Chameleon (The Domino Project Book 1)
Page 30
“It dulls the powers, not the awakening moment.” Dom shrugs. “You needed a shield.”
Bastian watches him for a moment, so long that it makes Dom glare back at him.
“Mathur left you alone.”
Dom swallows his surprise and shrugs awkwardly. “Technically.”
Dom blinks at his surroundings, at Sai’s piercingly pale eyes caught in that one moment of the elevator’s suspension. Memories and thoughts come crashing back to him in a split second and he reacts, trying to pull her out in time. But he doesn’t make it, and the pain that floods her system is tangible to him.
Even with her healing ability trying to staunch the flow and seal the wound, trying to save her life is almost impossible. He has the energy, the power, but not the experience. This was his fault, but it was also their fault. All those people who thought they knew what it was Mathur and Garr had achieved. The people who’d screwed with his head.
Sai feels so light in his arms, with most of her legs gone. Her pale face is clammy and the dark hair sticks to her skin. Still, she looks up at him, vaguely aware, recognition in her eyes. No judgment in her expression, not yet.
So he holds her, and talks to her, and exerts more of his power to make sure she survives.
Because if there’s one thing she’s taught him, it’s that he doesn’t want to be alone.
A faint beeping permeates her consciousness. Sai tries to ask it to stop, because thinking is so difficult, but the words won’t form. Her heavy eyelids fight the desire to wake fully. Fog shrouds her mind and she knows instinctively that something is very wrong, but what it is escapes her.
The refusal of her mind to focus hits Sai in the stomach with a heavy fluttering of leathery wings. She pushes against the murk shrouding her brain. One moment of clarity hits her before the pain takes over and she loses consciousness again.
The haze begins to lift and Sai finds herself waking differently this time. The beeps, though still irritating, are easier to define as infirmary machinery. Instead, she focuses on the whispered voices barely audible over the backdrop of sound.
“How are her vitals?” Mathur’s voice sounds weary.
“Steady.” The answer is curt and clipped, and though familiar to Sai, she can’t quite place it.
“Then the fusion worked?” Dom’s voice is clear in her memory, but beleaguered by an inflection uncharacteristic to him.
“It worked.”
Sai breathes deeply, calming herself, trying to tone down the images dancing in her head. The fear of small places, crushed by too many people plays in her mind over and over. Machines keep their staccato beat to the movie in her brain. They become more erratic and alerts echo through the room, but she doesn’t pay them attention.
Sai finally succeeds in opening her eyes. The room is blindingly white and she blinks several times to focus through the pain. Every part of her hurts, but her legs most of all. They’re like fire and ice clashing on her skin. As if she can feel every sinew, every nerve...
“Sai?” Dom leans over her, his smooth brow furrowed.
“Dom?” she crocks out, squinting just a little. “Dom?” she asks again after clearing her throat and forcing her eyes to focus.
“Did I?” It’s more of an effort to speak than she realized. “Did I hurt people again?” she asks, surprised to feel a tear run down her cheek at the thought.
“No.” Dom swallows visibly and looks away. “You saved people.”
“Then why?” Sai asks as she struggles to sit up and gasps in pain.
The audible snap as they waited for the doors to close. The split second decision to phase push the others out. Dom suddenly there and apologizing. The look in his eyes. Her giving him permission to use her talent.
And the pain. So much pain.
She averts her eyes, anger and bewilderment at war in her mind, and clenches her fists.
The beeping of the machines around her is the only sound in the room.
The pain in her legs makes sense now, and she’s loathe to look and see they’re no longer there. Phantom pain is something she’s heard of, but never truly believed existed. When some part of the body can’t be replaced, the brain sometimes makes do with what it has and won’t forget the missing section.
“Damn.” Her whisper croaks a little again, her throat still too dry, but she pushes the words out anyway. “It was you, Dom?” her voice cracks on his name and the tears flow.
“Sai, I...” Dom’s shoulders sag.
Sai turns her head away, tears streaming down her face to soak in the pillow. She can hear footsteps leave the room. How could he not deny it? How did he dare be there?
But after all, hadn’t he also saved her, a tiny voice whispers in the back of her mind. And she knows that’s right too. Confusion doesn’t even begin to describe the pain in her chest and the thoughts in her head.
Her ability to help the Exiled is gone. There will be no redemption now. Her parents were right. She’s useless.
The door swooshes closed and she pushes with her mind, checking for privacy only to realize Dom is the only one who left.
Her chest constricts and she opens her eyes to stare at the tented ceiling.
“Talk to us.” Mathur’s accent is as lulling as ever. Tempting even.
But Sai just shakes her head, feeling for once like the child she never had the chance to be: vulnerable, alone and scared.
Mason moves around to the other side, flanking her. “Sai, will you listen to what we have to say? There are things you need to understand.”
She nods.
“I’ll keep it brief.” Mason pauses. “Dom’s trigger was set incorrectly. In his haste to set it in time, Bastian emphasized the trigger on your appearance and not your name. It was only when Dom saw you that his trigger unlocked. Although he was supposed to kill you, he truly did save you.”
“Saved me?” Sai almost spits the word out. “I’ll be useless for the rest of my life.” He face crumbles and the tears pour out despite her best efforts. “Just let me sleep.”
Mason sighs and shrugs his shoulders. “You have to listen to Mathur first.”
She rolls her head back over and locates the old man. He feels like the father she never had. “What?” the word comes out sullenly instead of with the combative force she intended, but there’s no energy left to draw on.
Mathur smiles gently at her. “You will be okay, Sai.”
She blinks a few times, wondering if he’s finally gone senile. “I distinctly remember the pain. No legs is no mobility.”
“But Sai,” and he pulls up his trouser leg to reveal the iridescent metal of his prosthetic limb. “You have legs.”
Sai blinks at him and tries to level herself up to look at her own body, but everything hurts and her arms give way.
“Careful. You have been out of it for a while. You are going to need to regain some of your strength before we work on anything else.” Mathur pushes her back down and pats her head. “Even if you lost everything Sai, you will still be the same person. Nothing will ever change how much you have helped everyone.”
Tears threaten to take over again, but Sai gulps them back. “This will work?” she asks suspicion waring with fear and hope.
Mathur chuckles. “If you get rest and do not let yourself get too worked up? Definitely. You will be capable of more than you imagine. But you must promise me this one thing.”
“What?” Sai asks warily.
“Consider what Mason said true. That Dom had no real choice in the matter until he saw you and triggered himself. If it was anyone’s fault, then it was mine. I left that failsafe there and made the reset possible.”
“I’ll try.” With the confusion and anger warring inside her, it’s the best she can offer.
“It is enough for now. I simply ask that you do try.” Mathur smiles and her and moves to the door. “Sleep a bit, you need your rest.”
His request is easier said than done. All Sai sees as she lies there looking at the ceilin
g is the elevator the second before it falls. On repeat.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Excerpt from Book 2: HYBRID