Kalindra (GateKeepers) by Sondrae Bennett

he could move.
    Which was crazy to begin with. He didn’t want to fight Kali, damn it. But he didn’t want to give up the shard, either. Indecision tore at him.
    “What is it?” she asked, her gaze still rapt on the necklace she held.
    “A shard. A piece of the gate.”
    That got her attention. “Impossible.”
    Bitterness infused his laughter. His present situation proved just how possible.
    “I’m not lying.”
    “Cameron, the gate isn’t a physical object. It’s more like an energy field. It can’t have a piece broken off.”
    He shook his head before she’d even finished talking. He only knew what he’d been told. “I don’t know how it came to be. But that’s what it is.”
    She still seemed skeptical.
    “Look, you just said it feels the same as the gate.”
    Her gaze returned to the shard. Maybe he should have lied, but he wasn’t sure it mattered. She obviously knew the shard as soon as she’d sensed it. Lying would have only created a wedge between them.
    After what seemed like an hour but was probably only minutes, Kali handed him the necklace.
    Without breaking eye contact, he took it and tied it around his neck. “Thank you.” Not just for handing him the necklace, but for not forcing him to fight her. For understanding that it was his to care for.
    She nodded and turned away. “Get dressed. We have to train.” Then she was gone.
    Cameron turned and shut off the water. He had a feeling today’s lesson would be a hard one. Oddly, he looked forward to it.
    * * * *
    Kali flipped the page of the cookbook. Dinner would be ready in another forty minutes, and now she needed to figure out a side dish. She’d found a duck wandering around outside earlier. What went well with duck?
    She glanced up to find Cameron leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.
    “What are you up to?” he asked her.
    She held up the cookbook. Explanation enough.
    “Should have known.” He chuckled.
    Something about his tone had her pausing. Even his posture was charged with some strange energy.
    “Bored?” she guessed.
    “With you? Never.”
    Warmth filled her at the speed of his answer. Good thing, because she wasn’t anywhere near done with him. All she had to do was look at him and she’d get this silly, happy feeling. She shook her head at the thought. She hadn’t meant to ask if he was bored with her, but his response still brightened her day.
    “I didn’t mean with me. I meant in general.”
    “Not really.”
    But he didn’t move from the doorway. Just stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. Okay…
    “What are you up to, then?”
    “Looking at you.” His gaze never wavered from her.
    “Uh huh. You sure you’re not bored?” Watching her reading didn’t seem all that interesting. The man had to be ready to crawl the walls if that was how he passed his time.
    “Why would I be bored?”
    “Well, all we do is fight, eat, sleep, and fuck.”
    They’d fallen into a daily routine. Sex first thing, then they hit the training room and fought each other with various weapons, then more sex, usually in the shower, then dinner, sex or more training, bed.
    “And?”
    “Well, uh…hmm.”
    “Is there something more to life?”
    Kali laughed at his response. “Okay. Not bored, then.”
    “Are you?” he asked, crossing toward her. She loved the way the man moved with such lazy sensuality.
    “Am I what?”
    “Bored, honey.”
    “Oh.” She shook herself out of her daze. “Not at all.”
    Before Cameron had come along, her life had been eat, sleep, and fight. He added more than just another possible thing to do around here. He added companionship. Someone to talk to. After a couple hundred years alone, she couldn’t imagine getting bored with his company.
    “So what’s for dinner?”
    “Ready for the eating portion of your day, huh?” she asked with a laugh. Men. So predictable. If they weren’t looking for sex, they were looking for food.
    “Well, I suppose we could move onto