Ellyssa would either find Rein alive or find Aalexis and kill her.
If she was lucky, she would do both.
EPILOGUE
Rein woke in a white room, his head hammering, his arm aching where the bullet had hit him. White walls and ceiling, white table, white sink and toilet. Even the cast covering his arm was white.
Everything clean and pure.
As the door swung open, more white in the form of a bright light stung Rein’s eyes, making the throbbing in his head pick up a different tempo. Shielding his eyes from the glare with his good arm, he blinked several times until his vision adjusted and the stinging stopped. Unfortunately the thump, thump, thump in his skull kept a constant beat, the remnants of being constantly drugged.
“What do you want?” Rein asked the platinum-haired, blue-eyed demon standing in the doorway. His speech was a little slurred.
Aalexis stepped over the threshold, wearing a white lab coat. She looked much different than the little girl Rein had first met when he was introduced to her by Dr. Hirch. She was taller, her childhood roundness slimmed away, but what had really changed was her subtle display of emotion, which had become more and more frequent as time passed.
“Time for breakfast.” Alexis moved aside. “Lukas.”
Like an obedient dog, the military thug dressed in, surprisingly, a white tank and stretch pants that rode low on his waist stepped inside, carrying a covered tray. Lukas’ face was all lines and angles joined together in anger. He wasn’t happy playing Rein’s nursemaid.
“That’s a good boy,” Rein said. If he was smart, he would have kept his mouth shut. Being facetious to the military ass was like poking a lion with a stick. No one had ever accused Rein of being smart, though. For added measure, Rein smirked. “You may set it on the table over there.”
Lukas’ jaw clenched as he dropped the tray onto the counter. The cover bounced and tipped to the side. He turned and faced Rein, dark-blue eyes like lasers, fists clenching and unclenching, veins pulsing in his forehead. If it wasn’t for Aalexis putting what was apparently a calming hand on his bulging bicep, Rein knew the man would’ve torn him apart, limb by limb.
The size of the lackey’s arm bothered Rein. Bulging was an understatement. It was more like a quivering, mountainous muscular mass. All of him, not just the arms. Rein’s eyebrows dipped as he studied the man. Lukas’ neck was thicker than the width of his head, and powerful tendons stretched under the skin. His tank was pulled tightly over a chest that could crack coconuts and a sculpted stomach that would put most men to shame. Rein was damn sure that Lukas hadn’t been that size just a few days ago.
“You have noticed,” Aalexis said, pulling Rein’s attention away. “He is bigger.”
Lukas folded his flexed arms over his puffed-out chest. Smugness poured off him.
Rein shrugged, then winced as the muscles pulled around his wound. “So? He’s been working out?”
“Yes. But there is more. He has help from a little cocktail Xaver and I have concocted, and a bit of DNA manipulation of stem cells injected into specific muscle groups. Simply put, it floods testosterone into the system, better than the body produces naturally. As you can see.” With her finger, she traced one of the many indentations carving his upper arm. “Also, his fighting techniques have improved drastically. The new training Xaver and I have designed is producing the most splendid results.”
Judging by the way Lukas watched Aalexis as she talked and touched him, Rein figured there was much more than just hero worship going on, which was more than a little sickening. Although her mature body said differently, Ellyssa’s sister was too young for the twenty-somethingyear-old man. Gross on so many levels.
Pulling her hand away, much to Lukas’ visible disappointment, Aalexis continued, “Imagine what a whole army could do.”
Much to his growing horror, Rein imagined it.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are so many people to thank for helping me through Flawed.
First, I’d like to send a truckload of gratitude and virtual chocolate to all the readers and bloggers and my beta-readers for being absolutely wonderful. If it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t be writing an acknowledgement.
I have to extend a special thank you to all the people at Spencer Hill Press. To the awesome Kate Kaynak, for seeing what I could see in the Perfection trilogy. To Vikki Ciaffone, editor extraordinaire, who is always there to hold my hand. Both of you just absolutely rock. A jumbo-jet plane full of thanks to Richard Shealy, Owen Dean, Rich Storrs, and Marie Romero, all of whom are so full of awesomeness that words cannot even begin to describe. I hope to make each and every one of you proud.
To my mom for showing me that nothing is impossible.
To my wonderful children and granddaughter. You all make me prouder each and every day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Judy lives in Texas, where she wanders out in the middle of the night to look at the big and bright stars. Besides knocking imaginary bad guys in the head with a keyboard, she enjoys being swept away between the pages of a book, running amuck inside in her own head, pretending she is into running, and hanging out with her kids, who are way too cool for her.
Flawed (Perfection) Page 33
