Special Forces 01 by Honor Raconteur Page B

sending it flying at a high rate of speed right at Rys. Anne barely registered the danger before it connected with her partner.
    Fortunately, Rys’s reflexes were faster, and he threw up an arm instinctively to protect his face. The racket struck his forearm, and glanced off, spinning in a new direction, and finally landed at her feet.
    Anne breathed a sigh of relief believing the danger had passed, when she heard a sharp crack, remarkably similar to the sound of glass breaking.
    “Nuts!” Rys hissed. His hand dropped the racket, flying up to cover his right eye.
    Oh no, did that racket actually hit him in the eye?! Anne flew to his side in two quick strides. “Rys, did that hit you?!”
    “Yeah,” he confirmed. He didn’t look like he was in pain, just very worried. “Shoot, I think it’s broken…” He hissed again, with alarm boarding on panic in his voice.
    From between his closed fingers, Anne thought she saw a faint wisp of smoke.
    Smoke?
    Not blood, or any other bodily fluid, but smoke.
    The world seemed to shift out of phase, as she tried to make sense out of what she had just witnessed. “Rys, let me look at your eye,” she commanded softly.
    His left eye considered her for a long moment before he finally lowered his right hand, and allowed her to have access to his injured eye.
    The eye he revealed was nothing like Anne expected. It was disturbingly still now, almost dead, not moving like a normal eye would have. It was still a clear, unusual shade of grey, but near the iris by the pupil she could see cracks. Cracks! It appeared that there were layers of lenses inside his eye that had somehow broken.
    Rys’s eye was definitely artificial.
    Anne took a deep, steadying breath. She mentally shook herself; her friend had an artificial eye. Obviously, they still had a lot to learn about each other. Her main concern now was for Rys, they could catch up on the details later. “I think I can see cracks in it.”
    “Cracks? Seriously? Aw, Guardians.” He ran a rough hand through his hair. “Doc is going to kill me this time for sure.”
    Anne didn’t get a chance to ask more questions, as Coach Denman ran up at that moment. “What’s wrong? Savar, are you injured?”
    Rys quickly raised up his hand again, shielding the eye from view. “Afraid so, sir,” he answered ruefully. “That racket nailed me right in the eye.”
    “I am taking him home right now,” Anne inserted firmly. “I think his parents need to get him to a doctor.”
    Coach Denman winced. “Good, I’ll call the front office and let them know. They can contact his parents, and let them know you are on your way. Miss Dorian, I’ll leave him in your hands.”
    “Thanks, Coach.” She pulled Rys toward the gate on the court. “Let me grab my backpack from my locker, all right? I won’t take two seconds.” Lowering her voice, she asked in concern, “It’s not smoking anymore, is it?” The unexpected appearance of smoke had been very alarming.
    “No, I turned it off.”
    That would have to be enough information until she could get him alone in the car. Then she was going to let the questions roll hot and heavy.
    Anne used the walk from the courts to her car to make some necessary phone calls. She called her family’s housekeeper, Rosalita, first, letting her know that someone needed to pick up Candace. She smiled at the word “Housekeeper”; it really didn’t seem to suit Rosalita’s job description. A better description would be “Major Domo”, or more properly, “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” Then she called her sister, leaving a message on her message file saying that there was an emergency, and she would be picked up by Rosalita.
    Rys listened as she made all of these arrangements with a frown. “I’m sorry. I’m causing you a lot of trouble today.”
    “You are my priority at the moment,” Anne said firmly. “My sister will be fine, and live through this minor bump in her life with no noticeable scars.”
    They