Sterling Read online

  Amazingly, Becca found herself laughing at Sterling’s exchanges with Cassandra, and it felt good. These people were friends who knew and loved each other, nothing like the stiff, cold existences inside Zodius. And the lead scientific director was a woman. Another something Adam would never have allowed.

  Cassandra eyed Becca. “I wanted to let you to know that I went inside your house to pick up your things. I felt a bit like an intruder, but I tried to make up for it by picking out the things that seemed the most important to you.”

  Even though Sterling had told her he was having some of her things picked up, she’d never written out her list. “Thank you,” Becca said quickly. “I don’t mind at all. I can’t wait to have some of my own things.”

  “Anything I can do for you,” Cassandra said. “I’m here. I’ll leave you to Kelly for now.”

  Sterling grabbed the tubes of blood and touched the small of her back. A gesture that spoke of a growing intimacy between them, that felt, well, right. It felt good. Confusing, but good. “I’ll do the same,” he said, before holding up the vials to the camera. “Michael will have Becca’s blood samples to bring back with him.” He eyed Becca. “Back in a bit.”

  He waited for her acknowledgement, protective, as if he didn’t want to leave unless she said she’d be okay. It felt as nice as that hand on her back. Wonderful, in fact, and she dared to indulge in enjoying the feeling, if only this once. She didn’t remember the last time anyone had protected her, not since she’d lost her father and brother over a decade before. She nodded. “I’ll be here.” And for the first time in a long time, Becca realized she felt safe.

  ***

  Some time later Becca found herself in deep conversation with Kelly, during which Kelly not only shared the history of the Renegades, she set up a secure email and sent Becca proof the Renegades were working for the government. Finally satisfied she was playing on the right team and liking Kelly quite a lot, it was time for Becca to vocalize her theories and how she thought she could help in the lab.

  “I’m going to email you some data on the GTECHs,” Kelly said. “You can compare them to the ICE users. Some of the Zodius soldiers have what we call the X2 gene. It developed around fifteen months after conversion, and to put this in perspective, the lab rats that developed X2 all killed each other.” She held up a hand. “And let me assure you Sterling doesn’t have the X2 gene. None of the Renegades do… well… except Michael, but he’s different in all kinds of ways. I’ll send you his file as well. But please don’t tell him. He won’t like it.”

  This was not good news to Becca. “My biggest fear has been what happens with long term use, rather than the few who have died in the midst of thousands. Not that I’m dismissing that problem, but we’re dealing with an alien component, and we have no idea how it will react or evolve in our environment.”

  “Believe me, I know,” Kelly said. “Which brings us to the question I’ve been beating my head against the wall about. How do we keep that from happening? The ticking clock on that question is killing me.” She visibly cringed. “Oh God, Becca. I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me. You know, I’m pretty excited about what I see in your blood work. I don’t know if Sterling told you my thoughts on this, but if you really are cured then think what this could mean for cancer research when all of this is over.”

  Becca absorbed that and found herself smiling inside, thinking of all the times she’d dared to ask, “Why me?” She realized it might just come back to here and now. She might be able to help people beyond just the immediate trouble with Adam. Even Adam, in an unintentional way, might be helping cancer patients. She opened her mouth to say as much, when a loud screeching sound ripped through her ears.

  Becca grabbed her head. “Oh God! What is that? Make it stop!”

  “Becca,” Kelly said. “I don’t hear anything. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “How can you not hear it?” Becca screamed. The sound ripped through her, seemed to carve out her insides, and rip a path along her nerve endings.

  “Caleb!” Kelly shouted. “Caleb, help! Get Sterling back into that room!” Then, “Hang in there, Becca. Sterling is coming. He’ll be right there.”

  Becca fell to the ground. “It’s too late,” she whispered. Death had her attention again. It kept calling her name. And death, she realized, as she felt him in her mind, was named Dorian.

