Page 64 of Red Zone Awakened

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?”

Keiko ignored him and threw another mug at his head.“It just crawled 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.”

Mace strode toward her, but she swerved to the left, lobbing everything she could lay her hands on at him, one item after another.While he was trying to figure out how to grab her without hurting her, 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 fire?The bat triggered the alarm.I asked it to as a distraction.”

She stilled in his arms and stared up 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 any sense.Why did you use it to push me off the ledge?I trusted you.”

“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.It 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 malfunctioning?Why don’t you get the programming fixed so you can control it?Who’s making those things, anyway?I’ve never heard of anything like it.How are you communicating with it?”

Part of him knew he shouldn’t tell her anything more, but the truth of the matter was it was far too late for that.Keiko already knew too much.Even if she thought the bat was tech instead of a real bat, she’d still tell people about it.And with CommTECH already suspicious about Striker’s snake, 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 told her the truth.“The bat isn’t tech.It isn’t an implant.It’s a genetic mutation—or maybe I should say we’rea genetic mutation, as my DNA’s 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 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’s 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 any sense to him either.He waited to see if she’d 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?I feel dizzy.Your DNA’s 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 again.“Does my birth control implant work with bat sperm?If I’m pregnant, will I give birth to a bat?This is a nightmare.”

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

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

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

“I wasn’t forcing my will on you.I just wanted to shut you up.”

“You can’t kiss a person to shut them up.”

“Why not?It always works in the movies.Kiss the angry woman, turn her to mush.”

“Movies?There haven’t been any movies in fifty years.And if they were full of crap like that, then it’s good riddance to them.”

“I need a break.”Mace slumped into one of the chairs, grateful it was big enough to hold him.“Is there any ice in that fridge?”

She stomped over to it, yanked it open, retrieved an ice pack, and threw it at his balls.He managed to catch it before it hit.Then he pressed it gently against the swelling.