Alec looked up when they emerged. “Seara will be meeting us in my office in about an hour. That gives us a little time to discuss our options.”

Kayla and Carl followed Alec toward one of the priority elevators. They filed inside, and Alec pressed the button.

“Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t Edwin going to be pissed off when he finds out you’re not sending me back to that little room?”

“I’m sure he will,” Alec replied, clasping his hands behind his back and watching the numbers increase on the screen above them. “However, he considered you a flight risk at the time. You’re accompanying me willingly, and he gave me permission to train you. That’s what I intend to do.”

She had to give him credit. “Sneaky. I like the way you think.”

The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out into a large lobby area. Tables and seating were scattered around a cascading waterfall in the center of the room. A small restaurant area was off to the side. Several people were milling around the area.

“This is the entrance to the administrative offices,” Alec explained, leading them through a pair of double doors.

As they walked down the hall, a woman called out, “Alec! There you are.”

The woman appeared to be a few years older than Kayla. She was tall with long, straight blond hair falling nearly to her waist and bright-blue eyes. Her features were delicate and well-defined. She wore an elaborate and sophisticated pantsuit with several pieces of strange jewelry. Sauntering over to Alec, she kissed his cheek affectionately.

“I’ve missed you,” she cooed, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

Kayla raised her brows. She’d never seen anyone flutter their eyelashes before. She blinked rapidly to see if she could pull it off. A quick glance at Carl smothering a laugh let her know she wasn’t successful.

Alec paused and greeted the woman politely. “Celeste, I don’t believe you had the opportunity to meet Kayla Rath’Varein last night. The gentleman with her is Trader Carl Grayson.” He turned to Kayla. “I’d like to introduce you to Mistress Celeste Staghorn. Celeste’s father is Master Marcus Staghorn, one of our High Council members.”

Celeste ignored Carl and focused her attention on Kayla instead. “So this is the woman who has the entire circle gossiping. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Celeste gave Alec a teasing look and added, “Maybe next time Alec takes you to dinner, he won’t keep you all to himself. Speaking of which, Alec, you still owe me dinner since you canceled on me last week.”

Alec inclined his head. “Of course, Celeste. I’d be happy to escort you to dinner later this week. Just let me know which day is best for you. I’ll make the arrangements.”

Celeste put her hand on his arm and said suggestively, “I’ll check my schedule. But I’m thinking I’d like to have dinner at my place instead. There’s so much we should catch up on.”

Kayla frowned at the woman’s blatant invitation. Alec stepped away from Celeste. “If you insist. However, you’ll need to excuse us. We have some pressing matters which need to be handled.”

“I wouldn’t dream of keeping you.” Celeste smiled at him. She gave a brief nod to Carl before turning to Kayla and holding out her hand. “It’s been wonderful meeting you.”

Kayla hesitated before accepting her offered hand. The moment her fingers touched Celeste, she felt the familiar energy tingle. Celeste’s blue eyes widened, and she pulled her hand away quickly. The blond woman stared at Kayla for a moment before turning to Alec in alarm. “So this is why you’re so drawn to her. Does the High Council know how much energy she can channel?”

“Yes.” He stepped in front of Kayla protectively and reached out to touch Celeste’s arm. Kayla felt a shift in the energy current around Celeste as Alec spoke his next words. “I trust you’ll keep your observations to yourself.”

Celeste nodded, looking slightly dazed. Alec removed his hand and the energy web dissipated. “It was a pleasure seeing you again, Celeste.”

Kayla gave Alec a questioning look when the young woman walked away. He shook his head, indicating he would explain later, and motioned for them to continue following him.

Alec led them down the hall to a large office. The room was spacious with a wide desk in the corner of the room. Video screens were mounted on two adjacent walls. Another wall had an enormous fish tank while the last had a built-in cabinet with numerous artifacts and other decorations.

“Wow,” Kayla murmured and walked around the office.

“Nice setup,” Carl said appreciatively.

Alec leaned against his desk, watching Kayla. When she stopped at the fish tank, they darted away from her. She tapped on the edge of the glass. “They’re real?”

“Yes,” he replied, looking pleased at her interest. “We have large tanks on some of the lower levels. I’ll take you to see them at some point, if you’d like.”

“I think I could spend years here and not see everything.”

“That’s entirely possible,” he admitted. “Before Seara gets here, we need to discuss the best way to proceed with removing the bracelets.”

Kayla walked over to the desk and sat on the edge of it. Her dress hiked up slightly, and she dangled her legs off the side. Leaning back, she said, “Okay, go for it.”

Alec glanced down at her legs and offered, “I have chairs, if you prefer.”

