“How does it feel?” Ryker’s hot breath wafted across Valdus’s ear.

He jerked his head to the side. “Like you should back up a few hundred steps and stop staring at me like I’m going to explode next time you blink.” He let his gaze scan the room. “That goes for all of you.”

It suddenly got very busy in quarters with everyone jumping to do some sort of task.

Privacy was shit down here under any circumstances, but it had never bothered him before. Now, all he wanted was a little discretion and some real time alone with his female. But that wouldn’t fly right now.

He forced his breath to stay slow and steady.

“Your heartbeat just jumped a notch.” Two delicate fingers pressed harder into the vein in his neck, monitoring his vital signs as best she could. It had been approximately ten heartbeats since she’d plunged Bain’s crude injector into the biggest vein in his arm. Now, it was a waiting game. “You feeling anything troubling?”

“Nope.” He wanted to rub away the worried crease between her eyes, but he knew she wouldn’t welcome it. She was in scientist mode now. And she was nervous.

He understood. What they were attempting was a risk. But everything down here was, including his growing connection to her.

“Valdus?” Doubt clouded her gaze. “Your skin is redder than it was a moment ago. You sure you’re not feeling anything?”

“There’s a bit more heat,” he admitted, rubbing at his shoulder, the site where he suspected the tracker was, “but it’s nothing painful.”

Her fingers pressed a little harder into his neck. “The heat is a known side effect. As long as it doesn’t get too hot, we should be fine.” She shot him a shaky smile.

He covered her hand with his. “We’ll be fine.”

A nod. A slow swallow. Her tongue darting out to wet dry lips. The weight of numerous pairs of eyes darting glances their way while pretending not to.

Hell, he far preferred battle. Swinging at something. This sitting around, doing nothing, while he waited to see if he lived or died was not his style. He hated the helplessness. The lack of control. The erasure of his role in shaping his own destiny.

It made him understand all over again why Ava wanted the heat technology out of her.

Didn’t mean, though, that he liked the risk she was willing to take any more than before.

Hypocrite? Definitely. But it was beyond his ability to accept the woman he loved joining the list of those he’d lost to Dragath25.

But there would come a time when he might have to do just that—if he let her test out her serum on herself.

A flash of blinding pain ripped through him. He stifled a groan and forced his body to breathe through it.

“What? What’s wrong?” Her fingers dug into his skin. “Your skin is hotter. Your pulse accelerating. Are you okay?”

Another surge of sight-stealing agony. As if his veins were filled not with blood, but vicious burning fire.

“Oh, Gods. Valdus?” Beautiful green eyes stared into his, her worried, fast breaths caressing his cheek as she leaned in close. “Can you hear me?”

He wanted to tell her not to worry. That this was how it had to go down. That the risk was worth it. That he was more pleased than ever that it was him they’d experimented on. But he couldn’t open his mouth to speak.

He was burning up from the inside out. His vision blurring as the crackle of fire roared through his ears.

“Bring me water!” Her panicked shout sounded far off. “As much as you’ve got.”

“Keep calm.” Rough hands guided him toward the ground while they barked at Ava. “You said this could happen. This is not the time to fall apart.”

“Fuck you, Ryker. I’ll damn well fall apart if I want to.” But her voice sounded stronger.

“Not now you won’t,” snapped his second. “He trusted you. Prove him right.”

The urge to slam his fist into the man’s jaw hit Valdus hard, but it was followed by a conflicting desire to bear-hug the grouchy asshole. He might snap and snarl, but Ryker would take care of Ava. He could hear it in his second’s voice. He’d been right to remind his friend of Saralynee. The husband and expectant father he’d once been was still inside the man.

“Stay with me. Valdus!” Ava’s terrified voice was faint in his ear.

He tried to catch her gaze. To tell her he would do it again in a heartbeat. That she didn’t need to prove anything to him. He already believed in her.

Everything went dark.