“I bonded with you when you told me how you became a Mercury variant. I felt something click between us.”

  This wasn’t going to work. It didn’t matter how good he made her feel. Dean was sprouting nonsense. “This is crazy. You know that I don’t really have super speed.”

  “I know why you think that. This room is too small for you to sense it. Go out on deck with me. Let’s run together.”

  “If I do have super speed, I’m taking out all the guards. We can’t afford to have those assault rifles firing at us. Even if we have super speed and you turn out to be bulletproof.”

  Dean hugged her tightly. “Please don’t.”

  She opened her mouth to argue with him, but he interrupted her.

  “Your first introduction to your powers was ugly. Let this one be beautiful and magical.”

  Keeley must be nuts too because her throat closed up and tears—tears, for God’s sake—pooled in her eyes. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. If you’re wrong, we’re going to have to fight our way out of it anyway.” She placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll do the killing. You play defense to my offense.”

  “It’s not going to come to that,” he said.

  But Keeley knew better. It always went to shit. After the Aethor Institute had collected their ten percent viable subjects, she had never seen any of her family and friends again. She knew some of them died in the labs when the scientists tried to mold them into super soldiers. The Aethor Institute had trained Keeley to be an assassin. She’d buried her feelings deep, knowing that one day, she would assassinate every last one of them.

  They thought that the continued diet of mind-altering drugs and behavior modification had been working, but they could never touch the core of hatred that she shielded her true self around. And when it had been time to rise up, she’d joined her Mercury brethren and became the nightmare they had created her to be.

  Mercury variants didn’t get happy endings. They certainly didn’t gain other powers, and they would never have a bonded or fated mate. But she didn’t want to burst Dean’s bubble. He seemed to still hold a shred of childlike hope and decency, and it made her very protective of his feelings.

  He was right, though, about the emotional connection. When she saw him suffering after doing something so trivial as squashing a bug, she wanted to comfort him. She could barely see it from his point of view, though. To her, he had been ridding them of a nuisance. He took it much harder than that. It had reminded her of how she felt when she saw her family and friends die.

  Maybe that shared grief did bind them in a way. Dean would be someone that she would like as a friend. That would mean more to her than a lover anyway. A lover was just someone you swapped fluids with while hopefully getting off on it. She could get a lover anywhere. Friends, though, were rarer.

  “Are you ready?” Dean asked.

  “Let me go first,” she said.

  Taking a deep breath, Keeley opened the door and ran down the hallway. She looked back, and Dean was just crossing the doorway. Okay, that didn’t mean anything. Pulling open the stairwell door, she ran up the next flight of stairs and burst through the doorway. No one was there, so she took off in a run around the third floor of the yacht.

  She could feel it now. See everyone else moving in slow motion. The guard with his assault rifle still slung over his back looked up at her and staggered back as she blew by him.

  “Damned wind,” he growled.

  Pushing herself faster, she circled the deck three times. She passed by two more guards who didn’t even glance her way. They just grabbed their cloaks closer around their necks. Confident, she zoomed up to the top deck and then stumbled as she saw the three men in the bar area. Everything came to a screeching halt. She crashed into the table. Whiskey bottles and glasses flew everywhere. The three men were blown back ass over tea kettle in their chairs.

  Keeley’s head was whirling, but the assassin part of her pulled the pistol and put two shots into the forehead of Zeller. The man she had already killed at the New Athens City dock. Then she turned and put two more bullets into the forehead of her former brother-in-law.

  “Goodbye, Allen,” she said.

  “Keeley, stop!” Dean said, horrified.

  She didn’t even look up. She leveled the pistol on the third man, who held up his hands in surrender. “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Keeley,” Dean said. “We need him alive. We need to use him as leverage so the boat reaches Protogenus.”

  “Talk,” she said to the man on the ground. “You don’t need kneecaps.”

  “My name is Finnegan Grace.”

  “A little more details than that, please,” she said. “Dean, come stand behind me. I don’t want you in the line of fire when the guards come through that door.”

  “Don’t kill them,” he pleaded.

  “That’s up to them, not me,” she said.

  “If you let me stand, I’ll tell them to remain at their posts.”

  Keeley motioned him to get up with her pistol. “I don’t care if you live or die. If you make me, I will end you.”

  “Pollux variant, right?”

  “That’s right,” Keeley lied.

  “And he’s a Castor.”

  “How could you tell?” she asked.

  “Because he still thinks he can talk his way out of this, and you know that the only way out is to keep the upper hand and kill anyone who comes through that door.” Finnegan stood up and righted his chair. He made a displeased moue at the shattered whiskey bottles but didn’t even glance at the dead men.

  “Can I get you a drink?” he asked, walking toward the undamaged part of the bar.

  “You can get me some answers.”

  Finnegan held up a finger, poured himself a large glass of whiskey, and then took a deep swallow. He then carried it back to his chair and sat down. “Do you mind if I smoke?” Patting his jacket pocket, he came up with a broken cigar.

  “Yes.”

  Sighing, he pushed it back into his pocket. “What do you want to know?”

  “Did Zeller have a twin brother?”

