Buck sat in the driver’s seat of the truck and just stared straight ahead. Everyone told him that coming to LA would be a good second chance. Even he’d thought so. But he’d almost blown it to hell and back. Self-sabotage, he guessed. Maybe he really should see a counselor like everyone had been suggesting. He flinched when the passenger door opened. That was what happened when you suppressed your senses, you didn’t hear people approach.
Eddie actually turned to face the sentinel at that question, letting his arms fall from where he’d had them crossed in an overt nonverbal indicator to back off. He gave the other boy a thoughtful look and a bit of an empathic scan. The sentinel felt nothing but earnest.
But the problem was that he didn’t have decent shields. And the very first thing he’d felt as a developing guide was lust and, as the first emotion he’d picked up, he was doubly sensitive to it. In the year since that first impression, he’d been so bombarded by the rampant teenage, and adult, lust surrounding him that he’d long since stopped caring who lusted after whom, no matter gender, race, religion, age. But he didn’t have decent shields and the whole thing with Mr. Janković made him extremely uncomfortable.
“Congratulations, boys!” Gabriel Alonzo said as he pulled in Carlos and Evan for a fierce hug. “Look at you! Do you have any fat left?” Carlos laughed into his uncle’s shoulder. “It all disappeared Hell Week.” “And then some,” Evan added from where he was pressed against Gabriel’s other side. “Thanks for coming down to see us.”
They lay there, together, supported and loved by each other. Surrounded by family that loved and supported them both. Family that was fed, happy, and safe. They were safe here. Protected. Happy. Content. Safe. They felt/heard the surprise of those around them, but there was no alarm and so they ignored it in favor of floating in their perceptions of each other. They each let their sense of the other permeate their being.
Evan stopped and turned as his name was called. He saw Carlos notice the delay and start towards him instead of waiting by the cafeteria doors but focused his attention on the approach of Melissa, the captain of the girls varsity basketball team. He took a deep breath, tasting the air around her, when she reached him, knowing there was only a couple reasons she would come to him.
Evan hummed to himself and started to think back over all the weird things he’d smelled in the last few months. He’d just ignored it mostly, figuring it was just a random breeze that had carried the scent. There were a few times he’d been more concerned, but since he’d never been able to pick up a scent deliberately, he’d just ignored it. He started grinning. “Wow. Sweet!”
Eddie had a sentinel once, but the helicopter crash destroyed Eddie’s dreams in more than one way. He missed having a sentinel, though, and planned to start attending the meet-and-greet events held by the Los Angeles Sentinel and Guide Center as soon as his probationary period was over in hopes of a flashover bond.
Buck had a guide once, but a distracted driver had taken his bondmate and the life they’d been building. He never wanted another guide, and against the Center’s recommendations he had done everything he could to force himself dormant, hiding his status and never speaking of it.
But the spirit plane makes its blessed bonds as it pleases, at the time and place of its own choosing.
