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“THREE. TWO. ONE.”
Jason Becker waited for the distraction in the front of the building that would come with his countdown.
A bright flash of light exploded, disintegrating the doors. Yells came over the intercom attached to his ear. Exploding shots of laser fire blasted as he pulled his own gun out, aiming for the metal bars of the basement window. It was supercharged, which generated enough heat to blow a city. But Jason knew what he was doing. He had trained for this since the day he decided to leave Iota Nine, his home city.
There were more distasteful memories than good ones there. The people of the ninth floating city were sheep, wandering about with their “Blessed be,” and “Namaste,” catch phrases but clueless as to the true meanings of the words. Not a single one of them would ever get their hands dirty by caring for those struggling on Earth-Ground. No, instead they would meditate for a higher power to sweep in and care for the poor, contagious souls. Naturally, those souls were considered lower class, and heaven forbid the disease of lower class spread.
He’d left his power-hungry wife, whose sweet façade had fallen as soon as the gold and crystal wedding band found its way to her fourth finger. Thank the Goddess for the support of his parents, who encouraged their children to explore other places. To live among the rest of the people of Earth.
The metal disintegrated with a crackle and a fizz, and he knocked away the shards of useless steel with the butt of the gun. Quickly, he jumped into the recessed window, looking at the heat seeker on his wrist. The dots that marked the staff who’d previously lined the room had disappeared. No one was guarding this area, the hospital wing. They’d all run to the front entrance where his men had penetrated.
Using his gun, he smashed into the glass, kicked away the broken pieces, and jumped in. A bed lay in the center of the room, tubes pumping fluids in and out of the green-haired girl who lay in the middle, covered in a white sheet from neck to thigh.
Her eyes were closed shut, and he snarled as he pulled the needles from her arms and legs.
Wait a minute. Something was wrong. He stopped in confusion.
This wasn’t his sweet, precious Lily. This woman’s arms and legs were rounded, as fine as any curvaceously, grown woman. Lily had been a stick-thin teen. This woman’s hair was longer than Lily’s wild mane had been. This one’s hair reached at least to her backside.
But she had Lily’s diamond in her nose. How the hell did she get Lily’s nose ring? He paid a small fortune for that precious gem, not that the teenager knew the value of the ring.
Without the drugs running through her body, the woman took a few deep breaths and sputtered a cough. Her bright green eyes opened. For a moment, she looked confused.
Her full, pouty lips quivered and her eyes filled with tears. “Jason?” Her voice was deeper, huskier.
Sexy.
Goddess. Was this creature Lily?
He jumped at the same time she did, tossing herself into his arms. The sheet fell away and she pressed bare, bountiful breasts into his chest.
Dear sweet Goddess. This was Lily. And she had no idea that somehow she’d transitioned from scrawny teenager to voluptuous woman in the span of less than a month.
Footsteps pounded down the hall. “Boss, is she okay?”
Shawn, his second-in-command, and the person he trusted with his life, came running. Jason blocked the view of Lily with his back, grabbing the sheets and covering her up, adding an extra covering to pile on her head to hide her completely. “She will be,” he muttered, scooping her up into his arms. “But there’s a change of plans. I need an Op Eight while I take her to a safe house. No communications. We’ll make our way back to Xenia on our own.”
“Operation Eight? I thought we wanted to search for clues as to what they were up to. Are you sure about an Op Eight?”
“Very.”
Lily pushed the sheet from over her face. Clear, green eyes with darker green eyelashes that had somehow grown fuller and longer peered around his shoulder. Her lips were plush, centered in her heart-shaped face.
Shawn’s eyes widened in shock, and he took a step back. He nodded. “Operation Eight. Got it.”
Jason grabbed the sheet, deliberately pulling it over Lily’s face again.
“Leave it,” he growled.
He walked away, trusting his men to blow every trace of this hidden facility to smithereens.
* * * * *
LILY:
Jason packed her into the backseat of a car and climbed in next to her. The entire walk in which he carried from the hospital of horrors he’d rescued her from was silent. He didn’t say a word after the grouchily mumbled, “Leave it.”
And leave it she had. Even though it was hard to breathe under the sheet. Even though she was being jostled and jarred with every bone-crunching step he took. Even though the smell of burning dust and metal wafted through the sheet, smothering her already tortured lungs.
And even though she felt weird.
Her body was sluggish, heavy even, and so was her mind. The whole time she was in captivity, she was sure it would be Jason who would rescue her, and he did, just as she hoped he would. But the shock in his face—she expected joy maybe. Her pathetic, whiny little heart expected him to hold her close and profess undying love, whispering it into her missing ears, and then she imagined he would carry her off into the sunset with her hair flapping behind her on a lusty breeze.
No.
Instead, he wrapped her up like a mummy and hauled her off in a completely unsexy way. Hmmph. One day she’d grow up, and one day he’d be sorry. She’d have tons of men dropping at her feet, and she’d barely spare Jason a glance. Of course, he’d probably be old and fat by then...
