A woman with a talent for destruction is partnered with a Guardsman with a flair for bringing things to life.

  Winera showed her talent as a Scorcher in a spectacular first display of heat and destruction. The Citadel welcomed her with open arms.

  Years after joining the Citadel, she is finally a full-fledged Scorcher and ready for her first official mission with a member of the Sector Guard. She had no idea that she was getting more than just a partner when a bundle of feathery fluff claims her as his own, much to her new partner’s amusement.

  Hyl has been waiting for the matchmaker to find him a partner that he can do more than go into battle with. One look at Winera and he knows that this fiery woman could set his senses ablaze.

  Smudge is a Yaluthu who has been patiently waiting for his person. When he sees the woman of fire, he knows she is the one that he is destined to be with, and he flings himself into her arms.

  Let’s not talk about the ship. She has too much attitude.

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  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Scorched Heart

  Copyright © 2014 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-77111-891-0

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Devine Destinies

  An imprint of eXtasy Books

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  Scorched Heart

  Tales of the Citadel Twenty-Five

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Winera Eckerhart stood in line with the others who were here to interview for admission into the Citadel.

  Her heart sank when she noticed that a power sensor was in use. He was tall and well-formed, but his scaly skin glittered with all the softness of sapphire.

  One by one, the people ahead of her placed their hands in the grip of the power sensor. One by one, he shook his head and dismissed them.

  Winera swallowed hard and pulled at her collar. The neckline of her tunic made her feel hot, but everyone was wearing their best. A chance at a full Alliance education, a job and an opportunity to see the universe was in that sensor’s hands.

  Loshosh wasn’t so much a poor world, as unutterably dull. There were two ways off. You could wait until either you had acquired enough money to travel or you could be chosen for the Citadel. There were no other ways out.

  Winera stepped forward another position. One of the men ahead of her got the nod, and he was allowed to go to the left instead of the right. She felt flushed and crossed her fingers that she had a dormant talent inside. The power sensor would know and he would tell her whether she was acceptable or not.

  No one in Winera’s family ever got the nod but everyone still tried. It was the nature of the population of Loshosh; they were both optimistic and realistic at the same time.

  There were three people between her and the sensor. With each slide of skin against scale, her heart pounded until she was facing him and he extended his hands to her.

  “Please place your hands on mine, palms down.”

  Winera extended her hands to him, slowly lowering her palms to his. She heard a sizzle a moment before he shouted, “Containment!”

  A woman broke from the conversation she had been having with the organizer and was at Winera’s side in an instant.

  The hug was surprising, but the pull of the woman’s arms broke the contact with the sensor.

  Another robed Citadel member rushed to his side and placed their hands over his.

  “Calm down, miss. I am going to walk you to the edge of the grounds. You can send out a pulse from there.”

  “A what?” Winera was confused. Did I pass or fail and why is she holding me?

  “Oh dear. Well, we are going to take a walk and I am going to explain a few things to you. My designation is Container Nehad. You can call me Needy.” The woman chuckled but kept walking with her arms around Winera.

  “Well, Needy. I appreciate meeting new people, but why are you hugging me?”

  “You have a talent that just woke up under the stress of the determination. Based on the smell, you burned the sensor. Don’t worry. We keep a healer with us for just such occasions.”

  “So, I am a talent but I just assaulted the power sensor. Where does that leave me?”

  They swayed together as they made it to the edge of the property.

  “Well, you need training. Heat talents are always needed for many different applications. You will be a wealthy woman by the end of your career.”

  They exited through the door in the fence and Needy tugged her to one side, with her own back to the wall.

  “What precisely is it that you are doing, Needy?”

  “Well, my talent shields me from yours, but we need the stone wall at our backs to protect all the people at the selection event. With the amount of heat you put out during a handshake, you would not be good for their health.” Needy settled herself and slowly lowered her arms.

  Winera was nervous. “What do I do?”

  “Step away from me until the heat returns, and when it does, because it will, it will course out of you. Aim it at the mountains and away from any buildings in the distance. You might be more powerful than you think, so pick the safest spot you can.”

  Winera took a few steps and looked back at Needy. The woman’s birdlike features and feathered skin and beaked nose were surprisingly comforting. Her dark brown eyes were kind as she waved Winera off.

  At twenty paces from Needy, Winera felt the rising heat once again. She let it come.

  She shivered on the ground, kneeling on a scorched piece of earth. Needy was at her side in a moment, clucking in comfort and covering her with the Citadel robes that she had been wearing. “It’s all right, child. You will be fine. We have you now. You are joining the Citadel. What is your name by the way?”

