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“ANGELA? YOU DOING OKAY?”
The rental car had pulled up at the front gates of Xenia, but she sat inside for several minutes. What would she find in medbay? What if she’d harmed her sister? She thought she’d gotten used to living without Everly once, but would she be able to do it again?
“Angela?” Dimly, she became aware of the voice calling her name. She focused to see Renegade peering into the window.
“Come on,” he said softly. “We’ll take you to your sister.”
He stepped back from the open car door to show Steele next to him. She stepped from the car to watch it close and speed away, and then they took her through the main gate, bringing her a small tablet to affix her signature to. She remembered her reason to return, marking it down swiftly, and handed the tablet back. Then she entered the scanning chamber and allowed the small disc to rotate her slowly under the whirring lights.
On the other side, Renegade waited for her while Steele pulled up in a land-shuttle. She and Renegade sat on the bench seat behind Steele.
“Are you okay?” Renegade asked.
“Yes. I’m fine. A little discombobulated, I guess. How’s Everly?”
“She seems like she’s just resting. Not twitching or crying out or anything like that. Thane’s with her.”
She nodded.
“I want you to know Zee didn’t want to taunt you like that. But we talked him into it. We knew it was the quickest way to rile your anger. We just didn’t expect that much anger.” Renegade winced. “He loves you.”
She smiled at him even though it was a bit wobbly.
The shuttle pulled up at the main gates and Renegade hopped out before she did, helping her with an extended hand. He walked her through the main hub and down to the medical wing.
He stopped before one of the rooms and opened the door, beckoning her through, and closed the door behind her.
Her sister was unconscious in a bed, raised to a half-sitting position. Thane sat at her side. Everly’s hand was clutched in his.
He looked up when she entered. “You’re back,” he said.
“I’m back.” She never looked away from Everly.
The doors opened behind her as Robyn and Amanda came into the room behind her.
“I forgot about Zee,” Thane said, shaking his head as if he just realized how Angela got there.
“Someone else will help Zee over the wall,” Robyn said to Thane. “Renegade and Steele are on it. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay.”
There was no way he was leaving his mate.
“We haven’t done anything other than to scan her, which shows nothing wrong,” Amanda said. “But if it goes too much longer, we’ll have to put her on monitored support to notify us if she stops breathing. And on feeding tubes to make sure she gets nutrition.”
“It’s not necessary,” Angela whispered, feeling a slight tingling in her limbs now that she was this close to Everly. “I know what’s going on.”
“You do?”
“Yes.” Angela took a deep breath. “I’m not sure how I know, but everything’s clear as a bell.”
Robyn’s voice was soft. “It’s because the two of you are man-made twins, isn’t it? Crested Ute took you from one zygote and made two, but you can still feel the original being you came from. Your sister. I found some records—though neither of you were ever named. They considered that was why the cells didn’t split evenly—why subject one had the psychic abilities and you had none. Later, they thought to manipulate you to see if they could open those aspects in your brain manually.”
“I always allowed Everly to have the abilities. Somehow, even as a child, I suspected they’d experiment on me. But when I was terrified they were going to take Zee, I telepathically yanked them from her. No warning. Just took them from her mind. Now she needs them back to be whole.”
“How will you put them back?” Thane growled. Even from the edge of her bed, she could sense his protectiveness.
“I don’t think it would have been possible to grab them before now,” she said. “But now that she has some of your DNA, the electricity manipulation gave us the added push that we needed. So I just need that electrical conduit to put it back in.”
“Do you want to wait for Zealish to get here?”
“No,” Angela smiled. “I need my baby sis to wake up right away. She’s locked inside there, and it’s a scary place without me.”
“What do you need from me?” Thane asked.
“Just give me your hand.”
He reached out, palm up. She placed her fingertips on his and felt the electrical flow. She inhaled deeply, letting the energy flow through her, building pressure.
“Okay,” she murmured. “Come here, baby girl.”
