Red Zone (Red Zone 1)

Did you bite Friday?

You know I did. I saw it in your mind. There’s a bite mark.

That made him clench his teeth. Why did you bite her?

He got the distinct impression that his reptile thought his human half was dumb as dirt. To save her.

He sucked in a breath, drawing Mace’s attention.

“What?” his friend demanded.

Striker tried to process what he’d just learned. “He said he bit her to save her.”

“How the hell would he know to do that? His bite is poisonous. It kills people. How would that save her?”

I know poisons. The rattler sounded more than a little superior. I knew my poison would eat hers.

“He said he knew his poison would eat the one inside her. And I think he added a silent asshole on the end of that just for you.”

Mace shot him the bird, but he wasn’t offended. He figured it was meant for the diamondback, anyway.

And, the rattler said, she’s our mate. My bite doesn’t work the same way on our mate as it does on other humans. He said the last part as though it was common knowledge.

Everything within him stilled. I don’t understand.

I’m tired. Wake me when my mate is here, the rattler said before curling back to sleep.

It wasn’t the first time his other half had referred to Friday as his mate, but now Striker was beginning to suspect something else entirely. Something that made adrenaline flood his system. “Snakes don’t mate for life, do they?”

“No. They’re horndogs. They jump any snake in their path.”

“That’s what I thought.” He sat on the edge of the bed and caressed the image on his woman’s arm. “Then why is it telling me to wake him when his mate gets here? Why is he saying that his bite doesn’t affect her the way it would other people—because she’s our mate?”

Mace sat up straight. His eyes going to the image of the baby snake. “I thought that was his child. You think it’s his mate? You think there was something special about Friday that meant biting her would create a mate for him instead of killing her?”

“I don’t know what to think.”

“I’ve got it.” Doc ran into the room, waving a data pad. “The other foreign element in Friday’s blood is definitely the diamondback’s venom. I didn’t recognize it because it interacted with the Interferan-X. Poison is consuming the Interferan-X. But there are a whole lot of other things going on in her blood that I just don’t have the skills to interpret.”

“I don’t care about the details. Is there anything in her blood that’s going to kill her?”

“I don’t think so.”

It took a minute for that to sink in. “She’s gonna live?”

“I think so, but I don’t know for sure. Don’t get your hopes up. I’m totally out of my depth here. Hell, I’m not sure there’s anyone on the planet that could tell us what’s going on. Your reptile’s poison isn’t exactly normal. The red mist changed it somehow. It’s something the world hasn’t seen before.”

“But she’s gonna live, right?” That was the only question he needed answering.

“Yeah.” Doc’s smile was slow in coming, but when it got there, it was wide. “I’m pretty sure your woman is going to live.”

That was all he needed to hear. With an answering grin, he climbed onto the bed and stretched out beside her. “In that case, wake me up when things change. I haven’t slept for weeks.”

He tuned out his friends’ laughter as he wrapped himself around his woman and closed his eyes. Seven weeks he’d waited, prayed, and begged, desperate for a miracle. And now it was here. He hadn’t dared to hope, but he hadn’t been able to let her go, either. He took a deep breath, filling himself with her soft springtime scent. His whole body shook at the news. She was going to live. He wasn’t going to lose her. Thank you, God, he prayed.

She wasn’t going anywhere. She was his.

Thanks, he added to his diamondback.