Sterling turned away and focused on only one thing—Becca. “No!” The word roared from his lungs, the pain and the impossibility of losing her. He should never have let her come here without the complete bond that would have protected her, made her stronger, safer, able to heal on a level beyond what ICE could give her.
Desperation rose in him, and he grabbed a piece of glass, sliced his hand, and then hers—pressed them together and willed her to life through the completion of their bond. He straddled her, holding her to him, begging her to live. “Come on baby. Come on.”
And then, finally, she coughed and blinked. He had no idea why, but she was crying when she sat up and flung her arms around him.
“Tell me you’re okay,” he whispered. “Please. Tell me you’re okay.”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m okay. Did we get Dorian? Did it work?”
“Damion got him,” he said, amazed time and time again at just how brave she was. “I hope that means it’s over.”
She wet her lips. “Did you—did we?”
“Complete our bond? You bet we did, and you’re stuck with me now.”
A small smile touched her lips. “And you’re stuck with me too.”
He kissed her, scooped her up, and turned to find Caleb and Michael returning. Sirens sounded—raw and grinding, dozens of them.
Around him people were sitting up, waking from their unconscious state, thankfully alive. Sterling could see the headlines tomorrow. “Terrorist bomb set off in casino.” Or “Angry gambler goes ballistic.” Either way, there was a mess to be dealt with.
“It’s over,” Caleb announced. “Adam’s not foolish enough to bring down the wrath of the army, or the Renegades, while he’s not in a position to win. It’s the big picture, rule the world shit, to him.”
“Mark my word though,” Michael said. “He’ll come for Dorian, and sooner, rather than later. But for now, their production of ICE is officially halted.”
Caleb looked at Becca. “You were very brave.”
“Yeah, you were,” Sterling murmured, staring down at her with more than love—he felt pride and admiration.
She smiled up at him. “See what happens when you listen to what I have to say.”
He laughed, knowing they had plenty of time to argue about who was in charge. Right now, he simply wanted to take her to Kelly and make sure she was safe. And then take her to bed and keep her there by his side for an eternity—or as long as she would have him.
Adam returned to Zodius Nation, very aware of his son’s absence by his side, but he shared a mental link with Dorian, and through him he would influence Caleb to join him. The world had a way of shaping destiny, and today was no different. Destiny was definitely afoot.
He’d left Tad back at the casino, squirming like a pathetic ant, begging forgiveness, trying to figure out how to maintain his Marcus identity without ICE.
Adam wasn’t shortsighted enough to prematurely kill Marcus, though he wasn’t about to share the details with Tad. Torture Marcus? Of course. Kill him? Time would tell. First Adam would evaluate his usefulness. His influence with those Adam wished to control.
He found his wife Ava in the women’s quarters, lounging on a velvet chair in the center of the room. Chocolates and fruits adorned long tables, roses in every corner. Human females, her followers, surrounded her, eager to be future mothers of their new “perfect” lineage. Ava’s ability to seduce them with her mind so that they would seduce his men with their bodies was arousing. But then, everything about his voluptuous Lifebond aroused him.
He sauntered to the lounge chair, the women around him all but falling all over themselves. Their king had arrived. He sat down and pulled Ava close. “Dorian has penetrated the Renegades’ camp.”
Apprehension slid over her lovely, heart-shaped face. “You are sure that Caleb will try to rehabilitate him rather than kill him?”
“He is a child,” Adam said. “Of course he will try rehabilitation. And he will believe he has succeeded.” He kissed her. “All is well, my love. And with time, it will be even better.”
Sabrina tossed the duffel bag over her shoulder and rushed down her apartment stairs. She couldn’t find Tad, and she was pretty sure, based on the mess at the hotel, his plan had gone badly. Which meant Adam would kill him and anyone near him. She had to get away. Quickly.
She exited the back of the building, the lot dark, a fine mist of rain starting to fall. Nerves jittery in her stomach, her heels clicking on the pavement, she all but ran to her car and yanked open the door when headlights shined on her. She stilled, feeling the squeeze in her chest of certain death.
All of a sudden, a car was there, a shiny black sedan. The back window slid down. A distinguished man appeared, his hair laced with gray, his features shadowy in the inky darkness.
“Hello, Sabrina,” he said.
“Who are you?” she asked, wetting her lips nervously.
“A friend who wants to help you,” he said.
“Help me how?”
“Stop depending on men with big promises and no ability to deliver.”
She snorted. “And I suppose you can?”
“I’m the one who brings the right people together with the right solutions, even if they think it’s a coincidence. It never is. I’ve been watching you, Sabrina.” Moonlight shimmered across the twitch of his lips. “I can make you the first woman to enter the GTECH program—the ‘Madame’ of many others who will become like you.”
“How?” she asked. No more running, no more hiding, no more wanting and wishing.
“All you have to do is come with me,” he said, popping the door open and disappearing inside.
She looked at her broken-down Toyota and thought of the slim wad of cash in her purse that would last maybe a year. She climbed into the car and pulled the door shut. He wore an army green dress uniform, and she knew enough to know he was high-ranking. She glanced at a medal on his jacket and read the name.
