Jeanne G'Fellers - No Sister of Mine, Jeanne G'Fellers [best summer reads TXT] 📗

head with confusion. “What? Where? Ah, stars!” She stumbled to the facilities and reappeared a moment later, feeling a little fresher and much more alert. “How long was I asleep?” she asked in the midst of a jaw-popping yawn.

“Long enough. Get your boots and cloak on. I don’t like waiting.” Krell stood by the hatchway, tapping her foot. The younger Taelach wasn’t sure how to read her teacher’s moods so she acted dutifully and followed Krell out the door.

They exited the housing compound, striding silently out the base’s main gates and down the rocky incline to the shoreline, Krell offering cordial assistance at several particularly rough patches of stone. At the bottom, she led the way to her favored dune, drawing into a meditation position atop the boulder as she motioned for LaRenna to settle on the sand before her. “Watch.” Krell’s eyes closed for meditation.

The spectacle of morning so enthralled LaRenna that she failed to sense the gentle prodding that crept into her mind. It spread throughout her, radiating down her spine in a whispering rush of ecstasy. She shook spasmodically then pushed against the force to find its point of origin: Krell.

So you have practiced the basics of phasing. The shared thought shuddered another wave of joy through LaRenna. You know there are only two types of mind phase. It would have been cruel to surprise you with pain.

S-stop, please. A burst of passion accompanied the return. Krell gasped. No student should be capable of such energy! She inhaled, briefly paused in the high, then centered deeper into LaRenna’s mind, her hands resting across her apprentice’s shoulders.

Show me what you can do.

Leave me alone! LaRenna moaned audibly as the phase hold deepened. She pulled her knees to her chest, tucked her head between her thighs then arched back, trying to wrestle free of her mentor’s hold. What was happening to her? This was so much more intense than anything she had experienced with Malley. Let me go!

Push me out. Krell expanded even further, sending an almost overwhelming stimulus pulsing through LaRenna’s body. Make me go. She immediately swept another wave into her apprentice then drew closer, pressing LaRenna against her boot leather. LaRenna resisted, both of them quick to exhale as their minds collided. That’s not enough. Hurt me and I’ll go. Krell pushed beyond the point of a test, far stronger than the normal ability level of a Kimshee LaRenna’s age, and into the realm of an almost painful grip.

I can’t! LaRenna was petrified, scared of sharing such intense emotions with one she knew so little of, frightened to realize she actually enjoyed the sensuous mental touch.

Krell pressed closer to LaRenna’s instinctual core, pulling their physical beings into near oneness as she drew LaRenna into her lap. There is a fine line between pleasure and pain. Cross it and push me out. Krell sent another wave of emotion that made LaRenna’s entire body shudder uncontrollably, scaring as much as it thrilled. Sheer sexual energy shot back on the link, intensifying the experience even more. Control abandoned, Krell forced the emotion again, this time adding a painful flex to the end of an emotional exchange that far overrode the ethics of her position. LaRenna sobbed and wrapped her hands around her head, both longing to be touched by and detesting the presence that held her.

NO! You’re hurting me!

Push me out or I’ll do it again. I will not hesitate to hurt you. We have to know what you’re capable of.

A frustrated anger began to stir inside LaRenna. If Krell wouldn’t go willingly, why she’d . . . she’d . . . Too much! Get out! I don’t want you here!

You make this far too desirable. Make me go. Undaunted, pleasured to the point of shivering, Krell continued her hold, unprepared for what happened next. LaRenna drew up against her mentor’s physical embrace, bunched her shoulders and slammed an ear-ringing mental blast at her teacher that agonized them both. Krell cried out from the internal slap, pushed back defensively, and the phase broke. Neither of them spoke for several minutes while Krell continued to hold her close. LaRenna pulled her head back down and shook as the sensation faded away.

Krell raised her hand to stroke LaRenna’s uncombed hair then hesitated and pushed her into the sand. “It was imperative I know what level you phased at.”

“I didn’t know I was capable of that.” LaRenna’s whisper was almost inaudible.

“New apprentices seldom are.” Krell looked above LaRenna to stare out over the water. “If you don’t think you can handle the intensity of my training, you may request another teacher.”

LaRenna dared a venomous glance toward her mentor. “No, that won’t be necessary. You merely showed me how much I have to learn.” She flipped stray strands of hair from her tear-streaked face and stood, knocking the sand from the back of her cloak.

“Your focusing technique is unstable.” Krell returned her look with one of sheer hatred. This wasn’t right. She was a teacher of Kimshees and, though Kimshee teachers were required to know their apprentices intimately, there could be no love between them. Emotional barriers had to stay in place. Physical barriers were unbreakable. “We’ll work on it the next few days, if you choose to remain.”

“Few days!” LaRenna turned to observe the way Krell’s lucid face darkened. “But Krell, it takes passes to—”

“Address me by title from here on out, Third Kimshee Belsas,” interrupted Krell. “You have a natural gift for high-level phasing. We’ll polish a few edges while we can. That should be all you require for this post.” She handed LaRenna a piece of cording and motioned for her to gather back her hair. “Get it out of your face and keep it that way. You can’t work if you can’t see.” She wondered what Belsas’s reaction would be to the bond they had just formed. No matter how wrong it might be, it could not be undone. “You never phased before