You know all about that.
I was not going to dignify her with a response. But she was sooo right.
This time, the voice in my head was all me.
Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up. Breathe, Willow. In. Out.“Why? What does he know that’s so important?” Important enough to lock another living being up in a tiny metallic room, with no comfort, no bedding. Starved. Bruised. Cold. Naked. He’d beennaked.
Like me.Resigned and hopeless.Like me.Didn’t bother to fight because it never did any good.
We fought him, just not physically. Don’t you dare deny us that victory.
Okay. She was right. I never stopped fighting him inside my head, no matter how hard he tried, or how much telepathy he shoved down my proverbial throat, I always managed to hide a little part of myself from him. Always.
Oberon was fighting, too. Except it wasn’t some Hive Nexus psycho keeping him locked in that room. It wasmy mateand this…doctor. A fucking doctor. What happened to the vow not to do harm? That weirdly named oath new doctors on Earth had to vow to uphold. The name escaped me. Sounded likehippopotamus? Hippa-crap—something?Shit, what was it?
Hippocratic Oath.
Right. This guy needed to read it. Memorize it.
“He knows the location of a secret Hive facility. We need to know where that facility is.”
“Why?” Was that what was drawn on those plans and diagrams Zarren stared at for hours on end? A Hive facility full of Nexus units? If that was the truth, I’d go torture the information out of the bastard myself.
“So we can destroy it.”
That made sense to me. Better to kill them all, as far as I was concerned. Every warrior who’d faced the Hive probably felt the same way. Which meant Oberon should hate them as much a everyone else. So? Why didn’t he want to tell them? Something didn’t add up. “I assume a Prillon warrior would want them all dead. Why won’t he tell you where it is?”
“Because he believes his sister is a prisoner there.” The doctor spoke without any emotion. He could have been talking about the color of the table, or what he ate for dinner last week.
I was numb, the quiet inside me complete.Shewas waiting. Coiled and ready to strike me dead for being so damn naïve. I’d been so careful. This couldn’t be true, couldn’t be happening.
“Does the commander know about Oberon’s sister?” Surely not. Not my Zarren. He wouldnotleave a young woman under Hive control to suffer and be experimented on. Be forced tobreed.Carry unwanted, parasitic life inside her body? Freeze and starve in turn? He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. I’dfelthim, his emotions. He was honorable. Truly dedicated to protecting the people on every planet. The need to save everyone consumed him.
“Of course, he knows. We tried to tell Oberon; his sister is already dead.”
“Did you find her body?”
“No. We sent Hunters. In addition, the facility appears to be heavily fortified. Even if we believed she was a prisoner, a rescue mission is not feasible.”
No body? Big deal. That didn’t mean a damn thing.
“So what is? Feasible, I mean?” Tell me something good, Doctor Man, so I don’t throw up your fancy Atlan wine.
“The only viable option is to locate the facility and destroy it.”
“What about the prisoners on the inside? Oberon’s sister? Is she the only one?” She couldn’t be, not if this location was anything like the one in which I’d been held. There had been over thirty of us. Only twenty-seven still alive by the time they found us. Five infants had, by some miracle—or curse—survived.
Not one of them mine. Thank god. No one knew what the Hive DNA and integrations were going to mean, once those kids got a little older. If I was one of their mothers, I’d be terrified.
“We do not know. There may be other prisoners.”
“Then get them all out.” One plus one equaled two. Light was the opposite of dark. Hive prisoners—like me—needed to be set free. Simple.
“I’m sorry, my lady. Commander Helion and I agree. Destruction of the base is the best option. If there are any prisoners still alive, which is highly improbable, it will be a kindness, I assure you, to end their suffering. The Hive scientists can be merciless and extremely cruel.”
He was fucking tellingME?In that patronizing tone? Like I was a stupid little girl who didn’t know any better.
I stood so quickly I had to grab Kayn’s shoulder for balance. The doctor looked up at me as if confused.
