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“This has nothing to do with that kind o f cake,” Donna said. “But it is cake, if you get my drift. ”
“As in beefcake,” Chris drawled.
Vela stalled out and couldn’t make her feet move. “Please don’t tell me we’re going to the workout center. ” Anything but that.
“Oh, yes we are,” Bev said. “We’ve heard it on the grapevine that someone special is being brought in, a warrior we’ve been hearing rumors about for the past several months but have never seen.
He’s the one Duncan helped rescue from that weird prison cell in Honduras Two, where he’d been tortured. ” She lowered her voice. “Apparently, he did something last night out at the Superstition Borderland that has all the What-Bees in an uproar. For one thing, he really pissed off Warrior Luken and you know how good-natured he is. ” Vela started getting that really bad feeling that Bev’s description matched the man from her nightmare and her heart rate cranked up a notch. What if this was him?
What if she walked into the workout center and there he was? Wouldn’t it mean something? Wouldn’t the preternatural nature of the situation demand that she do something?
Her heart sank. She didn’t want a connection with another warrior, not any kind of connection.
“Please, can’t we skip this? In fact, why don’t we all go out to dinner? I have a friend who works at the White Lake Resort Colony. I’m sure I can get us into any number of restaurants over there. ”
“Hell, no,” Donna said, as Chris and Bev nudged her along. “Before you leave HQ permanently, we want you to enjoy a bit of eye-candy, because, girl, locked away in the rehab center, you’re going to die of man-starvation. At least here at HQ, you get to see Militia Warriors coming and going, but there? You’ll be lucky to see a man once a decade. ” Which was exactly what she wanted.
She took a deep breath. “Fine. ” She only had to get through the next half hour or so then she’d never be back here, never be tempted by something she really, really, didn’t want in her life.
Samuel woke up from the night’s battling with an urgent message from Carla, who worked the daytime shift at Central, to get his ass over to the workout center. Essentially the higher ups had their panties in a wad about what went down at the Superstitions last night and wanted to chat with him.
And Endelle would be there.
Which of course meant that Thorne would be on deck as well.
Yeah, he was pretty much screwed.
Shit.
He shaved and showered as fast as he could, but he ached from head-to-foot.
Releasing the dark power had forced him to work a whole bunch of muscles he swore he’d never used before. Even his speedy vampire healing had taken its sweet time fixing things up.
Santiago met him at the landing platforms, a smirk on his lips.
“Why the workout center?” Samuel knew that crowds often gathered to watch Jean-Pierre train the Militia Warriors who had emerging powers. He so didn’t want to be there, on display. Jesus.
But Santiago slung his arm around Samuel’s neck, squeezed, then laughed at him. “Thorne wants a demonstration.
Besides, that much power, hermano? We need you on board and Thorne will have your cojones if you don’t join up. ”
“Fuck. ”
“Si. Mucho fuck. ” This time, Samuel laughed. He took long strides and Santiago joined him. They both wore flight battle gear, getting ready to head out for the night. He also knew that Santiago often stopped off at the Blood and Bite first, meeting up with the What- Bees before a night of battle. Hell, he might even head there himself. After facing off with Thorne, he’d probably need a drink afterward and definitely some action in the red velvet booths.
As he reached the doorway of the workout center, Luken waved him over.
The leader of the What-Bees stood with Thorne, Madame Endelle, and Jean- Pierre.
But if that wasn’t bad enough, a combination of civilians and warriors now packed all four risers that ran the length of the west wall. He’d never been to the center himself during office hours, but he’d heard tales that once Warrior Jean-Pierre had started working with the Militia Warriors, some of the civilian staff at HQ, and an equal number of warriors took time out to watch the training sessions. “Are there usually this many people at the workouts?”
“No, hermano. This is all for you. ”
“Shit. ” So the rumors had been rolling. Great.
Neither Colonel Seriffe nor Gideon were present since their current joint duties included running mass Militia Warrior training exercises in North Africa.
Extensive surveillance had delivered up the strong possibility that one of Greaves’s generals had a base of operations out there.
