Cutlass Sharpened (47 page)

She went inside the open bedroom door and
Oliver got a good look inside for the first time. It was far from
clean and rather large. A large rectangular bed about five meters
long and three wide made for spacious sleeping arrangements. The
sheets were wrinkled and one long body-pillow laid haphazardly.
Clothes lay strewn all over. “Renee, has someone ransacked your
room?”

“
Nope. Just messy.” She
grinned.

“
Uh, what is a thong doing
dangling off the ceiling fan?” He said and pointed.

“
Thanks. I’ve been looking
for those.” She planted a foot on the firm mattress and leapt up to
take the lacy pink garment down. “Yeah, that first time I held you
upside down and kissed you I barely made it back to my room to
masturbate. I think I’ve never undressed out of my flight suit so
quickly before.” She grinned.

Oliver then turned to the left and was still
for a moment before going to the far wall to realize it actually
was a clear sapphire window out to space. Right now it showed the
empty port level the Dorgenox moored in, but further out was the
vastness of space in all its splendor. Every now and then there
would be another road of light, but otherwise the view was
uncongested.

“
My room’s looking pretty
good now huh? Better than yours?”

“
What a great view.” He
turned as she stood beside him, still holding the pink g-string.
“To fall asleep with this at the foot of your bed must be
perfect.”

“
After my last mate, I had
insomnia and had bad nightmares of being raped. For months I had to
sleep with Sparky and Rose… I always loved the stars and plugged
into the ship to strip the wood away and leave just sapphire as it
is durable so I didn’t feel so closed in. I should also explain why
I had nightmares of the rape. You see, I first went to the sex
center when I was late in my sixteenth year and it was where I
finally popped my cherry physically and emotionally. I know you
already know the centers were established for proper education on
healthy sexual relationships and on how to leave a mate without
making either bitter. It came as people no longer aged so
guidelines were made to make sure the young and inexperienced
didn’t get burned by those with centuries under their belt. We
learn all kinds of sexual techniques and fetishes there. Most kids
hit puberty early and go in their early teens, but I was a late
bloomer as Papa says from the old days.

“
Before meeting Sparky, my
first mate took me. The fourth mate I took was him. I don’t know
why, but he liked to sodomize and dominate me. I had an anal phobia
for as long as I can remember and he knew it. That last time he did
it intentionally just to put me in my place and it hurt so bad I
couldn’t get him off till Sparky came to my rescue.

“
The view of space always
calmed me. I know it’s violent and deadly, but I’m drawn to it
anyway… Like you. I just don’t want there to be any secrets between
us. I know I’m rambling, but I can’t help it. You’re the first man
to come in my room in a decade. Not even Papa has come
in.”

Oliver scratched his nose and sniffed. “I
already know. Only Sparky has, but that was weeks ago.”

“
I just hope my farts don’t
send you into shock.”

“
Doesn’t really bother me.
Only onions make my eyes water… that and Steven’s noxious ass.”
Renee chuckled. “So what about the problems you found?”

She sobered up and moved to
the bed to pat beside her. He joined her. “Olly, first, gather for
me. Afterwards I’ll speak. I can’t afford a telepath learning this.
We can tell
no
one.
No one at all.”

He imagined the lever and it came easily, but
he was shocked to find how much further and smoother the pull was.
He was flooded with the stream, before getting resistance.
“Whoa.”

“
I’ll say.” Renee was struck
mildly breathless as she felt his output quadruple. “You remember
how to take what you gathered and focus it to a point on your
body?” he nodded. She grabbed his hand and touched the center of
his palm. “Focus on this point and send the vibrations flooding you
right here. The surface area of the human palm is ideal to gather
and condense for discharging a kinetic blasts and arcs. Do it
now.”

Oliver imagined and the full bodily vibration
funneled down his left hand and remembered the feel that Scythe and
Renee sent through him, the sensation was neither comfortable or
uncomfortable. The point hummed and Renee held a finger over the
point and what looked like a barely noticeable constant static
electricity shock jumped the tiny distance she made between them.
He kept it up for five minutes before needing to stop and that
entire time they sat completely still.

“
Not bad at all for your
first psionic manifestation and discharge. It stung, but you’re far
from even shocking someone into submission or singing the skin.
We’ll work on levitation later. Now though I want you to open the
valve to just the bare minimum to feel a full bodily vibration. And
hold it like I do day and night, even sleeping.”

“
How do you manage that? The
moment my concentration diverts, it closes.”

“
When you are as familiar
with it as I am, the feeling is natural. It eventually acts more
like our hearts… or breathing would be a better analogy. We breathe
even in sleep, but can take a deep breath and hold it to go under
water. Practice is the key as with anything we must learn. Classes
nine and up can read minds, but only if you stop gathering. Right
now I’d need sixty percent to glimpse your mind right now and my
eyes would give me away. Me personally, I’m gathering at near the
same level you were doing to shock me and have been constantly
doing so for years. And I never let go. Or should I say, I can’t
without thinking on it. Since I discovered something that could
threaten my unrestricted life I’ve done it. Now only a Drake can
read me.”

“
Just tell me.” He cupped
her cheek. “I can take it.”

“
You know the splicing
experiments we found in the lab today?” He nodded. Hard to forget.
“They were trying to achieve something you and I already do
naturally.” He blinked, not following. She took a deep steadying
breath. “You and I both have more than a
normal
double helix. Nobody else I
have ever met does.”

“
Hold on. What does this
mean?”

