He stopped abruptly, bending down, hands on his knees, as if taking in air, his eyes on the repaired bush. He lifted his gaze to Jeff, then Kyle, finally to Jonas, all the while judging the distance. Wondering what his chances were.
Jonas could smell the anger and fear. The need to attack. Adrenaline surged all over again. Jonas wanted Crawley to take the chance. The man didn’t. Instead, he straightened slowly and took a long, suspicious look around.
“Keep walking,” Jeff ordered, his tone bored.
“Who else is with us?” Crawley asked. “Because someone is. Maybe more than one.”
“Does it matter?” Jeff countered. “Get moving.”
Crawley cursed under his breath and turned back to start down the mountain. This time, he didn’t walk fast. Jonas knew he was calculating the distance and hoping he could stall until nightfall.
Tell him to pick up the pace, Jeff.
“Get a move on, Crawley. You were more than happy to set a fast pace. Double-time it,” Jeff ordered.
Crawley glanced back at Jonas. He seemed to know who was giving the orders, and he was holding himself in check by a thread. He didn’t argue but did as Jeff instructed.
Jonas struggled to shake off the need to attack the man. It always took far too long to come down from the mix of animal and human predatory traits. It didn’t help that Crawley continued to trigger his instincts by his aggression toward them and determination to escape and kill them. Or that Camellia was too close to the man.
“Jonas?”
That voice of hers was enough to soothe any nerve ending—or light it on fire. Camellia just appeared out of the last remnants of the mist, looking beautiful. Her hair was dark, a deep chestnut, now that the sun shone down on it. He could see a reddish hue moving through the glossy shine. Ignoring the others, she came straight to his side.
Catching Crawley looking back at her, Jonas could barely hold back a snarl of challenge and the surge of aggression accompanying it. He wanted to rush the prisoner and take him out for just daring to see her.
“I thought we agreed that you would remain hidden.” He snapped it at her, refusing to look away from Crawley, even though the man was intelligent enough to know he was in danger.
Jeff and Kyle both felt the swelling tension as well. Kyle kept walking without acknowledging there could be a problem. Jeff threw Jonas a quick assessing glance over his shoulder but didn’t slow down.
Jonas took a deep breath. It takes time for the . . . adrenaline to work its way out of my system. Until it does, I can be unstable. I feel especially protective of you, Camellia. I can be dangerous in this state.
Her palm brushed his arm and then slid down to his hand. Perhaps you are, Jonas, but not to me. She spoke with absolute confidence.
Her touch sent little sparks jumping along his nerve endings and spreading through his body. He nearly jerked away from her. He felt like a wild animal, cornered, snarling and reacting with teeth and claws, and yet wanting to keep her close to him, at the same time needing to push her away to save her—or to save himself. To save what little was left of his honor.
You don’t know the first thing about me, Camellia. He should have pushed her away. At least let go of her hand, but instead, he locked his fingers around hers.
What makes you think I can’t see inside you the way you do me, Jonas? We’re locked together by the networks, by our neural pathways. It would be impossible not to see you in ways others can’t.
You can’t see the things I’ve done.
Or had to do, she corrected gently. Perhaps not, but I can see who you are, just as you can see who I am. Are you changing your mind about what you want? If you are, you need to say so now, Jonas. I’m taking a huge chance on you. Risking everything.
She was. She had no reason to believe in him. He hadn’t given her a reason to trust him. He’d given her the opportunity to leave, yet she’d stayed. He wanted her to stay for him. Not for Marigold. Or Lily. He was that selfish. He wanted her to stay for him and yet he was pushing her away.
I don’t want you to leave, Camellia, I don’t. I just don’t trust what I am anymore. If you really can see inside of me, you can see what a fucked-up mess I am. I can barely control myself in certain situations. I never want to put you in danger, and that could happen.
She laughed softly, the sound that mysteriously cleared out more of the deep aggression in him. He wasn’t sure how she did it, but those clear notes danced along his nerve endings, sparkling in tune to her humor. He could see the notes playing in her neurons just as they were in his.
Jonas, think about it for a minute. What am I made up of? What do I do? What can I do? To be a true partnership, we both have to bring something of equal value to the table, right? When we were outnumbered by these enhanced soldiers, I could set the traps, and you could take them down. That meant we both contributed something of equal value.
She was right. She had set the ultimate in traps. Her rolling fog was extraordinary, especially in the way she could plant subtle suggestions that preyed on the unwary.
We have a continuing partnership in the field, Jonas. Clearly, we can use our network for aiding our soldiers in a battle. We can bridge communication and help run operations. We can aid in healing. We can develop weapons using toxic plant materials.
He hadn’t considered the ability to communicate with not only their team but all the teams if they needed to do so. She was right. They could, using the mycelium network. As for developing weapons, he would need to talk to her about that.
A personal relationship is even more of a partnership, Jonas. We have to be compatible. Whitney may be a complete ass, but he was also a genius. He had to have known you had a certain personality when he enhanced you, the same way he knew I did. The idea was that two people worked well together. We made up for each other’s shortcomings, so to speak.
That was true. Whitney’s original plan had been that exactly, before he threw that out the window and decided he was going to produce superbeings. He didn’t care about the pairings after that. He just wanted babies. In the beginning, though, he had created couples he thought would work well together.
Crawley’s pace was a ground-eating jog. They were covering distance at a good clip. The man had long legs, and he was making good use of his ability to move. The pace didn’t seem to bother Camellia with her shorter legs. She kept up without even breathing hard. So, aside from being compatible in the field and the obvious physical chemistry between them, what did she bring to him and he to her in the relationship department?
Camellia had created what had amounted to a rain forest at a high elevation where there should be snow. It was a little slice of paradise. When Jonas had entered, he had expected the enemy to be there. He should have been coiled like a snake, ready to strike. Instead, he’d felt peace and serenity, as he’d never experienced it before. She’d brought that to him. Just the way she had come to him, so confident when he was a snarling, brutal beast, ready to rip and tear anything in his path, managing to somehow find a way to soothe him when nothing or no one else could have. Could she be right?