But, stars, today he didn’t look old or fat at all. He looked exactly the same as the last time she’d seen him. Why had he looked so shocked? Had something happened to him?
Perhaps he’d been told she was dead. Maybe the shock had been from her waking up and mumbling his name.
Hell, shit, and damnation. Those were the best swear words she knew, taught to her by Shawn. She’d always appreciate that. She and Jason had been in the passenger compartment of the car for a long time and she was still breathing her own carbon dioxide inside the sheet. With a gasp, she tossed the sheet back from her face and deeply inhaled fresh air.
“Jason?”
They’d done something to her voice. Maybe a tube had been down her throat and she was still raspy?
“I told you to stay covered,” he muttered.
“I couldn’t breathe.” Even to her ears, she sounded...whiny. Had she always been so whiny? “I don’t understand what’s going on? I missed you. I don’t know why you hate me? Did they do something? Make me ugly?” Her voice quivered.
Jason seemed to break. “Baby, I don’t hate you. Come here.”
Before she could scramble ungracefully onto his lap, he pulled her up. She was still wrapped like a mummy, in a cocoon of white sheet that covered everywhere but her face. He rested his chin on her head. “I told you I’d always protect you.”
This was all she ever wanted. To be safe in Jason’s arms. Someday, someday soon, she’d be all grown up, and then he’d look at her differently. He’d look at her like Steele looked at Robyn. Like Renegade looked at Amanda. Like Beast looked at Sunny.
She heaved a huge, contented sigh.
The car pulled into an underground garage, and she was scooped out of the seat, even with her head exposed. “Cover up,” he growled, and she was starting to get used to the grumpiness. But still, he probably wanted to make sure no one recognized a Xeno Sapien on the outside. Because this definitely wasn’t Xenia. He walked to a building and entered a code into the keypad, and a darkened elevator floated them up to various levels.
“The last elevator I was in, I was unconscious for,” she told him, in her strange new husky voice. It sure sounded weird. “Do you think they damaged my throat?”
He sounded strangled. “I’m not sure. I’ll take a look at it later, okay?”
“Okay,” she said happily, snuggling in his arms. “Where are we, Jason?”
“Gamma Three, cupcake,” he said softly.
“What’s here?”
“One of the safe houses—a high-rise apartment, actually—that we use, which is linked to a non-existent person. So we have complete privacy and no one knows we’re here.”
“Why aren’t we going to Xenia? I miss everyone there.” And she was a little worried. Dr. Robyn would probably want to check out her head because there was a big black hole where her memory had been. She couldn’t quite remember how she’d gotten from Xenia to a sheet in Jason’s arms. Plus, she still felt funny. Dr. Amanda could check her next. These great, big, round, swollen boobies. Or, maybe she wouldn’t want to mention those. What if they gave her a pill or something that made them go away? She rather liked them. They reminded her of when she’d gone to get her nose pierced and the clerk in the piercing store had hers pushed together and bursting out of her button-down shirt.
Oh! She just remembered something else. There was a new doctor...Irina? Yes, that was it. Blaze was always in her office. He was another lovesick fool. Why couldn’t she get Jason to look like that at her?
He carried her to the sofa. She glanced around the room, curious about her surroundings.
“Computer, reflections off.”
She didn’t understand the command he gave, but the large, glass doors that led to an outside balcony darkened. Drat. She’d wanted to see them in the reflection—see what it looked like when she was carried in Jason’s arms. She’d point her toes so that her calf muscles were more defined, arch her back so her butt would stick out. Plus, it would look sexy, like she was a ballerina in his arms.
He sat down, and to her surprise, he didn’t push her off his lap but continued to hold her. Maybe there was something to this pathetic, whiny female thing. It was finally getting Jason to where she wanted him.
She turned slightly to snuggle into his chest, and her sheet slipped a little.
She forgot about her comfort in his arms when shock invaded her vision. “Um...what the hell are these?” There was real, actual cleavage on her chest. And bulbous boobies pushed up somehow. It looked different in the flesh. It looked...real.
What?! Was she swollen? An infection? Wait a minute. She started pulling on the sheet, but Jason’s arm covered hers.
“Stop.” He sounded strangled. “We need to talk.”
Her throat plunged into her gut. She didn’t want to talk. She wanted to see what the hell was wrong under the sheet. “But—but—“
“What do you remember?”
She started. “Remember? I don’t know...I was taken. And I knew you’d come for me. And then nothing, but I woke up, and you did come for me, but I wasn’t sure if it was real or a dream until just now when we got to this building.”
“It was a shock for me, too, Lily-bean. You’ve been gone a month. I wasn’t able to get you because the location kept moving. This time, we nabbed you before they changed locations again.” He took a deep breath. “But a lot has changed in this month, and I need to be the one to tell you how.”
