“Thank you, I was worried about her.” Jaz bit her lip before speaking up again. “There’s something you should know.”
Damon and Mick turned expectant eyes in her direction.
“Clones have a tracker embedded into their bone; it’s impossible to take out, and it allows my handlers to know where I am every second of the day.”
Damon nodded and pulled out a small handheld scanner that he began to run over her. It only took a few minutes but then he ran it again three more times.
“Jaz, would you please lie back?”
She settled back on the bed while Damon touched some of the controls on top of the bed and started a deep body scan.
“I don’t see any evidence of a tracker in your body.”
“All clones have them.”
“I understand, just lie still and we’ll find out what the deeper body scan tells us.”
He went over to a small workstation he had in the room. Mick followed him over.
“What are you looking at?”
“This is what I have from your mate's scans so far. It’s a pretty thorough genetic picture of who she is. This…” He hit another button, “is a scan of a female clone. The two don’t seem to be comparable, so I pulled a larger sample. These are all female clones. As you can see, each has certain markers that are the same. They almost scream copy, but Jaz doesn’t share these same markers. Also here are the clones with the trackers implanted in the bone. It is unmistakable and here are your mate’s bones. There is no tracker in her body.”
“What’s that?” Mick pointed to a black mass that wasn’t in any of the other clones.
“That’s a problem.”
The scanner buzzed to indicate all the tests Damon ordered were complete. Damon walked over to read the results before he finally looked at Jaz.
“Jaz,” he gave her a calming smile. “I’ve got good news for you and some not so good news.”
“What’s the good news?”
“I ran a thorough scan of your body, and you don’t have a tracker.”
“Are you sure? They track every clone.” How could they have forgotten to place a tracker in her body? If she had known this, she could have slipped out gone to the beach, and watched the tide roll in. She could have, but she wouldn’t have. She was brainwashed to follow the rules at all times even if the rules were against her.
“I don’t know how they missed you. It could have been a simple oversight, but whatever it is, you don’t have a tracker in you.”
She took a deep breath and smiled the joy that she couldn’t be tracked was making her stomach dance. No one knew where she was, but more importantly, she wasn’t putting Mick in jeopardy, that worry had been in the back of her mind.
“What’s wrong?” It suddenly dawned on her that he said there was some not so good news.
“Seems that whoever did your cloning added a nasty little virus.”
Her mind whirled taking it all in. She might work in cryogenics, but she spent ample time researching cloning. Cloned DNA could be manipulated before the cloning sequence began. That’s when they would have added or subtracted any genetic defect. Maybe you had an extra gene you didn’t want or carried the markers of diseases like Crohn's, Down’s Syndrome or any multitude of others. They could all be eradicated in the cloning process.
In the beginning, the thought was to transfer the mind of the Original into the clone so they could have an unparalleled lifespan. The backlash of such thinking was severe and those who could afford such a thing didn’t want to be exiled by their peers. They dropped that plan but genetic alteration was happening in the medical community, there was no reason to tell the population about it.
“What did they do to me?”
“You have a nasty little virus in your system that was uploaded to begin spreading if and when you were called in to be harvested. It doesn’t matter whether you flee or not, your death is imminent.”
“All that soul searching for nothing. They knew I would never get away from them.” She eased back on the bed and looked at the yellow ceiling. Damon had a point; the yellow made her feel slightly tranquil as opposed to the white that would have made her feel sterile, uncared for.
“How much time do I have?”
“Approximately forty-eight hours if not treated.” He stressed the last three words, but she didn’t hear him.
Mick reached down and took her hand into his shaking one. How could he have just found her only to lose her? Every dream he was beginning to have went up in smoke as he leaned over and held her tightly to his body.
Her mind cluttered with thoughts of what life would have been like with Mick if she had a chance to get to know him. Would they have had children? The desire that she was trying to deny swamped her making her want to touch him one last time. Feel his lips on hers. She mourned for the ocean she would never see with her eyes. Then she rejoiced for the opportunity she took to think for herself. Now the only question was how she would spend her last two days. Would Mick still want to make love to her? Her heartbeat picked up when she thought of him rubbing his hands over her naked body.
Her hand went to his face as she touched the one person she wanted to connect with.
Chapter Ten
“Jaz, are you listening to Damon?” The more his brother talked, the more Mick’s body relaxed.
Uh no. She was too busy building a happy world to exist in until her time ran out.
“Sorry Damon, I was sort of preoccupied. What were you saying?”
There was humor in Mick’s eyes when he smiled at her. Eyes that changed too fast for her to register their color. He was holding her so he stepped back so she could focus on Damon.
“I said when did you want me to operate on you. That is the only thing that will allow me to stop the virus.”
“You can stop the virus?”
“I can try. Since I am the best doctor on the face of the Earth and in the universe, I do believe you need my help. Whatever you do, don’t tell Nicolas I said that.” He laughed, as he waited for her answer.