Then she smiled, soft and sexy. She was cool with military men. She was cool with anyone who gave her the power, once and for all. “I’m all yours, Captain.”
“That’s General, Sabrina. General Powell.”
Near sundown, two days after their Lifebonding was complete, Becca and Sterling were in Houston on her front porch, watching as Damion trotted from the moving truck to the porch and grabbed a box. “That’ll do it. We’re off.” He smiled at Becca. “See you in the city.”
As in Sunrise City, the Renegades’ headquarters, and her new home. Becca smiled and leaned into Sterling. “See you.”
When the truck pulled away, Sterling turned her into his arms and kissed her. Becca ran her hand down his cheek. “I’ve been thinking about you being a little more human than the other GTECHs.” He stiffened and frowned. She frowned right back. “Don’t look like that. Don’t you see? It’s just like we thought. There are no coincidences. You had to be as you were, so you could be my anchor and help me learn to control my abilities.” Her voice softened. She loved this man so much. “You really do complete me, Sterling. It’s the most amazing feeling.”
Black eyes stared back at her, though to everyone else they were teal. After their bond, he no longer needed his lenses to camouflage their color, and he no longer had wind-walking limitations.
“There’s something I need to ask you,” he said softly.
A smile froze on her lips as she recognized the sudden tension in him. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
The wind lifted around them, and suddenly they were on a balcony of a high-rise hotel, and she was facing a rail with Sterling nestled close behind her, miles of Vegas city lights around them, twinkling in spectacular glory.
“It’s gorgeous,” she said, leaning into him. “Where are we? What building is this?”
“The View Hotel and Casino,” he said, softly, too softly. “In the honeymoon suite.”
“What?” she turned in his arms to face him, and he went d
own on his knee. Her heart thundered in her chest, and her eyes watered. “What are you doing?”
He produced a small velvet box. “You didn’t exactly get to pick when we Lifebonded, but you can choose if you live your life by my side. So Becca, I would very much like to take you to the chapel and make you my wife. Or anywhere in the world you want to go, whenever you want. I’m impatient though. I want you to be mine—tonight. I want to know you choose me, just like I choose you.” He flipped the box open, displaying a single, elegant white diamond that would rival all the lights around them.
Becca bent down in front of him. “I choose you. Yes, tonight. I love you so much, Sterling, it hurts sometimes.” Relief and happiness washed across his features, and she realized he’d been nervous. How could he possibly have doubted she would say yes?
He slipped the ring on her finger. “You like it? Because if you don’t—”
She kissed him. “I love it and you.”
Long minutes later, they were inside the room, stripping off each other’s clothes. They went down on the bed together, Sterling on top of her, big and strong, and perfect in every way. “I thought we were going to the chapel?” she teased.
He slid inside her, stretched her deliciously, filling her in ways she’d never known possible. “I booked us for midnight.” He brought her finger to his mouth, kissing the diamond that said she was his. “I figured we’d need some time to celebrate our engagement.” He brushed his lips over hers. “When we come back, we’ll celebrate the wedding.” And he proceeded to show her just how well he understood the meaning of sin in the city.
EPILOGUE
A month after Dorian’s capture, Becca stood in the amazing underground world that was Sunrise City, complete with restaurants, entertainment, living quarters, military, and scientific facilities. But the room that kept drawing her was this one—the mini surveillance room outside the two-way mirror looking into Dorian’s room.
Becca stood at the window, watching him now as he read a popular teen novel, looking so very normal and so very alone. Behind her a pot of coffee brewed in the miniature kitchen, and a newspaper rested on the table next to her laptop, with speculation about the “terrorist” attack inside a popular Vegas casino.
The door behind her opened, and she turned to smile as Sterling entered. “Hungry?” he asked, carrying a box of—yes—his favorite doughnuts.
In the weeks since they’d Lifebonded, she’d worked with Kelly to perfect an immunization against ICE that was going to be flushed through the water system. With Kelly and Becca at the helm of the project, the army was actually supporting a community center to help ICE users endure the painful, but not deadly, withdrawal from ICE. The really exciting part of this to Becca was the cancer research some of the doctors here in Sunrise were beginning to embark on based on her medical records.
Becca shook her head at Sterling as he set the doughnuts on the table. “You’re addicted.”
He closed the distance between them and pulled her close. “I’m a ‘you’ addict.”
“Says the man who’s been Lifebonded for all of a month,” she teased.
He brushed hair from her eyes, his expression softening. “A month I plan to turn into a very long lifetime.”
She raised on her toes and kissed him. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you too,” he said. “But if you could say that with a distinctly happy vibe, not a sad one, it would do wonders for my male ego.”
She rested her hand on his chest, the warm strength of him washing over her, reminding her how lucky she was to find someone so special. Everyone wasn’t so lucky. She turned to the window and watched the little boy inside. “He’s a product of greed,” she said. “A victim.”
He stepped beside her. “This from a woman who practically changed his name to ‘evil’ when we were trying to capture him?”
She touched the glass. “I’d never seen him like this. Being a boy. Maybe Caleb can change him. Bring out good instead of evil.”
