“I need you,” he said into the kiss.
She understood. They’d both come too close to death in the last twenty-four hours. He pushed aside the elastic of her underwear and groaned when he found her wet.
“Say yes,” he urged.
She didn’t know if he needed her consent to make love, or if he still wanted her affirmation that she’d leave with him. There was only one answer to both questions.
“Yes.”
Holding her gaze, he pushed into her body. The familiar stretch burned with heat and fullness. Her nails dug into his shoulders. She loved to be filled by him, to see him lose all control as he rocked their bodies together. This time, however, his pace was slow and thoughtful. It was as if he was concentrating on filling her in exactly the right way, hitting the spot that time and again sent her over the edge. Pleasure burned in her body and tightened her womb. Sparks from the fire crackled and flew up into the air. The sweet smell of a wood fire and paint filled her nostrils. She closed her eyes and sunk deeper into the sand, giving over to the pleasure he made her feel. Her skin sparked with the familiar sensation of pending release. Her inner muscles clenched around his cock, making him groan. She floated on water and clouds, her emotions so deeply connected to the man claiming her body that they felt inseparable.
Words drifted to her lips of their own accord. “I love you, Cain.”
He drove into her deeply, following it up with a tender kiss. “I know, Olivia.” His rhythm changed from languorous to urgent, his hips hammering against hers. “Come with me.”
She locked her ankles around his ass and let herself go. Her orgasm hit her hard, sizzling through her in electric shocks. Cain joined her a second later, biting off a cry as he emptied himself in her body. Even when he was spent, he kept inside her, resting their foreheads together. Needing the contact, she clung to him, unwilling to let go. It was only when her limbs started cramping that she reluctantly shifted.
He pulled out of her body, adjusted her underwear, and pulled down her dress. “Everything always happens for a reason, and you make it all worthwhile.”
The statement was loaded. He could mean the mission that had brought him to Brazil, or the hardships of the kind of life he led. Whatever the case, she’d never regret being stalked by him. For this, she had Godfrey to thank. If not for him, she would never have met Cain. Maybe Cain was right. Everything happened for a reason.
“It’s getting late.” He cast a worried glance toward the sea where the sun had sunk below the horizon.
What he didn’t say was that he was concerned for their safety. With the strange message from a dead woman and Godfrey’s child missing, they couldn’t let down their guard. Not yet.
He got to his feet and helped her up before draping the blanket around her shoulders. “Let’s get you home.”
Pulling her to him, he hugged her tight in one of those embraces that felt both heated and secure. Only Cain had the ability to wrap her in sexual tension while giving her comfort and making her feel protected.
After putting out the fire, they walked home along the path. Now that there was no more reason for hiding, Sean was openly watching the house.
“All’s good,” he said in his Scottish accent as they approached.
“Any news?” Cain asked.
Cain didn’t have to elaborate. She knew he was referring to the child.
“Sorry,” Sean said, “nothing.”
Cain took her hand. “We’ll find him.”
Cain dismissed Sean and gave orders for the surveillance team to continue the job of watching the house. They cooked a simple meal of grilled fish and stir-fried vegetables, had a shower together, and went to bed.
Cain made love to her again, taking his time with foreplay and dragging out her pleasure with a slow, long-burning orgasm. When her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep almost immediately thanks to the emotional stress, little sleep the night before, exhaustion from the traveling, and pain medication.
Sometime in the middle of the night, she woke with a feeling of something being amiss. At first, she accounted it to the fact that Cain’s place next to her was empty, but then the feeling changed into something more sinister. It was a sensation she recognized from the time Cain had broken into her house. Fine-tuning her senses, she kept perfectly quiet until she was certain of another presence in the room. Clutching the sheet to her naked body, she trained her attention on the corner of the room. The moonlight fell through the open doors of the balcony in a wedge across the floor at the foot of the bed, but it was too dark to see into the shadows obscuring the corner. The longer she stared, the more certain she was there was a man sitting in the chair.
“Cain?” she asked, her voice groggy from sleep. “What are you doing there?”
The chair creaked. The shadows moved as if they’d acquired a life of their own. Slowly, a shape morphed from the darkness.
A scream caught in her throat.
She was staring at her dead husband.
Chapter 18
It had to be a ghost. Olivia opened her mouth to let out the scream trapped in her throat, but Godfrey’s hand clamped down on her lips, muffling the sound. He picked her up with one arm around her middle, trapping her arms at her sides. Kicking was useless. She fought for all she was worth, but he easily carried her from the room and down the stairs, his feet quiet on the tiles.
Panic made her break out in a cold sweat. Where was Cain? She doubled her efforts at kicking and bit the hand that covered her mouth, but to no avail. With a sinking feeling, she realized their destination as he headed toward the gym. He was going to drag her into the lab. At the hidden panel, he had to let go of her mouth to enter the code and his thumbprint, but his hold on her waist tightened. Grabbing the opportunity, she screamed, hoping that Cain would hear and doubting that he would. The basement walls were thick.