  “Winera. Winera Eckerhart.” She huddled in the warmth of the robes.

  “How old are you, Winera?” The soft hand stroked her forehead and calmed her.

  “Twelve, Container Nehad. I just turned twelve.” She dozed against the feathered touch and didn’t look around as she was lifted and carried to the shuttle.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Eckerhart, your daughter Winera is one of the strongest Scorchers that I have ever seen.” Power Sensor Riskin was trying to break things gently to the couple.

  The couple were clinging to each other and looking around them with wide eyes.

  Mrs. Eckerhart spoke up, “Where is my daughter?”

  “I will be frank. Do you see that dark mark on the hillside below?”

  It was a three-mile-wide span of scorched earth and vegetation that had flashed from living to crisp in seconds.

  “Your daughter’s power manifested during the power sensing. She got nervous and this is what happened. Now that she has activated, there is no way that you will be able to train and contain her.”

  Her mother straightened her shoulders. “What do we need to do to make sure that she is safe?”

  “Sign this contract and authorize the Citadel to make all decisions regarding her training and employment.”

  Riskin handed them the data pad and the father grabbed for it while the mother slapped his hands.

  “Can we visit her?” the mother was determined.

  “No, but she can come on visits that will be charged against her future earnings.”

  “Can we call her?”

  “All communications will be charged against her future earnings.”

  “Fine. We can send her money when we are able to. I want to know that I will still be able to talk to my little girl.” The mother crossed her arms and looked at him through narrowed dark eyes.

  Riskin nodded and turned the contract, adding in a clause with quick taps of his claws. He turned it back toward the mother. “Open contact has been authorized. Sign here.”

  Mrs. Erilina Eckerhart signed her name with a flourish. Drewn Eckerhart signed after her.

  Winera Eckerhart was now a ward of the Citadel, and as soon as they woke her from her coma, she was going to get to work.

  Chapter Two

  Citadel Thoola Education Centre had been her home for ten years, but Winera was ready to strike out on proper Citadel assignments and forge her own path.

  The farewell party was quite the raucous event. Winera didn’t drink, so she had invited her pupils and they were having quite an entertaining time mixing with their teachers and headmistress.

  In a quiet corner, Winera sipped at her punch and watched the women around her laughing and having fun.

  Headmistress Wadara came over and sighed.

“First Syrella and now you. We are losing our best teachers.”

  Winera smiled, “You will just miss me because I can spot weld with my fingers.”

  “And your amazing touch with bread. I swear it rises the moment you touch it.”

  “That is because it does, Headmistress.”

  “Wadara now. You are an official Scorcher at long last, Winera.”

  “Well, I am glad it is official. I was beginning to worry about my account balance.”

  They both paused and laughed.

  It was an open secret that Winera’s earnings had well exceeded any of the students at Thoola. Scorchers were paid every time they touched down to bring the fire.

  She visited her family once a year and shared the non-classified portions of her job with them as well as showed off her growing skills.

  One of her youngest brothers had showed signs of a talent, and he was being sent to a Citadel school at her expense. He had a talent for applying pressure and speeding up mechanical movement. It was a focussed type of telekinesis that had the Citadel buzzing. Loshosh was suddenly under a lot of scrutiny, and the Eckerharts were at the centre of it.

  Her mother had told her that the Citadel had requested and volunteered to support any additional children that they might produce. Apparently, Winera was something special and her brother was extraordinary. They wanted to see what other beings the Eckerharts could gift the universe with.

  “It’s a nice party.” Winera grinned as the dancing began; all the students in their robes were trying to get the instructors to join in.

  “I am glad that we can leave you with such a positive impression. So, you are heading to Citadel Lowel?”

  “I am going to be based out of Lowel, but I don’t know how much time I will be spending there. The first official assignment is already on the books. I have to take care of a fifteen-mile radius to kill an insect vector.”

  “Natural phenomenon?”

  “No, escape from a biological research firm. They are environmentally specific, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. I just have to remove their environment.” She shrugged.

  Wadara shuddered. “I don’t know how you can do it. That much destruction is mindboggling to me.”

  “It isn’t destruction. I leave behind carbon; I cleanse the surface, clear away the diseased and make room for life. Scorchers have everything to do with life and rebirth. The burning is part of that cycle.” Winera drank her watered juice and toasted the headmistress.

  Water was as important to Scorchers as air was to aquatic species. Too much would render them ineffective, but just enough was essential. It was her version of wine, but only the headmistress and the one Scorcher student were aware of it. Getting drunk on water made her particular physiology rare and very annoying. The juice reduced the effect.

