Hybrid by Greg Ballan Page A

to protect someone that he loved and was afraid to lose.
    Erik was opening up to her completely. It was only then Shanda realized how deeply he cared for her and how much he had longed to tell her how he felt. She felt his conflict over telling her his feelings and his fear of being rejected by another potential romantic interest.
    Erik regained control and quickly pulled her hand away. “I'm sorry. Once it started, I couldn't stop it.” He stared at the floor. Shanda noticed drops of water on the floor. She quickly realized they were tears. She wondered if she had pushed too far, and in doing so, hurt him further.
    “As you can see, there's not too much happiness in there,” he whispered.
    She noticed that he was struggling to control his emotions. Shanda had pushed too far. The memories that he recalled had been buried; now each hurt was fresh and new in his mind. Erik sat down on the couch and hid his face in his hands. A grief-wracked sob escaped him.
    “God, Mark! I'm so sorry,” he cried out.
    Shanda went over to him and wrapped her arms around him as he grieved again for the tragic loss of his best friend in the Army Special Forces. “It's all right, Erik,” she whispered as she held him tighter. “You're not alone anymore.”
    “He was my best friend back then. We helped each other through basic, and then we went through Libya, Columbia, and Panama together, dozens of covert ops. One hundred jumps and he fucking buys it in a training accident.” Erik stood up, wiping the tears from his eyes as he paced back and forth.
    Shanda sensed Erik's effort to calm himself. When he turned back toward her, his face no longer grieved, but his eyes still had the haunted look of a man who's known too much pain. Shanda now understood why. There was very little happiness or love in Erik Knight's life. The only time he had ever loved someone, he was rejected.
    Erik looked puzzled for a second and then turned to her. “I can still feel you; I can sense your presence in here.” He pointed to his head.
    “I know,” she answered. “And I can feel you. We're telepaths; we can share feelings and experience things that most people can only imagine. But your gifts are greater; you can sense all of nature and the world around us, and your enhanced strength, it's mind boggling!” Only now, through her sharing of his mind, could she understand the unique abilities he kept in check.
    Erik turned to her. “I'm sorry. I wanted to say something; I just didn't know how. I was—”
    “None of that matters now; you know how I feel and I know how you feel. Let's work from there,” she said affectionately. She could sense that he was emotionally drained from the experience. Erik had relived a great deal of pain and he would have to re-bury the feelings back into the recesses of his mind.
    They spent the next two hours cuddled on his small couch in quiet conversation. Erik went into greater detail describing some of the memories that the two shared, entertaining her with stories of Army life. Shanda listened intently, asking question upon question, trying to learn more about him. Erik answered each question and more, revealing to her the lighter side of his nature.
    He paused as a giant yawn escaped from him. “Wow, I'm really beat.”
    “That's normal for what we've just experienced. I'm wiped out as well. What we both need now is sleep. You have a long day ahead of you and you need to recharge your batteries,” she added as she escorted him into his bedroom. Erik didn't argue. He was exhausted. He climbed onto his bed and stretched his limbs, then exhaled deeply.
    “Do you mind if I take the couch?” she asked. She waited for an answer, but Erik had already fallen into the beginnings of a deep sleep. “I'll take that as a ‘no'!” she said with a soft laugh. Shanda took a pillow from his bed, found a blanket, and settled in on the couch in his living room. She held on to his presence in her mind and slowly let herself drift