CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Fierce, passionate, hot sex. Three times in two hours. If not for the buzz of the intercom system that had delivered an invitation to Cassandra to attend a lunch therapy session for the women rescued from Zodius Nation, they might still be between the sheets. But that invitation had taken Michael from hot and velvety smooth to distant and reserved, and she had no idea why.
Fifteen minutes after that call, Cassandra inspected herself in the bathroom mirror, applied a little lipstick, and decided she looked somewhat human despite the dark circles under her solid black eyes. She flipped off the light and returned to the main room to find Michael sitting on the edge of the bed watching her, his long, dark hair draped around his shoulders, piercing stare shadowed by half-lowered lashes.
“You should be resting,” he insisted.
Cassandra frowned. “The injection Kelly gave me worked miracles. I feel fine.”
A second ticked by, two—silence that held yet more unspoken words.
Finally, Michael said, “You should wear the contacts Kelly brought for you.”
That drew her back a bit. Her brows dipped. “Why? Everyone else has black eyes in Sunrise City.”
“Not the women from Zodius,” he said. “They are not GTECH, nor are they Lifebonds. And considering I was one of their captors, I doubt your being linked to me will work in your favor.”
“You were the one who saved them, Michael. I don’t understand.”
“I was their enemy and captor far longer than I was anything else.” He pushed to his feet. “We better go if you’re going to make it on time.” And just like that—a wall slammed down between them, a thick barrier meant to end the conversation.
Oh no, you don’t, Cassandra thought, pursing her lips as he started for the door. He could shut out everyone else, but not her.
Cassandra advanced on him with determination in her steps, intercepting him halfway across the room and wrapping her arms around him. “Talk to me, Michael. Tell me what is wrong.”
Instantly, he softened, his hand gliding down her hair, his lips pressing against hers. “Cassandra.” He breathed her name against her lips, and she could almost swear she felt him tremble. Or maybe that was her? “Just please wear the contacts.”
“I’m not hiding my eyes from these women, Michael,” she said. “I want to help these women. I can’t sit back and do nothing. That’s what I did when I ran to Germany. But these women know who my father is. They know he’s responsible for creating Adam. I have to get by that and earn their trust. My bond to you shows them that I am a target for Ava’s fertility testing, just like them.” She kissed him again. “Now take me to my lunch.”
He let out a defeated sigh and shook his head. “You don’t listen, ever.”
She laced her arm through his. “If I remember correctly,” she purred, “I listened pretty well the past two hours.”
“So I have to keep you in bed to get you to listen?”
She grinned. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“If it were possible to keep you there all the time, no,” he said. “But it’s not, and you make protecting you nearly impossible.”
They exited the room and stepped onto the moving conveyor. “I already told you,” she said, “stop trying.”
He leaned against the railing and studied her with one of those soul-deep, twist-her-insides-out-in-all-the-right-ways looks. “That’s like telling Sterling to stop being a smart-ass.”
Cassandra laughed. “It can’t be that hard,” she said.
“Harder.”
She smiled, her gaze following the path of the moving sidewalk, taking in the center of Sunrise City with stores and restaurants, afoot with mostly male activity. “Amazing,” she murmured. “All this has been built in only two years?”
“It’s a fraction of what Adam has done with Groom Lake,” he said. “Caleb held back on construction the first year. He felt building Sunrise City meant accepting that this war would continue. But eventually, he decided the comfort of those who called this place home was too critical to overlook. We have a good number of humans here. Many of the scientific staff fear they are targets for the Zodius. They have their entire families under our protection.”
“That’s a huge sacrifice for a family to make,” she said. “Living outside the world they know.”
“Not really,” he said. “Adam has a way of hunting down certain talent and demanding they join him. Many of the humans with us are under threat of Zodius capture. Others…we suspected would be targets and approached before they were in Adam’s sights.”
“That is just frightening,” she said.
