****
She woke up on a surprisingly soft surface, and every cell in her body was alight with pain. She couldn’t do anything besides breathe, let alone move the muscles responsible for opening her eyes to see where she was. Where am I? Three short words echoing through her mind, weaving in and out of the havoc of her tortured senses. Thinking was hard when there was this much pain, and it had been so long since she remembered that fact—too long. She’d promised herself she would remember this pain after what happened with Victor and Lizzie.
Victor.
Lizzie.
Leo 17.
Everything came rushing back to her at once, and the memory slapped her so hard that it gave her the jolt she needed to push open her eyes. Her pupils shrank as light hit them, and the ceiling slowly came into focus. It was gray and unlined, nonporous and dark. One turn of her aching neck told her the walls to her left were the same, and as she rotated her head to the right, she realized she was on a bed about two feet off the ground in small room—a cell, by the look of the heavy iron door. There was another bed against the wall opposite her, and she wasn’t surprised to see Leo 17 sitting upright, gazing at her as though he’d woken her up himself.
“Morning,” he said. “Man, you snore loud.”
Jenna tried to sit up, but a wave of nausea forced her to lay back down. “Shut up,” she spat, but it had none of the venom she felt before. She looked at her arms and legs, but they didn’t look any different in her dark blue jumpsuit; why couldn’t she move?
“If you’re wondering why you can’t move,” Leo 17 said, his tone conversational, “it’s because they zapped you with their prods about six times.”
“I only felt it once,” Jenna said weakly, but her memory was awfully hazy at the moment.
“That took you down,” the Yazulian admitted, propping his elbows on his knees and leaning forward as he addressed her. ‘Then you got up after they cuffed you and started swinging at everyone.”
“Everyone?” Jenna echoed, surprised.
“Everyone,” Leo 17 repeated. “You took the Gray Men down before they realized you’d gotten up, and the only reason you didn’t hit me again was that I was hiding under a table while you went nuts. Once you broke the cuffs off you even started swinging at the humans behind you.”
Jenna moaned, a long noise filled with all the misery she could muster. “How many people were hurt?”
“Just the Gray Men, besides me,” Leo 17 said, and he sounded impressed. The Gray Men were the highest form of policing they had, made up of anonymous soldiers from all across the galaxy who wore gray fabric masks after completing their rigorous training. “You did seem more focused on them since they were intent on taking you down. I guess anyone else struck would have been accidental, but you’ve got a wide range, so it’s surprising that you missed.”
Jenna sighed in relief, and some of the ache went out of her muscles. She tried sitting up again and scooted sideways so she could lean against the wall and face Leo 17. “Why do you sound like you approve of me all of a sudden?”
He laughed, and the sound was strangely comforting. “Do you notice anything about my face?”
Jenna studied it, feeling awkward examining him so closely. He wasn’t bloody anymore, but there was a darkened patch of skin on a corner of his cheek next to his mouth that looked like the imprint of her knuckles.
“I bruised you,” she said. “Great, but so what? Are you one of those sexists who only likes a girl if she can kick his ass?”
“No,” Leo said. “But I am one of those Yazulians with a great healing ability. I can heal any minor damage instantly, and major damage takes only a few hours.”
Jenna narrowed her eyes. “What? What are you saying?” Her eyes flickered to the bruise and then back to his gaze, shakily piecing together what he was telling her. “Haven’t we only been here a few hours?”
Leo laughed. “Horizon! We’ve been here for almost two days.”
Icy fear flooded her veins, and her lungs seized up just as they were getting used to drawing in normal amounts of air. They locked us up for two days…over a fight? The last time she’d been in an altercation on Luna, she was thrown in a cell for about two hours and fined 200 coins for slapping a subordinate. It was a single day’s pay for her, and had been entirely worth it.
“Why have we been in here so long? Are you saying it’s connected to your bruise?”
“No, that’s why I’m curious about you. I expect they’re more curious about how you managed to fight off five rounds of electric charges from those Gray Men’s prods when a human would normally die after three charges from one prod—and you had two on you at the same time.” Leo 17 smiled, and it was so full of excitement that it was as though someone had announced an early start to the war.
