CHAPTER 4 – KYLE

“Keep up, Kallen,” she barked over her shoulder.

Kyle grimaced. He was really starting to regret telling the Captain his name. He should have just used his fall back: ‘Bruce Wayne’. Playboy, vigilante, taking out ugly-ass villains? No, the humor would definitely be lost on her.

“Maybe if you didn’t walk so damn fast,” he said. While he was definitely enjoying the view marching behind her, he was not enjoying her yipping at him like a damn drill sergeant. Oh wait. Hah.

Too bad she was a Captain. Might have been nice to take her for a ride on the K-rocket. Fine as hell. Sassy too. And that crazy hair of hers, just the kind he liked to twist his fingers in… But no. No Captains. He didn’t do well with authority. He didn’t take orders, not anymore.

“We have to keep this pace if we’re going to make decent time. We need to get this information to the Masters,” she said, kicking up her speed ever so slightly.

“Isn’t that what they have Diviners for?” he said. Whatever this chick knew, he really doubted she was the only one who’d learned this ‘critical’ information.

“My Field Diviner is the one who started Seeing these visions. None of the closest Tower Diviners had any idea. I checked. We need to pick up the pace.”

“Maybe if you ask me nicely,” he laughed sarcastically.

“I don’t do nice,” she said.

“Right. Angeline the un-angelic. So, you don’t do nice. Do you do naughty then?”

“Quit it with the creepy Santa shit,” she said, rolling her foxy hazel eyes at him. “Do your sleazy pick-up lines actually work?”

“You’d be surprised,” he said, dropping his voice into a husky purr.

“Nothing surprises me anymore,” she said, “not when I have to babysit dozens of infant wizards fresh across The Veil… or rogue man-child Salamanders, like you. Why’d you leave your post anyway? Most soldiers who can’t hang shoot straight back across The Veil the second they get a chance. Why did you stay?”

“Why would I leave and skip all the fun? I’d miss my magic if I went back Earth-side.”

She sighed and shook her head.

“Why were you fighting those Elves anyway?” she said.

“Oh,” he said, “you aren’t going to trick me that easily. Not until I drop you off, remember?”

“Fine,” she said, “I have you figured out anyway.”

“Oh?”

“You don’t like authority because you have control issues. And you stay on this side of The Veil to fight the Elves because you’re trying to make amends for something. Combine the two and we have an authority figure who pushed you into doing something you regret.”

His jaw ticked. Spot on. But hell if he’d let her have the satisfaction.

“I fight the Elves because that’s what I do. I’m a fighter. Underground MMA circuit almost 10 years strong.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. Of course that’d pique her interest. Chicks always dug it.

“And what about the authority part?” she said, voice flat.

Geez this girl didn’t give up. Okay so maybe that look in her eye wasn’t what he’d thought it was. Or maybe it was, and she was just trying to hide her curiosity. Wait a second. He recognized this tactic. She was trying to get the upper hand by learning everything about him she could, while sharing nothing about herself. Sly, little angel, very sly.

“I might have some control issues,” he trailed off, mischievous lilt to his voice. Hah. Let her ask about that.

“Oh?” she said, obviously hoping he’d keep spilling.

“Yeah,” he said, glancing at her sideways. “You ever hear of BDSM? It’s all about control.”

“Oh fucking hell,” she said, groaning in frustration.

He snickered to himself as she pushed past and put some distance between them. As the minutes marched on, his grin of victory began to fade. How had she figured him out that easily? Maybe Captains got some special psychological training he didn’t know about, for interrogation purposes. Or it could just be her Mage nature. They manipulated objects with ease, maybe they had a way to get inside people’s heads too. Well he wouldn’t let her. Angelface might be throwing jabs, but he was a pro at blocking.

 By the time they stopped for the night, his legs were throbbing. He tried to conceal his limping as best he could, but man the Captain was observant. Guess she had to be in order to keep an eye on her squad. But he wasn’t one of her soldiers and he didn’t like the way she was watching him. That’s okay. He’d figured her out too, at least a little. He knew how to make her stop staring.

He hobbled over to her. He bit back a laugh as her gorgeous amber eyes drifted up his body, she was not doing very good at hiding her attraction to him. Kyle smirked, that would make this even easier. He crouched down in front of her and leaned in close.

She didn’t budge. She clearly didn’t like to lose.

Fine, he’d just have to play a little harder. He shifted even closer, his stubble brushing against her soft cheek. He dropped his voice down low and whispered in her ear: “You any good at deep tissue massage?” He turned sideways and rubbed one of his ass cheeks just to make sure she understood what he was implying. “My glutes are killing me.”

For a second, all she could do was sit there slack-jawed. Probably embarrassed. Or intrigued.

Whatever she was feeling, she certainly had no intention of revealing it to Kyle. She regained her composure, shoved to her feet, and backed away.

Bam! Point number two for the K-Beast. Must have been tough for the Captain, not being able to just pull rank and knock him into submission. He could get used to this, this was entertaining as hell. He chuckled and started to walk away.

Then his victory was cut short.

“Kallen!” she barked behind him.

He glanced back over his shoulder.

She gestured to the forest floor. “Clear this brush while I run some sweeps. I expect a fire to be going by the time I return.”

Then she turned and bolted off down the hill before he could protest.

Kyle crossed his arms and shook his head. How the hell did she still have so much energy? And more importantly, why the hell did she think she could just boss him around like that? He wasn’t one of her soldiers. He wasn’t a soldier at all.

He sighed and flicked his wrist at the debris strewn ground. Flames exploded in front of him instantly incinerating the scattered sticks and leaves. He closed his fist and extinguished the fires. What? It’s not that he was giving in to her demands, he just didn’t want to deal with her whining.

He waited a couple minutes for the earth to cool then stepped inside the little singed patch of grass. He tossed a couple rocks out of the way and called it good.

By the time she returned he had a decent size fire pit built and the sleeping pads rolled out.

“You can see that fire from the valley floor,” she said. “Put it out and build it again over there between those trees.”

Kyle opened his mouth, about to snap back, but she had already moved over to her pack and was paying him no more attention. Kyle closed his mouth, brow furrowed.

He glanced at the fire and traced the glow with his eyes. She was right, you’d definitely be able to see it from down low. Guess she wasn’t just arguing for the sake of arguing. Maybe she wasn’t even trying to get under his skin, talking to him that way. Maybe she was just going through her routine, doing her Captain thing.

Still, that didn’t make it any less irritating.

Kyle waved his hand through the air and cut off the oxygen to the flames. It’d be okay, he’d just have to put up with her attitude for a few more days. He could have just sent her off on her own, but with the Elves acting all funny, it just didn’t feel right. And sure, he could partially take the blame for her losing her magic, but there was no reason for him to hand over his. This was the only arrangement that made sense.

But Elves stealing amulets on the other hand… now that did not make sense. Whatever, it wasn’t for him to figure out. He’d just pass it on to the Masters and let them deal with the mess. Not his problem. Nope, his only problem was Captain Angelface and he’d be free of her soon enough.