Shield of Drani (World of Drani Book 1) Read online

  As Nevvis spun around, fire in his golden eyes, Taymar sent the staff over to the wall to join the others. “Oops,” she said with a shrug. “Hope that doesn’t leave a bruise.”

  Ignoring him as much as possible, she teked the towel off the floor and met it halfway across the room, snatching it out of the air as she stalked toward her clothes pile near the door. She wiped off the worst of the sweat and pulled the soft cream-colored shirt over her skintight workout layer. The loose-fitting pants were deep brown, the same color as the thumbnail-size diamond of spots that ran along either side of her neck and the underside of her forearms. The same color as her hair. Both the shirt and the spots contrasted nicely with her skin, which was a definite beige—darker than Nevvis’s tone, but not as dark as others. Nevvis had chosen the clothes, like he chose everything in her life. And like everything else he did, he had made the perfect choice.

  When she finished pulling on her shoes, she turned to him. Without a word, he motioned her toward the hallway and fell in behind her as she headed for the door.

  Once outside, Taymar stepped down onto the mossy path and sucked in a calming breath. As the jungle primed for the afternoon downpour, she could almost squeeze the humidity out of the air in her clenched fists. It clung to her skin, mingling with the sweat from her workout. The scent of wet plants and life filled her lungs, but it didn’t help. A minor miracle wouldn’t help. Not when Nevvis had that hard crease in his brow.

  She dug her heels into the soft green moss and jerked her arm away a second before he grabbed it. “Where are we going?”

  He stopped and gave her one of his yellow-eyed stares. She returned it in kind. Nevvis was tall and fit, on the larger side compared to other Dran, but by no means the bulking mass of the Arlele miners. Yet he came across like a force of nature, as if he should have his own gravity. And, in a way, he did. People were drawn to him, and they gladly did his bidding. Well, not Taymar, but most people.

  She suspected his unholy influence was because of his disturbingly powerful telepathy. There were telepaths. There were strong telepaths. And then there was Nevvis. He coiled that telepathy around her mind like a snake around the little vinrats that hid in the shrubs as he stepped behind her and pushed her in front of him. “I don’t have the patience for this today. Just go.”

  “Well, I guess that means we’re either going to the medical compound or I’m in trouble again. Since I don’t remember doing anything heinous lately, that leaves the medcom, doesn’t it?” She sidestepped and stopped, using her own telepathy to feel around for the answer. As usual, she met the rock wall of his shielded mind.

  “You haven’t exactly been easy to live with.”

  “And for my crimes, I should have to live alone. As in, not with you.” When Nevvis didn’t bite, she pressed on. “What are they going to do? More tests?”

  “Tay, does it really matter?”

  “Yes. It matters. You’re not the one being strapped to tables or impaled with needles.”

  “Impaled? Really? New vocabulary word?” Nevvis reached down and grabbed her forearm. The surface of her armband swirled under his fingers in little rings. Gods, how she hated that thing. “We’re not going through this today. I said let’s go. Now go.”

  Taymar jerked backward. “No! I’m not going there again!” Almost out of instinct, Taymar wrapped her mind around the first solid object she saw and tried to hurl it at Nevvis’s head. The branch managed a pitiful hop before blinding pain seized her entire body. And before she had time to double over, the pain vanished as suddenly as it began. Though it had been brief, Nevvis had tagged her hard enough to make his point.

  Taymar blinked away the spots and glared up at him. He stared back. That stare made most people look away, but again, she wasn’t most people.

  “First of all, I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that log flip over, because that would mean you just tried using your teke to attack me, and we both know how that would end.” He waited for her to respond. When she didn’t, he leaned in closer. “You do recall how that will end, don’t you?”

  She smiled. “Next time, I’ll make sure it’s worth it.”

  He waited a second too long before continuing. One point for her. “Secondly, the only reason the last test was such a disaster is because you tried to dismantle the medcom while you were there.”

