“They are about to cut the cake,” her father said, pulling her back into the moment. “I know how you love your sweets.”
She smiled and agreed, somehow making small talk as they walked down the path, somehow presenting a façade of happy and lighthearted. But in the back of Cassandra’s mind, she knew a storm was coming. And that storm had a name: Michael.
CHAPTER SIX
With the taste of Cassandra still lingering on his lips, Michael stepped onto the elevator leading to the underground world of what was once Area 51, but now known as “Zodius City,” the first of its kind in Adam’s planned Zodius Nation. Michael was shaking inside. And he didn’t shake. He couldn’t shake. It showed weakness, and weakness would get him killed and maybe Cassandra with him.
He’d been living the façade of being the second in charge to the most evil monster on this planet. Hell, he’d earned the reputation as the “Punisher” for his torture of any Zodius soldier who dared cross Adam. And he was fucking shaken. To the core. Because no matter how forcefully he reached for that black spot in his mind where he felt nothing, it was nowhere to be found.
There was only Cassandra, and that bittersweet taste of her on his lips. He could make her want him again, but he doubted he would ever make her trust him again. Which was for the best, he told himself. Nothing had changed. This place, his role in it, was proof; he was not the man for Cassandra. Hell, most days the darkness inside him made him doubt he was a man at all.
The elevator dinged its arrival, the doors sliding open to Adam’s private corridor, a part of the never-ending expansion of the underground facility. A pair of silver doors, similar to those on the elevator awaited him, two armed guards on either side, both in desert fatigues, machine guns on their shoulders. Neither soldier dared to look Michael in the eye; there was a class system followed in Zodius, with Adam at the top and humanity below, under his foot.
The guard to the right used the wall phone to call Adam. Before he hung up, the doors slid open, and Michael stepped into a hallway resembling that of a hotel with doors running down its length. He headed to the one at the end—Adam’s apartment that dripped of Upper East Side Manhattan luxury.
Ava appeared in the entrance before he arrived, draping herself over the frame, one hand over her head, her hip seductively cocked. She wore a sheer white bra and panties, displaying her rounded stomach and full breasts, nipples barely covered. Long red hair draped over her shoulders.
“Michael,” she said, a taunting, sexual smile on her red lips, despite the fact that she had eyes for no one but Adam. But like her Lifebond, Ava was pure evil, and she enjoyed luring men into her web and then watching Adam catch them. Look the wrong way at Ava, and you ended up in the “coliseum,” Roman style. There, the entire city watched as dozens of Adam’s wolves savaged the offender, who couldn’t kill one of the prized animals—at least not without further reprisal. The soldier would heal but not without disgrace and a hell of a lot of pain.
Ava was a bitch. “Where’s Adam?” he asked shortly.
“In the shower,” she said, inching the door open. “I’ll keep you company until he’s out.”
“I’ll wait in the hall,” he countered, his eyes never leaving her face.
She pursed her red lips. “What’s the problem, Michael?” she baited. “You afraid you’ll be tempted to actually look at me if you come inside? Or do you simply find me unattractive because I’m pregnant with Adam’s child?”
Such a fucking bitch. He gave her a heavy-lidded, cold stare. “I just want to talk to Adam.”
The door opened fully and Adam—wearing a navy silk robe, his hair damp—stepped behind Ava and smacked her on the ass. “Stop taunting the man. You should know by now that Michael is not going to betray me.”
That shaking feeling Michael had felt when he’d stepped off the elevator disappeared for a moment as Michael smiled inside. Ava was Adam’s weakness. She made him blind and foolish.
Adam yanked Ava tight against him and wrapped his hand around her head, his lips close to hers. “Not even for you.” He kissed her hard and then set her away. “Get dressed.” He turned to Michael. “Come in.”
Michael sauntered into the apartment filled with black leather and expensive art—stolen art. Adam wanted. Adam took. Ava wanted. Adam took. If the bank vaults weren’t sealed tight from the wind, they’d be empty.
