“You’re exhausted,” he said. “Ava told me what you did, calling to Eric like that. You weren’t ready. She can’t even project that far to an unsensing mind. Sleep now.”
Sleep was the last thing my body wanted, but already my mind was starting to shut down without my approval. The sensations of fire faded, though Ritter’s body still fit against mine as if it belonged. It was no promise for the future, I knew. Or a guarantee that what was between us this instant would exist tomorrow.
I didn’t care. For once I was content not to think about tomorrow or any repercussions I might face for falling in love with a man who might never be able to love me back.
Besides, the steady thump of Ritter’s heart against my back had given me an idea. A hope. There might be a way I could save my father after all.
I let sleep take me.
HOME TO KANSAS CITY WE went, though it wasn’t really home anymore. Or some of us went. Cort and Gaven flew to Oregon to supervise set up operations, while Ava, Ritter, and Stella accompanied Chris and me to the private clinic where my father had slipped into a coma and lay dying. My mother sat unwavering by his side.
Dimitri was there, too, and I felt shy seeing him again with the knowledge that he was my biological father. Did that explain how kind he’d been to me? No, I believed that was part of his personality, and he would have acted kindly toward me regardless. With Laurence gone, no one except Ava, Dimitri, and me knew what had happened at the fertility clinic the day I’d been conceived, but now wasn’t the time to confront them.
I sat by the bed and touched my father’s limp hand. “Isn’t there anything you can do?” I whispered.
“He’s dying,” Dimitri said matter-of-factly. “I don’t dare leave him for more than a few minutes. I don’t know how much longer he’ll last. He needs a new heart.”
“Then let’s give it to him.”
Dimitri shook his head. “There isn’t one.”
“There’s mine.” I said it viciously, as though daring him or anyone to contradict me.
“What are you saying, Erin?” My mother’s haggard face was frightened.
“I can grow a new one.”
“No.” Ritter spoke from the doorway. “You have no idea what you’re saying.” His hand went to his heart and I had the odd sensation that if Cort were present, he’d tease Ritter about vampire hunters.
“It has to be possible.” I looked at Dimitri. “Isn’t it? I’m the same blood type, just like my mother and the rest of my family. My father’s not a big man. Why wouldn’t it work? At least it could hold him over until you found something better.” With all the dead Hunters in our wake, you’d think hearts shouldn’t be that hard to find.
“It’s not exactly that simple,” Dimitri said. “Though I admit my research indicates an Unbounded organ might actually adjust itself to a recipient’s body.”
“Then it’s worth a try. How long would it take me to grow a new one?”
“With a lot of curequick, about three days.” Dimitri’s jaw twitched in exactly the same way mine did when I was forced to confront something I wanted to reject. In fact, now that I studied him, the wide oval shape of his eyes was mine, too.
“I want to do this for him. What’s three days compared to his life?” I waited for Dimitri to tell me the man on the bed wasn’t my real father, for anyone to say it. To say that I had come from stolen sperm or to admit the truth about Dimitri. No one did.
I answered anyway. “Please. He’s my dad. He was the first person to hold me after I was born. He took me for my first ice cream. He was at all of my soccer games when I was five, and even when I kept tripping over my own feet or sat down at the goal to wait for the ball, he acted like I was the best player on the team.” Tears slid down my face, made my vision blur. “He bought me my first book. He taught me about law. I can’t stand here and watch him die if I have the means to save him.”
Dimitri showed no emotion. “It might not work.”
“But it could.”
“He can have mine.” This from Ritter.
We all turned toward him, surprised. I didn’t like that idea at all, though if asked I wouldn’t be able to say why.
“I’m bigger, and my heart’s in excellent shape.”
“Not a good idea,” Dimitri said. “Or I’d have already figured out how to give him mine. We don’t know enough about the procedure. It may adjust to him well enough, but for all we know once the Unbounded genes are no longer in an Unbounded body, it could very well degrade quickly to its natural age. That would kill him.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Ritter said. “The genes are in the heart, too. Maybe it would outlast all his other organs.”
