“Go take care of Carrie,” she said, shaking her head. “This isn’t something we’re going to solve while other people wait.”
Damn it, he’d say this with an audience if he had to. He crossed the room, grabbed her and kissed her. “You are everything to me. The thought of going one more second, let alone the rest of my life without you, shreds me to pieces. And yes, I considered wiping your memory, I won’t lie. I admit it. I wanted to protect you and I won’t apologize for that. I love you and I wanted you to have a choice, after you saw the real picture of what you’re involved with. But know this. I believe you’re right about the dreams leading you here and to a purpose. We’re supposed to fight this war together. I’ll be back in two hours tops.”
He kissed her again and turned and strode out of the room. The hours away from her were going to be torture.
“It’s a soldier and a GTECHs nature to protect people, but their women even more so,” Becca said when she and Sonia were finally alone.
Sonia absorbed her words and tried to calm down, sinking back onto a stool. “I know, but he let me think he was dead.”
“He had a reason,” she said. “If the Army didn’t grab you and call you a witness and turn you into a casualty to protect a secret, Adam would have gotten to you. I was inside Area 51 and I know what they would have done to you just because you’re his woman. Every man in that place would have tried to mate with you and then they would have used drugs and tried it again. He didn’t know if he would have the power to protect you from that back then.”
Sonia inhaled and slowly let out her breath as she confessed, “It hurt.”
“I know,” Becca said. “But he hurt just like you. I see how different he is in just the short time you’ve been here. Give him a chance. He needs you here. He knows that.” She smiled. “We all need you. You have amazing abilities.”
Sonia felt the tension drain from her body. “You’re right. I overreacted.” They talked a while and then played around with mixing their abilities with remarkable success. Becca was picking up on her dreams.
Three hours had passed, and Sonia felt a gnawing worry in her stomach. She told herself it was simply that she hated fighting with Kel, that she was in emotional knots, but deep down it felt like more. “Shouldn’t they be back?”
“Things can drag out on missions,” she said. “Why don’t we take you on a tour of the building so you know your way around.”
Thirty minutes later, Sonia was in her room, promising to take a nap to be alert when Kel returned, but she just couldn’t shake the bad feeling inside. Another half hour and she went in search of answers.
She ended up beside a computer room, when she overheard Sterling saying, “They’ve been out of communication too long.”
“I’m the best tracker we have,” Damion said. “I’ll go check things out. If anyone’s down, I’ll know.”
She hurried into the room. “You’re talking about Kel and Carrie, aren’t you?” Damion and Sterling exchanged a look and she said, “That’s a ‘yes’. How long have they been out of contact?”
“They’re fine,” Damion said. “They’re traveling through an area with limited cell coverage. We know that. We just like to be cautious.”
“Are you going to check on them?” she asked Damion.
“Yes. I’ll go now.” He walked towards her and paused. “He’ll be fine. He is fine.”
“Please be right.” She’d lost him once. She couldn’t lose him again.
“I am,” he said and headed towards the door she now knew was a tunnel to a warehouse they used to wind walk out of sight.
“I’ll come and get you when I know something,” Sterling offered. “Or I can send Becca down to keep you company?”
She shook her head. “No, thanks. I’m fine.” But she wasn’t. She headed back down the hallway when something about the words triggered a sudden flash of images in her mind. Kel and several other Renegades being attacked on the highway. The images blurred together but she saw Kel grab Carrie and throw her on the ground, just in time to take a blast of bullets. She gasped and started running for the door.
She was down the ramp and screaming after Damion, a vague memory of dream in her mind, of Kel needing her. “He’s down,” she yelled. “He’s hurt. They’re all hurt.”
Damion turned and met her halfway. “How do you know?”
“I saw it. I can see things I can’t explain. Not now. I’m going with you. I can read the landmarks from my vision.“
Damion held up his hands. “Oh no. That’s not happening. You can’t wind walk unless you’ve lifebonded.”
