For A Brighter Future
Chapter 1: Silver Twilight
“We’re going to be pruned for a week.” I don’t think we ever showered for so long before. There was always a chance we’d be interrupted. That would have been very, very hard to explain. “Not that I mind. Really.” Curling together in bed feels so magical. Her hair pools around us as I savor resting my head against her chest.
“I know you don’t, ’Rora.” Sylvia grins down at me. “You never minded getting a little wet.” Her eyes sparkle a lot more than they used to. Its a good look for her. The violet in her eyes is a richer, deeper color than it was before. Her skin even feels softer.
Even with what Nina Corvi did to her, she got a lot out of our year apart.
The phone rings across the room. Fuck. I groan and hide my face in Sylvia’s breasts. Yesterday was so magical. We spent the day just us. It almost had me convinced reality wold wait for us to come back. That’s just too much to expect, but its a wonderful dream. It rings again, and I whine louder. Maybe if I focus really hard on the person at the other end of the phone hanging up I wont have to move.
Sylvia gently pushes me away, and pushes a finger to my lips when I try to whine. “If you don’t answer the phone, now, I’ll get dressed.”
While trying to get up too fast, I fall off the bed and groan as my metal forehead bangs into the floor. There’s not a dent. It’s still embarrassing. Quickly scrambling to my feet, I manage to answer the phone on the third ring. “Hello!”
Back on the bed Sylvia stretches out, spreading her legs and arching her back. I want to scream at her for almost making me moan right into the phone. It would be great if Grandma Lida were calling just to hear that. It would be worse if it were Grandma Susan, now that I think about it.
“Hello, Aurora. You left your phone with me, but I knew where I could find you.”
I clench the phone. My hand turns to metal, and I have to fight every instinct I have to keep from making a fist. Her voice doesn’t sound right. She sounds more aroused and self-satisfied than she should. Maybe that’s just the guilt for leaving her behind to make sure my family was okay, but I know they got to her. She shouldn’t sound like she did when she was curling up next to me in bed. She should sound desperate and pitiful.
She sighs, a serene sigh. I can envision the smile she has on her face. Her lip curls on the left side of her lips, and her eyes hood just enough to look heavy and hinting. She’s probably leaning back, too.
My attempts to respond come out as choked half-words and mutters. Nothing is the right thing to say. Mom’s number isn’t listed, but even day to day if Rebeca needed a number it would be hers. Why call me and not for help? Nothing good comes to mind. Panic does.
“You usually react faster. That’s why we made you team leader. You can tell people what to do. You don’t hesitate. Something about me talking like this feel reminiscent of situations where you just listened instead of spoke? I wouldn’t be hurt. I remember those times fondly. You have a fun body.” My thighs clench tighter. Her voice might not make me feel weak and hazy, but it does make me feel turned on. “Answer me Aurora. Now.”
“No . . .”
I almost groan. Defiance is apparently not my strong-suit when faced when my ex girlfriend and ex mind controller. The heat between my thighs makes me feel guilty, but I’m going to blame some of that on Sylvia.
Rebeca giggles. It’s not the dark sinister laugh of an evil mind controller, or the low obedient laugh of a brainwashed slave. It’s the kind of giggle you’d hear in the middle of a phone call that got a little naughty or spread around some particularly potent dirt. It makes her sound younger. “Fair enough. Say ‘hi’ to Sylvia for me?”
“You leave Sylvia alone!” I growl, and feel the plastic shell of the phone begin to crack in my grip. “Obviously you know she’s here, where I am . . . Even in your worst moments you weren’t evil, you were just . . . a little wrong inside. The doctor and her people . . .”
“—Have precious little to do with my current outlook. Calm down.” My heart is going a hundred miles a minute. I don’t know if I feel more worried or scared or angry, or . . . “We have your mother. She’s a sexy thing, sexier than I ever thought before I got a closer look. I thought you might want to know that. The doctor thinks you’ll do something silly like call in the National Guard or the police. I’m also calling to tell you to ask Sylvia about Screamer . . .”
I look to Sylvia. She’s sitting up, leaning forward on the edge of the bed. She mouths “who?” but I don’t answer. I know Sylvia isn’t a slouch, but if she’s already involved in this, that makes everything so much worse.
