Chapter Seven: "…The Phoenix Ariseth"
She blinked several times finding Logan leaning on the doorframe and watching her with an odd smile on his face. He was dressed only in a pair of sweatpants, and she raised eyebrows again appreciatively at the definition of his body. He was still groggy, she could see, it was only about seven in the morning, and she knew while he tended to run on very little sleep that he did need more than she did.
"What are you doing up so early?" She asked still breathing hard and relaxing her stance.
"I guess I'm still not used to another body in the house at this hour," He said honestly, "My internal radar picked up an 'intruder' and woke me out of a dead sleep. I usually know when its Tima coming for a visit, so I was ready to kick some tail… then I realized it was you. By that time it was too late, the adrenaline was in my system and I couldn't get back to sleep." He replied matter-of-factly.
"Hm? What do you mean internal radar?" Max asked thrown off by the reference.
He laughed abruptly, looking away a moment as if he was sorry to have mentioned it, "How do I explain it," He muttered, "It was something I began to develop just before you were taken, another side effect of my blood transfusion, I'm pretty sure. I never got the chance to consult you about it."
He raised his hands, seeming to fail utterly at finding the words, "It's two fold really," He finally got out, "One side of it… well just as I said it is like an internal radar. I can… sense people around me, I can track exactly where they are in relation to me without even seeing them, up to about fifty feet away," He shifted his weight off the door frame and stepped into the room. He moved over to the punching bag and stopped turning to face Max again, "It's how I knew that Tima was tailing me for five days before she tried to take me down.
"The other side of it is a… danger sense… I don't want to say it is premonition, because it is much more accurate than that. I can sense the level of threat from any person within my range and I can tell when something is going to happen, exactly, and can avoid or counteract the danger before it affects me. I saved Zach with it twice just during the mission in Yreka."
She looked at him as if he had grown a set of horns, "What?" she said incredulously.
"I know it's hard to believe," Logan said, laughing uncomfortably, "I certainly didn't know what to make of it when it first occurred. I honestly thought I was coming down with something or had food poisoning the first time it manifested itself in the alley."
Max looked really confused now and sighing in frustration Logan said, "It manifests itself as a feeling, kind of like anxiety and nausea all rolled together. The intensity of the feeling is what tells me the likelihood of something occurring. It happened again when we got to Yreka and were nearly ambushed, it was only then that I realized its potential meaning."
"Really?" She asked incredulously, "I… I've never had that happen," She said carefully.
"Nobody we know has that ability," Logan confirmed, "Not even Tima or Kito. They are all as surprised about it as I was. It's almost like a side effect, an anomaly."
"You are not a 'nomaly," She spit suddenly whisked back into a childhood fear of the monsters in the basement, dragging the bad soldiers into the dark.
Logan frowned at her reaction, "'Nomaly?" He repeated and then a light dawned, "Oh jeez Max, it's not like that! I'm not going to turn into some drooling creature."
She shook herself out, "No," she whispered, "No of course not," she forced herself to smile, then she frowned again, "What else has developed since I've been gone?" She asked out of sheer curiosity.
"Nothing, I just have been honing what gifts you gave me," He wouldn't meet her eyes and she knew that there was something that he did not want her to know.
She couldn't help but call him on it, "There is something else," she said shifting to the other foot, "What?"
He looked her dead in the eyes frowning at her for trying to pursue it, "It's nothing," Logan said in a tone that said drop the subject.
She heard it but didn't take the hint, "Well?"
Logan didn't answer her, and he started to turn away from her, shaking his head. Max got the hint and let it go for the moment.
"So…" She started on another tact, "I noticed that you've been practicing," She looked at him demurely as he turned back to face her, "I was pretty impressed with the way you took care of Lydecker back there."
Logan smiled, looking again embarrassed about his ability and the way he had handled that situation, "Um, yeah, like I said, Tima helped me along on that. I guess it foretold our little excursion to the base to get you out."
Max just nodded, "Guess so," She assumed a fighting stance, "So… show me what you can do."
Logan shook his head again smiling apologetically this time, "Not right now Max, let me wake up and get some food in me and then I'll think about it."
"What, the great Logan Cale, Knight on the White Charger, Rescuer of Damsels in Distress, is not up to a challenge to his honor?" She teased him.
"This knight is retired from the business… I'd like to think permanently," Logan replied raising his eyebrows at her as he turned away from her and headed for the door. His nerves were still on edge from the expectation of having to stave off an intruder and he was worried that he would become overzealous in his practice. He wanted to show her, he was actually pretty proud of what he had accomplished in the short time that Tima had been training him, but he wanted to wait until he was a little more in control.
Max started to reach across the expanse between them intent on getting his attention trying to cajole him into a sparring match. Logan's danger sense went off and before he could think about what he was doing, out of sheer reaction, he whirled on her. Before she had even laid a finger on him, he spun back to face her, knocking her hand down and stepping into her hitting her hard with a flat palm in the left shoulder. Before she knew what happened she was on the floor.
