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  The wall slid back to show the hallway once again, and they made their way to the dining room. They were indeed too late for dinner, but they were right on time for breakfast.

  Chapter Nine

  Cera was looking at her monitors and making notes.

  Pulse wandered in with a tension that showed he was trying to keep himself under control. “Cera, can we talk?”

  She got to her feet and left the control room, closing the shielded room so that it was protected against Pulse’s talent for technological havoc.

  “Come with me.” She took his hand and led him to her private office. She sat on the couch, and he sat next to her.

  “Can I stay? I mean really stay?” Pulse’s normally cheerful gaze was serious and intense.

  “Of course. Why do you think I asked you to come here? I need you here. There is nowhere else I think you would fit in as well as on Haloth.” She cupped his cheek, and he rested his head in her palm for a moment.

  “Good, because I was just called.”

  He said it like she was supposed to know what he meant.

  “Called where?”

  “Called to be a member of the brotherhood. Orvi says that I am a perfect match, but since you and I are friends, I wanted to make sure it was okay with you before I join the minds of the brotherhood.”

  “It is fine with me. Join the song, embrace the frequency.” She chuckled. “See, I knew there was a reason that you were the perfect person to join us on Haloth.”

  He lunged forward and hugged her. “Thank you so much.”

  She tried not to tear up, but it was hard. Since his activation, Rhassoul had found himself persona non grata on every world with tech. In between assignments, he had spent his life in various forms of stasis. His home had been gone for decades, and he hadn’t aged a day.

  She sat back and grinned, “Now, are you prepared to have that many guys running through your mind all day every day?”

  “Hmm. Having an endless amount of men inside me. Be still my beating heart.” He laughed.

  “Tramp.” She grinned and all was suddenly right with the world.

  The ceremony was touching, but Cera and Renn were outsiders. They were conduits, not participants.

  Rhassoul stood in the centre of a spiral, stripped to the waist. The brothers walked up to him and pressed forehead to forehead over and over until each one had had contact with him. Rhassoul swayed dramatically, but his eyes remained open wide.

  His brightly coloured orbs drained of pigment while Cera watched. She made to get to her feet, but Renn held her back with a light touch on her hand.

  Rhassoul was smiling, the colour change did not seem to indicate blindness. Four brothers on either side gripped his arms while Cera felt the hum of another voice added to her frequency.

  When the brothers let Rhassoul go, he was marked with the ancient glyphs for harmony and service. The brotherhood dressed him, completing his clothing with the cowl.

  A brother took Rhassoul’s arm and led him to Cera. “Lady, your newest servant. We will guide him and train him until the frequency alone guides his moves.”

  “What do you mean, Brother Ysu?” How their names kept coming to her mind was something she had ceased to question. She did know that they all felt a small thrill when she spoke to them.

  “The frequency has taken his sight. He knew it would. Now comes the time for him to learn to see the world around him with the harmony Lord Renn provides.”

  She gripped Renn’s hand as she finally came to grips with why the brotherhood wore the hoods. Their eyes would be alarming to any number of races, and since they did not need their eyes to see the environment, they were the ideal operatives.

  “Brother Rhassoul, you surrendered your love of fashion for this? You must have a true calling.”

  Rhassoul’s hood twitched as he laughed. “It is a strong calling, lady, or I would be dead by now.”

  Cera looked to Renn, and he gave her the nod that said he would explain later.

  “Welcome to the brotherhood, Rhassoul. May my mind be a connection to greater things.” The words had been whispered to her before the event started so that she could repeat them now.

  “Thank you, lady. I look forward to many years in your service.”

  “Boy, are you optimistic. Go now, Brother. Learn how to live with the new senses that have been gained.”

  Rhassoul executed a graceful bow before he walked off with Brother Ysu.

  Cera sighed and sat back. She looked at Renn with curiosity. “They are all blind?”

  “Every one of them. It was decided that voluntary blindness enabled the brotherhood to function without the madness that came with overstimulation. Remove one sense and you can allow the extra input from the signal.” Renn lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss in her palm. “Have you never removed one stimulus in order to heighten others?”

  She blinked. “What do you mean?”

  He chuckled. “Please, allow me to show you.”

  With that peculiar turn of phrase, she let him lead her up to their chambers.

  She touched the silk covering her eyes. “Why am I doing this again?”

  His whisper came to her from all around. “Because you want to know what the brothers give up and what they get in return.”