“
Look. I don’t have all the
answers and I’ve been trying to figure it all out secretly on my
own since I was fourteen and was learning genetics for my medic
career. Someone must have found the same correlation to Beast and
human psionics I did. What I’ve never told another living soul
is
I
have a helix
of ten strands. A decuple helix that has made me completely immune
from all known viral and bacterial infections and all sickness. I’m
psionically the strongest human woman in existence. Only few know
the full extent of my power.”

“
What does that have to do
with Beasts?”

“
You picked
that
out and not that I’m
the strongest woman living?”

“
I already knew. Your scent
today was stronger than the thousands of women we passed by today
on our way to Galicom. Now what do Beasts have to do with us and
you more specifically?”

Renee blinked and decided not to get angry.
It was just who Oliver is. He didn’t sweat the small stuff. “Well I
kind of…” She became embarrassed. “hunted Beasts without anyone
knowing when I took down my first at the age of seven up till
fifteen.”

“
You what?! Renee, are you
serious? Hunters don’t even send their own kids till ten years
old
and
they always
hunt in threes with an experienced adult to keep an eye. And you
went alone without anyone knowing?”

Her chin lifted and dropped.
“It’s
why
I’m not
disgusted seeing you eat Beast brains and meat raw. I actually
wanted to be there next to you and eat my fill with you, but that’s
the whole problem. Eating Beasts altered my DNA and enhanced my
psionic abilities. It’s why I
had
to stop. I’d eat normal meat right off the still
bleeding bone if it didn’t freak people out. You saw Stephanie
earlier. She found it wrong, gross. My sense of smell might be
barely above human, but I’ll never forget the taste of raw Beast.
So damn delicious. Hell, I wanted to lick the blood off your chin
after you took down the Salamander… I stuck to E and D-Rank Beasts
using kinetic blasts so no one knew what I did in my spare time.
But people soon began to notice how rapidly my powers grew. So I
made sure my chip couldn’t release my private and personal research
without my intent and kept gathering day and night from mind
readers ever since.

“
My ears” she rubbed the
sensitive points. “I wish I could say this was done by Splicers.
They changed on their own when I hunted every day for a month
vacation out of sight from the Phantom program. When I finally saw
my ears change I completely stopped hunting. And it has only gotten
harder since you came into my life… and eat in front of me. Normal
food is dull and I need strong spices just to taste
anything.”

“
Then why do you smell
afraid? I would think me being like you would be great. We would
not need to hide anything from each other.”

“
You would think like that.
You didn’t grow up around children who bullied you because you were
the star student and got into more fights than in all of the
program’s history. I’m surprised they didn’t make me go in for
retraining, but I did get my ass spanked weekly growing up.” She at
last cracked a smile. “Olly, the
problem
is that you and I likely
aren’t even fully human.”

“
How so?”

“
The latest Solarian
skeletons found were roughly twenty five thousand years old, but in
those fossils we found DNA of ten or more helix strands within the
few viable cells that didn’t decay. The Solarians left behind the
Geo Record and we don’t have a clue what happened to them. They
seeded Earth and even Drakken Prime hundreds of millions of years
ago theoretically… right, we talked about it flying by King’s Tusk
Tower…

“
When I found a tenth strand
inside my own cells after my last gorging hunt I put the pieces
together. And today you reconfirmed
my
own biology. After the Fire Wyrm,
you were a high class one, but with all the Beasts you ate today
you are now a four after eating over a hundred brains.”

“
What about your
father?”

“
I was getting to that.
Papa’s DNA is human. Before I thought to come to him for answers I
had to see for myself… since he is secretive by nature. Double
Helix. Homegrown human. I first began to fear he wasn’t my papa,
but I found his genes in me as well in the few skin cells I found
of my mother who passed away giving birth to me. I told no one else
this secret. Not Papa, my aunts. No one aside from Sparky and
Rose.”

“
Why did you hide this from
me?”

“
Because I wanted to make
sure it wasn’t my hormones being attracted to you or it was
you
, as a person, I liked.
Now that I know it’s both, I can finally share my burden outside of
Sparky and Rose.”

“
So eating Beasts will make
me stronger too?”

“
From my own experiences,
yes. It isn’t a swift process, but the more you eat the stronger
you get, but the downside is you become completely dependent on
them to survive.”

“
You know I already am. You
should also know it is not just you and me who delight in raw
Beast. Vanishing Claw
became
a Beast-eater too. He’s immune to the poison too.
It is all he can eat now, but he seems no worse for
wear.”

This snapped Renee’s attention on him.
“Really?”

“
You know I’d never lie to
you like this. He’s been this way for over sixty years.” Another
thought of inspiration struck. “But if he
is
like us and grows more powerful
with each kill then logically speaking, he should have no equal.
The eldest Hunter would be watched constantly and yet he retains
freedom. Everything had limitations the body can handle. It’s
already proven that people are better than others. Some are strong,
some are weak, some have talents no other has. A person can only do
as what their bodies can do. What if… and think about this for a
moment… you do
not
grow stronger beyond the next kill and you’ve been starving
yourself all these years for nothing?”

“
But then you need to ask
what if my limit is so great I can’t control it? Huh? What then?
I’d be a threat to everyone as well as myself. I can already
vaporize entire cities. What if I get so strong that a sneeze kills
anyone around me? Without control I’d be a real threat. Worst yet,
I can’t unbind my helixes and believe me, I tried.” She rebounded
with her quick wit.

“
Good point, but has
anyone
with a logically
healthy mind lost control of their powers?”

“
Touché. But then you need
to ask if you can stand living with me if your limits are lower
than mine?” she crossed her arms.

“
Easiest thing to do all
day. I love you and you’ve been stronger and smarter than me since
I was found. I don’t see that changing for my situation anytime
soon. Why change something I endear.”