Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 119846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
No, not again… not again… Don’t think about it—don’t—
But the memories came anyway.
A scream…the smell of smoke. The roar of a ship taking off—too fast—too far. A hand tearing free from his grasp. A beloved face… gone forever.
Burn’s heart slammed painfully against his ribs as the memories of the past and the horrors of the present merged and filled his brain like smoke.
The bars wouldn’t give…he couldn’t get to her…couldn’t get to any of them…couldn’t save them. They were gone…all gone…
He staggered backward, chest heaving, like he’d been punched.
“Burn…” Bright’s voice was worried. “Burn, stop! You’re hurting yourself.”
A hand touched his shoulder.
Burn flung it off violently.
“Don’t,” he snarled, backing away from the bars, his fists trembling. “Don’t tell me to calm down. Don’t tell me to be reasonable. You feel it too—you know she’s in trouble.”
Bright swallowed. His face was pale.
“I know. I do. But we can’t get to her. Not like this.”
Burn shook his head fiercely. He couldn’t accept that. He refused to.
His hands curled into fists so tight his nails cut his palms. The pain grounded him—barely. His whole body shook, the tension too much to contain.
“She’s scared,” he whispered hoarsely. “She’s hurting. I can feel it.”
“Yes,” Bright started. “But—”
“But nothing!” Burn exploded, turning on his best friend with a guttural roar. “Don’t you fucking understand?”
He slammed his fist into the wall so hard the bones in his hand sang with pain.
“They took her,” he snarled, the words torn from somewhere deep and raw inside him. “They took her—and they’ll take her apart if we don’t get to her.”
Bright’s eyes widened, worry replaced by fear.
“Burn, you have to calm down—you’re really going to hurt yourself,” he begged.
But Burn was past any kind of calm. His chest constricted…his throat tightened until he could barely speak as the present merged with the past again.
“They took them,” he whispered. “All of them. And they never came back. Don’t you understand? They never came back.”
“Burn…” Bright said softly. “Please, if you’d just talk to me…”
But Burn didn’t let him finish.
He pressed his forehead to the cold metal bars, breath shaking, vision swimming. His voice was a ragged whisper.
“I can’t lose anyone else.” His fingers curled around the bars tightly enough to make the metal creak. “I can’t,” he whispered. “Not again.”
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Hold on, Noelle. Hold on. I’m coming. I swear to the Goddess—I’m coming.
But the cell stayed locked.
And her terror kept bleeding into him like poison.
He had never felt more helpless in his entire life.
16
NOELLE
Noelle lay sprawled on the edge of the Rejuvenation Pool, gasping for air, her bare chest heaving. Every inch of her body burned and tingled, as though she'd been scrubbed raw with acid and then rolled in hot sand. The black slime clung to her in patches—oozing down her thighs…stuck in the creases of her elbows…matting her hair to her scalp. Her breath sawed in and out of her lungs as she struggled to make sense of what had just happened.
It used its suction cups on me…used them everywhere. The thought spun in her mind, fragmented and jagged. I should be dead. I should be drowned. What was that thing? What the hell was that thing?
She barely had time to think before she heard the hiss of pressurized air and felt a shock of icy spray hit her chest.
“Ahh!” she cried, trying to roll away.
“No, no—hold still!” Lupin snapped, striding over with a hose in his hands. “You must hold still so I can get the contents of the pool off of you. It’s absolutely essential to remove every last trace or the nanites will keep on working and we don’t want that. We can’t let them go too far.”
The icy water struck her again, pelting her breasts…her stomach…her legs. Noelle cried out and tried to scramble away, but her limbs were trembling and useless.
“Come now, don’t be such a baby,” Lupin chided, as if she were just being fussy about a cold shower instead of being power-washed after being mauled by a monster. “On your feet now,” he chided. “I must reach all of you.”
Gripping her by one arm, he made her stand up—shoving at her until she was swaying on her feet, arms crossed over her chest in a futile attempt at modesty.
“Put your arms up—up, I say!” he demanded.
“I…I’m n-naked!” she protested through chattering teeth.
“And I’m a eunuch, remember? You’re of no interest to me except as a canvas to perfect. Now, arms up!”
Dios…Dios…Dios, she chanted silently as she lifted her arms, trying not to weep.
The cold spray blasted her armpits, then her back, then—mortifyingly—between her legs. She let out a little strangled noise of protest, but Lupin only huffed and kept going, directing the hose with clinical precision.
“There,” he said finally, after what felt like an eternity. “That’s better. Now for the dryer. Come along.”