  Her smile vanished. “You can’t say that. You don’t know what it’s like.”

  “What I know is this: You are going to the medcom. How you get there is your choice.” His grip on her arm tightened, and when Nevvis stepped away, he assumed the unyielding persona of her overseer, her ki, the person who could legally make her life hell. “Easy way or hard way, Tay. You pick.”

  “What are they going to do?” she asked, lurching forward to avoid falling.

  “It doesn’t matter.” He set out toward the transtrem again, still pulling her by her armband. The flexible material continued to swirl beneath his grip like a living thing—sometimes blue, sometimes green, other times the same deep brown as the spots on her arms and neck. He didn’t have spots, of course; Nevvis was a Dran. They didn’t have spots or psi-receptors or armbands. They didn’t have telekinesis, either. Only Arleles had that.

  Taymar caught up with Nevvis and made a point of touching every large rock they passed with her mind, but not actually moving one. When they finally stopped in front of the transtrem, her arm ached from Nevvis’s increasingly ever-tightening grip. So worth it.

  “You’re not helping yourself,” he said as he placed his hand on the scanner to activate the transport device. Blue light swirled beneath the glass surface of the circular pad in front of them. The trempad was set right into the ground, and how Nevvis managed to keep the jungle from swallowing it whole—or the path that led to it, for that matter—was beyond her. There wasn’t much to it. Just a flat pad enclosed by a cagelike guardrail on which the hand scanner was mounted. A series of clicks marked the release of the security gates, and he pulled her onto the pad. “Central Newete,” he called to the computer. “Medcom. Bay two. Direct transport.”

  “Who says I’m trying to help anyone?”

  “Transport pending,” the computer announced.

  Taymar smirked. “Lines must be crowded. This close to the rains. We should go another day.”

  Nevvis just shook his head. With his status, she half expected him to enter some secret code into the scanner and push his request through, but instead they waited their turn for the jump to the city.

  She tried for another calming breath, but it came out as more of a pant. Each second took a day to pass, until she could barely swallow let alone stand still. The panic bubbling under the surface started seeping out and consuming her. “What’s the point, anyway?” She grabbed his fingers and tried yanking them backward. “Why do they care if I have both abilities? So what? So I do. What do they hope to accomplish with all these tests? It’s been years of this. What don’t they know? Let me go!”

  In one neat move, he twisted her arm behind her back. “We are not doing this today. Now stop.” He dropped his free hand on her shoulder and pulled her back against him. “Get yourself under control.”

  “I’m not the one out of control; they are. They say they want to create both abilities in Arleles. They don’t need to. If they put a telepathic Arlele in a room with a telekinetic one, they have me.”

  Three rapid beeps warned that they were about to jump. “If you put two Arleles of any kind in a room, what you have is at least one dead Arlele,” Nevvis said, just before a cone of blue light swirled up around them. Taymar felt the familiar yank, as if her guts were being pulled out of her toes, and a heartbeat later glowing white walls replaced lush green and red fauna.

  She tried to slow her panting breaths with little success. The scent of sterilized air and the endless rows of glowing corridors didn’t help. As soon as the gate dropped, Nevvis guided her off the pad.

  A male and female Dran, both dressed in red and black medcom unifo
rms, waited, their minds shielded. Taymar recognized the woman right away. She had been one of the janu assigned to guard her a few years back. Nothing could be worse than the two years she had spent locked in that glass cage in the medcom. Nothing. They had nearly killed her. She had nearly killed them. Taymar locked onto those pale orange eyes, and her thin tendrils of control snapped.

  With her free arm, she spun around as much as she could and pounded her elbow into Nevvis’s ribs. Her heel followed. She slammed her foot back on what was supposed to be the side of Nevvis’s knee. Unfortunately, they had run through this dance one too many times. Her foot met air.

