Cloud Rebel (R-D #3)(44)

"Shall we sit and talk," Valegar suggested.

"Yes. Please," I heaved a sigh. My legs already felt like rubber and my hands trembled. I was afraid to trust this change in Rafe. I could recall with perfect clarity the rage in his eyes when he'd come after me both times—the first immediately after the obsession was placed, and then at the villa in Italy.

I was terrified to trust Rafe again, even though a powerful Larentii thought him to be safe. We sat on sofas divided by a large table, facing one another. Val sat beside me and took my hand.

"You must understand that she loves you—it is merely difficult for her to disassociate the obsession-afflicted man from the one she trusted before," Val told Rafe.

"I can see how that could happen," Rafe lowered his eyes and stared at the beer bottle in his hand for a moment. "I also understand how her past plays a part in this—although I was hoping for a permanent cure for her PTSD."

"We are learning, just as you are," Val said. "We have never had a Larentii join our ranks after surviving the drug. Every day brings something new, including the fact that her past lives are bleeding into her current one."

"Yes. At times, I experience the same." Rafe dropped his American-sounding accent for his native one. Ilya was now present. He sounded bitter.

I understood that perfectly. It made me want to cry.

He'd lost a wife and a son.

I'd lost a husband and a son.

He now bore an obsession to kill me if he could. I didn't trust what had been done to hold the obsession at bay. I couldn't trust him, either.

Not anymore. This wasn't the Ilya I'd known. This one was afflicted with a disease no Larentii could cure. They could only provide a temporary fix that could weaken or disintegrate with no notice.

Yes, my PTSD was in the driver's seat and I couldn't muster enough logic to defeat it. I felt horrible for the pain Ilya was experiencing.

I felt horrible from the pain in me, too.

I had no ready answer for either of those things.

"I don't know what to do," I wept.

"Shhh, Ilya's here," he crooned. I had no idea how he'd reached my side so quickly.

"Breathe slowly, dearest," Val soothed. "I will allow no harm to come to you."

I felt as if I were drowning—in both fear and desire. The desire came from Val—I recognized it from before. Perhaps he was attempting to forge better memories between Ilya and me. Perhaps I would be angry with him about that.

Later.

Ilya kissed me. A kiss I remembered. One that told me I was more important than anything else to him. Valegar transported us to the bed in our suite.

I will never forget my first experience with energy sex. It was achieved during normal coitus, giving Ilya and me a pleasure we'd never experienced before while I wept with joy at the loving touch of his hands and body.

*

Opal

I poured more Scotch in my glass and swallowed half of it before turning my gaze on Matt. We were in his office and it was late at night.

Something was up—we both felt it.

"Look, I know you disagree with the way I'm handling things," he said, waving his empty glass at me.

"You're not handling much at all," I pointed out. "You're standing back and letting Corinne do it, for the most part."

"We have limitations on interference," Matt reminded me.

"But this—what's happening now—wasn't exactly in the game plan. You know we can interfere all we want if rogue gods are involved."

"I don't think a rogue would come within a hundred light-years of this place," he replied. "We have absolutely no proof of that. Besides, I have to keep my job, and if I go too far off the reservation—sorry, that was the wrong word to use—anyway, I have to keep my job, at least for a while longer, even if it involves disguising myself and taking on another name."

"I disagree—you need to involve yourself now, before everything goes to hell," I retorted. "Cori doesn't need to carry this load by herself."

"Well, you're not in charge, here," he hissed. "So back off. I'll let you know if we need to up our game."

"Right," I said, just as his cell phone rang.

*

Notes—Colonel Hunter

I was asleep when the call came. Laci lay beside me, her breathing soft and even. The vibration of my cell phone didn't disturb her sleep as it did mine.

Rolling off the bed, I stalked into the bathroom and shut the door before answering. Only an emergency would interrupt my sleep like this.

"What is it?" I barked without looking to see which White House staffer generated the call.

"Madam President is dead," the voice informed me. "Of an apparent heart attack."





Chapter 10

Corinne

I wasn't aware of anything until I woke. I understood then why Larentii always had others stand guard during and after energy sex, whenever they were away from their homeworld. It took the term mind-blowing and lifted it to the fiftieth power, at the very least.

If Ilya had been human, it would have torn him apart, the force was so great. Most Larentii arranged to have humanoids shielded if they were included in the backwash of pleasure.

Ilya got the full force of it and managed to survive.