“More so when you consider Adam has plenty of powerful people in high places silently in his pockets. We’ve tried to counter that with allies of our own. We can only hope it’s enough.”
They reached the end of the walkway, and Cassandra forced herself to shake off the grimness of what he’d shared. Soon, they stood at the door of a quaint, little restaurant, complete with a full staff, menus, and cute red-and-green tablecloths. “And here I expected a giant mess hall.”
“We have one of those, too,” Michael assured her. “No military base is complete without a mess hall and a stash of rations.”
“I can’t get over how advanced all this is,” she murmured. There was an entire world underground. She tried not to think about how far underground, because it made her feel claustrophobic. There was no sunlight, no cars. No easy escape in the event of a disaster. Cassandra could see why Caleb had worked so hard to create a façade of normalcy. There was a lot to overcome.
Michael’s dark eyes bored into hers, his focus on her, not the restaurant, not the city. “Are you sure you are up to this?”
Cassandra pressed to her toes and kissed him. “I’m fine, and you know it.” She slid her hand along his jaw. He had such a strong, handsome face. Long, dark lashes—eyes that tugged at her soul no matter what the color. “When you left, I questioned if this…us, was real. If you really ever loved me.”
“More than my next breath,” he said softly, shadows edging the vow. “Cassandra.” Her name rumbled off his tongue like distant thunder, low and ominous. “I was Adam’s right-hand man.”
“Pretended to be.”
“Whatever those women tell you I did,” he said, “it’s true. Listen to them. Then finally you will understand what I am capable of doing.”
Challenge bristled within her. “If I listen, and I still love you, Michael—because I will—then what will you do? Will you find another reason to push me away?”
“Listen to what they say,” he said. “Then we will talk.” He pulled her to an enclave next to the building, out of public view, then dragged her hard against his body and kissed her, long and deep.
She shoved at his chest, tore her mouth from his, and gasped at the torment that bled from the depths of his deep, black eyes. “Don’t you dare kiss me like you are saying good-bye,” she rasped, angry now. He had no intention of talking later. He’d made his decision, tried and convicted himself for her.
“Cassandra—”
“I’m not telling you there is no good-bye today, Michael,” she interrupted. “Because if you cannot love me enough to trust me with everything that you are, then you don’t love me enough for me to be with you. And like it or not, you are stuck with me through this Red Dart thing. When it’s over—if it’s good-bye, then damn it, you will say it to my face. Or maybe I’ll be the one to say it to you. Either way, we say it. You owe me that.”
She shoved out of his arms, turned away, and charged toward the restaurant. She felt her heart slide to her feet when he did nothing to stop her. “Damn you, Michael,” she whispered.
Leaving Cassandra at that restaurant, knowing what she would learn—about him and his time inside Zodius—was killing Michael. Only minutes later, ripples of energy blistered through him as he entered the administrative wing of Sunrise City Hospital. The low churn of a storm was brewing deep inside him, threatening to consume everyone in his path.
Heads turned as he passed offices—the lab technicians and various scientific minds staring after his passing form, no doubt wondering why he was here. What was wrong that would bring Michael to the hospital? What menace was upon them? It was the kind of dread people embraced when he appeared. The kind of dread Cassandra would find in those women she was lunching with upon the mention of his name.
He didn’t want her to see that side of him, and reluctantly, pitifully, he recognized the past for what it was. Leaving her for two years before had been easier than the prospect of seeing the love in her eyes fade and become fear. Instead, he’d forced her hatred, her distrust, forced what he expected from her.
With heaviness pressing on his chest, he rounded the corner to the treatment center where Sterling and the others had been the night before and paused in the doorway. Kelly stood at the center counter, her gaze doing a sharp snap upward, as if she too sensed the power waving off him. The same power that, under normal circumstances, he controlled as easily as his next breath.
