Chapter Twenty-six
JADE GAZED THROUGH THE WINDOW IN her mother’s kitchen at the gently falling rain. It looked as if it was winding down and would soon blow over, leaving clear skies and a nice, sunny day.
They were finally back in the Dome, having arrived at Maggie’s house late in the evening the day before. They were here to get those tests Lark wanted run on her.
And not just on her now, it wanted tests on Alex too, and just for good measure, wanted them on Kendis and Ro.
It still wasn’t saying just why it wanted all those tests, it just said it would explain when it got the results.
It was going to take a couple of days to get all those back, so she and Ro were planning to go shopping after all the testing was finished.
Tally and Journey had returned with them. Journey was visiting her Human family and was planning to go visit her Elvwist/Cat family in the 3rd Elvwist enclave, a hundred miles to the east of Twelve. She would travel by hover-train, and Tally was going with her but had promised to be back by the time they were ready to return to the camp. They would be leaving out this morning after breakfast.
It seemed Tally and Journey had become much closer since Journey had come out to the camp and gotten wounded by the Dimmer. It appeared they may be getting more serious about each other.
Jade smiled briefly thinking about her friend being vow-mated. Cats did it a little differently from Humans, in that the males usually took more than one vow-mate. Journey would be Tally’s first vow-mate and he would probably take at least two more, forming a sort of “pride” to raise their kittens in. Of course, she was going to take mate-vows with Kendis one day. She knew that now. It was just a matter of when.
She sighed irritably. She was still irked that no one would even give her a hint as to just what they were being tested for, or what Lark wanted to discuss with them. She knew Maggie and Sparrow knew, and suspected Rachel did too, and maybe Morgan, but they all were keeping it to themselves.
She noticed the rain was letting up, the clouds beginning to break apart. A pair of mahogany arms came around her waist from behind, hugging her gently. Kendis nuzzled her ear. She had felt him coming, as usual.
“What’s for breakfast?” he murmured into her ear, his locs tickling her neck.
She shivered. Shards! He sounded sexy just asking about food!
remarked Tally snidely, as he strolled into the kitchen. he snickered.
Jade turned around in Kendis’ arms, leaning her head around him, and shot Tally a dirty look. He was always teasing her about her cooking skills or rather - her lack of them.
“I haven’t poisoned you yet!” she cranked at him.
he shot back. Then he studied her.
“Sorry, Tally,” she apologized, “I’m a little tense about these tests today. Didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
he said. Then: He padded over to Maggie who was standing in front of the counter spooning food onto a plate for him.
She grinned. She knew it was Tally’s favorite breakfast.
Jade smiled, trying to throw off her irritation.
“Mom has cooked cheese omelets, hashies, suaava” - a type of fish-cake long ago adopted from the Elvwist - “and toast,” she said to Kendis, “What’s your pleasure?”
She saw the look in his eye and hastily added: “For breakfast, Kendis!”
She heard what sounded like a muffled chuckle from Maggie.
Kendis smiled down at her, amused. “I’ll take some of everything, thank you,” and chuckled when she blushed.
He got a kick out of teasing her, sometimes. For some reason, even though she was pretty bold about most things, she got shy when it came to any type of innuendo having to do with sex. They still hadn’t consummated their relationship, though she seemed to enjoy his “lessons”. He was still - patiently - waiting.
They sat at the table making small talk. Jade really wanted to press Maggie again but knew she wasn’t going to get anywhere with that, so she went with the chit-chat, talking about her and Ro’s planned shopping trip, and her plans to go check on her and Tally’s little cottage.
She and Kendis had stayed in Maggie’s guest room the night before, but she wanted them to stay at her cottage for at least part of their visit to the Dome.
Tally finished his breakfast and left to meet Journey at the train station.
He sent on a private link as he was going out the door:
Jade knew he was right. She had felt the love from each of them. Besides, they’d never said she had to take the tests. They’d just asked her to, and she had agreed to take them. She knew she could back out, even now, but she wouldn’t do that. She always kept her word.
She and Kendis cleaned the kitchen after breakfast while Maggie went to check something in her office. Then they got in the hover-van and drove to the clinic where the tests were to be done.
Lark would be meeting them there. It had come back to the Dome with them, as had its group-mates Sparrow and Eagle. Kendis told her the group-mates had a scheduled mating. She knew the Elvwist sometimes scheduled their matings, especially the ones such as Lark and Sparrow who were very busy, and often far away from home.
