by Rena Marks
Renegade nodded. “I agree. We should know the whole picture.”
“Running late today?” The back door to Renegade’s room was pushed open by Amanda. It was how they avoided the cameras in the main lab. She would enter one person’s room, open the back door so they could come back in, and then she would leave the room through the main area and go into another’s room where the cameras stopped recording. She would allow each person access to his room without parading all four through the main laboratory where they would be filmed…and notice the other, not roused Xeno Sapiens in permanently frozen states of unconsciousness along the walls.
“I think we’re done,” Robyn said gently.
“Thank you, Robyn,” Renegade said, returning to his room through the back door. It would be a few minutes longer until Amanda came through another’s room. She always seemed to take more time with Renegade, as if the two had great things to discuss.
“I appreciate knowing the truth,” Beast said.
“Agreed,” Pax said. “Truth above all else. Truth above making things pretty.”
“Are we very different, then?” Steele asked mildly.
“You more so than others,” Robyn admitted. “The species you come from was no longer able to procreate. They’d begun to clone themselves, over and over, and lost emotion as a consequence. They wanted to breed with other cultures to reintroduce DNA but went about it wrong. Of course, by then they’d lost their ability to breed. So you are one of a kind. Your human DNA should allow you to breed one day.”
A thumping movement violently rattled next to him. Robyn whipped her eyes to Pax. His eyes rolled up into his head, his limbs contorted in a macabre dance.
Chapter Six
“A seizure,” Robyn gasped. “Beast, get him to the floor.”
Beast caught the flailing man in his arms just as Pax’s jerking body pitched itself from the chair. He lowered him to the floor.
Amanda opened the door from Pax’s room and gasped aloud. She ran to them. “What’s happened?”
“A seizure,” Robyn said. “It’s over now, but he’s unconscious. Steele, can you get him into his room?”
Without a response, Steele scooped up the unconscious man and carried him in. After he laid him gently on the bed, Robyn turned to Amanda. “Go running toward Beast’s room as if you just discovered him and you’re panicked, screaming for me so the cameras pick up on your actions. I’ll run out and grab the medic kit, and we can wheel him out. Steele,” she said, leading him by the arm back out the back door. “I’ll come back for you later to let you into your room, okay?”
He nodded, looking around the room that had various exercise equipment. “I’ll burn off some steam until then.”
“Beast, come with me.”
* * * * *
After Amanda had screamed for her, together they wheeled Pax out to the main lab.
“What is going on?” Director Meade’s voice came over the loudspeaker where Pax lay on the exam table.
“Seizure,” Amanda snapped. “We’re in diagnosis now.”
“Let me know if you need help.”
Amanda didn’t respond. Robyn grabbed a portable CT scan unit, placing it over Pax’s head. Robyn hooked him to an IV.
“Let’s strap him down in case he wakes up thrashing,” Amanda said, remembering the revival.
Robyn nodded and reached for the straps beneath the table, anchoring them around his ankles, while Amanda took care of his wrists.
“What was he doing when he seized?” Director Meade asked.
Amanda looked up at her from beneath her lashes. “Unsure. I came into his room to find him in the middle of the convulsions. I ran out to get Robyn from Beast’s room.”
“Had he been exercising?” Dr. Sabin asked.
Robyn spoke just as Amanda opened her mouth to say he hadn’t been. “Yes. I allowed him to exercise earlier. He didn’t do anything beyond the ordinary, but I guess it could have something to do with his collapse. We’ll study that theory.”
The CT scan beeped, and Robyn removed it, taking it to her computer to study the results. Before copying the results into his file, she removed her zip drive and inserted it. She pulled up yesterday’s results after he exercised, and copied those instead.
She pressed the zip back to her fingernail. Dammit, she needed to re-glue. It barely adhered, and she’d have to be careful with the finger until she could get to her room.
She came back out to where Amanda stood, and they wheeled Pax back to his room.
“What did you see?” Amanda whispered, once they were safely inside.
“Brain slightly swollen in the limbic system. My compu-scan shows his brain waves have large spikes under the category of memory. Something he remembered triggered his seizure.”
“Remembered? What were you discussing?”
“Ugh, what were we talking about? Steele. I’d told him his species had evolved and no longer procreated by breeding.”
“Does this have something to do with your cell memory theory?” Amanda asked.
“No.” Robyn took a deep breath. “I was going to talk to you tonight before the meeting with them.” She jerked her head toward the main room. “I’m not sure…but something’s not right. Something isn’t all as it seems. Let’s not share with them that a memory triggered his seizure. We’ll allow them to think exercise did…perhaps since Steele is transdermal, we’ll run with the hypothesis that he was in a high state of testosterone and deposited some onto the equipment, which was too much for Pax.”
“All right,” Amanda agreed. “I’ll stay in here until he wakes up. You go out through Steele’s room as if you’re investigating. It’ll buy us a couple of hours until we have to deal with the idiots.”
“Gotcha. Don’t forget to change your logs to show I allowed Pax exercise time this morning.”
Amanda nodded as Robyn headed back out to the main lab.
“Dr. Robyn, is everything all right?” The voice from the loudspeaker sounded like Dr. Chen this time.
