Atoning (Darkness Rising 3.1)

A low growl. I wriggled some more, teasing him. "Wait...wait..." I murmured while tickling kisses down his neck and onto his shoulder, my hands on his back, running over his bare skin, raising goose bumps. I moved against him, and he groaned softly and--

Another whistle.

"Goddamn it!" he said, his head up, eyes narrowing. "That's Maya, and she knows--"

"Exactly," I said, easing out from under him. "She knows why she shouldn't come here, which is exactly why she's whistling. So she doesn't stumble on us half naked." I glanced down at him. "Or mostly naked."

He grumbled under his breath. I kept looking at him, enjoying the sight before pulling my gaze away with a deep sigh of regret.

"She wouldn't interrupt if she didn't have to," I said. "You know that. Stay here. I'll go see what's up."

Three

We hadn't come to Badger Lake alone. I don't think any Cabal would have wanted us badly enough to pour millions of dollars into a community for me, Derek, Simon and Tori. We're more dangerous than valuable, which was why the St. Cloud Cabal had been so determined to either lock us up or put us down.

It was the Nast Cabal that had us now. Specifically Sean Nast, the CEO's twenty-nine-year-old grandson. While even Derek will grudgingly admit that Sean is as nice a guy as you could imagine for a Cabal sorcerer, Sean isn't a philanthropist. We were here because he hoped to train us and prove that life in a Cabal wouldn't be nearly as terrible as we feared. In other words, he was courting future employees. But while he was interested in the four of us, the ones everyone really wanted were the kids from Salmon Creek, because they aren't just genetically modified supernaturals--they're reintroduced extinct supernatural types.

When I headed through the woods in search of Maya, I found her easily enough, as I usually can when she's with Daniel. They seem to always be talking, with an enthusiasm and an energy that makes me smile. They've been best friends since they were five, yet they never run out of new things to discuss, and that's reassuring. It's what I have with Derek, and it's what I always want to have.

"Table tennis," Maya was saying to him as I approached down a side path.

"Uh-huh," Daniel replied.

"I'm serious. I want a rec center with a table tennis table. We'll tell them it'll help our reflexes. Pinball machines, too. And a pool table. If Sean wants to build super secret agents, we need to develop fast reflexes and superior strategy skills. But we're kids. Easily distracted. Easily bored. So we need table tennis, pinball, pool..."

"And a rec center to hold it all?"

"They can add it to the gym. There's room. I checked."

Daniel chuckled. "Of course you did. I suppose I could argue that pool would help me focus."

"Perfect. Tell them that."

When Maya sets her mind to a thing, she does it--by force of will, if necessary. Put her with Daniel, and there isn't an adult in Badger Lake who won't listen to them and not just in that we're pretending to listen to humor you way. It's an impressive talent to someone who grew up too shy to raise her hand in class. I'm not nearly as insecure as I used to be--and Maya isn't nearly as confident as she seems to be--but it's one more reason we've become friends.

I could see them now, holding hands, still chattering away. Maya's German shepherd Kenjii walked on her other side. Maya will turn seventeen in a week. She's Native American--mostly, at least--a few inches taller than me with long black hair and dark eyes. Daniel is about five-ten, with a boxer's build, blond hair and blue eyes. When we first arrived, Tori had checked him out, but she'd declared that, as cute

as he was, he wasn't to her tastes. In other words, she'd seen how he looked at Maya and had known she didn't stand a chance.

"Hey," Maya said, turning as she heard my footsteps. "I thought if we talked loud enough, Derek would hear and come barreling over to give us crap for disturbing you two. But I'm guessing he's not dressed yet."

"He just finished Changing back," I said as I gave Kenjii a pat.

"Uh-huh. In the last hour or so, right?"

A year ago, I'd have turned crimson and started stammering. Now I just laughed. Maybe I was growing up. Maybe it's Maya, rubbing off on me. Or maybe it's just learning that being able to talk openly about sex--with both my boyfriend and with a girl friend--makes it easier to navigate what can be really tricky ground. And yes, maybe that's part of the "growing up" thing, too.

"Apologies for the interruption," Daniel said. "We wouldn't do it if we didn't have to."

"Yeah, I know," Derek said, appearing beside me. "So, what's up?"

"If we're going to North Bay, we need to leave"--Daniel checked his watch--"right about now."

"What?" I said.

"Moreno just got word that Sean had to move his visit up to Monday. While we don't necessarily have to be here for that..."

"We have a list of things we want to discuss with him," I said.