Spark Rising (19 page)

Lee’s face had been a study in discomfort. He knew his responsibilities and his role, but she captivated him with her attention.

Alex had made him a promise. If Jackson could keep his distance and help Lena realize her importance to them all, then he would be assigned to Azcon to train with Alex. She would be free to focus on her lessons and her vengeance. Jackson would get the training and the experience he desperately wanted. Alex would get the skilled junior partner he had needed since Erika had been sent to Zone Six. A real partner, one whom he could train to take over the operations in Azcon in anticipation of the day Alex moved on to their next target Zone.

He could use a partner who was one of them. He was tired of looking over his shoulder. He had his people in the city, but they had other assignments and he expected them to keep their focus where it belonged. This thing with Merritt, the Junior Director of Council Security, served as a reminder that he needed someone to watch his back.

Alex and Merritt were both under the Councilor’s consideration for the newly empty position of Director. Everyone in the inner sanctum knew Alex had a foot up simply because the Councilor had particular tastes and Alex was prettier. Merritt was looking for anything he could use against Alex.

He rolled his eyes at the thought and tipped his head to look at his friend again.

Thomas was still, except for one finger tapping on his thigh, likely as busy wrestling his thoughts as Alex had been. Finally, he leaned forward and told Alex matter-of-factly, “Well, he’d look better doing it.”

Thomas loved to rib him about the youthful vanity he had indulged in so many years before, even more so since he had outgrown it. The memory made Alex wince.

He snorted. “Okay, see, now you’re just being mean. Don’t make me throw your ass in the sparring ring.”

Thomas laughed. “Maybe that’s what you need. It’s been a while.”

“It has. You done licking your wounds yet?”

“Ha!” Thomas narrowed his eyes. “Can you hear out of your left ear yet?”

Alex rubbed his ear in memory. That had been a shithead move. He told him so.

His friend shrugged and smiled. “It got you off me.”

“It almost got you killed.” Alex’s vision didn’t cloud with the red wash of fury often, but when it did, it could be hard to pull himself back into focus.

Thomas stood up. “I can take a drubbing, so long as you stay sharp.”

Alex could see the genuine worry. He sighed. “Thom—”

“No. It’s fine. I understand your motivation, and I even agree with it, to an extent. But she’s a new cog in the machine. I want to be certain it will still run smoothly before letting her run.”

“She’s not the only new cog.” He shook his head. “We need to get new people up there.” Thomas would understand his reference. Something was going on in the Council of Nine. Even as a member of the Council, Thomas had no idea who or what moved in the background. Their missing agents in Zone Four spoke of a consolidation of power there reminiscent of their own start twenty years ago here in Zone Five. He needed to be there. He needed to get a sense of it for himself. “I don’t like being blind. Not with Lucas back there. I can’t be sure what he knows.”

“I’m working on it.” Thomas cleared his throat. “With Jackson gone tonight, she’ll be on her own. Are you returning after taking the friend back to Azcon?”

“Not tonight, no. I need to go in and put in an appearance so my absence two days running won’t be as notable.” His lips twisted. If it hadn’t become crucial to the plan, he’d pull out of consideration for the Director’s position.

The mind-games and one-upmanship with Merritt, while something he might have once had fun with, were another distraction in the post-Lucas era of looking for answers before he knew the questions. However, Merritt had made it obvious that if he got the position they both wanted, he’d make sure Alex wasn’t assigned to the Council Meet delegation as Agent Liaison, which would scrap the original plan. It was Director of Councilor Security or nothing, and nothing wasn’t an option. They couldn’t wait.

“I’ll be back tomorrow.” Alex shrugged. “So have dinner with her. Answer her questions. Get to know her.
Her
, not your idea of her.”

“Oh, I’ve abandoned my idea of her,” Thomas said with a dry laugh. “And any notion of pursuing her myself. She’s just not my type.”

Alex raised his brow, a smile playing about his lips. As far as he knew, Thomas didn’t have a type. Like Alex himself, he availed himself of female company when and where he needed without the complications of emotional attachments.

“Really? Untapped power beyond words isn’t your type?”

Thomas cocked his head to the side. He pursed his lips. “I don’t know. There’s something off….”

“About Lena?” Alex winced internally at the sharp undertone in his own voice.

Before he could examine what made him feel so defensive, Thomas shook his head. “No, no. My expectation, I suppose. We waited so long to find a woman like her, and then—”

“If you tell me she’s not as amazing as you thought one of them would be, I’ll call you a liar.” She was breathtakingly amazing. A huge pain-in-the-ass, yes, but she was also amazing. That was the problem.