  “Zeller?” Dean said. “The supe detector?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” Finnegan said.

  “I killed him on the dock.”

  “And you killed him again on the boat.” Finnegan looked at his watch. “And in about a half of an hour, you might get a chance to kill him again when the sub gets here.”

  “Triplets?”

  “Clones,” Finnegan said.

  “Keeley,” Dean said.

  There was something in his voice that distracted her from her line of questioning. “What?”

  “There’s something going on in the ocean.”

  She risked a quick, darting glance and saw bubbles rising from either side of the boat. “What’s going on here? What did Allen Brewster have to do with all of this?”

  “Allen Brewster died about ten years ago. That was just one of his clones.”

  Rage and horror shook her. Allen did not get to live on while her sister was dead. “How many clones of him are there?”

  “Nine left. We clone in groups of ten.”

  Nine Allens. Seven Zellers. Keeley knew what her next mission was going to be. “Are they all in the underwater lab?”

  Finnegan smiled. “One of the Allens is there. As to the other eight...” He shrugged. “They have their own labs and projects.”

  Cold nausea hit her low in her stomach. Eight other labs.

  “Keeley, we need to get out of here.”

  “We’re in the middle of the ocean, Dean. Where are we going to go?”

  But then she saw two giant robots crest the surface of the water, one on either side of the boat.

  “You’ve got enough time for a few more questions, dear,” Finnegan said.

  “What were you going to do with the supernaturals that Zeller caught?”

  “We were going to clone the ones that were the most useful.”

  “And the ones that weren’t?” Keeley dreaded the answer.

  “They could be useful in other ways.”

  Yeah, she definitely didn’t want details.

  “Are you a clone?” she asked.

  “No, I’m the original.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Dean said and whooshed out of her sight.

  “Dean,” she shouted, but he was already gone. “What are the robots for?” she asked.

  “Why, to bring all the supernaturals out of hiding so it’s easier to claim them.”

  Oh shit. Dean said that the Gemini Initiative was tracking them. His exact words had been “I’m going to lead every battle-trained supe right to Protogenus’ underwater laboratory.” Pisc and Ichth were tracking her. They were about to hand Protogenus three Mercury variants and the best of the best of the Pollux and Castor variants.

  “We’ll talk more later,” she said. And then kneecapped him.

  While Finnegan was howling in pain, Keeley zipped into superspeed and followed the red vapor trails to where Dean was shooting at one of the robots with a stolen assault rifle. He must have grabbed it from one of the guards on his way past.

  “We need to get as far away from these robots as possible. We’re leading everyone into a trap,” she said.

  “We should have known something was up when they were going to make the drop with just two of us,” he said. “I’ll keep the robots busy while you grab the little Zodiac boat that’s tied up on the back of the yacht. Come back here with it, and we’ll take turns pulling it until we’re far enough away.”

  She emptied the pistol’s magazine into the robot. It didn’t like that. “I need you to come with me. We need to take Finnegan in for questioning. The Gemini Institute has a seer who can get the information we need. Hopefully, she can pull it out of him before he chomps on a poisoned tooth or something.”

  “What if he dies?”

  “Well,” Keeley said grimly, “then I bet there’s a few more like him that we can question.”

  They zipped back to the boat, bowling over the two guards who had come to help Finnegan.

  “Where are you taking me?” he asked as they each grabbed one of his arms and dashed to the back of the boat. By the time they lowered the Zodiac into the water, Finnegan had passed out.

  “That makes things easier,” she said. She grabbed his arms, Dean grabbed his legs, and they swung him into the Zodiac.

  The robots clanged toward them with a metallic roar.

  “Finnegan said the submarine was a half hour away,” Dean said as they climbed down into the small inflatable boat. “Too bad he didn’t say in what direction.”

  She handed him the tow rope. “I’m not even sure which way is back to New Athens City.”

  Pisc surfaced on one side of the Zodiac, Ichth on the other. “New Athens City is that way.” He pointed. “Head away from the sun.”

  “What the hell?” Dean shouted.

  “It’s about time you two got here,” Keeley said. “It’s a trap. But there’s a submarine coming to rendezvous with the yacht. They’re a half hour away.”

  “We’ll find it and track it back to the lab,” Pisc said.

  “Who’s this guy?” Ichth asked.

  “He’s the guy who wants to clone us in the lab.”

  When Pisc lunged, Keeley blocked him. “He probably has a bunch of clones of himself. We can afford to see what he knows.”

  “I don’t like it,” Pisc said.

  “I killed Zeller.”

  “At least that’s something.”

  “Twice.”

  “What?” Ichth snarled.

  “There’s at least one more of him on the sub. But there might be eight Zellers total. They clone in tens.”

  Then there wasn’t any more time to talk. The robots smashed their arms down on the boat. But Dean had been ready and kicked up his superspeed, tugging the boat with him. Keeley flew backward but managed to hang on. Finnegan was dead weight on the deck of the inflatable boat. The robots hit the water, and a powerful wave gave the boat extra speed.