“The point is that there has been almost no research into Unbounded transplants in mortals, except for my own limited testing. We’ve been too busy patching up our people all these years so they can fight the Emporium to do much of anything else. If your heart failed, Grant wouldn’t survive two surgeries close together. He has only one chance.”
“My heart’s the only option then,” I said. “It wouldn’t degenerate.”
“No, Erin.” My mother spoke with a fierceness born from years of protecting me. I never admired her more than at that moment for being willing to put me before my father, whom I knew she loved more than her own life.
I took her hand. “I really want to do this, Mom. It’s his only chance.”
“I don’t want to lose you.”
“You’re not going to lose me.”
“You’ll just be in a hell of a lot of pain,” Ritter muttered.
Ignoring him, I looked at Dimitri? “It will work, won’t it?”
He nodded. “I believe it will.”
“Will you do it?”
The hint of wistful smile touched his lips. “We’ll give it a try.”
My mother was crying in her chair by the bed, and I bent over and hugged her. “Everything’s going to be okay. I promise.” I hoped I was telling the truth.
“I can have things ready in an hour,” Dimitri said.
Nodding, I walked out into the hall feeling both frightened and determined. Chris sat on a bench outside the door near his children, who were occupying themselves with activity books. Chris’s eyes were focused down the hall to where Stella sat with Bronson.
I studied the pair as well. They were talking earnestly, Bronson looking every one of his seventy years and then some. In fact, he seemed to have shrunk in the few days we’d been gone. He held Stella’s face in his gnarled hands and wiped tears from her cheeks before pulling her into a hug. No kiss. They had learned to be careful in public.
I wondered how Bronson felt at learning he was to become a father to a child he would never raise. Maybe never even meet. Not that I would try to find out. Under no circumstances was I even going to walk past them. Some emotions were better left private.
Chris apparently felt the same, because he’d looked away and was softly stroking Kathy’s hair. She smiled up at him and said something. He laughed, though his face was still strained. It might take time, but I knew they would eventually be okay, even without Lorrie.
I waved at them and walked down the hall, heading toward Jace’s room, where he was lying in a bed healing at the normal slow human rate. I wished my Unbounded blood could make a difference for either him or my father, but Dimitri had assured me it wouldn’t.
Ritter came after me. “Erin,” he said in a low voice.
I turned to him. “You can’t talk me out of it.”
“You’re so new to being Unbounded. How do we know you’ll heal?”
I blinked in amazement. “I burned to death and healed from two gunshot wounds practically overnight. I can absorb nutrients from the air. I can sometimes sense what people are feeling. I’m Unbounded every bit as much as you are, Ritter, and I’m not going to stand back and lose another person I love until I absolutely have to, which is going to happen soon enough. I’m going to lose them all eventually. Tell me, if you could g
o back, wouldn’t you do anything you could to save your family?”
His angular face was ashen, his body tense, but he nodded.
“The real question is,” I said, “will you be here when I wake up?”
His jaw worked silently, but before he could respond, a commotion down the hall caught our attention. “Please, sir,” a nurse was saying to a patient, “you must go back to your room and lie down. You’ll rip your stitches!”
The patient avoided her with a dexterous move that would have given credit to a skilled martial artist. “I’m fine. That’s what I’m telling you!” Irritation dripped from his words. “And I’ve also been telling you for the past two hours that I need to see my doctor. Since no one will contact him, I’m going to find him myself. I know he’s here somewhere with my father.”
I knew that voice. “Jace!” I ran to him.
“It’s okay,” I told the nurse. “He’s my brother. I’ll take care of him.” Her forehead knotted with concern, but she left him to me, shaking her head as she walked down the hall.
