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Nausea turned my stomach as my mind flitted in and out of memory. The Drone’s superhuman speed, his wings, his fangs…
Beside me, Roark lowered to his knees and put his face in Michio’s, a breath away.
Michio’s eyes shot open. “What are you”—he sucked in wet breath—“doing, Priest?”
Hope and disbelief collided inside me then poured out in a rush of exhales.
With a sudden jerk, Roark straightened and pulled me with him. “Bloody hell, Doc. Wanna explain wha’s poking outta your trap?”
A groan gurgled in his throat. “Not…at the moment.”
“Michio, something’s happening.” I swatted away Roark’s attempt to pull me back and touched the pockmark on Michio’s chest with a tentative finger. “I don’t…understand…it’s…”
No longer a well of blood, the thin bubble of skin stretched and expanded over the hole. Holy Mother. I jerked my hand back.
I’d seen that before. Right after my husband died, I took my grief out on an aphid. I dissected it…while it was alive. It couldn’t regrow limbs, but the efficiency in which it repaired injuries was inhuman. Just like this.
My ears rang, and my pulse whooshed loudly in my head. Had Michio contracted the infection? But when…how… Oh fuck, no.
“The Drone,” I whispered, as if saying the name aloud would conjure his ghost. The hairs on my nape rose, and I shivered. “He bit you in Iceland.” I scooted back, apprehension scratching up my throat. “He passed along his mutation?”
He gave me a pained look beneath heavy brows. “Evie.”
I covered my mouth. “Did you get his spider shit, too?”
He closed his eyes.
I jumped to my feet and paced, swirling up the tension in the room. The Drone’s own creations had turned on him, infecting him. But he’d stunted his mutation with his homemade strands of spider DNA. Hence, the fangs.
“Son of a bitch.” I stopped, swinging around to face him. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I…” His breath shuddered, and he reached up to touch a tooth. A fucking fang. “Studying…wanted proof…”
Always with the damned proof. Distrust plowed through me in full force. He’d pulled that shit when he was studying my blood, refusing to disclose his conclusions until he could authenticate them.
I knelt beside him and touched the fading scar on his chest with a shaking hand. “Did you know you could heal like this?”
He nodded then shook his head. “I didn’t know the extent…until now.”
His breathing was returning to normal, his face regaining its olive glow.
“You lied to me. Again.” I tried to swallow my distrust, hawking it back and choking on it.
I couldn’t trust him, and that realization simmered bile through my stomach and swelled an ache behind my eyes.
Jesse and Roark watched me carefully, probably worried about an impending explosion. They were right about that, but I managed to keep the detonation inside, gritting my teeth against the nausea surging through my insides.
“So ye have the aphid’s healing abilities?” Roark crouched over him and cast him a drawn-out look.
“And their speed.” I mentally replayed his supernatural movements on the battlefield, his bite from the kiss, all the pieces linking together in a dizzying mix of emotions. “What about bloodlust?”
The Drone had struggled to keep his greedy fangs away from me. Something to do with my evolving biological characteristics of the ladybird and the spider being my natural predator.
What did it mean for Michio and his attraction to me? Would the bloodlust turn him on? Would it affect me the same way? Or could it make him lose control and hurt me?
Images flashed through my mind. His mouth covering my neck, sharp teeth biting and drawing blood. Our naked bodies sliding together. His fingers bruising my skin. The richness of his voice deepening into an animalistic growl.
The sudden heat low in my belly warred with the itch to bury a dagger in his heart. “There better not be any negative side effects.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
My hands curled into fists in my lap. Blood coated the nail beds and splattered up my arm.
I’d almost lost him. Whatever changes were happening to his DNA, it had saved his life. Focus on that.
Jesse moved to Amos’ side and checked the man’s pulse. Amos hadn’t twitched in his silent sprawl, and I knew what Jesse would find.
He met my eyes and shook his head. Dead. Amid all the emotions rioting through me, guilt rose to the top. Yeah, I had been defending myself, but so had Amos. He thought I was a monster, and could I blame him? I should’ve checked him for weapons. Stupid fucking hindsight.
I managed a small smile. “Looks like Shea will be joining our road trip.”
Michio looked at me, his eyes fried with taut lines of exhaustion and tension. “We won’t be able to bring along every woman we cure. We need to find a safe place for her.”
We really did need a plan for keeping the cured women safe. The best bet would be to ship them back to the Lakota in West Virginia. But how would we do that? At the end of the day, it would be up to each woman to decide where she wanted to live.
