Page 24 of Red Demon (Oria #1)

Swimming

W e’d been rained out the first time Mira and I tried to go swimming, but today was perfect.

The late spring sun melted into a blue-violet sky with just a few puffy clouds as we emerged from the trail by the old dam.

A small waterfall tumbled over moss-covered rocks in the forest, roaring alongside the chorus of unseen birds.

The spray of the water cooled our foreheads, and the shimmering surface of the pool beckoned.

“Breathtaking,” Mira marveled at the beauty of the spot, the ancient granite ruins cupping the water in labyrinthine designs. “I feel privileged that you’ve shared this with me.”

A grin spread across my face. “I know, right? Ash has been coming here since he was a kid. He takes it for granted.” I walked along the edge of the pool, searching for my favorite rock.

Mira perched herself beside me, biting her lip. “Where is he?”

I sighed in the misty air. “I don’t know. He said he needed to wrap some things up around the house.” I removed my shirt, feeling the spray on my skin.

She ran her hands down her face. “Well, I hope you make him feel a little guilty when you get home. It’s hard to be Jesse and the Ashes with just the two of us.”

“Still a valid meeting of the Dead Moms Club.”

With a wink, she turned her back to me and slipped out of her pink sundress to a matching swimsuit.

My cheeks warmed a little as she turned around in the two-piece bathing suit, showing off quite a bit more skin than what any of the Asri wear in the water.

I slipped off my pants and shoes and tossed them under a tree.

“Well, if he was here he’d probably just be picking your brain about the code sequencer, rather than doing normal stuff, like this—” I picked her up and threw us both in the deep water.

Her eyes lit up as her shriek morphed into a laugh. She swam just out of arm’s reach before her counterattack, wrestling me under the water and climbing onto my shoulders. I found my footing, holding her in place.

We splashed and floated in the green-edged water, the spray curling over the carved masonry of a lost world. Mira was an easy person to laugh with. Asher had missed such a beautiful day.

An hour later, we dried off. I’d promised her it wasn’t necessary to pack lunch, that nature would provide.

I caught a fish with my hands, dressed it alongside some small greens and mushrooms, and found a broad leaf to wrap it for roasting.

Mira picked some berries when I showed her the best spot.

As I bent to bring a fire to life to cook it all on the banks, she looked at me like I was a miracle worker, not a man who, at one point, lived on the edge of survival in these woods.

“How did you learn all that?” she said, with the smoking flames reflected in her eyes.

I tossed more tinder onto the budding flame. “I grew up on the South tip of the Noé Bend. No major cities, only the tech we couldn’t live without. I learned to do a lot of things.”

She bit her lip with unasked questions, the curiosity back in full force. “How old were you when you left?”

Okay. Here we go. I answered some of what she really wanted to know, focusing on the facts rather than how it left gashes in my heart. Fourteen. Siblings and Mom died. I didn’t.

The fire crackled as she listened with sad eyes, the murmur of her apologies blending with the whispering waterfall behind us. We split the wine-colored berries as the fish cooked.

“How about you, my Thebos-raised scholar?”

She raised her eyebrow.

“What do you miss that you want back? You said you came here to figure stuff out.”

A wistful smile touched Mira’s lips. “I miss my friends, my professors,” she said after a moment. “Varuna was a small, withdrawn academy, so I became very close with the people there.”

I frowned. She made it sound like being able to grow close to anyone in the long term was not a common thing.

“But most of all, I missed the amazing lab I worked in. It felt like a place where anything was possible. My professors were brilliant, some of the best minds in the empire. I got to be witness to groundbreaking discoveries in Mod Technology, altering code to cure diseases and enhance the body. I got to watch people change their lives with the treatments we developed there. That’s the sort of thing that’s worth my whole life. ”

“Can you do that somewhere else?”

“I hope so,” she trailed off, her gaze flickering toward the distant trees. “I’m enjoying my time here. Even so, this can’t be home for long. My father would never allow it. I’m a race horse he bets on, and I’ve lost my first race.”

“Honestly, that sounds awful,” I said, feeling brave.

“Yeah, my father loves me in his way, but not like how I know Galen sees you. Or how you and Asher—” She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to.

“He’s not family,” I said, using the Asri word.

She leaned back against the rock, watching the fire. “No.”