Nicolas was Ash’s brother although he wasn't on the Earth right now. She knew that he was also a physician and that he and Damon went back and forth on who was the best.
Damon could fix her or at least he thought he could. He held out a carrot and dangled it in front of her. There was no way she could resist especially now that she spent time dreaming of spending more time with Mick.
“I’m ready whenever you are. Can you tell me how you are going to stop the virus?”
“I am going to become light and enter your body. I’ll be light with the ability to reprogram your DNA.”
“That’s impossible.”
Both Damon and Mick looked at her, neither of them saying anything. She examined her disbelief that something like this was possible and then held up what she knew to be science now against what she knew the medical doctors in the past believed impossible or unattainable. There was a time when cloning a person was a dream or manipulating DNA the way they did it was thought of as an impossible achievement.
“Do you think you can do it?”
“I have no sure way of knowing unless I try. I don’t know who or what you were cloned from.”
“I was cloned from a human.” Why would he doubt that?
“Are you sure? Have you met her? Was it even a her, if they implanted a virus what would have stopped them from changing your gender?”
Her world came crashing in. There was no guarantee. Her original never came to look at her as far as she knew. Damon was right; she woke up with the knowledge that she was a clone and what it meant, but that was all. Her handlers never gave her any information about the original, and if she brought it up, they ignored her.
“Can you tell if other genetic manipulations were done to my body?” He shook his head no.
“All right, I want you to try and reprogram my DNA. What do I have to do?”
“Lie back.”
She followed his order, trying to get c
omfortable as Damon placed his hand on her forehead. Her eyes grew tired although she tried to keep them open she took one last look at Mick, before falling into a deep sleep.
“Damon, is she even a clone?”
He stopped to think about it. “Mick, I’m not sure. Some things don’t line up with her being a clone, but other things I am finding in her body are suspicious. I don’t have enough data at this point to make a call or even an educated guess. I think the real question is does it bother you if she is indeed a clone?”
“No, I’ll take her just like she is. I would like her to know one way or the other, but I think it might not matter anymore. I’m watching her and every minute she’s becoming more comfortable in her skin.
They both lapsed into silence as they watched her sleep.
“Mick?”
“I want to stay if that won’t distract you.”
“I thought you might want to stay. But it will take a while. Do you want a chair?”
Mick turned around to see the chair that Damon had hovering behind him in case he wanted to sit.
“No, I’ll just stand here and hold her hand.”
Damon acknowledged him and closed his eyes. His body began to waver until he became pure light. His body floated over Jaz’s before he merged himself with her disappearing from Mick’s view.
Damon wondered at the beauty of the way her different systems were made, her circulatory system was a work of art. This was how he imagined humans were meant to function. The way they worked together was impressive making him wonder again who the Original for Jaz was.
Turning his attention to healing, he looked for the source of the virus, combing her body until he found it embedded deeply into the bone marrow of her hip. He stopped to give it an appreciative look. The doctor who programmed it truly knew what he was doing. It would never have been picked up on a regular scan, which must be why no one ever noticed it.
He curled around it and watched as it sent out an army to attack him. It was self-sufficient not needing any other part of the body to sustain itself. It was also alien in origin.
Damon built a wall of light around it, stopping it from affecting her body any further before he began to destroy the army attacking him. The organisms were trying to change form to align with his body. He began to change his molecular form cycling it through the different structures of his father’s DNA to keep it from aligning with him. Since each soldier in the army was possessed with a different form, he needed to eradicate them individually. It would take time, but he would be patient for his brother’s mate.
One by one the army disappeared, but the original virus was still in place. He tightened up the barrier he made until it was surrounding the virus not allowing it to send out any other soldiers for its defense. He took the time to examine it and see how it worked. It was a dark loop virus, created by The Darkness; he had seen this loop in other patients some of whom unfortunately hadn’t survived.
Enclosing the virus in light, he began to circle it each time going a little faster compelling it to fall apart. Once done, he examined the DNA looking for the sequence that formed the virus. Seeing it, he began to reverse the sequence then reprogram it until the virus creation was no more. Once that was done, he flowed through her body reversing the effect he found within her. He gave her one last examination before he pulled out and came to stand beside Mick.
His body was tired almost dropping to the floor; Mick caught him.
“She is going to survive.”
Mick’s arm was under Damon’s holding him up.
“You’re going to survive also. Can you walk to your room or do you need me to carry you?”
Damon tried to pull away while Mick gave him an evil laugh. “Don’t make me carry you.”
Damon nodded and allowed his weight to settle back on his brother as he helped him out of the medical wing and into his private wing of the house.
“Is there anything she will need?”
“Sleep. Her body will make new blood cells, and the reprogrammed DNA will be carried through her body. The old cells will slough off faster than usual which will make her tired but it will pass in about a day.” Mick nodded as he lowered Damon onto his bed.
“I’m going to go spend some time with her.”
