Page 108 of Legacy of Chaos

He couldn’t wait to tell her he’d secured a private tour of the newly built, hyper-modern astrology lab in Germany. It would be their first realdateout in the world since the NASA tour, and he wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle of bodyguards. He hated being in public. If he could get a place to shut down while he was there, he did. And he was willing to pay anything. Just two days ago, he’d arranged to shop at Harrods, completely alone except for his personal security team, for an hour while he purchased Christmas gifts.

Usually, he sent Kalis or Leilani to do his shopping—and hehadsent them for most of it, but he’d wanted to get Cyansomething himself. She claimed to dislike the human holiday season, but the pictures of her and Shanea dressed as Christmas elves said otherwise.

So, for the first time ever, he’d gone shopping and decorated his house. It was completely over the top and ridiculous, but he had to admit that his log cabin worked well as a Christmas canvas. He’d even found himself smiling a couple of times as he admired the lighted garland and perfectly symmetrical tree he’d decorated with handmade glass ornaments from Italy.

He couldn’t wait for Cyan to see it after their tour of the astro-lab.

He glanced at his wrist comms. Where was she? She was never late.

“Tech Comms,” he said, and the building’s AI assistant clicked on. “Where in the complex is Cyan?”

“Cyan is currently in the Newton Library.”

A virtual screen popped into the air and zoomed in on Cyan. She was walking toward the exit in a hurry. Parker, that asshole, joined her, said something, and she laughed. They exited the building, chatting. More laughing.

“Sir,” Kalis interrupted, “you have an urgent missive from Taran Ross.”

Stryke swiped away the camera feed. Fucking Parker. Also, he could do without the sharp pain stabbing his brain. He’d had a mild headache all morning, but it suddenly decided to go from an annoyance to painful enough to make him wince.

“Thanks, Kalis. I got it.” He tapped his desk comms, and Taran flickered into view in front of him, his jaw tight and his mouth a grim slash. “Taran. What is it?”

He winced through another stab and another pain in his gut. Maybe he’d eaten something that didn’t agree with him. He’d eaten a lot of new things since he and Cyan started seeing each other on a regular basis. And he always looked forward to eatingwith her, even if he still hated the hassle of eating when he was alone.

“Nothing, I hope.” Taran turned, gesturing to the wall of new or restored monitoring screens. Repairs had gone well so far, and last time Taran talked to him, he’d said the forward operating center would be secure in a couple of days. “Everything’s been quiet since the Gehennaportal was destroyed. But a few hours ago, we got a strange temperature reading. I thought it might be an anomaly, but it happened again. And again. There’s a pattern.”

“A…pattern?”

“Yeah. And here’s the thing. I went back through all our old readings, and I found the same pattern. We just missed it because there was so much else going on. But it’s back. This is going to sound crazy, but I get the feeling it’s kind of a…heartbeat.”

Stryke gripped the back of his chair as a wave of nausea washed over him. “A heartbeat for what?”

“The Gehennaportal,” Taran said. “I don’t think it was destroyed after all.”

“That’s impossible. Cyan verified it.”

Taran averted his gaze, clearly hesitant to speak. But he was a professional, and he didn’t beat around the bush, which was why Stryke had hired him. “I think Cyan lied.”

“No way,” Stryke said, his voice sounding mushy, like his tongue was too big for his mouth. “She wouldn’t have lied.” He reached for a tissue and wiped the sweat off his brow. Maybe he had food poisoning. “If the gate is functional, it’s not because of anything she did. I’ll see her in a few minutes. I’ll ask her—”

He broke off as pain spiraled through his body. Squeezing, twisting pressure racked his insides as if all his organs were cramping.

“Stryke?” Taran’s voice sounded distant. Muffled. “Stryke! What’s wrong?”

His lungs…wouldn’t work. Stumbling for the emergency button under his desk, he gasped for air, his vision fading and legs collapsing beneath him.

“Stryke!”

He wasn’t going to make it to the button. He wasn’t…going…to…

Cyan was in love with Stryke.

After two and a half weeks of meeting him daily, mostly in his office and sometimes at his log home, she couldn’t deny it anymore.

The first couple of days had been a little strained, and clearly, he was jealous of Parker, tensing every time she mentioned her coworker as part of talking about their project. Stryke never asked about Parker, though, respecting the boundaries they’d put in place.

She wouldn’t have minded if he’d asked since nothing was going on between them. She hadn’t even seen Parker outside of the office since their pizza night. He’d asked her out a couple of times, but she’d politely declined.

Parker was the kind of guy she’d have been interested in if not for Stryke. He was smart, funny, and sweet. Shanea would have pushed Cyan at him.

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