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

“I fight better in this!”

Nina buffed her nails indifferently and Erica shifted her weight onto one leg with her hand on her hip.

Grant raised an eyebrow at Nameless who shrugged.

“Nina crossed the Sansee dressed like that, twice. Weather doesn’t bother her. And Erica looks sexy no matter what she wears.”

“Sexy.” Linda echoed.

The Gnome’s eyes were hooded as she slowly looked the Katje up and down.

Grant sighed.

“All the same kids, this is the Aegis, a certain degree of professionalism please. I’m not going to insist on shoes for the giant but no sexy death-suit for the Katje.”

Erica hissed at him and Bruti growled in response, the bear girl bristling more than slightly.

Despite Bruti’s warning growl, the Katje was still ready to argue, but she backed off in surprise when Nina put a hand on her arm to still her.

When she looked to the Gigas she saw that she was watching the Grizzly carefully, her grip on her hammer tight.

Erica shook off the distraction with a roll of her eyes.

“Fine! But if you get killed because I run out of knives I don’t want to hear any complaints!”

She began to strip right there in front of everybody, a few other Aegis personnel walking by with their own assignments made catcalling noises and whistled while Nameless planted his face in his palms and Grant’s eyes boggled.

“Sexy…” The Gnome repeated, a little breathless this time.

Standing naked save for a pair of lacy black panties, Erica held her hand out to the Minotaur.

“Milly, give me something appropriate for mister stodgy-pants over there.”

She ended up throwing on her usual long shirt, loose over one shoulder, with Kar’s brace of knives on her upper thigh.

When Grant saw her again his jaw worked in consternation.

“Who’s my sexy kitty?” Nina smirked.

“Don’t you have any pants?” The training officer protested.

Erica held up the tight leather suit, still bristling with most of her knives.

“I did, you made me take them off!”

Before Grant could say anything else Volka stepped between them.

“Aegis Semper, if I may. The longer you two spend bickering over her wardrobe, the more Lambdas will be victimized. Besides, our husband is correct, this is about as unsexy as Erica can pull off without throwing herself in a sack.”

He met the angel’s amused stare and sighed.

“My own damn fault for trying to tell a monster girl how to dress.”

“Does that mean I can wear this?” Erica held up the suit again.

“No!” Several voices responded.

With the dispute over the Katje’s wardrobe resolved they left the bustling convocation building behind and made their way out of the Academy with Nameless, Volka and Milly in the front beside Grant and his monster girls.

Meanwhile Nina lagged behind, snagging the hem of the sulking Katje’s shirt.

“Erica, you need to be careful of that bear.”

She received a sullen look as the cat’s pout intensified.

“What? Cuz of the hibernation thing?”

The giant shook her head slowly, unusually earnest as she explained.

“The closest I ever came to killing someone in the ring was fighting against a Grizzly.” The tiny red girl pulled up her shirt to show off a faint trio of scars on her side; “Doesn’t look like much, but when you’re as durable as I am it’s not nothing. They are pretty placid most of the time, but if you rile them up they won’t stop coming at you until one of you is dead.”

Flying lazily just beside them, Ophelia swallowed at the implications.

“Goodness, Nina-”

The Gigas interjected before she could finish.

“Took a few good whacks with my hammer to finally knock her out. But like I said, it was close.” She pointed one finger at the Katje as she turned to her; “No more hissing at her, especially now. I don’t know much about their hibernation, but the one I met went into the ring like I did: willingly.”

Erica crossed her arms, her lip jutted out in a pout.

“He started it! Telling us what to wear like that!”

“I don’t care what he said, don’t poke the bear. I don’t want to have to kill her just because you can’t control your temper.”

The irony of the statement was truly staggering given the number of times they had to keep Nina in check after someone pissed her off.

Indeed it was the irony of the situation that got through to the irritated cat.

“You’re serious aren’t you? Are Grizzlies really that bad?”

The Gigas nodded and Erica crossed her arms, her pout returning as quickly as it left.

“How come nobody worries about pissing off a Katje?”

“Because a Katje won’t pull your arms out their sockets just for hissing at her, Grizzlies are known to do that.”

Erica and Ophelia both had worried looks on their face, and therefore missed the tiny smirk on Nina’s.

Meanwhile Nameless, Grant and the others were having a different, though equally serious conversation.

“The village of Fairbright is about thirty miles southwest of Algrade, so we’ll need to move it. It’ll take us a couple days just to reach the scene of the crime.”

“There is no one closer?” Volka frowned.

“I’m afraid not. Algrade has its hands full as the epicenter of lost-tech crime and the whole area around Fairbright is nothing but farmland, so a major Aegis presence has never really been necessary. There is a small compound maybe five or ten miles north of the village. That’s where the incidents were first reported by the local lawkeeper. But the senior operative in residence is semi-retired and in no shape to chase this down. We’ll be reporting in to him once we’ve wrapped everything up.”

“How come he is retired?” Milly asked.

“I’ve never learned the details, some kind of accident on the job, lost an arm. His bond-mate Julia was badly hurt in the