Molten Read online

  Time ceased to mean anything. The music flowed from one song into the other, one beat into the next. She felt sweat on her skin, and it startled her into laughing. She never sweated.

  The beat slowed, and she watched couples pair off as the light of the moons glowed against skin in all the shades of grey from palest pearl to darkest charcoal.

  Rand stood in front of her and wrapped one arm around her waist, holding them hip to hip as they slowly pin-wheeled to the music.

  “Are you enjoying yourself?” His voice washed over her through the ambient sound.

  “It is surprising fun. How bad am I?”

  “No one has stopped to laugh and there have been no collisions, so you are doing very well indeed.” He paused and smoothly switched sides, changing their direction.

  She smiled at the warmth of his skin against her gown and the firm but not uncomfortable grip he had on her waist.

  He raised his free hand over her head and she grasped it. That moment of skin-to-skin contact changed everything for her. His scent wrapped around her and her heartbeat picked up a rapid beat. Electricity ran up her arm and across her breasts, waking her skin under the gown and sending sexual signals that she had forgotten she could feel.

  His fingers on her waist gripped tightly, and she heard him inhale sharply. Energy began to radiate from him and surrounded them in a crackling halo.

  Loesh appeared at the edge of the crowd. “Rand! Get out of there.”

  Nanette felt his arms go around her, but she was lost in the energy skating between them in dangerous arcs.

  He carried her off the dance space and away from the music. She was disappointed when he put her down, but his breathing was coming in harsh gasps and she could see it was as hard for him as it was for her. Looking down, hard was an understatement. Power was circling his hips, and his erection was seeking exit along the loose festival trousers that he wore.

  “What did you do to me?” He was staring at his hands where power was skating along his skin.

  She blinked, hurt. “I didn’t do anything.”

  Her body was humming with energy from the inside out. Normally, her talent worked from her skin outward, nothing touched her core.

  He looked at her and cursed, “I didn’t mean…I am overcharging. That hasn’t happened since puberty.”

  He took a step toward her and she stepped back. This was a dance she knew. She had freaked him out and he was rejecting her.

  He quirked his lips. “I am guessing that I have failed at flirting.”

  She blinked away a threatening tear. “I think the moment has passed. Thank you. I have had a lovely evening.”

  Nanette turned and walked away from him, away from the close group of Guardians and back to her runner. It was time to go home.

  * * * *

  Wren looked at him in surprise. “Rand, what did you do?”

  He grimaced. “I screwed up. I asked her what she did to me and she shut down.”

  Wren covered her eyes. “Wonderful.”

  “I thought it would be flattering.”

  “If a woman asked you what you had done to her and the question always prefaced rejection, what would you do when you heard that question?”

  He leaned back. “I would shut down, back away and pretend that nothing had ever happened. Certainly, I would not have remained in her presence, not if we had just met.”

  “You would go back to square one.” Wren shook her head. “This is going to be complicated. You two glowed on that dance floor. She was as bright with energy as you were.”

  Rand closed his eyes and his skin brightened again. “I remember. I felt heat welling inside me. I have never felt anything like it.”

  “And if that is the experience her human partners had, they would have called her a freak and gone running. My people do not like to admit that talents, the gifted or powers exist. They are traces of magic and alien DNA that none of us acknowledge as possible.”

  “So, what you are saying is I did everything wrong.”

  Wren patted his arm. “No, you did teach her to dance. That counts for something. Starting over with her again, that will be something else.”

  Wren heard Beryl’s voice raised and excused herself quickly. It seemed that Beryl was trying to pick a fistfight with a peacekeeper, and while she would win, it might not be good exercise for the baby.

  A Caretaker’s work was never done.

  * * * *

  Nanette spent the next two weeks working on sculptures in her garden. She created an entire set of Guardians, including Beryl and Wren in the arms of their mates. With a bit of effort, she put all of them in her garden with Rand at the furthest edge, in the shadows. She didn’t like to be reminded of him, but he did complete the set.

  The calls for assistance in repairs were infrequent until an earthquake on the other side of the globe had them calling her before it had ceased. She was going to do what she could to help them rebuild.

  Her runner was well stocked by now, her needs had been outlined over the first few months she had been on W’lyn, and now, she covered the basics with a more efficient selection of the most common metals in use in building.

  She set the coordinates and climbed aboard her means of transport while hoping that there had been little to no loss of life inside city she was flying to.

  “Nanette? Can you hear me?”

  Beryl’s voice was coming through the com systems on her runner. “I can hear you.”

  “The prefect’s home has been caught in a landslide. You are the best bet to get them out.”

  “Landslide?”

  “Rockslide. I am sending you the coordinates, but I must warn you, this is Rand’s family, and he will be a little eager to see them safe and well. He is on his way to the site; I hope that you beat him there.”

  Numbers spun across her screen, and Nanette bent down as her runner picked up speed. If folk that she loved were buried under rock, she would be willing to do anything she could to get them out.