“No. She is. Even damaged and prickly. She’s just more than I expected. You don’t know, because you’re not here, but we can feel her. All the time. Her energy, her EM field, the amount of Dust she carries within her, whatever it is, it pulls all the time. She’s almost too much.” Thomas’s eyes narrowed.

How like us fickle humans.

Alex’s lips quirked up, and he told Thomas what had occurred to him.

“Let me guess,” his friend answered, a teasing note back in his voice. “There’s a poem for that.”

Alex laughed, not caring what his friend thought of his love of Stephen Crane. They were familiar enough with each other’s foibles to be comfortable expressing them. “I was in the darkness,” he began, quoting the poem.

“I could not see my words

Nor the wishes of my heart.

Then suddenly there was a great light—”

He stopped at the stanza break, grinning at Thomas for effect. “’Let me into the darkness again.’ That’s what we do, you know. We stumble around until we get what we want, and then once we see exactly what it was we really wanted we’re terrified of it.”

“Ah,” Thomas said, “there he is, the warrior-poet I know and love. Take me to bed, Agent Reyes. Ravish me now.”

“You wish.”

“Ha. I know it breaks your heart, but you’re not my type, either.” Thomas laughed at him, shaking his head in wonder. “Seriously, why are you wasting your verse on me? That’s good stuff, man. You should be reciting poetry to women, not keeping it bottled up. But you haven’t. And you won’t.”

Alex was quiet. His face must have reflected the memory, because Thomas’s brows shot up.

“You didn’t? Really?”

“Shut up.”

“To Lena? I get the lure of the power, but really? She’s built like a boy.”

“Shut
up
.”

“She’s just so…tiny. And freckled.”

“I like her freckles.” He gritted his teeth, pissed that his friend had needled him into the admission. He didn’t have time for this. Any of it. “And not that I’m interested, but there’s nothing tiny about her presence.”

“Oh, no, she’s intimidating as shit. When she figures that out, she’ll be queen of the universe. I just don’t get the whole inspiring poetry vibe off of her.” Thom laughed again. “Congratulations, Alex. You can still surprise me after all these years.” He grinned in delight.

Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s not like that. You had to be there. It was just…the moment.”

“Aww. You had a moment? That’s adorable.”

“Get out. Get out now.”

Thomas had gone from grinning to chortling laughter choking in his throat.

“Seriously.” Alex was indignant. He’d never mocked Thomas’s choices. Much. “Out!”

Thomas went. Alex could hear him still laughing as he closed the door behind himself.

Chapter 15

After Ace left with Reyes, Lena curled up on the small couch. She didn’t want to think about everything she’d learned. She didn’t want to think about Jackson. She wanted to enjoy the residual happiness of Ace’s visit. One moment she was smiling, the next she woke muzzy-headed with sleep and sitting up to an insistent knock. A second later, the lock turned with a click and the door opened.

Councilor Five leaned in, searching the small room. When he found her, he leaned back slightly, seeming relieved, and then embarrassed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to invade your—” His hand indicated the space.

She shook her head. She blinked several times and yawned. “No. That’s all right. I fell asleep.”

He was uncomfortable, as he seemed every time he appeared. “I hoped Alex would have told you—”

“He did,” she assured him. “I just fell asleep.”

“Are you hungry? Or would you rather rest? I can have something sent to you.”

“I am, actually.” She slid forward and stuffed her feet into her low boots then ran her hands through her hair and shoved it back behind her ears. “I’m not fancy, but I am ready, Councilor Five.” She stood.

“Councilor—?” He stepped back and shook his head. “No, call me Thomas, please.” As he read her doubtful face, he insisted, “Thomas.”

She followed Thomas through several corridors that finally emptied into a smaller elevator lobby. He pushed the button to call the elevator and then flashed her a smile. “We’re not going to the cafeteria. I thought you’d appreciate some fresh air.”

“Fresh air?” Her brows rose, as did her voice, with a surge of excitement. “We’re going to the surface?” Since she’d arrived, she’d only been to the surface to use the protected grounding platform. They’d been very careful to limit her exposure to open areas where anyone watching the school might see her.

The elevator slid open, and Thomas rapped a button at the top of the board after they entered. She hoped along with the fresh air he planned to explain a few things to her. She had many questions, one of them how he and Reyes had come together to build their revolution in the first place. She wasn’t sure she’d ever met two more dissimilar men. And yet, here they were, carving their alternative empire out of the Council of Nine without the Council even being aware of it.

The box slowed and stopped before they reached the floor Thomas had selected. The doors opened, and two men turned from their conversation to enter. The older talked with his hands, arms waving so violently that his thin blond hair fluttered around his face and ears. Both men paused when they saw her inside, brought up short in surprise. Two appreciative stares ran down the length of her and both lit with a speculative light.