The secret door slid open, revealing the dusty corridor covered in cobwebs. It was now or never. She put all her strength in one last attempt to break free, shouting like a madwoman and slamming her heels against his shins. Her hope dwindled when he lifted her over the step and the door shut behind them. It was futile. When Cain discovered her gone, he wouldn’t think to search the underground lab. He’d never suspect a ghost had kidnapped and dragged her into the belly of the house. If he ever decided to enter the lab, which would be impossible without her or Godfrey’s thumbprint, it would be too late.
The fight left her body as Godfrey deposited her on the floor. Like her, he had to have realized her chance at being rescued was gone. They regarded each other in the dim light of the stone corridor, his face taut with anger and her body shaking in shock.
“Walk,” he said, pointing at the far end of the corridor.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” she whispered, folding her arms in front of her to hide as much of her nakedness as she could. “Are you a ghost?”
His upper lip curled into a semblance of a smile. “What do you think?” He gripped her neck and turned her in the opposite direction. “Walk!”
Her feet obeyed on autopilot. The musty stones were damp and cold under her soles.
“Faster,” he said, shoving her with a palm between her shoulder blades.
At the second door, she stopped, not daring to glance back at him. The door opened with a swoosh, letting them inside. There was no equipment or signs of habitation. The lab was as empty as the day Godfrey had moved out with his scientists. What were his plans for her? Who was this version of her dead husband?
He moved to the far end of the room and wheeled a cabinet away. Behind it, hidden in the wall, was another panel. Her heart stuttered. Her throat constricted, making it difficult to swallow.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
As the previous door, this one opened with a code and a retina scan. A click sounded before the thick metal swung inward, revealing another corridor similar to the one they’d entered through, but here were no lights. He pushed her through the door into the da
rkness. The clang of metal announced the closing of the door. The solid black in which she found herself threatened to swallow her whole. As hysteria was about to claim her, a beam of light broke the stretching blackness. Godfrey pointed a torchlight ahead of them. The space was much narrower than in the other hallway. There was just enough room for her body to pass without scratching her arms on the rough walls. When Godfrey’s body pushed against hers from behind, she had no choice but to move forward.
“What is this place?” she whispered. She knew about the lab, but not about this part. Godfrey had moved her into this house, deliberately concealing its secrets.
“You’ll see,” he said coldly.
They walked for what felt like a very long time before they came to yet another door with a code pad and a retina scanner. The door slid open to reveal a large underground chamber. Dim, red lights illuminated the outer edges of the space. The dungeon was constructed from stone. She had to bend her head to enter through the low door. The smell was pungent. It reminded her of rotten eggs. Her stomach convulsed. An overbearing sensation of claustrophobia overtook her. It was like being buried alive in a stone tomb. She fought the feeling of smothering, but it was as if the walls were closing in on her. She wanted out. She wanted to drag the cool air of the night into her lungs. She backtracked, but bumped into Godfrey’s sturdy frame. He grabbed her arm in a painful grip and dragged her deeper into the cellar. The panic was overwhelming. She couldn’t breathe. Just as she was about to kick in her heels and fight again, a light flickered on overhead, casting the center of the room in bloody red. For a moment, the scene in front of her didn’t make sense. Her mind grappled with what her eyes were seeing.
A large, slimy creature drifted in a tank of red-tainted liquid. If not for three bulging eyes and a deformed mouth through which sharp, uneven teeth were visible, she would’ve thought it a blob of translucent jelly. A mass of root-like tentacles extended from the creature, floating in the water. Toward its middle protruded a phallus with a bulbous, read head crowned with tentacles. The creature’s form extended and contracted, its eyes following her as Godfrey pushed her to the side of the tank.
Swallowing her revulsion, she whispered, “What is that?”
“That’s our host.”
“Host?” She spun on her heels, trying to make out his expression in the red glow of the light.
His smile was cold. “The original prototype.”
She looked at the organism in the tank, and back at Godfrey. “Prototype?”
“This is what he’s become to give us eternal life.”
Her mind didn’t want to process what he was saying. “You mean…”
“That’s your husband, yes. At least, the original version.”
Her gaze flared on the thing that didn’t resemble a human being in the slightest.
“He’s a multi-sexual organism.” He pointed at the tentacles around the penis. “Fertilized eggs stem from the polyps and are placed in artificial amniotic fluid to mature.”
Another set of lights came on, casting their eerie glow over a set of smaller tanks. She counted twelve. Each tank was filled with transparent, red liquid, and in each drifted a human fetus, all at different stages of development. She swallowed hard.
“Once the fetus is of birth age,” he continued, “it exits from the fluid just like any human being when it’s born from its mother. The only difference is that we are exact copies of each other and indestructible. The seven forbidden arts cells allow our sponsor to reproduce cells with a transdifferentiation quality, which enables us to repair damaged, sick, or old cells.”
This is what Godfrey wanted to do to Adam? Her panic gave way to cold, piercing fear. “Are you the man they killed in Chile?”
“No.” His head moved toward the side. “That will be one of them.”
