Free Flicker by Viola Grace Page A

control your appearing and disappearing at will. It will be your choice to be noticed or not. Your own and only choice.”
    Seval pondered it for long moments. No more rejection unless she chose it, no more being invisible if she didn’t mean to be. No more hiding. And finally, no more family gatherings. “Where do I sign?”

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
     
    Working with a new partner every few months could be taxing on anyone’s nerves. But Seval found it especially awkward. She had to put her life in his hands and his acting skills. It was enough to drive a woman mad, or force her to face a loneliness that she couldn’t even admit to herself.
    Ben was her newest partner, the body that went with her guard . After two years of training, she had been sent out to the Alliance Trading Outpost and been assigned to guard a number of representatives and ambassadors. An invisible guard was hard for her charges to accept so a heavily muscled guard was assigned to her and they worked as a team. He soothed the client and kept them calm and she found the actual threat to her charge and took care of it.
    She hadn’t lost a charge yet. But she had gone through four guards before Ben. It disturbed them that they couldn’t see her unless she wished them to. One of the guys had actually gone a little mad and tried to trap her. Lanen had chased her down and thrown a powder on her, not realizing that it was all on the monitors in her rooms. She managed to subdue him with some difficulty and had him sent home with a copy of the vid in his record.
    Vorabenik was much more steady. He spoke to her directly at their briefings and she returned the favour by keeping a beverage in her hand. It helped him to find her when they talked about their current case, discussing the needs of the client that contracted with the Alliance for the bodyguard team of Seval and Ben, Alliance Unit 33.
    She focused on her job every waking moment, but there were times like now when she wished she was a normal nobody back on Earth. It was hard to knock on Vorabenik‘s door, knowing that he had taken a lover the night before. “Ben, are you ready for the final briefing?”
    Their rooms adjoined and she had easily heard the acrobatics that he and his companion of the evening before had engaged in. If he could see her, she would still be blushing.
    “I am, come in, Seval.” He was towelling his hair dry and smiling at her. The bots had cleaned up the bed, but a glittery top still writhed on the floor in its metallic glory. Only a linen sheet covered him from hip to knee. The rest was pure Azon hide and muscle.
    “Your friend forgot something, Ben.”
    With two fingers she picked up the offending garment and waved it at him. A dark shade of cocoa made its way to his face and he closed his eyes.
    “She was amply compensated.”
    “Oh? In credits or activity?”
    “Both.” He dropped the towel from his hair and the one from his hips.
    Wow, the girl had certainly left with a hefty tip.
    Ben moved from one end of the room to the other, gathering his clothing and sitting on the edge of the bed to dress.
    While he did that, she idly draped the glittery fabric over her breasts and looked at the reflection in the mirror. She still had her figure, even if it was invisible ninety percent of the time.
    “Seval? Why are you doing that?” His attention was firmly fixed in her outline under the fabric.
    “Eh, it was pretty and I wanted to see if I was still remotely feminine behind my guise.”
    He blinked slowly.
    His catlike black eyes widened to the point that Seval assumed pain must have been hitting the orbs.
    “You’re a female!” His accusation rang in the room.
    “Yes. Yes, I am. Or I was the last time I checked. It was a while ago, but my species doesn’t sex-shift without medical intervention.” Her low voice vibrated with amusement. He really seemed surprised. The rapid motions with which he jerked on his pants certainly gave that away.
    “I