LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 15: Patrol
Raten and Cassidy had been walking together in silence for a few minutes. Neither of them were really sure how to start the conversation. Raten though it was agony. "I'm sorry..." He finally began, trying to keep his tone level and calm.
"Sorry? For what?" Cassidy asked without looking up. Her voice was like honey in his ears. He wished he could ask her a litany of questions, just so he could hear her answer each one.
"For... Your cousin's nose. Thank you by the way, he never filed a complaint, I figured that you may have had something to do with that" his head still hung low, ashamed of the tough spot he had put her in before.
Cassie looked away, her cheeks blushing brightly. It was true. Wyatt absolutely was ready to march over that day the second his nose was healed. He wouldn't stop going on and on about it. The healer was clearly unamused and by the time they left, annoyed. Cassie had to run in front of Wyatt and face him, directly in his way to get him to shut up long enough and listen.
"Look, Wyatt... You can't. I mean you can't go and complain" she stated apprehensively. Her face scrunched up after she spoke like she was bracing for something. When nothing happened she opened her eyes again to see him frozen with his mouth open in disbelief. A mix of hurt and irritation washed over him.
"Don't look at me like that, I mean, you know I technically hurt him way worse earlier, so that was more like, now we're even?" Wyatt scoffed with his hands by his side balling into fists.
"Oh, so I get my nose broken by some psycho, but it's alright because you kicked him earlier?" His face was getting red and his tone more distressed.
"I... I.... No.... It's just that.... " Cassie desperately racked her brain for any good reason not to report the incident but she honestly couldn't find one, not technically. Of course Raten had been angry because Wyatt had slipped away when he was supposed to be spotting her, and as a result she nearly had a terrible injury come of it. It still made her mad when she thought about it, but that is how Wyatt had always been. Selfish. Only ever thinking of himself. Her brow furrowed, obviously digging deep for an excuse, Wyatt folded his arms smugly waiting to hear what she came up with.
"Gah! Fine, I like him ok?" She sounded so angry that Wyatt almost wanted to tell her it was too bad, but she went on. Her tone softened as she looked down somewhat defeated. "I like him. Like... A LOT". Wyatt examined her face. This was a surprising development. Cassie had rejected every man that attempted to woo her, ever since she matured enough to be of any interest to eligible men.
Cassie was a very attractive girl, everybody thought so. She had perfect bone structure and features. She had the ideal petite frame, and looked to be built for motherhood with wife hips. Wyatt's mother and father had been trying to set her up with all sorts of bachelors from reputable families. They insisted that the Sunshield family line was at risk of ending completely. He grew up his whole life thus far having this thought drilled into him by his parents.
His duty in this life, as a member of that family, was to get top marks in school, gain a financially lucrative career, become financially independent and able to support a family while simultaneously furthering his skills and ability. All of this so he can at the soonest possible moment find and marry a wife, preferably from a strong family, and start producing more little Sunshield descendants. The entire trope was exhausting, but it was what Wyatt knew, what he believed, in his mind it was the only option.
Cassie however didn't seem to care at all. She refused to marry just to keep her bloodline going. She was super aggressive and not at all timid or ladylike. She was obsessed with getting stronger, with combat and perfecting her ability. If a guy couldn't keep up with her, they didn't stand a chance. Most got kicked to the curb, if they hadn't already made the decision to run themselves by then. She intimidated most men.
Wyatt had it a little tougher than Cassie did with the initial part (getting one to agree to a date) as he did not bear the name Sunshield. It had been his mother's last name before she married his dad. Cassie on the other hand, her father still had the family name. The big four may not have held the position and power that The Big Four once held, but they were still taught about in history books, and the name carried weight. Wyatt was pretty sure that is how his parents got him the position with the Blades. No doubt his father sold the idea of them coming like a type of package deal. That's what they always did.
Since Cassie's parents both died many years ago, she had been sent to live with their family. He grew up with her more like his sister than a cousin. Seeing her down turned face and the embarrassed flush of her cheeks, all he could think of was their main objective, according to his mother. "Fine" he grumbled followed by an exasperated sigh. Cassie's whole face lit up. "I won't say anything".
She clapped her hands together and said thank you. Reaching up on her tippy toes to give him a huge bear hug. "Thank you, so much".
Of course Cassie didn't mention any of this to Raten as they walked the grounds, checking all the gates and passkey restricted doors. They started talking about their abilities. Cassie never learned exactly what the Blade ability was. The Blades were discussed only as in connection to others. Their involvement in several of Earth's historic battles they would get brought up barely mentioned. Nobody ever spoke in depth about the family. It is just said that they are incredibly powerful, and that once they had control of everything, as they leveraged power over The Big Four.