“I get a better view of the room this way,” she said with a laugh. Besides, she enjoyed the advantage it gave her. It threw people off balance and served as a great distraction. The dress she wore seemed to enhance the effects. Maybe the Omnis did know what they were doing with their strange clothing. “So what’s the best way to handle the bracelet thing?”

“As you know, the bracelets act as an artificial bond and combine energy,” Alec explained, tearing his gaze away from her legs. “They can be used at will by some High Council members. Our scientists continuously monitor the energy pool. If there’s a sudden depletion in resources, such as by having the bracelets removed, they’ll know immediately.”

“So we have to try to remove them all at once?”

“That’s one option,” he admitted. “But I’m not sure it’s the best solution. I don’t know how removing a bracelet will affect either of us. It’s possible we’ll experience a significant drain on our energy that could leave both of us vulnerable. Even if we take away the pooled energy, the councilors are still powerful in their own right.”

“And they’ll come after us,” she guessed.

Alec nodded. “Yes, there’s no doubt. There may be a way to give false data readings to the monitoring system to cover our activities, but we’ll have to plan a time when the High Council will be distracted and not using the pooled resources. Otherwise, they’ll notice the depletion for themselves.”

“What are you thinking?” Carl rubbed the back of his neck.

“The final bid for the trader position is happening tomorrow,” Alec explained. “I think we should try to do this before then. That doesn’t give us much time, but they’ll all be focused on the trader meeting. Otherwise, if we wait, my father will put a bracelet on Kayla and we’ll lose our chance.”

It sounded good to Kayla, but her scope of experience was limited to taking advantage of traders. She looked at Carl, hoping to get his opinion. He paced the room, rubbing his chin in thought. “Xantham and Cruncher can work on developing a program that can send these false readings, but they’ll need your access codes to get into the system.”

Alec nodded. “That’s fine.”

Carl flipped open his commlink and called Cruncher. He explained what they were looking for, and Alec supplied them with his codes.

When they finished with their call, Alec turned to Kayla. “I’ll need to teach you some basics in how to defend yourself against a mental attack. There’s a good chance that once they realize what’s going on, they’ll try to stop us. I can shield you in part, but I’m sure some of them are already aware of your potential. If they focus on you, you’ll need to learn how to circumvent their attack.”

She sat up straight. “Is that what you did to me earlier?”

“Yes. I turned your energy back toward you with a shield. That’s one technique. There are several others you can learn. You’re able to channel a great deal of energy, but it’s chaotic and not well-developed because you haven’t been trained.”

“The woman in the hall mentioned that,” Kayla recalled. “How did she know?”

“Celeste has a talent for detecting energy potential. She can sense if someone is channeling or directing energy too. When she touched you, she picked up on that. I helped her ‘forget’ so she won’t think to tell anyone else before we’re ready.”

“So that’s what you did,” Kayla mused. “I felt a shift in the energy, but I wasn’t sure if that’s what it was.”

“You felt me influencing her?” Alec frowned.

She nodded. “Yeah. You touched her and there was this weird shift around her when you spoke.”

Alec shook his head, looking troubled. “You shouldn’t have been able to detect that.”

Kayla shrugged. It was an advantage as far as she was concerned. If she could detect when someone was using energy around her, she could avoid it. “Well, at least this way I’ll know when you’re up to no good.”

The door beeped. Alec pressed a button and Seara entered the room. When she saw Kayla, she rushed over and hugged her.

“I’m so sorry,” Seara gushed. “I didn’t know how to warn you about Edwin and the bracelets. I’m glad you’re safe.”

Kayla hugged her awkwardly. She was growing more accustomed to Seara’s frequent displays of affection, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel completely comfortable with it. “Uh, don’t worry about it. Thanks for bailing my friends out.”

“Yes, thank you again, Seara,” Carl added.

Seara turned to look at Carl and offered him a warm smile. “I’m glad it worked out.”

“Thanks for coming,” Alec greeted her. “We wanted to take a closer look at your bracelet. Kayla discovered some information in Cessel’s notes indicating there’s a way to safely remove the bracelets.”

Seara’s eyes widened in shock and she whispered, “Truly?”

Kayla nodded at her hopeful expression. “Yeah. I can show you, but it involves directing a great amount of energy in two specific locations. It’ll fry the bracelet and render it useless. It won’t affect you at all.”

“How much energy is required to deactivate it?” Seara asked Alec.

“More than most of us are able to channel alone,” he admitted. “But I suspect Kayla can channel that kind of energy easily. The difficulty is that it requires pinpoint accuracy.”

Seara’s shoulders slumped at the news. “At least we know there’s a way this can eventually be accomplished.”