  She stood, her gown whispering around her legs as she turned from side to side in an effort to track him. Cera saw a flare of light through the mask and closed her eyes tight to make sure that she wasn’t cheating.

  The light remained. It was all around her, and a cascade of light was moving toward her.

  “Are you seeing it yet?” Renn’s hands were on her shoulders, easing her gown off to pin her arms to her sides.

  Her breasts felt the cool air and then the heat of his body an instant before his mouth was on her flesh. She shuddered and reached out to him, but he was gone.

  His hands teased her, slowly inching her clothing from her until she was only wearing her favourite pair of boots.

  She heard his dark whisper, “Have I ever told you how much I enjoy your lack of undergarments?”

  She shivered, her nipples were hard, aching points, and he lapped slowly at one while cupping the other breast. “I don’t…ah…have any. It seems to have been omitted from my clothing selection.”

  He nibbled on her ribcage, and she could feel the sharp points of his teeth as they traced across her skin.

  The scent of her own arousal struck her hard, buckling her knees. The light caress of pain mixed with pleasure, and she wasn’t sure that she was going to make it until he was inside her before she came.

  He parted her legs, widening her stance. “Well, well, it seems you respond well to a little sensory deprivation.”

  Two fingers slid into her without warning, sparks flew behind her eyes and her knees collapsed, leaving Renn supporting her.

  He laughed and lifted her, his cock parting her folds, his hands cupping her ass as he moved her up and down, bouncing her hard until her second orgasm overtook her and he groaned as he held her tight to him.

  She was still wearing her boots when she was tilted back onto the bed.

  “Sorry about the speed, but your reactions are so lovely. You hold nothing back.” He licked at her neck and slowly worked his way down her body once again.

  “Can’t I take the blindfold off?”

  “No. This will be an all-night event.”

  She chuckled and gasped as his teeth grazed her inner thigh. “Fine, but only all night. I don’t want to come to in a few days with chafed skin and bruises. Promise me. This time, only one night. Ten hours, tops.”

  He sighed, and his exhalation warmed her skin. “Fine. No more than ten hours, this time. I reserve the right to try to do this again.”

  “Fine.” She was grinning, and the grin turned to a gasp when he used his tongue in a very creative way. Who knew that you could actually spell words on a person’s skin and then make them guess what you had written with your tongue?
/>   Ten hours and five minutes later, Renn pulled off her blindfold. She blinked as light returned, smiling and cuddling up to him. “I admit that there are advantages of being not able to see.”

  She looked up into his face, and his shock was visible. “What?”

  “Your eyes have taken on the colouration of the brotherhood. Can you see me?”

  “Of course. And here is the mark from my biting you back.” She caressed his jaw.

  “Amazing.”

  What he had said finally sank in. “Wait, my eyes are white?”

  She jackknifed out of bed and sprinted to the lav. Sure enough, her hair was a wild tangle and her eyes were white.

  Renn came up behind her and brushed her hair to one side. “I am sorry. I had no idea that the experiment would do this.”

  She chuckled. “I did. If the frequency does this or the tuning into it does, then why wouldn’t I change colour? The only thing that separates me from the brotherhood is my gender.”

  “Do you feel them in your mind?”

  “No, it is like before. They are running in the background.” She giggled. “This is going to take some getting used to. Do you mind?”

  He looked at her reflection with surprise. “Of course not. I want you for your mind. Your body is just a delightful distraction.”

  “Yours is plenty distracting for the both of us.” She turned and admired the long scratches she had left on his chest. They were the match for the long marks on her back.

  He smiled and lifted her into a sitting position in front of the mirror, moving between her thighs. “The distraction is all your fault. You picked this body.”

  She sighed. “I know, and I am willing to take the punishment over and over and over.”

  He laughed and engaged in the pleasurable pursuit of distracting her from breakfast, miners, the brotherhood and the planet fragments waiting for her next orgasm. No matter how many times she came, they were hungry for more, and it was her duty to give them what they needed, over and over again.

  Duty had never been so much fun.

  Author’s Note

  Finite was an interesting attempt to write a book that matched the cover art. Yes, that is how I write many of the books that I do.

  Fade takes us into a protection situation where one of Rhoda’s paintings leads the Guardians to a woman on Janial and a retired Guardian with a planet at his disposal. When the man who put her in Janial comes to claim her, he will have to stand against an ex-Guardian who takes guardianship seriously. She was placed with him for safety, so safe she is going to be.

  Thanks for reading,

  Viola Grace

  http://www.violagrace.com

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  [email protected]

  About the Author

  Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.

  Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.

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