Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
I rotate to find Dr. Chin standing beside Jocelyn. “Don’t even consider stitching him up. And leave the blade in his leg. I want it to heal there. A little reminder about what will happen when he crosses me. Otherwise, we continue as planned. We’ll use Red Dart to break him.”
I cast Jocelyn a cold stare. I despise weakness. She’s proven today that she is best kept beneath me, not beside me. “Make sure you’re ready with Red Dart when Chin says ‘go.’”
“What about Creed?” Her voice quavers slightly.
I arch a brow. “What about him?”
“He’ll come back.”
“And we’ll be ready,” I assure her. “In fact, we will welcome the visit. If Creed so kindly makes our job easy by coming to us, we don’t have to hunt him down. I hope he brings others with him. He will be tagged with Red Dart, then broken and controlled, like all the GTECHs. They will become our protectors, not our captors. It seems only appropriate that Creed be the first to fall, considering the hell he made both our lives.” My lips twitch. “His fall will give us another reason to celebrate.” My attention shifts to Chin. “Call me when we’re ready to begin.” I glance at my watch, calculating the time needed to test Red Dart and prepare before the next nightfall. We don’t dare delay any longer. “You have ten hours.”
I walk away, my mind on my plans. The more I think of Creed, the more I look forward to bringing that man to his knees.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Addie
The green recliner that sits between Jensen’s and Maddox’s beds has become my hangout spot. Finally, Maddox is resting. The poor man has been through hell—absolute hell—throwing up, shivering, and shaking. The same things I’d seen Creed go through, yet Jensen, who’d been injured more seriously, has experienced nothing but peaceful sleep.
“Knock, knock.”
I glance to the door to find Katie in the entrance. “Hey there,” I greet with a smile, glad for her return. Katie had been so busy earlier. She’d whizzed in, drawn blood, checked vitals, and taken off again.
“What happened to my order for you to rest?” Katie queries.
“I’ll rest when you rest,” I counter.
“Still as difficult as ever, I see,” she teases, claiming the rolling doctor’s chair. “And no, before you ask, I don’t have your blood work back.”
I grin. “I was going to ask.”
“I know,” Katie says. “Everyone does. I still can’t believe you were wearing Creed’s mark for all that time at Groom Lake and didn’t tell me. I would have kept it a secret.”
“I didn’t want to put you in that position. And I always thought we’d come forward. Things just… happened.”
“Things,” she snorts. “That’s a good way of putting it.”
Guilt flares inside me—so much guilt over so many things, all of which resulted in Maddox and Jensen in hospital beds. “I’m sorry I dropped off the face of the Earth.”
“If you mean Germany and the silent treatment,” Katie says, “I’m not. You should have stayed there. You were safe.”
“Safe is an illusion as long as Julian is free.” It was also far away from Creed, I think, which is where this conversation is headed, at least in part. “The final lifebonding process where I convert to GTECH. It hasn’t evolved, right? The eye color change. The sickness. My symptoms all seem like I’m converting, but we haven’t done a blood exchange.”
“What triggers your symptoms?”
“Intimacy,” I say without hesitation. “I’m not sure simply spending time with him, being close to him, isn’t a trigger.”
“The process as we know it hasn’t shifted, but Creed is far more advanced than most of the GTECHs. It’s possible his body has evolved, and perhaps now the process doesn’t require the blood exchange. Maybe a few sexual encounters will do the job.”
That isn’t the answer I wanted. No sex, no lifelong bonding—there has to be an in-between. Maybe a condom but…this idea dismisses my body’s reaction to just being close to him.
Katie tucks her hands in her lab coat. “It could simply be that you’re ovulating. If you are, it’s quite possible this is simply your body responding to your mate—a natural need to reproduce.”
I study her a moment and read the room. “You don’t believe that ovulation thing for a minute. I windwalked and survived.”
“With Creed,” she says. “There is a physical bond there that, in theory, might have offered some protection.”
“Katie,” I press. “Shoot straight with me. Tell me what I need to know, not what you think will make me feel better.”
“You’ve bore the mark for two years—which I still can’t believe you kept from me, but nevertheless—Mother Nature has a way of finishing what it begins. And as I said, Creed may well have evolved in ways the others have not. There’s no denying he has skills with the wind that the other GTECHs do not. Of course, I have no idea why. He refuses to give blood. I think he’s afraid we’ll find out he’s a monster like Julian.”