Wren, their other group-mate, had come to the camp twice since they’d been there, each time for scheduled matings, and just to see its mates whom it loved and missed very much. Though she didn’t see it very often, Jade liked Wren. It was sort of, well, …motherly.
Owl had come too, said Kendis, because it needed to visit the luanna house at the enclave. Owl was still a single Elvwist and usually visited the luanna house twice a week but had not had a chance to do so since arriving at the camp.
Alex and Ro, who were staying with Ro’s Aunt and Uncle, were also meeting them at the clinic. Before they went back to the camp, they were going to visit Ro’s family in Nine. Her parents were anxious to meet their future son-in-law.
Jade knew sooner or later she was going to have to meet Kendis’ parents, but they hadn’t planned to visit them this trip.
They pulled up to the clinic, and as they got out of the van, Jade spotted Alex and Ro waiting on the walk in front of the clinic doors. She noted how good Ro looked. She was wearing a mid-thigh tunic with lavender and white diagonal stripes, and white slip-on sandals. She had decided to be a red-head today and was wearing it loose around her shoulders with a slight under-flip to the ends.
It was the first time Jade had seen her in anything other than pants, tees, work boots, and a pony-tail, in weeks. She was envious. She wished she looked half as good. She still hadn’t gained all her weight back, so all her clothes hung on her like shapeless wheat sacks.
One reason they were going shopping. She just had to get something that fit. Alex, as usual, was wearing black, but at least he’d ditched the work boots in favor of black soft-siders.
“Hi, guys,” she greeted them. “I am so ready to get this over and done!”
“Yeah, me, too,” said Ro, eying Jade’s too-big blue and black tunic with black leggings, “if for no reason other than we gots to git you ta a clothin’ shop, girl! Cute shoes, though,” she added, looking at Jade’s brilliant blue ballerina styled shoes with small black diamond shapes across the toes.
They trooped through the doors and into the waiting area where Lark, along with two Human Healers, awaited them.
Four hours later, after enduring every kind of test they’d ever heard of and a lot they’d never heard of, a couple of them being run twice - just to be sure, said the technician operating one of the machines they’d been put through - they were finally allowed to stagger back out to the waiting area, one by one.
Jade was the last one out, mainly because she’d had to endure more double testing than the others.
“Holy Mother Earth!” she growled, plopping down into a chair between Alex and Kendis. She had never been so poked, prodded, scrutinized, looked at, and in general, examined, inside and out, in all her life. She looked a
round at Kendis, Alex, and Ro. They looked just about as fuzzed out as she felt. Maggie, Lark, and the two Human Healers, were nowhere to be seen.
Kendis put his arm around her and drew her to him, heaving a big sigh.
“I never want to be tested again for anything! Ever. For the rest of my life,” she added, grimly. She got murmurs of agreement from everyone.
They heard a door opening, and turned to see Maggie and Lark coming out of a room to their right.
“Okay, children,” said Maggie, smiling cheerfully at them, “You’re done.”
“We will have all the results back within two days,” said Lark.
“I will meet you at Maggie’s home at that time, to discuss why we wanted these tests and what we have learned. Please Jadewyn” - it held up one of its hands at Jade as she started to ask it a question - “We will answer all of your questions then.”
It smiled at her. “I know you have quite a few of them and I know we have not been forthcoming with you up until now but I promise: you will get your answers.”
Jade regarded it steadily. Finally, she nodded. What choice did she have? She could see it wasn’t going to budge on its decision, so she would have to wait.
“Okay, who’s hungry?” she asked, as her stomach rumbled.
They left the clinic and headed for a little, nearby sidewalk café where they placed their orders by mind-speak.
The server, a small yellow and black Cat who said her name was Aster and she would be their server for the day, brought their food out on an evolved hover-cart. She was sporting a set of the new evolved arms, extending and retracting them flawlessly, and set their meals before them with obvious pride.
Great service and the food was very good; they determined they were definitely going to eat there again before they went back to camp. They authorized a nice tip for her.
Alex and Kendis didn't want to go shopping, so they decided to go check out a holo game room that Alex frequented a lot when he was in town. It had all the latest interactives, and if no one else was there, they figured they could just form teams with some of the holo populace and play against each other.
Jade and Ro went to the market district where there were lots of clothing shops and a number of shoe outlets, among other types of shops, not to mention the open air markets. And if they needed a snack, there were food venders all over the place.
