Lethal Game (GhostWalkers 16)

Malichai had a feeling he knew where this was going. He glanced at his brother. Another Whitney experiment. Whitney was always a step ahead of science because he was willing to step on the toes of others in their fields and also to try things before they had been tested to see if they were safe. What would Malichai be willing to do for another leg? His own leg? Would he be willing to try an untested method? An unexperimented one? A part of him didn’t want Amaryllis to go any further. He was tired and he could barely keep his eyes open. His nonexistent leg throbbed and burned and itched. He couldn’t look down at it. He didn’t want her to. He hadn’t yet gotten to the point of acceptance. She couldn’t offer him a way out and expect that he wouldn’t take it.

“He says that the axolotls use stem cells to regenerate and he’s completed the sequencing of the genome. He claims he has unlocked a method to signal the pathway between genes and activate the ability to regenerate the genetic material and ultimately tissue. In other words, he can get Malichai to regrow his leg using some drug or gene-editing tool such as the one he already used on him. He would turn all of this technology over to Lily if Malichai would be willing to be the first to be experimented on.”

Ezekiel shook his head. “You know better than that, both of you. Whitney is a genius and he’s further ahead in gene-splicing and gene sequencing than just about anyone on the planet, I’m not arguing with that. He steals from other researchers and steps on them to get ahead and never feels bad about it. We know that because he used Zara to steal from researchers and she was very good at it. I’ve certainly heard of the axolotl salamander. I believe Trap keeps some in his laboratory there at his house. He says they can regenerate new limbs in three weeks without scarring. He believes they’ll be the ones to aid humans in the future, but Whitney? Letting him back into your life for any reason? No way. That’s disaster. Trusting him? It isn’t going to happen, Malichai.”

It was his leg. His body. Malichai wanted to shout that at his brother, but he knew he would sound like a child. This was his first day and he had to take a breath and really think things through. Ezekiel was right. Any bargain with Whitney was always a steep one. He had a price and sometimes that cost was hidden, but it was there, and you had to figure it out. He was willing to let Whitney put any kind of animal or insect DNA in him if that was the cost, ramp up his testosterone or give him silk armor, whatever it took to grow back his own leg. That was his choice, and no one had a say in that but him.

“What else did he say?” Malichai asked, ignoring his brother’s outburst because Whitney would have said more than what Amaryllis was giving him.

“It doesn’t matter because you aren’t doing it,” Ezekiel snapped.

Malichai had been looking at Amaryllis, not his brother, and there was something that came and went on her face very fast. One moment there, the next gone, but he caught it. Yeah. Whitney had given her a price.

“Baby,” he said softly. “Tell me what he said to you.”

Just his tone alone kept Ezekiel silent.

She shrugged. “He said I had to come back.” She sounded nonchalant, as if it wasn’t the biggest sacrifice in the world. As if she hadn’t planned her escape so carefully to get out. “He wants to study how I can heal others in exchange for you regenerating your own limb.” She knew if Whitney got his hands on her again, there would be no way out for her. He would put her in his breeding program and her life would be hell. She would do that—for him. Give up her life in order for him to have a leg.

Malichai felt anger welling up. That was so Whitney. He’d challenged Amaryllis, dared her to show him whether or not she loved Malichai enough to save his leg by returning to him.

He was silent, counting to a hundred slowly, not wanting to sound like Ezekiel, a dictator, not wanting to tell Amaryllis what she could or couldn’t do. That wasn’t the right way, not with her, not with anyone, but especially not with her. He lay back and closed his eyes, so tired he wasn’t certain he could ever open them again, but he kept his arm around her. Needing her. Needing the closeness. The connection.

“He doesn’t know us, does he? He doesn’t know how much I love you or how much I need you. Or you me. I’d never give you up for a leg. For any body part. You wouldn’t trade me either.” He poured absolute belief into his voice. “The truth is, Amaryllis, I’m a Ghost-Walker. My training alone is worth millions of dollars to the government. They aren’t going to let a little thing like my leg being amputated stop me from deploying when they need me. I’m going to have the best prosthesis available, most likely the most futuristic one, if Whitney hasn’t already given Trap or Lily his research on this salamander. It doesn’t matter to us what they do or how they do it. Crawl up on the bed with me and lie down. I just need you close.”