  “You really do have a grasp on your personal identity, don’t you?”

  She chuckled, “Someone has to, and at an all-girls school, self-awareness is the most action I am going to see.”

  Wadara spluttered as she tried to stop the spewing of her tea across the room.

  The room at large continued the party and Winera slipped away toward dawn, climbing into the shuttle with her kit bags and joining the guards assigned to her.

  “Good morning, gentlemen.”

  “Good morning, Scorcher.” They spoke in unison, but as they were a long-standing couple, it wasn’t nearly as creepy as it had been the first time. Bonded mates were always a little hard to be around for any single person with extra senses.

  “You can call me Winera, guys.”

  “We know.” They turned and smiled at her with their expressions matching and their colouring the only indicator that they were separate beings.

  Winera belted into her seat and nodded. “Get me to that exchange, boys. It is time for the handoff to my permanent handler.”

  “To Balen it is then. Hold on tight, this is going to be a snug launch.”

  Winera gripped the edges of her armrests and closed her eyes. Give her a flesh-eating pathogen any day over space travel. At least facing disease didn’t make her want to hurl.

  It was going to be a rough twelve hours.

  She was green and wobbling by the time they landed at the Balen Sector Guard Base.

  “Why didn’t we land at the Balen Citadel?”

  “Your new partner is an active member of the Guard. You will have to leave the shuttle to find out. We have other people to transport, Winera.”

  “Fine, fine. Just because you don’t need to sleep, doesn’t mean that other folks don’t.” Yawning, she unbuckled and got up, snagging her bags from storage before hopping out of the hatch.

  She heard it seal behind her, and she sprinted for the buildings while her ride turned around and launched again.

  Sighing, she headed for the office, and a figure came out to greet her. The man wore the very elegant bodysuit style that the Sector Guard was known for.

  “Scorcher Eckerhart?”

  “That’s me.”

  “I am to be your escort. My name is Hyl.” He extended his hand.

  “No fancy name?”

  He grinned; his green features and dark hair were pleasant to look at. The pattern on his suit imitated falling leaves on a dark brown background.

  “I don’t agree with fancy names for my kind of work. I am merely here to make sure that you survive your assignments. My focus is life and there is no need to disguise it.”

  Their hands connected in a greeting, and she saw a puff of vapour from the point of contact. “Sorry about that. I just came from an all-night party followed by a twelve-hour trip with two men who gossip only with themselves, silently. I am a little fatigued.”

  “We are scheduled to leave immediately, but we have a living shuttle set up. You can rest on the way to your first assignment.”

  She didn’t disabuse him of the notion that she already had experience under her belt, so to speak.

  “We have a parcel for you from Morganti, and there is someone inside who has been waiting to meet you.” Hyl smiled and offered her his arm.

  She slid her arm through his, and her robes rustled against their legs as he walked her into the dark confines of the hangar.

  “Who is waiting for me?”

  A shadow from under one of the worktables opened wide eyes and hopped over to her, rubbing against her leg and making the most extraordinary noise.

  She released her grip on Hyl and picked the creature up, cuddling it. It purred and cuddled against her, and she felt a small and curious touch on her thoughts.

  “It’s telepathic. What is it?”

  “Empathic. They are a species called the Yaluthu. They tend to pick people that they can create a long-term bond with. This one has been waiting for you. Whenever someone tries to pick it up, they get an image of fire and they put it down immediately.”

  “Aww. This little smudge wouldn’t harm anyone.”

  Hyl chuckled. “I hope not. He or she is coming with us.”

  “You don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

  “Not really.”

  “Aw, Smudge is all man, aren’t you, darling?” She purred and cuddled the creature in her arms. Affection poured through the link that was getting wider every moment.

  Smudge nuzzled her cheek, happy with his name.

  “What do I feed him?”

  “Well, I have heard that he will tell you, but in case he doesn’t, there are special supplies for him on the ship.” Hyl was amused and leaning against one of the worktables.

  He reached out to touch Smudge, and the creature turned away and grumped.

  Chuckling, Winera hefted the cuddly creature in her arms. “This is going to make it hard to do my job.”

  Hyl laughed. “He will remain on the ship when you are working. Morganti Base has even supplied a case just for his protection.”

  “They thought of everything.”

  “Oh, he has refused to go with any of the other talents who tried to lure him in. He dreamed of fire and he waited for you. It was love across the stars. Have you had a pet before?”

 

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