Discovering Aether Read online

  "Try some kicks," Nolan calls and I obey the request. Raising my right leg, I snap my foot at the bag. A loud crack resounds through the cavernous gym.

  "Damn," Nolan whispers.

  "Yes, Adi!" Kevin cheers.

  I keep punching and kicking, switching between the two until I can barely see through the sweat dripping down my face.

  "Okay, Adi," Nolan says, holding a bottle of water. "Let's take a break." Collapsing on the mat, I take the bottle he hands me and guzzle it down before falling to my back on the mat. Exhausted, I close my eyes and try to catch my breath. God, this is harder than I thought. Maybe I do need to exercise a little more but I’m not going to admit it out loud to them.

  Still on my back, staring up at the ceiling, Kevin reaches his hand out to help me up. “So are you up to trying out the element training room? We have to test your control on your element. Or are you done for the day?” he asks with a smirk.

  All the exhaustion I was feeling dissipates in the blink of an eye. No way am I skipping out on the opportunity to see what I can do.

  “I’m ready.” I bounce up from the mat, not even needing to grab his hand and dart to the door I saw earlier. “This is it, right?” I ask, bouncing on my toes. He nods his head and the grin he seems to always be carrying lately highlights his dimples. Nolan comes over and opens the door for me.

  Inside is a grey metal hallway. Nolan waves his hand for me to precede him. At the end is a room walled in the same metal as the door, as well as the ceiling and floor.

  “What material is this?” I ask. Placing my hand on the wall, the coolness of it greets me. Looking back I see that Kevin and Nolan both followed me in here.

  “It’s tungsten and steel,” Kevin starts. “We use tungsten because it has a really high melting point and has a good resistance against water vapor. With steel added it only makes it tougher. It is still possible for our powers to have an effect on it, but it’s a great idea to have when we are practicing control because it’s stronger than the regular walls.” He says nonchalantly, like making a training room to withstand our powers is nothing difficult. When will this start to seem normal?

  Nolan heads over to the single cabinet in the room, made of the same metal as the room. He pulls out a bucket full of dirt and pours it out on the floor. Kevin places his hand on my lower back and gives me a slight push towards Nolan. My feet move forward, but I glance at him over my shoulder. He gives me an encouraging smile.

  “I figured it might help you get an idea of how to start if I showed you some of the techniques I use. I need you to take a calming breath when you begin and close your eyes until you can feel your element pulsing in your body.” Nolan says calmly, like this is all so normal.

  Feel my element, seriously? “How can I possibly do that?” He places his hands on my shoulders, his stunning brown eyes filled with warmth.

  “Don’t think Adaline. You just need to relax and let go. Close your eyes. Go ahead.” I take a deep breath, scrunch my face at him and then close my eyes. “Take a couple more calming breaths and then just feel. Don’t get frustrated if it takes a while. You need to know the power you hold,” he whispers.

  I take another deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to to ignore the presence of the guys. I need to clear my head. I imagine a blank canvas in my head and allow all my thoughts to be erased.

  Another deep breath. I try to get a sense of my body’s stimuli. My heartbeat pounds a steady rhythm in my ears, I can feel my blood flowing through my body as well.

  Another deep calming breath. Now that I have a sense of my body, I need to find the buzzing that all of them seem to be able to hear. As I continue to clear my head and take stock of my entire being, I hear a slight vibrating sound. Almost like an electric hum and it’s definitely coming from me. As I continue listening for it, I can sense another buzzing, almost like it’s on a different frequency than mine. I open up my eyes and study Nolan. I can actually hear his buzzing. Glancing back at Kevin, I close my eyes but I can’t seem to hear anything from him.

  “I can hear my buzzing and yours, Nolan, but I can’t seem to find Kevin’s.” Shoot, I really thought I had gotten the hang of things.

  “You won’t able to find Kevin’s by listening for it, you can’t hear the Water element flowing through his body. The human body has large amounts of water already in there. It’s the only element you can’t hear,” Nolan says with a knowing smirk.

