“I’ll never exist.” So many people would never exist.
Others might live, though.
“No.” The Overseer clicked off the monitors again. “And she’ll love me like she said she did.”
“She didn’t.” Fury shook my voice. “She didn’t then, and she won’t. You bought her. She sold herself for peace.”
“That’s the delightful thing about a do-over, girl. You can change how everything looks.”
Abruptly, he turned to our fake General Bridgebane. “So quiet, Nathaniel? Afraid I’ll notice that’s not your voice? I’m assuming it’s the bounty-hunter boyfriend beneath the mask. But Lieutenant Mwende”—he shook his head—“I’m very disappointed in you. You had the potential to accompany me on this groundbreaking journey, with the help of an injection or two.”
All thought stopped, all fear and questions and dread. I acted. Reacted. I pressed the detonator switch, jumped in front of Shade, and hurled the flash blast at the Overseer’s head. “Catch!”
He automatically lifted his hands. When someone throws something at you and yells Catch, you do.
The flash blast went off in the Overseer’s face. I closed my eyes at the last second and hoped my head shielded Shade from the blinding flare of light. The percussion part hit, and I gasped as my heart slammed back against my spine and stopped. I couldn’t draw a breath. No air! Can’t see!
I stood still and waited for my lungs to recover. The shock to my body wouldn’t last, and I had to be ready first. The Dark Watch used flash blasts to keep people back, usually in prisons where mob situations cropped up, throwing them from a distance to avoid the detonation effects themselves. We’d only been ten feet from the center of the blast. The Overseer and his super soldiers absorbed the worst of it, but my body still felt hollowed-out and crushed.
I dragged in a breath and opened my eyes. My lids hadn’t shielded me entirely. A spotted landscape swam before me, but at least it wasn’t total temporary blindness.
The Overseer stumbled, groping sightlessly for his console. He gripped it for balance. “Kill them!” he gasped out, his lungs still crippled by the blast.
Enhanced soldiers charged forward. The residual punch of the weapon hardly slowed them down. Their attack was swift and terrifying, and I reeled back from the onslaught.
“Sanaa! Merrick!” We had super soldiers, too, and they were better. Free will and pure blood. Fuck those goons. We’d beat them, even with the odds against us.
I spun and propelled Shade toward Jax, Shiori, and Ahern while Merrick and Sanaa sprang into action. Shiori stood still, blind already. Ahern had her hands up for protection and swayed a little. Shade’s eyes watered, but they were open. He blinked and squinted. Had the blue eye lenses protected him?
“Tess?” He reached for me, missing by a few inches.
I stuck Shiori’s hand in Jax’s and Ahern’s in Shade’s. The fake cuffs were gone. They must have popped them open after the blast.
“Go!” I pointed Shade toward the living quarters. “There’s an escape cruiser off the Overseer’s bedroom. There’s an air lock. Bring them!”
“I’m not leaving you!” He reached for me with his free hand.
“I’ll be there!” I cried, breaking his hold. “Just bring them!”
He hesitated. Whatever he saw in my face convinced him. “Don’t let me down, Tess Bailey.”
I nodded, leaned forward, and kissed him. The electric connection between us zapped my lungs into working again. Shade’s eyes met mine. Then he wheeled around, gathered his blind flock, and herded them toward the living quarters.
I turned in time to see Sanaa use a downed goon as a vault as she kicked two others into oblivion. She landed on her feet and attacked the next one.
Merrick grappled with two soldiers. They both dodged bullets. Sanaa threw a knife. Blood spurted. Merrick cracked a neck, and the sound snapped me into action. I sprang toward the Overseer, darting between Dark Watch soldiers.
Someone grabbed the back of my jacket, yanking me to a stop so hard my arms ripped back in their sockets. I shouted. Merrick seized the soldier by the neck and threw her into the window panel. A shot went off. I ducked. Merrick grunted but hardly moved, a hole in the meaty flesh of his shoulder. His lips pulled back in a snarl. His eyes lit with such boiling hatred that I almost pitied anyone in his path as he lunged forward.
Merrick ducked, spun, kicked—kept fighting as though he didn’t even feel the second bullet that hit him. His blood splattered across my forehead. I jerked back, blinking.
Sanaa threw another knife and followed it with rapid bullets. Three goons fell, and my ears rang with the sound of gunshots. She moved so fast I hardly saw her. She and Merrick got back to back and fought together.
I saw a clear path to the Overseer and sprinted, ramming into him. We both toppled over. His eyes moved wildly in an effort to see me. He started to flail and hit, and I kneeled on his arms, straddling him.
“It’ll never work,” I growled, gripping him by the throat and forcing his head back at a hard angle.
“Why’s that?” He laughed in my face, the bastard. I squeezed harder.
“Because you’ll be an old man, and she’ll be fourteen. She’ll look at you and be disgusted.”
“I’m working on that. Pure Mornavail blood is astoundingly regenerative. Experiments are going well. You can be a test subject.”
“Never!”
He wrestled an arm free and jabbed me in the thigh with something. I looked down and saw him finish emptying a syringe into me. Pain flared out from the quick injection.
“What is that?” Alarm tore through me. A burn hit my veins from whatever he’d dumped through the needle.
He smiled—wicked. “The final injection.”
Horror crashed over me. “The one that reboots people?”
“It was meant for Merrick Maddox, but you’re the one who jumped on me. I’m not sure what it’ll do to someone who hasn’t had the previous enhancements.” His eyes focused again, the pupils returning to almost normal. “I guess you’re still my guinea pig.”
Snarling, I lifted the Overseer’s head by the neck and slammed his skull against the floor. His mouth slackened and his eyes lost focus. I started choking him. “I’ll float myself before I ever let you control me.” The dark vow settled into me as I gripped his neck harder than I’d ever gripped anything.
His mouth opened, gasping for air. He couldn’t breathe. I wouldn’t let him.
The lift doors opened. I glanced over my shoulder. Goons poured out, a deluge of Dark Watch. They started firing.