Damion Read online

  ***

  Damion and Sterling were sitting at the kitchen table with laptops in front of them when Lara exited the bedroom. Damion’s gut clenched at the sight she made, her long, dark hair sleek and silky around her face and shoulders, her lips lightly painted pale pink. The contrast to the rugged fatigue pants and T-shirt she wore, downright sexy. Then again, Damion was pretty much of the opinion that Lara could wear a paper bag and he’d think she was sexy.

  “There she is,” Chale said, exiting the kitchen with a spatula in hand. “Food’s almost done.”

  Lara stood there, staring at Chale with a stunned look on her face, as if she couldn’t believe Chale was cooking—that a Renegade was cooking for her. This was exactly why he had Sterling and Chale here now. To show Lara that the Renegades weren’t the monsters she’d believed them to be.

  Chale grimaced at Lara. “Don’t look so petrified. I’m a damn good cook.” He grinned. “I’ve never poisoned anyone.” He cut a look at Damion. “And don’t bring up the egg incident, or we’re going to have trouble.” He disappeared into the kitchen again.

  Lara’s eyes widened on Damion. “Egg incident?”

  “He forgot to check the expiration date,” Damion explained. “Tasted like, well, rotten eggs.”

  “Oh yum,” she said sarcastically.

  “Come sit,” Damion said. “We won’t bite.” He smiled. “Even if you do.” Of course, he’d found other, interesting uses for his teeth during their little bedroom extravaganza.

  Her eyes narrowed on his, lighting with the smallest hint of mischief. “We both know that’s not true,” she said, closing the distance between them to sit down at the table, across from Sterling and beside Damion.

  Sterling snorted. “I know an innuendo when I hear one.”

  Damion motioned to Sterling. “I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, this is Sterling. King of smart asses.”

  “And expert hacker,” Sterling added.

  “Second best to me,” Damion agreed.

  “In your dreams,” Sterling assured him, and then nodded to Lara. “Now you know our interrogation and torture methods. We seal you in a room with Damion and force you to endure his fantasies of grandeur.”

  “Breakfast for dinner, considering the 6:00 p.m. hour,” Chale said, walking from the kitchen and setting a plate in front of Lara. “Cheese omelet and blueberry muffins.” He cut Damion a hard look. “And yes, I checked the expiration date.”

  Lara looked down at the Texas-sized omelet and said, “Coercion by way of food?” She glanced at Chale. “And seriously? You made blueberry muffins?”

  “What’s wrong with blueberry muffins?” Chale asked.

  “I like blueberry muffins,” she assured him. “I just can’t imagine you making them.”

  “He’s a Harley-riding, blueberry-muffin-making contradiction,” Damion concluded. “We don’t try to understand him. We just eat the food.” He glanced at Chale. “Where’s my plate?”

  “And mine?” Sterling agreed.

  Chale’s brows dipped to a grumpy line. “Get your asses up, and go get them.”

  Sterling reached over the table and took one of Lara’s muffins. “Lara wants another muffin.”

  Damion stole one himself. “Make that two.”

  Chale grumbled and headed to the kitchen. Lara laughed, soft and sexy, the tension he’d sensed when she’d exited the bedroom quickly fading. The next thing he knew, they were all eating, arguing about who was the best quarterback of all time. Lara knew football—knew it well—and seemed to be a fan of the Dallas Cowboys.

  “You know a lot about football for a chick,” Sterling commented, after Chale headed for the door, claiming he had a “hot date.”

  “Yes, I…” Lara paled suddenly. “I know football, but I can’t remember my last name, which has become a multiple choice equation.”

  A knock sounded at the door, and Sterling pushed to his feet. “I’ll get it.”

  “Lara,” Damion said softly, ready to talk her into the CT scan, when the two familiar female voices of Cassandra, Michael’s Lifebond, and Becca, Sterling’s Lifebond, touched his ears. “No, Becca.”

  The pretty brunette, who wore a pink, slim-fitted dress, threw her hands up in the air. “Full disclosure.” Her attention went to Lara. “Lara. I’m Becca, Sterling’s Lifebond, and if I touch you I will be able to see your past experiences. So I won’t touch you unless you ask me to.” Her gaze slid to Damion’s. “And you should know me better than to think I would do anything sneaky.”

  Sterling wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Yeah man. Chill already.”

  “Hey, Damion,” Cassandra said, rushing into the room, her long blonde hair floating behind her. She looked casual and friendly in faded jeans and a T-shirt, until she turned, and he saw the “girls rule” logo—that told him he had absolutely no control over anything that was about to happen.

  Cassandra offered her hand to Lara. “I’m Michael’s Lifebond, and the only special ability I have is taming the beast otherwise known as Michael.”

  Lara stared at her a moment and then broke into a smile. “I’ve met him,” she said, accepting Cassandra’s hand. “That’s definitely a talent.”

  Damion sank down into the chair again. “Welcome to Sunrise City,” he said to her, in a sigh of defeat. “Where the women rule and the men just try and survive.”

  Cassandra grinned and sat down. “And don’t forget it buddy.” Then to Lara, “And welcome is the point, by the way. Me and Becca want to steal you away for a girls’ night out—a little shopping and pampering. It’s a way for you to get to know us here.” Her eyes lit. “Oh. I didn’t even tell you my name, did I? Cassandra. Cassandra Powell.”

  Damion felt the tension ripple through Lara at the name Powell, and his gaze locked with Cassandra’s. She’d noticed Lara’s reaction as well.

  Everything became crystal clear. Adam hadn’t converted Lara to GTECH. General Powell had, and if anyone could understand and explain, how easily that man manipulated and hurt other people, it was his own daughter. A little “girl time” was exactly what Lara needed right now.

  Chapter 18

  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 c
ounts. 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 ki
ll 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.