Adam sat down on the couch, waving a hand for Michael to join him, before filling two crystal glasses with brandy. You’d never know the man had been a “Bud” guy only two years before. Michael hated brandy, and Adam damn sure knew it. But every time he came here, he poured him a glass. And every time, Michael didn’t touch the shit. Some sort of test, though Michael had no idea for what.
And as usual, Adam studied him, willing him to pick up that glass. “You are the only Zodius who would dare to snub my offer of anything.” He seemed pleased with this, as if it somehow made Michael worthy of being “second.” Yet anyone else would be beaten for such a refusal.
Adam set his glass down and spread his arms across the back of the couch. “Tell me about Cassandra. I always thought she was one of those preacher’s daughter kinds of fantasies for you. Only it’s the general’s daughter.” His lips twitched. “Did you kiss her broken heart and make it better?”
Michael had a fantasy all right, the same fantasy he had at least once a day, and not about Cassandra. The one where he slit Adam’s throat and ended all of this. Only it wouldn’t end. Adam had insurance on himself—a strategy he’d made clear to both the government and the Renegades. Upon his death, those three biological weapons they’d taken from Port Said years before would be released, among a string of other disasters that would escalate around the country.
He and Caleb both blamed themselves for that one. And thus far, only Michael knew where they would be released, but not by who—if he knew who, he could end this, end Adam, and end his terror.
Michael forced himself out of the fantasy and back to the conversation. He disliked talking about Cassandra with Adam. “She’ll be cooperating,” he said. “But she’s been kept in the dark. I’ll guide her through manipulating her father. She’ll find Red Dart.”
“Quickly,” Adam said. “Guide her quickly.”
Ava sashayed back into the room, wearing a pink silk robe and draping herself over Adam’s shoulder. “Did you tell him about the fertility testing?” She didn’t wait for a response, excitement lifting her voice. “I injected six women with a hormone formulation from my pregnancy. Their fertility ranges immediately skyrocketed off the charts. Next step is to pair them with some of the soldiers and see if the hormones make them lifebond compatible.” Ava lavished the women inside Zodius City with gifts and luxurious living quarters. These were the future mothers of Zodius children. Seventy percent of the nearly one hundred women inside the “Silver, Gold, and Twilight Quarters”—the female housing units—were brainwashed by the glamour and Ava’s unique ability to mold nearly every female mind she touched. Only a small percentage were unaffected by her new gift. Despite the requirement of frequent, rotating sex partners, they wouldn’t leave if given the chance.
“What Ava failed to mention,” Adam said, “was the part where two of the six females she injected have died. The last thing I need is a bunch of panicked females worried about why women are disappearing. I want them all injected now, deal with the fallout, and be done with it all at once. There is no reason to wait.”
Michael had gone ice-cold inside. This was where the buck stopped, where he exited Zodius. Because he was leaving with as many of those women as he could—and he was doing it tonight, while they still had a chance to live. And considering a woman who’d had sex with a GTECH developed a psychic energy that could be traced by certain skilled GTECHs while above ground, that wasn’t going to be easy.
Ava curled up to Adam’s side. “We’ll need more women, Michael. You’ll need to send a team out hunting.”
Adam smiled
. “If you didn’t have to attend to the needs of Cassandra,” he said, “I’d say we take the wolves out hunting for prospects. It’ll be an interesting diversion. I love to watch their faces when the wolves go at them, and then we save the day by rescuing them.” He laughed. “Priceless. They come willingly. We are their heroes.”
An hour later, finally having leveraged himself out of Adam’s company, Michael appeared inside Sunrise Canyon on a deserted dirt road eighty miles north of Zodius City. Only a few miles from the underground Renegade Headquarters, their version of Zodius City: Sunrise City.
A black Jeep waited by a mountainside, and with nothing but desert and darkness for cover, he wasted no time climbing into the front passenger’s side. Caleb sat behind the wheel. Sterling Jeter, one of Caleb’s closest confidants, sat in the back, his long blond hair loose around his shoulders. Wild, like his entire existence.