“He’s stable right now. Amanda will stay with him while I investigate a theory of testosterone overdose from one of the other subjects. We’ll share our findings in tonight’s meeting, which we hope to delay to nine, if that’s all right with everyone?”
“Yes, yes, nine is fine.”
“Thank you.” Robyn walked into Steele’s room, closing the door behind her. From there, she headed directly through his back door. He wasn’t on any of the exercise equipment, though. No, Steele was in the clear glass shower unit.
His back was to her, and the suds caressed the silver gleam of his smooth skin, dripping teasingly down the massive “V” of his torso.
One lone, tantalizing stream of bubbles slid down the bumpy ridges of his spine, dispersing over the swell of his taut buttocks. Muscular thighs moved as he turned slightly, noticing her watching.
Maybe it was the adrenaline that had been racing through her blood, but aroused awareness shot directly to her core.
“Robyn? Is Pax all right?”
“His seizure stopped. Amanda’s with him and will remain until he awakens. His brain waves look good. I don’t think there will be any damage, but our focus is on finding out what caused it so we can prevent another.”
Steele nodded, and caught her eyes with his. He turned fully toward her and cupped water, pushing the soapy suds down his pecs and over the ridges of muscle that lined his abdomen. She caught her breath when it hitched in her chest, then slowly exhaled.
His hand moved lower.
Good lord. His sex swelled as he reached for it and lifted. He refused to break eye contact, even when she dropped her gaze to watch his hand clean himself.
It had to be the adrenaline. Because a surge of wetness gathered between her legs and her nipples hardened into sensitive points.
“Are you okay?” Steele whispered.
“Yes.” She averted her eyes from his groin.
“What’s wrong, Dr. Robyn?”
“Nothi
ng. I’ll wait for you to finish and take you back to your room.”
“Does my nudity offend you?”
“No, of course not.”
His damned hand continued to caress his cock. “You’ve seen me nude countless times.”
She had. She very well had, and she appreciated each one of those times.
Her smile was brittle. “Yes. Do please finish.”
Perhaps instead of a finger nail kit, she should have packed a vibrator. She smiled grimly. No one would ever think to search a vibrator for a zip drive.
The shower flipped off, and she fought with herself not to watch him towel off. Glorious, magnificent droplets of water clung to his skin like wet kisses. There was an area he couldn’t quite reach, on his spine at the lower back. An image of herself kneeling behind him, her hands splayed on the wonderful curves of his buttocks, perhaps licking the naughty drops of water from the center of his spine. He’d groan, never having felt anything like her tongue, wondering where else she might lick. How much lower she would go.
The shower door creaked as he opened it and headed to the small cubbies for another change of scrubs. He pulled the bottoms on first, one long leg at a time, up and over his full erection, not bothering with underwear. None of them had ever worn underwear.
He pulled a short sleeved top on, covering his chest and abs. A fresh, clean Steele was just as sexy as a sweaty, naked Steele. Both versions made her heart speed and sex swell.
Dammit, she had it bad. It was so unprofessional. She grabbed his discarded clothing and wadded it into a ball. She fought the urge to bring it to her face to inhale. Instead, she tossed it into the basket near the clean scrubs before leading him to his room.
“Don’t feel bad,” his deep voice rumbled. “Never feel bad for wanting me.”
“Excuse me?”
“I know what you’re feeling. And I know you feel bad because this is the wrong time. I don’t want you to ever feel guilty.”
She released the breath she was holding. “Oh, Steele. It’ so much more complicated than that.”
“Let’s find out, shall we? Just one brief taste of what could be. We can quench the curiosity and things can go back to normal.”
“Just once?” she murmured, feeling like a parrot.
“If you like.”
Her breath stopped when his hand against her back slowly pulled her closer. Her breasts flattened against the hardness of his muscled chest.
He was large and dangerous but held her so carefully and protectively. Her belly pressed against something hard. Surely his erection couldn’t again be full size that quickly.
Her gaze flew up to his eyes. His dark eyes burned with intensity. Rigid with a sudden uncertainty, she trembled.
“Steele?”
“Every time you touch me, all I can think about is kissing you, Robyn.”
His head dipped low, and his mouth came crashing down onto hers. For a second, she couldn’t think—so lost in sensation. He was both hot and explosive, and he was owning her through his kisses. Who taught him how to kiss? Her fingers clutched his shoulders, holding on for dear life. She was frozen for a few seconds.
After the numbness of immobility wore over, he took advantage of her stunned surprise to slide right in, tasting between her lips, his firm mouth coaxing her to open wider. There was a needy moan in the air, a feminine, gasping sound. Oh, god. It came from her.
Strong fingers clasped her nape, supporting her neck carefully as he angled her backward for a deeper taste.
Steele was kissing her. The thought was still sinking in, making her all too aware of her wanton urges she had from day one.
With another soft moan, she wrapped her arms around his neck and threaded her fingers through his soft, thick hair, locking him tightly against her. Her thighs clamped against his sides. Oh, God, he was hot, so hard, and it was much too easy to just lift against him, rubbing her aching core right where she needed it, the hard bulge she rode. She was hotter and wetter than she’d ever been.
