by Kate Rudolph
He shrugged. “I left mine behind too. Sometimes speed is of the essence. Was she not supposed to leave?”
“No,” Pitner said, “she was not.”
“Oh.” Shayn knew that, and he was desperate to ask Pitner what was going on with Naomi now, but to get back into the facility he had to make Pitner think he didn’t care. He dropped any questions he might have asked and remained quiet.
Pitner swiped her hands in front of her again, and Shayn was sure she was looking at the holo display in privacy mode. Finally, she nodded as if she’d made a decision. “You’re lucky we haven’t gotten rid of your things or reassigned your room, Shayn. But if you leave again without telling us, you won’t be welcome back. We expect professionalism from the people working with us.”
“Of course.” Shayn nodded vigorously. “Thank you for this chance. I’d do anything for my brothers.”
“I’m sure you’d do anything for someone you loved. It’s admirable. Now please allow Dr. Konnor to lead you to your room.” She pressed a button on her desk and the door slid open to reveal an Oscavian man waiting for them in the hallway.
“Sure,” Shayn said as he stood.
He walked across the room and greeted the doctor, but Pitner called him back. “Shayn?” She waited for him to turn before she said anything else. “Keep your hands off the patients. Friendship is welcome... fraternization is not.”
He nodded and slumped his shoulders, appropriately cowed. He followed behind Konnor and listened to the man prattle on about some of the advancements in neuro-manipulation he’d implemented. Was he talking about Naomi? They’d screwed up her neurons plenty and it was a miracle she hadn’t been hurt. But there was nothing actionable or even particularly interesting in what the doctor said and before he knew it, Shayn was back at the room he’d been assigned a little more than a week ago.
It was amazing how much a life could change in such a small amount of time.
Konnor opened the door, using his palm on the lock, and Shayn entered. His clothes were still in his suitcase and his old tablet sat on the table as if he’d just gotten up to take a walk. It looked as if he’d never left.
The door closed behind him and Shayn walked around the room to make sure there were no surprises. Would he be under surveillance in here? It hadn’t occurred to him before, but given the sinister experiments Pitner had done on her pet psychics, it had to be a possibility. After a fairly thorough search Shayn didn’t find any cameras or listening devices, but that didn’t mean they weren’t well hidden. He’d be careful, but he’d always planned to be careful.
After several minutes had passed and he was sure Konnor was no longer right outside the door, Shayn was ready to go and find his mate. He could feel the denya bond pulsing within him and she was so close he could practically feel her pressed up against him.
He placed his hand on the door handle and pushed, but the door didn’t open. He tried again, pushing harder, not believing what had happened, even if he definitely should have expected it.
He was locked in.
Fuck.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HER HEAD STILL SPUN from what she’d seen. The technicians had run in as soon as the vision started, but by then it was too late. She was deep in it, her mind open to seeing all the possibilities, the future unfolding as it would. And this time she wasn’t restricted to two possible outcomes.
It was bad. So, so, so, so, so bad, with almost every path leading to a terrible end. And even with the vision under her control, some of it was still blacked out, as if the future was waiting for her to act before it could tell her what was going to happen.
She didn’t have time to wait any longer.
The vision released her just as the first technician came to check her stats. Naomi went limp, as if exhaustion had rung her out and knocked her unconscious.
“The wires are all tangled up in her restraints,” the technician said to his partner. “It’s messing with the read out.”
His partner was silent for a moment. Finally she said, “Just release her and check them. She’s knocked out.”
Keeping her face passive as the technician undid the straps binding her to the bed was harder than expected. Naomi had the strangest urge to giggle, which wouldn’t do anyone any good. This was serious, and if she failed now there was no getting out.
Ever.
That sobered her up.
She wanted to launch herself at the technician, but she’d seen how this would go down and she had to wait. The margin between long enough and too long was only a matter of seconds, but she couldn’t take on two technicians while she was still half restrained.
The alarm for a comm call went off and Naomi’s heart stuttered. She knew why they were calling, who they had.
But she couldn’t worry about that yet.
Footsteps took the second technician away from Naomi’s bed and she still waited. She was practically shaking with nerves, even though she’d seen this entire thing play out in her head. It was one thing to see the future and something completely different to act in the present.
Now.
The technician reached over her and Naomi snapped a hand out, grabbing his collar and reaching for the restraint that she knew would be laying right at her side. She had the technician’s hands tied to the bed rail before he realized what was going on and she stuffed a bit of her sheet in his mouth to keep him from crying out.
It wouldn’t last long, and her legs were still bound.
She levered herself up into a sitting position and managed to undo the straps holding her legs before rolling out of the bed and crouching down. One of the drug injectors the technician carried with him had fallen to the floor and she picked it up and reached out, pressing it against his leg and hitting the depressor.
Three... two... one... down.
He slumped as the sedative took effect.
Naomi scuttled over to the tray at the end of the bed and found an identical injector before heading towards the technician’s office, keeping low in case the technician glanced out the window and into her room.