  Oh right, I think Naomi may have mentioned that. “Amazingly though, your power is only able to be heard. There’s no other way to tell unless, of course, you use it in front of someone. But you can’t really see a tear in the universe. You can only see the terrain you’re in and the terrain you plan to portal through the tear to,” Nolan continues.

  When we finish here, I think I’m going to need them to write down a list of what to look for to figure out what element a person has. I could try it out on Naomi’s boys; I have yet to ask them their elements.

  “Now that you’ve found it, you know that it’s a part of you. It flows through you and will always be there when you need to find your strength.” Nolan sits in front of the pile of dirt. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath then places is hand out so it’s hovering over the dirt. As soon as he does, a sprout appears, growing out of the dirt. It grows bigger, revealing it’s a tree. And still, it grows bigger until the top is an inch from the ceiling. An oak tree.

  The branches are full of deep green leaves, filling every available space. The trunk is so wide, I bet my arms couldn’t touch if I were to wrap my arms around it. It’s incredible. He actually is able to do something that would take years for nature to do, and he didn’t even need a seed.

  “It’s amazing. So to manipulate your element, all you need is dirt?” I question, curious to find out how his element works.

  “Well, I just need a little dirt for growth. I can cause an earthquake if I stand where I want it to start. I can use the clouds to create a storm, just not manipulate the storm like Air and Water can, all I need is a little Earth. But you can you use anything around you. The whole universe is yours. Now that you know you have the ability, I want you to try to relax, think of a place you would like to go, anywhere really. Tell yourself that you can and will it to happen.” He backs up and stands with Kevin who gives me a thumbs up. I turn away from the oak tree and position myself in front of the back wall.

  Okay, no pressure. If I could go anywhere, it would be a beach. I’ve never actually been to one. My father only took me places around whatever town we were living in. He said that he didn’t like to travel but when I was older I could go by myself.

  I used to try to draw it, I would have a picture out and I would imagine smelling the salty air that everyone talked about and feeling the wind blowing my hair around, the sand in my toes. Taking another deep breath, I focus inside myself, on my energy. I can do this, I know I can, so I thrust my hands out in front of me palms facing away from me. Feeling my element, I try to push it out through my palms.

  “Please show me the beach at Coney Island,” I whisper. The metallic wall wavers, a small tear forms in it. The smell of salt reaches my nose. Oh God, I really smell salt. A wave crashes along the shore, echoing around the room. The tear becomes wider and I can see through it. Sand with water rushing over it, the white foam from the crest of the waves, birds squawking. The water’s not clear like I saw on commercials for getaways, but it is the most beautiful shade of blue I have ever seen. The tear seems to finally stop growing and, as I gaze upon the scene, I spot a pier in the distance.

  “Wow, I haven’t seen Coney Island since Naomi and I were kids. What made you think of this?” Nolan and Kevin must have moved up while I was focusing because they stand on either side of me.

  “I’ve always wanted to go to the beach, but my father wouldn’t take me. Claimed he hated to travel, even though we had moved constantly for the first half of my childhood. He always seemed so upset when I would ask him, so I kept doing it hoping h
e would cave.” I give a little laugh. My father hated disappointing me but I could never get him to budge on this one topic. “Can we go through the portal?”

  Glancing back and forth between them, they both wear the same face that my father had when he would have to tell me no, a look of remorse even though they’re not really doing anything wrong. They just don’t want to disappoint me. Nolan places his hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze.

  "Sorry, we need to have you practice opening and closing a few more times before we try it out, just to make sure you have enough control over your abilities. But you have done a wonderful job for your first time. I had to try growing a tree a couple of times until I finally had one grow. It was a small, sad pine. Now, all you have to do is will it to close. If you keep practicing and we find the rest of our partners to help us all have a stronger hold on our powers, we should be able to travel through the portals you create in the future without any problems,” Nolan informs me.

  Regrettably, I will my palms to close it. I sweep them back and forth, hovering over the tear and closing all the way up. As soon as I feel it close, I pull my palms back down. I was so close to actually having my feet bare and buried in sand.