“If she were mine, I wouldn’t leave her either. Mick, you’re going to have to face the curse. Maybe you should spend some time preparing before she wakes up.”
Mick agreed before he made his way out and back to the medical wing.
He stood over the bed watching Jaz for some time. He remembered when he first encountered fairy tales. It took a while to realize they weren’t moments of Earth’s past but something that parents told to children to entertain him. Sleeping beauty had always fascinated him. As he looked at Jaz, he understood why. She was calm and peaceful lying there, perfect as if nothing could touch her and for once he wanted to believe in fairy tales, believe the touch of his lips would awaken her, and they would have a happy ever after.
A wry smile turned his lips upward. He was Created, one of the originals. There would be no fairytale ending for him. Silently he backed out of the room.
“Going somewhere?” Julian’s voice would have scared him, but he heard his brother trying to creep up on him.
“You’re not as silent as you think.” He turned around to flash his brother a half evil smile.
“It’s impolite to scare the elderly, so I have to make sure you know I’m behind you.” Julian returned the half evil smile with bright eyes. “How’s your mate?” He inclined his head towards Damon’s medical wing.
“Damon says she’s going to be just fine. She’s sleeping now so is Damon. It took a lot out of him to heal her.”
Julian joined in with Mick as they walked down the corridor their steps naturally in sync.
“I came to check in on Damon to make sure he was fine. I also checked in on Ash and Brook.”
“How are they?”
“They’re perfect.” Julian’s voice was a little wry, and there was a hint of color in his cheeks.
Mick started laughing. “Were they…?”
“Yes, they were. I’ve already made a mental note not to appear in their rooms unannounced. Do you think that’s a mated thing?”
Mick stopped to look at his brother knowing he would wonder about Ash and Brook if he hadn’t met his mate. The desire to touch her, constantly touch her, was something he was finding hard to deal with. Mick needed to touch; his brothers needed it too. It was one of the perks of the DNA that made them. But they were able to hold on tight to those desires, to only let them out at certain times and after that, they were good until they clawed their way up to the surface again.
Right now Julian couldn’t imagine needing someone so much that keeping his hands to himself would be a problem. Mick couldn’t imagine keeping his hands to himself; he needed to touch her, see her, connect with her. He needed Jaz.
“Yes, it’s a mated thing.”
“What are you going to do? Or how are you going to do it? Fight The Darkness and keep your hands off your mate.”
“Why would I want to keep my hands off of her?”
“In case she dies. Mick, we both know The Darkness will not stop until he takes her life. The more deeply connected you are to her the more likely he will claim your soul.”
They were standing at the door to Damon’s house. Julian opened it walking through waiting for Mick to follow.
“You think I should leave her alone not bond with her so that I might have a chance to escape The Darkness once she dies.”
“It does make sense.”
“Yeah, it does.”
Mick walked the path to the flower that captivated Jaz when they first arrived. He bent down and touched the blood-red stem.
“Mick?” Julian looked at him with a worried expression on his face.
“I can’t keep my hands to myself. I need to…no, I have to touch her, caress her, kiss her, and make her mine. There is no doubt that i
f something happens to her, The Darkness will own my body. They will never own my soul because it already belongs to Jazlyn Summers.”
Chapter Eleven
“Then we don’t have a choice, do we?”
Mick looked at his brother again. He remembered how they poured their strength into him to help him save his mate.
“No, there’s no choice.”
“We save the damsel in distress.” Mick laughed and Julian grinned at him.
Julian always enjoyed a good battle when the reward was a kiss from the fair maiden. They had several like that over the centuries.
“Jaz will not be kissing you.”
He pouted even though his eyes filled with laughter. “You take the fun out of everything. What do you want to do now?”
“I want to slip into bed and lie next to my mate. Barring that, let’s slip into Sin City and see if we can find any hint of The Darkness.”
Julian gave him that look that said he was mad, and no one slipped into Sin City without Eli knowing before they disappeared.
Dante stepped out of the shadows, a frown on his face, before he went into Damon’s house.
*~*~*~*
Sin City. He hated this place, but it was important to them. It was how they kept the intimate part of their being at rest. Mick had females down here that were more than willing to satisfy him because when he came, he gave them pleasure, the kind you could only get from a male like him. And the reality was there were only five other males in existence like him.
He and Julian had changed their appearance before coming down. Their bodies filled out showing the ropes of muscle on their arms, legs, and chest. Their natural appearance brightened, taking on an image that was closer to who they were. They were light in the dark and drew the females like they were handing out candy to babies.
“Mick.” The female who came out of the doors on the side of the road looked like she needed a fix and Mick was the drug.
Anything you wanted or needed was available in Sin City. The aliens who weren’t interested in fitting in with humans came to Sin City. It was outside the dome although it was protected by the aliens who lived here. No one in the capital even knew this place existed unless they wanted to sin. It was the only thing that opened the door.
Mick (The A'rouk Brothers Book 1) Page 7