhaled sharply.

“Not unless I see that I need to. At every point in time, there are a minimum of two ways that the future can travel. My talent lets me see what would benefit the most people over the longest period of time, and that is the action that I take.” It was hard to concentrate when the light touches on her neck were driving her to distraction.

“That is impressive.” His lips grazed her neck just above her collar.

“What are you doing?” She tried to keep her words light, as she really didn’t want him to stop.

“Reminding myself how amazing your scent is. I had begun to think I imagined it.” He raised his head, and there was a distinct level of arousal visible in his face.

Mae clenched her hands together and tried to smile brightly. “It must be my hanging around with the Tuulor, they do smell nice.”

Nothven leaned in, and with his lips an inch from hers, he whispered, “No, this is all you. Every time you shake under the weight of your own mind, you give off pheromones that call me in and urge me to take you.”

“I hadn’t realized that I was so chatty on the molecular plane.” She blushed, and her chin jerked up a half inch. Breath was the only thing between them, and as the heat from his mouth spurred her to rise up, her arousal jerked to a halt as footfalls came running toward them.

“Oh, Commander Harring, you found her. Agent Lassiter are you all right?” Thop’s voice was urgent, and it was the excuse Mae needed to duck out from under Nothven’s body. Her hormones screamed a denial, but she pasted a pleasant expression on her face and showed Thop the hidden room.

It gave her the distraction she desperately needed, because Commander Harring wasn’t showing any signs of leaving.

Chapter Five

The Tuulor were delighted to have a Commander of the Oefric join them on the site. Thop’s feathers were fluffed to impress the other male.

Commander Harring smiled as he explained the purpose of the majority of the devices that they saw. The data and images contained recordings of weather systems for the last two thousand years. It was valuable information.

Wellor came up to Mae, “We were worried.”

She stroked his head feathers lightly. “I was just in the dark for a while. If I ever miss dinner, then you can worry.”

Wellor ducked his head down, and she stroked the soft surface of his forehead. Among the Tuulor, it was a gesture given by a parent to a child. It showed respect to his concern on her behalf and proved his trust in her at the same time.

He chortled low in his throat. It was a noise that the Tuulor made when they were happy and relaxed.

“Professor, do you mind if I head out and get myself some rations?”

She smiled as the professor flapped his hand at her. Commander Harring gave her a narrow-eyed look as she turned to escape, but she ignored him.

She made her way back to the camp and dug out a pack of rations for herself and one for the Oefric. It was hot enough to eat by the time he joined her around the fire in the entrance cavern.

“Very slick, sneaking out like that.”

“What is this about sneaking? I was hungry.” She snorted and stuck her eating prong in her ration pack.

“Do you have enough for two?”

Snickering, she handed him the second pack and a spare prong.

“Did you foresee this as well?”

She sighed and leaned back in her collapsible chair with a smile. “Ah, a tale as old as time. A woman walks alone down a hallway and the male who wants her chases her down, getting a meal and time alone in one heroic move.”

He leaned forward and ate a bite of the pack. “Ah, that story. Yes, the Oefric have one similar to that. Of course, what we do when we catch her is not for a children’s tale.”

The suggestive note in his voice was not lost on her, but she hunkered forward and ate her meal in silence.

He ate faster than she did, and he asked, “How long were you in the dark?”

“Honestly? About three hours. I sort of enjoyed the silence after a while.” She finished her ration pack and flicked it into the fire.

“Why couldn’t you get out?” He followed suit, and the wrapper curled up before flitting away in the heat.

“I had difficulty finding the door trigger at first, and once I did find it, I found the darkness freeing.”

“Why?”

She slouched back in her chair. “Why do you want to know?”

The fire warmed her feet. The peculiar structure of her suit let her wiggle her feet in the open-toed sandal foot.

“I want to know everything about you.”

“That is not covered in my attraction to darkness.”

“I will take what I can get.” Nothven grinned.

