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ISBN:
978-1-55487-180-3

Cover art by Martine Jardin

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Chapter One

“We’re next. I can tell.” The two ladies on her left snickered and looked over at the alien attendants who were keeping an eye on the waiting room. The women were ogling the physiques on the aliens and making comparisons to human males.

Seval had finished her questionnaire and was waiting patiently for her name to be called so that she could go home. With deliberate attention, she hunkered in on herself and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. She knew that she had succeeded when the attendant who had taken her questionnaire was standing right in front of her and he still couldn’t see her.

Finally he gave up, “Seval Wythin? Are you still here?”

She relaxed her body and spoke softly to him so as not to startle him, “Yes, I am right here. May I go now?”

Her attempt to keep him from jumping was in vain. He leapt away from her as if scalded. She stood, resigned to the looks that she was getting from the ladies who had been gossiping about the sexual positions of the alien races.

“Miss Wythin? Please follow me, there is someone who wishes to speak with you for a moment.” The attendant recovered from his start and walked in front of her through a series of doors, each guarded by a couple of alien attendants. “Miss Wythin? Why did you keep yourself from being noticed in the waiting room?”

“The women were being a little harsh with their assessments of the other volunteer candidates. I didn’t want them to turn their attention to me.”

They continued their march down hallways and finally he let her precede him through the doors. “A Representative will be with you in a moment. Please be patient.”

She was patient. There was no one to hide from in here so she just decided to stay calm. What other choice was there? A sudden whirring of a camera drew her gaze to the ceiling and she immediately wanted to be somewhere else. She hated cameras, hated being on film. It was her least favourite place to be.

A knock on the door let her know that the solitude was over. He was a tiny silver man, no bigger than four feet tall. “Hello, Miss Wythin, I am Alliance Representative Alaw.”

She extended her hand and felt less foolish when he took it. “Pleased to meet you.”

“I have come here to offer you a position with the Volunteers leaving the Earth in a few weeks.”

Her jaw had to have been hanging open. “What? Why? Why me?”

“You have an unusual talent. Let me show you.” He had left the door open and the attendant manning it came forward with a small box. Oh, it was a DVD player. Alaw opened it and began to run some footage. “Here you are filling out the forms and answering our extensive questionnaire.” Sure enough, she was on the screen, biting at her lip as she concentrated.

“And here you are handing in your documents.” Sure enough, there she was, but a flicker on the screen was affecting the spot where she was standing. “Why did you not want to be noticed there?”

“The attendant was cute and we made eye contact. I suddenly wanted to be out of his site.” She had never seen herself in that kind of a situation. Certainly not from this angle.

“Ah.” He made a note on a small tablet that he had produced. “You are shy then? Afraid of attention?”

“Most of the time, yes. The attention that I have received in my life has not been of the highest calibre.”

“I thought that might be the case, for example, here.” Her tiny image was in the waiting room and as the women began to gossip, she began to flicker on screen until she was only some heat wave haze. “Obviously you were under duress. It was only logical for you to disappear into the scenery. Has anyone ever sat upon you?”

Ruefully she had to admit, “Twice. More, if you count my family.”

“I thought as much.” He suddenly turned all cheerful and businesslike. “My dear Miss Seval, I am offering you the opportunity of your lifetime. You can learn to control your appearing and disappearing at will. It will be your choice to be noticed or not. Your own and only choice.”

Seval pondered it for long moments. No more rejection unless she chose it, no more being invisible if she didn’t mean to be. No more hiding. And finally, no more family gatherings. “Where do I sign?”

Chapter Two

Working with a new partner every few months could be taxing on anyone’s nerves. But Seval found it especially awkward. She had to put her life in his hands and his acting skills. It was enough to drive a woman mad, or force her to face a loneliness that she couldn’t even admit to herself.

Ben was her newest partner, the
body
that went with her
guard
. After two years of training, she had been sent out to the Alliance Trading Outpost and been assigned to guard a number of representatives and ambassadors. An invisible guard was hard for her charges to accept so a heavily muscled guard was assigned to her and they worked as a team. He soothed the client and kept them calm and she found the actual threat to her charge and took care of it.

She hadn’t lost a charge yet. But she had gone through four guards before Ben. It disturbed them that they couldn’t see her unless she wished them to. One of the guys had actually gone a little mad and tried to trap her. Lanen had chased her down and thrown a powder on her, not realizing that it was all on the monitors in her rooms. She managed to subdue him with some difficulty and had him sent home with a copy of the vid in his record.

