Renegade Passion (3 page)

“It’s not that simple.”
 

“Why? What does that mean?”

“It means that you’re being hunted by Adam Rain and that’s a very dangerous thing to be.”

“Caleb’s brother?”
 

“Yes,” he said. “Caleb’s brother. He’s leading a rebel group called the Zodius who took over Area 51 and they intend to take over far more than that.”

“What?” she gasped. “Why? When did this happen?”
 

“The immunizations they were giving us at Area 51 weren’t immunizations at all. They were experimental DNA that changed us. We aren’t...human. Not fully anymore.”

She was stunned. “What does that mean? What kind of DNA?”

“The rumors of a ship that the government recovered in New Mexico were true,” he said. “And with it they acquired some unique DNA. After years of study, they finally decided to see if they could create what you might call a ‘super soldier’ while the government calls them GTECHs.”

She gaped in total disbelief. “Oh my God. And they didn’t tell you what they were doing?”

His lips thinned. “No. They didn’t tell us. The change took months to occur. That’s why I didn’t initially pull away from you. I simply had no idea what I was or what had happened. Once I knew, I was afraid of what I was becoming. For all I knew I might become a monster that would hurt you, or worse, kill you. Much later, Adam decided the GTECHs were evolution and overthrew Area 51 and created what he calls Zodius Nation.”

“Zodius?”

“Project Zodius was the name of the experimental program the Army undertook to make us,” he explained before going on. “Caleb organized the Renegades, an opposing force to the Zodius, and I knew I’d made the right decision. Anyone a Renegade loves is a weapon Adam would use against us. Adam had met you. Had I not ended what was between us long before he became the monster he is now, you would have been a target. Now, unfortunately, you are anyway. He might not know you have a special gift, but he thinks you have an insider telling you his plans to kidnap women. He won’t stop until he captures you.”

She sat on the bed, stunned and unsure she wasn’t dreaming. “This seems impossible.” Her gaze lifted to his. “Adam is kidnapping the women, then?”

He gave a nod. “The GTECHs are only fertile with one woman. Finding that woman is a mystery and he’s conducting dangerous and pretty horrific fertility testing. And if you want to know what that means, ask Sterling’s lifebond. She knows firsthand.”

“Lifebond? What is a lifebond?”

“The one woman the GTECH is fertile with. Sterling is one of the rare GTECHs who found his.”

She inhaled sharply and let it out. “And you?”

“There is no woman for me but you, Sonia. There never has been.” He cut his gaze and seemed to grapple for control before slowly shifting his eyes back to hers. “There are things you don’t know and I can’t tell you right now. I need to leave this room before I do something we will both regret.”
 

The next thing she knew he was stalking past her, clearly headed for the door, and intending to leave.
 

Would he come back? Would she ever see him again. Sonia pursued him and shackled his arm. “Please don’t go. Please. Not when I’ve just found out you’re alive.”
 

“I have to,” he said, sounding as if he was in pain. “I don’t have control with you and you have no idea the implications of what that means.” He ran a rough hand through his hair. “I’ll be back. Just...just give me some time. You can’t leave the facility, but you can go anywhere inside. I’ll send someone to show you around.”
 

“You show me around,” she said, regretting how she’d doubted him, how she’d reacted to what he’d told her.
 

“I can’t, Sonia. I just...can’t. You don’t understand that now but you will. You will.” He pulled away and was through the door before she could stop him.

Chapter Four

 
Kel stalked down the hallway toward the lab where he knew he’d find Becca, Sterling’s lifebond, someone who could help Sonia in all kinds of ways. Emotion expanded inside him, ready to explode but somehow he clamped down on his feelings. He knew the right thing to do. He knew he had to wipe Sonia’s memory as he would the waitress, once they’d arranged a new life for her, someplace safe and far away from the Zodius’ reach. Instead, he burned to pull her into his arms and make love to her, to make her his lifebond and bind her to him forever. The bond was no sure thing, and even if it was, it would steal her ability to choose her future. Not this time, not when she had options. And not when the final outcome was her being bound to him in life and in death. She deserved a choice and but he worried it wasn’t that simple. The truth of the matter was thought that he wasn’t even sure that he really could give her choices. Would her dreams simply recreate whatever he’d erased?
 

The only person that might be able to answer that was Becca. She had abilities that her transformation to GTECH had given her.
 

He entered the lab, and sure enough, the pretty brunette Sterling called wife and lifebond stood at a lab table looking through a microscope.
 

“Hi Kel,” she said, glancing up at him. “How is Sonia and when can I meet her?” She took one look at him and rephrased. “What’s wrong?”
 

Kel started to pace, ignoring the question. “She has dreams that come true.”

“I heard something about that. Sterling said you thought they’d gone away?”

“I did,” he said. “But apparently they’re back.”

“For how long?”

He stopped walking and ran his hand through his hair. “We didn’t exactly get to that.”

“She was pretty upset over you faking your death?”

He nodded. “That’s an understatement.”

“I can understand her being upset.”

“I had to do it.”

