Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
He did so with voice commands, his voice clearer than before. “If I’m big guy, are you little woman?”
Dahlia shot him a glance that should’ve incinerated him on the spot except he was looking at her with that softness again that was doing really weird things to her. “Don’t even try it.”
Then she started driving hell-for-leather.
Chapter 43
I thought we deserved a lighter column after the events of the past months, a chance for all of us to catch our breaths…so let us dig into the topic of sex.
Yes. S.E.X.
I know, you’re all yelling that, “Jaya, I had basic sex education in elementary school!” But I’m here to tell you that sexual reproduction as taught in Psy education under Silence, and sex as it pertains to the messy entangling of emotions in the post-Silence world are two wholly different things.
—PsyNet Beacon column by Jaya Laila Storm (medical empath and Social Interaction columnist) (2 January 2084)
The WindHaven healer got fluids and nutrients into Bram while he sat shirtless and unconcerned in a large infirmary armchair. “I’m going to hook you up so we can monitor—”
“Don’t bother,” Bram said, his eyes still on Dahlia, who was standing there wearing his misbuttoned shirt. She was all tumbled hair she’d somehow managed to get into a knot with nothing, kiss-bruised lips, bare feet, and long legs, and he could look at her to his last breath. “There’s no coming back from what’s happening.”
“Don’t say that,” Dahlia ordered, a hot red flush on her cheekbones. “Eleri is Adam’s mate.”
He hadn’t known that; now, the knowledge crushed the part of him that was still the boy so determined to protect his friends. All this time, Eleri could’ve had a life happy and extraordinary with a man who said her name like a benediction. “If I could do something to help her, I would,” he said. “I want Adam to pluck a miracle out of the air, but in strict Psy terms, Eleri no longer has anything on which to build a shield—and soon I won’t, either.”
He was so susceptible to Dahlia that he’d allowed her to talk him into the vehicle, then bring him here. But it had been a mistake. His mind clear, he saw no way out…and he didn’t want to die in a cold hospital room, or even this infirmary.
“So that’s it?” She put her hands on her waist, a Valkyrie whose eyes were of a falcon wild. “You’re just going to give up?”
“There’s nothing I can do,” he argued back. “If I could have donated my shield to Eleri, I would have.” He’d been fighting for Eleri, Saffron, and Yúzé since the day he’d met them, but he’d failed and he’d take that failure with him into death. “At this point in time, we—every J about to hit Exposure—are all alone.”
Dahlia scowled, but before she could snap back a retort, the healer interrupted. “Actually, there might be something you can do.”
Bram forced himself to look away from the woman who crazed him. “I’d be happy to, whatever it is. As long as you”—he turned to face Dahlia—“promise you’ll take me outside when it’s my time to go. I want to die with the outside air on my skin.”
A wildness in her eyes, Dahlia said, “Did you not hear me? You are not going to die. I refuse to live with the jokes afterward.” She pointed a finger at him before turning to the healer. “What do you need him to do, Naia?”
“Act as a test subject. Saoirse’s trying to create an artificial shield for Eleri. Probably go faster if she has a Psy with a similar brain on whom to test her theories.”
Bram didn’t say anything, unwilling to snuff out the hope on their faces, but he’d used his contacts to stay abreast of the Human Alliance’s attempts to engineer a shield for their people. They had been trying for a long time—but humanity was still out there unshielded.
This Saoirse the healer had mentioned wasn’t going to succeed in a day…which was all Bram had left—at the most generous estimate. But if it would make Dahlia happy for him to try, then he’d try. He owed her for bringing pleasure and softness into his life right when he’d believed he’d fall into the abyss with nothing but memories of evil as his companions.
• • •
Two hours later, a woman of medium height, with skin of a deep brown that held coppery undertones, her curly hair twisted into a knot at the back of her neck, walked in with a box of items. Bram wondered if she was planning to run the no-doubt-necessary litany of blood and DNA tests right here…then she pulled out a literal tinfoil helmet.
Bram stared at it. He understood jokes, but given the tension in the room, it was obvious this wasn’t one. Which left only desperation. “I’m sorry,” he said bluntly, his patience dead at the thought of spending his last hours on something this idiotic. “But if that worked, the human prophets on street corners would be the most protected people on the planet.”