Chapter 1
Bridger inserted keys into the lock of a door with the number twenty-one and walked into an apartment he didn’t recognize, feeling a little lost as he stepped inside.
Where am I? His voice echoed in his head.
Bridger barely had the door shut before Vega appeared from down a hallway, her bare feet padding across worn carpet.
If he looked confused, Vega didn’t notice or care because she threw herself in his arms.
What the fuck is going…? Bridger didn’t have time to think the whole thought before Vega’s lips were on his, and she slid her hands up his chest until they locked around the back of his neck.
Bridger hadn’t realized he was touching Vega until his fingers met bare thighs.
Her skin pebbled, lips parting to let him in. Bridger’s tongue slid inside her warm mouth. Notes of berry and smoke made Vega taste like a delicious wine he’d like to drink to the last drop. Bridger hoisted her up, and she instinctively wrapped her legs around him.
He couldn’t stop, couldn’t think of anything else but this kiss and the way she felt up against him.
She gasped when he pressed his growing need against her spread legs, backing her up against a wall. “Where are you?” he purred against her skin, confused why he asked that.
Bridger felt like he didn’t have any control over his body, that he was only looking through his eyes while someone else made decisions for him.
Vega’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she ground her hips as much as she could trapped between him and the wall. “With you.”
Bridger kissed down Vega’s jaw, inhaling the sugary scent in the crook of her neck. “And where are we?”
Vega whined breathlessly like the words he’d spoken were dirty. “Look around. You’ll find me.”
He met her lust-dazed gaze, stealing a peek at her lips, swollen and parted. He caught her next moan in his mouth.
Look around. Look around. Look around.
His eyes shot open, and it was no longer Bridger who had Vega pinned against the wall. A stranger took his place, kissing down her neck while she moaned in pleasure.
Bridger’s feet felt stuck in quicksand, locking him in place.
His eyes darted to the window, the lights of the city a beacon to an unmistakable landmark in the distance.
Look around. You’ll find me.
Bridger was snatched from his own mind and thrown out like a drunk bar patron. He woke to a room lit by dim moonlight, tumbling from bed and crashing into the nightstand. A lamp fell to the floor, glass shattering around his bare feet.
The commotion wasn’t enough to distract him from what he’d seen.
Bridger had only been to Earth once, his overall knowledge of the world lacking, but he knew that landmark—he’d studied it as a part of Tolevarre’s history.
Soaked from head to toe, Bridger wiped a bead of sweat rolling down his brow and hadn’t finished buttoning his shirt before leaving the room.
The halls of Atrox bustled with early morning activity.
Soldiers headed to training and lectures, while others went to or from their designated posts.
Bridger liked to spend as little time as possible in Fortis’s fort city, but he was suddenly glad he’d decided to stay the night instead of traveling back to Vincere after the battle in Schoenus yesterday.
Bridger spoke to no one as he passed, and everyone had the right sense to step out of his way. His footsteps were light and hurried, descending the stairs into the massive prison below the fort’s foundation.
All the dreams he’d had of Vega thus far had been memories he hid away inside his mind. This one wasn’t a memory… It was a sign, pointing him straight to the cell door of a face he wasn’t particularly thrilled to see locked behind iron bars.
Her tight curls hid her face until she lifted her head and locked eyes with Bridger.
Unable to hold it in any longer, Bridger admitted what he’d come all the way down here for. “I know where Vega is.”