Chapter Twenty-Three
Creed
With Addie’s limp body in my arms, I appear outside the cavern wall of Sunrise City—barely able to breathe for fear Addie is dead or dying. Desperate to get her to safety, I step to the exact, invisible spot where a scanner tracks my body and identifies me. The cavern splits in two, dividing into an equally invisible entrance. I waste no time entering the massive warehouse that serves as an entry pod to Sunrise City, the doors automatically closing behind me.
I set Addie’s wet, limp body down, her face pale, and check her pulse to realize my worst fear—she’s not breathing.
“No!” I scream in my mind, even as I scramble to save her, ripping away her body armor to the waist and beginning CPR. Rage, defiance, pain, and anger all explode inside me, driven by adrenaline. I pump her chest and press my lips to hers, my mind racing with punishing thoughts. Blame is brutal. I did this to her.
I shouldn’t have windwalked.
I shouldn’t have waited to bond with her.
I try to reason with myself. I would never have saved those fifty women if I’d lifebonded with her. We would never have known about Red Dart in time to stop it. We would never have discovered the body armor. But damn it, had I lifebonded with her, she’d own my full protection. She wouldn’t be dying. And losing her is the one punishment this life has given me that I cannot endure.