  Chapter 18

  Sterling could hear Becca’s high-pitched scream even before he burst through the lab door, leaving Caleb and Michael in the hallway, adrenaline pumping through his body like white lightning. He felt that scream right to his soul, the terror in it, the pain, and the desperation to survive. Becca thought she was dying. That someone was trying to kill her. How he knew that, he didn’t know. But he knew.

  The lab came into view in a whirlwind of flying debris that Sterling fought his way through as he spotted the computer and the overturned chair. Relief washed over him as he found Becca huddled beneath the desk, knees pulled to her chest, but no intruder.

  He rushed to her, glass crunching beneath his boots as he squatted down in front of her. “Becca,” he said, his hands going to her knees. “Becca, sweetheart.”

  She screamed again, clutching onto his arms, and then kicking and screaming. Hysterical… fighting for her life… scratching at him… wild. He backed away long enough to see her eyes. Wide… blank… as if she were blind.

  “Get her out from under the desk,” Caleb said from behind.

  Sterling looked over his shoulder. “Are you nuts? We have no idea what she might do to you.”

  Caleb appeared above him. “I have mental shields other GTECHs do not. So does Becca. I can feel her energy, and if she doesn’t start using them and using them now, she’s going to die. She’s being attacked. So get her out now.”

  Sterling didn’t need to hear another word. He reached for Becca, curling his fingers around her arm, and pulled her kicking and screaming from under that desk.

  “Hold her still,” Caleb ordered.

  “Right,” Sterling muttered, sitting down on the floor and positioning Becca in front of him, pinning her arms to her sides from behind, her back against his chest. Still, she kicked wildly. “That’s as good as it gets.”

  Caleb kneeled at their side, out of the range of her kicks, and pressed his hand to her forehead.

  She let out one sharp final scream and then gasped. Her head fell forward. “What just happened?” she panted.

  Sterling had no idea what Caleb had just done, but he was thankful. Quickly he turned Becca in his arms, his hand sliding over her hair. “You’re okay.”

  “Sterling,” she whispered a moment before her eyes went wide on Caleb.

  “She won’t be,” Caleb said. “Not if we don’t act now.”

  “Adam!” Becca yelled, trying to pull back, shifting to her knees.

  “Caleb,” Sterling and Caleb said at the same moment.

  “Becca, listen to me,” Caleb insisted. “Someone attacked your mind. They’re going to attack you again. You have the ability to shield yourself. I need you to focus with me, and let me teach you how.”

  “I can’t,” she said. “I don’t have any idea how to do that.”

  “You do,” Caleb insisted. “Relax, and let it happen.” He eyed Sterling with a keen glance, before returning his attention to Becca. “Do you trust Sterling?”

  “I…” She cut a look at Sterling. “I…”

  “Good,” Caleb said, as if she’d admitted trust. “Let him help you. Let him be your anchor. Find him in your mind first, and when you start to lose focus, you go back to him.”

  Sterling had never been anyone’s anchor and never thought he wanted to be. Nor was he sure he was made of the right stuff for such a task. But he’d do just about anything for Becca. He took her hand. “I’m all yours, sweetheart,” he teased. “Take me when you’re ready.”

  She laughed. It didn’t matter that there were tears welling in her eyes. That sound was like hone
y on a hot sunny day. Sticky sweet in all the right ways.

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she challenged, her voice hoarse, but not without a playful twang.

  “I would,” he said, shifting his weight to one knee. “So do it.”

  Caleb reached out and pressed his palms to both their forearms. “Close your eyes.”

  To Sterling’s shock, warmth spread up his arm, energy almost like electricity, moving through him into Becca… or maybe through her into him. “Find his mind, Becca,” Caleb ordered.

  Seconds ticked by. That warm energy flowed through him, getting hotter, more pronounced, until Becca’s mind was there. Sterling could feel Becca in his head.

  He wouldn’t be able to explain that feeling to anyone if he had to; he didn’t understand it himself. But it rocked his world, the intimacy of her inside his head. For just a moment, the idea that she might read his past, know his weaknesses, almost made him jerk away. Caleb’s hand tightened on Sterling’s arm, as if he knew what Sterling was feeling, what he was about to do.

