“If Faith’s shield is preventing them from touching the glass, that could be why they aren’t replying to the SOS,” Aiden said.
O’Neill shook his head, his gaze never budging from the dead squids. They hadn’t changed positions. Hadn’t pulled their hands back. They were just standing there, like they were waiting. “If they wanted to respond, they could use the table surfaces rather than the window.”
“That’s assuming they have enough brains left to allow reasoning. With the amount of damage to their faces and skulls…” Aiden frowned, breaking off to massage the back of his neck with white-knuckled fingers.
True. O’Neill frowned. They had no idea whether these things were aware, intelligent, or capable of reasoning. And there was no way to find out, until they found a way to communicate with them.
Wolf made a thoughtful humming sound. “Benioko said the Shadow Warrior showed him a new future. One whereHokalitais swallowed by a new people. He said they were a people unlike any we’ve seen before. That they were dead, yet not dead. Connected by thought as one mind, like our sisters the ants and bees.”
“Dead yet not dead.” O’Neill repeated. “A fitting description for those things behind the glass.” He paused, watching the zombified squids pull their hands back. Again, in unison, as though they were connected. “Like the bees and the ants…that sounds like a hive mind.”
“Which would explain the synchronicity.” Aiden added thoughtfully.
True, although what that indicated was anyone’s guess.
“We better find out what’s going on at the lab.” Aiden turned toward Wolf. “Those vibrations your lab tech mentioned must be connected to…” He waved a tense hand toward the window. “This.”
“What’s going on at the lab?” O’Neill asked.
“The tank full of the nanobots you retrieved from Kuznetsov started vibrating.” Aiden’s gaze narrowed as he stared through the glass. “My gut says the vibrations are connected to what’s happening here.”
O’Neill frowned over that. Yeah, such a coincidence was unlikely. But how the fuck were the two linked?
Silence fell while Wolf talked quietly on the phone. “Faith says the tank is still vibrating. She believes the vibrations are coming from the nanobots, which are clustered in a ball. The tank sensors are picking up electrical surges. However, the purpose behind the vibrations and the electrical surges is unknown.”
“Your shaman seems to know what’s going on.” Aiden turned away from the isolation chamber. “We need to speak with him again.”
Again?
O’Neill glanced at Wolf, who was on his phone, arranging a security detail to monitor the isolation chamber. O’Neill almost asked him what security could do if the damn things got out.
How did you kill the already dead?
Chapter four
Day 24
Shadow Mountain Base, Alaska
O’Neill followed Wolf and Aiden back down the isolation corridors, through the glass doors, and over to the parking slots in front of the clinic. Two women were climbing out of a utility cart as he arrived. He stopped dead at the sight of them. The shorter, curvier one in the driver’s seat was Olivia Holden, Samuel’s heartmate. But it was the second woman, the tall, slender one with the thick hair, that sucked the strength from his legs.
Muriel Ravensblood. Samuel’s sister. Daniel’s mother. And the only woman in O’Neill’s thirty-seven years of existencewho’d ever affected his brain and his breathing. His muscles stiffened and froze. Twenty years of life stretched between them, yet he still wasn’t ready for a reunion. Or that painful slog down memory lane.
Aiden offered the two women a polite chin lift before climbing into the passenger seat of the vehicle he’d arrived in. But Wolf greeted Olivia, then paused to help Muriel down from the cart. His head bent, he spoke quietly to her. Muriel tilted her face up, her body leaning toward him. Her posture reminded him of how she’d looked at Wolf in high school, with complete hero worship.
Like Wolf was some kind of fucking elder God.
A familiar, rancid burn spread through his chest. Unfuckingbelievable. Two decades after he’d last seen her, and the sight of them together still gave him heartburn.
Muriel and Wolf had always been close. That closeness had gnawed at him back in the day. Even after she’d turned to him, jealousy had wicked away his control, snapped at his temper. And that was before he’d seen inside her mind and realized that even as she lay spread beneath him, as he surged inside of her...even as he gave Muriel her first taste of physical pleasure, she’d been thinking of Wolf—wishing it was Wolf pounding into her.
Twenty years later, and that knowledge still ate at him. Which was ridiculous. He’d gotten over that betrayal eons ago.
She was facing Wolf, so only her profile faced him. But even from that angle she looked the same, yet...different. Same tall, lean frame—but with more curves through the hips, breasts, and ass. Same thick black hair flowing past her shoulders and over her breasts, but the gleam of youth had faded, or perhaps grief over Daniel’s death had dulled its shine.
Did that thick swath of black still sparkle with a bluish tint beneath the sun? Was the texture still soft and thick, and sleek as satin? Even now...even here...his fingers itched tobury themselves in that silken cloud...to twine the cool strands around his fingers, to breathe in the sweet, flowery fragrance of her shampoo and feel the cool silk against his lips...
Some habits died hard. Or not at all. And he’d loved her hair...loved the feel of it against his skin...the fragrant scent of it surrounding their heated bodies.