“I have,” she said, wondering why Kel hadn’t told her that but not caring. Not right now. “We did. You can check my neck.”
“Sonia, then you can relax,” he said. “Once you do the blood bond, and convert to GTECH, if he dies, you die. If he’s mortally hurt it would bring you to your knees. Let him focus on keeping you both alive. Let me go so I can come back and tell you he’s safe. And he’s darn sure going to want to be the first one to take you on a wind walk.”
“Blood bond?” she asked, feeling sick. Kel hadn’t completed the lifebond process with her. He had been going to wipe her memory. She drew in a breath and forced it out. It didn’t matter. He was dying. She knew it and she had to save him. Even if they said goodbye later. She buried her face in her hands like she was crying and rushed at Damion, pretending to hug him but took his gun instead.
She backed up and pointed it at him. “I’m going with you.”
“Oh, well hell,” he grumbled, running his hand through his light brown hair, a scowl on his too handsome face. “You really know how to wound a guy’s pride. Can we make a deal and not tell anyone about this?”
“Just take me with you.”
“Shoot me, Sonia. I don’t care. But I’m not taking you on a walk that could kill you.”
“You have to!” She shouted, she didn’t know why, but she felt it in her core, that she was the difference in Kel living or dying. “Please. Trust me on this. He needs me right now.”
“He needs you,” he agreed softly, his hazel eyes filled with understanding. “That’s my point, Sonia. I can’t let anything happen to you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
There were shouts down the tunnel and Sonia couldn’t believe her eyes. Chale was running with Kel thrown over his shoulder.
“Call the doc,” Chale shouted. “They had Green Hornets.”
“What are Green Hornets?” Sonia asked, rushing towards them.
Damion was already reaching for his phone even as he asked Chale, “Where’s Carrie?”
Chale glanced at Sonia. “He’ll be okay. We heal quickly and then to Damion, “She’s underground and we have a team getting her to Sunrise.”
The rest was a blur for Sonia. She barely remembered how she ended up in a hospital-like room, standing back as several people she didn’t know and Becca ripped open some kind of special second skin bulletproof vest that Kel wore and she surmised that Green Hornets were bullets. There was blood. So much blood. Too much blood. Tears streamed down her face, fear and helplessness welling inside her. Then they were operating, right there, without any special tools, just pulling out bullet after bullet.
“Oh God,” she whispered. “This is going to kill him.”
“Come here, Sonia,” Becca called out from the bedside, holding a towel over one of the bleeding wounds. Oh God. There were so many holes. Becca pointed to a monitor where a pretty blonde female was displayed on the screen.
“Sonia, I’m Kelly,” she said. “I’m the Chief of Medical Staff for the Renegades. Listen, honey, we don’t have long here. I understand you’re his lifebond.”
“Yes,” Sonia managed.
“Okay, good. But you haven’t done the blood exchange?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Okay. GTECHs can survive most injuries but there is something called a healing sickness. It
’s caused by the vitamin C deficiency. When the injuries are too extreme, it’s intense. The more advance the GTECH in his special abilities, the more it seems to affect him. There’s something I’ve been experimenting with to try to combat it. The bullets are out so he has the ability to heal if we can trigger the reaction. I need you to do the blood exchange now. If my initial testing is right, it will overcome the vitamin C deficiency.”
A dream took vivid form in Sonia’s mind, a dream of this moment, and she now knew why she’d been so irrationally desperate to get Damion to take her with him. “Yes, okay. Anything to save him.”
“Sonia,” Kelly said. “Once you do this-”
“I die if he dies,” she supplied, “and that means now, today. I understand. I’ll do it. Of course, I’ll do it. Just save him. Please. Save him.”
Kel woke in his bed, the scent of her around him, the soft strands of her honey-colored hair caressing his skin while her soft fingers traced the angel wing on his arm. The last thing he remembered were the bullets, the pain, and the darkness, but now, the wounds were gone.
“Since I’m naked and you’re not,” he murmured, “I’m assuming I didn’t miss anything I didn’t want to.”