  Then, suddenly, someone else was there, in his head—no, in Becca’s head. She gasped at the malevolent touch. In his mind’s eyes, Sterling saw a boy—young, strong, evil. Then a flash of himself cutting open Becca’s arm. Pain wrenched through him as he felt what Becca had felt when he’d cut her shoulder.

  “Find Sterling in your mind, Becca,” Caleb said. “Find that anchor, and center yourself in that place. Then fight back. Seal out the pain. Block the intruder. This is your mind. Not his. Get angry. Fight!”

  “Fight,” Sterling whispered, out loud, or maybe it was in his mind, in hers. He didn’t know exactly, but he felt Becca shaking. Sterling was shaking with her. That energy that had drawn him closer to her was pushing him away. He could almost feel the pressure on his chest like a hand.

  “Don’t let him win, Sterling,” Caleb said softly. “Be her anchor. Reach for her mind.”

  Anchor. He was supposed to be her anchor. Sterling tightened his grip on Becca’s hands as Caleb had on his arm. “Becca,” he said. “I’m here.”

  Her fingers curled around his, and he could hear her breathing rasping out faster… more shallow. Long moments passed. She pressed hard against his mind, pulled him toward her, and wrapped him inside out with her presence. The pain faded in a sudden rush of awareness.

  “He’s gone,” Becca said, her shoulders slumping. “He’s gone! I did it!”

  The energy he’d felt spiking along her nerve endings faded instantly. Sterling let out a sigh of relief, and it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms. Had he ever felt such protectiveness for a woman? For anyone? Her grip on his hand tightened, her eyes meeting his, awareness between them.

  There was something as intimate as sex in that connection they’d shared. Something beyond physical contact, a sense of knowing each other on a level no other person could. It was remarkable. On some level he knew her fears, her joys, her needs. And, he thought, with a hard swallow, she knew his. She knew things he’d never shared with anyone.

  “Can you feel your shield in place, Becca?” Caleb asked. “Protecting your mind?”

  “Yes,” she said, and obviously struggled to pull her gaze from Sterling to Caleb. “I feel it.”

  “Keep it in place,” he said. “Practice releasing that shield and then pulling it back into place. Use Sterling as that anchor if you need to, especially when you go to sleep. You have to feel that shield before you allow yourself to rest.”

  Sleep. Bed. Him with Becca. Sterling mentally shook away that image. “If she lets down the shield, then can’t her attacker come back after her again?”

  “I can’t be certain, but I don’t think so,” Caleb said, releasing their arms and leaning back on one foot, settling his arm on his knee. “Emotions create a type of energy wired to the brain. That energy leaves a residue that lasts for a short period of time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. He’d need another strand of her energy to attach to. And the good news here is that Becca, in essence, has the same ability to shield herself as a full GTECH, minus the help of a Lifebond.” His gaze touched Sterling’s. “Not even a Tracker could find her should she ever be marked.” Sterling inhaled. Caleb was telling him that he could be intimate with Becca without consequence.

  “Is this because I’m using ICE?” Becca asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Caleb replied. “After the connection we shared, my feeling is that this has to do with a natural ability you possessed without awareness before using the ICE. Or maybe before combining the cancer treatments and the ICE. I don’t think your abilities can be recreated in other people without the same dormant skills.” He shrugged. “The whys, whens, hows, and mights—those are questions for you scientists.”

  “This is all so… surreal,” she murmured, tilting her head to study Caleb. “You look so much like Adam, but yet, you are nothing like him.”

  “I consider that a compliment,” he said in what was meant to be a nonchalant tone, but failed. Sterling knew Caleb’s secret fear of becoming like Adam one day.

  “You don’t communicate with wolves?”

  Caleb shook his head. “No. That is my brother’s ability.” His tone darkened. “Who was he, Becca? That boy who attacked your mind?”

  “Dorian,” she whispered, then firmed her voice. “It was Dorian. I hate even saying his name. He’s Adam’s son.”

  Sterling’s brows shot up. “Come again? Adam’s son is six months old. How would he attack your mind?”

