Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Auden was no touch telepath, as some of the Justice Psy were said to become after years of their grim work, but this man had talked about her brain as if it were an interchangeable tool. She did not want him near her, much less touching her.
“I’ll see what I can organize in terms of acceptable transportation,” she said, her hand lifting to her temple without conscious volition.
But it was the right move, because Dr. Verhoeven reiterated the need for her to take a break, adding the words, “The child is critical. Early signs are that its neural structure is developing as required.”
Auden was going to throw up.
Swallowing back the bile with effort, she gave a curt nod, then made her way out of the infirmary suite. She wasn’t surprised to find Charisma waiting for her in the reception area. And after the creepiness of Dr. Verhoeven’s words, she’d had enough. She channeled Shoshanna. “Do you wish to be demoted?” Her voice was ice coated in frost. “Because I can make that happen today.”
Clever, Auden, whispered an internal voice as cold as the one that had come out of her mouth. You didn’t threaten to fire her. She knows you’d never do that, not with all the information she holds in her head. But a demotion? Yes, that she might believe. Especially as she has witnessed such “demotions” before, all of which involved the telepathic scraping of a mind.
The bile returned. Who was she that she could have such emotionless thoughts?
“I had no desire to overstep.” Charisma bent her head. “I came to discuss a personal matter with Dr. Verhoeven.”
Auden believed neither the sudden submissiveness, nor the excuse for her presence. “Then do go in, Ris.” She waved a hand…and felt her lips curve into a smile that she’d seen on her mother’s face as she grew from child to adult.
Charisma visibly drew back, sucking in a breath at the same time. “Sir.” A shaky tone.
Auden left without waiting for anything further. She didn’t know how she made it to her bedroom, or how she kept it together until she was behind the closed door of her bathroom suite. She had to believe this room wasn’t monitored—and even if it was, all they’d hear was a pregnant woman throwing up.
After it was done, she cleaned up, brushed her teeth, and made herself think of the doctor’s words. Why “this brain”? What had he meant by that? It wasn’t as if a person could switch brains—not even Psy could do that.
Staring in the mirror, she reached up to her hairline, to that faint scar hidden beneath the fine hairs there. “What did you put in me?” she whispered so quietly it was inaudible to her own ears, her question directed at her dead parents.
She’d gone into surgery, for what her mother had told her was a corrective procedure to fix a blocked artery that could one day lead to a stroke, and come out fine. It had lasted one week. Then had come the burning storm in her brain that had altered the trajectory of her life.
Anything else she knew, she’d learned from Shoshanna. Her mother used to sit beside her bed and speak to her after she took over primary custody. Auden only remembered pieces of it.
“Unfortunate that the updated variant of the graft had the same flaw.” Her mother rising from the seat. “Not much of a loss in the grand scheme of things. Despite Henry’s delusions, a Ps was never going to run his family or mine.”
A graft. A foreign part. Inside Auden’s brain.
Whatever it was Shoshanna and Henry had been attempting to do, there was more wrong with Auden than she’d realized. She might be able to function again, but her thoughts weren’t always her own…and neither were her actions.
Her stomach rumbled.
Heart gentling, she rubbed at her belly. I’ll go get us food, she telepathed her baby. Sorry about the disruption to the peace just before.
The baby kicked, safe and content inside her womb where none of the horrors of the world could touch her. And where she couldn’t understand the horrific implications of an M-Psy talking about her brain developing as “required.”
Required for what?
For another experiment as had been done to Auden?
She squeezed the edge of the sink, rage filling her to the brim at the idea of them butchering her child like they’d butchered her. No one was getting their hands on her baby. No matter what she had to do…or whom she had to kill.
That last thought? It was hers. All hers.
That rage gave her the impetus to push away from the sink and stride down to the kitchen area, where the member of staff on duty was preparing a tray of high-nutrient food.
“Sir.” The staff member bowed her head. “Dr. Verhoeven sent through an order to be delivered to you.”