Jenna’s mind was reeling, and she didn’t want to believe his words. There had to be another reason they were in there—but why had they thrown them in a top security cell? Her body was awfully achy, and the soreness matched up with being violently shocked into being comatose for two days. But why lock them up at all? Why not put her in a hospital?
Her eyes locked on Leo 17’s, and he smiled.
Anger returned to her body, fast and hot. “What did you tell them? Why am I not being given medical attention?”
His smile faded a little. “You were given medical attention, Horizon. I made sure of that.”
“Quit calling me that!”
Leo 17’s face took on a look of pure confusion. “But…it’s your name.”
“Well…yes, but it’s not my first name,” Jenna said, feeling flustered.
Her words didn’t help the Yazulian. “It matters? I hear humans call each other by their second names all the time.” He frowned. “What would you call me?”
“Leo 17,” Jenna said, and he burst into laughter. “What?”
“Leo is my name,” he explained. “But 17 is not. I don’t speak to humans often, so I never get a chance to correct them on this. The number is something the humans ascribed to our naming system because they couldn’t translate our words into English. The second names we have are all references to our origins. Like country names. They’re simply indicators of our birthplaces, and descriptors of those places themselves. Humans did not understand this, and postulated that since all Yazulians in a given area had the same last name, they functioned the same as group markers. We got numbers instead of our names and the confusion has not been corrected in one hundred years of fighting, nor the hundred years of peace before that.”
Jenna stared blankly at him, feeling anger and shame simultaneously in the face of her ignorance. “I’m sorry,” she said. “So, I should just call you by your first name?” Leo nodded. “I didn’t know that.”
He smiled. “There’s quite a lot you don’t know. I’m beginning to realize it’s not your fault.”
Jenna bristled, feeling defensive even though he was being perfectly polite. A sharp buzz sounded through the room, and they both jumped as a flap in the door slid open, and two soft packages of food were pushed through, followed by two long bottles of water. Leo stood and hurried to retrieve the items, and Jenna realized then how very hungry she was.
The Yazulian was already moving toward her bed, the package slit open and outstretched in his hand. “I’m going to set this next to you, is that okay?”
Jenna started to scoff until she saw that there was a glimmer of real fear in his eyes. Whatever she’d done while she blacked out had been monstrous, and it filled her with shame; I’m even more broken than I thought.
“Hey,” Leo said, his voiced panicked. “Uh…hey!” He knelt by her bedside and set the food and water beside her, peering up into her face with a look of alarm. She started to ask what the hell he was doing before she felt the tears rolling down her cheeks.
Jenna raised her hands to brush them away and cried out as pain tore through her again. “Dammit!” she yelled, slumping back against the wall as the sensation slowly receded. Maybe she could just lay there until she died; that seemed like a plausible solution.
Leo cleared his throat, and she looked down to find him holding his golden brown hands up above hers.
“I think I can help you,” he said. “Please. Let me help.”
“No!” Jenna said, and he dropped his hands immediately but didn’t back away.
“Why not?” he asked patiently.
Because you’re a freak, she wanted to say, but she knew it was her pain and anger talking; mostly, anyway. Jenna was starting to think she had some toxic, deeply ingrained beliefs that helped her transform over five years from a bright, eager soldier to a jaded, lonely member of the warrior elite. She thought Leo was a freak—but why? Because their species had been fighting for as long as she’d been alive, and their ancestors had been fighting for even longer? If there was anything Jenna was good at, it was recognizing rock bottom, and she knew that this time, rock bottom was holding on to a red-hot hatred that was clearly burning her up from the inside.
Leo seemed to sense the shift in her attitude. He raised his hands again. “Can I please help you to feel better?”
Jenna started to nod, but it hurt too much. She spoke instead: “Please.”
Leo lowered his hands over hers and closed his eyes. Astoundingly, the soft glow in his skin brightened as heat started to roll from his skin in gentle waves, sliding over and around her body as though it were knitting a healing cocoon just for her. After a moment, she realized it might not be a bad analogy; the heat curled tighter around her and intensified, and her pain got lighter and less intense, until it finally bled away entirely. When he opened his eyes, Leo smiled, and Jenna saw that the bruise around his mouth was gone.
