prostitute? One night in exchange for passage across the ocean. I don’t want you as payment. I want you to stay with me. I want all of you.”
“I can’t give you that,” she whispered.
He snarled and punched an ornate mirror on the wall, shattering it and bloodying his fist. He stalked to the door and pounded on it.
“Where are you going?” Juliana asked.
“Home,” he said. “You’d rather stay with him? Then you can stay here with him, have your child together, enjoy your life.”
“You have to take us!” Juliana ran toward him, grabbing his arm. Blood from his hand dripped onto her dress. “You can’t leave us. It’s your fault we’re here!”
“Tell me you don’t feel the same way that I do.” He leaned in, looking into her eyes. “I know you do. Tell me you’ll leave him. Tell me you love me.”
Juliana gaped at him, feeling crazed. The guards opened the door and immediately drew their long-nosed Luger pistols when they saw blood, all of them pointing at Juliana. Their gas masks stared at her, as expressionless as insects.
“So you choose him,” Barrett said. “You’ll regret it.”
He stepped out of the room, and the guards locked her inside, alone, her dress dotted with his blood.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
After yet another strenuous day of testing, in which Mariella had to predict what images the test subjects would see when they looked at a screen in an enclosed booth, she lay awake in bed. It was late, and the underground facility was silent except for the endless coughing and rattling of the ventilation system. She twisted and turned. Her hands found her way to her stomach, momentarily shocked to find it flat and firm instead of round and full of baby. Her past and present memories were starting to collide in a way that left her confused and sometimes scared.
She had continued cooperating with Ward, and he seemed pleased with her performance in the lab. She told herself that she wasn’t really working with him, that she was just going along, gathering information until the day they could escape. As the weeks passed, though, she began to question her own motives. Maybe she was just taking the safe road, while Jenny and Seth bravely resisted.
Ward was less pleased with Mariella’s failure to win Seth over. She’d visited him several times, but he refused to cooperate. Mariella didn’t see why he couldn’t just pretend. She teased him while telling herself that she wouldn’t actually sleep with him if given the chance, even though she knew just how good his healing touch made her body feel, how she still tingled hours after the lovemaking itself was over. She would resist the cravings of her body and her heart, even if he changed his mind and decided to pretend to cooperate as she did. She would keep her feelings to herself.
Mariella rolled over in bed, aching to touch Seth again and hating herself for it.
* * *
“Wake up, kids,” Alise said as she flipped on the lamp and approached the four-poster bed. Her cousin Niklaus followed a step behind her, as usual, like an obedient attack dog waited for orders.
“Hi, Alise!” Mia sat up, smiling sleepily. Alise came almost every morning to walk them to breakfast, and Mia was happy she did. Sometimes, early in the morning, she would feel the dark shape of something large looming at the back of her mind, like an upsetting memory she’d forgotten. Then Alise would arrive, and she’d feel so much better, happy and thoughtless, lusty for another round with her handsome lover, Sebastian, and his enchanted touch that made her feel better all over. The world always felt right again after she saw Alise.
“Wake up, Sebastian.” Alise shook his shoulder, and his eyes drifted open. His lips curled into a delighted smile at the sight of Alise leaning over him. “Pack your bags. Mia’s moving upstairs, and you’re moving back to your room.”
“Huh? Why?” Sebastian sat up, his hair sticking in every direction, looking confused and hurt. “Wait, what?”
“You’re moving back. Play time is over, boy,” Alise said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we don’t need you anymore,” Alise said. “You’ve made your contribution, and now you’re done. Oh, don’t look so hurt. You’ve had a fun couple of months with her.”
“I don’t understand.” Sebastian looked back and forth between them.
“Niklaus will help you get back to your room, if you need it,” Alise said sweetly. “Won’t you, Niklaus?”
Niklaus glared at Sebastian and motioned for him to hurry up.
“Why