CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Several hours after leaving Damion behind in his quarters, Lara was still reeling with the knowledge that Cassandra was Powell’s daughter, made more difficult to digest by the dull headache she was pretending not to have. Thankfully, the opportunity to sit had presented itself, and Lara found herself at a wooden table with Cassandra and Becca, in a quaint little coffee shop lined with shelves full of books and mugs. She even had a caramel latte in hand, and the bags by her feet held a variety of clothes and products that the two women had insisted she buy. Though Lara barely remembered what was in the bags, with her thoughts torn between her growing attachment to Damion, and the bombshell about Powell.
Lara glanced out the shop’s window, feeling as if she’d entered an alternate universe where an underground military base had transformed into a town, with brick sidewalks framing stores and restaurants. This wasn’t the world of vicious killers and monsters, as Powell had painted the Renegades.
“How long have you both been with the Renegades?” Lara asked, now that they had time to talk about something other than her wardrobe.
“A couple of months for me,” Becca said, brushing dark hair from her eyes and resting her chin on her fist. “But it feels like a lifetime, so much has changed so fast. One day, I was an astrobiologist with NASA and dying of terminal cancer. The next, Adam had kidnapped me, injected me with a synthetic form of the GTECH serum he’d created with his son’s DNA, and told me my cancer was cured.”
“Adam cured your cancer?” Lara asked, gaping.
“Right. Then told me the drug that cured my cancer was going to kill me if I didn’t find an antidote. He’d wanted to create a worldwide addiction to a drug that only he could supply. He’s a real charmer.”
“Oh my God,” Lara whispered. “Just—oh my God.”
“It turned out okay,” she said. “That’s what counts. I found Sterling, and I got some pretty nifty abilities from it all.” Becca looked down at the table and a container of sugar started to shake. Lara’s eyes went wide, and her gaze jerked to Becca, who grinned. “Like I said—pretty nifty, yes? I have this little knack for putting a GTECH to sleep too—I think it, and they take a nap. It makes me a great tool for battle, but Sterling never wants to let me get involved. I’m working on that though.”
“Unbelievable,” Lara whispered. “They just fall asleep?”
“Drop like rocks,” Becca said, smiling. “Too bad it won’t work on Sterling. I could really make that work for me if it did.”
Lara smiled. “I’ll bet. Do you read minds too?”
“Memories and events,” she said, matter-of-factly, like the gift wasn’t amazing. “I liken it to replaying a DVD.”
“That’s just amazing,” Lara said. “I can’t imagine having such abilities.”
“If you think Becca’s amazing,” Cassandra said. “You should see what Adam’s son, Dorian, can do. Thankfully, he’s here at Sunrise City now, because that man is crazy powerful.”
“Man?” Lara asked. “Isn’t he a boy?”
“Ah no,” Becca said. “He ages a year every few months. Which is why we have to bring down Adam’s operation before he can have another child, or worse, before he figures out how to force Lifebonding so others in his operation can have children. Thankfully, right now, those who Lifebond are only those who fall in love. Judging from the number of online dating services these days, there’s a lot of trying to fall in love, and not a lot of actually doing it. Considering Adam’s version of Match.com is throwing people into a sex camp to see if they’re destined for love by way of forced sex, success isn’t likely. Who falls in love under such circumstances? And even if the Lifebond match occurs, thus far the ability to procreate is limited to one week per year. It’s a really small window. For those of us not ready for kids, it at least makes for easy birth control.”
“So the couple has to be in love to Lifebond?” Lara asked, hoping her interest didn’t seem overly obvious.
“Well,” Cassandra said, sipping her white mocha. “All of this GTECH stuff is really unknown territory.” She snorted. “GTECH stuff. I sound so scholarly, don’t I? You’d never know I was educated, now would you?”
Educated. School. College. Lara’s stomach knotted. She didn’t know if she’d been to college. She remembered Damion asking if she’d been in the army and not knowing the answer to that either. “Anyway,” Cassandra continued, “from what we know—and this is fairly proven through the Lifebonds already in existence, and through laboratory testing—the Lifebond connection is basically the same as when two humans meet and fall in love. That couple has chemistry from the beginning, and love evolves. Lifebonds have that same chemistry, but our bodies seem to know, even if our hearts and our minds don’t yet, thus why the Lifebond mark appears on the female’s neck right after the first sexual encounter. We think the Lifebonding and human love connections are so related that it’s spurred new studies relating to human attraction and fertility. In fact, it’s opened the door to the question of just how interwoven the GTECH race might be in our human ancestry. Interesting stuff really, but it’s all so far from answered. It’s really just a bunch of question marks.”
