Gritting my teeth, I stepped back up and sighted the target for the third time. It sadly had not become any clearer for me.
Come on Kit, no giving up now. Just treat it like you normally would. Clear your mind, aim... shoot.
My mental pep-talk prepared me, and I opened my eyes to sight the tiny, distant target. Right as I exhaled, right as I squeezed the trigger, I felt Austin’s presence behind me and his warm breath on my neck.
“You cheat!” I exclaimed, flicking the safety back onto my weapon and placing it down before whirling around to confront Austin, who was... nowhere even near me.
“You done?” he asked from some half a dozen yards away where he stood speaking to Lucy. “You were taking so long I thought you were just going to concede defeat.”
“You... but you were just...” I floundered. There hadn’t been anywhere near enough time for him to have been right behind me and then gotten all the way over there before I turned around. Not to mention Lucy was looking at me like I was a crazy person, and I doubted that was the face she’d be wearing if Austin had just pulled a fast one.
“Let’s see who won then.” He made no attempt to hide the smug triumph in his tone, and I knew that he knew he’d won. That motherfucker.
He slapped the button to bring the target back to us, and there in the center were two surprisingly close bullet holes. Sketched above each hole in glittering ink were an ‘A’ and a ‘C.’
“Seriously, Austin? Even on your magical bullet marking you couldn’t use a ‘K’ for ‘Kit’?” I glared at him, and he shrugged unapologetically.
“Looks like you’re getting inked, Princess.” He smirked, tapping his shot which was only slightly to the side of the bullseye. Mine wasn’t that much further away, but it was clear who the winner was.
“That’s fine,” I bluffed. “I wanted a tattoo anyway. I just hadn’t decided what or where.”
“Well, good because that choice is up to me now.” He rolled up the target and bopped me on the head with it before sauntering out of the shooting range like the smug fuck he was.
“Damn, girl,” Lucy snickered. “That was a stupid bet to make.”
“Girl, you have no idea.” I groaned, and yet couldn’t seem to quell the excitement building at the thought of having Austin’s skilled hands on my skin for who knew how long it’d take to complete a tattoo.
Hopefully he wouldn’t tattoo “Princess” on my ass or something...
19
WESLEY
Code raced across my screen at lightning pace, but I had no issues following it. I kind of wished I had though because then maybe I’d get a more interesting job for the remainder of our suspension.
Stretching my arms above my head, I yawned heavily and cracked my neck before rubbing the bridge of my nose in a gesture born of habit. I’d only recently made the change to contact lenses, and my old nervous twitches were going to take a long damn time to shake.
“Hard night?” the guy beside me, Scott, asked, and I snorted.
“That’s one way to put it,” I agreed, thinking he didn’t know the fucking half of it. Between Kit taking off to rescue Austin’s sorry ass to yet another interrupted makeout... yeah, to say I was tired would be an understatement.
I’d been hoping for a bit of a reprieve, but when Kit and Austin had hauled ass back to the training center, I no longer had any excuses not to be at my assigned shift reading the most mundane code I’d ever laid eyes on.
“Why don’t you take off?” Scott suggested. “There’s nothing life or death going on here.”
“You sure?” I asked, hoping he was sure. Sitting in this cramped office, working through a backlog of data for Omega was not my idea of fun on any day.
“Yep, I’ve got it. Go get some sleep or something; you look like shit.” Scott grinned at me and turned back to his own computer. Unlike the rest of us who’d gotten placed here as a punishment, this was actually his full time job. Strange man.
“Thanks, man,” I said, groaning as I stretched. “Owe you one.”
Clapping him on the shoulder, I swiped my security pass and let myself out of the little room. Maybe if I got home early, I could do some more research on Kit’s ring and how to get it back. Or even what she’s supposed to do with it once she did get it back.
Nothing was just handed to her on a platter as far as her Ban Dia magic was concerned, so I seriously doubted it’d be as simple as just putting on the ring and then poof instant reciprocal magic.
I was halfway down the fire escape stairs when my vision began to swim, and I paused, leaning one hand on the wall so as not to end up falling face first down three flights of concrete stairs. Despite Kit having healed me already, I wasn’t totally sure she’d changed me and didn’t want to test the theory with a broken neck.
My vision spotted around the edges, and my ears rang like I was about to pass out or something, but it all faded quickly. Instead of the ugly gray concrete of the fire escape stairs, the scene before my eyes was something very different.
“Again,” a stern-faced man in Omega camo ordered, and a pretty, Asian girl groaned.
“Seriously? I just did it three times in a row,” she complained, giving the camo-guy a dirty look.
They stood in a clearing of forest somewhere on Omega’s grounds—I knew because I recognized the distinctive markings on the trees where comm surveillance systems were installed. I should recognize them, anyway, seeing as I designed the damn program. Two other men stood silently across the far side of the clearing, a lab coated medic who was scribbling on a clipboard and Director Pierre.
“You’ll do it as many times as the Director wants to see it. Now do it again,” the dickwad in camo demanded, and the girl curled her lip in a snarl at him…
Spots danced across the scene as it faded into blackness and the voices dissipated. For a quick second, I was back in the stairwell leaning heavily against the wall, and then the scene shifted again. This time the change was so rapid my stomach clenched and rolled like I was going to vomit.
“You’re so screwed,” Lucy snickered, handing Kit a takeaway cup of coffee. They must have been on a break from class because the two girls were standing near the coffee cart outside the training wing.
“Tell me about it,” Kit groaned, rubbing a hand over her forehead, then taking a long sip of coffee and moaning in a way that made my dick hard. If I even had one in this weird vision-thing, that was.
“What are you going to do?” Lucy asked, but the grin on her face said she was thoroughly enjoying whatever Kit was pissed off about.
Kit shrugged her elegant shoulders, her silken tumble of red curls sliding onto her back as she moved. “Nothing? Just hope that his own pride will prevent him from doing a shitty job?”
“Seriously?” Lucy squeaked. “You’re actually going to let him tattoo you? That’s like... permanent as shit, babe.”