She laughed. “No, but your clothes were bloody and every time I tried to dress you, you rolled over.”
“My own personal angel caring for me,” he said. “I’m really dead this time and you’re the dream, aren’t I?” he asked softly, capturing her hand with his and sucking in a breath when their gazes locked. “Your eyes-”
“Are black,” she supplied. “Yes. They are. Because you see, us GTECH women only have one man and-”
He pulled her to him and kissed her, happier than he thought he’d ever been. “We did the blood exchange?”
“Yes,” she said. “The doc said it would save your life.”
Realization washed over him like ice water. “So you had to do it.”
“I was going to say the same thing,” she argued. “You had to do it. You didn’t tell me about it so maybe you didn’t want to be stuck with me forever and ever.”
He smiled and rolled her to her back, settling on top of her. “For your information I had planned the blood exchange for a very special moment.” He kissed her and rolled over, reaching to the bedside table before turning back so that they lay facing each other. “I went and picked this up from your house today.” He set the velvet box between them and opened the lid to display the white diamond ring he’d given her years before. “I planned to ask you to marry me again when I knew this world was where you wanted to be. And then, we’d do the blood exchange. We are bound by blood, but we don’t have to live together. It’s still a choice. So I’m asking you to make that choice now. Marry me, Sonia. Spend forever with me and I promise I will make up the past few years to you.”
She studied him a long moment. “When would you have decided to ask me? When would I have been a part of your world?”
“The minute I knew you saw how brutal it was, and you still said you wanted to be here. I’d say you know. So, Sonia—”
“Yes,” she said, wrapping her arms around him and pressing close to him. “Yes. I will marry you, and no, you don’t have to make anything up to me. Just love me, Kel. Just love me.”
“That’s the easiest thing anyone has ever asked me to do. Because I do. I love you, Sonia, more than I knew anyone could love.”
THE END
It lives because they live…
A silent, raging battle, born of greed and lust. Of a hunger for power and a passion for misplaced greatness. A burn for control. A seed planted under the guise of growing peace. But instead, that seed evolved into death and despair, proving, as history has shown time and time again, that man is, indeed, his own worst enemy.
This war, this seed, started as a quest for the perfect weapon, the last weapon, the ultimate weapon. The one that would end all wars. In this case, a weapon neither human nor inhuman. A man, but not quite a man. Created under a veil of secrecy inside Area 51, the program, code-named “Project Zodius,” recruited soldiers who were told they were being immunized against enemy pathogens. Instead they were injected with alien DNA found at a crash site the century before.
Their lives were changed forever, and perhaps the destiny of humankind as well. Possessing super strength and speed, and able to travel with the wind, these soldiers became GTECH Super Soldiers. It was hoped they would eliminate battlefields and bloodshed simply by existing, by drawing a line in the sand that our enemies didn’t dare cross.
One of these GTECH Super Soldiers rose against humanity, a power-hungry soldier who thought he was the chosen one, the one who could destroy the pathetic existence of humanity in all its weakness. His name is Adam Rain, and he believes he was created for a single purpose—evolution. He will create a better, stronger race, a Zodius race. One nation under a Zodius government—his nation.
Humanity’s future lies with Adam’s brother, Caleb Rain, and his Renegade followers. These Renegades represent hope and honor, sacrifice and salvation. They are the last great warriors of humankind, defending their people while being shunned, even feared, by their creators.
The war rages on…
CHAPTER ONE
There was nothing unusual to a casual observer about a hot woman in a white string bikini, lounging poolside, a few feet from where undercover Renegade soldier Damion Browne leaned against the cabana-style bar, a beer in hand. In fact, from a purely male standpoint, there was absolutely everything right with this particular woman—a brunette with long, silky, dark hair brushing creamy white shoulders. But then, he was on duty, and he took that duty too seriously to allow primal urges to distract him. Still… something about this woman set his blood pumping, and like it or not, that translated to a distraction that was out of character for him.
