by Cynthia Eden
“You went AWOL, soldier,” Henry snapped. “Don’t feed us those lies. And I know why you did it.” A nod. “For her. Because your memories came back. Memories of life before Lazarus.”
“We don’t have memories of that time.” Again, Maddox kept his gaze on Andreas. “None of us.”
Henry stepped forward, but caught himself before he came too close. “Bullshit. There’s no other reason for you not to follow orders. You remembered her. Did you remember how much you wanted her before Lazarus? How you were willing to do anything, even kill, to have her?”
Maddox’s heart raced.
“He remembers,” Andreas said quietly.
Fucking ass.
“So you thought you’d just take her. Vanish with her.” Henry shook his head. “Not happening.”
Maddox shot a disgusted glance at the doc. “You want to terminate her.”
Now Henry’s eyes widened. “That’s preposterous! Why would I send you after her if I just planned to kill the woman?”
Henry was a good liar. World class. Maybe because deep down, he was a psychopath. “Because you couldn’t risk her running free on the outside. Not with what she can do.”
Henry’s stare was absolutely avid now. “And what is it that you think she can do?”
And Maddox realized he was part of Henry’s latest experiment, too. Had the leader of the lab coats wanted to push him and Luna into desperate circumstances and see what happened? See what she could do when she was out of the lab? Maybe Henry had wanted to test Luna’s healing powers and determine what she could do when it wasn’t just about saving a life on a mission.
Luna had restored Maddox’s memories. Fuck, he’d even gotten her—foolishly, now, he saw that—to restore Jett’s memories, too. Henry and the lab coats would know what she could do. He’d played right in to their hands. “You sonofabitch…” Maddox could only shake his head. “Was any of it real? The termination order? Her escape? Or was it all a set-up to see what she could do once she was outside of these walls?” And he’d tracked her so well. “What I could do?”
A faint smile curled Henry’s lips. “Some experiences just can’t be recreated in the lab.”
Andreas stiffened his shoulders.
“She gave you memories back, didn’t she?” Henry murmured. “I thought that would happen. She started with Andreas over there.” He pointed to the silent soldier. “Gave him some flickers on the last mission when he took the knife to the chest, and Luna stopped the bleeding. I watch my subjects very closely, you see, so I knew what was going on. And I realized more study was needed.”
It had all been an experiment. Her so-called escape, the termination. Hell, what about that old hospital? Had it—
“You were supposed to bring her back, though.” A furrow appeared between Henry’s brows. “When you went against protocol, I had to do more digging. That’s when I realized just what memories might be playing in that head of yours.”
“Fuck you.”
“You remembered her from before Lazarus, didn’t you? The two of you grew up together. I didn’t know that, of course, because I don’t make a habit of learning all of the details about a subject’s life before Lazarus. Normally, it’s just not relevant.”
“You listening to this shit, Andreas?” Maddox shoved the mental jibe at the soldier.
Andreas didn’t so much as flicker his eyelashes.
“But it became relevant with you.” Henry laughed. “My, what interesting things I learned. You and Luna grew up together. You were best friends. And then Luna met a man named Adam Brock. She fell in love, and she left you.”
Something happened inside of Maddox. He could feel it. Cracks breaking open. Rage building.
“You couldn’t handle it, could you? You killed her lover. But in the middle of that love triangle, he fought back. Luna died, too. So did you.” Henry’s gaze didn’t waver. “Only you and Luna were both lucky enough to be preserved and brought back.”
“I’m supposed to believe your bullshit story?” Maddox kept his voice flat with an extreme effort.
“Primitive emotions.” Henry enunciated very slowly. “That’s what drives Lazarus subjects. That’s why we have to be so careful about your interactions. Lust. Jealousy. Rage. They get a tight hold on you, and they don’t let go. Darker emotions fester and grow inside of Lazarus subjects. I think they’ve been growing within you for quite a while, Maddox. And I think that the more you’re around Luna, the more dangerous you become.”