Following his gaze, she sucked in a breath. Six men stepped from the shadows, each an exact replica of the Godfrey facing her. Her fingers and toes went colder than what they already were. Godfrey’s uncharacteristic behavior the night he’d taken her ovum suddenly made sense. It hadn’t been him. It had been one of his clones.
“Which one of you assaulted me the night in the lab?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“That will be me,” the man next to her said.
She regarded him with contempt. “How long has this been going on?”
“Since your husband got the last cell in Amsterdam.”
“But…” She looked between the men. “That means you mature in months.”
“The speed of our growth is different to that of humans.”
“The child you brought to me…”
“He’ll be an adult soon. This is the reason why you’re here.”
“Because he ran away? You’re blaming me?”
He stopped abruptly, turning his attention to the creature in the tank. It was as if he was listening to an inaudible voice. Walking to the nearest wall, he switched on a flat screen. Words ran over the monitor.
He was going to kill you. You’re no use to me dead.
She jerked her head back to the creature. Somehow, he was communicating through the computer. “Why are you telling me this? Why am I here?”
You promised to be mine until death do us part. Have you forgotten so soon?
The coldness in her extremities spread to her organs.
You didn’t think I was going to just give you up to Cain Jones?
“Why would you do this to yourself?” She motioned at the tank. “Why would you become this and live in this state forever to replicate yourself?”
To rid the world of humans. To fill it with the new supreme being. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.
“You’re crazy.” She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to control her shivering. “This is what your experiment did to you? It trapped you in a tank?”
The beauty is that we’re all interconnected. I know their thoughts and they know mine. I feel what they feel. I can live through them.
“What do you want from me?”
Junior found the phone in your kitchen, the phone Cain had given you. You thought you’d get away with it? You thought I wouldn’t discover your tracker was removed? You need to suffer for your betrayal. I’ll wipe out a city, as I promised, and you’ll watch. Even better, I’ll wipe out the world, one city at a time.
“Please, no!”
The monitor went dead.
“Please, listen to me. Talk to me.”
The horrible red light came to life over another part of the room, shining like a spotlight on an ornate birdcage that hung on a chain from the ceiling. It was just big enough to house a human of her size in a crouching position. The Godfrey who’d brought her into the cellar grabbed her arms and started pushing her toward the cage. As his intention became clear, she fought, but she wasn’t a match for his strength. He easily dragged her over the floor, hauled her through the air, and shoved her into the cage. Before she could find her balance, he’d shut the door and locked it with a key, which he hung on a hook on the wall.
Kneeling, she gripped the bars. “Let me out!”
“You’re an adornment for his pleasure,” Godfrey said, “a nice pet to look at.” He gave her an evil smile. “Did you know he chained his first wife in the basement when she tried to escape? She was a fighter. She lived for ten years. Let’s see if you can break that record.”
“Let me out!”
She shook the cage, making it swing on the chain. The motion made her feel sick. The contents of her stomach threatened to come up. More lights flicked on, illuminating alcoves set into the circular wall. In each hung one of Godfrey’s portraits. This was where he’d brought all her failed paintings. It was like a giant, horror museum. One by one, the men climbed up a ladder bolted to the side of a vertical tunnel at the opposite side of the room.
“Where are they going?” she shouted, beside herself with terror.
“To harvest stem cells,” Godfrey said, studying her curiously, as if she was a strang
e kind of animal. “We need a lot of stem cells to fabricate our amniotic fluid. It’s what we feed on during our growth.”
“Let me out,” she begged.
She couldn’t stand being left alone with the creature in the tank. Without sparing her another glance, Godfrey followed his comrades.
Pinching her eyes shut, she refused to acknowledge the disgusting organism, but thankfully the lights went out, casting everything in darkness except for the spotlight that fell on the cage.
Haunted by nightmares of sharp rocks and cricket bats, Cain went downstairs for a drink. He switched on the kettle for a cup of tea, and switched it off again, in the end opting for something stronger. A whisky later, he made his way back to the bedroom and paused in the door. The bed was empty.
“Olivia?”
He crossed the floor and stuck his head around the bathroom door. Flicking on the lights, he went downstairs to her studio. Not there. Maybe she was working out in the gym. When he found the gym deserted too, a sick feeling nestled in his stomach.
“Olivia?”
He ran from room to room, exiting onto every balcony, but she was nowhere to be seen. Back in the room, he grabbed his wrist pad from the nightstand and dialed Josselin.
The team leader’s voice was surprisingly alert for the hour of the night. “What’s up?”
“Olivia’s gone. I want feedback from the surveillance team. Pull the sat feeds. If someone messed with the heat or motion detectors, I want to know. Bring me everything you’ve got. Get the rest of the team to search the perimeters. Let Maya check for any boat traffic from the beach.”
“Got it. I’ll bring the team over. We’ll be there in twenty.”
Twenty minutes were too long. Too much could happen even in that short time span. Add the thirty minutes he’d left her alone and it made almost an hour. In an hour, a person could be kidnapped, shipped to an airport, or killed. He dragged his hands through his hair, cursing himself for leaving her for even a minute.
Man (Seven Forbidden Arts Book 9) Page 25