Mae laughed. “Fine. Every day, everything that I look at has a weird echo around it. All the possibilities that will come to pass the moment that I touch them are in each object, each wall, every switch. In the darkness, I was able to remain in the dark and not see anything. It was amazing.”

He stared at her for a moment. “Will you come to dinner with me tomorrow?”

The abrupt change of topic made her blink. “What?”

“I have a formal dinner with the colony administration tomorrow night. I would like you to accompany me.”

It was a cliché, but she looked down at her bodysuit. “I don’t have anything to wear.” Mae mentally smacked herself. “Sorry, barring that, I am on assignment to guard the team here. I can’t just go swanning off for dinner.”

“I believe that I could arrange something with the professor. He seems to be rather keen to have an Oefric here, and that is something that I can arrange.”

“So, there won’t be a problem at this formal gathering if I show up in my bodysuit?” She lifted her brows.

“I can manage something on that front as well. So, if I cover all of your bases, will you join me?”

The image in her mind was completely her imagination, and it started her heart pounding at the very idea of him covering her bases. She reached up to stroke her hair and jerked her hand back when she heard his chortle.

Mae looked at him, really looked at him. She took in the white strands of his hair, the silvery eyes, the pointed ear tips, sinful mouth and the sharp blade of the nose that combined into a face that held her captive. The strong cheekbones and jawline didn’t hurt either.

“Agent Lassiter, why do you fight the attraction between us? I am simply curious, because your body will not let you hold out much longer.”

She looked at him and met his crystal gaze with her own. “Do you want the truthful answer or something a little more evasive?”

“The truth, please.” He sat leaning forward, his arms resting on his knees.

“The moment that we first met, my senses went into overload. I knew in that moment that you and I would end up together, but I had no idea when that would happen.”

“What did you see?”

She skipped the reference to her limbs wrapped around him as she knelt on him and he held her hips in his hands. “I saw you but not as you were.”

Mae got to her feet and walked over to him. “There was something missing.”

She knelt in front of him and lifted her hand, tracing gently over his scars. “This was missing. I know how deep and how far those scars go, Nothven. Would you like me to continue?”

He reached out and gripped her shoulders, kissing her with a savagery that she met with equal fervour.

She wrapped his hair in her hands and kept him pressed to her while she let the heat in her blood boil over.

He finally pushed her back. “Damn it, Maeryn. Not here.”

Stunned, she blinked and sat back on her heels. Mae traced his lips with shaking fingers and smiled weakly. “I told you that the timing wasn’t right.”

“We have no privacy, and you are still on duty. I will speak with the professor and a skimmer will pick you up tomorrow to bring you into the city.” He stroked her hair back from her forehead and gave her a quick kiss before he got to his feet.

Mae got up and walked to the edge of the cliff face. The night wind caressed her skin and cooled it slightly. “Idiot. Why did you tease him like that?”

Hands settled on her hips and a large, warm body was pressed against her. “Yes, why did you tease me like that?”

She shivered. “I suppose that I was tired of being the only one with those images in my mind. I have quite a bit of self-control, but it is wearing a bit thin.”

He stroked a hand down to the armoured plate over her belly and reversed the direction. “Tomorrow at noon, a skimmer will come for you. It will drop off one historian and two guards then pick you up and take you into the city where you will be delivered to a seamstress who will locate everything you require.”

She grimaced. “It sounds like you have it all planned.”

Nothven pressed a kiss to her neck that sent her up on her toes. “Is that a problem?”

She shivered. “Nope. Not at all. See you tomorrow night.”

He hugged her and let out a sigh as he released her. “Tomorrow night.”

She watched him descend the steep steps carved in the side of the cliff and tried to smother the grin on her lips. She turned and faced the three Tuulor archaeologists.

“Oh, hello.”

Professor Thop came to her side. “I can’t believe you are the mate-to-be of one of the Harrings.”