Lena sighed and moved back against the wall behind her. She might get used to the idea that she was the only powered female in the school. She didn’t think she’d get used to the looks. After her talk with Erwin, she understood their fascination better. She cast her gaze downward so as to not encourage either of the men.

“Guardian Wils. Agent Prentiss,” Thomas greeted them, his voice dry. “Going up?”

“We are.” The agent recovered first.

She still had the sense that Reyes would be unimpressed with his lack of self-control.

“We’re joining Guardians Schroeder and Erwin for dinner on the Quad,” the guardian told Thomas. Lena could feel his attention on her. “Perhaps the two of you could join us? I can’t be the only one eager to meet our newest student.”

Thomas cleared his throat. The sound was almost an apology. “Of course. Wils, Prentiss, this is Lena Gracey. Lena, one of our talented teachers and his prize student from several years ago.”

She gave the men a weak smile before looking down again.

“She’s shy,” Wils purred. “How charming. Perhaps after dinner she’ll be more comfortable with us.”

She didn’t think she had ever wanted to punch a man in the crotch as much as she did right then.

“I’m afraid we have to decline your invitation, Wils. We’re having a working dinner.” Thomas gave the Guardian another of his bland smiles.

“Oh, come on. The three of you can’t keep her to yourselves indefinitely. It’s not fair.” The man was smart enough to keep his voice jovial, but it didn’t matter.

Lena had looked up in surprise at his words and caught Thomas’s reaction. The bland smile had shifted in some infinitesimal way to become dangerous. His eyes tightened barely perceptively, but she was glad the feral glint in the pale blue depths was not directed at her.

Had she believed he and Reyes had nothing in common?

The younger agent nodded. “But of course we understand the need for a working dinner. There are never enough hours in the day, are there?” He looked at her. “Perhaps another time?”

The elevator slowed, saving her from answering. Thomas ushered the men out ahead of them. They exited into another bare lobby with a set of heavy doors to one side. Thomas held out a hand at his side, pausing her progress. The two men preceded them, the Guardian’s shoulders set and angry. As the door swung to close behind them, Prentiss looked back. He wasn’t looking at her physically, but inspected her aura. The lascivious heat in his stare made it a violation.

Once she and Thomas were alone again, she let out the breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding. They spoke at the same time.

“Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea.”

“What was that all about?”

She waited for him to answer her question.

He rubbed his nose. “Erwin explained the basics of our life spans?”

“Yeah, he did. And I understand, awesome, you guys live a long time and get lonely. But there
are
women here. I’ve seen them. Those two looked at me like they hadn’t had a warm body in their beds in…ever. They’re not the only ones. And really, I’m just not that beautiful.”

“It’s complicated,” Thomas said. “It’s not the life span alone. There are other biological adaptations at play. But to explain them…. I don’t know how experienced you are in certain areas.” He avoided her gaze. “I don’t want to offend you.”

Lena wanted to laugh. She would have if she wasn’t so sick of being ogled by everything attached to a penis. Here in the Ward School, there were a lot of them. “Let’s say I’m experienced enough. Please explain.”

His face moved from side to side as he thought about how he wanted to phrase it. “So, look, your parents. She was a Spark and he wasn’t. Did you never notice how powered men reacted to your mother, Lena? Or how they treated your father for having the audacity to be with her?”

She stared at the man for a moment. Male Sparks came on to her mother? What the Dust was he getting at? “I…no. I stayed inside. I never saw them interact with anyone.”

He nodded in resignation. “Right.” Thomas took a deep breath and shrugged. He looked at her now, his voice strong and direct. “And have you never been with a Spark yourself?”

“What does this have to do with anything?”

“Have you?”

“No, not—no.” She crossed her arms and refused to think about Jackson. “I’ve avoided other Sparks like the plague. I couldn’t risk being with someone who could recognize how strong I am.”

“Okay.” He nodded, licked his lips, and muttered to himself, “How did I get stuck with this conversation?”

She waited. Her brows were raised, and her amusement at his discomfort twitched her lips upward.

He looked up at her, his own lips curved into a wry smile. “Don’t laugh,” he ordered her. “It’s not funny. Look, it’s like this. The Dust, the nanobots, they react to each other, a certain electric or magnetic pull. And they react also to those who can use them. We—” he gestured between the two of them “—and all of us, we have more Dust in, on, and around us than the unpowered. They prefer us. And the attraction grows with the Spark’s power.”

“Okay. Got it.”