  When her vehicle decelerated, she lifted her head and examined the lay of the land and the half-buried stone home under the huge pile of boulders that had landed on it from the mountains above.

  She worked her hands on the scanner, looking for solid rock and airspaces behind it. By the time her runner settled, she had an idea of where she was going and a plan to get there.

  Nanette looked at the wall of rock sheered into a flat, neat face and she looked around. This was not what her talent was for, but if she could get to those airspaces, she could look for survivors from behind the prefect’s home.

  The hard part was going to be in pulling the heat back into her body after she had made her run. Igniting all of the breathable air was not going to be a good outcome.

  The Guardian ship was on its way down, and Nanette knew her time was up. Either she went in now or Rand would interfere with what she wanted to do. In a sane world, it should not be possible to do what she was planning, but this was alien soil and it was time to see if she could do everything that she thought she could.

  For the sake of the survivors, she hoped that she wasn’t just ego run amok.

  Chapter Five

  Stone had its own personality, but heat turned it all into glowing, flowing liquid. Nanette just had to find the right temperature to let it flow without hardening immediately. Making a new path wouldn’t do any good if she sealed it up behind her.

  She used her focus to melt a deep trench and pit at the face of the stone wall. With a slow move, she pressed her glowing hands to the stone and it began to melt away like chocolate in the sun.

  As she caught on to the precise temperature range, she was able to increase her speed. Now, it was a matter of keeping her focus on the density of stone so that she didn’t light the hidden caverns behind the mansion on fire.

  * * * *

  Rand lunged for the doorway of the shuttle, and Loesh held him back.

  “We need to h
elp the general population. There are lives at stake.”

  Rand powered up and whirled to face his friend. “My family is under that giant rock.”

  “The satellite scans don’t show any bodies. Is there a way that they could have avoided the rockslide?” Loesh resettled his grip.

  Rand thought quickly. “There is a series of tunnels and caverns that the ancients used. They run under and behind the mansion. They would have been the first line of escape.”

  “So, where is the entrance?”

  Rand looked out the door to the wreckage of his childhood home. “Under that pile of rock.”

  “Beryl has sent someone to help, and it seems that a plan is already in action.” Drovin nodded toward the city where aftershocks were shaking buildings and sending sparks through power systems. “You cannot help your family now, but you can help your people. Let’s get a move on. Lives are at stake.”

  Rand looked back to the mansion and his jaw clenched. “Right. Someone is helping them?”

  Drovin put his hand on Rand’s shoulder. “The help is on the way; now, we need to do our part.”

  Rand swallowed and stiffened his spine. “Right. I will head to the hospital and keep the power going; you do rescue and round up.”

  “Good. If your family made it, then they are safe for the time being. Others are not so lucky, let’s get them safe.”

  Rand and the others spilled out of the vehicle in a determined wave. They all had their parts to play, and they were going to play them. It was their job after all.

  * * * *

  She could feel the air pocket ahead of her, and she pulled back. She turned and even through the glow that surrounded her, she could see daylight. It would be a tight squeeze for the W’lyn, but that was their problem.

  Nanette extended her left hand and created a hole in the wall, a cubby that was just her size. If she did this right, the stone between her and the air pocket would shatter, and if she were wrong, she would light the air on fire. It was a fine line.

  She eased into the side pocket that she had created, melting the stone around the opening until only a pinhole remained. Now was the moment she had been dreading.

  She curled into a ball and pulled all of her heat back into her body. She heard the crackle of stone in the hall she had crafted and the blissful pop she had hoped for. Voices called out, and in moments, there were feet running past her as she spent her time keeping hell from unleashing on them.

  Nanette had never pulled the fire in; she had always pushed it out. Her skin felt white hot, but she held herself in until no flickers of heat remained within five hundred yards of her body.

  She really hoped that there was no one above her, because heat wanted to rise and she couldn’t stop it anymore.

  The first elevation was gradual, stone melted above her as she began to levitate on waves of heat. Her speed began to increase, the stone disappeared above her as the energy sought an escape route. She followed the fire.

  * * * *

  Rand disconnected from the generator once the repairs had been completed. To his shock, his family and their household staff came stumbling through the doors of the hospital a little bloody but intact.

  “Mom, Dad, Reeska, Norwilin.” He fought the tears as he hugged all of his relations and checked them for damage from the collapse.

  His sister grinned. “It figures that the Guardians would show up and the one I would meet was my big brother.”

  Their family remained in a huddle, and he smelled something familiar on their clothing. “How did you get out?”

  His mother gave him a puzzled smile. “It was the strangest thing. The outer edge of the cavern cracked and revealed an unmapped tunnel. It led us out into the southern gardens, and we headed to the hospital. It is amazing what that rock did to the prefect mansion.”

  His father hugged his mate with one arm. “It is no surprise that it ended up that way. If Norwilin hadn’t been able to keep the ceiling up for as long as he did, we would have died.”

