Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
Iax could not stop staring. Not at the tousled hair on her head, or the gleaming softness of the skin of her shoulder and arm, or the way her chest rose and fell with each breath.
The longer he stared, the more a new emotion bloomed and solidified.
It was such a curious feeling, one that was hot, but also hard and unyielding.
He wanted to hold her tight, to squeeze, and to never let go.
He did not understand it, but the longer they lay there together, the more it took over his mind.
His arm flexed around her, echoing his thoughts.
She had given him permission to touch her, and he had not squandered the opportunity.
For the forty-fifth time since assuming this position, he tucked his face into the back of her neck and inhaled deeply.
The scent of her was doing things to his head, altering him.
She smelled of tranquility, and he could not get enough.
He understood something was happening to him, but did not know what.
His mission at the outset had been simple: travel to Earth, retrieve Dr. Wynn Lambdin, and bring her to Sector Ten by any means necessary.
That last part had been the only uncertain portion, and why they had chosen him—for his unique way of adapting to any situation.
But this? The feelings Wynn evoked in him were not within his mission parameters. He felt her everywhere. Not just physically, but in other ways too. Her voice affected him. The way her eyes traveled over his body altered him. Her ever-changing emotions wrapped around him and would not let go.
His arm flexed around her again. He would not let her go. The stirring emotions were too addictive, too perfect, too real for him to do anything except hold her tight.
A slice of light pierced through the window above them, the angle cutting across Wynn’s face. She twitched, then opened her eyes. Her soft, relaxed body stiffened.
“The sun,” she murmured, the mellow emotions she had attained while sleeping, changing into something sharp. Then she was moving out of his arms, pushing out of the bed to face the window.
He mourned the lack of her warmth against him.
She swayed, and he was on his feet beside her in the next moment, waiting to see if she required assistance. Her eyelashes fluttered as she blinked up at the window.
“I need to see.” She spun around and dashed toward the door without bothering to change her clothes.
It barely had time to open fully before she was out in the hallway and racing toward the lab.
Iax quickly grabbed his shirt where he’d dropped it the day before, tugged it over his head, slid on his boots, and followed.
The lab’s door closed just as he stepped outside, then reopened again as he neared.
Sunlight lit the entire space, making him squint against the brightness.
He walked forward, his gaze fixed on the landscape.
A sheen of water froze across the dirt, reflecting the sun like glass, and highlighted the melting mounds of snow that had collected overnight.
But beyond the patch of blue sky roiled more storm clouds. He considered them with a tilt of his head.
With a new device adhered to her left hand, Wynn’s fingers tapped against terminals.
Weather updates streamed above its surface, then an environmental diagram rose in front of her.
A storm cell spread across most of New Asia, a vortex of clouds, thick and gray, giving way to a wider ring around it, heavy with torrential rain.
The sun broke through the center, almost a perfect circle of clear sky.
Right above the outpost.
“It’s not done,” she whispered, her jaw slack as she stared out the window. “It’s the eye of the storm.”
Then her fingers were flying again, the readout changing to something else. He tipped his head at it.
“I’ve reconnected with the grid.” She pulled up another menu, this one full of relays and communications. “But this won’t last long.” She said the words absently as she pulled more and more data from the grid. “I can…” Her voice trailed off, her gaze meeting his.
Confusion clouded her expression, but the emotions that wrapped around him were something else. Wariness. Hesitation. Dread.
Her throat bobbed in a swallow. “I need to contact my superiors.”
She stared at him for a long moment before turning back to her terminal. Her worry grew, washing over him, then she tapped on the surface, slower than before.
He assessed the situation. If she contacted her superiors, the result might be detrimental to his end goal. Leaning forward, Iax pressed his hands flat against the terminal’s surface.
A second passed, then his essence infused the systems, accessing the same files.
“What?” Her hands stopped moving, then lifted away from the terminal. “What are you doing?”