Jace looked drunk and happy. He pulled open the robe he wore over a pair of gray pajama pants. Bandages hung loosely from his chest and stomach. “I’m fine!” he said in a low, urgent voice. “Dimitri told me not to mess with the bandages, but they were itching, so I lifted them up, and my wounds are fifty percent better than yesterday. My insides still hurt, but look, I can walk! I think Dimitri suspected all along, the old fart. Maybe he didn’t want to get my hopes up. This is the best day of my life! I’m like you, Erin. I’m like you!”
Ritter and I stared at each other and at Jace. I began to laugh and cry at the same time. The rest of my family might age and leave me, but I would always have Jace. I hugged him tightly. He wavered a little under the pressure, and I knew he was still far from well, but he’d definitely begun emitting a hint of the same odd feeling I’d sensed around Tom. A Changing.
Jace backed away from me and began tearing off his bandages.
“Shut that robe!” I ordered, noticing the stares of several nurses and visitors farther down the hall.
Jace laughed and hugged me again. “Oh, boy. I think I’m going to faint.”
Ritter caught him as he fell and carried him to several nearby chairs where we could lay him down. “We’d better get some curequick from my bag. Actually, we’d better ask Dimitri about it first. He’s probably been giving it to him already if he suspects Jace is Changing.”
Changing!
“I’ll ask him.” I wanted to skip down the hall like a joyful child.
Before I could leave, Ritter’s hand closed over mine. His skin felt warm. In that instant, his mind was open. I felt his happiness over Jace and worry at my pending operation. And more.
The more made me shiver with anticipation.
The next minute he was pushing me into a room behind us, kissing me, his hands pressing me against the hardness of his body. His mouth opened. He tasted of heat, of desire, or maybe that came from our minds. His hands made my skin tingle. I wanted to be a part of him, to feel him become a part of me. I didn’t care that it was a terrible idea. I wanted to—
“Um, do you two mind?” came a quavering voice behind us.
We sprang apart to find a wrinkled old woman staring at us from her hospital bed. “Sorry,” I muttered as Ritter groaned.
“Much better than what’s on TV, mind you, but I have to be careful of my heart.” She gave us a sly grin. “I have a pacemaker, you know.”
I turned toward the door, but Ritter stopped me. “On the beach you said, you wanted . . .” He stopped and took a breath before rushing on, his voice nearly a growl. “You are in my every waking thought—and most of my sleeping ones, too. I don’t know what that means exactly, but I’ll be here when you wake up, Erin.”
It was enough.
I leaned forward and whispered against his lips. “I know.”
Together we opened the door and went to find Dimitri.
THE END
NOTE FROM TEYLA BRANTON: Thank you for downloading this book and for spending a little time with me in my world! If you enjoyed The Change, will you consider leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads? The more positive reviews I receive, the less time I'll spend trying to sell random people my book and the more time I can spend writing sequels. Yes, there are multiple sequels in store, so thank you for any help you can give me in spreading the word. I promise to make it up to you! In fact, for your enjoyment, I have included the first chapter of The Cure, the second novel in the Unbounded series beginning on the next page. You can also learn more about me and my books on my website or in the About the Author section following the sample chapter. THANKS!
I PEERED AROUND THE TREE at the couple who sat on the park bench, their faces set, their bodies taut and anxious. The woman, Mari Jorgenson, had no idea what she was—what she had become. She spoke earnestly, but the man only pretended to listen. His eyes roamed the trees that dotted the area, stopping briefly on a grouping of three evergreens crowded by thick bushes.
What was he searching for?
I pushed my awareness out as far as I could, but nothing unusual registered on my senses. This area of the park appeared deserted, which was natural since November had slammed down on Portland like an iceberg from the Bering Sea, bringing a brutal cold spell the city hadn’t seen in decades. Still, it was a nice change from the constant rain or the wet snowflakes that seemed to saturate every inch of every piece of clothing I wore. My hometown of Kansas City wasn’t exactly warm in the winter, but the cold and wet had never been as penetrating. A twinge of nostalgia pinged in my chest when I thought about Kansas because I could never, ever go back to what I’d been. I was fortunate to have escaped mostly in one piece; others hadn’t been so lucky.