You have no idea.
“Since waking here, you’ve tried to reach her, psychically, right? But you can’t make contact. It’s because Andreas has many hidden talents. You all seem to be able to do so much more than I originally suspected. Andreas can block you from reaching Luna. From reaching any of the others. He’s a shield that will keep this facility protected…at least, until your transfer is complete.”
Oh, hell, no. “I’m not leaving Luna.”
“And I’m not giving you a choice.” Henry’s smile was far too smug. “You’re too important to lose. After all, you really are an incredible hunter. But you can’t be allowed to stay near Luna. It’s okay, though, she’ll have forgotten you long before you even leave the facility. Then we can start fresh with her.”
She’ll have forgotten you—
“No.” The one word came out as a growl from Maddox. “You won’t kill her.”
Henry rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to permanently terminate her. It will be purely a standard death. I’m prepping my lab now. It will be a painless, temporary end, I assure you, and she’ll come back, good as new.”
“Andreas, you gonna let this happen?”
“When she wakes up, we’ll continue the experiments. We’ll see how much of his past Andreas can recover with her help.”
So Andreas was selling Luna out so he could get his memories back.
“Why the hell did you even bring me here?” Maddox snarled. “If you were going to send me away, why did you—”
“Because I need you, of course. I’m not quite ready for your transfer just yet.” Henry had started to sweat. Unusual for him. The guy typically did a much better job of hiding his emotions. “I put the plan—the experiment—in place, but someone else intervened. Someone changed my damn plan.”
Maddox raked a disgusted glare over the doctor. “You’re not making any sense.”
“Before she could escape, someone took Luna. Someone who seized control of my surveillance systems. Someone who must have worked here, at the facility. And that bastard covered his tracks so well that I couldn’t find him.” Henry drew in a quick breath. “And that’s why you’re here right now. Because I want you to find the bastard. Do your job, hunt him.”
Maddox laughed. “Go screw yourself. I’m done being your attack dog.”
“This man hurt Luna. Jett told me about how you found her in the rundown hole of a hospital.”
Jett. Right. Another betrayal Maddox would get to deal with—later.
“Someone cut her open. Someone abused your Luna, and you’re going to stand there and tell me you don’t care? That you don’t want to find the person and rip him apart?” Now Henry’s disbelief was plain to see. “I don’t buy it. You loved her before Lazarus. Loved her so much that you died in her arms. And you love her still.”
Maddox just stared at him. “Nice story.” He acted as if he were considering the matter. “I think I like it better than the version where I kill her fiancé.”
Henry’s smile crept over his face. “Never told you that she had a fiancé. You did remember, didn’t you? You remembered killing Adam Brock.”
Shit.
“If it makes you feel better, the man was a traitor to his country. He sold government secrets, and if you hadn’t killed him, someone else sure as hell would have.”
Maddox didn’t blink.
Henry coughed. “Of course, that’s not the story Luna now knows.”
Fucking jerk.
“As a precaution—since
you are both in the same facility right now and I do need your services—I may have told Luna how obsessed you are with her. Until she dies and wakes, that’s the story she’ll believe. As far as Luna is concerned, you’re enemy number one. So see, it’s really better for us both if Luna just starts fresh.”
Maddox smiled.
Henry’s body tensed. “Why are you grinning?”
Because I’m thinking about all of the ways I’m going to hurt you.
Henry gave a sharp, negative shake of his head. “Never mind. I don’t have time for your shit.” He pointed at Maddox. “Andreas will accompany you on the hunt. You find the man who took Luna away, and I’ll end him.” Henry turned for the door. “Or maybe I’ll let you do the honors.”
Because Henry didn’t like getting his hands dirty.
“If Maddox turns on you, Andreas,” Henry directed, “just shoot him. Not in the head, though, I do want him rising again. We need him.”
“You like hurting people, don’t you, you sonofabitch?” Maddox’s voice was low. Savage.
Henry’s shoulders stiffened.
