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

again after so much activity and bloodshed was a challenge she doubted she would ever get used to.

The Hornet queen looked at her with one eyebrow raised to meet her drooping antennae while they talked.

“-so what you are saying honey, is that Nameless needs to have children with a human?”

Cordelia nodded.

“Yeah, he seemed pretty stressed out about it. I don’t even know how it came up!”

The Hornet queen nodded, giving her bond-mate a funny look.

“Uh-huh. And didn’t you once tell me... that you wanted to have children?”

It took a second but her meaning did eventually sink into the baker’s head.

At which point her eyes went wide.

“WHAT?!”

“And there it is.” Oldeera murmured to herself.

Cordelia seemed incapable of any other words beyond the one, so Oldeera sat on the circular couch and patted the cushion beside her while a pair of her Hornets helped their stunned bond-mate to sit down next to their queen.

Oldeera tapped her chin thoughtfully, a smile growing as she considered the possibilities.

“Oh honey, this could be so much fun! We both noticed how good he looked in that uniform, and if half the rumours I’ve heard about his ah... ‘other’, attributes are true, than it could be just the thing to scratch that itch for us.”

Cordelia was scarlet by that point, she had seen for herself the truth about Nameless’s equipment in the bathhouse in Kettering.

Then the last part Oldeera said hit her in the face.

“Wait... us?”

“Of course, or did you think I would just sit back and watch?”

“That’s not- but I-”

Oldeera chuckled at her stammering queen.

“Don’t worry honey, you hold my heart, always. But if you’re getting a taste...” She hinted.

Cordelia groaned and hid her face into her hands.

“I can’t believe we’re even talking about this!”

“Talking about what?” Christine asked as she strolled into the room from the kitchen, munching on an apple.

“Nothing!” Her little sister’s head snapped back out of her hands before Oldeera could answer.

The Hornet laughed.

The mechanist student looked around the empty seeming hive, scratching her head at the difference.

“I wonder why they left so quickly?”

“We don’t know, Miranda wouldn’t say.” Rebecca shrugged.

Having grown up with two sisters, Christine couldn’t help but tease her a bit.

“Oooh, ‘Miranda’ is it?”

Becks turned pink, but smiled shyly at the normality of it.

“Yeah, it is her name you know.”

“Maybe, but when you say it it’s more like…” Her eyes fluttered closed and she mimicked the Lapine in the throes of ecstasy; “Oh Miranda! Don’t touch me there!”

Cordelia burst out laughing while Oldeera smiled wide.

Rebecca’s blush deepened, but then she offered the elder Loskins sister a speculative look.

“You make that sound really good, are you sure you aren’t into girls? It does seem to run in your family!”

Now it was Christine’s turn to blush, though she laughed it off well enough, tapping her chin in thought.

“Hmmm, you’re right, my dad and my sisters do all seem to have an aversion to the penis.”

Cordelia shook her head violently and chucked a pillow at her sister.

“EW! Christy don’t talk about dad’s funny business!”

With Cordelia and Christine distracted with teasing each other as only sisters could, Rebecca gave a wistful sigh as she juxtaposed the cheerful atmosphere with the horrors of the last few days.

She shuddered at the thought of Carol’s bitter end, not to mention Sandra’s, but with the help of the strange Empath, Nameless, she was able to focus on other things.

Her mind inevitably drifted to the mature Aegis operative.

“Miranda... Holt, huh?” Two fingers went to her lips as she remembered the emotional turmoil of the previous night; “It’s a good name.”

There was a twinkle in the woman’s eye that Rebecca hadn’t failed to miss; even a little spark between them, though it had nearly gotten lost in the press of other, more destructive, emotions.

She wasn’t about to forget that kiss, even with the awkwardness surrounding it.

It was certainly too soon for her to dive into anything, but just knowing that Miranda thought she was attractive was enough.

She had some healing to do, for sure, but there was no longer any doubt in her mind that she would heal.

With the help of the little Empath, the emotional injuries that Carol had inflicted on her were fading, and she would love again.

Of that she was certain.

Chapter 44:

Ascendant

As the sun slowly set, silence reigned where the children of Lipton Falls once laughed.

The place would have been picturesque; the orange and golden rays of the dying sunlight spilled across the rooftops of the small village in the mountains and highlighted the numerous little waterfalls cascading down the mountain in the distance.

But the scores of dead bodies in the streets and buildings ensured that nobody could appreciate the natural beauty surrounding them.

It seemed like half the Aegis was present as they worked through the bodies, searching for any sign of life.

They would find none.

The task force was there, Nameless and his team with Grant, Miranda, Benjamin and the others.

Even Booker and Margaret Bloom were there, the place being closer to Garland than Algrade; the two councilors were accompanied by both of the Amazon tribes tasked with protecting the academy.

Myrina, Escrya and the other Saenga Amazons had not been happy to learn of Nameless’s misadventures, not after Volka had convinced them not to abandon their current duties with assurances that the field training was necessary for Nameless’s personal growth.

But the warrior women had no time to worry about him when the reports began to come in about the little mining town.

Nameless was somewhere beyond numb as he helped an operative he didn’t know carry a man’s body into the street.

Once outside he tried to spot his loved ones, but