Page 73 of Star-Born Anomaly
“That is unfortunate,” he said in response to her denial, his words focusing her attention. He stopped again, his body squared off in frontof her. “That person who was with you, you knew what he was, didn’t you?”
Iax.This was all about him, wasn’t it? Everything started the day he arrived. And Sawyer had left him dying on the surface, his body broken in the snow.
She pushed those images aside to remember him as he was at her outpost. His curiosity. His strange innocence. The way he’d touched her. The way he’d made herfeel.
“You know where he came from, right?” Sawyer paced left, then right, his hand tapping the tools against his leg.
She closed her eyes. An image formed of Iax approaching her outpost. How he’d walked across the surface unaided, incurring so many radiation burns his skin had blistered. If he’d healed from that, then a weapon’s blast, he could survive anything.
He’s alive. He’s okay.If she said it enough, maybe she would believe it.
“Why was he at your outpost?”
Her eyes popped open. Sawyer had paused across from her, still tapping his thigh, the image of her stretched arms reflecting in his visor. What remained of the moisture in her mouth evaporated as she remembered what Iax had told her.My blood.
They stayed that way, facing off, the trickle of blood from her wrists trailing down to her elbow. Her heart pounded in her throat.
“Do you know Captain Milo Archibald?”
Her head snapped back at the question.Who?She’d never heard the name before.
“Why does General Cazin want you?”
She shook her head to clear it, not recognizing that name either.
Sawyer resumed his pacing. Back and forth. Back and forth. “The Calypson.” He practically spat the word, though his helmet distorted the effect. “How long have you known him?”
The question elicited an involuntary scoff. She’d only known Iax for days, but it had felt like much longer. Why else would she have beencontemplating sleeping with him?You did sleep with him.Another scoff, because it was onlysleep, though the best sleep of her life.
No monsters had invaded her dreams.
“How did that fucker survive shots to the head?”
The question froze her thoughts while a replay of what this man had done to Iax traveled through her mind’s eye. More reason not to cooperate.
“How was he healing himself?”
Her breath caught in the back of her throat, and the cargo hold spun. The rampant sensation escalated the longer she thought about all Iax had said, how he’d told her even his cells were intelligent.
“What did he want with you?”
Panic swelled in her chest. She hadn’t realized it, her vision hazed in memory, but Sawyer had stopped right in front of her.
The question felt loud and echoed in her head. It knocked against the truth, rattling her. Iax had called her Calypson and had encouraged her cells to heal. If someone correctly analyzed the data from her blood sample, it would prove Iax’s words true. But it had been destroyed with the rest of the outpost. For the first time since Sawyer had leveled her home, she was glad of it.
He stepped closer and wrapped his hand around her throat. Her heart pounded hard in her head. The room spun faster.
“Answer one of the fucking questions.” He squeezed slightly, restricting her airway. “Pick one.”
“Maybe I’d answer your questions if you took off that stupid helmet.” She spit. The lack of moisture in her mouth diminished the effect, but small dots sprayed across his visor.
His fingers flexed on her throat. A noise escaped Wynn while helplessness swirled inside her chest, her skin feeling tight and itchy. She couldn’t make it stop.
Her legs flailed futilely. She tipped her head back, the only way she could get away from his grip, but it only served in exposing her throat more. The out-of-control feeling intensified until she hung in the middle of a storm as intense as the one ravaging Earth. His other hand grabbed her elbow.
Hummmmm. She barely heard the noise above the sound of blood pumping in her head.
Everything around her stilled as a new pain emerged through the haze. She snapped her chin down, his hand around her throat restricting the movement.