  Nevvis wrapped his arm in front of her free elbow and slid her arm up over her head. Before she could wiggle sideways, he had his leg entwined in hers. Then, with a twist from behind, she hit the wall. She wasn’t moving. Nevvis still held her banded wrist behind her; the other arm he kept pinned above her head by locking his forearm across the back of her neck.

  “Taymar.” His lips brushed her ear as he spoke, his voice dangerously calm and quiet. “Think. Stop acting like an Arlele for one minute, and think. You can get irrational and crazy all you want, but in the end, you are going through with this test. You can walk in there. You can crawl in there. I can carry you in there. It makes no difference to me, but you are going in there.”

  He smelled like new rain and clean clothes and power. She had never one time smelled fear on him, and she sure didn’t smell it now. She clamped her teeth together to stop them from chattering.

  “I’m going to take a step back, and you are going to stay right there. Do you understand?”

  Telepathy was generally considered a more personal or intimate form of communication, and she was feeling neither at the moment. But since his arm was smashed against her head, it was all she had.

  Nevvis stepped away. Both hands remained where they were, though, and so did she. Her heart drummed in her ears so loudly, she was surprised she even heard him address the janu. “You need to leave,” he said. Then he slowly slid his hand back across Taymar’s neck to release her arm. Before she could put it down, he placed her hand on the wall and covered it with his.

  “But, taru,” the woman said, using a title of respect. “I was assigned to the case because I know this Arlele, and…”

  “You need to leave. Now.”

  Even though she still couldn’t see them, Taymar knew Nevvis had to be leveling the woman with one of his looks. As expected, the next sound she heard was that of footsteps moving away while the janu’s partner struggled unsuccessfully to keep his shock shielded.

  Nevvis slid his right hand down to circle her other wrist. “Okay. Let’s try this one more time.” He backed her away from the wall. “Are you ready?”

  She shook her head. Another bead of sweat that had nothing to do with her workout trickled down her temple. “Are they going to lock me in that room again?”

  “No.”

  “Do you promise?”

  “I promise.”

  “What are they going to do?”

  For a second, she didn’t think he would answer. When he did, his voice was softer, quieter. And tense. “Something about tracking the communication between the teke lobe and the telepathy lobe of your brain. They have a theory about connecting the two lobes. I don’t know beyond that.”

  “But they already did that.”

  “I guess they have a new machine.”

  Taymar nodded and put her free arm down to her side. Nevvis’s hand came with it. “But they’re not going to put me in that room, right?”

  “I believe I already answered that. I’m done. Just follow the janu. And ouch.”

  She smiled. He didn’t have to give her that.

  The janu led them through two hallways to a conveyer shuttle. Cushioned seats lined the walls. No one sat. Every click of the shuttle sounded like a small explosion. Nevvis’s grip tensed just before the shuttle chimed their arrival, and when the door finally opened again, Taymar knew for sure she wasn’t the only one worried about the experiment.

  Jalkean stood just outside the shuttle doors. For some reason, he never looked quite right in his kar uniform. He filled it out well enough, looking every bit like the enforcer he was supposed to be. The black body armor stretched over him like a second skin, and the weapon belts across his hip and shoulders only added bulk in the most appealing places. She had seen more than a few heads turn when he was escorting her somewhere, and they weren’t looking at her. But the uniform still didn’t suit him. Not really.

  She wondered if it was his muddy brown hair that was forever in a state of chaos. Or maybe the problem was his eyes, a paler version of Nevvis’s, always watching her with such worry and sadness. Unfortunately, even though he didn’t look like a kar, he always acted like one.

  Jalkean frowned as he surveyed the group. He gave her one of his sad little glances complete with a small headshake, and then immediately stepped over to grab her free arm. Without a word, spoken or sent, Nevvis and Jalkean had Taymar between them, each with a hand on her arm, each holding a wrist behind her back.

  “They’re ready,” Jalkean said as they followed the apparently mute janu partway down another corridor to a dull, gray double door.

  So am I, she thought.