I unwrapped the fish, prodding the middle with a stick.

“I started a lab in my father’s greenhouse,” she said. “There’s not been much research on code lines out of Noé, something to explain why only the Chaeten have succumbed here.”

I could sense just as much caring in her delivery of that as curiosity.

“My plan is to write to my old tutors and see if I can collect some samples for them, test some of their research questions. Only fair, as I got the machine from them.” She smiled.

“Mira, could you do anything with a sample from a Chaeten who survived the virus?” My heart pounded. “I was right there during the attack in Crofton. I was exposed.”

Her head popped up. She shuffled imperceptibly back.

I swallowed. “Major Mahakal knows it all. He said I’m immune. That’s what I was talking to him about before, and why he wants me.”

She drew her legs under her with furrowed brows. “What do you mean by immune?”

I told her everything Mahakal didn’t forbid me to repeat, everything except the Red Demon. But I told her my brothers died by a rebel sword, not the virus.

“My Academy studied a few samples from the South Bend Outbreak, from the dead, but we couldn’t find much.” She licked her lips. “And I’ve never met anyone who survived exposure. You could help a lot of people. Jesse, this could be ground-breaking.”

“How much blood do you need?”

“Just a drop,” she said. “Assuming I can get a clean sequence on the first try.”

Excitement bubbled in her voice as she continued on about all the people I could help, but I couldn’t help but notice a flicker of sadness as well.

My heart responded to that complexity; I felt she understood the things I found too painful to share.

I studied the rays of sunshine filtering through the trees between us, and her smiling face.

This was a better day, one I could be happy with, the things I once dreamed about alone in these forests.

Mira surprised me by reaching out and pulling me into a hug. The warmth of her body pressed into mine, still a little wet where her swimsuit met my chest, the scent of wildflowers and sunshine filling my senses. As she pulled away, she leaned in and planted a soft kiss on my cheek.

Quick preface here: although by that point in my life I was sure I found women just as satisfying to look at as men, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy following through, especially since—so far—that never ended well.

Once at fifteen, after a satisfying spar in the backyard of Ruan’s parent’s house, I misread the moment, and tried to kiss Ruan.

In response, she kneed me right in the balls, apologized, then invited me to a very awkward dinner with her parents.

I’d only kissed one other girl in the years since, and the experience was only a marginal improvement. Men liked me back. So far, no women.

In the swell of the moment, I forgot those fears, and I turned my head to meet Mira’s mouth. I kissed her.

A spark jumped between us—she kissed back. Her lips were soft at first, a tentative exploration that made me shiver in the heat. But then her kiss deepened, her lips parting as her hand reached up to cup my cheek. Her touch sent a jolt through me.

Together we tasted of berries and woodsmoke, a sweetness mingling with the earthy tang of the forest. The sound of the waterfall faded away, replaced by the triumphant drumming of my heart.

I tightened my arms around her, pulling her closer.

I felt the press of her body against mine, with only the thin layer of her swimsuit between us.

A twig snapped behind us. Footsteps.

She pulled away first, gasping for breath. Mira’s cheeks were flushed, eyes wide—maybe a flicker of fear, or perhaps a reflection of the racing pulse in both our chests.

Then there, standing a few paces back with an unreadable expression on his face, was Asher. His brow furrowed, his gaze darting between me and Mira.

The birds sang on, oblivious to my awkwardness. Mira cleared her throat, a forced smile tugging at her lips.

I wasn’t certain what, if anything, Ash had seen. And I wasn’t entirely sure why I felt like I’d betrayed him. Okay, that was a lie. I did. The warm wind on my skin felt like ice on my back, and I went to put on my shirt rather than face him.

“Looks like Jesse’s keeping dirty secrets,” Ash said with a tight smile. “Taam would have a lot to say if he heard you were eating a fish out here.”

I breathed out a sigh as I shrugged on my pants.

“I’m so glad you can join us, Asher,” Mira said with a smile. “Truly,” she added with a little extra force. His face was unreadable as he studied her. Ash hesitated, then took a seat against a rock. He fished out some cold bottles of cider from his bag and met my gaze as he handed it to me.

“It’s okay, Brother,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not telling Taam about your fish.”

He’d have nothing to tell, anyway. I was no longer hungry, and apparently, neither was Mira.