From the moment Cassandra mentioned the Lifebond mark appearing after the first sexual encounter, Lara had only been half listening. It was all Lara could do not to reach up to her neck and run her fingers across it. Lifebonding was a part of falling in love. Love. Was that what was happening to her with Damion? There was no denying that she felt things for him that defied circumstances and reason. Surely fate wouldn’t bond two people destined to be enemies?
“So,” Lara asked. “There is no real choice of who you Lifebond with then? Your body just decides for you?”
“If you’re in love, you’re in love,” Becca said, sliding a lock of brown hair behind her ear. “It never felt to me like my body decided for me, even in the extreme medical condition I was in. I loved Sterling. I knew I loved him. If I didn’t, I just wouldn’t stay with him. You won’t die because you’re apart or anything like that.”
“That’s not completely true,” Cassandra said. “Once you do a blood bond, if one dies, the other will die. We know that for a fact now. We’ve proven it in the lab.”
“But you and Michael were apart for years even after you Lifebonded, though you hadn’t done the blood exchange,” Becca reminded her. “You were fine without each other.”
“I wasn’t okay without Michael,” Cassandra said. “I didn’t want any other man. I didn’t feel like myself. As cheesy as this might sound, I was incomplete without Michael in a way I can’t begin to explain. The instant we were back together, my body tried to complete the process. Lab work showed that every time we had sex, I became more GTECH. So sex seems to fill in for the blood bond. Since sex seems impossible to resist when Lifebonds are near each other, distance seems to be the only way to prevent the life-and-death bond.”
“So sex will complete the bond?”
“Not immediately,” Cassandra said. “Time was a factor for me and Michael. We’d been Lifebonded for years without a blood exchange.” She grinned. “And let me tell you—we had plenty of sex before our separation, and nothing happened. Eventually though, our bodies just said—this is it. You’re bonding.”
“The men have trouble with the life-and-death part,” Becca said. “They don’t want a bond that means every time they risk their lives, they risk our lives.”
Lara glanced at Cassandra. “Is that why you and Michael separated?”
She shook her head. “No. When my father determined that the GTECHs with the X2 gene—like Michael—were volatile, he tried to lock them away. I was working at the Area 51 base as the psychologist, and my father knew I was in love with Michael, but still he not only included him on that list, he didn’t tell me. Nor did he even try to find out if all X2s were dangerous. Michael has another gene that counteracts the X2. Anyway, Adam and the other X2s rose against my father. Caleb, good man that he is, led the X2 negatives against his brother and his followers, and tried to save the base. To make a long story short, Michael went undercover in the Zodius operation, trying to find the chemical weapons that Adam uses as a threat to stop potential attacks on Area 51. His Lifebond, Ava, was planning to use an experimental fertility drug on the women in the sex camps, a drug that had a high death rate. Michael helped them escape at the cost of his cover.
“Of course, nothing Michael or any of the Renegades do is ever enough to prove they are loyal to their country. My father wants them all destroyed, and he has done everything in his power to convince the government they should be.”
Lara leaned back in her chair, the headache throbbing in her temples, while images of Skywalker being shot intruded on her consciousness, followed by another of herself in a jail cell, with Powell sitting across from her. When was she in a cell, and why was Powell there?
“Now the women he rescued call themselves the Wardens,” Cassandra continued, pulling Lara back to the moment. “They monitor for high instances of female abductions, state by state, and then we send in a Renegade team when we feel we’ve found an area the Zodius are targeting.”
“She fails to tell you,” Becca said, “that she set up the program, and is now the ‘Queen Warden,’ as the girls jokingly call her.”
Cassandra waved off the compliment. “Those women are the heroes, not me. Michael too, for saving them.”
“You stood up to your father,” Becca said, touching Cassandra’s hand.
Lara liked these women, Cassandra in particular. There was something about her story that touched Lara on an almost personal level. “That was incredibly brave of you.”
Lara’s eyes met Cassandra’s, and she saw the hurt there, the torment. Lara’s stomach churned, and she had a horrible prickling feeling in her eyes, like she could cry—she didn’t know exactly why. Only that she’d been prepared to kill as many Renegades as she could, thirsted for it like she did her next drink of water. Maybe she’d killed Renegades. Maybe she’d killed the friends and family of these women, of Sterling. How would she know? She didn’t even know her own last name.
Cassandra cut her gaze to her cup and took a sip, and Lara had the sense that she was trying to regain her composure. When Cassandra set the cup down, she’d clearly checked her emotions, any signs of distress gone. “Would you like to see the Wardens Operations Center, Lara? Maybe meet a few of the Wardens themselves?”
Lara was stunned by the offer. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell Adam about the Wardens?”
“No,” Cassandra said without hesitation. “I’m not afraid you’re going to tell Adam anything.”