He told himself it was because she’d shown up ten minutes into the outdoor excursion of a Russian nuclear scientist and his family that Damion was covertly ensuring didn’t end up in Adam Rain’s arsenal of weapons. The last thing the Renegades wanted was the leader of the Zodius GTECH movement getting his hands on the nuclear technology Lev was selling the United States in exchange for citizenship. That’s why this woman was a potential risk, he told himself, not because she had long, shapely legs that belonged wrapped around a man’s waist—his waist, Damion thought with a rush of pure male heat. They belonged around his waist. Damn. What was wrong with him?
Inwardly he shook himself, not sure what it was about this woman, but she could easily drag him into the linger zone when he didn’t go to the linger zone on duty. Scratch that, he thought, as he glanced at Lev and family and back to her. She already had him in the linger zone, and there was no forgiving his distraction, unless… That gnawing gut feeling was telling him that underneath all that sex appeal, she was trouble, despite Adam’s dislike of female operatives. Add that to the fact that the CIA team watching Lev had allowed him outside in the first place, and Damion had a bad, bad feeling about this. Suddenly, as if she sensed his suspicions, the dark-haired beauty’s head snapped in his direction, her attention settling on him, her eyes shielded by white-rimmed sunglasses. Time stood still for an intense, crackling moment. Certainty filled him. She had known the entire time that he was watching her.
The microphone tucked discreetly inside Damion’s ear hummed a second before the voice of his Harley-loving, wild card, second-in-charge, Chale Bonner, spoke, “We reported Lev’s barking dog to the front desk several times. Looks like security is headed his way. We’ll have him inside the building where he’s less exposed in a flash.”
Damion didn’t reply. He was still watching the woman, who, as abruptly as she’d given her attention, jerked it away. Reaching for her bag, she stood up, offering him a nice, heart-shaped backside view as she sashayed away. Her pace was slow, confident, but a bit too precise. She was hiding something, beside the intimate details of her body, details he wanted to discover beneath those tiny pieces o
f white material. Damion knew Adam didn’t typically work with women—he believed they were inferior beings—but somehow, someway, this one was the source of the warning in his gut.
“Alert,” Chale added. “Doggy Patrol has arrived. Get ready for movement.” Damion eyed the back door of the hotel to find two uniformed security guards and a woman dressed in a suit headed toward Lev and his brood. “I see them,” Damion said, his gaze shifting to the fast-departing, bikini-clad female. But had she seen them? Was that why she couldn’t get away from this place fast enough?
Damion set the beer down and discreetly touched the mike hidden in his ear. “Cover Lev. Something about that woman is bothering me.” He pushed off the bar and started walking, unable to use his GTECH ability to travel inside the wind without risk of garnering unwanted attention. This woman was dangerous. The kind of dangerous a soldier, a Renegade, didn’t let escape.
Lara’s hand slipped discreetly into her oversized bag, wrapping around the hot steel of the weapon there, even as she rounded the diving board of the pool, carefully pacing herself, despite the urgency coursing through every pore. She was driven by the certainty that the man with the hot stare—and hotter body—by the pool was one of those GTECH monsters who’d killed her family.
She’d suspected as much the minute he’d walked to the bar, looking like an all-American soldier, no matter the absence of a uniform—his swagger confident, his jeans and T-shirt molding a perfectly honed physique, and his light brown hair neatly trimmed. A lethal air crackled off him, belying the casual way he leaned back against the bar and sipped his beer with an air that said that he could not only kill you if he wanted to, but he was ready to do so at the drop of a hat.
The hard edge of his assessing stare had settled on her, hot as it flickered across her barely clad body and then returned to her face. Lara had felt the intensely probing inspection with the unnerving feeling this man—this GTECH—could see beyond her dark glasses as surely as he’d glimpsed beneath the thin strips of fabric covering her. Heat had flooded her limbs at the daring way he’d looked at her, and having been warned about the unique, unpredictable abilities the GTECHs developed over time—that she too might develop over time—she’d jerked her gaze away.
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