  Rand looked over at his brother-in-law. “Thank you.”

  Norwilin inclined his head. “They are my family as well, Rand.”

  Rand caught a trace of that scent again and shook his head. “What tunnel? Was it hot, cold?”

  His mother looked at him with concern. “It was warm but easy enough to walk in, though a little tight. It was as if a teenager had made it.”

  Rand blinked. “Was there a pale woman nearby?”

  His family shook their heads, and he left them in the hospital, running for the southern garden and the new tunnel. He was near the decorative topiaries that his sister favoured when an explosion from the top of the hillside caught his attention.

  White-hot flame burst free followed by the streaking silhouette of a woman made entirely of fire. “Nanette.”

  The woman lifted fifty feet above the hilltop and slowly descended to the pile of stone on top of the prefect’s mansion, or what was left of it. She walked slowly across the rock, leaving burning footprints in her wake. With a deliberate pace, she made a path down to the grass; the flames that surrounded her flickered and subsided.

  As Rand ran toward her, she collapsed on the grass; her pale skin gleamed in the sunlight.

  He scooped her up and carried her to the shuttle, setting the scan to Terran and hoping that Wren had completed the upgrade that would let him check on Nanette. He noted a few scars in a strange pattern on her skin. He knew that type of pattern; knife wounds. She had been cut on her back and belly.

  With anger at anyone who had touched her to cause her pain, he throttled his rage back and ran the scanner over her, looking for damage or power drain. He pulled a sheet over her in case one of the others came in, and as he caught himself smiling, he realized he didn’t want her getting cold.

  * * * *

  The worst hangover of her life was pounding at her skull. Nanette sat up and Rand was at her side a moment later.

  “Don’t move. You are depleted.” He pressed a hand to her forehead in a gesture that made her smile.

  “No one has done that since I was a child.”

  “Is that when you became active?”

  She chuckled. “You could say that.”

  The sheet around her slid downward, and she grabbed at it, clutching it to her breasts. “Where is my suit?”

  “You burned it; at least, that is my guess. You came out of the hillside glowing white hot and slowly lost heat as you landed. You landed as you are, without the sheet.” Rand smiled, his copper eyes gleaming.

  “Did your family make it out?”

  “Thanks to you.” He took her hand and pressed it to his lips, palm upward.

  “Thank Beryl, she sent me.” Blushing, she kept one hand clamped to the sheet and waited for him to stop trailing soft patterns on her skin.

  He seemed to have no inclination to stop, so she cleared her throat and whispered, “How long was I out?”

  He murmured, “Six hours. The others are doing cleanup, but they could use some help if you are able.”

  “I feel very weak.”

  He lifted his head. “I have a solution for that, but you might not like it.”

  “What?”

  “Blood sharing would enable you to tap into my energy.” He had a falsely innocent look on his face.

  She snorted and jerked her hand from his. “And would bind us together. That is a stupid idea.”

  Rand gave her a look that said he was making up his mind, and he leaned forward to kiss her. She was so surprised that she didn’t move as his lips parted hers and the edge of his teeth grazed her tongue.

  Energy crackled between them, and it entered her mouth, spreading through her body in a quickening that chased the hangover away and left her ready for action.

  When he leaned back, he smiled, “Better?”

  “Yes, but I still don’t have anything to wear.”

  “I think I can help you there.” He moved awa
y from her and opened a few compartments. “This is fire fabric and should take care of your need for modesty.”

  He shook out a soft grey drape that resembled the gown in texture and weight she had worn to the Fire Festival. He handed it to her and turned his back with his arms crossed.

  She sighed and used the energy coursing through her to stand up and drape the cloth around her twice before tightening it over her breasts like a fireproof towel.

  He turned and nodded. “May I make a few suggestions?”

  She looked down and sighed. “Sure.”

  She squeaked when he untucked the edge and moved it around her until she was wrapped only once. He slipped his fingers between her skin and the fabric and a small spark welded the fabric together over her left breast. He draped the excess fabric over her shoulder, and it wrapped around her arm gracefully, hanging nearly to her ankles while staying out of the way.

  Nanette smiled. “Will the weld hold?”

  “If not, I promise to drape the fabric over you in seconds.”

  “Right, well, let’s go.” She clapped her hands together and jumped when a spark arced between her palms. “What was that?”

  “I gave you some of my energy. Your body is compatible, so it should work well with you until you rest. It will dissipate while you sleep.”

  He held out his hand, and when she took it, he swung her up into his arms.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You don’t have footwear. There is rubble and broken glass on the ground. We are not equipped to heal a Terran injury here. We can seal it, but all of our spray skins are of the hues of the W’lyn.”

  “I won’t injure myself. I have been taking care of myself for a very long time.” She made a face and crossed her arms as the locals began to call out to Rand in greeting.

  “Allow me to take care of you for now. It is not too much to ask since you saved my family.”