“And there are certain involuntary…discharges…that occur during times of heightened arousal.”

“Right.” She remembered how the Dust pooled within her in the safe house with Reyes. It had seemed drawn to where their bodies touched. Later, she’d definitely felt the involuntary discharges sparking and flaring when Jackson kissed her, and the frenetic reaction of the Dust when Reyes interrupted, as if it remembered him. That sensation got more intense?

“So, if you ever noticed or if anyone ever told you—”

“I got it,” Lena said.

He moved his hands up in a gesture to appease her. “Okay. So, when you’re with another Spark, it is more pleasurable. And the intensity of the experience grows with the power of the…participants.
Significantly
.” The emphasis he put on the final word caused her brows to raise nearly to her hairline.

“So…what you’re saying is, every single man I walk past in this place who gets a peek at my aura starts drooling and wondering if being with me would be a brains-on-the-wall final moment of glory?”

Was that why Jackson couldn’t resist her advances? Not because he wanted her, but because of …nanites? Had she been that wrong? Lena felt a wash of confusion as strong as nausea. No wonder he’d volunteered to go out on field maneuvers.

Thomas winced. “Yes…”

“Yes? But? Am I wrong?”

“Yes. You’re not wrong. But look, it’s more than the physical response. Although there’s never been a woman like you, so that response isn’t insignificant.” His eyes were narrowed now, and he spoke rapidly and forcefully. Was this a favorite subject? “The things that you are capable of, the promise of what you can bring to us as a whole, and yes, perhaps, to one individual. If you choose well, your children will be powerful beyond—well, that’s the draw. It’s…you’re the ideal. You’re the…great… tantalizing…possibility.”

“I see.” She did see. But she wasn’t sure what to make of it. “So we’re all slaves to the Dust we carry? Like, uber-Spark pheromones or something? Funny. Reyes doesn’t seem all that affected.”

He made a face. “Alex has more discipline than any ten men put together. He feels it. We all feel it. It’s a matter of control.”

She nodded. Control. That she understood.

“Thank you, Thomas, for being honest with me. It helps to know what’s behind all of….” She waved her hand at the elevator, referring to what had just gone down with the guardian and the agent. It also explained Jackson’s battle. She sighed. The confusion settled in her chest, heavy. Why couldn’t someone have told her all of this
before
she’d fallen for one of them?

Oh. Really? Just one of them?

“You’re welcome. Now…I promised you fresh air with your dinner.” He clapped his hands together and opened the heavy door for her, evidently happy to have the conversation behind them.

After a short trip through more corridors, they passed through a locked security entry. Thomas keyed it and ushered her through ahead of him.

Sunlight flowed through the opening to spill at her feet. She scooted into a wide atrium. The main entry from the outside world opened across the room. Access to the rest of the area was blocked by a wide console running the width of the space that was manned by a pair of serious-faced young men. The back wall was glass, through which sunlight poured in. On the other side of the windows, a sheltered courtyard and garden stretched away from the rear of the building.

She tilted her head back to feel the sunlight on her face. You didn’t realize how much you could miss that warmth until you spent a few weeks without it. She sighed happily and looked around again. They would be eating outside, he’d said. In the back garden?

One of the young agents guarding the entry left his post and approached. Thomas held up his hand, curtailing any salute. The guard opened the doors for the two of them. Lena stepped out into paradise, and everything else receded.

Benched tables were set at intervals around a wide stone patio. Most were occupied. Heads turned as they entered. She didn’t care. Let them get an eyeful. She stared out at the grounds beyond the patio.

Paths led away from the patio to wind through tall, soft, pale grass waving in a summer breeze. Bushes and cacti were beginning to bloom. Mature mesquites, gnarled and bent, reached to the sky. Out at the end of the garden was a nothingness that spoke of a cliff edge. Beyond it, the desperate brown and red of the desert she loved stretched far below. Craggy, rocky desolation for miles, and then the jutting dark hulk of mountains rose in the distance. It was gorgeous.

She leaned her head back again. Eyes closed, she let the warm desert breeze brush over her skin. She could smell moisture, ozone, and dirt in the wind. She opened her eyes and looked out across the wide open land to the mountains. “Rain is coming.”

Thomas tapped her arm and pointed past her. She looked at the sky beyond his fingers. Dark clouds smudged down to earth in a purple curtain. If anyone ever found a cure for drama of the heart, she’d bet it would include warm sunshine and the smell of rain in the desert.

She turned back to him with a wide smile. “I could smell it. I’ve missed that smell.”

He nodded, serious-eyed and quiet. “It is intoxicating.” He glanced around, as if aware of the curious, measuring looks from every table.