Prologue
“Termination.”
The word drifted to Luna, a low whisper that she knew the doctor hadn’t expected her to hear. But then, he’d never understood just how strong her senses truly were.
“The test subject isn’t like the others. Her experiment was a failure. If we hope for the others to continue as planned, then the only option is her termination.”
Luna wrapped her arms around her stomach. Slid down the wall. Curled her body near the floor. They were talking about her. She knew it. They were going to terminate her. They’re going to kill me.
And this time, she wouldn’t be coming back from death. There would be no waking up, as she’d done before. There would just be the end.
Would heaven be waiting for her? Or would it be hell? Funny, she’d actually thought that she was already in hell.
Her breath slid in and out of her lungs. And the fear just grew worse.
“What’s wrong?” The voice wasn’t out loud. The warm, rough, masculine voice was only in her head. Not because she was crazy. She wasn’t. Well, at least Luna wasn’t completely crazy. She was part of a government experiment. An experiment that should have created stronger, better soldiers. Super soldiers. An experiment that had brought the dead back to life—and given the test subjects enhanced senses, greater strength…and psychic bonuses.
Project Lazarus. The test subjects rose from the dead.
But she wouldn’t rise again. Not after her termination.
“Talk to me.” Again, his voice rolled through her mind.
He was another test subject, and they’d discovered—early on—that they could communicate with each other telepathically. Their link had just snapped into place. She’d woken on an exam table, her body completely nude, terror clawing at her, and he’d been there from the first instant. Telling her to breathe. Telling her that everything was going to be okay.
But nothing was going to be okay ever again.
“You’re afraid.”
He’d always been so good at reading her emotions. Emotions were supposed to be dangerous for their kind. Rage and fear were felt too powerfully by the test subjects. Most of the other subjects were good at controlling their emotions.
She…wasn’t.
Was that why she was being terminated?
“Luna…”
She swallowed as she sat huddled on the floor. She sent out a fast, sad psychic message to him. “Good-bye.”
“Good-bye? Where the hell are you going? Are they sending you out on a mission?” Now anger hummed in his words. Odd. He never let emotion slip through. She often thought he was just like ice. She was fire, always raging, always getting out of line, but he’d pull her back. He’d keep her in check.
“I’m the team leader. No one who belongs to me goes out alone.”
She didn’t belong to him, though. She didn’t fit in with the others. Something had gone wrong with her experiment. Maybe the preservation process hadn’t been handled properly. Maybe she hadn’t received enough of the Lazarus serum. Whatever had happened… “They’re going to terminate me.”
Silence. Cold. Ice.
Luna swallowed. Luna—that was her name. She knew because they’d told her. They—the doctors in the white lab coats. She’d actually awoken with no memories at all. They’d said she volunteered to be part of Project Lazarus. That she’d once been an Air Force pilot. That—
“No.” His voice seemed to slam through her whole body. “You aren’t being terminated. I won’t fucking let them do that to you.”
For once, he wasn’t controlled. She could feel his fury. And it wasn’t cold.
“It won’t happen.” Again, his rage blasted at her.
But she could hear footsteps coming toward her. The doctors. She knew what they’d do. They’d tranq her so that she couldn’t fight them. The tranq would put her to sleep, and she’d just never wake up again. A painless way to go, she supposed.
They’d killed her before. As part of the experiment. To make sure that she could come back from death like the other test subjects did. And she did rise. But…
Each time she died, she lost all of her memories again. The other test subjects didn’t remember their lives before they’d come to Lazarus, but they could recall everything since they’d been given the Lazarus serum. They remembered their government missions, their life at the Lazarus facility. They could die, and come back, and they’d still remember everything that had happened to them after they’d woken as Lazarus subjects.
Each time she died, she lost it all.
And her emotions raged out of control.
Was it any wonder she’d been put up for termination? But… “I don’t want to die.” Luna knew her pain would transmit in her psychic message.
“I won’t let them do this to you!” It was like he was roaring in her head. And for just a moment, she actually had a fast impression of him in his room. She could do that, sometimes, see through his eyes. Usually when she was stressed and scared as all hell. He was slamming his powerful fists into his door. Knocking in the metal that should have been even stronger than he was. Only…She didn’t think anything was stronger than Maddox.
My Maddox.
If only. Another life.
Blood spilled from his fists and that door flew inward. She had the fast impression of guards, running toward him. Shock was on their faces. And their hands—they had tranq guns in their hands. As far as she knew, they’d never used those tranqs on Maddox before. He was the leader. He was ice. He was—
The guards fired. He roared and took two of them down. They just seemed to fall before him.