Kayla shook her head. “Alec is going to do that funky-connection-energy-transfer thing with me. He’ll use my energy to zap those suckers. We don’t have to wait.”

Seara gaped at her and whirled around to glare at Alec. “Absolutely not! You are not going to link with my daughter when she hasn’t learned anything about our ways. I can’t believe you’re entertaining the idea.”

Alec cleared his throat and tugged at his collar. “We’ve already attempted some preliminary trials, Seara. I explained to Kayla what was involved and showed her how the connection would work.”

“Yeah, it was fine,” Kayla agreed and gave Alec a sheepish look. “It was a little intense when our energy mixed together, but Alec said we don’t have to do that again to break the bracelets.”

Seara’s eyes widened in horror at Kayla’s words. She turned to Alec and slapped him across the face. His eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn’t move. “How could you? It’s one thing to be forced to wear the bracelet, but it doesn’t require us to share that level of connection with anyone. You’ve created a permanent link with her!”

Carl’s head jerked up to focus on Alec. “Is that what you meant earlier?”

Kayla’s jaw dropped. “Whoa, did I miss something? What’s this about a permanent link?”

Seara looked shocked and asked in a whisper, “Alec, you didn’t tell her?”

“Carl, none of this is your concern. You’re here as a courtesy, nothing more,” Alec replied icily. He turned back to Seara. “It didn’t get that far, Seara. The connection was shared, but it was not completed.”

“You stopped it? How?”

“With great difficulty,” Alec admitted and darted a glance at Kayla.

Kayla slid off the desk. If there was one thing worse than people trying to control her, it was when they were talking about her like she wasn’t in the room. She put her hands on her hips, determined to get some answers. “Uh, excuse me, but I’d like to know what the hell you two are talking about.”

Seara took a deep, steadying breath and turned to Kayla. “We may, in the heat of the moment, toss energy back and forth with someone. But sharing energy at the same time can create a permanent link with the other person. This is usually only done by two committed mates and both parties fully understand what’s involved.”

Kayla shook her head. This sounded like one of those birds-and-the-bees talks. “Um, still not understanding this permanent link stuff.”

Seara looked weary and took a nearby seat. “We essentially claim one another. It’s a way of committing to that one other person. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, you’ll always feel a permanent connection with the other person.”

“Wait, you claim one another?” Kayla asked in alarm. She felt the blood drain from her face. “But that’s what I wanted when… Oh shit.”

Her gaze flew to Alec, and he nodded. “I know. That’s why it was difficult to stop it.”

“I’m surprised you had that sort of willpower,” Seara said thoughtfully. “It’s an almost overwhelming force to complete the claim.”

“No kidding,” Kayla muttered and rubbed her arms. The idea of irrevocably bonding to another person gave her chills. She’d enjoyed the moment they shared. Okay, that was a lie. It was one of the most intense and profound experiences of her life. But she was much safer flying solo. She took a quick peek at Carl and wondered what it would have been like to share the moment with him instead.

“Your father and I shared that bond,” Seara recalled sadly. “When I lost him, I knew it immediately. I felt the connection disappear. I didn’t think I’d survive it.”

Alec was quiet for a moment and then said, “Seara, I told you before that I would do everything possible to protect Kayla. I admit, not forging that connection was incredibly difficult, but I assure you I will not intentionally put her in that position again unless she is fully cognizant of what it means.”

Carl glared at Alec. “From where I’m standing, it would be better for you to keep your distance from her.”

Alec looked amused. “I’m sure you’d like that. But that won’t ever happen.”

Kayla looked back and forth between the two men. This wasn’t good. If they were going to succeed, they all needed to work together.

She glanced at Seara and saw the older woman had come to the same conclusion. Before Kayla could say anything, Seara neatly changed the subject, preventing a more heated argument. “You wanted to examine my bracelet?”

“Yes, if you don’t mind.” Alec motioned toward the seating area. “With Kayla’s help I can take a closer look at it. I don’t want to deactivate it, though, until we know we can mask it properly.”

“Of course.”

Kayla and Seara sat on the couch. Alec pulled up a chair to sit across from them and held out his hand for Kayla. Carl frowned when she slipped her hand into his.

“Kayla, you’ll need to connect to me the same way you did earlier,” Alec instructed.

She nodded. Closing her eyes, Kayla gathered her threads of energy and sent them toward Alec. The moment she did, the same familiar intimacy from before returned. This time she was more prepared for it. She couldn’t help but take a moment to revel in the sensation. The pull toward him was becoming stronger, and she felt the urge to share energy with him again.