“How do you feel?” he asked softly, and there was a touch of anxiety in his voice.
“Better,” Jenna said, and she meant it. She shrugged her shoulders and moved her head from side to side. There was a light ache, but nothing she couldn’t manage. “Thank you…so much.” Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, and she cursed her aversion to this kind of moment.
Leo smiled. “No problem. It gave me a little kick, too.”
“Your bruise is gone,” Jenna pointed out.
“Cool.” Leo paused. “So, not that I’m not enjoying this, but could you let go? I kind of wanted to drink some water.”
Jenna looked down and saw that she’s turned her hands over and laced her fingers through his while he’d healed her. She snatched her hands back, mortified, but Leo laughed heartily and patted her leg.
“It’s ok. I’m flattered, really.”
“It’s not a side effect of the healing?” Jenna asked, avoiding his eyes. “I thought I heard about an aphrodisiac affect to your healing powers.”
“Another misconception,” Leo said, sounding tired. “And a kind of offensive one, at that, started by some women who couldn’t believe they were attracted to Yazulian trash.”
Jenna flinched, and the smile on Leo’s face grew sad.
“I know that’s what you call us.”
“I’m sorry,” Jenna said, feeling ashamed. “I don’t know why I’m such an asshole.”
Leo seemed to find that funny. “I don’t think you’re an asshole. Not anymore, anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…” Leo hesitated. “I used to believe stories from when I was a child about humans. They experimented on us for fun, for example, and caught bad Yazulian children and took them to science labs.”
“No!” Jenna gasped. “They told you that?”
“Yes,” Leo said simply. “I also heard that you were all allergic to the sun, and that was why you got darker underneath it, instead of brighter.”
Jenna giggled despite herself. “That would be sad. But those are some pretty wild rumors. How do you believe stuff like that?”
Leo smiled wryly. “How do you believe things such as a seductive healing power, or that we aren’t as smart as you? Doesn’t it just start by someone saying it’s true and another person accepting it? That’s all it takes.” He shrugged and crossed his legs in front of him.
Jenna dropped her gaze, and Leo seemed to see that he’d embarrassed her.
“And it isn’t your fault,” he continued hurriedly. “These things aren’t necessarily caused by you. It seems like you’re told a lot of things from birth…and a lot of things are held back.”
Jenna scoffed. “You keep saying that. What kind of things aren’t they telling us? And what are they lying to us about?”
Leo opened his mouth to speak, but the door to their cell swung open so fast the door crashed against the wall. They both jumped to their feet, but it was just a non-descript commander of one of the ground brigades. His round face was slightly red, and his beady eyes were bouncing between them as though he’d expected them to be doing something else.
“Level 17 Leo 17, you are free to go. You have been docked one thousand coins and are forbidden from the cafeteria for one month. A-Level Jenna Horizon, you are free to go. Here is your official warning insignia. If you are caught fighting again, you may be subject to further disciplinary action. You are both grounded on Luna for one week. Return to your barracks.”
The commander walked away, leaving the red patch to flutter to the ground as they both stared at the space where he’d been. Feeling numb, Jenna bent over and picked up the slim red square, peeling the patch from its backing before slapping it on the side of her jumpsuit. Sentencing usually happened in a separate cell with your own commander, but she’d never seen that man before in her life. And why had Leo been docked a thousand coins? Something wasn’t right here; Jenna started to down the hall after the commander, then froze in her tracks. Did he say both of them had been grounded? She turned around, intending to ask Leo what he planned to do, but he was already walking the other way, his broad back moving as fast as he could go. Annoyed, she sprinted after him, calling his name.
He turned and glanced at her, but he didn’t stop moving. She caught up with him when he was nearly to his barracks, and she wondered how he moved so fast.
“I was calling you,” Jenna huffed.
“I know.” The chill in Leo’s words was clear, and Jenna nearly tripped over her own feet in surprise. He’d been friendly in the cell, almost flirty, and that had been when they had no idea when they would get out. What had changed? Was it the sentencing?
“Leo, I don’t know why they charged you more than me,” she said pleadingly under her breath, trotting to keep up with his astoundingly quick pace. “Or why they banned you from the cafeteria. I’m sorry, but I didn’t—”
“No, I’m sorry,” Leo spat, stopping and rounding on her. “I guess I gave you the wrong impression back there. I don’t care, Horizon. I don’t give a shit.”