Peering around the tree again, my eyes found Mari’s small form on the bench. Even at this distance, I could see the Change that had taken place gradually over the two months I’d been watching her. I’d already sensed that she was Unbounded, though in the beginning it was hard to tell, even for someone like me. Complete confirmation had come last week after we’d gone skiing in Utah, and she’d banged up her knee so badly the doctors had told her she wouldn’t regain full use of it.
A day later she was walking. With that single event, both her life expectancy and the likelihood of violent death increased by nearly twenty-four hundred percent.
I felt for my Sig tucked in its holster at the back of my jeans, easing it out so my long jacket couldn’t get in the way. It was racked, a bullet in the chamber. I’d double-checked before I followed them from work.
Crouching, I eased forward behind the bare bushes to the right of the tree, my muscles singing in relief at the movement. I’d trained vigorously for hours with the other Renegades before I went jogging in the park with Mari this morning, but I’d had all day for any strained muscles to heal. I felt as fresh as when I’d awakened.
My mind ran over what I would soon have to do. Mari and I had become friends, and I knew how betrayed she’d feel at the depth of my deceit. She’d figure it out quickly once it was all in the open. Her brain was already running at high speed because of the changes inside her. At the accounting firm where I worked with her under an assumed name, she’d already begun to accurately calculate entire columns of numbers without the aid of a machine. Her Unbounded father had been skilled at engineering, and her great-aunt Stella was a technopath, so this ability didn’t surprise any of us. It was only a matter of time until her co-workers noticed. There was no telling what else she might be able to do, and her very existence made her a potential danger. To us, to our enemies, to the entire world.
Mari jumped to her feet, hands on her hips, her breath forming white clouds in the air, more visible now that the sun had set and twilight was deepening. Night came early on these winter nights, though it wasn’t quite six o’clock, and some distance away, I could still hear the faint sounds of rush hour traffic on the main road. I couldn’t make out what Mari was saying, but I knew her
well enough to guess that she was giving Trevor an ultimatum. She wanted to see a marriage counselor and for them to work toward having a child. I wondered if he noticed the new confidence in her movements, how the blemishes in her skin had disappeared, and how thick her long, silky hair had become. Her heart-shaped face showed only a hint of her Japanese heritage—less than an eighth—but since her Change, I thought she was looking more and more like the small-boned Stella, whose mother had been full-blooded Japanese.
Trevor also came to his feet but didn’t yell back at her, which made the fine hair on my body rise in alert. I’d been forced to get to know him somewhat over the past two months since we’d come for Mari, and this calm wasn’t like him. He was a loud, opinionated man who liked his dinner on the table by six-thirty and his wife submissive at all times. He never planned dates, remembered her birthday, or sent flowers on their anniversary. She’d admitted to me once in tears that he only touched her with affection when he wanted her in bed—which happened less and less these days.
Trevor was another reason we had to act sooner than later. Unbounded had a high rate of fertility and most birth control methods failed. If she slept with him now, we might end up with more complications than we bargained for. Better that Mari first understood the consequences.
Trevor eased away from Mari, his hands in his jacket pocket. He darted a nervous glance in the direction of the trees behind her. Something was very wrong. If I were closer, or if I touched him, I might be able to sense what he was hiding, but the only thing I felt from him now was a tight nervousness. I almost hoped he’d turn violent. If he did, it would save us oceans of headache in the long run, though I wasn’t about to let him have the satisfaction of hurting Mari.
A faint movement in the trees behind Mari caught my attention. Easing around the bushes, I paused at the edge of the sparse covering offered by an evergreen. To check out the movement physically, I’d have to expose myself by running across open space. Mari, Trevor, and whoever might be there would see me coming, and I couldn’t have that. Being careless could cost more lives than just my own. The Renegades depended on me.
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