Vorabenik was much more steady. He spoke to her directly at their briefings and she returned the favour by keeping a beverage in her hand. It helped him to find her when they talked about their current case, discussing the needs of the client that contracted with the Alliance for the bodyguard team of Seval and Ben, Alliance Unit 33.

She focused on her job every waking moment, but there were times like now when she wished she was a normal nobody back on Earth. It was hard to knock on Vorabenik‘s door, knowing that he had taken a lover the night before. “Ben, are you ready for the final briefing?”

Their rooms adjoined and she had easily heard the acrobatics that he and his companion of the evening before had engaged in. If he could see her, she would still be blushing.

“I am, come in, Seval.” He was towelling his hair dry and smiling at her. The bots had cleaned up the bed, but a glittery top still writhed on the floor in its metallic glory. Only a linen sheet covered him from hip to knee. The rest was pure Azon hide and muscle.

“Your friend forgot something, Ben.”

With two fingers she picked up the offending garment and waved it at him. A dark shade of cocoa made its way to his face and he closed his eyes.

“She was amply compensated.”

“Oh? In credits or activity?”

“Both.” He dropped the towel from his hair and the one from his hips.

Wow, the girl had certainly left with a hefty tip.

Ben moved from one end of the room to the other, gathering his clothing and sitting on the edge of the bed to dress.

While he did that, she idly draped the glittery fabric over her breasts and looked at the reflection in the mirror. She still had her figure, even if it was invisible ninety percent of the time.

“Seval? Why are you doing that?” His attention was firmly fixed in her outline under the fabric.

“Eh, it was pretty and I wanted to see if I was still remotely feminine behind my guise.”

He blinked slowly.

His catlike black eyes widened to the point that Seval assumed pain must have been hitting the orbs.

“You’re a female!” His accusation rang in the room.

“Yes. Yes, I am. Or I was the last time I checked. It was a while ago, but my species doesn’t sex-shift without medical intervention.” Her low voice vibrated with amusement. He really seemed surprised. The rapid motions with which he jerked on his pants certainly gave that away.

“I thought you were male.”

“Why?”

“Your record. You have never lost a client and have engaged in a wild run of daring manoeuvres to save them. Some that I would have thought physically impossible before I met you. I just assumed that you were male.” He was blushing again. “I don’t know how to say this, but you don’t smell like a woman.”

She snorted. It was not the first time that she had heard that one. “I have had my scent producing glands suppressed. It makes my job easier if they can’t smell me coming.”

“Was it a medical procedure?”

“Yes. I can reverse it if I wish to. But I think I would only do that if I decided to settle down and raise a family. That isn’t likely to happen.” She smiled, sad that he couldn’t see it. “It would be hard to raise a child that could not find its mother.” He certainly was chatty. This was the most that one of the guards had asked her. Usually they were all about the job.

“What about the invisibility? How does that work?”

“It is an instinct that I trained until I was able to maintain it all the time. It is an outcropping of psychic energy.”

“Can you turn it off?”

“Yes. If I wish to. The situation hasn’t arisen yet.” She hoped that he could hear the smile in her voice. She didn’t really socialize and this was the first semi-casual conversation that she had in a long time. Seval was amazed that she missed it. It was one of the small things of her past life that she missed.

That, and Starbucks.

Chapter Three

“Okay, now back to the reason I came in here.”

“Right, the briefing.”

He was tugging the lines of his tunic straight and she fought the urge to help straighten it and flip his hair back over his shoulders. It really was very pretty, long black strands that were almost blue in the light of the suite.

“The Ambassador for the Olanka federation. She is attractive, a compatible class and has a tendency to take physical advantage of other Ambassadors and Representatives. She uses pheromones for seduction and it has the effect of creating hostilities in the gathering around her.”

She smiled, then sighed when he couldn’t see it. “Exactly. So you are to guard the Representative of Mathi. He is in pre-mating susceptibility and if he defiles himself with an alien he will be unable to mate with a female of his species.” She looked in the mirror and tried to fluff her hair in the reflection and only succeeded in causing her aura to flicker. Bummer. “I have worked with Nar of Mathi before. He should be no trouble. But keep an eye out for Xara. If she can’t seduce, she will take by force.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“You need it. She will be pouring pheromones out, enough to seduce half the station. You have enhanced senses, Ben, you are vulnerable.” Unable to control herself, she turned and walked to him. Without a second thought, she placed her hand on his arm. He flinched slightly, then relaxed and fumbled his hand over hers. It was her first time initiating contact since her training. She was unprepared for her reaction. The touch of him under her hand sent zinging energy along her nerves. Her mind blanked and she could feel her normal self-control rioting.