Jenna felt his words hit her like fists, and she fought the urge to let her pain and anger show. “Oh, I see,” she said bitterly. “You really were coming on to me back there. Putting the moves on me so I’d be all loosened up for your…your love muscle, is that it?”
Leo’s mask of anger slipped. “Love muscle?”
“And then we got interrupted, so you’re just done with me,” Jenna said. “I get it. Maybe I’m just trash to you, too.”
She turned and started to move away, but a hand on her arm stopped her. Jenna raised her right fist, ready to punch Leo again, but his golden-flecked eyes were wide and appeasing. He held a finger to his lips and pointed down an alley, where a gray door was set into a stone wall.
Jenna started to speak, but he hushed her again and pulled her quickly toward the door, keeping his steps silent on the gravel. Jenna hadn’t even noticed when they got into the Yazulian inhabited side of Luna’s barracks since everyone now had the same metal-stone hybrid buildings, but the gravel was always a dead giveaway.
Leo pressed his hand to the door, and it blinked red before disappearing entirely. Jenna opened her mouth in shock, and by the time she’d gasped in surprise, she was already behind the barrier. She spun around as Leo pulled her into the room, and she could see out for a second—the half mile of gravel they covered before synthetic soil took over and the human barracks stood against the brilliant sky—then the door shimmered back into reality, becoming a barely discernible part of the frame.
“Wow,” Jenna breathed. She turned to look at Leo and saw that he was grinning, enjoying her reaction to his high-tech entry way. “I’ve never seen a Yazulian door that worked that way. How long have you guys had this tech?”
“As long as you guys have,” Leo said. He walked over to a plain black couch in the middle of the room and plopped onto it, gesturing for her to sit beside him. “There’s a fridge behind you, by the way. You haven’t eaten, and there’s some stuff you can have.”
Jenna’s stomach was growling, but she couldn’t stop taking in the rest of the room. It wasn’t as plain as other barracks—it was in the wrong place, for one; they shouldn’t have reached Yazulian living space for three or four miles, but here was Leo’s room right at the edge of their territory and the humans’. It was also bigger than most single rooms, and it looked like it had been an office or even a storage room before; there was a door opposite the entrance that looked rather like a closet, and there were slim outlets everywhere. A bed was on the left side of the room about twenty feet from the couch, and a table took up the space to her right. She wandered over to the fridge and opened it, finally selecting a pre-wrapped sandwich and a cool canister of water before sitting at a rickety chair at the lonely table.
“Are you still repulsed by me, or is it okay if I join you?” Leo was trying to keep his voice light, but Jenna could hear the hurt there, and she swore at herself.
“No, it’s fine; I’m sorry.” Jenna pressed her hands over her eyes, feeling wear all of a sudden. “I just want to know what’s going on.”
When she dropped her hands, Leo was standing next to the table, looking at her with a cautious expression. “What do you mean?”
Jenna threw her hands up in exasperation. “You keep saying I’m ignorant of things, and you’re right. I am ignorant. I was blind to Lizzie’s love for Victor, I was blind to Victor’s love for her, I was blind to all the anger and despair I still had inside of me…and I’m blind to what’s really happening in this war, apparently.” She raised her steely eyes to his, forcing herself to meet the little spots of golden flame in eyes. “I used to think I knew everything. I don’t even know the first thing about myself. What else don’t I know about the world I live in?”
Leo sighed, and relief settled into his features. He sat in the chair next to hers and folded his hands together. “Okay. Now you’re ready to know.”
Jenna’s heart skipped a beat. “Know what?”
He paused, and she almost wanted that pause to last forever; here in the pause, at least, she was relieved and not angry or hurt—neither of them were, in fact. Here, anything could be at the other end of that pause, even something wonderful, no matter how unlikely that could be. She was exhilarated and afraid all at once, but she was also faced with the terrifying knowledge that she was powerless to stop the progression of time; maybe that was why she suddenly lunged forward and kissed him.