Steele’s tortured groan filled her mouth. His big hand slid down her spine to grip her ass, holding her tightly as he forcibly ground her to him harder. His tongue thrusted past her lips, devouring, searching, burning with every penetrating lick.
Then he wasn’t kissing her. Suddenly, he was gone.
His face was buried in her neck instead. His arms were wrapped around her still, her legs circling his hips. Their chests heaved together, her breasts mashed against the hard planes of his heated skin.
“Is your curiosity appeased?” Steele whispered.
“Not even close. My appetite has just been cruelly whetted.”
“I have the same problem, Dr. Robyn.”
“It’s really weird to call me doctor when you just had your tongue down my throat.”
He laughed softly, nuzzling her throat. “Come back to me later.”
“I will,” she promised, and a sizzle of heat curled deep down inside her.
* * * * *
The scientists of Crested Labs were seated around the conference table, excitement thick in the air.
“How is BC-64?” Chen asked before she could even sit down.
“He doesn’t remember having a seizure. We surmised that EKO-2—Steele—was in the exercise room before Pax. His testosterone was rubbed onto the equipment, and Pax got a dose. Later, when his stats returned to normal, the addition was too much and he seized.”
“It’s a problem for them to be in those separate rooms. What if he had the seizure with no one around? We need to install cameras in those smaller rooms.”
“Hindsight is 20/20. However, Amanda and I aren’t laborers. We’d make a mess of installing cameras. And you see that the beings are not yet able to tolerate male presence.”
“This is an issue we need to spend top priority on. These individuals need to begin testing so we can start to rouse the others.”
“It’s only been three weeks.”
“You’ve been here an entire month. We only have six months of your service.”
“That’s plenty of time. As long as the other individuals are revived even one week before we leave, you can follow the protocol we’ve established with Esson Four. You’re rushing things.”
Drs. Chen and Sabin both looked at Meade. What she was saying made sense, and they all knew it.
“It’s just so frustrating to be here, on the cutting edge of this experiment, and do nothing.” Meade crumbled the napkin in his hand.
“Think of it as a vacation. Hell, go visit family above ground while you have a chance. Because in five months, you’re going to be glued to that lab just like Amanda and I are now.”
“She’s got a point,” Dr. Chen said. “I think we need to relax.”
“Relax? We have no idea what’s going on half the time.”
“I update you daily. I’m sorry that it’s a lot of boring stuff, but it is boring in there. These things take time.”
“Of course,” Dr. Meade murmured. “Of course they do. It’s just that with the government breathing down our neck…”
He was cut off by Dr. Sabin. “Perhaps the government does need an update in person.”
A look passed between Sabin and Meade.
Meade turned toward her. “Let me know if there are any other health issues,” he said.
“Always.” Robyn smiled and quickly stood. “I’m exhausted. If there’s nothing else, I’m going to get a couple hours sleep before taking over for Amanda to watch Pax.”
“No, no.” Meade said, abruptly dismissing her. “Just keep us updated.”
Chapter Seven
Amanda waited for Robyn to return. She caught her eye and then motioned with her head toward Pax’s room. As soon as they entered, Amanda turned to her.
“How is he?” Robyn whispered.
“He’s fine now. No ill effects, though I sedated him. Tell me about the meeting.”
“There’s probably something I should have told you first—a long time ago, actually—but
I didn’t want you to give away that we knew. They have our personal rooms bugged. I changed the programming to begin whenever we use the window lights.”
“Are you kidding me? I’ll never turn the damn thing on.”
“That’s why I couldn’t tell you. We have to act normal. There’s also a camera in the light of the main living quarters, but that’s easy enough to avoid by facing the kitchenette, which is why they installed the second camera in the window simulator. But naturally, there’s no reason why they need to watch you in your room. We go there to sleep, shower, and eat. And lately, it’s only sleep and shower.”
“This whole thing is ridiculous. What are we going to do? We can’t let them find out that it was a memory that triggered Pax—which proves he had active brain matter before the revival. Did they all?”
“I think so,” Robyn said, thinking of the kiss between her and Steele. There was no way he didn’t know what he was doing, even if it was subconscious. “I’m going to search for proof that they were awake before.”
“That would violate murder laws, if so. The government would be responsible for killing without a trial, and corporeal punishment is illegal. Aren’t they also violating kidnapping laws by keeping individuals here?”
“Technically, no. They’re squeaking by. The individuals in question are not considered citizens. They have no numbers, and they have no birth certificates.”
“There’s got to be something.”
A feeling of calm washed over Robin. “That’s it.”
“What’s it?”
“Instead of focusing on what information I need to hack out…I need to focus on what to hack in. If we can get them citizen numbers without anyone knowing, they fall under the law.”
Amanda’s gaze fell on the sleeping Pax. “Do it. We’ve got to save them.”
* * * * *
Robyn paused outside Steele’s door. Knocking softly, she entered the room.
“Good morning, Dr. Robyn.”
She sat next to him on the bed. “Really? You going to insist on calling me that?”
“I thought perhaps you’d forget I had my tongue down your throat if I used the title.”