“I know,” she said gently. “If anyone knows I do. Remember? I was inside the Zodius facility. I saw what they do to women there.”

“I don’t want this life for her.”

“She’s already a part of it,” Becca reminded him.

“If I wipe her memory, I need to know if the dreams will recreate them. I need you to test her and find out.”
 

“Kel, I touch someone and I see their memories. I can’t see what their future memories will be. And if she has this ability, you can wipe away her past, but you won’t stop her dreams from taking her where they want to go. Call me a romantic, but I’d like to think they will always lead her right back here, to you. You love her and you hurt every day being away from her. I see it in your eyes.”

“How do I bring her into this world and justify that as okay?”

“How do you justify doing what the army did to you and the others in ‘Project Zodius’ by denying her the ability to choose?”

“Because I’m saving her life and they were taking ours.”

“You think stealing her memories and giving her some life she didn’t ask for is saving her?”

“DO you know where Kel is?” came a muffled female, very familiar voice from the hallway.
   

That she’d come hunting for him shouldn’t have surprised him, yet it did. She was, and always had been, determined to get what she wanted. That she wanted him both warmed him and turned him to ice. He didn’t know how to handle this right. He’d had no time to think about this.
   

Becca smiled. “She’s looking for you. I like her already.”

Suddenly, the door opened behind Kel and Damion said, “You have company.” Kel turned just in time to see Damion step out of the doorway and Sonia appear from behind him.
 

“Kel,” she said, charging forward to embrace him, tilting her chin up to find his eyes with hers. “All that matters is that you’re alive and we’re together. I love you. I never stopped loving you, or missing you, or hurting from the loss of you. I’m not letting you play macho super soldier and send me away. Not unless you tell me you don’t love me any more.”

Kel buried his head in her hair, inhaling the sweet smell of woman - his woman - and he knew why he’d walked away without giving her a choice. She was a giving, beautiful woman in so many ways. She was at that bar tonight tonight to save the waitress, fearless for herself. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

She pulled back and forced him to look at her, those gorgeous green eyes of hers seeming to see right into his soul, her voice hoarse with emotion. “Then don’t leave me again.”

“I don’t want to,” he assured her, and there was no way she could possibly know how much he meant those words, how much he wanted to be selfish and keep her with him.
 

“But you’re going to?” she challenged, seeming to read his mind. She shook her head. “No. I won’t let you.” There was stubbornness, passion, and love, in that vow.
 

It was all he could do not to pick up Sonia and carry her out of here, back to the apartments he called his own when in the city. To his bed. Somehow, he managed to restrain himself and instead he gently took her hand. “Let’s go back to the room.”

She nodded and he turned to Becca. “Sonia, this is Becca. I’ll introduce you more formally later.”

Sonia waved. “Hi, Becca. Nice to meet you.”

Becca smiled softly. “We’ll get acquainted after you two get some much needed time together. I’d love to hear about your dreams. I have a few abilities of my own I’m still getting used to.”

“I’d like that very much,” Sonia said.
 

Kel motioned to the door and he and Sonia headed to the hallway. The floral scent of her, the soft sway of her hips, seeped into his senses.

 
Suddenly, his adrenaline was pumping fiercely, his blood burning through his veins. He been so long without her, too long without her. But there were things she had to know, things about him, and he dreaded the moment she might call him a monster. The moment she saw what he’d really become. And he was afraid that moment was now.
 

Chapter Five

The minute they were in the hallway, Kel fought the urge to pick Sonia up, as something primitive and wholly male inside him began to expand and take control. They walked past rows of apartments, adrenaline pumping through him with every step, every long second. The instant they were inside the apartment and he shut the door, the adrenaline pouring through him surged and took over.
 
This time he really did pick her up and carried her to the bed, going down onto the mattress with her on her back, the soft and delicate curves of her body beneath his bigger, harder form.
 

He kissed her, driven by passion, by a wild, almost desperate need to claim her. His hands slid over her body, over her breasts. She moaned softly into his mouth and fire burned inside him, and he knew he was millimeters from forgetting everything but this moment, forgetting the consequences.
 

He tore his mouth from hers, his words gravely with desire. “There are things you need to know.”
 

“I know the most important part. You’re alive.”

“I’m not human, Sonia. Not anymore.”

“You’re still the man I love.”

“You don’t know-”

“I know you.”

“I’ve changed.”

“Show me,” she whispered. “Show me who you are now.”

He kissed her, a deep passionate kiss that bled like lifeblood into him, powerful, passionate, yet oh so sweet. But he didn’t want sweet. He wanted the heat, the fierceness of
 
what they felt when they were together, what he’d been without for so very long.
 

Kel deepened the kiss, drinking her in, thirsting for her as he had never thirsted. He wanted the lifebond mark that would show on her neck if they bonded to appear, knowing that it would, because lifebonds weren’t created from science, but from love. It was the one thing they knew of the bond, and the one thing he knew existed between him and Sonia. He craved that bond, justifying his actions, even as he swore he would not bond with her. As long as he didn’t exchange blood she would not be bound to him in life and death. But if he was forced to erase her memories, some part of him would stay with her with that marking.