More shots were fired, and suddenly, the world that she saw through Maddox’s eyes went dark.
And she could only see her own room. Her own cell. So small. She was still on the floor. Still had her arms locked around her knees. Maddox had been fighting to reach her. He’d been fighting for her.
“I don’t want to die,” Luna whispered.
Her door opened. She expected to see guards. Instead, it was two doctors. Doctors in their lab coats with their fake smiles. A woman with red hair. A man with brown hair.
The woman inclined her head toward Luna. “We need you to come with us.”
Maddox had fought.
So would she.
Luna rose to her feet. Her hands fisted at her sides. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
The fake smiles froze.
Luna squared her shoulders. “But you aren’t going to terminate me.”
The redheaded doctor shouted for the guards. Too late. Luna was fast. So fast. Faster than she’d ever shown them. She rushed forward and shoved the woman and the male out of her way. They flew back, collided with the walls, and then Luna was in the corridor. She could hear the footsteps of guards rushing toward her, but she didn’t slow down. She just pushed herself faster, harder. Her bare feet hit against the tiled floor. She hurried forward, wanting to get to the stairs. If she could get to the upper level of the facility, she could break through a window or door and get outside. Once outside, she could run. She’d never stop running.
Something hit her in the shoulder. A fast burn. A tranq. She stumbled a little, but managed to grab the stair railing and haul herself up. Up, up, up…
A blond guard was at the top of the stairs. He had his gun aimed right at her. He shouted, “Stand down!”
Luna could have sworn there was sympathy in his eyes. Maybe he wouldn’t fire at her.
But then she heard the thud of footsteps coming close—more guards, piling up behind him. And they didn’t have sympathy in their eyes.
Only grim determination.
She stilled on the stairs, half-way up. “I don’t want to die,” Luna said again.
“It’s just a tranq,” the sympathetic guard said. “Just a tranq.”
He didn’t understand.
Luna gathered her strength. Then, with a guttural cry, she launched herself forward. She took out one guard, two, a third—
The third guard fired at her.
Another hard burn pierced her body. But this time, her legs went numb. She fell, tumbling back, unable to control her movements. She hit the stairs, slamming into them again and again as she tumbled down. Her arm broke. The snap filled her ears. Her ribs fractured, she could feel the pain cutting through her, and then her head—her neck—
Darkness.
***
Maddox Kane stood in the middle of the cell, his shoulders tense, his hands fisted, and his gaze locked straight ahead. He was chained up, they’d never chained him before, and he wondered how much effort it would take to snap through the chains.
Footsteps were coming toward him. Soft, hesitant. Scared.
He waited.
The door swung open. A doctor was there, a guy in a white lab coat. Sweating. His Adam’s apple bobbing. The fellow opened his mouth to talk—
“Luna,” Maddox growled her name. He’d tried to reach her as soon as he woke up. Tried to connect with her, but he’d only gotten darkness. Darkness, when normally, Luna shone with light.
The doctor backed up a step. His brown eyes darted down to the chains that held Maddox in place. “I apologize for the restraints. Until we can determine what caused you to attack—”
“Luna.”
More sweat. And the guy’s heartbeat was racing so fast that Maddox was surprised it didn’t burst out of his chest.
The doctor’s hand rose. He pulled at his collar, as if it were choking him. “We…we have a problem.”
They sure as hell did. If Luna had been hurt…if she’d been terminated…
Maddox lunged forward. The chains snapped. He locked his hand around the doctor’s throat. “What problem?”
The guy’s eyes were about to bulge out of his head. “Sh-she…”
“Stand down, Kane.” A hard voice blasted from the intercom. He knew that voice. The voice of the man who liked to pull the strings at the facility. Dr. Henry Danwith. “Stand down, and wait for orders.”
He wasn’t in the mood to stand down.
“You have a mission waiting,” Henry announced.
How long had he been unconscious? He’d assumed it had only been a matter of minutes, but now, he began to wonder.
“A retrieval mission,” Henry continued. “We’ve lost a valuable asset, and your job is to hunt her down.”
Her?
“She has a head start on you. But I have faith in your hunting abilities. No one can escape from you.”
Maddox let go of the useless doctor. Whirled to stare at the video camera that was positioned in the top right corner of the room. “Who is my prey?”
But in his gut, Maddox knew, he knew…
“Luna Ashton escaped the facility. You have to bring her back.”