Born to Darkness (73 page)

How could that be …?

Bach looked up to find Anna watching him, and the expression on her face was …

“Computer,” he said. “Access JB-one. Voice response on. What’s my current integration level?”

“Seventy-seven, and falling,” the computer replied.

“Please note any increase,” Bach ordered, and reached for Anna, pulling her almost roughly back into his arms. She embraced him back, but it was decidedly halfhearted and more of a self-defense move—to keep her face from being crushed against his chest.

“Still dropping,” Dr. Munroe said.

He released Anna and went to the table. “Neek,” he said. “Another hug?”

She was far more enthusiastic as she hugged him again. “What’s going on?” she asked, and the computer spoke over her.

“Seventy-eight-point-four-three-three.”

Anna grabbed Bach by his arm, pulling him away from her sister. “I think we need to talk. Outside. In the hall. Now.”

“Did I do something wrong?” Nika asked them both.

“No,” Bach told her.

“Absolutely not,” Anna said. “Just … I’ll be right back.”

Bach was silent as Anna closed the door tightly behind her. She just stood there, feeling sick, waiting for him to look at her, and he finally did.

“You know what I’m going to ask you, right?” she said.

“I do,” he said quietly. “And the answer is no.”

She nodded. “So … Mac hooks up with Shane and her integration level goes through the roof. Stephen Diaz proposes marriage to Elliot—and I’m sorry, but I’ve got to believe that
that
occasion wasn’t consummated with a cup of tea—and
his
integration level skyrockets … Am I really supposed to believe that you just
want
to have sex with my thirteen-year-old sister? That you didn’t
actually
, or maybe
virtually
, while you were in her head—”

“You know me better than that,” Bach told her, his voice rough. “Anna, my God, I honestly thought it was
you
. I thought my integration level went up because of your dream. Because of … What I wanted from
you
.”

“Apparently not,” she said.

“I like Nika, yes,” Bach said. “But in no way do I want to …” He shook his head. “That’s crazy. I don’t understand.”

“What’s not to understand?” Anna asked. “You touch her, and you spike. She touches you and she spikes.”

“She’s thirteen,” Bach said.

“No shit,” Anna said, her heart breaking for too many reasons to count. “You spent a lot of time with her. Deep inside of her mind. She’s special—you said so yourself.”

“I agree,” Bach said. “But …” He shook his head again. “She’s
thirteen
.”

“Then why did you spike?” Anna asked.

But he just kept shaking his head. “It’s true,” he said, “that I have a connection with her, but—”

“I don’t make you spike,” Anna pointed out.

“You should,” he said.

“But I don’t. Nika does.” She took a deep breath. “We can’t stay here,” she realized.

“Oh, God,” Bach said. “Anna,
no
.”

“How can we stay? Except there’s no way we can leave,” she said, thinking aloud. “Nika will be grabbed immediately and …” This time the Organization would kill Anna. “We’re stuck here, aren’t we? We have to stay.” She took a deep breath, exhaling it forcefully. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Under no circumstances will any ‘testing’ be done between you and my sister, unless I’m also in the room. In fact, under no circumstances will you
ever
be alone in a room with my sister.”

“Anna, come on, you know me better than—”

“Are we in agreement?” she said, trying not to cry as she watched him.

The muscle jumped in Bach’s jaw as he clenched his teeth. “It’s standard procedure here at OI—what you requested. Female students are not … It’s standard.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“It kills me,” he whispered, “that you honestly think I would …” He shook his head.

“I think,” she said carefully, trying to keep her voice from shaking, “that my sister has the ability to make you a
super
superman. I think that’s probably worth a lot to you—in fact, I know it is.”

Now Bach, too, had tears in his eyes. But he didn’t deny it.

“I think that I don’t really know you all that well,” Anna continued, “and that … I have to protect my sister.”

“I understand.” He nodded again, then added, “Anna, I’m so sorry.”

And the stupid thing was that she believed him.

“Just leave us both alone for a while, okay?” she said. “I’m going to need a little time to … I’m going to need some time.”

Bach nodded again.

And Anna knew that this was it. His chance to pull her into his arms and say,
The hell with spiking integration levels and the unbelievable powers that they bring. I want
you.…

But he didn’t do it.

Instead he turned and walked away.

Shane had vetoed his own plan to take a few hours and have the equivalent of a last meal, a last drink, and a last chance to make love to Mac.

The idea that he could joker—just suddenly, randomly—scared the shit out of him. But as Diaz and Kyle and the rest of the medical team prepared to stop and then restart Shane’s heart, he did ask for a moment to talk, privately, with Mac.

Kyle showed them into the hospital room where Shane would recover. If he was going to recover, that is, instead of die.

As the nurse shut the door behind them, Shane looked at Mac. She was as tightly wound as he’d ever seen her—and he’d seen her pretty tight.