“I’ll ask her. I’m not dumb. They have connections. Probably government connections, right? Maybe they don’t even know they’re a connection.” I have to go back. I keep remembering that room Proximiti made. Now that my eyes are silver that trick shouldn’t work. I hope. “Fight it, Rebeca. They took you. They took our friends. They took—”
“They took criminals from jail for a purpose much better than rehabilitation. The whole world needs to be rehabilitated, re-socialized. And you know it.” She sounds so cool and sure of herself. Whatever they did to her, she’s not the same woman anymore. “I used to need a dose myself. But not anymore. Come on out. Take back mommy. Or join us. And remember . .. it wasn’t like they snatched us from our beds. Vision did that for them.”
Tunnel . . . I haven’t forgotten that. I wish I could believe they’d gotten to her. I wish I could believe she was their victim as much as Rebeca was now.
Nothing tastes worse than betrayal. “We’ll take her back. And I’ll save you t—” With a sharp click the line goes dead. She hung up on me. She probably wasn’t even listening for a response. Fuck. This is all kinds of fucked up. I set down the handset. “Fuck.”
“Who was that . . .?” Sylvia wraps her arms tightly around me. Her body is warm, and I can feel just enough of her power in the embrace. She’s cheating again. “Talk to me, please?”
“That was Rebeca. Rebeca, as in the partner in crime fighting and in the bedroom, that had me wrapped around her finger.” I slouch back into Sylvia’s arms to savor her warmth. Goddess, she’s so warm. Its nice having a lover taller than I am. I feel her wrapped around me, holding me up, supporting me, it’s soothing when so much isn’t. “The place I escaped from? They’ve got her.”
Sylvia squeezes me tighter, her hold managing to feel both protective and passionate. “She mentioned me. What did she say about me? I don’t think I’ve run in any of her circles.”
There’s so much I could say. I almost don’t want to tell her. “She said to mention ‘Screamer’? Does that ring a bell?”
Sylvia forces a cough from my throat as she squeezes me so tight my chest and arms turn metal. “I think the people you were sold to . . . I’ve met them before. Let’s compare notes.”
Being right as a musician is fun. Being right as an artist is exciting. Being right as a super heroine? Terrible. Everything Aurora describes, and everything I describe, matches up perfectly. Doctor Lys is my doctor, my woman-with-the-soft-red-colored-heels.
“And they have our mother . . . It’s hard to believe anyone could capture Sarah, but if what you’re saying is right . . .” Once more curled together in bed, I have to fight to resist holding Aurora tight enough to make her harden up even more if she could. “Shit. We’re going to need everyone we can get, but . . . anyone that helps us is a liability. We can’t tell the police. I’ve seen what happens when normals try to get involved in super-tangles. Dead, or scarred for life, or worse. Not to mention the public outcry . . . You’d think with how public mom has been about her life . . .”
“I figure that made her a target.” Aurora kisses the center of my chest, and then nuzzles between my breasts to kiss the flesh hidden by their inside curves. The heat of her lips makes my thighs clench, and my eyes fuzz. “She’s a known deprogrammer. She’s stopped a lot of people like The Lady since, and been a big influence in mind-control legislation. She’s a symbol.”
Sarah and Valerie both being missing makes me feel so uneasy. Aurora’s lips around my nipple make it harder to feel worried, but they do quicken my pulse. Goddess, she makes me so wet without even trying. The familiar graze of her teeth is just a tease, but I can feel my lower lips flush.
“You’re probably right. So what do we do? The two of us don’t have a perfect track record. Zandra won’t help us with non-witches. Prism, Kelly, she might . . .” I wince at the sudden rush of memories when I think her name. It hurts my mind to think of her for a moment until I force the Singularity part of my mind to leave the remnants of memory alone. “She might help us. Who else?”
Aurora’s hands rub along my hips. Such a little brat. She’d do this all day if I didn’t stop her. As much as I want her to fuck me the sun-bright smile in her eyes stops me from even considering it.
She mewls after inhaling with her nose pressed against my flesh. “Mourning Frost. I know, she’s an ex-villain, but she’s why I knew to come to Midas. I might have tried something stupid like gathering up supers to infiltrate that compound, but she told me Quilly was back. Mourning Frost told me mourning my mother helped her reform. I believe her.
