Destiny's Shift (21 page)

by Earth’s customs.

“Really? How odd.”

“Yes, it is. But one thing I have come to realize while being with the Six Saviors

is that I am not in servitude any longer, and I do have a strong voice, as well as opinions.

I am not afraid to speak them out loud.”

Annis nodded and smiled, her stark-white teeth standing out against her dark

chocolate skin. “I have noticed the shift within you.”

She stood. “The Warrior Noah will be arriving in the morning. That is what I

came down here to tell you. For now, I believe I am hungry, so I’m going upstairs to find

something to eat.”

Liberty did a quick internal check and realized she was hungry as well. Noah

would come tomorrow and he would get Jovan back. It wouldn’t do her any good to sit

around and worry about him, although that seemed an impossible task, but she also

needed to keep her strength up.

“I’ll come with you, Annis. You must try this food called macaroni and cheese.”

Chapter 40

Jovan woke with a splitting headache. Holy hell, how much had he drunk last

night? He felt like his brain was goo and about to ooze out his ears.

His stomach rolled, and he felt the contents about to make an appearance. Trying

to turn over, he realized he couldn’t move and became aware of cold clasps around his

ankles and wrists and cool air caressing his skin.

With sheer will, he pried his eyes open and took in his surroundings. He was in a

white room with a white floor lying on a stainless steel table, cuffed at the ankles and the

wrists.

Oh, and he was naked.

What. The. Fuck.

He shut his eyes again wondering if he had landed in some BSDM dungeon, and

wondered where his fellow Warriors were. One thing was certain, he was going to beat

the ever-living shit out whichever one let him get involved in this.

The door opened, and Jovan expected to see a woman in leather with a riding crop

ready to slap him around a little bit, but was instead greeting with an average-looking

man with brown hair and brown eyes dressed in brown slacks, a white button-down shirt,

and a doctor’s coat.

Memories came flooding back, and Jovan shut his eyes again, wishing he were in

a BSDM dungeon. He had a feeling shit was about to get nasty.

“I see you’re awake.”

Jovan opened his eyes but didn’t say anything, just met the man’s gaze.

“I’m Dr. Davis, and I’m here to evaluate and study you.”

Yeah, more like slice and dice.

“Do you have a name?”

My name’s Fuck Off.

“Ah, so you aren’t the chatty type. The others like you were quite talkative.”

If you let me out of these cuffs, my fists have a few things to say to you.

The man paced back and forth and was silent for a moment. He stood just outside

of Jovan’s peripheral vision.

“I do have to admit, at first I was livid at what you and your cohorts did. But then

I realized what you did—how you caused everyone to stop just long enough to allow the

others to escape. It was a very interesting experience.”

No kidding. Jovan could tell they were out of options and decided to try

something he had never done before. He had been tossing around the idea that if he could

read others’ thoughts, maybe he could project his thoughts into others. If Liberty could do

it, maybe he could as well. Obviously, he had never tried it before, but when caught

between a rock and a hard place, sometimes you had to throw caution to the wind. He

didn’t know if he would blow someone’s frontal lobe out or what, but he had to take that

chance.

So he had settled his gaze on one person and tossed out a thought. Then he went

to the next person.
Don’t call security. Your shirt’s on backward. Step away from the

phone. Your shoe’s untied.
Whatever he could think of. And it had worked.

It had caused enough of a distraction within the people that they stopped, and it

had bought them a precious few seconds. And Jovan had thought for sure they were going

to make it out until he was hit with that little arrow filled with knockout juice.

The doctor stepped back into Jovan’s line of sight.

“In fact, you told me my wife was fat. Imagine my shock when that thought

popped into my mind, considering the fact that I’m not even married.”

Yeah, that would have been a little surprising.

“We’ve had a few humans who possessed special abilities like yours here, and I

was hoping you weren’t one of them. I was hoping you were one of the species you

rescued. Now that you’re awake and night has fallen, I can see that you are.”

His eyes must be blazing green. He couldn’t tell under the harsh glow of the

fluorescent lights.

“And I’m happy to have you as my guest. I really want to study you. All of you.”

Jovan met the man’s eyes and had a pretty good idea of what “study” meant.

Jovan was different than the other SR44ians that were here. Sure, his eyes glowed at

night, but he also had a special ability of tossing around thoughts into people’s heads. He

let down his shield to read the doctor’s mind. He not only wanted to study Jovan’s eyes,

he wanted to study his brain.

Jovan sighed. He thought about how the day had started, and he closed his eyes

remembering as he made love . . . yes . . . made love to his Liberty. As he recalled how

warm and soft and beautiful her body had been, he remembered how they had fit so well,

despite their sizes. The glow of bravery in her eyes as he stared down at her while he

waited for permission to take her, and her slick, so-tight center had made him feel light in

the head.

And now he was strapped to a table waiting to be gutted, or at the minimum,

given that lobotomy he had wished for prior to Liberty.

Well, this day had certainly gone into the shitter.

Chapter 41

Blake sat across from Noah sipping coffee at the table in the small nook of the

kitchen. Noah looked tired, as he had chartered a plane down here at dawn. He yawned.

“I hate getting up early,” Noah said.

“Yep.”

Blake was tired too. He hadn’t slept well. Guilt was eating at him for leaving

Jovan, but as he replayed the whole incident over and over in his mind, he didn’t see any

other way things could have gone down.

“Okay, so obviously we need to get the J-man back,” Noah said. “And you think

that the best time is going to be during transport, right?”

Blake nodded. Area 2 would be on high alert and impenetrable at this point. Blake

wouldn’t doubt if they shut the place down because of the breech. However, they would

have to transport Jovan to the new facility, wherever that was.

