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There is no fear in me for me. I don’t believe Creed will hurt me, but my father is another story. “Creed,” I whisper, my eyes prickling with unshed tears. “Please don’t do this.”
The plea has barely left my lips when Creed lifts a gun and points it at me. He pulls the trigger and time stands still as I stare at the tranquilizer in my arm, and then my world that has already crumbled goes black.
Chapter Thirty-One
I wake abruptly, climbing through the darkness of a deep sleep to jerk to a sitting position, quickly registering the fact that I’m in a bed, steel rails on either side of me. An IV hangs from my arm. Green curtains cover the windows to the right telling me I’m in an Army hospital.
“Easy, sweetie,” comes Katie’s gentle voice, as my friend rushes out of the nearby restroom. “I knew you’d wake up while I was in there.”
Katie. Katie is here. I battle the tangled memories weaving through the blank spots of my mind. Creed. My father. The knife. “My father!” I exclaim, my voice trembling, adrenaline rocketing through me and setting off my heart monitor with a series of fast beeps. “Is my father—?”
“Alive and unharmed,” she assures me, and my relief is palpable. He’s alive. Is Creed? I want to ask. I need to ask, but the burning sensation my fretting delivers is familiar, almost as if the universe is telling me my other half is alive. My other half who clearly betrayed me, and my throat goes thick.
Katie sits down on the edge of the bed. Her eyes are bloodshot, as if she’s been crying, her attire casual jeans, and an out-of-character, wrinkled T-shirt. “Your dad had to fly to Washington to deal with the aftermath of Julian’s takeover of Groom Lake.” Her gaze glosses over. “I swear, that day was a nightmare I will not soon forget.”
“That day?” I query, my hands gripping the steel bars. “How long have I been out? What happened to me?”
A nurse rushes into the room. “You’re awake!”
“Please,” I say, holding up a hand. “I’m fine. Just give me a minute.”
“Miss—”
“I need a minute,” I say forcefully.
Katie lifts and flashes the badge hanging from her neck. “She’s in good hands. Give us that minute.” Reluctantly the nurse nods and exits the room.
The moment she’s gone, I say, “How long have I been out?”
“Three days. You hit your head at some point.” She stands up and fills a glass with some water and hands it to me. I wave off the cup, but Katie holds her ground. “Drink.”
Seeing my compliance as my only path to answers, I do as ordered, accepting the glass, the cool liquid soothing my throat, but not my heart. Creed tranquilized me. That part I remember all too well, but he didn’t kill me or my father, which delivers a bit of the hope I’d tried to feel during the attack. I shiver and hand the glass back to Katie before leaning against the mattress and crossing my arms over the hospital gown.
“How did we get out?”
“Caleb,” she says. “And thank God for him, though I cannot imagine what it must have been like to stand against his brother. Apparently, Julian had been planning a revolt for some time. Caleb had been working to head it off. But when your father suddenly decided to move the X2-positive men, he forced Julian’s hand.”
I hesitate but have to ask, “The soldier you were dating—”
“He’s okay. Still in the hospital, but he’s improving.”
I swallow hard thinking of his bloodied, beaten body. Thinking of Creed standing next to Julian and I can’t hold back. “I need to ask about someone,” I say, a lump in my throat, and I have no idea how to even approach this, so I just say his name. “Creed.”
Katie squeezes my arm. “I had a feeling you were seeing him. He’s alive, if that’s what you want to know. With Julian, Addie. Half the GTECHs and almost the entire medical and military staff at Groom Lake followed Julian.”
“Did they get the serum?”
Katie nods her confirmation. “Enough to create two to three hundred GTECHs. That’s a lot of GTECHs, but not enough for the world domination that Caleb says Julian has his sights set on.”
World domination, I think. This can’t be happening. “He’ll find a way to duplicate the serum. And now we know they can have children, Ava and Julian for sure. If you don’t know, they’re lifebonds.”
“I didn’t, but I’m not surprised. I had this weird vibe from her. But it will be years before children become a threat,” She says.
“We’re dealing with alien DNA. We don’t know that.”
“No, but they’re still mostly human. Or they were. Maybe that is changing. Either way, the original serum sample was destroyed, and duplicating a copy hasn’t proven a simple task. You know that. Once he hands out the serum he has on hand, he’ll have to find another way to grow the GTECH population. That could be literally years.”
