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“Push another bolus of diazepam,” Dr. Patel ordered. “Jacobs, get that bag!”
Jacobs had his hands full with the struggling patient. I slapped the call button then snatched the bag from the floor. But before I could jam it over the tentacles, Earl yanked on the left handcuff, breaking it.
Everything descended into chaos. Gallagher dove at Earl’s now-free hand, then jerked back as all five stingers jabbed into his arm. The second nurse moved forward with a syringe, but Earl ripped free of the other handcuff and tossed him against the wall even as Gallagher slumped to the floor. Shit. Venom in the tentacles.
“Dr. Patel, get away from him!” I shouted, drawing my weapon. Where the hell was the backup?
Dr. Patel cried out in pain, gripping her stung hand as she stumbled back. Earl let out another horrible scream and ripped the leg shackles free.
“Stay back, Earl!” I brought my gun to bear on him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the doctor stagger and slump. Everyone was down except me, with no sign of any backup. “These people are trying to help you!”
Earl wasn’t listening. He scrambled off the bed and lunged toward me. I gritted my teeth and shot him point-blank in the chest.
But instead of staggering or falling, he imploded, sucking down to a single point before the gunshot finished echoing through the room.
A wave of arcane passed through me even as Earl poofed out of existence. I whirled to see Zack Garner standing behind me. Blue eyes, tanned face, and sun-bleached hair—still looking more like a surfer than a federal agent, despite the suit and badge. Breaking the ptarl bond with Rhyzkahl had left him a shadow of his former self, and while part of me was thrilled to see him looking healthy and whole again, the rest was reeling from the last few minutes.
“What the fuck is this, Zack? Why didn’t you do something sooner? All these people got hurt, and I had to kill the guy!”
He regarded me a moment then knelt beside Dr. Patel and laid his hand on her forehead. She stirred and sat up, a bewildered look on her face.
“It’s all right, Aja,” he said as he helped her to her feet. “Go get cleaned up. We’ll chat soon.”
“‘We’ll chat soon?’” I sputtered. “That’s it?” I caught Dr. Pate
l’s arm as she moved for the door. “Are you okay?”
She gave me a serene smile that sent a chill down my spine. I released her then bit my tongue as Zack repeated the process with Gallagher and the two nurses. Better for them to be serene and out of harm’s way when I had my own chat with Zack.
After the last nurse left, Zack lifted his hand, and the door swung closed. A twitch of his fingers set an aversion ward on it to keep people out. It was so subtle I could barely detect it, yet more powerful than any I’d felt before. And there was something indefinably wrong with it.
“Zack, what’s going on?” I asked, perplexed. “Why are you here manipulating and vaporizing people?”
“Everything is going to be fine, Kara.” He stepped toward me.
I took an equal step back. I wasn’t about to let him touch my forehead. “Fine as in ‘we’ll chat soon’? No thanks, dude. I’m not into the serene-and-creepy thing.” Then again I wasn’t sure if he actually needed to make physical contact to manipulate me. My gun felt comfortable and heavy in my hand. “I thought we were beyond the lies and games. Where’s Ashava?”
He regarded me coolly. “Safe in hiding.”
I stared at him. “Zack, do you know what this is doing to Jill? Do you even care?”
His expression didn’t change a whit. “She is a survivor.”
That wasn’t an answer I ever expected from Zack, but neither was this iceman act. Or maybe I was seeing the real Zack for the first time? An unfamiliar mental touch brushed my mind. I tensed and bared my teeth. “Fuck you. If you’re going to manipulate me and make me forget I saw you, go ahead and do it already. But tell me how Ashava is first.”
“I’ll know soon enough,” he said with a faint smile that was just . . . wrong. He dropped his head a fraction.
His answer made no sense, but I knew that in another few seconds I wouldn’t remember it anyway. Fuck! I didn’t know if it was possible to beat demahnk manipulation, but I was damn well going to try. I glared at him and clung to the memory of his face—Zack Garner, here at Fed Central. If I could hang on to that one tiny fragment, I’d find him again. Asshole. I hated this. Hated him.
His expression flickered in an instant of puzzlement.
And like looking at an optical illusion and seeing that the duck could also be a rabbit, I suddenly saw everything that was wrong. The wrongness of the ward. The unfamiliar touch. The wrong smile. Wrong because I was expecting Zack’s energy signature and Zack’s smile. I didn’t recognize the signature, but I recognized that smile. Carl. No. Xharbek.
Even as the realization hit home, I leaped toward him, slammed him against the wall and jammed the muzzle of my gun up under his chin. That I could do so without him deflecting me told me everything I needed to know. He couldn’t read me. Couldn’t anticipate my moves. The real Zack Garner and Kadir’s estranged demahnk ptarl, Helori, must have implanted mental protections in my head when they shielded other sensitive information.
“What happens to a non-corporeal being if I blow its corporeal head off?” I growled, finger on the trigger.
He didn’t move—an eerie, unearthly stillness impossible for a human. “You hold the means to find out, Kara Gillian.”
