“I sent you to sleep.”
Ash’s mouth opened, but she didn’t know what to say. He’d taken control of her body—without her permission.
Merc tilted his head by way of apology. “There are things I’m just used to doing around regulars, things that have become first nature for me and the others in the Legion. I should have explained myself.”
Ash sighed. There was no real harm done. And he was probably right, given the situation—she’d had all the shock she could have handled by then. She nodded, moving past the confrontation.
It wasn’t as if she was going to stay in his world, so it wasn’t worth a battle.
When that realization hit her, she shot him a fast look, catching his wounded expression.
No. It wasn’t her final decision. Not yet. Not now, here.
He turned away from her. She distracted herself with the sight of his naked backside as he walked into the bathroom. The man was the finest specimen of a male she’d ever seen.
She regretted not showering with him.
Not too late to join me. She could hear the humor in his comment.
Boundaries are good things, she said.
Boundaries are for regulars.
I am a regular.
But I have opened our channel. You could be one of us.
Ash didn’t respond to that. His world was half paradise, half nightmare, the two so tightly coupled that one couldn’t exist without the other.
Ash grabbed her toiletries bag from her backpack. A knock sounded on her door. She sent a worried look over to the bathroom, then reminded herself she was supposedly safe there.
She opened the door to find a woman in a uniform standing there. The woman smiled and handed Ash a stack of folded clothes as she said in Spanish, “Lautaro said you needed these. If they don’t fit or you need something else, let us know.” She nodded toward the next room over. “You can use that room to clean up, if you like.”
“Thank you.”
Ash flipped the lights on in the next room and went into the bathroom. She showered, dressed, and did her teeth. She started to brush her hair, but scraped her bug bite. Leaning toward the mirror, she pushed her hair out of the way. Sure enough, there was a nice red bump there. She sighed. She couldn’t remember exactly what the bug had looked like when she knocked it off her, so she wasn’t going to be able to research its impact. She would just have to keep an eye on the wound. She finished twisting her wet hair into a messy bunch that she clipped in place.
She splashed more cool water on her face, then stared into the pool of it in her palms, watching it swirl under the tap and spill over her fingers. For a long moment, that was all she let herself be aware of.
Not the ghouls. Just the paradise-half of the nightmare.
She knew she would never come back to Lautaro’s beautiful B&B.
She wondered if she could even stay friends with Summer. Or Kiera. Her best friends in the whole world.
Her little return to Valle de Lágrimas had cost Ash her life as she knew it.
She shut the water off, then turned and saw Merc standing at the threshold of the bathroom, his arms braced on both doorjambs.
He had that shattered look of a puppy left on the side of a road. They both knew what her answer was going to be; she just couldn’t make herself say it yet.
“Ready to go?” he asked, handing over her backpack.
She nodded, then collected her things and packed them up. Merc led the way downstairs. No one came to see them off, but there were more bottles of cold water and two brown bags.
Merc opened a door off the foyer that she hadn’t seen when she was there the first time. It led to a short hallway where there was just an elevator. When the doors opened, she noticed that there were floor indicators for the ground floor, first, and second floors, and then simply a down arrow. Merc pushed that button.
She looked at him, but he avoided her questioning eyes and stared at the elevator doors. She expected their descent to be a quick drop to an underground garage or something, but the elevator kept going. And going.
After a long moment, they stopped. The doors opened to reveal the same short hallway they’d used above, but when they exited the fire door, they were in a place that looked like a subway station. It had gray industrial tiles that covered every surface, floor to ceiling.
Merc took her hand. A small white pod was sitting before them.
The side door lifted, revealing three rows of three seats. The black body bag from Merc’s Jeep was in the back of the pod, along with a bag of her things. He pulled her forward. They sat in the front row. He keyed in a code of some sort.
“Buckle up,” he said, fastening his own seatbelt.
She did the same. The pod’s interior lights dimmed as it slipped out of the depot. “Lautaro has a train station under his house?”
“Yup.”
“Are we going to Medellín?”
“Nope. Home to the fort.”
“Where do we transfer?”
“We don’t.” He clasped his hands in front of him and stretched his long legs out in front of him, spreading his knees slightly so that one of his legs touched hers. “We have a couple of hours. Now would be a good time for us to have our chat.”
She curled her legs up and turned sideways in her seat, facing him. She loved looking at him. He seemed half feral. “I don’t think it is a good time for that. I’m feeling overwhelmed.”
“That’s understandable.”
“Is it possible that a mutant could bond with a regular human and that could be that?”
“Meaning the regular would not have to take the changes?”
She nodded.
“Possibly, but it’s problematic. If you’re in any way associated with the Legion, you’ll be a target for our enemies. You’ve seen some of what you’d be up against.”
“Only some?”
He nodded. “It’s dangerous for you to be with us but not of us. You need the physical and mental advantages the mutations provide. If you survive the change.”
“Summer survived it.” Dammit all. Had to be her fatigue talking. She was speaking as if she believed what he was telling her about his world—and as if there was a chance she would join the game.
“Yes, but the transition wasn’t easy for her.”
Ash wished they weren’t buckled into their seats. She wanted to be closer to him.
Merc smiled at her. He released his seatbelt and lifted the armrest between them. “Get over here.” He opened his arms.
She didn’t waste time moving to his lap. She settled between his legs, stretching her legs over his thigh to her seat. She leaned her head against his shoulder, drawing a deep breath of his scent. The scent of the soap he’d used at Lautaro’s was strong, so she had to make an effort to focus on his unique, calming essence.
Merc shifted so they were looking into each other’s eyes. She could sit for hours like that, absorbing him. He brushed his fingers through her hair, frowning as he felt the bump near her temple. “What’s this?” he asked.
“Just a bug bite. Happened after you cleared the monsters from the road.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t think I need to let you know about every bump and bruise I get.”
He frowned. “You should. Did you see the bug?”