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He looked down at the cop’s ruined face "I wasn’t …" His blood pounded in his ears, hot and heavy, and he couldn’t seem to catch his breath "Why did … you … pull hed outthan yellow jackets, he thought as he lifted his leg and ra screa crunch of bone "I can break … the rest of your bones … easy" Why was it so hard to re," the cop choked out "Weaving all over the road Can’t drive like that Hurt someone"
Hurt someone? The words buzzed around his head like the yellow jackets, tiny and hts and cal as they reminded him of who he was now
Why would he care if he hurt anyone? A god did not have to concern hier than theent, a new and vastly superior life-forain cause him pain or humiliation the way Jessa Bellamy had
He could see her in his head so clearly now Every detail of her treacherous, beautiful face, every arrogant look she had given him She would never be satisfied with her attempt to cripple him, he knew, especially not now that he had ascended to a new level of existence No, in her jealousy and ugliness she would want to harain--even try to kill him--as soon as she could
"She sent you after me, didn’t she?" Lawson bent down, seized the round with one hand He bit the side of his neck, digging his teeth in deep before he ripped out of a chunk of flesh and spit it out "The lying bitch swore out a co to serveorder? Was that it?"
The trooper didn’t answer, his head lolling back and forth over his left shoulder
"I never touched her" Lawson licked his lips and tasted the h him "I wanted to, but I couldn’t She’d have seen Allcoround and straddled it "Couldn’t have that" He ripped open the front of the trooper’s uniform shirt and tore away the front panel of the protective vest beneath it "The old o to him Make him fire me"
Sometiht he had dropped by the yellow jacket nest He switched it on, but the bright beaht hurt his eyes He tossed it away, and then felt pain in his hand Two bone shards were embedded in his palm, and he plucked theot in the SUV
Things had changed again, but he felt at peace with hi a word, the trooper had explained everything that had gone wrong
Noas right So right that it filled him with an indescribable emotion All the work he had done at GenHance had been noble, and his heart had been in the right place, but ultimately the scientists had failed All of their theories and conjectures had been wrong Laondered what Genaro would make of it when he told him
The transerum contained no flaw, but rather a new imperative, one that had caused the final transformation of the mortal who had been Bradford Lawson, and the sacrifices that would have to be od reborn to walk a men
By the third day of her captivity, Jessa had deters: She apparently wasn’t in any ier, it would take weeks to cooing to be as easy to dupe as she’d hoped As much as she wanted to escape and find soe, she also knew she couldn’t escape without first discovering what Matthias did or didn’t know about the Takyn If she didn’t, he ain with Aphrodite, Vulcan, Delilah, or one of her other friends
For his part, Matthias generally treated her like a guest instead of a prisoner, seeing to her needs and co to her courteously He watched her closely, however, and always seeh the tunnels
Rowan’s attitude toward Jessa gradually becah she re on her irl when she orking in the co in the kitchen, the times when her temper was prone to flare fastest She also refrained fro housekeeper She did refuse to let Rowan continue to wait on her, soht provoke a confrontation Yet when she told Rowan she didn’t want breakfast brought to her room, all Rowan did was produce an old battery-operated clock radio and tell her to be in the kitchen at six am or make her own meal Jessa immediately tried to listen to the radio--a local broadcast would tell her where she was--but the s static
Matthias didn’t bring up the subject of vaain, which was a relief, as Jessa didn’t kno to respond to his wild conjectures without further insulting him Instead he allowed her to use his computer equipment whenever she asked, delivered a stack of paperback novels (none of which was newer than six months, she noted) to her room, and otherwise left her alone When she asked whether she should return the books to hied to Rowan Later she saw hi one of the books froht the faint movements of his lips as he silently sounded out sorown lish perfectly, collect and read children’s books when he owned one of the finest private libraries she’d ever seen?
Although he knew about her ability, Matthias didn’t try to avoid having physical contact with her as Rowan did Each day he seemed to find so a dish to her at the table or taking her ar with her in the tunnels For the first couple of days Jessa stiffened each tiht, but no ed the contact was between the else invaded: an unfamiliar but pervasive blend of warht all of her senses to an acute state of awareness