But not now, not on the day that Cassandra would see through the man to the lethal killing machine. His body pulsed with a low hum of uncontrolled energy. His mind jumbled with memories of Zodius, of stories Cassandra might hear about him.
Kelly started walking, motioning toward an exam room, but not before he detected a hint of quickly banked apprehension. Christ. Did he really want to know what she had to say?
Like one of Adam’s damn wolves, he followed like an obedient pup, entering the cracker-box-sized room and standing, arms crossed in front of his chest, legs planted firmly on the floor as he awaited the bad news.
“Have a seat,” Kelly said, rolling her chair around and motioning to the table.
He arched a brow that silently said she’d lost her mind if she thought he was getting on that table. He’d barely forced himself to come to this room and had done so only for Cassandra. He knew he was an anomaly. He didn’t need a test-tube evaluation to tell him so.
Kelly pursed her lips. “Should have known I was pushing my luck.” She made a vague gesture at the door with the pen in her hand. “You probably want to close that.”
This was the moment, he realized, that he would finally receive confirmation of what he knew was true—that he wasn’t like the other GTECHs. It took him several seconds to muster the resources to reach over and slam the door shut. Returning then to his arms-crossed, unaffected, carefree, if-you-believe-that-bullshit stance.
Kelly studied him with an all-too-knowing look. A look that said—no, she didn’t believe that bullshit for a minute. “I take it you’d like me to cut to the chase, so let’s get to it.” She didn’t wait for a reply, charging forward with the announcement. “You’re still X2 positive, but in addition you have an extra chromosome the other GTECHs do not have. At least, none of the GTECHs we’ve been able to examine.”
She anticipated the question he would have asked once he finally recovered from the blast of shock her words delivered, by adding, “To tell you what that means, exactly, will take time and study, but it stands to reason that this chromosome somehow links to your ability to control the wind. If there are other differences between you and the other GTECHs, it would help if you told me. I can…”
Michael squeezed his eyes closed, shutting out Kelly’s voice as his mind spun into a whirlwind of turbulence. White noise echoed in his ears, clamoring in his head, vibrating through his body. My God, what the hell was he? He jerked his attention back to Kelly’s explanation. “…an MRI and a series of diagnostic—”
Michael’s eyes popped open, and he pushed out the one cohesive thought he could put together in words. “What does this mean for Cassandra?”
Kelly let out a heavy breath. “She hasn’t converted to GTECH as of yet. She does have the documented cellular abnormalities we’ve seen in other females who have the mark on the back of their necks, but hers are more pronounced. But then, none of those women carried the lifebond mark for two years like she has without completing the bonding process.” She shoved her pen behind her ear. “We are in uncharted territory here, any way you look at it.”
Christ. He had a bad feeling about where this was going. “Her second blood sample. Did it show the changes progressing?”
Kelly’s lips tightened. “Yes.”
Guilt ground through his bones. “After we had sex.” It wasn’t a question. He’d known Cassandra was reacting to their physical connection, and yet he’d touched her anyway.
“It’s too soon to be sure without more testing, but yes. It seems that with every intimate contact, you come closer to completing the bond.” Her eyes lit, and she leaned forward, one elbow on her knee. “The intriguing thing here is that when you were tested at Groom Lake, this extra chromosome didn’t show up. It may be why X2 isn’t making you aggressive like it has so many others. And I assume you and Cassandra were intimate while at Groom Lake, and yet she didn’t have the bonding symptoms she’s having now. It’s as if you are evolving, and so is the lifebonding process along with you. It’s really an exciting discovery.”
“I’m glad I’ve excited you, Doc,” Michael said roughly. “Forgive me if I don’t go throwing confetti. We don’t even know what the hell I am. I’m not allowing Cassandra to be linked to that. Fix this. Make it go away.”
She bristled at that, stiffening her spine. “You don’t just ‘fix’ cellular changes of this magnitude, Michael. And leaving her in a flux state between human and GTECH isn’t good for her. Her vitamin C is low which is consistent with a GTECH. Her blood count is all over the place.”