She couldn’t sit still and she bounced from the bed to the chair to the other chair to the cabinet to the window, as Shane took off his boots and sat up on the bed, stretching out his legs.

“Whatever happens,” he told her quietly. “It was worth it.”

Mac turned from the window to face him. “How can you say that?” she asked.

“Because it’s true.” He shrugged. “This way? I don’t know, maybe it’s a good thing. We don’t have to crash and burn.”

Mac shook her head as she came back toward the bed. “That’s really stupid.
Good news, I’m going to die so we won’t have to have a bad breakup?
That’s moronic. And I know you’re not a moron.”

“Not that I’d ever willingly leave you,” Shane said.

“Then don’t,” Mac said fiercely. “Let’s just take our chances with the drug. We’ll have the doctors monitor your dosage—”

Shane was shocked. “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” she said. “No. I don’t know. God
damn
it! God, you
suck
!”

“You don’t want me to leave you,” he said, because he needed to be sure he’d heard her right.

She didn’t answer. She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t say no, either. And she finally sat down on the edge of the bed. Close enough for him to take her hand. Close enough to intertwine their fingers.

Shane took that as an affirmative and smiled. “Well, all right,” he said, but then asked, “Do you believe that I love you?”

Mac didn’t answer him right away. “I believe that I love you,” she finally admitted. “And if you’re convinced that’s enough—”

“I trust you,” he interrupted her. “If you say you love me, I trust that you’re telling me the truth. I mean, because there’s really no way for me to know. Neither of us is telepathic, at least not the way we’d need to be to verify such a thing. So in the same way that you have to trust that my love for you is real, I have to trust you. It’s a two-way street, Michelle.”

She briefly closed her eyes. “Don’t call me that,” she whispered.

“It’s a beautiful name,” Shane said, “Michelle.” And when he tugged her closer and kissed her, she kissed him back, sweetly at first, and then deeper, hotter, hungrier.

As always, he could sense her fear, and he pulled back to look into her beautiful eyes.

“I knew this guy from my SEAL team,” Shane told her. “Scotty Linden. He saw this woman at a bar, and it was love at first sight. But she left before he could talk to her. We spent a full week scouring every resort on St. Thomas, looking for her. And all the time we were looking, Scotty created this … this
fiction
about her. Who she was, where she’d grown up, why she was perfect for him.

“Last day of leave, he finds her and … He’s a good-looking guy, very charming, and he sweeps her off her feet. But then it’s the morning after, and they finally start to talk, and he finds out she’s
nothing
like he’d imagined. She’s not shy or sweet. In fact, she’s very opinionated and assertive, and he’s scared shitless, because he’s already asked her to marry him, and she said yes.

“So he kisses her good-bye, and he conveniently goes overseas. He’s gone for months, only she e-mails him the entire time. And he e-mails her back, because even though he knows he’s going to break it off, he’s not a total asshole.

“So months pass, and he’s still writing to her, and he finally
goes home and … They’ve been married now for five years. He loves her, heart and soul, but it started out a total sham. But he never would’ve met her, let alone gotten to know her, if she hadn’t caught his eye that night in that bar.” He kissed her, and she didn’t resist him, but he knew despite the pretty story, she was afraid.

“This is going to work,” he told her quietly. “This procedure. And after it works, we’re going to give this thing—you and me—a go. Okay?”

Mac closed her eyes. And said, “When you’re with me, I have faith that this is going to be enough.” Her voice broke. “But when you’re not here …”

Shane kissed her again. “Then I’ll just never leave you,” he promised, his own voice rough, because they both knew damn well that he might be on the verge of leaving her forever.

She kissed him back, so fiercely. And then, because she couldn’t do it with her mind, she slid down off the bed and crossed over to the door, and she locked it. As she came back, she unfastened her pants, and kicked off her boots. “I really don’t think you’re going to joker in the next thirty seconds,” she told him.

“Thirty seconds,” Shane said, laughing, despite the tears in his eyes. “I mean, I can do quick, and I’m always up for creative, but
that
would be a new record for me.”

“Not quite,” she reminded him, as she hit him with a wave of …

Hoh-ly
shit … She’d done this to him before.

And he was no fool. He opened his pants and yanked them down his thighs as she threw one leg across him and straddled him and …

He came close to the very instant he was inside of her, and he knew she was coming, too. It was everything she’d made him feel back in the car and then some, because she was moving on top of him, laughing down at him through her own tears,
loving
him so absolutely. And Shane caught her mouth with his and kissed her as he just kept coming and coming and coming.

And he knew he had it right—that whatever happened?

It had been worth every minute.

Bach was on hand for the procedure.

It was over relatively quickly, with no complications—which was a plus.

Both Elliot and Shane were in good health to start with, compared to Edward O’Keefe.

Still, the old man’s death was troubling.