Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

Do it for Keiko.

Save mine? the bat answered.

Yeah, save mine.

There was silence for a beat, and then the bat answered, Save mine. And flew off to follow instructions—finally.

Mace breathed a sigh of relief, just as a coffee mug came flying at his head.

He ducked, and it skimmed the top of his skull. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“You tried to kill me.” She picked up another mug and lobbed it at him. “That freaky enhancement, that bat, was the reason I fell off the ledge.”

He intercepted another mug, knocking it to the floor. “Stop throwing things at me. If I was trying to kill you, why didn’t I let you fall?”

She ignored him and threw another mug at his head. “It just walked out of your skin. Did you drug me? Am I hallucinating?”

“No, I didn’t drug you. Why the hell would I do that?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know anything anymore.” She threw another mug.

He didn’t duck in time, and this one hit him on the shoulder. That sucker hurt. “Enough of this.”

He strode toward her, but she swerved left, lobbing everything she could reach at him, one item after another. Mace was planning how to grab her without hurting her just as the fire alarm went off. Keiko froze for a second, and he pounced. He pinned her arms to her sides and held her tight against him.

“Let me down,” she shouted in his ear, making his head buzz. “The building’s on fire. We have to get out of here.”

“Calm down for a second and think. Would I stand here if I thought the building was on f

ire? The bat triggered the alarm. I asked him to do it as a distraction.”

She stilled in his arms and stared at him with those big eyes of hers. “How are you able to communicate with it when the signals are jammed? What’s going on here? None of this makes sense. And why did you use it to push me off the ledge? I trusted you.”

“And you were right to trust me. You need to listen to me carefully, okay? I didn’t ask the bat to push you off anything. The damn thing only listens to me about fifty percent of the time. He flew at you to say hello.” And he was aware of just how weird that sounded.

“Are you telling me you can’t control your own freaky implant? Is it some sort of experimental tech—is that why it’s malfunctioning? Why don’t you just get the programming fixed so you can control it? And who’s making those things, anyway? I’ve never heard of anything like it. It isn’t normal. And how are you communicating with it?”

Part of him knew that he shouldn’t tell her anything more, but the truth of the matter was that it was far too late for that. She already knew too much. Even if she thought the bat was tech instead of a real bat, she would still tell people about it. And after CommTECH had become suspicious about Striker’s animal, they couldn’t afford any more rumors about programmable animal implants.

He took a deep breath and looked her in the eye, which was easy because he was holding her two feet off the ground, and he told her the truth. “The bat isn’t tech. He isn’t an implant. He’s a genetic mutation—or I should say we’re a genetic mutation, as my DNA has merged with the bat’s.”

She was quiet for a beat, and Mace spent it praying that she wouldn’t start screaming again. Soundproofed room or not, that screech hurt his ears.

The color drained from her face. “Are you telling me that I had sex with a bat?”

“What? No!” Of course her brain went to the one place he’d never expected it to. “Where the hell does the stuff in your head come from? You had sex with me.”

“But you’re part bat. How is that even possible? Genetic experimentation on that level is illegal. Why would you take part in an illegal and dangerous experiment? To get a bat? I mean, a bat? I could understand if you’d done it to get something cool—like a lion. But a bat?”

“Stop saying that, and it wasn’t an experiment. I’m not part bat. I’m a man, and the bat’s a bat. We just kind of…share the same space.” Yeah, that explanation had never made sense to him, either. He waited to see if she bought it.

“It wasn’t an experiment? Then how did it happen? Why did it happen? Why would you want to share your DNA with a bat? Oh my word, I feel dizzy. Your DNA is merged with a bat’s. The bat is part human, and that makes you part bat.” She threw back her head and wailed. “I had sex with a bat.” Her head shot forward. “Does my birth control work with bat sperm? If I’m pregnant, will I give birth to a bat? This is a nightmare.”

He couldn’t take the noise any longer. His genetically mutated hearing meant that her shouting was damaging his eardrums. His ears actually ached. So he did the only thing he could think of to shut her up. He kissed her. His lips slammed against hers. And then a brutal, sharp pain shot out from his balls. He dropped Keiko, clutched his dick, and crumpled to the floor.

“What the hell?” The words squeaked out through his clenched teeth.

She glared down at him, hands on hips, eyes blazing, looking untouchable. “You don’t get to force your will on me.”