She didn’t. Naomi’s vision had said she wouldn’t. But being psychic was no excuse for being careless when the stakes were this high.
She entered the office on silent feet. The technician disengaged her call and began to turn, but Naomi was quicker. She pressed the injector against the technician’s arm. It only took a couple of seconds before she was down.
There wasn’t time to lose, but Naomi wasn’t leaving anyone behind, not even someone made of programming and a bad attitude. She pulled open the drawers of the technicians’ desk and let out a cheer when she found her tablet.
She woke Aileen up and smiled as the AI came on screen. “How’s progress?” she asked.
“I’m in,” the AI confirmed with unusual swiftness. She sounded... tired, if that was possible.
“I think—” Naomi cut herself off. She knew her powers, she wasn’t going to let doubt take over. “Shayn’s here. Somehow. I’m going to need some help finding him.”
“Are we busting out?” Aileen’s previous lethargy washed away in the excitement.
“We are,” Naomi confirmed. “Now go help Shayn.”
“I can help you,” the AI countered.
“I’m good,” Naomi promised. “You’ll be helping me by helping him.” Of course, other computers just acted on the commands that their owners gave them, but now was not the time to remind Aileen of that little fact.
Aileen blinked out without confirming where she was going. Naomi would count it as a win.
She found a pair of her shoes and slipped them on before leaving the technicians unconscious in the infirmary. There weren’t any other patients and Naomi didn’t see a guard. Then again, the facility that had been her home for the past fourteen years had rarely had guards patrolling the inside of the building. They were meant to keep people out, usually.
Naomi could feel the tug of the denya bond, pulling her up towards the dormitory floors. Shayn was up th
ere. He could be in trouble. There was no telling what Morgyn planned to do to him or how he’d gotten into the building. Naomi’s vision had given her a path for her escape; she didn’t have time to take a peek at the immediate past.
She could question him later.
Instead of heading where the bond pulled her, Naomi followed the path of her vision. She knew where it led and it scared her more than anything, but if she didn’t do this now she’d never stop running.
She headed towards Morgyn’s office. Her vision told her it was the right path to take and she hoped she wasn’t deluding herself. Now would be an awful time to figure out that her powers were lying to her.
But they hadn’t lied about incapacitating the technicians, it hadn’t been a trick then. She could do this now.
She turned down the hall and there was Morgyn, standing alone and staring at a tablet, looking harried. She snapped her gaze up when Naomi’s footsteps caught her attention and sneered. “We have your lover.”
“What?” She knew they had Shayn, but they hadn’t done anything at the facility to suggest they were together. Had he told her? Naomi centered herself. It didn’t matter.
Morgyn scoffed at her question. “Did you think we were so ignorant that we couldn’t see who you fled with? He came back. He told me himself that you were nothing more than a fling.” That hurt, but given the spite with which Morgyn said it, she had to know that it wasn’t true, even if it still stung Naomi to the core. “If you want him to leave this facility in one piece you’ll return to your room and do as I say.”
Of course Morgyn would use him against her. She saw people as pawns for a greater purpose. “You would hurt an innocent person for a science experiment?” And Naomi realized she wasn’t just talking about Shayn. She’d been twelve years old when Morgyn took her. What kind of woman looked at a child and saw profit instead of a kid who needed taking care of? Naomi had been innocent too. And even in the middle of her escape, when she wasn’t supposed to care anymore, all her emotion bubbled up. This was the last time she was ever going to see Morgyn—at least, that was what she hoped—and it was her last chance to get answers. She couldn’t stay silent anymore. “Why are you doing this? You were supposed to protect me! Supposed to love me! That’s what you promised when you asked me to come with you!” Naomi had been too young to see the lies for what they were back then, but she shouldn’t have had to protect against someone like Morgyn. She’d let herself be a comfortable science experiment for too long and she was done playing along.
Morgyn looked her up and down as if she was examining a bug. “I’m helping you live up to your full potential,” she said in her annoyingly authoritative voice. “Did you want to be some dim human for your entire life? Ignorant of the universe and all it had to offer?”
“I am ignorant.” Naomi couldn’t keep the anger inside. She could see the future, but her life was contained to one building on one planet when there was an entire galaxy waiting out there. “You’ve kept me locked up for more than a decade and sliced me open more times than I can remember. You didn’t let me have friends or lovers, nothing except my studies and the experiments. I’m done with this.” If she were a violent person that would have been a great time to hit her former captor, but Naomi’s vision and her instincts were telling her to do something else.
“So you’ll sacrifice that man for your freedom?” Morgyn wasn’t shocked, no; she sounded like she planned to record the findings of this experiment in her journal and continue on until she had enough data to prove or disprove her hypothesis.
And there was nothing that would make Naomi give up Shayn. “I’m done sacrificing.”
Just as her vision had promised, the door behind Morgyn opened up and a technician came through rolling a cart of laundry. He bumped into the scientist hard enough to distract her and that was Naomi’s chance.
She took off running. It was time to find her mate.