Sterling turned her into his arms. “Definitely not a bet I would take. But…” His eyes twinkled mischievously. “A group of the guys have a Friday night card game.”
She gaped. “You want to play cards?”
“No,” he said. “But it would really amuse me to have you play and win. They won’t be expecting it. Oh yeah. Good times. What do you say?”
“And if I don’t win?”
A slow smile slid onto his oh-so-sexy mouth. “I’ll bet on you every time.”
THE END
PROLOGUE
It was near midnight on a hot Vegas summer night as Kelvin ‘Kel’ Smith rode his Ninja 650 motorcycle down the street where Sonia lived. He could almost smell her rose-scented honey-colored hair, could almost taste the richness of her kisses. Seeing her again was what had kept him going on a three-month-long mission from absolute hell. She didn’t know he was home any more than she knew he’d spent these months in a jungle as infested with snakes as it had been with terrorists. He wasn’t supposed to be home, but when a helicopter had shown up and handed him new orders twenty-four hours before, he wasn’t about to argue. He was home, or he would be when he had Sonia in his arms again.
He’d barely stopped the bike in her driveway before he was off and heading for the door, a ring burning a hole in his jeans pocket. Her birthday was in two days and it was going to kill him to wait to give it to her until then.
He’d taken one step onto the porch when the door flew open.
“Kel!”
The next thing he knew he had the sexiest, sweetest woman in all of Vegas in his arms and she was wearing nothing but one of his army green t-shirts. “How can you be here? You weren’t supposed to be home for months.”
“Change of orders,” he said, slanting his mouth over hers with a hunger he didn’t even begin to sate. “I’ve missed the hell out of you.” He lifted her and carried her into the house, kicking the door shut and not stopping until he was in the bedroom.
He went down on the bed, framing her body with his, kissing her, needing her.
“Your hair is longer,” she said, stroking her fingers through his chin-length dark brown hair.” She gave him a playful smile. “It’s sexy.”
“In that case, I’ll do my best to keep it this way.” He leaned in to kiss her again.
She stopped him with a plea. “Tell me you aren’t leaving again anytime soon.”
“I’m being moved to a special unit at Area 51,” he said. “I won’t know what that means until next week.” He stroked her hair from her face. “How are your nightmares, baby? I’ve been worried sick about you.”
She laughed without humor. “You’ve been worried about me. You don’t know worry until the person you love is off on a mission trying to save lives and willing to give up their own to do it. I’m proud of you, Kel, but it’s hard when you’re gone.”
“I know, baby. Maybe this new base assignment will mean more time at home. You didn’t answer me about the nightmares. Are you still having them?”
“Not for over a month,” she said, her fingers caressing under his shirt, heating his skin. “I think...maybe they’ve ended. I don’t know but I don’t want to talk right now. I just want you.” She wrapped her arms around him and pressed those soft, womanly curves against him, and he quickly forgot all about her nightmares, and his for that matter.
In fact, he was pretty sure he’d died and gone to heaven, and she was the angel standing between him and hell.
CHAPTER ONE
Three years later…
Kel materialized through an open window from inside a strand of wind, and stood in the center of a small Vegas warehouse not far from the strip. While the location wasn’t his final destination and traveling inside the wind was a common skill that the GTECH Super Soldiers created in an Area 51 experiment possessed, it wasn’t exactly something the public needed to know about. The last thing Kel and his team, the Renegades, needed was a bunch of Van Helsing
wannabe hunters calling them monsters, and trying to kill them all off. Especially when the Renegades were all that stood between man and the Zodius, the GTECH rebels, who really were worthy of the title ‘monsters’.
Damion Browne, one of his fellow Renegades, appeared by his side.
“Took you long enough, Mr. America,” Kel jibed, using the nickname they’d all given Damion, because he was all about morality and restoring the honor of the army and his country. Kel, well, he didn’t have a lot of faith in that happening, not after their special forces unit had been told they were getting immunizations, when they were really given experimental DNA. But hell, as long as he didn’t have to don any red, white, and blue leotard, he was willing to play superhero, and see where it landed them. Kel glanced at his watch. “You’re a full ten seconds behind on the landing. Getting slow in your old age. Oh, right. We don’t age anymore, so you’re just slow.”
“I wasn’t aware it was a race,” Damion commented dryly.
“Confucius say ‘Life’s always a race,” Kel said, “then you die’.” They started walking toward an elevator.
Damion flipped him an incredulous look. “Confucius did not say that.”
“No,” Kel agreed, “but my fortune cookie last night did.”
They stepped into the elevator that would lead them to a tunnel beneath the building next door, a huge entertainment complex that drew many a Vegas tourist. They were dressed to blend with the crowd, both in jeans, t-shirt and boots, his with an Aerosmith logo, Damion’s a basic black. Kel pulled off the civilian routine pretty darn well with his long brown hair, and his arms and a good portion of his body well inked with tats. Damion, not so much. He was army through and through, from his short military cut to the stern expression that might as well be tattooed on his face. But they weren’t there for fun and cotton candy. Roasted peanuts might be on the menu later, after they finished up one of those superhero missions they called their life these days.
Zodius Series Box Set (Books 1-4) (The Zodius Series Book 5) Page 59
