“I was on a mission near Valle de Lágrimas for the Legion shortly after they died.”
Ash covered her mouth with one hand, feeling the horror of what he said. They. “You had kids.”
“They were together when they were run off the road, over a cliff. I’m told they died instantly. But I’d left them to their hell.”
“Merc, I’m sorry about your family. That’s horrible.” Ash folded her legs and bent her forehead to her knees. She tilted her head and looked at him. “But just once, just for a moment, could you step out of the game and say stuff that meshes with reality?”
He met her anguished gaze, but kept quiet.
“I’m in danger too, aren’t I?”
He nodded. “You are. And to be honest, your survival depends on you. I’ll do my damnedest to protect you, but I’ve learned I can’t anticipate every possible danger. And beyond that, the Matchmaker’s Curse says that if we bond and you come into my world, you’ll die. And if we don’t bond, having given you up, I’ll die.”
“So we’re fucked.” For sure. Because of the goddamned game he couldn’t leave.
He nodded.
“I don’t accept that.”
“I proved in Valle de Lágrimas that curses are real.”
No. He’d proved hypnosis was real. “And yet a bad guy was able to get around your curse. With some creative thinking, we could circumvent the curse.”
She sat up and shifted in her seat. That was it! There were some wonderful counselors in their area back home. She could stage an intervention. This game was a like a cult he was stuck inside.
He was worth fighting for. She could get him out.
“Maybe.”
God, had he heard her thought again? “Maybe what?”
“Circumventing the curse.”
“Do you think the curse applies to Summer and Sam too?”
“Yeah.”
“No one’s survived the curse from this Matchmaker?”
“It’s early days yet. The modification program is still young. We’re still discovering things about ourselves. The Matchmaker was just an urban legend for a while. You see, most of us had our libido programmed out of us. The mutation designers thought it weakened soldiers. When we first heard about the Matchmaker, about the promise of a real love—along with the return of our sexual appetites—we were happy. There was hope that at least a part of ourselves would return to us. Mostly, however, we began to believe it was an empty promise floated by the researchers who changed us. And then it happened to Liege and Summer. Then Bastion and Selena. Now you and me.”
“None of them have died because of love, Merc.”
“It happened to Lautaro. The Matchmaker brought him his true love—and took her away, too.”
“That’s awful. I’m sorry for him.”
Merc looked at her. “We’re him, Ash. That’s why I said I didn’t want you. I don’t want you to die for me.”
“But if I don’t, then you’ll die for me.”
“You can still walk away from this.”
Ash didn’t answer. She turned and watched the dark jungle pass. The thought of leaving him made her chest hurt. An intervention had to be possible. “I’m sorry you lost your family, Merc.”
An awful thought occurred to her: had he sacrificed them to the game?
He didn’t answer, but she hadn’t expected him to. When the silence stretched on, he said, “Sleep for a while. We have a few hours yet.”
Sleep. As if she could. They were driving deep into the heart of a jungle filled with people who thought they were werewolves. In the middle of the night—the creatures’ preferred hunting time. Shadowed by a curse that would see one or the other of them dead. In a reality that wasn’t real.
She was never going to shut her eyes again.
She yawned and leaned her head against the back of her seat as the world went black.
25
The Jeep wasn’t moving. Greenish light filled the car as though filtered through lush foliage. Ash straightened in her seat. Merc wasn’t with her, but she didn’t feel alarmed. She stretched, realizing how stiff she was—she must have crashed despite her best intentions.
The Jeep was parked in a wide clearing under a covering of tall trees bordered by thick bush. A cacophony of insects and birds slammed into her senses when she opened the Jeep door. Merc was leaning against the front fender. Odd—she hadn’t seen him a moment ago when she did her quick look around.
He straightened. “Have a good sleep?”
“I did. You should have awakened me hours ago. I could have taken a turn driving.”
“Not exactly a regular road trip we’re on. Besides, being a mutant, my body doesn’t need to unplug in order to reset and heal like a regular human’s does.”
“Oh.” It hit her in a bit of a rush that she needed to use the bathroom. Of course, out here in the middle of nowhere, there were no facilities to be had.
Merc grinned at her. “Go over there. No insects. No wild beasts.”
“No werewolves?” she asked with a nervous chuckle.
“None that I’ve seen.” He went to the back of the Jeep and handed her a roll of toilet paper and a plastic bag. “Pack out your TP.”
“Right. Thanks.” Ash finished her business in quick order. Back at the Jeep, she took her toiletries bag from her backpack and set it on the cargo area. She spread a squirt of disinfectant on her palm and rubbed it over hands. Next she brushed her teeth. Merc leaned against the taillight, watching her the whole time.
“What?” she asked, the toothbrush muffling her words.
He shrugged. The man had no sense of personal space.
When she finished, she sent him a sideways glare as she put everything away. “I’m not sharing my toothbrush.”
“No need. I completed my toilet while you slept.” He grinned.
“That’s disappointing. I would have thought your mutations automatically cleaned your teeth.”
Merc laughed, and the rich, masculine sound cleared the latent threads of anxiety she’d been feeling.
She looked away from him, terrified of how deep her feelings for him ran. So much was riding on the decision he wanted her to make: become a mutant or stay a human.
Hopefully, she’d be able to stage her intervention before his little game got to that point.
“Where are we?” she asked.
He stepped away from the car and looked at the wide, dead area before them. “This is where we were held after we were changed. Our training grounds.”
There was nothing left but dozens and dozens of square concrete pads, some with bars protruding a couple of feet high. Odd that the jungle had done little to reclaim the area.
Merc took her hand and led her down a line of concrete islands. There were rows and rows of them. Tension made his face bleak. She didn’t ask questions, though she was filled with them. This place had tremendous meaning for him. It was like the videos she’d seen of Holocaust survivors returning to the prison camp where they’d suffered torture and loss.
She pulled her hand from his and stopped walking. “I don’t want to be here.”