“I feel it too,” he told her. “It’s possible that even though we didn’t complete the connection earlier, it created a small bond between us. People don’t normally initiate a bond without completing it, so I can’t be sure.”

Kayla opened her eyes and bit her lip. It seemed like they were both in new territory. Seara looked between them. “What’s wrong, Kayla?”

“Nothing,” Kayla replied. “It’s fine. Let’s do this.”

Alec reached for Seara’s wrist to examine her bracelet, and Kayla leaned forward to get a better look. It was a small, braided-gold band interlaid with strange stones. The colors in the stones appeared to shift and change when it moved. It reminded Kayla of the colors she saw when the energy threads blended together.

“Go ahead and send a large, steady stream toward me, Kayla,” Alec instructed.

She did as he asked, and she could feel his urge to match her energy flow with his. He closed his eyes for a moment, and Kayla could sense his struggle to control his desire before turning back to the bracelet. Once he’d gotten it under control, Alec began gently probing the bracelet with her energy in the areas she had identified. She could see the small fluctuations of the energy surrounding the bracelet as he studied it.

After a long time, he lowered Seara’s hand. Kayla stopped the flow of energy and felt Alec’s longing from the withdrawal. He closed his eyes, and she felt him trying to steady himself.

He took a deep breath and said, “Go ahead and break the connection.”

She pulled back and broke the connection. He squeezed her hand before releasing it.

Seara watched them for a minute. “Will it work?”

Alec nodded. “Yes, but it’ll take a great deal of energy to deactivate them. We’ll have to wait for the masking program before we try anything though. I don’t want to risk alerting the High Council too soon.”

When Seara nodded in agreement, Kayla offered, “I can help Cruncher and Xantham write the masking program. It shouldn’t be too difficult if they already have your access codes.”

Carl pulled Kayla up and wrapped his arm around her waist. “I’ll take Kayla back to my family’s quarters. She can work with them there. That is, unless you’re planning on raiding us again.”

Alec stood, not bothering to hide his irritation at the question. “It would be better if she stayed here in the Inner Sanctum. As long as she’s here and the High Council believes she’s willing to wear the bracelet, they won’t pursue her.”

Kayla scowled. Alec had a lot to learn if he thought she was going to roll over for the OmniLab bigwigs. “The High Council can kiss my ass. Seara’s quarters are under surveillance. At least if I’m with Carl, you don’t have bugs there. Besides, I need to be able to work with Xantham, Cruncher, and V to get this program going.”

“I’m afraid that won’t work, Kayla. The High Council will insist you remain in the Inner Sanctum until the bracelet is equipped. As long as you’re here, I can claim you’re cooperating fully and we’re waiting for the metabolic booster to leave your system. If you leave, they may employ more drastic measures.”

Seara had been quiet up until now. “Everyone could stay in our family’s quarters. We may have surveillance, but you could use the safe room while you’re working on the program.”

Alec’s eyes narrowed. “You have a safe room?”

Seara smiled. “Yes. My husband had a great many secrets, Alec. It was originally designed to be a hidden storage room, but Andrei had some concerns and turned it into a safe room.”

Carl’s arms tightened around her waist. “What sort of concerns?”

Seara hesitated. “There were some political power pulls going on for a few years before he died. He suspected there was a plot to have him removed from the High Council.”

Carl frowned. “From everything I’ve seen, Andrei Rath’Varein was a great leader. Why did they want to remove him?”

The memory was obviously painful for Seara. She twisted her hands in her lap, her voice quiet. “Some people weren’t happy with the pace we were obtaining new resources. There were arguments that we should be more aggressive and even target other communities. My husband believed we could locate new resources using our talents cooperatively rather than coercing other communities into submission.”

Kayla bit her lip, not wanting to upset Seara, but she was curious about getting more insight into her background.  “Is that why he took me into the ruins?”

Seara nodded and offered a sad smile. “When we realized you had the talent for locating objects, the High Council urged your father to take you into the ruins. He had some reservations because of your age, but the council put a lot of pressure on him. He finally decided he would take you himself with several handpicked people he trusted.”

Seara stood and took Kayla’s hand in hers. “I don’t know what happened or what went wrong. Everyone who went on the expedition was killed. We were monitoring it from here, and everything appeared stable. We sent out an additional team immediately, but it was too late. I’m just thankful you survived.”

She turned to Alec. “Is there any objection to Kayla returning with me and having her friends join us? It would give me a chance to spend more time with her.”

“I suppose there wouldn’t be any objections,” Alec said in resignation.

Seara inclined her head. “Carl, why don’t you get your friends and have them join us? I’ll let an attendant know they have access to the priority elevators. We should head back now so they can continue working on this project.”