She was hanging on Raten's every word as he explained the gist of what he could exactly do. "May I touch you?"
Hearing Raten's question, her heart began to pound like it was trying to escape from her chest. Her panic was clearly visible and her cheeks again grew pink. "I... Uh... Wha..." Stuttering as she looked around to see if anybody overheard her, she felt her face get incredibly hot. Raten stepped closer to her and she nervously closed her eyes, unsure what was about to happen. She held her breath as she anticipated whatever came next.
Suddenly she noticed him take her hand into his. "Don't worry" he chuckled seeing her all tensed up, with her eyes closed. "It doesn't hurt, I promise". Her eyes popped open confused and a little disappointed as Cassie looked at their hands. Raten let go and stepped a few get away. Her heart sank.
He looked around for a good spot, noticing a clearing just a few yards away, that should've been able to provide safe distance from the building and had no pallets nearby as well as few trees. He started to walk over. He took a few steps and looked back at Cassie, who hadn't moved so he motioned for her to follow. She too looked around and quickly caught up to him.
They had made it to the part of their rounds that was property that sat to the rear of the main building. With not much being placed in the back other than storage or the occasional piece of large equipment, it wasn't a very highly trafficked area. So, not too many prying eyes.
"I bumped into a water ability user on the way over here, so if anything catches fire, we should be able to take care of it". Cassie laughed a bit looking around at how much distance he had given them from any kind of close proximity. She thought he was joking, making a sarcastic remark or something. His face however remained straight serious.
Raten took a breath, then his arms began to rise slowly, pulling them into a type of martial arts pose. Once his elbows were all the way tucked into his torso his hands clenched into fists and quickly pushing them both out they suddenly ignited like they had been doused with gasoline. He then proceeded to perform several martial arts moves and stances, most of which Cassie did not recognize.
What on earth, where did he learn that, I've never seen that type of martial arts before.
With every move he demonstrated, a blast of flames would shoot out with his fists, like some type of fire cannon. Huge blasts of extreme heat that rivaled even what her father was capable of during his life. Cassidy was considered a prodigy when it came to her ability, and she devoted herself to her own improvement, but this was beyond what she could have ever dreamed of. He was a better, MUCH better fire ability user than she was.
On the final move Raten spun himself around using the heat from the blasts of fire he produced from his hands to propel him even faster, until the large gusts of fire combined with the constant motion formed what from the outside looked like a tornado of fire. The only thought on Cassie's mind was that it was beautiful.
With the final turn he let the movement continue straight, he leaped up and utilized the momentum to break into a flying spinning round house kick. He added a huge crescent of flames which shot out from his hands and he spun around. One of his favorite moves. The spin made the crescent leave him with incredible velocity, whipping around and around. It made a slight slicing sound as it slid through the air and far off to the other side of the clearing. Cassidy's mouth had flopped open in amazement. It was like nothing she had ever seen. Raten, having worked up a sweat with all the heat from the flames. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve and turned back around to face his partner.
Cassie was standing still, looking stunned at Raten. A sparkle of pure adoration glowed brightly behind her vibrant green eyes. Cassie was overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions and thoughts. Shock and awe, as well as jealousy, determination, but most of all at that moment, to her dismay, she felt lust.
Part of her was scared about what was going to happen next, but she didn't know if she could stop herself at that point. Self control wasn't her strong suit. Fire was all consuming, relentless, and the fire inside of her was strong. She was headstrong, and would be moved to passion without much effort. Raten stepped closer to her smirking. Clearly proud of himself for his display of power.
He started to speak but before he got a single word out she leapt. Raten was caught off guard as he approached Cassidy. He looked into her eyes and he saw what looked like hunger. Her whole body vibrated with radiant energy like she was a power generator. His hair started to stand on the back of his neck. He thought she looked similar to a wild beast, preparing to attack. As he opened his mouth to ask if she was ok, she had already sprung towards Raten.
Cassy had jumped up and wrapped her arms and legs around him. Planting her lips directly on Raten's. At first, his eyes were open wide in surprise as he stumbled back a few steps. He quickly regained his balance, as she was incredibly light. He had already reflexively wrapped his arms around her, but as the reality of what had occurred was fully grasped a devilish grin would have been visible on his lips. He quickly slid his hands down her back and wrapped his hands around her upper thighs. He lifted her this way, and repositioned her to have a better grasp, then wrapped his arms tightly around her again. With the repositioning she had better control of her grip, no longer hanging off of him like before. He had raised her up a bit. Cassie moved her arms, one around his neck, lacing her fingers up into the back of his hair while the other slid to a rest in his chest.