“Seval. What’s wrong?”

He was grabbing her by the upper arm and supporting her, the feel of his hands on her wasn’t helping her gain control. She didn’t even register that he had been able to get an accurate grip on her until he swept her up and laid her on the bed. As soon as his hands left her body, she felt better. More calm. Back in control.

Looking at herself gave her the shock of her life. She was visible. Meeting Ben’s shocked gaze, she pushed her body to its safety settings as quickly as she could. In less than a minute, she was invisible and across the room.

“What just happened?” He took a few steps toward the edge of the bed where she had disappeared.

“I lost control. Please don’t try to touch me.”

“Why not? You need help.” He tried to get closer.

She bent and flexed away from him. “No. I don’t. This is embarrassing, but it has been so long since I touched another living being that my senses went into overdrive.” Admitting it while backing toward the door was her only course of action. “Let’s get to work. His shuttle will be docking within the hour.”

She hit the pressure plate to open the door and stepped through it as she kicked herself for her honesty. Most men would take that as a challenge.

Ben straightened and followed her into the hall. “We will discuss that later.”

She knew that he was no exception.
 
“I will take point. You have your tracker on?” All of her partners were outfitted with trackers so that if a firefight broke out, they didn’t shoot her.

“I do.”

She moved with the slow gliding gait that they had taught her in training to make her more effective.
I do
. Seval remembered every woman she knew who had thrilled to those words. For her, they now symbolized going out to put her body at risk. All in a day’s work. Keeping her deep sigh behind her lips, she slunk into the landing bay. Show time.

The outer lock opened to allow the ship its docking with the station. When it was secured, the secondary and then the tertiary locks opened and closed until the small shuttle was opening and their client was exiting the metal can.

“Get to work, Ben.” She poked him gently after she spoke, right in the shoulder.

He nodded and moved to greet Nar of Mathi. “Good day to you, Representative Nar. I am honoured to present myself as your guard for the duration of your stay. ” He bowed deeply, “My name is Vorabenik, but you may call me Ben.”

Nar returned the bow, “I am pleased to meet you Ben. Will Seval be joining us this day?”

“She already has, Representative.”

“Nar, please. Or Rep Nar if you insist on formality.” His smile warmed anyone who saw him.

Seval had to admit, Nar was a handsome creature. His body was all lithe muscle and elegant charm. It was not a mystery that he had been targeted to be the next conquest of the Olanka Ambassador, but it was rude of her not to respect his cultural mores.

Seval stood behind her client and spoke softly. “Greetings of the day to you. It gladdens me to see you again, Nar. How have you been?”

He jumped slightly when she began to speak, but was lulled into a stupor by her low voice. Her deep voice was probably the reason that Ben had been unable to ascertain her gender.

“Greetings of the day to you as well, Seval. I am glad that you were able to be here for this most trying of meetings.” Mathi and Olanka were engaged in negotiation over an asteroid field. Ice and mineral rights were at stake. Neither planet utilized the Negotiators of the Alliance, and therefore they had to send representatives to do the negotiation in a neutral place. Like Seval’s home, Kalish Station.

Well, it wasn’t really her home, but like all human Volunteers, she could never go home again. They no longer qualified as human. Shaking her head slightly and getting back in the game, she touched Ben to get him moving. Standing here and chatting was just asking for trouble.

The station halls were only mildly congested, their way was made easier by the field generator that Ben activated. Everyone became mildly itchy and moved out of their way. The generator had been approved by the station security and Seval wore her own, just in case.

Nar was situated several levels above Ben and Seval’s adjoining quarters, they would be rooming with him until he left the station. He had been briefed on it and had requested larger quarters as a result. They had been granted.

Ben and Seval would have to share, but since they would be watching in shifts during the night, it would not be a problem. For the next four days, they would get by on minimal sleep. It was a job requirement.

Seval moved next to Ben when they had made it safely into the Representative’s quarters and done a security sweep. “I will take the first evening shift. Nar and I have a few things to discuss, unrelated to the assignment.”

“Do you wish me to remain awake in case you need me?”

“No. I will scream loud and long if you are required. And then I will kick you to wake you up.” Ben was notoriously hard to wake up when he was off duty. It had become a running joke for her to remind him of that little fact. He didn’t sleep, he hibernated.