Page 73 of Exordium

The voice comforted me, and I fell back into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When I woke up the following day, I felt groggy. I had trouble getting myself out of bed but finally made it to the shower. Turning the cold water on, I let it do its job. Thank God it was Saturday, and I didn’t need to be anywhere. What in the hell is wrong with me? The water had perked me up a little, but my vision was still blurry.

I threw on some sweats, having to sit on my bed to pull my pants up. I didn’t even put on a bra, pulling a t-shirt over myhead, I sat back on the bed to put on my shoes. I strapped my ankle sheath on and slipped my knife in, I was groggy but not out of it enough to forget that. Heading into the kitchen to make coffee, I absently scratched my Nexus mark as I pulled two cups from the cabinet.

Chloe entered a few minutes later and didn’t say a word until she took her first sip of the hot brew.

“I didn’t think I was going to be able to get out of bed until I smelled coffee. Bless you, Bestie, for making it. I feel like I downed a fifth of tequila.”

I opened the refrigerator to get the creamer and started scratching at my mark again. Was I getting a rash? I discreetly pulled the neck of my shirt out to see what was going on. Was that another mark? A fucking lightning bolt was in one of the spots that was previously blank. I dropped the creamer, and it spilt all over the floor.

My body felt like it was on fire, getting hotter each second as I went into a full-blown panic. Suddenly, my fingers began to tingle, and fire shot out from them, headed directly for Chloe. We both screamed, and Chloe dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being burned alive.

Pantar suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stepped in front of the stream of fire shooting from my hands. The fire hit his side, but he didn’t flinch as the flames engulfed him. I screamed again, pleading with everything in me for the fire to stop. Much to my surprise the fire immediately disappeared.

I ran to Pantar, scared to death that I had hurt him, but when I got to him and ran my hands down his side, there were no burns or marks of any kind on him.

“Calm, Nexus, your power cannot hurt me.”

I fell to my knees in relief, hugging Pantar tightly.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I’ll give you one guess, my sweet Nexus.”A different voice said in my head.

I felt my eyes roll back in my head, and for the first time in my life, I passed out.

Chapter 30

Reverie

Iwoke and found myself lying on my bed with Pantar sitting beside me on alert. Seeing my eyes open he nuzzled my face encouraging me to sit up.

“What happened?” Immediately after asking the question the memories started to flood back in. I quickly got to my knees and ran my hands down his side making sure there weren’t burn marks I missed the first time.

“Oren went through with a plan that I was not aware of. He meant well but I don’t appreciate the trauma he put my Nexus through, and he will be punished.”He growled, as if to punctuate his statement.

“He’s pissed with me as I’m sure you are. Do you think you could come to my apartment so we could discuss this? Your feral roommate won’t let me come into your dorm and threatened to feed me my dick if I attempted it one more time.”Storm’s voice had taken on a pleading tone.

“What the hell have you DONE?!!”I screamed at him.

“I did what was necessary, sweet Nexus. Now come to me.”Storm urged in a seductive voice.

I felt him close the communication between us to give me privacy. I felt lost, there was only one person that could comfort me when I was feeling this way. Maybe the one advantage of this bond would be to strengthen me enough to communicate with Nathan. Closing my eyes, I concentrated“Nathan…NATHAN!”I screamed,“Please answer me.”I begged and then started sobbing when all I got for my effort was complete silence.

I bowed my head and prayed that my sweet Psycho was well and would come back to me soon. I didn’t know how much longer I could stand the pain from his absence. Digging deep to find the strength I would need to deal with this situation, I turned to Pantar,“I think you have some explaining to do.”

He bowed his head,“Yes Nexus, I do.”

I sat back on my bed and waited. I didn’t like the feeling of betrayal that I felt toward Pantar now. My bond with him felt damaged and I hated it. I could feel his regret and wanted to give him a chance to explain before I lost my shit.

“I have been a companion to Storm for several years now. He is not the villain he portrays to the world but a product of his environment.”Pantar shook his massive head letting out a growl.“I felt called to him and couldn’t understand why, sinceI knew he was not Nexus. Deciding to stay by his side until I could figure it out, I followed him to Emberhold.”

I couldn’t stand how dejected he looked so I laid my hand on his neck and gave him a small smile in encouragement.“After coming to the academy, my instincts told me this is where I needed to be. Several years later you showed up and I knew that I was destined to be your Fellat and help guide your Faction.”

“Did you know what he had planned?”I felt hurt at the thought.

Pantar shook his head,“I knew he had something planned and warned him against doing anything that would cause you pain. This may not comfort you, but he means you no harm. In fact, his intentions are to protect you. His life has not been an easy one so he did not go about it as he should have. I will not tell you what he has been through because that is his story to tell. Just know that my loyalty is to you first and then to those that you choose to join with.”

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