The robotic dissonance inside him was replaced by sharp glee. "Run."
Without the gun threatening her, the Soul Searcher moved in a flash of white. His speed was unnatural. His arms wrapped around Vesperin’s waist, scythe cutting a line in the air. Energy surged. Vesperin’s wide grey eyes met Kit’s as she slid across the snow, pulled into the mass of light, and disappeared.
The tear in the air closed.
Kit was alone.
Return to the base. Return?—
Single-minded focus recrudesced.
The hunt was on.
Rin was packed tightlyin the back seat of a large, armored vehicle, crushed between Cyrus and Auren.
In her palm, she held a small bottle of pills Lucien had given her before they’d packed up and left the Solar City base.
It was earlier than planned, but after her run-in with Kit mere hours ago, staying hadn’t been an option. Every second in the city felt like tempting fate.
The vehicle was Rhyden’s—the vampire was in no short supply of vehicles, weapons, money… She’d tried to hide her shock as he helped her into the car earlier, even opening her door, leaning over her to help click her seatbelt on. She shivered as she remembered the way his strong arm had pushed into her lower stomach as he’d grabbed the belt, tightening it just a little too much, before he shut the door with a loud thud.
"Cold, doll?" Cyrus murmured from her right side.
Rin swallowed two pills dry, aware of Lucien watching her through the rearview mirror. He drove, while Rhyden sat in the passenger seat, polishing an automatic rifle, boots kicked up on the dashboard.
"No, I’m fine, Cy." The sobriquet slipped off Rin’s tongue. Her body was sore. But the deepest ache lived in her chest.
Auren’s arm pressed against hers, where he sat on her left side, and she leaned into him without thinking, breathing in hisscent. She felt closer to him now, in a way, after he’d trusted her,listenedto her.
The moment they’d returned from the graveyard—she still felt Auren’s arms around her, and the dizzying sensation of being pulled through the portal—they’d fallen straight into the cramped living quarters, where Lucien had just been waking up. Her doctor had taken one look at her and instantly knew she was hiding something.
She had told the truth before the others had arrived.
She’d had enough secrets to last a lifetime. Or more.
Kit was her Soulbond, Lucien was too. It wasn’t too late for her and Lucien, but Kit… her adoptive brother, her best friend, the man she loved… was gone. She wondered if he could ever come back from what had been done to him.
She closed her eyes, felt electricity burning her, and she knew the experiments that made him what he was now had been torturous.
Project Phoenix.
Her mind lingered on the words from the picture Lucien had shown her, the one he’d taken of the file folder deep below the lab in Nova Zone 21:
Biomechanically modified human.
Weaponized.
Sabine and Talor had done this to him.
For that, Rin vowed to make them pay.
Through the tinted windows of the vehicle, she stared at the dark, glistening water bordering the highway, fireworks dazzling the sky to ring in the New Year as Solar City faded behind them. The clock on the dashboard ticked over from 11:59 PM to 12:00 AM. The green numbers were like an omen.
The vehicle was silent.
Cyrus trailedhis fingers over the edges of his doll’s hair as she slept. Her head was turned from him, resting on Auren’s shoulder.
He wasn’t jealous. He liked her in the arms of another man. It stirred something dark inside him, a hunger he was no stranger to. Incubi were notoriously perverse—well, okay, he’d call it like it was:kinky.