Maybe it was the fear that she was slipping down a terrible spiral of destruction that she couldn’t pull herself out of—a spiral so marked with defeat and desperation that the vibe was repelling everyone she knew. Maybe it was the suspicion that after this, nothing would ever be the same again, and Jenna desperately needed something to change after today. But as Leo’s hands stripped off his own clothes and peeled away her jumpsuit to slide against her skin for the first time, she knew the primary reason wasn’t any of these things. He lifted her and carried her to the bed, and he was so gentle while lowering himself over her lean body that she wondered how deep she had to go to see this softness all the time. His golden brown skin was illuminated so brightly that her paler peach-toned skin was shining, like the way moon glowed from the rays of the sun. He’s so beautiful, she thought, but she was too mesmerized to speak. She felt the hardness of him against her, hot and throbbing, and Jenna’s pulse started to pound in double time. She suddenly couldn’t stand the wait any longer. Her hands slipped along his muscled arms and the broad strength of his back, felt the resting energy of his body and the raw potential in his lusty eyes. Jenna shivered, and he smiled and lowered his face to hers.
Leo kissed her, and the fullness of his lips surprised her; so did his tongue and its gentle, slow probing of her mouth. Her thighs were slick with juices as he pushed them apart with his strong hands, and Jenna closed her eyes when he pressed his long, golden member against her slick opening. She arched her back as his head slipped inside, crying out as the sharp pain quickly gave way to delicious pleasure.
“You’re breathtaking,” he whispered in her ear, but she couldn’t respond; as he slid back and forth inside her, the pleasure from being filled so completely stole all thought from her mind, and she gasped instead, wrapping her long legs around his hips as he pulled himself out and rushed deep inside her again.
“Leo!” Jenna moaned, pressing her face into his muscled chest as waves of pleasure shot through her body. She moved her slim hips upward against his eager strokes and started to pull on one of her nipples with her thumb and forefinger, sighing breathlessly at the sharp sensation.
Leo moaned low in his throat and quickened his strokes, slamming his hips against hers as he drove his thick shaft deep inside her again and again. His hands reached behind her to cup her round ass, steadying her as he beat into her flesh with his and moaned deliriously. He was picking up speed with every stroke, and her round breasts were bouncing from the force of his thrusts. His gaze connected with hers and she felt her heart stop for a second before it kicked into overdrive; her walls started to clench around his shaft, and Jenna threw her head back, bucking her hips wildly against Leo’s passionate strokes as an orgasm ripped through her core.
“Jenna!” Leo screamed, angling himself inside her. He was pounding against her g-spot, and the ecstasy was so intense that she couldn’t draw a deep breath. Leo was gasping as he emptied himself between her legs, twitching and rolling his hips weakly for a moment after he was spent. He gazed down at her, watching his long shaft disappear between her legs a few more times before he finally slowed to a stop. Then he pulled his head down and kissed her again, sighing happily before moving to lie beside her on the bed.
Jenna stared at the ceiling, noting how different it looked from the cell, even though it was the same shade of gray. “Wow,” she said quietly.
Leo laughed. “Why do I feel like you were more impressed by the door?”
Jenna blushed and turned to him. “No, it’s not that…” she began, but she trailed off when she saw that he was joking. She smiled, and it felt odd on her face—when was the last time she’d smiled like that?
“You were wonderful,” she tried again. “And I’m sorry I interrupted you. But it felt so amazing that I’m wondering why I don’t feel like that more often.”
“You don’t have sex?” Leo asked, his tone one of surprise.
“I do sometimes,” Jenna said, blushing. “I’m 26, I’ve had boyfriends. I used to have casual sex with my friend Victor sometimes, and even with—” ‘my old commander,’ she started to say, but that hadn’t felt like sex with Victor. As matter of fact, Victor had been unlike anyone else she’d ever met, befriended, or lain with—until now. And their sex had been familiar and happy because of their strong friendship—and Jenna’s strong love, it turned out. But Victor didn’t love her; was that why sex with Leo had been different?
But Leo doesn’t love you, she reminded herself. She looked at him, and he was gazing at her steadily, unashamed of his staring. He smiled easily, and her heart did an odd tumble in her chest; he made her feel giddy, but this wasn’t love yet. So, what was it? Why did he feel so right to her?
