CHAPTER FOUR
Kel stalked down the hallway toward the lab where he knew he’d find Becca, Sterling’s lifebond, someone who could help Sonia in all kinds of ways. Emotion expanded inside him, ready to explode but somehow he clamped down on his feelings. He knew the right thing to do. He knew he had to wipe Sonia’s memory as he would the waitress, once they’d arranged a new life for her, someplace safe and far away from the Zodius’ reach. Instead, he burned to pull her into his arms and make love to her, to make her his lifebond and bind her to him forever. The bond was no sure thing, and even if it was, it would steal her ability to choose her future. Not this time, not when she had options. And not when the final outcome was her being bound to him in life and in death. She deserved a choice and but he worried it wasn’t that simple. The truth of the matter was thought that he wasn’t even sure that he really could give her choices. Would her dreams simply recreate whatever he’d erased?
The only person that might be able to answer that was Becca. She had abilities that her transformation to GTECH had given her.
He entered the lab, and sure enough, the pretty brunette Sterling called wife and lifebond stood at a lab table looking through a microscope.
“Hi Kel,” she said, glancing up at him. “How is Sonia and when can I meet her?” She took one look at him and rephrased. “What’s wrong?”
Kel started to pace, ignoring the question. “She has dreams that come true.”
“I heard something about that. Sterling said you thought they’d gone away?”
“I did,” he said. “But apparently they’re back.”
“For how long?”
He stopped walking and ran his hand through his hair. “We didn’t exactly get to that.”
“She was pretty upset over you faking your death?”
He nodded. “That’s an understatement.”
“I can understand her being upset.”
“I had to do it.”
“I know,” she said gently. “If anyone knows I do. Remember? I was inside the Zodius facility. I saw what they do to women there.”
“I don’t want this life for her.”
“She’s already a part of it,” Becca reminded him.
“If I wipe her memory, I need to know if the dreams will recreate them. I need you to test her and find out.”
“Kel, I touch someone and I see their memories. I can’t see what their future memories will be. And if she has this ability, you can wipe away her past, but you won’t stop her dreams from taking her where they want to go. Call me a romantic, but I’d like to think they will always lead her right back here, to you. You love her and you hurt every day being away from her. I see it in your eyes.”
“How do I bring her into this world and justify that as okay?”
“How do you justify doing what the army did to you and the others in ‘Project Zodius’ by denying her the ability to choose?”
“Because I’m saving her life and they were taking ours.”
“You think stealing her memories and giving her some life she didn’t ask for is saving her?”
“DO you know where Kel is?” came a muffled female, very familiar voice from the hallway.
That she’d come hunting for him shouldn’t have surprised him, yet it did. She was, and always had been, determined to get what she wanted. That she wanted him both warmed him and turned him to ice. He didn’t know how to handle this right. He’d had no time to think about this.
Becca smiled. “She’s looking for you. I like her already.”
Suddenly, the door opened behind Kel and Damion said, “You have company.” Kel turned just in time to see Damion step out of the doorway and Sonia appear from behind him.
“Kel,” she said, charging forward to embrace him, tilting her chin up to find his eyes with hers. “All that matters is that you’re alive and we’re together. I love you. I never stopped loving you, or missing you, or hurting from the loss of you. I’m not letting you play macho super soldier and send me away. Not unless you tell me you don’t love me anymore.”
Kel buried his head in her hair, inhaling the sweet smell of woman - his woman - and he knew why he’d walked away without giving her a choice. She was a giving, beautiful woman in so many ways. She was at that bar tonight to save the waitress, fearless for herself. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
She pulled back and forced him to look at her, those gorgeous green eyes of hers seeming to see right into his soul, her voice hoarse with emotion. “Then don’t leave me again.”
“I don’t want to,” he assured her, and there was no way she could possibly know how much he meant those words, how much he wanted to be selfish and keep her with him.
“But you’re going to?” she challenged, seeming to read his mind. She shook her head. “No. I won’t let you.” There was stubbornness, passion, and love, in that vow.
It was all he could do not to pick up Sonia and carry her out of here, back to the apartments he called his own when in the city. To his bed. Somehow, he managed to restrain himself and instead he gently took her hand. “Let’s go back to the room.”
She nodded and he turned to Becca. “Sonia, this is Becca. I’ll introduce you more formally later.”
Sonia waved. “Hi, Becca. Nice to meet you.”
Becca smiled softly. “We’ll get acquainted after you two get some much needed time together. I’d love to hear about your dreams. I have a few abilities of my own I’m still getting used to.”
“I’d like that very much,” Sonia said.
Kel motioned to the door and he and Sonia headed to the hallway. The floral scent of her, the soft sway of her hips, seeped into his senses.
Suddenly, his adrenaline was pumping fiercely, his blood burning through his veins. He been so long without her, too long without her. But there were things she had to know, things about him, and he dreaded the moment she might call him a monster. The moment she saw what he’d really become. And he was afraid that moment was now.