They were coming out of their third clothing shop, arms laden with their purchases, when they were surprised to see Caine Montford coming toward them.
He waved at them smiling. They looked around for the other high-head or maybe Norm, but he seemed to be alone. They waited to see what he wanted. Jade was annoyed to see him here.
She’d had her fill of him back at the camp and really would have preferred to not have to look at him here - or ever again. But, she felt she needed to at least be polite, especially since she was planning to go back to Nuisance Apprehenders one day.
“Good afternoon, ladies! I see you’re taking a break from that dreary camp too. Getting a little shopping in, I see.” He stood there grinning at them.
“Hello, Mr. Montford,” said Jade, looking at him warily. She just wanted him to get from in front of them so they could continue their shopping spree.
Ro nodded at him, without smiling. They hadn’t seen him or the other pest company men except in glimpses around the camp as they went about asking questions, since that day at the mess tent, and had mostly ignored them. Now here he was in front of them holding up their quest for shoes.
“Well, I’m just out looking for a gift for my vow-mate. I saw you and thought I’d come over and speak, and Jade? is it? I wanted to offer my apologies for not believing you about the levitating. Heh, heh, I guess I need to start checking my facts before I put my foot in my mouth like that again.”
Jade just looked at him. Something about him was making her extremely uncomfortable and she wanted him to leave.
She said, “Yeah, well, apology accepted, Mr. Montford. Um, we have a lot of shopping to get done, so…”
“Of course. You ladies enjoy your day. I’m going to run into this little jewelry shop, see what they have in there,” and he went down the walk, turning into a door a few feet away.
Jade and Ro looked at each other, shrugged, and continued to the shoe shop where they’d been heading.
After they left the shoe shop, their arms were so laden, they decided they needed to go drop off their packages before continuing, and since they were closest to Jade’s cottage and she had planned to go there anyway, they headed in that direction. She was wishing she had Kendis’ ability to lift by the time they staggered up on her little porch and she got the door open.
They stumbled in and dropped their packages on the couch and floor and collapsed on the chairs in the kitchen.
“Whew!” Ro leaned back and stretched her legs out. “Girl, I was ‘bout ta drop! Gimme somethin’ cold to drink! Hey, ya got any iced coffee?”
Jade laughed and shook her head. “You and your coffee! No, but I do have some of the regular kind if you want to make it. Coffee pot’s in the cabinet over the sink. And if you want it cold, I’m sure there’s ice in the ‘fridge.”
She leaned back in her chair. “Gods, I should’ve asked Kendis to at least meet us and lug this stuff for us.” She shook her head again, “Too late for this round, but I’ll sure ask him when we go back.”
And they were going back. There were many more shoes to see.
“Jade,” said Ro as she got up to make the coffee - and had to wait until Jade reached up to get the coffee maker for her, as she was too short to reach it - “I got a new esa.”
Jade looked at her in surprise. “You do? And you didn’t get sick? Oh, you’re so lucky! What is it?”
Ro smiled as she got the coffee from the pantry and measured it out into the maker. She turned it on and sat down.
“Well, it’s not like I got a bunch at one time like you did. No, so far as I know, I jus’ got th’ one new one.” She stopped and thought for a moment. “Although my old ones seem to be gitting stronger. Watch.”
She stretched her hands out on the table and her fingernails abruptly changed colors - from red to purple, and so did her hair.
Jade gasped. “That’s fantastic, Ro! Wow, I sure wish I could do that. Sure would save a lot of time - and nail polish!” She grinned at her friend.
Ro grinned back, and her now purple hair rearranged itself into a cascade of soft curls. “I jus’ figured out how to do this one, I been practicin’,” she said proudly.
Jade was floored. Shards! If only she could do that! Ro had always been able to change the color of her hair, but it used to take a lot longer.
This was almost instantaneous, and changing her nail colors was new. Not to mention styling it like that!
“Man! All I can do is grow mine fast, and I get that from Kendis.” She had her hair more or less under control now, after finding out what was happening to it.
When she came out of her fugue, it had changed and Lark had said it was because she and Kendis had taken on some of each other’s attributes.
Her normally black hair was streaked with platinum, the color of Kendis’ hair - and there was also a blue streak going down the back that she was pretty sure hadn’t come from Kendis, which Lark had yet to explain to her - and it’s growth rate was tremendously accelerated. She’d had to cut it every night to keep it from getting ‘way too long.
