Page 156 of Light the Fire


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How did Nereza know about what happened? Was it all part of their training? Had Haina pretended to be some naïve little virgin? Was the sensory overload a ploy, too?

Jorik’s head was shaking. “I don’t believe you.” He glanced at Zane, but Zane’s face was ashen, and anger flared in his eyes. “Zane?” Jorik said, his tone almost pleading.

Nereza snickered. “Zane knows it’s true, because it’s exactly what I did to him, right, Zaney Boo?”

My eyes nearly popped out of my skull, and I whipped around to face my brother. “What? What the fuck is this psycho-bitch talking about?”

Zane swallowed, shot a murderous glare at Nereza, then scanned Jorik’s and my faces. “It’s how Chance died. We were on a mission. Nereza played the desperate-to-escape-her-commander Kappa. And a virgin to boot and she lured me in. She made me believe that she was telling the truth and in need of help escaping.” He glanced back at Nereza. “I fell for her, too. Then she turned on us, and Chance was killed as a warning to me.”

My brain was going to explode. How the fuck had he never told us any of this? I spun back around to face Moord and Nereza.

Nereza looked like the psycho kitty that had just devoured an entire nest of baby robins. “You were such an easy mark, too,” Nereza said. “Great in bed, I will give you that. That tongue of yours…” She bit her lips and narrowed her eyes, remembering my brother’s prowess in bed before glancing at Moord. “Can I have him for a night in my chamber?”

Moord shrugged. “You may need to sedate him slightly.”

Nereza’s eyes gleamed with triumph. My gut spun violently.

“So what? You’re just going to keep us on as super soldiers, then? Shoot us back up with the serum, then expect us to come back for more after a mission?” I asked, desperately wanting to grab that gun on Nereza’s holster and put it to the side of my head.

Moord shrugged. “In a manner of speaking, yes. But you three will need some reforming.”

“The first chance I get, I’m putting a bullet through my head and ending it,” I said plainly. “I don’t care if the team deactivation chip kills my brothers, too. None of us want this.”

Nereza’s lip twitched in a way that made me curious. Her eyes darted sideways to Moord quickly, but it wasn’t so fast that I missed it. Was there no deactivation chip? Was it all just a manipulation tactic to get us to comply?

I wouldn’t put it past them. Besides, I honestly had no idea how a chip like that would even work. But we had found things implanted and tethered to the tops of our spines, so if they weren’t team deactivation chips, then what were they?

“When enough blood has been drained from Haina, then we’ll have the lab distill new serum,” Moord said, his tone almost jovial, like he was letting us know his weekend plans to take the boat out on the lake and have a wienie roast. “The scientists in the Sector Six lab have been cooking up some interesting stuff, so we’re going to see if you can handle this new variation of the serum. It lasts longer but wears off harder.” His eyes flared with excitement. “If you know what I mean.”

As if I were going through the withdrawal all over again, imaginary flames licked across my bare arms and up the inside of my gut.

“Anyway,” Moord said, once again appearing bored, “you boys reflect on your choices, maybe reach out to God for some advice, because the next time you see me, I’m not going to be nearly as nice as I am right now.” Then he spun on his heel and left the room, not waiting for Nereza to follow him. Theclomp clompof his boots in the hallway echoed but grew more faint.

Nereza’s pale blue eyes practically shone under the cheap flickering fluorescent lights as she walked over to Zane, crouched in front of him, causing her leather suit to creak, and smiled. “Limber up that tongue,lover. I have plans for it tonight.” Then she leaned forward, crushed her mouth to Zane’s and shoved her tongue inside, kissing him violently while pulling on his hair hard enough to force a noise of pain to rumble in his throat.

She must have bit him, because when she pulled away, there was a small trickle of blood on her bottom lip. She licked it almost savagely, spied the blood on Zane’s lip and sucked it off. Smiling malevolently, she stood up from her crouch, smiled at Jorik and I, twinkled her fingers in a wave, then left, slamming and locking the door behind her.

I exhaled at the same time I mentally pushed down the urge to vomit.

Jorik scratched at his chest and began to pace.

Zane was disturbingly quiet and still.

“What are we going to do?” I finally said, beseeching my brothers for some kind of a game plan. “We have to get her out of there. Everything they said about her was a lie. She’s a prisoner just as much as we are.”

Zane lifted his head, a drop of blood bubbling on his lip. His gray eyes were tired but also full of fury. “Is she?” he asked.

“Is she what?” I spat out.

“A prisoner.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Of course, she is. You don’t believe what Moord said, do you? He’s a fucking liar.”

“So is Nereza, and yet she made me believe her.”

“That’s different,” I scoffed. My first instinct was to jump up and deck Zane for the things he was saying about Haina, but the sad look on his face gave me pause.

Zane’s head shook softly. “Is it, though? Haina is a triple-threat Hellcat. Unlike Nereza, she also has the Sigma strain, so she’s brilliant. She probably learned our weaknesses within an hour of knowing us. Figured out how to play each of us perfectly to win our affections, tear down our defenses and make us fall for her. Nereza did it to me in a matter of days, and the only reason I was resistant to Haina for so long wasbecauseof my history with Nereza. But Haina said and did all the right things to win us over. To where we’d do anything for her, kill for her. Be killed for her. And yet now, here we sit on cold concrete with not even a pot to piss in, and she’s in the next room in a plush bed with a comforter, water, a bathroom, food…” He lifted a shoulder, his eyes turning sad and sympathetic as he held my gaze. “It’s not your fault, little brother. She convinced me too.”

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