“The Dark One has arrived,” Sterling joked, hitting Michael’s shoulder. “What’s cooking, Mikey?”
Sterling could crack a really bad joke at any given moment, regardless of circumstances. Michael ignored the jokes because Sterling’s irritating need to be a comedian didn’t change the fact that Sterling was not only both a loyal friend and confidant to Caleb, but also one hell of a soldier. None of which kept Michael from wanting to beat Sterling’s ass. Often.
“What’s cooking is my nerves,” Michael said dryly, refocusing on Caleb. “If we rescue the women, he’ll just kidnap more.”
“Maybe,” Caleb said, cutting him a sideways look. “But it will take time for him to find this number of women again. Time we can use to stop him completely. Time the women inside Zodius now do not have.”
“If we do this,” he said. “I’m out. Only three people have the codes to override the security to get them to the surface,” Michael responded. “Myself, Ava, and Adam. He’ll know I did this.”
“Get me into the mainframe,” Sterling said, leaning forward. “I can make it look like we hijacked Adam or Ava’s security codes.”
“Not even you can do that,” Michael said. “There is a full-body scan to get into that room, and I’m not approved. Adam never fully trusts anyone. The bottom line here is, I stay in Zodius and a large percentage of those women die. Or I am out, and we save them.”
Caleb’s hands closed around the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip. Obviously struggling with his choice. After several seconds, he slanted Michael a sideways look. “After two years of trying to get the name of the person, or persons, who would launch the attacks on our country upon Adam’s death, do you have any reason to believe you can get that information now or in the near future?”
“No,” Michael said. And he’d tried. Every which way and back.
“And you’re certain those chemical weapons are not on site?”
“Positive,” Michael assured him.
“Nor can you find out where they are?”
These were all questions Caleb had asked before, and he knew where this was heading. “No chance at all.”
Caleb stared out the front window, tense seconds ticking by. “We can’t let those women die. No. We won’t. We’ll get the women. Then, we’re going to get Red Dart and stop Adam once and for all.” He lowered his voice. “And you’ve been in that place too long, Michael. You can only play with the devil so long before you lose your soul.”
Right. Soul. Michael almost laughed at that. He wasn’t sure he had a soul to lose. But Caleb did, and Michael wouldn’t let that happen. “01200 then,” Michael said. “When the guards change.”
Sterling rubbed his hands together. “A long night of kicking some Zodius ass,” he said, excitement in his voice. “I live for this shit.” And he meant it. He lived to die every day. Michael saw that behind his jokes. It was a wild glint in his eyes. And when they invaded Zodius City he might just get the chance. Caleb started the Jeep engine and glanced at Michael. “Looks like you’re about to walk into Sunrise City and stay this time,” he said. “Where you belong.”
Michael digested that like a well-placed bullet, right in the gut, with a hard bite. Not because he didn’t want to be inside Sunrise City, but because this was the day he had always known would come, the day he’d become Adam’s worst enemy. And Cassandra was right in the middle of the firing range. A prime target for Adam’s vengeance, and he had no way to get her off the radar. Not when she was the best shot they had at getting to Red Dart—a technology that could hand the world over to a madman. His world was bleeding onto hers. He ground his teeth. But that blood always seemed to originate with her father. A man he’d once had a chance to kill. And Cassandra had been right—he’d wanted to.
Sirens shrilled through the intercom, blasting through Adam’s bedroom. “Oh my God,” Ava gasped, her hand cradling her stomach. “Are we being attacked? Our baby. Adam, our baby.”
A phone rang beside the bed, and Adam answered. He listened a moment and cursed as he flung it across the room. “The Renegades are attempting to remove the females,” he said, already standing, and shoving his legs in the fatigues he kept near the bed for such an occasion.
She was on her knees. “What? No! That will destroy our testing. You can’t let them take the women! How could they even get to them? How?”
“Michael,” Adam said vehemently. “Michael has betrayed me.”
