His arm tightened around me. “Pretty tired.”
“Would it help to go into your true form?”
He gave a lopsided shrug. “Probably.”
“Then do it.”
“Aren’t you bossy?”
“Shut up and take your true form so you feel better. How about that for bossy?”
He laughed softly. “I love it.”
I started to point out that he was getting mighty comfortable with that L-word, but he shifted ever so slightly and brought his lips to mine once more. This kiss was deeper, starved and urgent. Eyes closed, I could still see the white light as he started to change. I gasped in surprise, getting lost in the warmth and the intimacy of the moment. When he pulled back, I could barely open my eyes, he was so bright.
“Better?” I asked out loud, voice thick with emotion.
His hand found mine. It was strange seeing those light-encased fingers thread through mine, curling around them. I was better the moment you woke up.
Chapter 16
Daemon
Daedalus wasted no time once they were confident I had mad healing skills. As soon as they thought I was rested, they brought me into a room on the med floor. There was nothing in the white-walled space except two plastic chairs facing each other.
I turned to Nancy, brows raised. “Nice decorating you got going on here.”
She ignored it. “Sit.”
“What if I prefer to stand?”
“I really don’t care.” She turned to where a camera was perched in the corner and nodded. Then she faced me. “You know what is expected of you. We’re starting out with one of our new recruits. He’s twenty-one and in otherwise good health.”
“Except for the fatal injury you’re about to inflict on him?”
Nancy shot me a bland look.
“And he signed up for this?”
“That he did. You’d be surprised by how many people are willing to risk their lives to become something great.”
I was more surprised by the level of stupidity of some people. To sign up for a mutation that had a success rate of less than one percent didn’t seem very bright to me, but what did I know?
She handed over a wide cuff. “This is a piece of opal. I’m sure you’re well aware of what it does. It will enhance in the healing and ensure that you’re not going to be exhausted.”
I took the silver cuff and stared at the black stone with the red marking in the center. “You’re literally handing me a piece of opal, knowing it counteracts the onyx.”
She gave me a pointed look. “You also know that we have soldiers armed with those nasty little weapons I told you about. That outweighs you having opal.”
Slipping it around my wrist, I welcomed the jolt of energy. I glanced up at Nancy, finding her watching me like I was her prized bull. I had a feeling that even if I ran from room to room, zapping people to death, she wouldn’t bring the big guns out. Not unless I did something crazy insane.
I was just too special.
And I was pissed off, too. She could’ve given me the piece of opal when I had needed to heal Kat. One of these days I was going to do serious harm to this woman.
The bright-eyed, bushy-tailed soldier marched into the room, and without further instructions copped a squat on one of the chairs. The kid looked on the young side of twenty-one, and while I tried to have no feelings about any of this, a niggle of guilt rose.
Not because I planned on screwing this up or anything. Why would I? If I didn’t successfully bring a hybrid into this world, then eventually they’d turn their evil, sadistic eyes on Kat.
So, yeah, I was rocking the whole “there needs to be a ‘true want’ to heal the person,” but I still had no idea if it would work. If it didn’t, homeboy here would either live out the rest of his life as a boring old human being or would self-destruct in a few days.
For his sake and Kat’s, I hoped he was welcomed into the world of happy hybrids.
“How are we doing this?” I asked Nancy.
She motioned for one of the two guards who’d come into the room with Patient Zero. One of them stepped forward, brandishing a nasty-looking knife, the kind that Michael Myers would run around with in Halloween.
“Oh jeez,” I muttered, folding my arms. This was going to get messy.
Patient Too Stupid to Live handled the knife with confidence. Before he could do anything with it, the door opened and Kat walked in, Archer right on her heels.
My arms fell to my sides as unease exploded into alarm. “What is she doing here?”
Nancy smiled tightly. “We thought you could use the motivation.”
Understanding lit me up like a firecracker. Their kind of motivation was a warning. They knew damn well that we were aware of what happened to Bethany when Dawson failed. I watched Kat shake off Archer’s hand and stomp over to the corner. She stayed there.
I focused on Nancy, staring her down until she finally, after several moments, broke eye contact. “Get on with it, then,” I said.
She nodded at Patient Most Likely to Die, who, without saying a damn word, took a deep breath and slammed that serial-killer knife right into his stomach with a wheezy grunt. He then yanked the knife out, letting it fall from his grasp. A guard shot forward, grabbing it.
“Holy shit,” I said, eyes going wide. Patient Zero had balls.
Kat winced and looked away as blood spilled from the fresh wound. “That…that was disturbing.”
He probably had less than two minutes to live if blood kept pounding out of his rapidly paling body like that. He was clutching his stomach, doubled over. A metallic scent filled the air.