There was a silent message to the words. Cassandra didn’t believe Lara was working for Adam. Lara read it in the other woman’s face and between the lines of the conversation here today. Deserved or not, Lara was being given the opportunity to see beyond Powell’s version of the Renegades.
“Yes,” Lara said. “I’d very much like to see the Wardens’ operation.” In fact, women fighting for women, standing against those who had wounded them, sounded like exactly the kind of cause that would call to Lara. She absolutely wanted to know more about the Wardens.
Once Lara had left for her shopping expedition with the women, Damion and Sterling went in search of Caleb. When they discovered he was spending quality time with his scary, freak-of-nature nephew, who, at one year old, was physically a man in his twenties, Sterling had taken off. Which was understandable, since Dorian had tried to kill Becca several months before.
Damion found Caleb, Dorian, and Michael watching Star Wars in Caleb’s living room—a black and silver clone of his own room. The group sat around the now muted television, Damion and Caleb on the couch, Dorian, in a leather chair. Michael was standing, acting as a bodyguard to Caleb, watching the kid like he was a science project gone bad, which seemed more accurate than not: Dorian’s hair, long and white blond, was tied at his nape—it had been midnight black only days before. No one but Caleb believed Dorian could become a trusted Renegade, but Caleb was determined to prove them all wrong.
Damion stared at the kid, hesitating to speak openly with Dorian present, despite the fact that the kid seemed uninterested and continued to stare at the screen as if he could still hear the muted soundtrack.
“You can speak in front of Dorian,” Caleb said softly, drawing Damion’s attention.
Damion tore his gaze away from the kid and gave a quick nod. “When Cassandra introduced herself as Cassandra Powell, Lara looked like she’d seen a ghost. She knew his name and knew it well.”
“Damn,” Michael cursed, scrubbing his jaw. “I’d hoped that man was long gone, never to be heard of again. If Powell is back, this is going to be pure torture for Cassandra.”
“Knowing about Powell and knowing Powell are two different things,” Caleb commented. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.” He glanced at Damion. “How close are you to earning her trust and getting her to talk?”
“Close,” Damion said. “And right now, she’s with Cassandra and Becca on the Strip. Cassandra noticed her reaction to Powell’s name too.”
“Well, you can bank on Cassandra making sure Lara knows what a monster her father is,” Michael assured them. “On the other hand, you can also bank on Powell having painted us as absolute monsters. Whoever we’re dealing with convinced her that we’re the people who slaughtered her family. They even gave her memories of the brutal killings.” He glanced at Damion. “She really needs to take that CT scan, even if you have to force her, man. I know you think I’m an asshole for suggesting that, but this time, I’m saying it for her own protection. If Powell or someone else has inserted some kind of device in her head, who knows what long-term effects it might have. God forbid that it might kill her.”
Damion’s gut clenched. “You’re right. I hate that you’re right, but you are.”
“Not only is he right,” Caleb said, “but time is critical. There is a massive difference between dealing with Adam and dealing with Powell. Adam wants me alive, so I can join him as a leader of a new world, and he wants me to bring my men with me. Powell, on the other hand, wants us all dead, because he can’t control us.”
“Bring the woman to me,” Dorian said, fixing his swirling gray eyes on the room. “I will heal her and restore her memories.”
“No,” Michael and Damion said at the same moment.
Michael cut a sharp look at Caleb. “He is Adam’s son. If we’re wrong and this is Adam we’re dealing with, not Powell, then Dorian could kill Lara to keep her from talking.”
Dorian stared at Michael for several tense seconds before focusing on Damion. “If you do not wish me to save her, then you must save her yourself.”
Damion went icy inside. “What does that mean?”
“Do the blood exchange, or she will die,” Dorian said. He glanced at the television and back at Damion. “Did you know that Skywalker isn’t his real name? It’s Luke.” And then he turned and focused on the movie.
Damion sat there, stunned into silence by this confirmation that Lara was his Lifebond, something he’d tried to avoid.
“How do you know that, Dorian?” Damion ground out between his teeth.
Dorian shrugged. “It’s logical. You call someone Skywalker—it’s a nickname for Luke.”
“I’m not talking about Skywalker,” Damion said. “I’m talking about Lara.”
“Things come to me,” Dorian said. “And no, before you ask, I don’t have any more to tell you. I just know that without you doing the blood exchange with her, Lara will die.” He turned back to the television, dismissing Damion and the problem, as if it were nothing but a mosquito he’d just swatted and killed.
Damion could feel both Caleb and Michael watching him, and he knew they both understood the silent message in Dorian’s claim, the message that had Damion quaking from the inside out. Lara was Damion’s Lifebond.
“I’ll have Sterling look into any record of a ‘Luke’ in any of the government databases,” Caleb said. “It sounds like you need to go deal with Lara.”
