He grinned ear to ear. “Screaming Banshee Pizza, finest dining Bisbee has tooffer.”
Maxine had the right idea, live life like it could end tomorrow because itcould.
Ronnie rolled her eyes. “All right, lovebirds. Let’s get some shut-eye.”
I grinned stupidly at Damien and then hobbled after Ronnie. I was still getting the hang of this walking boot thing, and mixed with six days of no sleep and two stims, I was loopy as allhell.
Once we entered the room, she started stacking weapons onto her body. “You’re stupid hot for him,” she said, now that we werealone.
I smiled. “Stupid hot. I likethat.”
Too much talking. Need moresleep.
Ronnie touched my arm and I looked up to meet her brown eyes. “Seriously though, Kit. You deserve to be happy. Don’t run away when shit gets real like you always do. Just… go for it. He’s a greatguy.”
I was way too tired to process this conversation, but she was right. I did run when shit got serious. It was easier thatway.
I smirked, zipping up my one-piece Kevlar suit. “I’ll go for it if you go forBrisk.”
She looked mortally offended. “Brisk and I are like this really great idea in theory, but in reality we’d crash and burn. I know it. I’m too controlling and serious, and he’s too messy andcarefree.”
I smiled. “Sounds like a perfect couple to me. You clean his messes and he’ll lighten youup.”
“Ha!”
The door opened and everyone filed in, so we didn’t speak any more about it. I’d never been so exhausted in all mylife.
“These are going to work, right?” I looked at the cuff. It was a sleek gray and black carbon fiber, more professional-looking and clean-cut than the prototypes we’d been messing with before. If they didn’t work, I wasn’t sure we were going to survive tonight. Not if our recent Dream Wars experiences were anything to goby.
“The plasma bands work perfectly.” It was Jeremy who responded. “The only thing at this point that could interfere with the maximum potential of the band would be user error, or another variable we don’t yet knowabout.”
That went over my head. How was he still talking with big words and sounding smart? He’d only had one hour more of sleep than Damien orme.
“Let’s hit the rack,” Brisk said, and fell into bed. “Ronnie?” He patted his chest, inviting her to lay her headthere.
She rolled her eyes and crawled in a few spaces away from him. She didn’t see the genuine dejected look cross his face, but I did. Brisk joked a lot, but his affection for Ronnie was 100 percentserious.
I slipped my samurai swords into my back sheath and crawled in on the other side of Ronnie. Damien laid next to me, and everyone else followed suit until we were all in thebed.
“This is going to work. The Dream Wars are over,” Jeremy mightilydeclared.
For some reason, his innocent and confident statement brought a genuine smile to my lips, and my heart fluttered withhope.
Damien’s warm hand slipped in mine and I squeezed it. If this worked, the whole world wouldchange.
I am peace. Iam—
“Take us into the war zone, Kit.” Damien’s sentence deflated my inner Zenballoon.
Lifting my head off the pillow, I craned my neck to stare at him. “What?”
“We can test them further and even save lives. Protect people. People who don’t have thecuffs.”
He was right. I’d selfishly been thinking of just getting some sleep and finding a quietplace.
“Oorah to that!” Briskshouted.
And everyone chorused theiragreement.