  They zoomed along for about five minutes before Dean tumbled back into the boat. He was breathing hard and gulping for air. “If you can, take us a bit farther. I know this is your first day with super speed and you haven’t practiced, but if you go fast enough, you can race along the top of the water for a few minutes. When you feel like you’re going to slow down, come back to the boat.”

  “I can walk on water?” Keeley asked, unexpected joy filling her.

  “No,” Dean said. “You can run.”

  She took the tow rope from him. “Hang on.”

  Blasting forward, Keeley dragged the boat over the water with her. It was hard going, and she didn’t feel like she was going super-fast. But when she looked down, her feet were skimming over the waves, not landing long enough to sink. She had never liked jogging and could never understand why anyone would want to run a marathon.

  Now she could. And if runner’s high felt anything like how she felt as she zoomed across the ocean, she could see the appeal. But after a few minutes, the boat got heavy, and she felt dizzy. However, she could see the skyline of New Athens City. They were almost there. She pushed on, and the edges of her vision turned black.

  “Uh-oh,” she thought.

  Swiveling to get back to the boat, she suddenly popped out of her speed zone and sank like a stone under the water.

  Chapter Five

  The boat came to an abrupt halt, and the waves caught up with them, sloshing them up and down.

  “Keeley,” he shouted, not seeing her.

  The tow rope led straight down into the ocean. Without a second’s thought, he pushed through his fatigue and dove into the icy cold water. The shock of it threatened to slam him out of super speed, but he refused to let Keeley drown.

  She’d had enough sense to secure the tow rope on to her wrist. He found her floating, and panic like he had ever known seized him. Grabbing her around the waist, he shot upward, pushing through every bit of reserve that he had. He wrestled them both back into the boat and started doing mouth to mouth.

  Keeley coughed and convulsed, hacking and gulping in deep breaths.

  “You’re all right,” he said.

  “I can’t move,” she whispered.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m here.” But truthfully, he had very little left. Shoving Finnegan to the bow, Dean lay down next to Keeley and put his arms around her.

  “You did great.” He kissed her forehead.

  “It wasn’t enough,” she said, shivering.

  The cold was going to kill them. They were too exposed out here.

  “We’re going to be okay,” he lied to her. He wished he could give her all his body heat, but the water had taken its toll on him too.

  “Is this where you tell me we have to take off all our wet clothes and cuddle naked to survive?”

  If they’d had time to pack supplies and a blanket, it might have worked. But they’d had barely enough time to escape as it was. “Couldn’t hurt,” he said, regretting that they never had a chance to explore the connection between them.

  “You’re going to have to undress me. I can’t feel my fingers.”

  Dean wished he had another superpower. What good was it to be indestructible if you couldn’t save the one you loved?

  Love?

  He closed his eyes. Of course, it was love.

  “If I could create fire, I could have kept us warm,” he murmured.

  “Or sank the boat.” Shivers wracked her frame.

  He held her tighter.

  “Keeley, I love you.”

  She let out a sob. “That’s not fair.”

  “I know.” He kissed her again. “I just needed to tell you that.”

  DEAN WAS FLOATING ON a soft, warm cloud. He wondered if this was heaven. If it was, Keeley would be here. He reached out for her or for his harp and connected with a blanket instead.

  “Keeley?” he said, bolting to a sitting position. He was in a hospital room, but a luxurious one. He was connected to all sorts of monitors.

  “She’s all right,” a man he didn’t recognize said.

  “Is this Protogenus?” he asked. On the one hand, he was glad to have been saved. On the other hand, he didn’t want to be in an underwater lab about to be cloned or worse.

  “No, you’re in the Gemini Consulate’s hospital wing. I’m Agent Daggert.” The man reached out a hand. Dean shook it automatically.

  “Where’s Keeley? I need to see her.”

  “She’s resting in the room next door.” Daggert attempted to stop him from getting up, but Dean was out the door before he could touch him. Sure enough, Keeley was lying in her own hospital bed. Dean didn’t know what all the monitors meant, but the fact that they were steady beeps had to be a good thing.

  “You should be resting too,” Daggert said. “When you’re both ready, you can be debriefed.”

  He was tired. But he wasn’t going to be apart from her any longer than he had to be. There was enough room in the bed for both of them. Peeling back the covers, he climbed in next to her, being careful not to jostle any of the wires. She sighed and turned into his arms.

  “I told you we’d make it,” he said and kissed her forehead.

  Chapter Six

  Keeley wanted out of the Gemini Consulate. They weren’t keeping her prisoner, but they weren’t giving her any information on Finnegan Grace, either. But since they had saved her and Dean’s bacon and nursed them back to health, she felt obligated to be polite. For a little while longer, anyway.

  They had given her a room to stay in and free range of the consulate. She had a line of credit at the small stores inside the building and a meal plan that gave her three squares a day. However, they either didn’t know or didn’t want to tell her anything about Pisc and Ichth. She needed to know if they’d managed to track the submarine back to Protogenus’ lab. She had put in for a meeting with the head of the Gemini Initiative, Grayson Spark.

  As she was pacing around her room, wondering if she left to do her own research if she’d be let back in, there was a knock on her door.

 

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