  Grimly Becca explained, “Dorian is only six months old, but he’s aging at the rate of two years per month. He’s the DNA source for ICE. And let me tell you, he is the epitome of evil, beyond Adam, and he’s getting stronger and more dangerous every day.”

  “Holy mother of Jesus,” Sterling murmured, his eyes meeting Caleb’s troubled stare.

  “You can say that again,” Caleb agreed. “I felt that boy’s energy. If he’s this powerful at six months old, what will he be at a year? Or five?”

  “He’s pure evil,” Becca repeated. “I can’t stress that enough. He’ll kill just to watch someone die, because it entertains him. I saw him in action. And that’s the kind of evil these Clanners are ingesting daily.” Her lips thinned as her face paled. “That I’m ingesting every day.”

  ***

  The parking garage was a scurry of activity as police tried to get to the car that had been reported as stolen. Zodius soldiers held them at bay.

  Meanwhile, in the exact spot that stolen vehicle had once been, the spot where Rebecca Burns had experienced the pain Dorian was now using to connect and hopefully kill her, Adam watched as Dorian’s eyes rolled from the back of his head and came into focus. “I have met my uncle, Father,” Dorian said. “You were right. He is very powerful. He has defeated me. He has saved the woman’s life.”

  Adam inhaled a bittersweet breath. Caleb’s abilities, his strengths, however cumbersome at present, would be immensely useful when Caleb assumed his role as a leader by his side.

  “He does not wish to join us, Father,” Dorian said. “But I know that you wish him to. He is concerned for the humans. Why not kill some of them? He will join us to save them.”

  “Because killing humans scares the other humans,” Adam said. “Until we control enough of them, we must cater to their many sensitivities. We do not want to scare people away from using ICE before its use becomes a national epidemic of sorts. Which will be soon.” He was already hard at work planning expanded distribution.

  Adam redirected to matters most urgent. “Do you know where the woman is, Dorian?”

  “I know only what I saw in her mind,” Dorian said. “She is still in the city—not far, I think. In a lab with the one they call Sterling. He was in her mind, too. Sterling is fond of the woman. She could be used against him if need be.”

  Adam smiled at the way Dorian instinctively found weakness and turned it into a strategy. He snapped his fingers at Tad who stood nearby. “Find Sterling. Follow him. He w
ill lead you to Rebecca Burns.”

  She’d introduced Caleb to Dorian, the source of ICE. That screwed up his plans to use Dorian as a secret weapon when he’d reached his prime. Adam balled his fists at his side. He should have killed that bitch himself when he had the chance.

  Adam cut Dorian a look. “Give the humans something to think about besides us.”

  Dorian’s eyes filled with a mixture of menace and excitement. “Thank you, Father,” he said. “I so enjoy playing with the humans.”

  A moment later, flames shot from a nearby car, then another. And another. Adam laughed as voices lifted in the air, people scrambling to safety.

  Adam and his entourage faded into the strands of wind whistling through the screams.

  Chapter 19

  Becca’s blood work was almost normal, as in barely a trace of anything pointing to cancer. It was a miracle, but Becca didn’t celebrate. Kelly and Sterling seemed to understand she needed to set herself aside, including the threat Dorian represented, and focus on the big picture.

  Six hours later, Becca punched a computer button to end a session with Kelly and turned away from the lab table to run smack into Sterling.

  His hands settled quickly to her arms, steadying her. Heat curled in her stomach, and she had the most exasperating desire to push to her toes and run her fingers through his spiky blond hair.

  “You’re hovering again,” she reprimanded.

  “I was bringing your dose of ICE,” he said and then grinned. “But yeah, hovering too.”

  “My mental shield is up,” she said. “I can feel it. I’m okay. I swear. You don’t have to stand over me and wait for Dorian to attack.”

  “I’d rather be safe than sorry,” he said. “I’m staying close by your side. So just deal with it.” His hands slid away from her arms, leaving her cold and eager to have him touch her again. He held out the vial of ICE. “I don’t want you going into withdrawal.”