It struck her then; it was because they were both carrying flame from the same burning branch—they were made from the same fury and resolve that made soft skin into scar tissue and turned sweet ciders into bitter brews. They were the same sort of person. Jenna lifted her eyes to his.
“What did you decide I was ready to know?” she asked.
Leo sat up and nodded, pulling his shirt from the floor to put it on again. He tossed her jumpsuit to her, and they both got dressed to sit on the couch again. The silence made Jenna nervous, and she pulled on her shoulder length curls as he gathered his thoughts and drew a breath to speak again, this time sitting much closer to her than before.
Leo started to speak. “This war that’s happening isn’t real. It never was. It was always a front. My people approached humankind about their aggressive colonization attempts, not once, but three times; the third time was after a rogue branch of humans destroyed a sacred structure on a planet we’ve owned for centuries in a bid to gain ownership over it. They went unpunished, and when we demanded justice, we received none. Then we tried to break alliance, and were punished. That is when the war began, and it has finally been winding down. There was no coup, no attempt by the Yazulians to wrest power from Earth and take your soil. It was the other way around.”
Jenna shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
Leo sighed. “I thought you wouldn’t. May I?” he raised his hand toward her head, but she moved away.
“What are you doing?”
“I can share knowledge with you,” Leo said, narrowing his eyes. “You didn’t learn this about us?”
Jenna’s cheeks flamed red. “No, I…I didn’t learn that. They hardly taught us anything.” I wonder why that was? chimed a small voice in her head. Jenna squashed it, but her heart started racing nonetheless. “Okay,” she said nervously. “Share your knowledge.”
Leo stretched his hand toward her forehead and placed his warm hands on her skin for the second time that day. A surge of electricity shimmered through her body, but it was nothing like the Gray Men’s prod—it was joyous, pleasant, light. Suddenly she was seeing a series of moving images, and sound cut in sharply, sharpening until she saw she was looking at a video. Then bile rose in her throat when she realized what it was: news clips of humans discussing the first strikes against Yazul, taken at a low angle that showed it was most likely from a spy cam. Six humans sat around a table wearing wrinkled suits, eyes glazed over from lack of sleep but listening intently to a slim man standing at the center of the room, shouting about putting Yazulians down in their place. More clips followed, but Jenna didn’t need to see more; she pulled away from Leo’s hand, gasping in psychic pain far greater than she’d ever been burdened with. How could we have let this happen? she thought, and then: there’s your answer. We let this happen.
Jenna’s stomach soured with anxiety. “So…we’re the bad guys?”
Leo swallowed, hard, as if he were fighting an urge to be sick. “I’m afraid so.”
Why shouldn’t he be? said a small voice in her head. It sounds like Manifest Destiny 2.0. You are the real monster.
“Your people are fixing it,” Leo said. “I’ll give them that. But they’re doing nothing to fix our image, and I’m afraid they won’t.”
“They will,” Jenna said through gritted teeth. “They will if I have to make them.”
Leo pressed a hand to her shoulder and squeezed it. “I was hoping you would say that.”
Jenna looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”
“There’s a small faction of humans and a large percentage of Yazulians who want to push to bring back the original treaty,” Leo said, and his eyes glinted with excitement. “We want to be equal in every way. We don’t object to humans expanding—just doing it this way. There’s plenty of space for both of us, and we can share it all.”
“That didn’t work the first time,” Jenna said anxiously. “Why would it work this time?”
“This time we have more voices and more visibility,” Leo answered. “We already share space with you on Luna. If humans and Yazulians push for this on peaceful ground, we can start building the right path. I know it.”
Jenna was silent. She studied Leo’s face, moved by the passion in his words and the fierce determination in his eyes. Only days ago, she’d hated him—and wouldn’t have objected to killing him, in fact—and now she was sitting with her leg pressed against his, even holding his hand again without even noticing. Leo was smiling without a trace of fear or apprehension—how could he be so confident? It reminded her of Victor, who was always trying to protect everyone around him by never showing his fear. But Leo didn’t think she needed protection; he didn’t seem to find her weak at all.
Jenna nodded. “Okay. I’ll help.”