SHAYN COULD FEEL NAOMI moving around out there somewhere, the pull of the denya bond dragging him in more than one direction. Was she being moved for surgery? Was she being moved out of the facility? Had he gambled his entire future just to have it yanked away at the last minute?
Suddenly, the tablet on the table blinked to life and Shayn jumped as the familiar voice came through the tinny speakers. “Get moving, blue boy, we can’t stay here all day.” Aileen would have been pushing him out the door if she had a body.
Shayn looked around, wondering how the AI had gotten onto a tablet that shouldn’t have been connected to the facility’s wireless network. “How are you here?”
“I’m very good,” was her oh so informative reply. “Now move. We need to help Naomi.”
That was inducement enough. Shayn grabbed the tablet and saw the notification in the corner that the tablet was hooked into the wireless network. Aileen must have hacked in. Or something. It didn’t really matter. Naomi trusted her and Aileen said they were going to help his mate. That was all he needed to know. He tried the door again, hoping the AI had magically unlocked it, but it still wouldn’t budge.
“Any help here?” he asked the computer. “The door is locked.”
“I guess I have to do everything,” she complained.
Something clicked in the door and it opened. Shayn put the tablet carrying Aileen into one of his pockets and left the rest of his stuff behind. He hadn’t brought anything of sentimental value to the facility in the first place, so everything was replaceable. Everything except Naomi.
And possibly Aileen.
The guard who’d been stationed outside his room jerked up from where he’d been resting against the wall and tried to raise a blaster at him, but Shayn took him down with a single punch before the man could get a shot off. He grabbed the blaster and kept it in hand. It could be useful later.
Aileen could probably tell him where to go, but the only place Shayn needed to be was at his denya’s side. He focused on the bond and could practically see a thick cord flowing out of his chest and down the hall, out to where his mate was. Somewhere in the building.
The bond tugged him downstairs, but he ignored the elevator and made his way for the stairs. He was certain he’d run into another guard, but none were showing up. He pulled out Aileen. “Can you call my brothers and let them know we’re coming? We could use the backup.”
He hadn’t anticipated being able to contact them, too concerned it would lead to him getting caught, but with a genius AI in his hand, that danger no longer seemed so grave. Aileen beeped what he assumed was a confirmation and he kept moving, following the pull ever closer to his denya.
He burst out of the stairwell and into action as three technicians had Naomi cornered. She was struggling against two, holding her own for the moment, but she was no trained fighter and three on one were unfair odds for any person.
The blaster took care of the technician who didn’t have hands on Naomi, but he couldn’t risk shooting his own denya while trying to help her. Shayn shoved the weapon in his pocket and approached from behind. Despite the clatter the third technician had made when he hit the floor, the two holding Naomi were wholly focused on her.
He wrapped an arm around the closest one and squeezed. The man was near his own height, but Shayn knew how to take someone down. He’d spent plenty of time breaking up drunken fights on Honora Station, and as the technician struggled against him it became clear that he had no real fight training. He went down, leaving just the final technician. Naomi was holding the woman off, kicking out when she got too close, but she couldn’t take her down from where she was standing.
That was why Naomi had him.
He tapped the woman on the shoulder, and when she turned he lashed out. But unlike her compatriots, this technician knew what she was doing. And as she turned around Shayn saw she wasn’t wearing a technician’s uniform. She was dressed as one of the security guards.
Well, that made this more interesting.
They traded blows, testing each other, looking for weaknesses. B
ut the guard was competent and Shayn was close to evenly matched, at least if he wasn’t going to unleash his claws and make a mess of her.
A well placed hit had him reeling back, but there wasn’t time to think about it before he was back in the fight. More blows, this time with him landing the stronger hit. He had to finish this.
“Shayn, blaster!” Naomi called from behind him.
Oh. Right.
He punched the guard again, and as she reeled he reached into his pocket and fired the weapon, watching her fall. He turned to see his mate right behind him, eyes brimming with pride. And for the first time in days his world righted and he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
He pulled her close, sealing their lips together and tasting her like he was a man who’d been lost in the desert for months, for years. His tongue swept in and tangled with hers and his blood sang, demanding that he push her back against the wall and slake the lust rampaging within him.
And he would have done it, too, the danger of their exposed position nothing to the joy of the reunion, but Naomi somehow managed to get her wits about her and pull back. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes dazed, and he couldn’t wait to get her alone and make her look even more pleasured.
“You got out.” She grinned at him. “Good.”
“I got him out,” Aileen piped from where she was hidden in his pocket.
“Then thank you,” Naomi told the AI. “We couldn’t do this without you.”
“I know that,” said the AI.
Naomi laced her fingers with his. “Now come on, our ride is leaving soon.”
“We have a ride?” Shayn followed after her, keeping his eyes open to more guards. “Where are the guards?” he asked. He’d only seen the one assigned to his door and the one fighting Naomi.
“They’re outside,” Naomi responded. “From what I can tell, Morgyn didn’t want to spook her staff, so she told the new guards to stay outside. But if they see us we’re done for. They’ve got modified blasters that could put us down for days.”