Silence stretched heavily in the air, as Damion struggled with what he was feeling, what he was thinking, with the trust in Caleb’s eyes, the confidence that Damion would do the right thing where Lara was concerned. For the first time since serving under Caleb as a Renegade, Damion wasn’t sure he deserved that trust. He’d brought Lara here against orders. If she turned on them, he’d be responsible.
“I’ll deal with Luke and Lara myself,” Damion said finally.
Caleb gave him an assessing stare, but asked no questions. “Understood.”
Damion inclined his head, and then walked toward the door and into the hallway. Michael followed him, and they stepped onto a moving sidewalk side by side.
“So she’s your Lifebond,” Michael said. “That explains a lot.”
“Says Dorian,” Damion amended. “And I don’t trust Dorian and his motives any more than I trust Adam, no matter how much Caleb might.”
“You’re not wrong about her,” Michael surprised him by saying.
“You can’t know that.”
“She’s with Cassandra. If I didn’t think you were right about her, do you really think I’d let that happen?”
Damion cut him a sideways look. “Don’t trust me when it comes to Lara. I don’t trust me when it comes to Lara. I’m not objective.”
“You don’t have to be,” he said. “You know her. She’s your Lifebond.” He said the words as if they were not only proven fact, but some sort of profound answer to every question Damion might ask from that point onward.
As much as Damion wanted Michael to be right, he reminded himself he had to be objective about Lara. Anything that occurred as a result of her presence or involvement with the Renegades was his doing, his responsibility, which meant he needed to find out Lara’s true identity, and he needed to find out now.
After traveling from the coffee shop to a separate operational wing of the city, Lara met several of the female Wardens, and now stood in a conference room where maps and sticky pins tracked abductions. “It’s incredible what you’re doing here,” she told Cassandra and Becca. She discreetly pulled out a leather chair from around the long, rectangular table and sat down, trying to hide the growing pain in her head.
“It’s not enough,” Cassandra said, as she and Becca sat down as well. “Not when you think about what these women endure in those sex camps. We don’t save them all, but it’s better than doing nothing. For those women who are unable to leave here because the Trackers can find them, it gives them something to live for.”
“Like me,” Lara said softly. “The Trackers can find me as well.” She was a prisoner here, no matter how she looked at it. If Lucian had always been able to track her, then she’d simply been on a leash that she hadn’t known existed. Now, she was on another leash, because even if she could leave Sunrise and wanted to, she’d be hunted all too easily by too many potential enemies to count. Powell was no more what he’d seemed than the Renegades were the demons he’d painted them to be. He’d made her the Renegades’ enemy, and she wasn’t sure she could change that, no matter how much she might want to.
“You should have the ability to shield yourself,” Becca said, drawing Lara back into the conversation. “It makes sense to me that you can’t. But I’m not buying the idea that because you’re female you’re incapable of such a skill. Both myself and Cassandra can shield ourselves from the Trackers.”
Cassandra didn’t look quite as convinced. “I couldn’t until Michael and I completed our blood bond, and even then, it took me some time. You had unique abilities develop even before you Lifebonded, Becca.” She looked thoughtfully at Lara. “Still, since you’re GTECH, whatever is causing your headaches could be interfering with your shielding ability.”
Her voice softening, Cassandra continued, “Lara, listen. I know you don’t know who to trust or what to believe. I even understand why. We’re the good guys though. I really want to convince you of that.” Becca held up a finger. “I have an idea.”
The next thing Lara knew, she’d talked to an FBI agent in Nevada and an army sergeant named Ryker who knew Sterling well, both by way of Skype, and both well informed about the Renegades and the Wardens.
“So,” Becca said. “Now do you believe us when we say we’re the good guys?”
Lara nodded, emotion balled in her chest. “I do.” Which made her one of the bad guys. What had Powell involved her in? What had Powell made her do that she might not even remember? And, oh God, what if the scenario was even worse? What if she was blaming Powell, when the truth was that she willingly, knowingly, without coercion, had done bad things—maybe even really bad things?
“So take the CT scan,” Cassandra encouraged. “What if there’s something planted in your brain that we need to surgically remove?”
Lara’s gaze snapped to Cassandra. “Planted in my brain?” She shook her head. “The GTECH body destroys foreign objects.”
“Typically, yes,” Cassandra agreed, “but maybe my father came up with a way to prevent that from happening.”
Her father. Cassandra had just said “her father,” as if she was completely certain Lara was working for Powell. Lara wasn’t sure how to respond. She wasn’t ready to admit Powell was involved, because she wasn’t sure what role she played in this nightmare. All she knew was that she had to know who she was, and what she’d done, before they did—before Damion did.
“I’ll do the CT scan.”