She gasped. “No!” She shoved the covers aside. “I’m coming. I have influence over the women. I’ll—”
“You will not leave this room.”
“But Adam—” She was shaking. Panicked.
“Ava,” he said sharply, still dressing. “Control yourself.”
The phone on the wall rang. Adam yanked it off the receiver. He listened a moment before the anger turned to red rage and then to fury. He beat the phone against the wall, fast, hard, pounding thrusts that didn’t even begin to release the rage inside him. He grabbed not one, but two, MP5 machine guns and headed to the door. He was going to blow holes in Michael and let him damn near bleed to death. Then let the bastard heal and do it all over again.
The instant Adam exited the building he heard the Renegade choppers—to the east, west, and south sides of the complex. He faded into the wind and went west, appearing just as a group of his soldiers were about to fire a rocket launcher at a chopper. Awareness ripped through Adam—the kind he felt only for two people—his Lifebond and his twin.
“No!” he shouted, but not soon enough. The weapon discharged and time stood still. The dreams of a greater world—of his brother joining him to rule a new kingdom—threatened in the shadowy swampland of his brother’s certain death.
A crackle of energy slid over Adam, much like the awareness of Caleb an instant before. Michael stood in the doorway of the helicopter—the wind shifting around him, seeming to take form. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before, nothing any other GTECH could do. Then suddenly, a powerful wall of wind thrust from where Michael stood and forced the missile back at the Zodius soldiers in his pursuit. Adam faded into the wind a second before the missile exploded, one of the few weapons sure to be lethal for a GTECH. He returned seconds later to see soldiers sprawled out on the ground, injured or dead, and the helicopter quickly traveling away. Those who had survived scrambled for their footing, murmuring about both Michael’s betrayal and his ability to control the wind, an ability no one, not even Adam, had known about.
Fucking Michael had power he’d never disclosed. He could control the wind, use it as a weapon. Michael who had betrayed him and made him look like a fool. He sneered. The red rage part of him wanted to start blowing shit up until the government gave him Red Dart.
Adam paced, calming himself down, thinking. If Michael was working for the Renegades, Caleb knew about Red Dart and the government’s intent to use it on all GTECHs. Caleb was smart enough to know that Red Dart in the hands of the government meant his demise as well. This was a race—who got to Red Dart first. Him or Caleb.
Adam grabbed the phone on h
is belt, hit the two-way radio, and called two of his officers to his side for immediate action. Within seconds, the two men stood at attention before him. Adam stopped, turned to them, his hands behind his back. “If I find out that either of you is working with Michael,” he vowed, “I will start cutting out vital organs. Starting with your fucking eyes. Understood?”
“Yes sir!” they barked together.
He cut a look at Tad, the officer in charge of female recruitment. “How many did we lose?”
“Half,” he responded.
Adam ground his teeth. “Replace them. Quickly.”
“Commander, sir,” Tad replied. “I respectfully request the added duty of killing Michael. Both to prove my loyalty and because I would enjoy drawing his blood.”
“A dead Michael feels no pain,” Lucian, Adam’s third-in-command, countered. “I can give you Red Dart. Then use it to make Michael suffer. You will control him. Make him sit at your feet. Make him bark like an animal if you wish, so all of Zodius City may see.”
Adam turned to Lucian, new interest in the soldier who’d always paled in Michael’s shadow, often seeming weak. He studied the harsh slash of Lucian’s mouth, the turbulent, black eyes set in a handsome face, unlike the doggish hardness of Tad’s features. No one without physical beauty would be a part of his elite upper class. Exactly why the women recruited for their studies were all beautiful. Those who were unattractive would serve, not lead. Tad would serve. Lucian would prove himself to lead.
As for Michael, Adam now knew him to possess a lethal ability to control the wind so powerful he could direct missiles with it. That meant Michael was too lethal to be left alive unless Adam controlled him with Red Dart. “You are that confident in the man you have inside Powell’s operation?” he inquired of Lucian.