“Here it is,” Perses said, carefully placing a gray piece of metal so small it was barely visible to the naked eye on a napkin so Asteria could see it. They were standing in the newly constructed operating room, or as Hines liked to refer to it, the toy room. The tweezers he had been using to hold it were bloodied but not nearly as much so as the scalpel lying on the table next to it. Hines had been disappointed Larkin hadn’t been awake for his first experiment.
“That’s it?” Asteria asked, holding her red locks back with one hand as she peered down at the device. “It looks so inconsequential. How can they do so much with such a tiny speck?”
“I don’t know, but that’s it. The fabled Intelligence Assistance Communicator. Without it, they’ll never be able to track him, and he won’t be able to tell them what’s become of him either.”
Asteria stood, her arms folded for a moment before she delicately raised a hand and began to stroke her chin. “Hmmm,” she purred. “Perhaps. Perhaps not.”
“What do you mean?” Perses asked, leaning on the table. “He can’t call his teammates, and when it’s not plugged into his brain, it’s not working, so no GPS.”
“Right, but there are other ways they can track him, and the fact the theater is so close by makes me leery of leaving everything up to chance or their stupidity.”
“This is the Melbourne team, Asteria, not KC. You know all of their best and brightest are thousands of miles away.” He ran a hand along her arm, catching her hair and brushing his thin fingers through it as she continued to puzzle over the predicament. Stepping closer to her, he breathed into her neck, “What are you thinking, love?”
“I’m thinking… with the miscalculations of our diversion in Kansas City, it’s possible they’ll come if we don’t think of another way to distract them, to throw them off our scent.”
“Our scent?” Perses chuckled. “We’re the ones who can smell them.”
Asteria turned and faced him, her dark eyes narrowed. “It’s different now, darling. I need you to remember that. Now, they have her.”
“The girl?” he questioned. “The one who can see? I thought… I thought you were going to be able to use her to our advantage.”
“So did I.” She pursed her lips, an air of disappointment shadowing her face. “But she’s stronger than I thought. We’ll need to make sure we have the necessary time for Hines to find a way to destroy the creature before we invite them in.”
Perses nodded, wrapping his arms around her slender waist. “Why not send our forces back in? Move forward with the coup?”
“Perhaps. But, I’m not sure we’re ready for that. Many of our numbers are not quite in position.” She glanced down at the IAC and her countenance brightened a bit. “Let me see if I can use their own weapon against them first.”
“What do you have in mind?” Perses could no longer stop himself, and before she even answered, he leaned in, placing a path of kisses from her collar bone to her ear.
“Distraction.” Asteria backed into him, her breath becoming heavy. “Something you know too much about, my love.”
Perses believed her words to be a compliment and found her mouth with his, letting his fangs rip into the soft flesh around her lips as hers slid into his tongue. He was good at distractions, but this one would have to be quick if Asteria was going to be successful with hers. Nevertheless, he continued his pursuit. He simply couldn’t keep his hands off of her.
* * *
Elliott’s urgent message to get to Tara’s room hit Cadence’s IAC about the same time she pushed open her apartment door on the way to the operating room. After meeting with Cale, she decided to go home for a few minutes, stuff a sandwich in her mouth, and grab some snacks for the kids. She’d only been delayed about twenty minutes, but she hoped this wouldn’t prevent her from being there when Cass needed her most, though the fact that Tara was flatlining wasn’t unexpected. She’d likely die for a little while before she lived again, if their experiment was going to work. If it wasn’t, well, then, that would result in a much longer flatline.
Deciding the stairs would be faster than the elevator, Cadence took off, leaping from one landing to the next about twenty times until she reached the ground floor. She pushed the door open cautiously, and seeing her path was clear, she took off like a shot, hoping no one accidentally stepped in her way. All told, she’d made the trip from her apartment door to Jamie’s operating room in less than two minutes.
“How is she?” she asked, stepping in the door and surveying the faces. Cass, Brandon, and Elliott were sitting on one side of Tara’s bed with Dax alone between Tara and Jamie, who was stirring slightly, though she could tell by his IAC that he wasn’t awake yet. She wondered if her teammates were aware of the lack of hospitality their seating arrangement proclaimed.
“Dead, but other than that, fine,” Elliott replied smartly.
“Nothing at all?” Cadence said, trying not to roll her eyes as she approached the bed to see for herself.
“Unlike your favorite movie, in real life, there’s no such thing as mostly dead or slightly alive,” the Guardian explained.
Though she got his reference to The Princess Bride, she decided not to encourage him so she ignored it. Cadence felt Tara’s chest and detected no movement. Running her hand along her smooth cheek, the iciness was alarming. She took a deep breath and decided not to remind Elliott that he was dead, too, not that long ago. “Well, we’ll just have to give her some time.” She handed the bag of snacks to her sister. “Thought you might be hungry.” She eyed Brandon suspiciously.