“That’s good. Nnn . . . So that makes four of us, tops. How good do you think four people can do? Do you think four people can save the world and rescue Sarah LaSilvas and Valerie Raine?” I wrap my legs around hers, and arch my body up against her. Somehow she resists the temptation to do more, and just keeps kissing between my breasts. I could never have the patience she does. “Do you think any four people could do it?”
“Not just any four people. We’re the LaSilvas Sisters. Mourning Frost is a redeemed villain – the best kind. Prism is an experienced heroine whose powers rely on light, something we have copious amounts of.” Aurora pauses her kissing for a moment to make a long thoughtful hum. “Yeah. I think we can do it. We’ll talk Prism into it tonight over some ‘za.”
Her lips stop teasing me. Finally. She makes me burn hotter than I think I can take. My sister. It’s hard not to feel older-sister pride at how confident and invincible she sounds. There are as many good aspects to us being sisters as bad.
Silver hair spills over my breasts as she uses my chest for a pillow. Her closed eyes and curled lips make words unnecessary. She’s content.
I slide my fingers though her hair as delicately as through still-warm candle wax. The muscle between her shoulders and the small of her back clenches, and I let my warmth lace through her scalp. She loosens, mewling just louder than her breathing. Every sound she makes, every move she makes . . . I don’t know how it can all be so fascinating to me.
Love does crazy things to perception.
My Love opens her eyes and speaks with her honeyed voice. “Mmm . . . As long as that sounds good to you. We should head out tomorrow, meet up with Mourning Frost somewhere, hit them hard and fast. Can’t give them time to prepare.”
“Even melting you have the heart of a heroine. If we make it through this I’m writing a song about the smile, the composure . . . everything you have right now. My amber crusader.” She shudders as my nail traces along the curve of her ear, and mewls as my lips press tenderly to the smooth flesh of her cheek. “That sounds like a perfect plan to me. We’re outnumbered, but we’re not outmatched. I’ve stopped them before, you’ve stopped them before, and we won’t even be alone.”
“I feel like I could do anything when we’re together.” Aurora opens her eyes, and looks up to mine. There’s a yearning in her eyes that hurts. It’s the look she gave me every time we promised our relationship was temporary. After the time apart, it makes me imagine the yearning an astronomer must have gazing out at the stars as dawn approaches.
Transitory bliss can be a terrible gift.
It breaks my heart to see her lip tremble. We’d been removed from time until Rebeca called. Now time has come flooding back in, and there’s no escape. There’s no avoiding the truth. What we have right now ends tonight.
I want to fuck her. I want to pin her down and ravish her everywhere, every way, until our bodies are raw. I would – if her look weren’t one of physical need. She looks like she wants to go walking in a rose garden, holding hands. She looks like the sapphire rings should mean what we both wish they could.
Wishing on a star . . . and I’m supposed to be a nebula. I wonder how a star’s wish works. Do they wish on falling people?
Aurora kisses me, soft, lips sealed, and doesn’t stop. Silver sizzles through her lips teasing my current, but she doesn’t move. It doesn’t intensify, but it doesn’t fade. Like a moment of borrowed time, everything just stays still and draws us together without a movement.
Then it ends. Her lips break from mine, and a hot tear falls on my cheek. “Promise me your music makes you happy. Promise me it fulfills you. Promise me you love me.”
“I promise, Aurora . . .” I brush away the wetness from under her eye with my thumb and force my own eyes to stay dry. Its so hard. Her eyes are holding back oceans. “I love you. Let’s make the time between now and tonight . . .Kelly is enjoying her hotel room, her solitude, we . . . I can hold you until its dark, and just sing for you . . . sing about how much I love you, so you’ll never have to ask that again.”
She hides her face between my breasts and sobs. The sound makes it hard to breathe. I hold her tight, resting my lips against her hair. Giving her this is torture, but I can’t deny her. If she’d asked in the car, really asked, like this, I would have given her more than she took. My little sister, my lover, my best friend . . .
I close my eyes, and I sing. I sing how much I love her. I sing how much it breaks me to hurt her. I sing how right this feels to hold her.
I sing until she cries herself to sleep. Even asleep she doesn’t look peaceful. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her look less than angelic in sleep. I squeeze her, praying it wont wake her, and cry silently as I can.