CHAPTER SEVEN
Sonia woke the next morning to the sound of Kel humming nearby and the smell of coffee and this time it was her turn to smile. She stretched and sat up, holding the sheet to her chest.
“Morning,” he said, from over at the bar, a spoon in his hand. “Hungry?”
“Starving,” she said eagerly.
“Becca brought you some of her clothes,” he said. “And a robe. It’s there on the end of the bed.”
Sonia reached for the pink silk garment and shoved her arms in it. A quick trip to the bathroom and she was at the kitchen table, being rewarded with a kiss from a sexy, bare-chested super soldier, and being ordered to sit at the table.
“Fine.” She laughed. “But for the record, a girl could get used to being waited on hand and spatula by a hot soldier.”
“As long as that soldier is me,” he said with a grin. “I don’t have a problem with that. Give me about one minute and my famous omelet will be served up.”
“I can’t wait she said, watching him fill her plate before returning and setting it in front of her.
“Brunch is served,” he said. “I haven’t made one since I, well, died, so I don’t promise it’s as good as the past.”
Since he died. That was a bad memory she could do without. “I’m sure it’s great. Thank you.” She was just about to take a bite when he returned with two more plates. “Is someone joining us?”
He sat down with her. “Nope. GTECHs eat a lot. It’s our metabolism.” He poured orange juice into his glass. “And we have a vitamin C deficiency. Our scientific teams are trying to figure it out.” He poured her some juice as well.
“So you mentioned special abilities that certain GTECHs have?” she asked, tearing into her omelet. “What exactly does that mean?”
“Caleb can sense emotions and I’m not sure he can’t read minds. He hasn’t said as much, but I’ve got my suspicions. Michael, who I don’t think you have met, can control and communicate with the wind in some freaky way none of us understand.”
“But you travel in the wind.”
“He commands the wind. I’m talking throw a wind ball or use it as a wall. Crazy stuff.” He considered a moment. “Sterling doesn’t have anything unique, but his wife Becca is one of the most powerful people among us. She was given a synthetic dose of the GTECH serum in one of Adam’s fertility camps. She’s telepathic and she sees the past of the person she touches. Oh yeah, and she can command a GTECH to sleep and they go lights out better than with a switch. She’s a weapon, times ten.”
She gaped, not sure which part shocked her the most. “Becca was captured by Adam?”
He nodded. “So were a lot of the women at Sunrise City. They operate a task force to track down areas where women are being abducted and stop it. But only Becca has those skills. Caleb said, like you, she had some natural-born skills that came out with the serum. As for the other GTECHs, over time, different skills emerge. We seem to be evolving.”
“Wow,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “Just wow.”
“It’s a lot to take in,” he said. “Sometimes I feel like I’m dreaming. But as you can see, feeling awkward about your dreaming and visions isn’t an issue here. In fact, I have a feeling that between Becca and Caleb, you can learn to harness your ability even more than you have on your own. Caleb did a lot to help Becca.”
“That would be remarkable,” she said. “To have people who understand and help me rather than call me crazy. It’s almost too good to be true.”
He studied her a long moment before shoving his plate aside and going down on his knees beside her. He turned her chair so that he braced both hands on the arm. “This world exists because we are in a war. I need you to know that. And I need you to understand that Adam is hunting you. You can’t go back to your old life. It kills me to think of you wrapped up in this hell almost as badly as it kills me to think of you not being here.”
Emotion tightened in her chest, and her hand covered his. She was remarkably calm, and a sense of rightness filled her. “I let my dreams scare me away from my purpose, which I believe is to protect and help people. You can’t scare me away any more than they can now. I’m going to put my dreams to use, and it seems to me that dreaming of the women being kidnapped means I belong in this war.”
He considered her another long moment. “I’ll be overly protective.”
“I’ll make you get over it.”
“Adam Rain is hunting you.”
“You’ve already made that clear.”
“You can’t go back to your life. You can’t even go home and get your things. I’ll get them for you.”
That was hard to swallow but she wasn’t foolish enough to take risks. She’d seen too much in her dreams to not believe in real life nightmares. ”I understand.”
His lips thinned. “No. You don’t. Not this world or this war. Not yet. But you will and when you do I need you to know that you aren’t stuck here with me. We can move you somewhere, get you a new identity-”
She leaned down and kissed him. “I belong in this war, fighting by your side.”
He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her off the chair, his head pressed to her stomach, holding her a long moment before he looked up at her. “I want you by my side and I feel like such a selfish bastard for that.”
Her fingers traced the soft strands of his light brown hair. “Say you’re sorry when you eat the last piece of chocolate in the box,” she teased, remembering their mutual love of candy. “Don’t be sorry for wanting me by your side.” And with that, he pulled her down onto the ground and they forgot about breakfast until well after lunch.
A few hours later, Sonia sat in the lab with Becca, who Sonia liked more every second she was with her. A safe location for Carrie, the waitress from the bar, had been found and the trip to Sunrise had to be put off a day to get her settled. Sonia felt such satisfaction to know that she’d saved Carrie, though she hated that Kel felt Carrie was now a target for Adam. Carrie, like herself, had to move and leave her life behind.
Sonia indicated the pink tee she wore with Becca’s dark blue jeans that luckily fit fairly well, and laughed, “‘Astrobiologists have more fun’?”
Becca grinned. “And you thought it was blondes.”
Sonia laughed. “Sterling is blonde.”
“And I bought him a shirt that says ‘Blondes have more fun’ and he said he’d only wear it if he could add ‘in bed’.”
Sonia almost choked on the soda she was sipping. “Oh my God. That’s too funny.” She set her drink aside, deciding it was dangerous for now. “I don’t think I’ve ever known an astrobiologist or anyone else who has.”
“It’s an interest in space and other forms of life that got many in my field killed or kidnapped by Adam. It’s a long story.” Her brows furrowed. “I wonder...I can see a person’s past when I touch them. So if I touch you, I’m curious if your dreams would read like your past. Because if they do, then maybe we can harness that to better hone in on female targets and save would be victims.”
Excitement rose inside Sonia. “Oh, let’s try!”
The door to the lab opened and a tall, extremely good-looking man with longish brown hair, wearing a whole lot of leather, sauntered in. “Where’s the Eraser? Calling the Eraser.” He stopped dead when he saw Sonia. “Oh, sorry about that. You must be Sonia.” He offered her his hand and she took it, before he added. “I’m Chale, Kel’s friend, and Damion’s frenemey.”
“Frenemey?” she asked, finding she was smiling far more than one would expect having just been thrown into the Twilight Zone.
“He hates me so much he likes me. So where is the Eraser?” He eyed Sonia. “Our team is a few miles from Carrie’s new location and they need Kel to wind walk over and work his magic on arrival.”
“Eraser?” Sonia asked, confused.
“That’s what we call Kel since he can erase people’s memories.”
Sonia went completely still.
“Sonia don’t overreact,” Becca said quickly. “He would have told you. He hasn’t had time.”
“Oh shit,” Chale said. “You didn’t know, did you?”
“No,” Kel said from the door. “She didn’t know because I didn’t have time to tell her, so thank you for that.”
Sonia was on her feet in a heartbeat. “You had time to tell me, you just didn’t. You were going to wipe my memories and send me away again, weren’t you?”