Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

“It’s just above average.” Nameless said flatly.

He was not appreciating the two men gawking at his junk alongside the three suddenly salivating monster girls.

“For a guy my height maybe.” Kyle mumbled as he averted his gaze.

“I want it.” The Undines said as one.

“Well you can’t have it. Gigas, remember?” Nameless said tartly as he tucked away his package.

With the show over, the three horny Undines put their heads together and began to whisper to each other excitedly.

“Maybe if we give her a gift and ask nice she’ll-”

“-mean as a Dragon-”

“-probably just a rumour that they eat people.”

Kyle coughed once to get their attention.

“Girls, if you’ll please do as I asked?”

Tali looked up from their huddle at the expectant man.

“Huh? Oh we sent the message when we saw you coming, we’re just waiting for-” She stopped mid-sentence as her eyes grew distant; “Ah! There it is! Sisters, the Current calls to us!”

“And we respond!” The other two answered in a unified sing song.

In perfect sync the three girls began waving their arms in midair as water flowed out of the river in a sideways wave, forcing Nameless and the others to duck to avoid getting soaked as it completed a full revolution around them before coalescing in front of the elementals’ outstretched hands.

Nameless watched in fascination as the last of the wave formed an enormous sphere in front of them.

He’d seen Undine magic before, but it was still interesting to watch, especially since they were summoning a lot more water than he had seen other girls do in the past.

Once the sphere was large enough it suddenly plummeted down to the ground, with the trio of blue-skinned monsters weaving their webbed hands inside the mass to shape it into a broad wall.

Within a few seconds Nameless and Grant stood before the enormous wave-like shape, inside which the faces of the Aegis council looked back at them.

Grant was stunned.

Even with the priority communiqué he had been expecting to see his commanding officer, even one of the councilors would have been a surprise.

He and his trainee stood at attention along with Kyle, their fists snapping to their breasts automatically at the serious faces that greeted them.

“At ease.” Booker ordered.

They relaxed, if only slightly.

“Sir, what is-”

“We’ll be brief as time is short.” Margaret Bloom said as she turned to address Nameless; “We need your help.”

__________

The three Aegis members came from their meeting at the river and returned to the compound. Once in the big room with the girls, Nameless and Grant made a beeline for the Gigas, who was watching the embers in the fireplace with a bored expression on her face.

Without preamble the senior operative got right to the point.

“Nina, how durable are you?”

The little giant looked at him like he was nuts.

“Geeze, buy a girl a drink-”

“Stop screwing around and answer the question cadet!” Grant snapped, his expression no-nonsense.

Now she glared at him like he had a death wish, but Nameless stepped in.

“Nina, answer him please. It’s important.”

Finally picking up on the seriousness of the situation she turned from the fire to address them, crossing her arms over her little breasts.

“Give me a frame of reference.”

Grant nodded then tilted his head to one side speculatively.

“A direct hit from a blaster?”

She shrugged.

“Took a few of those in the wilds, barely left a mark.”

“How about a flamer?”

“I don’t know what that is, but given the name-”

She leaned over and reached deep into the remnants of the fire and took out a glowing piece of charcoal with two fingers.

And popped it into her mouth.

With a placid look on her face she chewed deliberately for a few seconds before spitting it back into the flames.

The reactions of the others to her insane stunt were fairly predictable... mostly.

Nameless gaped, Ophelia drew in a sharp breath and put both hands to her mouth, while Erica let out a low whistle of respect.

“Show off.” Volka muttered with a smirk.

“HOLY FUCK!” Milly shouted.

Everyone turned to stare in astonishment at the gentle girl who was rapidly turning pink.

She licked her lips before speaking again, now appearing decidedly sheepish.

“I-I... wasn’t expecting it.”

“I ought to wash your mouth out with soap. Yours and Nina’s.” Erica shook her head side to side slowly in wonder.

“Milly, wow. Just wow. Erica’s right with the soap. And I’ll at least need a glass of water.” Nina spat into the fire again and wiped at her ash covered lips before vaguely waving at Grant and Nameless; “But back to whatever this is.”

Grant, not having known Milly long enough to really appreciate how uncharacteristic such an outburst was from her, cleared his throat and explained the situation.

“We were just briefed by the council, the full council. At our discretion we are to move to assist a special Aegis taskforce. Well, my discretion really, hence the questions.” He blew out a nervous breath before shaking his head; “If a Gigas wasn’t part of this team there is no way they would send us, not with a trainee. And especially not with this trainee! But with so many assets tied up looking for Jonathan and Evadne, the council must be desperate.”

“Where are we going?” Volka asked with narrowed eyes.

“Algrade.”

Ophelia winced and Nameless felt a stab of apprehension from her heartstone, but she shook her head at him sharply: whatever it was could wait.

“What’s going on?” Erica asked while nervously spinning one of her knives between her fingers.

Nameless answered before Grant could.

“It looks like Miranda finally caught up to her arms dealer.”

Chapter 37:Form Up

Having been made fully aware of the urgency of the situation, Grant, Nameless and their girls made good time and arrived