She looked up at him a moment shocked as he stepped back, looking grim, "You asked for that, Max," Logan said shaking his head, "The defenses are on automatic this early in the morning."
She gathered her feet under her and back-flipped some distance away from him. She looked back at him smiling slyly, thinking that he was getting into the spirit of the game. She rushed in at him round-housing on his head, he ducked back and blocked it, and his face darkened.
"Knock it off Max, I'm not in the mood for a sparring session," Logan said. He threw her foot down and to one side which Max, still fighting playfully, used to come up with the other foot, which connected squarely with his chest just under his armpit. He grunted as he shifted to the side, becoming angrier as she insisted on pursuing this. He recovered quickly as she came at him again, he blocked her next few chops and stabs. He fell into an automatic train of discipline, one that Tima had been driving into him for several months. He was grateful for the teachings now, dropping out of the way of effectiveness of her attack. He hit the mat as he swept out into her leg. Max somersaulted back managing not to fall to the maneuver, only to come to her feet into Logan's own offensive maneuvers. His motion was fast and furious as he threw combinations of kicks punches and jabs at her driving her back several feet as she tried to block each blow. She could just feel how out of practice she was, and she could see how much improved Logan was in his ability, and it quelled her doubts about his effectiveness when they had come to rescue her.
She saw him falter momentarily as his thigh muscle protested his exercise, not having been properly stretched out for the game Max insisted on playing with him. The leg gave out and Logan went down. She went after him, as he used momentum to roll over one shoulder and come to his feet. He limped back several steps as he recovered his balance. He ducked back again as Max swung with a fist and Logan's arm came up to block it.
Without warning, Logan stepped into her next throw, lessening the impact and grabbed her by the lapel pulling her toward him. In a maneuver she remembered using on Zach once a blue moon ago, he spun them both off of their feet twirling until she landed heavily on the mat Logan's weight resting on top of her. Max lay there a moment staring at the ceiling winded from her landing.
"Are you finished? Are you satisfied?" Logan growled, "You actually managed to get a rise out of me," His body was taught ready in case she decided to continue this altercation. His grip on her shirt was grim.
Suddenly Max broke out in a smile, "You have gotten damn good," She said.
Logan looked at her a moment confused by her reaction, silent in the face of her praise. His grip on her shirt began to relax as Max's smile faded into a different kind of smile. I was a warm, loving, inviting smile. And Logan felt his body react. Max raised a hand to his face running light fingers over his stubble covered chin as she looked deeply into those suddenly sea blue eyes. Slowly Logan leaned down until they were kissing, it was a long deep passionate kiss and soon both of their hands were moving, exploring each others bodies as their sweat mingled where their skin contacted each other.
Logan's hands found their way under the light shirt that Max had worn to bed last night, caressing her breasts lightly as they continued to kiss. The other hand reached under her shirt then, Logan backed up a minute and slowly lifted the shirt up exposing her beautifully built chest. He smiled into her eyes and then kissed her again, long, slow, and deep. Slowly his mouth moved over her chin to the crook of her neck, kissing gently, insistently as his hand continued to move over her body. He explored with closed eyes using his hands and his mouth to paint a picture of her perfect body in his mind. He flicked a tongue over the small notch at the base of her neck. He moved back up again retracing his course feeling her shudder in delight of his mouth's caress.
Max slipped her hands below the waistband of his sweats feeling the taught smooth skin of his posterior. She slowly pulled them back running them up from the small of his back to his shoulders, enjoying the feel of his muscles under her fingers. She then moved them over his chest slowly caressing them and moving back down to his pants, slowly untying the string that held them to his slender waist. As a tease she loosened them and them moved back up his chest. Logan sighed disappointed at her abrupt departure from the area. She smiled again coyly then pulled him down into another kiss, as her hands moved again this time directly to pull the pants he was wearing down. Logan shifted slightly to assist her in the removal of the garment but did not stop his own machinations of desire, running knowing hands to the places that made Max feel the best.
Slowly Logan sat up, Max followed but stood and slowly removed her own pants tossing them to one side as she knelt down in front of her husband. She moved forward leaning in to kiss him again as she shifted onto him, wrapping her long legs around his waist. She began to move on top of him as his hands moved to her butt to support her. Logan closed his eyes as she leaned back enjoying the sensation. After a few moments he lay her back down taking over, kissing her as he moved. She rose to greet him stroke after stroke feeling her own body coming to climax. She glanced up at Logan seeing by the look on his face that he was near also. Her hands still moved over his chest, over his buttocks, down his thighs and then back up again. It was not long before he had spent himself, but Max insisted he keep moving, to bring her to her own which was near. He was panting hard, nearly to a point where he was going to pass out from over-stimulation when she cried out in ecstasy. That was Logan's cue, as he collapsed on top of her breathing hard and unable to move. Max lay still, running one hand through his hair as the other moved in slow circles on his muscular back.
After a few moments intertwined in each other's embrace Logan pushed up looking down at her lovingly. She smiled up at him and pushed herself up to kiss him again.