Page 109 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

109

Killing Machines

W illow

I should have told them sooner, but even now I wish I hadn’t. There’s enough testosterone in this prison to go around. I’m certain that if Zedd hadn’t waltzed in here when she did, those three guards marching to our cell would have raped me or died trying. And they might have killed my two cellmates in the process.

Perhaps it’s lucky she took an interest in the three of us. We were the only inmates she stopped to speak with. I never thought I’d use the word “lucky” when talking about Jahzara Zedd. I guess everything is relative. I think the guards would have returned to my cell already if our status hadn’t changed to high profile a moment ago.

After slipping off Valor’s lap, I sit behind him and feel between his shoulder blades with the pad of my index finger. Sure enough, I feel a hard, metal bead.

Braveheart has stalked over and edges closer to touch the spot my hand vacates. He nods.

“I feel it. Have I got one too?” He reaches around his back and feels between his shoulder blades.

“Here, let me.”

His seems to be deeper under the surface than Valor’s, and, of course, covered in soft, plush fur, but it’s there.

“Do we take them out tonight?” I ask.

Neither hesitates to answer. Valor nods and Braveheart says, “Yes,” then adds, “Whatever that device is pouring into our systems isn’t keeping you safe, Willow. We are. We’d never hurt you, don’t you know that by now?”

He’s leaned down, his face close to mine, then reaches to drag his knuckles down my cheek. They are both big guys who’ve been through a lot. I’ve seen the scars on their bodies from the wars they’ve been forced to fight. Either one could kill me in a second without breaking a sweat. Or force me to do other things if he wanted. Yet, they’ve never been anything but tender with me.

“Yeah,” I say, nodding. But in an hour, he and I will be sharing a very narrow bed. If not tonight, then by tomorrow he’ll have male hormones racing through his body in a way he’s never had to contend with before. If I understand correctly, he’s only felt them when he’s been deployed and had bigger things to worry about—like staying alive. Neither of these males will know how to control their urges, and I’m locked in a ten-by-ten cell with them.

“I don’t have a scalpel,” I say with a shrug.

“How did the female remove the device from the other geneslave?”

“She bit it out.”

The two males look at each other and smile. Why does my tummy make a little somersault when Braveheart flashes fang?

“She must have liked him a lot,” Braveheart quips. “We’ll take care of each other. I would have done this ages ago if I’d known.”

He bends over Valor, steadies himself with one knee on the bed, and slices a tiny gash above the bead with his extended claw. Working it like a pimple, he pops it out. It flies across the room and skitters across the floor, almost rolling into Melch’s room.

He retrieves it and returns to show it to us both. It looks like a silver TicTac. There’s really nothing to inspect, so he grabs one of the shoes he’d already removed and crushes the offensive device under his heel with more relish than I would have thought possible.

Valor doesn’t have claws, so he stands, grabs Braveheart’s shoulders, and unceremoniously bites it out. Both of them shrug, as if they were waiting for an immediate metamorphosis.

“It took Anubis over a day to show any change,” I say, which is lucky, because I just set the wheels in motion to turn my two roomies into animals. Strong animals trained by the Feds to be killing machines.