  Kevin pulls my hands to him and he places a kiss on each of my knuckles. “Come on, we can hangout upstairs and get clean while Nolan decides where to replant his oak, he never disposes of them.”

  “Oh, come on, I’m not going to get rid of a beautiful tree, people should enjoy the oxygen and pleasure they receive from it.” But the tree’s huge. How is he going to remove it?

  “Do you need help getting it out of here?” He grins and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “I’m Earth, remember?” he answers with his smirk. “I can shrink it down and replant it in the backyard.”

  I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this. Kevin leads us out of the room, and I look back, watching as Nolan shrinks the oak tree down to something he can carry. That is so cool.

  A shower was definitely needed. While I was in there relaxing and letting the hot water soak my skin, it hit me. I was able to create a portal to Coney Island. I was so disappointed in not being able to cross over that it didn’t really hit me what I had really done. I really am an Aether. I can travel wherever I want and I don’t need an airplane to do it. Well, really any form of transportation. I was able to find the power I have in me, push it out, and actually manipulate it.

  I stood in the shower so long thinking about it, that when the water finally started to lose its warmth, I realized I had yet to wash my hair or body. My last minute in there, I rushed through scrubbing while the water turned ice cold. After drying off, I pulled on a pair of old blue jeans and a light blue t shirt I got when I went shopping with Naomi. Finally, I wrapped my hair up in a bun and I sat down on the couch waiting for Kevin to come back out.

  As I’m scrolling through the channels on the guide, a door swings open thudding on the wall of the hallway. Looking over my shoulder towards the sound. Kevin walks into the room, looking amazing. He’s wearing khaki shorts that reach down to his knees and nothing else. His hair is slightly damp and not very neat. I guess he didn’t try to comb his hair either, he must have just towel dried it. A slight wetness coats my underwear as my eyes wander his body. All those hard muscles and delicious skin, right here for me.

  He plops down on the couch next to me and shakes his head in my direction trying to jokingly swing droplets of water on me.

  “Oh, you want to play?” I ask and then I push him onto his back on the couch and start tickling him on his sides hoping to find a ticklish spot.

  “Hah, no, stop! Adi, no, ha, please,” he begs. Looks like I found the spot, right above his hip bone. I stop tickling him, running my hands up his sides and down his chest. My eyes follow the path of my fingers, every dip of his muscles. Man, he is beautiful.

  Earlier, I had been thinking about how nice it would be to kiss him but now, as I stare down at his lips, I realize that his kisses will destroy me… if I don’t destroy him first.

  This past week I’ve gotten to know these men. Eating meals with them and telling stories of our childhood, even sharing the same bed. Kevin seemed the most open of us and, from the stories he shared, it was pretty easy to determine he isn’t any more experienced than I am.

  If I start this, I really will have all of him. There’s so much power in that, and so much trust. Knowing what he will give me makes his kisses all the more enticing. I want to be the woman he gives it all to, the one who he has all new experiences with. I’ve heard two virgins together doesn’t make for amazing sex. But I’m sure Nolan has told him a thing or two, and we can fumble through it together. Anyway, fumbling sex with Kevin has to be hot.

  If I give into this, into my feelings, will I hurt him? I run, that’s what I do. I showed up here running from my hometown, or rather, from my dad’s ever lingering presence, and the woman he left me alone with for years who tormented me. If I give in and give it a chance, will I be able to still stand on my own?

  His smoldering stare pierces my soul, turning my thoughts to mush. I’ve been overthinking everything lately. Maybe all I need to do is feel. I close the distance between us and place my lips on his. He grasps my face in his strong hands, and closes his eyes.

  Mine and Nolan’s kiss started off as an explosion but with Kevin, it is a sweetness I’ve never felt. I push my tongue against his lips, willing them to open and he obliges me. As my tongue explores his mouth, my hands slide down from his chest and explore his abs. This kiss may have started sweet but it slowly builds into something passionate. I need more to calm this pressure that is growing inside me. He pulls away from my kiss and cups my face. My confusion has to show in my eyes, but I try to hold back.