  Nevvis stepped partially around to face her. “Taymar! Don’t do this. Not today.”

  “You’re the one doing this, Nevvis.” His perfectly controlled exterior cracked for an instant. Something about this experiment didn’t sit right even with him. “You could make this all go away if you wanted to, and don’t pretend you couldn’t. I know better.”

  “You’re one Arlele surrounded by three Dran in the middle of the medcom in Central Newete. Think. Use that spotted head of yours, for a change. What do you hope to do?”

  Taymar clamped her chattering teeth together. She glared straight into his livid yellow eyes and did her best to smile. “Tell your janu to open the door, and let’s find out.”

  “Dicci! I swear on the Creator…” He stared up at the ceiling and sucked in a deep breath. A second later he turned to Jalkean, who had been suspiciously silent during the entire exchange. “Give me a hood.”

  Those words sucked the air out of the room. The lights seemed to flicker around her as she struggled to regain her bearings. Bile lurched up into her throat, and when she looked over her shoulder, Nevvis was reaching behind her.

  Breathe. Breathe. The mantra didn’t help. She turned to Jalkean. For some reason, he hadn’t moved. He only stared back at Nevvis, his expression as close to contempt as she had ever seen it.

  If they hooded her, she was finished. Not only would she be blinded; the dinisolate-coated lining would block both of her abilities. Nevvis had been right about one thing. One way or the other she would be going into that lab, but she could take as many of them down in the process as possible. She had been hoping to get where she could do the most damage, but the fight started now.

  Suddenly, the mute janu found his mind. he sent too late.

  Since Jalkean was distracted, he made a better target. Unfortunately, his body armor also made him untouchable, so she didn’t even try. With all the strength she had, she twisted right and pushed into him. Instead of stepping with her, he leaned back, losing his center. With a violent twist to her left and some help from her telekinesis, she threw him to the ground. When the janu jumped in and only managed to get tangled up with Nevvis, she yanked her right arm free.

  As Jalkean scrambled to his feet, Taymar smacked the button on his belt that she knew triggered the hood. At the same time the thin gray fabric popped out, Nevvis tapped her psi-receptors.

  Pain ripped through her body, but she knew it was coming. She yanked the fabric from the belt and shoved it in her shoe. The dinisolate kept her from using her teke on the hood, but she managed to send the shoe a fair distance before the crippling pain dropped her to the floor.

  “Let her go!” Nevvis yelled. “Everyone, clear!”

&nbs
p; All three of them stepped away as if she were on fire. Taymar pushed herself up on shaky hands and knees, but just barely. You’re okay, she told herself as she tried to breathe through the pain. You’re fine. She wanted to curl up in a ball, to scream and throw up at the same time, but she wouldn’t give Nevvis the pleasure. Not if she could help it.

  “I’ll get the hood,” the janu said.

  Taymar reached for the shoe, but the pain overwhelmed her.

  “No. Just…just no.” Nevvis knelt down beside her just as the door slid open.

  All three of them started screaming at the unfortunate Dran to close the door. Taymar never saw his face. She looked right past him into the lab and locked onto the first thing she saw. Were it not for the burning pain coursing through her body, she could have twisted the examination table to a knot. As it was, she managed to slide it into a wall before someone smashed her face against the floor.

  A knee pressed into her back. Someone wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, and another hand slid down over her eyes. Hair stuck to her sweat-soaked face and covered mouth as she struggled to breathe, and just when she thought her fight was lost, the pain stopped.

  “This is not working.” Nevvis said, his voice strained. “Tay, put your hands out to your side, and I will move my knee.” As he spoke, the fingers holding her neck pushed back the hair covering her mouth. “Palms down.”

  With some effort, she managed to wedge her arms free and positioned them next to her head. Someone else, probably Jalkean, came along and slid them farther forward and uncurled her fists. Nevvis didn’t remove his knee completely, but he did take the weight off, and Taymar sucked in a grateful breath.