Adrian shrugged. “I hated him for a long time, but Kovo convinced me to forgive him. Without Helion, Kovo would be dead for real and we wouldn’t be together.”
My beast snorted. There would be no forgiveness. Not from us.
She had the courage to smile at me. “Would be easier to like the guy if he wasn’t such a coldblooded asshole all the time. Always has an explanation. Even with you. I heard him say he’d been trying to get you to come to Earth for a long time. Is that true?”
“Yes.” Damn him.
“Kovo also said there’s never been a female Atlan with a beast before. He said you’ll be super famous on Atlan if you go back there. Rich, too.”
“I am already wealthy.” I had inherited both of my brother’s fortunes when they were pronounced dead. Had not cared about the credits unless I needed something to help me hunt the Silver Scions. Now I wondered if even that mission had been a lie. If the one thing that had given me purpose the last few years was a fabrication of Helion’s as well.
An image of the three cyborg assholes at the morgue flashed to mind.
No. The Silver Scions were more than cold-blooded, they were ruthless. Evil. Could not be allowed to operate freely on an underdeveloped, primitive planet like Earth.
“When you collapsed, that doctor, Mersan, told the guys you might have mating fever.”
Did he? So that bio-medical scan and system checks I initiated with my suit when I first saw Ethan in the warehouse had found something after all? The suit automatically sent updated physical and mission details to the I.C. anytime I synced to their system. Mersan must have received the suit’s data when I sent the cyborg’s DNA to be processed.
That scan had been done a few minutes after I saw Ethan and reported everything was normal. I wondered what a full biometric scan would show now?
“Do you? Have mating fever?” Adrian was tenacious in her questioning.
Mating fever? For Ethan? “Yes.”
I lifted one hand and clattered my claws together just to see what it felt like.
Definitely not normal.
Adrian led me to a small supply room and pointed to my supply cube. They’d shoved it into a corner. I doubted they hadbeen able to open it. The box was coded to my DNA as well as an encrypted voice command.
I opened the cube and lifted my armor. I put it on as quickly as possible, thankful the technology automatically adjusted to my current physical form. All Atlan battle armor was designed to adapt to the Warlord’s rapid size changes during battle to keep their beasts protected.
Took me a solid minute of intense focus to retract my new claws. Once I figured it out, I had no problem. In. Out. Safe. Deadly.
Excellent. These could come in handy.
Adrian leaned with her shoulder resting against the door frame, arms crossed, watching me dress. “So, what are you? What did they really do to you?”
Now that I was covered, I summoned the will to be civil to my new sister. “What do you mean? I am Atlan.” With claws, but still Atlan.
Her grin looked… mischievous. “I don’t think so.” She tilted her head and stared, studying me like I was an insect for dissection. My beast did not like it and growled at her.
She burst into laughter. “Oh my god. I wish I could be there to see their faces when you show up.” She reached into the front pocket of her jeans and pulled out a set of keys. Held them up in front of her and wiggled them. “You are going, aren’t you?”
I leaned over and lifted my rifle case from the cube. “Yes.” I would assemble it on the way.
She tossed the keys in my direction.
I caught them midair. “I need to see their maps and their assault plan. Now.”
She pulled her cell phone from her back pocket and checked the time. “You need to hurry. The attack is supposed to start in about an hour. It’ll take you half that to get there.”
“Then let us go.” I strapped an ion blaster to each thigh and shoved a knife in the built-in ankle sheath. Practiced using my claws. They came out the tips of my combat boots easy as a hot knife moving through water. When I retracted the claws, the armor’s self-healing structure immediately repaired the small punctures. Took a few seconds to discover my gloves would do the same.
“That is so cool. Think Mersan could get me some claws?” Adrian lifted her fragile, human hand and studied it. “I’d like to be stronger. Not so fragile. Easy to hurt.”
I shook my head. “I am sure my brother loves you exactly as you are. It is his honor and purpose to protect and provide for you.”