“’Cause there really is no other reason for you to have lied to Luna. You just wanted to hurt her.” And no one hurts my Luna.
Henry spun on his heel. “Primitive instincts remain. All Luna should have are those primitive responses. But when I told her about you, I could see the pain flaring in her eyes. If all of her memories were gone, she shouldn’t have responded that way.”
“So what—by hurting her, you were doing another freaking experiment?”
“Pain can teach us all so much.”
I’ll be sure you learn that lesson.
“Luna is an amazing subject. I’m not even sure she realizes her own potential. Don’t worry, though. I’ll make sure that, before I’m done—I’ll understand every secret she possesses.”
Then Henry was gone. Maddox knew several armed guards stood just beyond the doorway. He could smell their sweat and fear. But he didn’t focus on them. Not yet. He let his rage blast at Andreas. “You’re selling Luna out?”
“I’m following orders. The way we’re supposed to do. The way you should do.”
He’d followed orders plenty. And all he’d gotten for his efforts was a cell. Maddox closed the distance between him and Andreas, standing toe-to-toe with the guy. “They’re not ever going to let us go. You understand that, don’t you? We’re their lab rats.”
Andreas didn’t change expression.
“You want your past so you’re willing to do anything that Henry wants.” Disgust deepened Maddox’s voice. “How the fuck do you sleep at night?”
“I don’t. Haven’t slept in weeks.” For a moment, his gaze blazed. “Not since Luna gave me a vision of myself standing at my wife’s grave.”
What?
“I want more than just the memory of her death.” Andreas put a hand to his chest. “More than just gut-wrenching grief that tells me I lost my whole world. I want more. I want her back.” He swallowed. “And, yeah, if I have to follow orders and hurt your girl in order to do it…then so the fuck what? My soul is already gone. As for my heart, Luna gave me the memory of burying it in a pine box.”
Sonofabitch. Andreas wasn’t going to help him.
That meant that Maddox was on his own.
Fine. He’d hate to destroy his former teammate, but there was no way—no way on earth—he’d leave that facility without Luna at his side.
Chapter Eleven
“Get on the exam table, Luna.”
Armed guards were all around her. They’d escorted her out of her cell and down a narrow corridor that had led to a big lab. An exam table waited in the middle of the room. An instrument tray was beside it. She didn’t like the look of those instruments at all. The whole set-up reminded her of the blood-soaked hospital room that she and Maddox had found.
“I don’t think so,” Luna murmured. She flashed a smile at the guards near her. They didn’t smile back. “I’m really not in the mood for an exam.”
The guard closest to her—a blond fellow with broad shoulders and a bright gaze—cast a quick glance at the table. His stare seemed to linger on the straps that were attached to the table. For a second, she could have sworn sympathy flashed on his face.
“You don’t have a choice, miss.” This was the sharp answer from the second guard. A big, burly fellow with a buzz-cut. He had his tranq gun out and trained on her. “Get on the table. The doctors will be in soon.”
She kept her smile in place as she turned toward that guard. And then—
Luna attacked. She jumped on him, kicked the gun right out of his hand. Then she drove her fist into his throat. He gasped, gurgled, and his eyes went wide as he struggled to breathe. He backed up, stumbling, unable to cry out for help. Luna’s fist hit him in the jaw, and he crumpled in a heap.
She snatched the gun from the floor and turned toward the blond guard.
Even as she did…an alarm was sounding. Echoing all around her.
She heard the clicking of the door’s metal locks engaging. “No!” Luna yelled.
She ran for the door, but when she got there, it was too late. She’d been sealed inside.
“You can’t get out,” the blond guard told her, his voice quiet and oddly calm, given the situation. “That door is reinforced, just like the one in your cell.”
Whirling toward him, Luna aimed the gun right at the fellow.
He had his weapon trained on her. “You’re faster than I am,” the guard said, still calm.
Damn straight she was.
“But you see those vents above us?” he asked.
Her gaze darted up.