He did not answer but dove deeper into the lab’s systems, accessing the communication array. She had not yet sent out a message. Should he stop her ability to do so?
The question pulled him in different directions, the ones that needed to fulfill his mission, and the ones that did not want to hurt Wynn in any capacity.
“Iax?”
His name came out of her mouth tentatively, laced with more worry.
Before he could decide which path to take, a new sensation crawled up his spine. A distant voice nearing at a quick pace.
Tipping his head, he changed his focus from the communication array to the outpost’s sensors.
“Someone approaches,” he said after a moment, receiving confirmation of what this unknown voice was telling him.
“What do you mean?” Her hand settled on his arm and gripped him tight. “The beasts?”
“No.” He tilted his head to the side, the mind so close now he could taste it. “Someone in a ship.”
As soon as he spoke the words, a cruiser buzzed above the building, shaking the roof.
“What the hell?” Wynn yelped, squeezing his arm tighter. “This is restricted airspace.” She dropped his arm and tapped at the terminal. “No ships are allowed this close to the fields. The grid broadcasts warnings everywhere.”
His essence entwined with the system’s, he felt what she was doing, scanning the ship for the cruiser’s ID and access code. There were none.
It was like the ship wasn’t there at all, though they could both see it circle with their own eyes.
Wynn’s volatile emotions swooped out toward where the cruiser lowered, then changed to something sourer. Worry for him.
“Who are they?” She did not need to voice another question for him to understand her meaning. Were they here for him?
Since the ship was closer now, he could dive deeper into the man’s head.
“His name is Sawyer Knox.”
Iax reached his mind and twisted around the man’s thoughts and desires, around secrets and lies, to find the information he searched for.
“And he is here for you.”
“What?” The word exploded out of her mouth. She turned her head until she stared at him, her hands braced against the terminal. “You can read his mind?” She inhaled quick breaths as she looked toward the ship.
The passenger door released, then slid open to reveal a slice of darkened interior.
“Yes.”
She gasped and diverted her attention away from the ship to him. “Can you read my mind?” A flush brightened her cheeks.
“No.”
“But you perceive something from me.” It was a statement, not a question, rushed out frantically.
“Yes,” he agreed. “I experience your emotions, but cannot taste your thoughts.”
Confusion furrowed her brow. “Why not?”
“You are an anomaly.”
A strangled sound left her just as Knox emerged from the ship dressed in a flight-suit, helmet engaged. Clad all in black, his physique muscular, he wore two large guns strapped to each of his thighs. After a brief pause to survey the icy terrain, he advanced toward the outpost.
Wynn’s distress mounted, and her breaths quickened with each step Knox took toward them.
Iax did not want Wynn distressed. It hurt the empty spaces in his chest. “I will speak with him.”
He turned on his heel and headed toward the decontamination room.
“Wait. What?” Wynn’s breathless words bounced inside the lab, then her bare feet slapped against the floor as she followed. “Like how you spoke to the beasts?”
He stopped where his jacket lay inside the compartment and put on his glasses first. “I believe I will need to rely on verbal communication.” Though he could taste the man’s thoughts, Knox was not aware of his presence in his mind.
Iax slipped his jacket over his shoulders, then slid his hand upward to fasten the closures.
Wynn stared at him, her jaw slack and her body still, until he touched the control to open the inner decontamination door. Out of the corner of his eye, she snapped straight and stepped forward.
“Get back in here and put on a suit, you idiot.”
The door closed on her words. They wouldn’t reopen again since the second door was already opening. Sunlight spilled inside the last section of the decontamination room, illuminating the grated floor.
He did not look back as he advanced toward the last door, though he felt Wynn’s emotions tumble toward him in a toxic combination of fear and dread. All the more reason to deal with Knox quickly. Iax hated to feel her distress.
Just as the second door closed, she shouted something else, the words muffled by the transparent aluminum. He could not stop now. Knox drew closer, and Iax had tasted the darkness of his mind.
The last door opened, and Iax stepped out into a frozen, sunny world.