She felt the firm shape of all his muscles, the sensation beneath her hands was even more delicious than she had fantasized. This made her even more ravenous, and her kisses depend.
Raten felt the intensity rise and responded by kissing her even more fiercely. His mind reeled from the hormones and endorphins, dopamine and his emotions, it was nearly overwhelming. At least it would have been, only Raten had been waiting his entire existence for something like this exact moment. It was like everything just fell in place.
His mind raced with every thought imaginable, worries, regrets, hopes, confusion. He had so many questions, but every thought that entered his mind quickly rushed out like a flip book just allowing for clips of thoughts to even form before whirling out twice as fast. It started to make him slightly dizzy, but the sensation was addicting. He pulled away from her lips and continued to kiss her cheek, her chin, moving to her neck. He gave her ravenous kisses on her neck and held her in close.
Cassie had never felt so tiny and light. With her loud personality, aggressive nature, and her physical prowess even though she was aware of her tiny stature, for most of her life people would flinch if she moved too fast. Raten never did. Even after she kicked a body bag into him, causing serious injury, he still hadn't flinched or hesitated with her. Even now, when she went for it, she had half expected him to drop her like a sack of potatoes out of shock if nothing else.
However that didn't happen. He caught her, he held her in close, he kissed her back. He kissed her with as much desperation as she had shown him. She melted in his arms.
That is to say, she was heating up, Raten noticed her body growing intensely hot. Passers by, had there been any, would have no doubt seen steam starting to form a tiny cloud around them.
Cassie started to panic. Oh no, OH NO! Not now, not AGAIN! Cassie was a very strong fire ability user. She had worked her entire life at perfecting her ability. The only thing she still hadn't mastered was her ability to rein it in. Whenever emotions ran high, she ran hot. If she didn't slow down she was likely to actually burst into flames. Something that hadn't happened to her in years, not since puberty. However, she felt it. She felt it coming, the fire. Raten sensing her tense up, and noticing the rapid increase in her temperature had a guess about what was going on.
He activated his MC cells throughout his body, and he began to heat himself, matching her body temperature perfectly. As Raten's body temperature reached hers, she could feel that he was no longer cold by comparison. Her eyes started to well up with tears, which evaporated into steam the second the left her eye.
Their combined heat grew to such a degree the ambient temperature that surrounded them became extreme. A small weed sprouted from the ground a few inches from Raten's foot burst into flames, breaking from the intense heat, already dry from the Summer weather, all it took was a single spark induced by the static electricity of their bodies combined was enough. Sensing the heat emitted from the tiny little bonfire, without even looking he merely shifted his weight and lifted his boot. He stomped down on the little blaze, smothering it out with a slight twist back and forth.
With the world around them literally starting to go up in flames Raten knew it was time to stop. He slowed his feverish kisses and very slowly, although reluctantly, started to lower her body back down to earth until her toes could reach the ground. She pouted inside, not wanted the moment to ever pass. As she felt her body on solid ground and Raten pulled back to look her in the eyes, she sighed letting her forehead fall against his chest. She had both of her arms tucked in close with her hands flat on his chest. He never pulled his arms away, and instead kept them wrapped tightly around her, just holding her close.
"We better stop for now, before we light something even bigger on fire". Cassidy had yet to look around, as soon as she did, to her horror the clearing was in quite a state. Several plants had been signed, with the ashes being all that remained of the weed that actually caught ablaze. Her hand went immediately to her mouth. She had never experienced anything like this before. A smile returned to her face as she had some very devilish thoughts. Mostly she thought, it looked like they should perhaps look into what it would take to aquire a fireproof room. She looked at Raten and his longing gaze followed her neckline to her collar bone. He felt the heat start to rise up within him once more. He took a couple of deep breaths and looked down to meet her gaze. After that, she knew they needed to find a fireproof room, SOON.
She tilted her head back and moved up on her toes, seeing this Raten leaned in for just one more kiss before his sense of responsibility got the best of him, and he insisted that they proceed with their rounds, as they had a duty to perform, and we're technically still on the clock.
For the first time, Raten was being the level headed one, the one providing the voice of reason. That was a scary thought indeed.