“If I fall, the guards watching us on the security feed will just send in gas. It will knock you out.” He shrugged. “It will probably kill me, but hey, that’s a risk of the job, right?”
The people there would kill their own guards?
Why not? They play God with the Lazarus subjects.
“I don’t want to die, though,” the guard continued. His gaze was grave. “Because I won’t come back, not like you do.”
They continued their armed stand-off. The alarm kept shrieking.
“You won’t be terminated, Luna. That’s not what’s happening here. Just get on the table. That’s all you need to do.”
Did she look like a fool? “If I get on that table, I’ll die.”
“But you’ll come back.”
At least he hadn’t denied the fate that waited for her.
“My memories will be gone.” She’d be back to nothing. Absolute blankness.
“That has to happen. Maddox screwed things up. He got in your head. Henry said he told you all kinds of lies. We need you fully committed to the program, and the only way to do that is to push you back to being a blank slate.”
“I’m not a blank slate,” she whispered as her finger squeezed the trigger. “I’m a fucking person.” The tranq fired, shooting right into his chest. He jerked back, heaving, twitching, and then falling.
And a moment later, the soft hiss of gas began to fill the lab.
***
Maddox stalked down the hallway, conscious of the guards behind him, their weapons trained on his back, and Andreas at his side. “So I’m supposed to search this facility with you assholes shadowing my every move?” he snapped at the humans.
“Yes, sir,” one of the guards responded. “That’s the plan.”
Maddox rolled his eyes. Damn fool plan. “I need to interview every guard here.” Now he was just talking to distract them as he tried to figure out what move to make next.
“I spoke with them all before,” Andreas replied. “None of them were lying. I believe Henry is wrong. The person who helped her isn’t on staff here.”
Now Maddox stopped. “Did you talk to all the docs and nurses, too?”
Andreas nodded.
“Then you missed something.”
Andreas adamantly shook his head. “I heard their heartbeats, their breathing, their—”
<
br /> “Some people are just good at lying,” Maddox cut in flatly. “Like your buddy Henry. He only lets us see what he wants us to observe. You think he’s going to help you, but he’s just stringing your dumb ass along. Don’t you get that? He doesn’t want you to know your past. He doesn’t want any of us to know. If we know…” Now he switched to silent communication. “If we remember what it was like to be human, then we won’t be so happy living in cages anymore. Why the hell don’t you get that?”
Andreas looked away from him. “You’re the better hunter, so…hunt.”
Before Maddox could respond, the alarm began to blare. Loud, echoing.
Behind him, the soldiers swore.
The alarm wasn’t a good sign.
One of the guards barked, “Back to your room! Now!”
Oh, how amusing. The human was giving him orders?
Maddox turned toward the fellow. “Why the hell would I go back? It took too fucking long to get out of that cell.”
The guard’s eyes widened. “But you—you’re cooperating. You’re—”
Screw this. Maddox snatched the weapon from the man. Without a second’s hesitation, Maddox tranqed him, then hit the second guard. Barely taking time to aim, he fired at the third man who’d been running down the hallway.
Seriously, too easy.
He turned the gun on a silent Andreas. “You didn’t stop me.”
“I thought you might use your psychic power on them. Kept waiting for you to just knock them out. Henry figured you wouldn’t risk it, not with their weapons trained on you, but I suspected you were simply waiting for them to be distracted.”
Maddox grunted. “I used the tranqs because I’m saving my energy.” He studied Andreas as the alarm blared. “Who the hell’s side are you really on?”
Andreas shrugged. “I’m just supposed to make sure you hunt the man who took Luna away. Protecting those guards…” He waved toward the fallen men. “Not on my to do list.”
The alarm kept blaring.
“I’m pretty sure that alarm is coming from Lab Four.” Andreas raised his brows. “Luna is in Lab Four. Sounds like someone might be trying to take her away again. I think we should hunt the bastard, don’t you? Going back to your cell wouldn’t exactly accomplish that goal.”