She placed her tingling hand onto Everly’s bare ankle. As soon as their skin connected, Angela felt a shrieking in her mind. Everly’s shrieking, but somehow it was hers, too. Yes, all of this ability had been suppressed for so long, it had lodged into a permanent location deep within Everly. But Angela borrowing it had left a huge, raw hole where the power should have been. Poor Everly couldn’t deal with the missing piece of herself, even if she didn’t use it. Or didn’t want it.
Angela’s eyes snapped open as soon as the shrieks ended.
Everly’s eyes opened at the same time.
“You’re here. You’re really here.” Everly smiled slowly, her smile a little shaky.
“I couldn’t leave you for long. Look at all the trouble you get into with me gone!” Angela chided, a smile spreading on her face.
“Don’t you leave me again,” Everly said, her face sobering. “I can’t stand it.”
“Never. I promise.”
“I mean it, Angela. They had you locked up. They could have killed you.”
She rubbed Everly’s ankle. “I know. If it wasn’t for Zee, I might have been a goner for sure.”
“Where is he?” Everly said.
“Still getting here. Someone else is helping him up the wall.”
“Are you hurt? He promised he’d bring you back safely.”
“He took the utmost care of me, Everly. Just like when he was in his primordial phase.”
“You’re going to stay with him, then?”
“If he’ll have me.”
“Oh, he’ll have you,” Everly said. “It’s just a matter of making him work for it.”
“He’s arriving,” Thane announced.
It wasn’t too much longer before the door opened behind Angela. Her senses prickled to awareness as Zee slipped inside, staying completely behind her, but so close she could sense his warmth just a hair’s breadth from her. So close she could lean into his chest and have his arms wrap around her. But she sensed he was waiting for a signal.
“You were gone a long time,” Everly said.
“The last few days were by choice,” Angela said, winking at her sister. “Besides, I was kind of getting my freak on.”
Zee pressed up behind her and placed a kiss on her neck. Angela could only imagine he purposely did it for Everly’s sake, to show their new status.
Everly narrowed her eyes at the man who stood behind Angela. “She’s unharmed, right?
“Well, uh, mostly,” he said, brushing some of the dirt off her arm. “I mean, she’s tough. She has a little scratch on her shoulder...”
“Scratch?” Angela said, turning her head. “Zee, you dug out a poisonous pouch from my flesh with your dirty claws! I probably have an infection...”
“My apologies,” he said, curling his face into her neck as he spun her around. “I thought you liked it dirty. Didn’t you say you were getting your freak on?”
“Impromptu surgery is not my thing,” Angela said though she snuggled a bit deeper into his arms. They were so warm and strong around her.
“Let’s get you into the next room,” Robyn said. “I’ll run a quick scanner over you and check out that injury.”
Angela didn’t object as Zee pulled her along, plopping himself onto the bed and pulling her sideways onto his lap. He yanked apart the seams of her clothing to expose her shoulder while she held her hair to the side so Robyn could scan the wound.
“Nothing’s trapped inside,” Robyn said, as the scanner hummed. “I’ll flush it and infuse it with a rapid healing agent.”
After she was done, Robyn turned to Zee. “I assume your arm is already healed?”
“Yep.” He grinned, showing her the slight scabbing that was left.
“So not fair,” Angela grumbled.
“I’ll remember not to let you get hurt in the future, sweet mate,” he said. “By the way, Robyn, I’m not annulling my mateship.” His voice came out a low growl.
“I figured,” Robyn said, her voice mild. Then she took the upper hand. “Too late, anyway.”
“What do you mean?” Angela asked.
“You probably should have upped your birth control before you left.”
The scanner was humming along Angela’s abdomen.
Neither she nor Zee could speak for a moment. “You mean...I’m pregnant?”
“Yep,” Robyn said. “HCG level is much higher than normal.” She opened the door and called out. “Someone get Irina in here.”