“If I don’t touch her again,” he asked, ignoring the cut those words ripped through his heart. “Will the effects fade?”
It was her turn to act agitated. “Cellular changes do not fade, nor do they ‘fix.’ The sickness she is experiencing most likely comes from the cellular changes taking place. As for her eyes—I’m not sure at what point they will stay black. She may already be there.”
“If the assumption that if one Lifebond dies, the other does as well, is accurate,” he said. “That would only occur if we are fully bound—correct?”
“That’s a hypothesis that remains unproven,” she said. “However, there have been physical links that create that unproven probability. A bullet wound to one causes physical trauma to the other.”
“But she’s safe unless we fully bond,” he confirmed.
“That’s impossible to say,” she concluded. “We’ve never had someone in Cassandra’s physical condition to evaluate. As for the rest of your questions…you’re demanding answers, and I have nothing to go on. I need to run more tests.”
Like hell. He didn’t need any more testing to tell him what needed to be done. Nor did he need it to tell him he’d walked a line between Renegade and Zodius that might yet pull him under and her with him. “Stabilize Cassandra. I’m irrelevant.”
“And if I can’t?”
“Try hard.”
“Michael—”
“I will not take Cassandra into this unknown territory.”
“Look,” she said. “I can’t prove evil is inbred yet, but I’m working on it. Adam was always evil. Caleb was not. They are now what they were before those injections.”
“You have no idea what is inbred in me,” he said. “I do. No lifebonding.”
Disapproval mixed with reluctant acceptance touched her features. “I have to tell Caleb about the extra chromosome.”
“You wouldn’t deserve to be here if you didn’t.” He turned away and reached for the door.
“Michael, wait.” He hesitated, but didn’t turn. “What do I tell Cassandra? She’s supposed to stop by after her luncheon with the Zodius survivors.”
“To stay the hell away from me.”
Ten minutes later Michael stormed into the War Room, the heart of the Renegades’ operational facility, to find Caleb, Damion, and Sterling sitting at the “Round Table” in the center of the rectangular-shaped room. While Damion’s presence wasn’t unexpected, considering his family owned a tech firm and he was a tech whiz, Michael could have done without him for this conversation. The guy wore the all-American, Boy Scout image as perfectly as he did a weapon. Michael wasn’t in a Boy Scout kind of mood, nor did he want Damion putting Caleb in one.
He towered over the table, a dark demand on his lips. Behind him, strategic maps covered the wall, colored pins marking key targets.
“It’s time to stop pussyfooting around with Powell,” Michael bit out. “Screw alliances with the U.S. government. They’re already as much in bed with Adam as my mother is with Powell. Between him and the insiders that Adam has in the government, the Renegades have already been turned into the enemy, or we wouldn’t be targets for Red Dart. That isn’t going to change. It’s time, Caleb. I know all the reasons we approached this conservatively, but we haven’t found Red Dart. There is too much to risk. We have to remove Powell from the position where he can initiate this program before it’s too late. Bring him here, and lock him up.”
Caleb’s lips thinned. “You know how I feel about this,” he said. “Better the familiar snake in the grass than the unfamiliar one. Once Powell is removed, Red Dart will still be out there in Lord-only-knows-whose hands. We’ll be trying to figure out who is in control rather than where Red Dart is located.”
“The clock is ticking, Caleb,” Michael reminded him sharply. “He knows we are onto him. He’ll accelerate his plans—and I might add—we have no idea what they are. We have nothing.”
“Turns out we might,” Damion interjected. “Sterling and I found a way into Taylor’s system.”
Sterling arched a brow. “Care to take a seat and help us get inside the head of Mommy Dearest?”
Michael didn’t ask how they’d done the impossible. Results were what counted with him. He inhaled and forced himself to calm enough to sit down. Powell had bought himself a few more hours.