“As you wish,” Varnog said with a predatory smile laced with approval that stupidly made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. “By the way, that was two minutes and forty-three seconds.”
“No way!” I said in disbelief. “All this time and not even three minutes?!”
“I did call it,” he said, indicating the timer on the interface of his armband. I glared at him, and his grin broadened. “I bet you won’t beat three minutes this time either,” he said tauntingly.
“I bet you I do,” I snarled back.
“When I win—and I will—you’ll owe me something of my choice to be claimed at the time of my choosing,” Varnog said, his gaze suddenly becoming more intense.
My stomach automatically did a couple of backflips. I didn’t know why, but the first thought that crossed my mind was that he’d ask to kiss me. I nervously licked my lips, and the way his eyes locked on them only reinforced that conviction. Instead of arguing and demanding more clarification as to what that entailed, I lifted my chin defiantly and smiled.
“When I win—and I most certainly will—you will be the one owing me something of my choice. And you will have to immediately comply when I come collecting.”
“Deal,” Varnog said with a grin. “Time for you to lose.”
The shuttle that had been hovering in place immediately began to move, and I took control. As I had suspected, Varnog had shifted the enemies around so that I couldn’t just memorize them and be prepared. This time, he spanked me even faster than in the first round. By the time I finally managed to remain in flight for more than three minutes, the sexy Scelk had already wrested eleven IOUs from me.
By the time we called it a day, I’d never even come close to reaching the Queen’s Palace.
Chapter 5
Varnog
Madeline—one of the Vanguard Portals—finished entering the latest updates to the holographic simulation of our training for the pussies of the Coalition. As much as spending any time on their behalf annoyed me, it was actually a good thing that we didn’t have to support them as well. My brothers and I were getting quite exhausted from the intense psychic effort required when handling groups. Thankfully, we had sorted out a rotation so that each of us could have at least one or two days off every three days.
Right now, however, I was particularly eager to be done with this and go home to meditate and rest before my next private session with Linette. She had been steadily warming up to me and seemed as eager as I was for this time alone together. I wanted to believe that the adrenaline rush she got every time wasn’t the only reason. Today, I was hoping to work up the courage to collect on one of IOUs I’d won from her.
“There we go. All done,” Madeline said with a smile. “If you want to have another run through, we can either do it right away, or you can access it from the holodecks in Skogoth at your own leisure. I’m currently uploading it to the library.”
“Thank you, Madeline. I will have Tremak review it from home,” I said kindly. “I’ve seen it too many times now to notice any of the flaws anymore.”
“Understandable,” she said with a sympathetic look on her pale features.
She was an albino of African descent, with stunning long and curly, blondish-white hair, and mesmerizing greenish-grey eyes. We had never interacted before all of this, but over the past few weeks, I’d grown quite fond of the sweet female. My brother Reklig had been transfixed by her unique beauty. Like me, he hadn’t made a move on the female that had entranced him. In time, I hoped the two of them might hit it off. I would love to call the lovely female my sister.
“Go rest,” Madeline said with an encouraging smile. “You and your brothers are working hard enough. What you guys are doing for us is amazing, and we all truly appreciate it. However, you might want to tell Reklig to slow down a bit. I’m starting to worry about his health.”
My heart skipped a beat upon hearing those words, not only for her gratitude, but also because she had noticed him. That didn’t mean anything, but the genuine concern in her voice, that she had been tracking his crazy hours gave me some hope for what the future might hold.
“Don’t hesitate to give him a stern talking to,” I said gently. “He’s more likely to listen to you than me. Whatever I say always ends up with me getting accused of being bossy.”
She chuckled and nodded. “Of course,” Madeline said as if it were self-evident. “Big brothers’ advice is always them trying to boss us around, regardless of their merits.”
“So true,” I said with a smile. After all, I treated Bane the same way. “I’ll see you later.”
The Portal smiled and waved goodbye before turning back to her computer. Madeline’s desk was one of four in the IT area next to the holodeck rooms. There were sixteen in total, evenly split eight on each side of the wide hallway. A large, circular gathering area was located right in the middle of the hallway with male and female restrooms on each side.
The active lights on more than half the holodecks appeased part of my irritation with the Coalition members. Despite their refusal to interact directly with us, they had been heavily using the simulations we had put together. Even if many continued to shun us, an increasing number of them were starting to warm up to the Scelks.
Beyond the joy of getting to spend time with my Linette, I was grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the Vanguard. Like with Madeline, more members of the elite peacekeepers were finally getting to know us and see the Scelks as more than the deadly tools resulting from the General’s experiments.
Sadly, we had also caught the interest of less savory people. The rather pretty human female coming my way in the hallway featured among them. From what I understood, Stella had been working in a Coalition outpost for the past twelve years or so. Despite being a rank four psychic, she had not been accepted into the Vanguard and occasionally worked as an Operator for the Coalition. I had no clue what other roles she served within her unit—not that I gave two shits about it either.
According to the complaints I’d received from my brothers, she had gotten it into her head to score a Scelk. So far, I’d been lucky enough to avoid her, or rather, she hadn’t had the opportunity to make her move on me as I’d always been surrounded by too many people.
Strutting her stuff in the most provocative way, pushing her chest forward and pursing her lips in that ugly fashion Tabitha labeled as duckface, she batted her eyelashes at me and gave me what would have been a seductive smile if I hadn’t been so annoyed. Blocking my path, she parked herself right in front of me.
“Hello, Varnog,” Stella said in a forced husky voice. “Fancy to meet you here without a thousand people hogging your attention.”
“It will be hogged again soon enough,” I replied in a coldly polite voice, eager to part ways with the female. “Do you need something?”
“First, I wanted to thank you for the wonderful work you guys are doing. I wish I could participate in the actual Dream Walks, but my squad leader is being a bit of an idiot,” Stella said with a pouty expression. “But it’s still a really great scenario and training. Much better than any we’ve had before,” she added, flicking a lock of her long, dark-brown hair over her shoulder.