It took Kendis having an accident with his hair for her to find out why hers grew so fast.
He was playing a game with Louis that they called “toss-and-burn”, where Kendis would toss something small into the air, usually a wood block or a stick, or even a rock, and Louis would try to pinpoint it and set it afire before it landed.
Kendis had gotten distracted when Jade flew over and came in for a landing near him. He had whipped around to watch her just as he tossed a stick, and his locs had gotten tangled in it just as Loui
s fired it up. He hadn’t been hurt but his hair had gotten well singed.
Jade had watched in amazement as he’d cut the singed part off with his pocket knife, and grew his locs back out to their regular length, stopping the growth when the length was where he wanted it. He hadn’t thought to tell her he could do that or that she might be able to do it.
She’d chased him around the practice field threatening to take him up and drop him on his huge head of hair. Her mother had collected enough hair from her to get several skeins of yarn spun. She said she was going to weave it into a wall hanging of black, platinum, and blue.
Ro smiled. “But wait - they’s more!” She reached over and touched Jade’s hand - and Jade’s nails turned blue. She touched the other hand to change the nail color to blue, there, too.
“That’ll only last a few days - ‘less I change ‘em back for you - but I’m gitting stronger with it. When I started, it’d only last a few minutes.” She laughed at the look on Jade’s face as she stared with disbelief at her new, perfect nail color.
“Ro! This is incredible!” She grinned happily at her friend. “Can you do the same thing with other peoples’ hair that you do with your own?”
“Still workin’ on it. Alex’s been lettin’ me practice on ‘im, so long as I do it where it don’ show. So far, it only lasts for less than a day, which is an improvement from when I started.” She snickered. “You’ll never guess how I found out I could make th’ changes on other people.” She waggled her eyebrows at Jade.
Jade burst out laughing. “Bet I can, and I’m betting it had something to do with Alex, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to hear the particulars!”
Ro laughed. “No, you prob’ly don’t. Okay, those are jist var’ations on my old esa. Here’s my new one.”
She went over to the sink. “Come over here, I’ll show you.”
Jade followed her, puzzled as to what her new esa had to do with the sink. She stood looking as Ro pulled a paper napkin out of the dispenser and dropped it in the sink. She stared at the napkin and it smoked briefly, then burst into flames. She quickly turned the facet on to put the fire out.
“Ro! You’re a firestarter!” cried Jade, excitedly. “Wow! That is amazing! When did you find out?”
Ro grinned. “Las’ night, when Alex ‘n I were sittin’ out on th’ patio at my Ant and Uncle’s. Alex leaned down ta git a napkin he dropped and I tried to beat ’im to it - after all, I am closer ta th’ ground than he is - and the thing caught fire! I felt th’ fire come out Jade, it felt wonderful!” She grinned again, “Alex put it out.”
She snickered. “He’s great at puttin’ out my fire, you know!”
Jade chuckled at her little friend but she was blushing. Ro loved to tease her like that. Come to think of it, Kendis enjoyed doing that to her too. “How did he put it out - and I’m talking about the napkin! Poured water on it?”
“Well, no. I think he did it with a combination of his in-sight and somethin’ new. He said he could see th’ atoms, then somethin’ else smaller, and he jus’ removed somethin’ and scattered it, and th’ fire went out. Don’t know what that is but whatever it is, he has it.”
Jade thought about it for a moment. She had a feeling they were getting stuff that no one had ever had before.
She shrugged, sooner or later, she’d get around to asking Sparrow or Lark about it. “Well, it’s a good thing he has that. It’ll keep you from burning stuff up accidentally until you learn to control it.” She smiled. “That’s probably why he has it - just so he can put out your fires!” She blushed, and ducked as Ro laughed and threw a mock punch at her.
They talked for a while, resting their feet while Ro slurped down two cups of coffee and they made plans to go out on real dates with their guys the next day. Then they left to finish their shopping spree.
It was three blocks back to the market district. Jade could feel Kendis. He and Alex had broken off gaming to go for a snack.
She linked with him, and told him she and Ro were going back to finish their shopping, and asked him if he and Alex would be available later to help them carry their loot back to her place.
He said he’d make sure they were. She smiled and sent him a mental kiss.
She caught a motion out the corner of an eye and saw Caine Montford rushing at them. She heard Kendis yelling at her, asking her what was wrong, and her head hurt terribly, then she saw a bright flash and smelled something burning, and her world went dark.
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