“Not sure what mycology is, but how did botany, gardening and ecology studies help you plan to escape Whitney’s soldiers?”
“Mycology is the study of fungi. The various properties, genetic and biochemical, and the uses for healing or eating. Or just the opposite, the dangers for toxicity or even death. Botany is the study of plants. Ecology is pretty much what it sounds like, the relationships between living organisms.”
She was telling him something right there, and it was very important. She looked at him in a way that said his little Camellia was as lethal as they came. He loved her even more for that.
“Are you telling me that you developed your own army of plants?”
“Not exactly an army. There are plants all over the world that possess all kinds of ways of protecting themselves or striking back at their enemies, whether insect, mammal, reptile or human. But no, I didn’t utilize any of those because I didn’t have them at my disposal, nor would I have had the necessary time to mutate them. Instead, I decided to develop weapons.”
Jonas folded his arms across his chest. She was quite small in comparison to his larger frame, but she was no less dangerous. Everyone, him included, had underestimated her. “You’re really amazing, Camellia. Keep talking. What exactly did you develop, and how?”
“Some types of mushrooms are already toxic, but they take a bit of time to work and have to be ingested in most cases for the subject to actually die. That wasn’t going to help me in a fight. I had to figure Whitney would send a five-man team after me. That’s if I was lucky. So I had to plan to face a minimum of ten of his enhanced soldiers. I would have to ensure they would go down fast and stay down. Shoving a toxic mushroom down their throats wasn’t going to work.”
Jonas found himself smiling at the image she pushed into his mind. He could see her leaping into the air, wrapping her legs around a startled soldier’s waist as she shoved a mushroom into his mouth.
“The only man whose waist you’re going to wrap your legs around is mine.”
She rolled her beautiful eyes. “I should have known that would be your reaction. You’re supposed to laugh, not growl. You sound like a bear.”
“I have bear in me,” he acknowledged.
“I did notice that.”
He grinned, then directed the conversation back on topic. “Tell me what you developed.”
“I needed a much more toxic mushroom, one that would kill them just by breathing in its spores. Only I couldn’t have spores that would wind up creating more of the mushrooms that might kill innocent people. It was quite a difficult problem to figure out. Whatever I developed couldn’t ever reproduce. Once it was used, even the tiniest pieces of it had to dissolve so there were no traces left. If, for any reason, the body of a downed supersoldier was taken back to Whitney, I couldn’t afford to have him know what killed that soldier.”
Jonas admired her even more. “You solved the problem?”
“After a lot of work. Red helped me. At least, having quite a bit of Red’s properties in me helped. That and my ability to use the communication systems from Red and the underground network.”
“You’re telling me you have lethal weapons we can use against this coming army to help even the odds.”
“Exactly. If we can lay traps for them, we can stop them before they reach the compound, Jonas. The weapons will help. I can lay them out for you, and you can decide whether you want to talk to Ryland about them or not.”
“That’s generous of you, Camellia, when you know how dangerous it could be. If word were to get out about your talents, you could be in a world of hurt.”
“I don’t think Ryland or your team wants anyone to know about me,” Camellia said.
Jonas agreed with her. He also wasn’t a man many crossed, and he’d made it known he didn’t want anyone talking about her. Kaden had made it clear as well. Team One needed a healer. Kaden hoped to convince Camellia to stay.
Camellia reached for her plate and carried it to the sink. “The omelet was delicious. You really are a good cook. I might just stick around for the food.”
“Tell the truth, you’re sticking around for the sex.”
Color rushed up under her skin, but Camellia didn’t look away from him. “Well, yes, I suppose I have to admit you’ve got some skill there as well.”
“Some skill?” he repeated, pouring warning into his voice.
“Oh dear, is that what I said?”
“I guess I’m going to have to teach you the difference between some skill and master skills. As you’re a novice, your ignorance on the subject can be overlooked. We’ll get on to those lessons here very soon.”
She nodded. “I think that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t want to make any mistakes. Although I did want to talk to you about your knife skills. It is for your safety. That’s important. We could make it interesting by placing small wagers on the outcome.”
Her eyes met his, and there was definitely a sensual teasing light there.
“What do you have in mind? And bear in mind, I grew up throwing knives in the circus.”
She nodded solemnly. “I have taken that into consideration, but you like to hit the center of the target. We aren’t going to do that. We’ll call other spots on the target for each other to hit. I think that’s fair. No money, by the way. The bet has to be more inventive than that.”
Jonas considered the look in her eyes. “If I win, I get to have you at my mercy for as long as I want for the rest of the day. I like to play, honey, and I can keep at it for hours.”
“I see.” She rubbed her lower lip. “That sounds . . . interesting. If I win, you have to teach me how to give you a proper blow job. The mind-blowing kind. In light of what you just said, it might take me a little while before I get the hang of it.”
Jonas groaned and pressed his fingers to the corners of his eyes. He’d never thrown a game in his life. Win or lose, he supposed either way he was going to come out on top, but her bet sounded very promising. Still, he couldn’t cheat. That just wasn’t in him.
“I think you have a bit of the Tasmanian Devil in you, Camellia Mist,” he accused.
She laughed. “You think?”
15
Jonas woke on alert, his warning system flaring to life. The sun had already climbed into the sky, telling him it was midmorning. Camellia was on her side, and he was curled protectively around her, his arm draped possessively around her waist.
“Wake up, honey. We’re about to have company. You’ve got enough time to wash your face.” He sat up and immediately tugged her up with him, glancing out the long bank of windows. He hadn’t pulled the privacy screens, and he could see into the forest.