  “How far are you wanting to go right now, Adaline?” How far am I willing to go? Right now, all I am thinking is that I need to find someway to release the tension building between my legs.

  “Can I feel you, Kevin?” My voice is breathy as I slowly trail my fingers down his abdomen to the bulge in his pants. Goosebumps rise on his skin from how gently I’m grazing him. Seeing that he is not going to protest, I start to rub my palm up and down and curl my fingers around his length trying to get a feel for his girth. He’s not crazy wide, thank goodness, but his size is still intimidating for someone who’s only ever touched herself with fingers. I start to unbutton his shorts and look back up at his face to make sure he’s still okay with this, with me touching him.

  “Adaline, you need to let me know when you want to stop. But damn, please don’t,” he begs, his voice guttural.

  Smirking, I grip the waistband of his shorts and boxers. Kevin lifts his hips and I pull them down and off, throwing them to the floor. Right now if anyone says stop, it will have to be him because I plan on finding out what his face looks like when he comes for the first time.

  Kevin’s dick is hard, standing upright, waiting for my attention. Ivory cream skin with a sprinkling of freckles, it’s at least eight inches in length. I gently trace the vein along the underside of his shaft before wrapping my fingers around him.

  Slowly, I pump my hand up and down, trying to gauge what he likes. His fingers clench the edge of the couch and I lift my eyes from my hand and his cock to see his face. His eyes grow big and a small gasp escapes him as I pump my hand again.

  Amazed by how much my simple strokes are affecting him, I kiss the tip of his cock lightly as I continue to move my hand up and down. Kevin’s hips thrust upward, encouraging me to do more. Opening my mouth, I lick around the tip and suck softly. Kevin lets out a low groan.

  My lips meet my fingers and I push my mouth further down his shaft until I feel him hit the back of my throat. I bob my head, sucking and licking as I move up and down. Shifting my lower body, I get up on my knees and brace myself with my free hand next to him on the couch. Lowering my mouth again, my gag reflex kicks in but I ignore it. Allowing my throat to open all the way, I take Kevin’s cock all the way into my mo
uth.

  “Oh God,” he groans out as he runs his left hand through my hair. I continue to bob and take him all, I suck harder. His body tenses, his cock kicks in my mouth. “I’m going to come.” He lets out another groan as his cum coats my throat. The taste of his salty essence on my tongue is intoxicating.

  Pulling back, I kiss the tip of his quickly softening erection. I look up at his face. His head is thrown back on the couch, his eyes closed and his mouth hanging open. I kiss his softened cock again and his body jolts as if he received an electric shock. A smile spreads across my face at his reaction.

  Kevin’s eyes flutter open, he pulls me to him and kisses my lips. He’s actually giving me tongue action after I just sucked his cock. I snuggle into him as he recovers. I know I did well for my first blow job. There’s a chance I may have stolen some ideas from a porn video I watched. Beneath me, Kevin stirs.

  “So now that I’ve been taken care of, I was wondering if I could return the favor,” he asks tipping my chin up to look me in the face. My cheeks warm and I’m sure I’m blushing.

  “Uh, sure… I’m up for it,” I whisper. Kevin leans down, kissing me sweetly. He pulls back and shifts me until I’m laying on my back. He kisses my neck, sending shivers along my spine. His hand finds my jeans and he stealthily unbuttons them. Kevin sits up and pulls them off of me. He positions himself on his knees between my legs. His hands slowly lift my shirt, revealing my bra.

  Kevin’s eyes roam my abdomen before settling on my breasts. They jostle with every breath I take. He reaches under me and I arch my back. He deftly releases the clasp. He slides to my waist before he slowly lifts my bra up, revealing my breasts to his gaze. My nipples tighten under the intensity in his eyes.

  Kevin swoops down, his lips capturing my right nipple. I suck in a breath as waves of pleasure spreads through me. This is nothing like when I played with my nipples. He turns his attention to my other breast, tonguing my nipple. I gasp in shock as his finger grazes the nub still covered by my underwear.