His serious tone was alarming. She’d never heard Jason this serious.
“Baby,” he said softly. “Remember Xeno Sapiens don’t have birthdays?”
She nodded. “We were created, not born. Because all records were destroyed, we don’t know exactly what dates those days were when we were revived or possibly re-revived more than once.”
“But we know that a handful of Xeno Sapiens were awakened before they were fully developed. We referred to you as teenagers. You were immature, both mentally and physically.”
“I know,” she said impatiently. “One day I’ll grow up. I expect you to tell me when.”
“It doesn’t really work that way,” he said, his voice strangled. “It doesn’t happen overnight. Normally.”
“Normally?”
“Something was done to you in this last month. Mentally you seem to be the same teen. I think. But physically, you’ve become a full-grown adult.”
“So I’m not swollen?” Lily flung off the sheet. “These are my boobies?” She was rather pleased with this fact.
“Gah!” The word that came from Jason’s throat didn’t make sense, like someone had grabbed him around the throat and squeezed. He coughed. “Ladies don’t go around showing their bodies.” He pulled the sheet back up to her neck.
“But I want to see.”
“Not yet. I think we need to take this one step at a time. For some reason, your brain hasn’t caught up. I’m going to get Robyn and one of the doctors out here to give you a quick exam before we take you to Xenia.”
“Why didn’t you take me there?”
“The world’s been on the lookout for you. We can’t risk them seeing you. Not like this. We need to lay low until we can sneak you back.”
Did he think she was ugly? Lily remembered the first time she glimpsed a mirror. It was a long, rectangular piece that stood in the hallway of the main building in Xenia. It had been covered with a black cloth, and she was curious as to what was underneath the covering.
At first, she’d been entranced with the smooth, glossy surface. And then, she realized the image held within it wasn’t still. It moved. It took her mind a few minutes to figure out the image moved when she did. It took a few more moments to correlate the image was her.
All her emotionally shocked mind could think at that point was her differences. Her fluffy green hair. Her lime-tinted freckles. Her...missing ears.
She’d be different wherever she went. But the biggest question was: Was she ugly? She didn’t want Jason to think of her as ugly.
Not Jason. Anyone but Jason.
“Dr. Robyn can’t come outside of Xenia. She’s pregnant.”
“She’s not anymore, kiddo. Eventually, we’ll get you back inside the gates. We just need the pathway cleared from curious eyes. Too many people are flooding the area right now, hoping to get a glimpse.”
“Dr. Robyn isn’t pregnant? Did she have the baby, Jason?”
“Yes. He’s a little boy. They named him Kaden.”
“Ooh, I bet he’s so cute! Will they let me babysit?”
“There’s a long waiting list for babysitters,” Jason said drily. “In the meantime, we’ll get them here.”
“Chances are Robyn won’t bring the baby, will she?”
“Oh, no. Kaden won’t ever come out of the gates of Xenia.”
Suddenly, Lily was grateful for the freedom she had. She was allowed to leave Xenia, all because of Jason. Her protector. She gazed up at him with adoring eyes, but he seemed to avoid looking directly at her.
Just then the flashing light that indicated a vidcam call came. Jason spoke out loud to the computer. “Audio only.”
“What?” She wanted to be able to see whoever was calling.
But no one showed on the darkened screen. Instead, the lilting accent of Dr. Amanda filled the air.
“Lily?”
“Hi, Dr. Amanda.” Whoa, she’d never get used to the strange tone that came out of her throat.
If her pause was any indication, Dr. Amanda was startled by it, too. “Honey, Robyn’s here. And Steele. We’re going to come and see you, but we can’t make it obvious by all coming out at once. Right now, I think it’s more important that I come so I can give you a little check over. Later Robyn will come and examine your computer chip, stuff like that, okay?”
“Yes. Jason told me Kaden was born. How long have I been gone?” She wasn’t sure if Jason was telling the complete truth since she thought Robyn said babies took nine months.
Though she couldn’t see her image, Dr. Amanda sounded like her brother when she answered in that odd, strangled-sounding tone. “Around a month.”
A month. She thought back curiously trying to remember the days she’d been awakened in the lab. It didn’t feel like a month. But of course, what did she know? There were great, gaping holes when she tried to think back.
“Lily? Honey, we don’t want you to try to remember anything. Not without one of the doctors present, okay? If you start thinking too much, we’ll have to medicate you to make you sleep.”
Not try to remember? “Okay. But why?” There was a huge piece of a puzzle she seemed to be missing that everyone was tiptoeing around.
“Just a precaution. Jason’s going to take care of you for a few days until I get there. You have to stay inside. I’m sorry. Think of it as an indoor vacation.”
“I understand.” But she didn’t. When Jason told her he’d take her to visit the cities, she thought she’d be able to see one. Instead, she’d been smuggled in blind like a thief in the night.
It wasn’t fair.
