“I thought I told you to get some rack,” the General interrupted. Standing in his doorway dressed in his usual fatigues, with his fists planted firmly on his hips, he looked her up and down with a stern frown. Lark had stopped being intimidated by that frown long ago. General Marshall Davies had pretty much adopted the Beasts after rescuing them from that lab and had become a father figure to all of them, but she knew damn well she held a special place in his heart. Any gruffness he displayed came from a place of concern.
“I needed to speak with Commander Carter.” Her eyes moved back to the soldier. He was standing at ease, his eyes still on her, but that gaze had reverted to flat coldness. Was it the General’s presence?
She cleared her throat. “If you have a moment, Commander?”
His lips compressed into a hyphen, a muscle in his jaw ticked, and his eyes went so cold Lark’s stomach dropped. His gaze was glacial. Ice-cold hatred that should have frozen her on the spot.
Chapter Two
Commander.That’s what Doctor Jerome and the other scientists and techs that had done this to him had called him. No name. Just a rank. An automaton in their platoon of perfect soldiers. It was once a rank he’d been proud to wear and now he despised the sound of it. Lark didn’t know that though.
Taking a beat, he closed his eyes and tried to clear the red haze of rage that had overtaken him before he dipped his chin in acknowledgment of her request. This level of anger was new and worrisome. He’d always been driven and determined, and could often be stubborn, but while he’d occasionally get angry, he’d never had a hair-trigger temper. Nor had he ever taken his temper out on the undeserving. He needed to get a handle on this.
“Don’t be long,” the General ordered, moving past them. “She needs to get some sleep.”
Discomfited by his behavior, Grady shifted his weight and cleared his throat. “Did you want to take a walk?” He motioned to the door that led out of the administrative building.
Lark nodded, taking the lead, and as Grady followed with his ever-present shadows trailing behind him, he couldn’t help moving his eyes over her form in appreciation. He’d been blown away by her from the first moment he’d seen her face on the monitor when she’d successfully blocked his breach of Black Bay’s security. The sight of her had given him such a jolt to the system the chip in his brain had begun running a diagnostic to figure out the issue. Not that he’d needed that micro-processor to tell him what was going on. It was sexual attraction. Raw. Intense. Powerful. And she continued to jolt his system each time he saw her.
Now that he had the majority of his memories back, he also knew that he’d never felt this level of attraction before. He wanted this woman. And he wanted her badly.
She was dressed in camouflage pants cuffed into combat boots and cinched tightly at the waist with a black nylon utility belt that held a sheathed blade. A black tank top was tucked into her pants and molded to her lean torso while leaving her arms bare, exposing the scales that rode up the outside of her arms, up the sides of her throat, and framed a face that was so lovely it stole his breath.
The top she was wearing also exposed just a peek of black ink from a tattoo, that by the looks, spanned her shoulders. He’d give anything to see it on full display. Oh, who was he kidding? Tattoo or no, he wanted to see all ofheron full display.
Her hair, which was currently contained in a long rope of a braid, was a vivid orange with thick streaks of pale yellow, gold, and auburn. It reminded him of a roaring bonfire, autumn leaves, a blazing sunset… Some of Grady’s favorite things.
Her eyes were a striking green so pale they looked like they were glowing and her pupils were slitted like the snakes that had been spliced into her DNA. She’d admitted to him soon after he’d arrived that her eyes could mesmerize people, a sort of hypnosis, and she’d offered to use her gift to see if she could help him unlock some of his memories. He’d been willing to give it a shot. Unfortunately, her gifts didn’t work with him. Probably because of his ocular upgrades. His eyes no longer worked like those of a normal human.
She was tall. About five feet nine inches in her bare feet he’d guess, and he couldn’t help imagining holding her in his arms. He was willing to bet she’d fit perfectly against him.
Built lithe and lean, at first glance, one might think she was a soft target but that was far from the case. Since he’d been here, he’d seen her spar with men twice her size, and she not only held her own, she frequently bested her opponents. Lark was deceptively strong. She was also incredibly fast. And the way she moved… Sinuous, seductive, and she wasn’t even trying.
He shook off those thoughts before he popped an erection for all to see. He focused instead on the sound of a lawnmower in the distance, the smell of freshly cut grass, and the tinge of salt that was always in the air here.
“So what were you and the General discussing?” Lark asked. “I mean if you can tell me, that is.”
“I had an idea of how to help free the others like me.”
While he’d broken through the programming, the other soldiers that had been brought into the Resurrection program weren’t so lucky. They were still being held in cold storage, kept in stasis until the next mission, with no idea who they were or what crimes had been committed against them.
After arriving at Black Bay, he’d learned that these people were working on a way to rescue them, and Grady would do everything in his power to help.
Lark looked over at him curiously. “What’s your plan?”
Momentarily distracted by the way the sun made the scales that marked her body glitter, and had him wondering where else she had them on her body, it took him a moment before he could reply. God, she was so uniquely gorgeous…
Shaking himself to get his brain back on track, he tried to remember what they’d been discussing. Right. His plan.
“I cut out the trackers they put in me and disconnected from the Sync.” The part of the AI that connected all of the augmented soldiers and allowed them to communicate with each other over vast distances. “That leaves them with no recourse but to use facial recognition to try to find me. So I’ll let myself be seen. Let them take me back with some trackers you guys will tag me with so you can follow.”
Lark halted so abruptly that she swayed on her feet. “What? No!”
She looked appalled, even outraged by the very idea, and Grady was momentarily scratching his head with confusion. “It’s a good plan.”
“It’s a shit plan,” she countered. “What if they find the trackers while they’re moving you and remove them en route? What if they get into your head and reprogram you before we can get there?”
She shook her head hard, her face set in obstinate lines of refusal. “No. No way.” Planting her fists on her hips, she demanded, “Did the General agree to this?”
