Ravens of Eternity

His heart thumped heavily with that thought.

“Hey!” Eva yelled. “Get your head outta the clouds!”

She came in with a strong left kick aimed at his ribs, which he was just able to block. But it still pushed him back, and knocked the wind out of him.

His arm stung from the force of impact.

He stepped back, shook off the pain in his arm, and lunged forward to attack. She may have had a finely-honed sense of battle and razor-sharp talons, but he had his own. Though his talons were hidden.

Pelli performed a similar one-two strike combo, which Eva parried easily. However, he threw a feint instead of the third strike and disrupted Eva’s defense for just a moment. He quickly took advantage of the opening and went in for the attack.

He drew his breath and focused his mind towards the moment. Time suddenly crawled around him as he leaned down and rushed forward into a tackle.

.....

In the blink of an eye, Pelli surged forward shoulder-first, and slammed into her stomach. At the same time, he grabbed at the back of her knee and pulled upward. He rushed forward for another half-moment, and focused all his energy in driving Eva into the ground.

He slammed her onto the mat, and knocked the wind right out of her lungs. Then he rolled right over her and hopped up to his feet.

Eva was stunned by Pelli’s attack. It left her out of breath and seeing stars.

She normally would have simply leaned over, kicked her legs back, and put all of her weight and energy on him. The move would have forced him to let go in order to not fall on his face.

But his speed was incredible! He moved faster than she could react. Barely faster than she could see. He had taken her down with absolute precision and lightning speed. She literally had no time to set up a defense.

The blurriness in her vision cleared moments later as her body recovered from the shock. She found Pelli standing over her, a grin etched on his face.

Look who got laid out on her back, it said.

Then, he offered her his hand.

She took it, and they both pulled her back up on her feet. Her feet were still rather unsteady, so they pulled each other harder to compensate. And they ended up a little closer than expected.

They thumped into each other, hands interlocked and sandwiched between them. Their faces were only inches apart from each other.

But neither of them backed away immediately. Instead, they found themselves looking right in each other’s eyes. Eva greedily glanced down at his lips, but flicked her gaze back into his eyes.

Both of their faces were already red from their workout, which barely hid their arousal for each other.

Warmth spread between them, at the points where their bodies touched. They both slowly drew in their breaths, as though they had forgotten how to exhale. Then they both realized that they lingered in the moment a bit too long, then took a half-step back from each other.

For breathing room.

“You move incredibly,” she said. “Here I thought I actually was gonna wipe the floor with you.”

She couldn’t help but jab at him a little. But he blushed further from her compliment anyway.

“Thanks,” he replied. “Took me a while to practice it.”

The glimmer in his eyes faded a little as he spoke. He put his hands on his hips and mocked a complaint.

“But don’t get all excited and whatnot,” he continued. “It’s not like I just leveled up and can fight you toe to toe all of a sudden. I’m still basically a noob, so take it easy on me, alright?”

A chuckle escaped her lips. She found his self deprecating humor utterly charming. Then she found that her heart was beating. Perhaps a little too rapidly.

“Don’t worry, Pelli,” she said. “I’m not gonna break anything of yours. Not yet anyway.”

She chuckled at her own joke, but he paled instead. He didn’t find that funny at all.

This girl’s sense of humor’s a bit too dark sometimes.

“How’d you do that, by the way?” she continued. “Move lightning fast all of a sudden, I mean.”

“Ah, well...” he began.

He and his crew had discovered they all had the ability a few weeks ago, almost completely by accident. They very quickly realized what kind of edge it gave them in all sorts of situations. So they set about practicing it, and learning what they could about it.

But it was something they promised they’d never share with anyone else. It was their secret technique.

“I can’t really talk about it,” he continued. “We figured it was something we could use to defend ourselves. Wouldn’t do much good if everyone knew about it, you know?”

Eva nodded. She wasn’t too bothered that he was reluctant to share. After all, if they had discovered the ability, then she could, too. She just had to figure it out herself.

Besides, he wasn’t the only one with secrets. She was basically a grey operator, and lived and worked within that sphere. There were things that she had done that she couldn’t ever talk about, ever. Prototyping the Prometheus core was only one of the dozen or so “nondisclosure” contracts she had participated in.

She could easily respect his secrecy.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “It’s a great move – totally stopped me dead in my tracks. And you’re right not to share it. I wouldn’t either. Anyway, let’s keep going... Unless you’re already done.”

He scoffed at her. Done? Hah!

Pelli took a few hops backwards, and got back into a combat stance. He raised his fists defensively, and beckoned her with a taunt.

“Bring it,” he said.

With a chuckle, she hopped back into their workout.

Time sped by as they traded blows and worked their bodies into a sweat. They lost all track of the outside world, and concentrated their focus only on each other. And although they were sparring, it felt more like they were dancing.

They spun around each other with mutual admiration and desire.

And of course, they slowly ramped up their workout and pressed into each other even further. Whenever she increased the intensity, he did his best to rise to the challenge.

After a couple of hours, they brought themselves to the point of exhaustion, and ended up collapsing on the mat next to each other. Both of them were out of breath and panting heavily.

A smile of absolute bliss was plastered on Eva’s face as she stared up into the ceiling. This was something she needed a great deal. She spent so much time working herself to death that she had almost forgotten what a thumping chest felt like.

And of course, now that she had gotten a little taste, she found that she still wanted more. She turned her head so she could see Pelli. Her eyes wandered up and down his slender frame, and desire suddenly swam around her heart.

It constricted her chest, just a little.

“This has been fun and all,” she said. “But how ’bout we finish up somewhere a little more private?”

He rolled on his side and glanced her up and down. His eyes scoured her body, but eventually rested his gaze on her emerald green eyes.

He felt a heat radiate from her, and he found himself needing to lay himself by her fire.

“Oh? And what’ll we do once we get there?” he asked.

“We’ll slow down time the old-fashioned way,” she cood.