Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33658 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33658 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
He's right, and it’s terrifying. I hold up a sheet of paper with my instructions. “They want me to find out why people are dying from ICE usage, and not from withdrawal, but just randomly dropping dead. I guess that’s not good for the street drug business.” I swallow hard against the dryness in my throat. “I guess the idea is that I’m working against the clock. I could be next.”
“You’re not going to die,” he vows softly. “I won’t let it happen.”
It sounds heroic and amazing, but we both know he can’t save me. Only science can save me, and what these monsters want of me could take years, even decades, to figure out. And that’s with an entire team of scientists, not just me. My only hope is that I’m not one of the people who randomly die. I must fight.
Chapter thirteen
Layla
“You need to eat.”
I blink up at Jensen, wondering how in the world we ended up in each other’s lives again. It feels impossible, and yet here we are, and for just a moment, I’m transported back to that Texas library where we met, sitting across from him in casual conversation while wondering what it would be like to kiss him. Only the fantasy kiss of way back when has transformed into a flashback of my fleeting glimpse of him gloriously naked.
He arches a brow at me, the twinkle in his eyes indicating my expression reveals far more than I wish, and I delicately clear my throat. “I see stress doesn’t affect your appetite,” I comment, noting his second large stack of sandwiches. “And I assume the orange juice has to do with the chronic vitamin C deficiency the documents reference in a multitude of ways?”
He finishes off half the glass. “Yes. I can attest to the fact that GTECHs have a chronic vitamin C deficiency and a rapid metabolism that requires fuel. Lots of it, and often. If ICE users were the same, you’d have eaten that sandwich.”
“So, you’re stronger and faster than a human. And you can travel in the wind?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“What else?”
“If you’re asking if I have an extra special skill, as a few of the GTECHs like Julian do, no. I do not. Not yet, at least. It seems as if we’re still evolving, whatever the hell that means. Even the healing process has changed.”
“I saw that in the file. You heal quickly, but over time it comes with an illness.”
“Yes. Brutal hours of healing. And, as for what else is changing, believe it or not, Julian wasn’t always a crazy fuck as he is now. It happened after he developed the ability to communicate with wolves.”
“He changed? As in, his personality?”
“After that, he became a crazy fuck, but his twin brother, Caleb, is the leader of the Renegades, and he’s as honorable as they get.”
“Can he talk to the wolves, too?”
“No. And he’s terrified of the day he might somehow become like his brother.”
My brow furrows. “It’s as if something in his chemistry changed. I’ve read as much in the data on the transitions you’ve gone through as GTECHs, and it’s what we don’t know that’s scary. And yet, Julian still chose to peddle ICE, which has just as many unknowns. Our world is in trouble, and I’m not sure we can stop whatever is coming.”
“Julian doesn’t want to stop it. That’s the problem. We have half our population of GTECHs trying to rule the world as the entitled species, the ruling class.”
“Power and money are always the roots of destruction,” I conclude. “The wind thing is really interesting, though. I really don’t understand how it’s possible. It defies all scientific logic. Where does your body go?”
“It’s almost like we’re in another dimension, though that has no science behind it at all. It happens so fast that it might simply be too fast for the human eye to observe.”
“How far can you travel?”
“My limit is five hundred miles without a break. Then I have to stop and start again. We’re not all the same.”
“How do you tell it where you want to go?”
“It’s like flying a plane with your mind, is the only way I can describe it.”
“So, you just think it and it happens?”
“It’s more of a command.”
“You command the wind?” My tone is incredulous.
“Yes, but no one can do it the way Creed does. Creed, who you have not met, has a special bond with the wind, the same way Julian does with wolves.”
“How did you figure out you can travel with the wind if you have to command it to actually use it?”
“Creed. He has a special way with the wind. It talks to him, and, well, you can guess where that went.”
I blink several times, trying to process this. “Do you know how crazy this sounds?”
“Rubber-room crazy. Yes. I know.” He inhales and lets air trickle from his lips. “About our date—”