“I think during transport is the only time we can get to him. I have no idea where

they would take him, but I do know that it would take twenty-four to forty-eight hours to

arrange everything.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Blake nodded. “This is the government we’re talking about, and approval will

have to go up to the Pentagon, and maybe higher. It’s going to take a while.”

“Talin worked his techie magic and set up a facial recognition program on his

computer that feeds into their security cameras. When Jovan exits, I’ll get a text.”

“Sweet.”

“Oh, yeah. Talin is amazing.”

They sipped their coffee in silence for a moment.

“We should leave soon to be around when the text does come in. I’d hate to be

sitting here having coffee when they move Jovan,” Noah said.

“And we need to go quickly,” Liberty said, walking into the room. She wore jeans

and a blue t-shirt and sat down at the head of the table between Noah and Blake.

“Hello, Liberty. It’s nice to see you too. And there is no ‘we.’ There is ‘us,’ as in

me and Blake.”

“I’m sorry, Noah. My apologies. Hello. And it is nice to see you, brother.” She

stood up and gave Noah a hug, then sat back down. “Noah, I would like to join you to get

Jovan.”

“No.”

Blake looked back and forth between the two and realized that he was about to

watch the siblings fight. He sat back in his chair and took another sip of coffee. Noah ran

his hand through his wavy, brown hair at the same time Liberty pushed one of her curls

behind her ear, both sitting up in their chairs a little taller, eyeing each other as if they

were sizing each other up.

“I can help, Noah.”

“How is that? You stand at what . . . five foot four and weigh one hundred and ten

soaking wet?”

Okay, game on.

Liberty rolled her eyes. “Noah, I may not have a large physical presence, but my

gift is very strong.”

Noah shook his head. “We need girth, not gifts.”

“Then where are the other Warriors?”

Noah explained that Cohen and Talin were barely functioning, and Hudson

needed to stay in Fernley so there was at least one male who was firing on all cylinders

around the females and baby Killian.

“So it appears we don’t have a lot of ‘girth,’ as you call it.”

Score one for Liberty.

“No, but we’ve got me and Blake, and if Rayner can ever stop puking his guts

out, him as well.”

A point for Noah.

“Faith says he is very ill and she imagines that it will take a few days for him to

be at one hundred percent. He’s having some type of allergic reaction to the drug in his

system. We don’t have a few days.”

Two-to-one, Liberty.

Noah sighed. “How exactly will you help?”

A small smile played on Liberty’s lips. “I know that right now you are highly

irritated with me, but are trying not to show it. I believe you are thinking of me as

‘another female who doesn’t listen to what’s best.’”

Okay, so Liberty was diving into his brain. That was definitely a two pointer.

“Get out of my head, Liberty.”

“Of course, dear brother.” She smiled again, and Noah closed his eyes and shook

his head like a dog.

“I didn’t know you could put thoughts in people’s heads,” Noah said, glaring at

her.

Total game changer. Noah was on the ropes getting the piss beaten out of him.

“Don’t you see, brother? We don’t have a lot of girth, but if Jovan is okay when

they move him, I can communicate with him and tell him what’s going on. He is a strong

male, and very . . . girth-y, if there is such a word.”

Noah was now on the mat. Blake could see the ten-count coming.

“I will also be able to distract the others by implanting thoughts into their heads.

From the series of events that Blake and Annis described, it sounds like Jovan did that to

confuse the captors. It can be a very effective tool, Noah.”

Noah stared at Liberty for a long moment.

One, two, three, four, five . . .

“What’s going on with you and Jovan?” Noah asked, narrowing his eyes. “Did he

touch you?”

Liberty blushed, but she didn’t look away. “Yes. I have had the sex with Jovan.”

Whoa! Didn’t see that one coming! Blake wondered when that had happened and

felt like he should leave the room, but he had to stay and see where all this led.

Noah pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. “I told him to stay away

from you.”

“Well, he didn’t, and I’m very pleased.”

“Is he going to mate you?” Noah said, meeting her gaze.

“No.”

“I’m going to kill the guy. As soon as we get him back, I’m going to kill him.”

“You will do no such thing, Noah. My relationship with Jovan is none of your

concern.”

They stared at each other for a long while. Finally, Blake cleared his throat, and

both looked at him as if they had just realized he was in the room.

“I don’t want to interrupt the family drama, but we need to figure out what to do

about Jovan.”

“Yes,
we
do,” Liberty said.

Noah was quiet a little bit longer and threw up his hands. “Okay, you’re in,

Liberty. I don’t know what else to do.”

Six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

Liberty smiled widely, and that was the end of the match.

Chapter 42

Jovan
.

Jovan cracked an eye, his head aching like someone had drilled a hole in his skull.

Oh, wait. He had.

If he ever got his hands on that doctor, that guy was going to pray for death. He

tried to move his hands, and he was shackled down again . . . or still? Who knew. At least

this time he had some clothes on, even if it was one of those hospital gowns. And how

nice—they had provided him with a scratchy wool blanket as well. But at least he could

move his appendages, and he seemed to be thinking somewhat clearly, so whatever the

doctor had done to his brain hadn’t caused any permanent damage.

Looking around, he saw he was in some sort of box. He heard a humming of an

engine, and realized he was in the back of a truck. It looked like something to move

furniture from the local truck rental place.
That needs new shocks,
he thought as they ran

over a bump.

Jovan
.

And now he was hearing voices, specifically, Liberty’s voice. It was like hearing a

marble in a tin can: it just bounced around on all sides of his skull. The nice part was that

it didn’t sound like that, but her voice was a warm blanket on a cool night, soothing. It

was nice to have such calming thoughts as he prepared for his death, which he was