Page 68 of Red Zone Awakened

CHAPTER27

Mace ground his teeth.“We need to get out of here.The Freedom team will have returned to the security hub by now.We need to take them and the security cameras out.”

“Mace,” Keiko persisted, undeterred by his attempt to deflect her question, “what happens if the bat dies?”

There was no getting around it.Unless he wanted to pick her up and carry her out of the room.“We don’t know,” he told her reluctantly, unable to meet her eyes.

Her bottom lip trembled slightly.“If the bat dies, you die, don’t you?”

It was too humiliating to answer because his biggest weakness was two inches tall.

“Where’s the bat now?”she asked.

“Out eating.Now can we go to the hub?”

“Eating what?”

Mace swallowed a groan.“Bugs.”

“You eat bugs?”She sounded horrified.

“No.I don’t eat bugs.The bat eats bugs.”

“Once this is all over, I’m going to need some serious therapy.”

“Can we leave now?”He opened the door again and signaled for her to follow.They’d made it two steps before there was a familiar tingling beneath his skin—his bat was returning.

He turned back to Keiko.“Don’t scream.The bat’s coming back.”

Wide-eyed, she stared around the corridor.“Now?”

“Yeah, now.Are you going to freak out?Do I need to cover your mouth?”

“I’m fine,” she said but didn’t look too sure.

Mace backed her into the communications room, leaving the door ajar for the bat.He took a step toward her, preparing himself to cover her mouth at the first sign of panic.That earned him a glare.The hairs on his skin stood on end, and he knew the bat had arrived even before Keiko’s mouth fell open.He watched as she stared at the flying rodent in wonder and fear.

“It’s so small,” she whispered.“And you’re huge.”

The bat fluttered between them, and Mace’s head filled with its joy at seeing Keiko again.He kept his eyes on her, saw the tremble in her hands and her breathing pick up.Saw her shoulders tense and a cold sweat break out on her brow, but she didn’t scream.

“What kind of bat is it?”Her voice shook as her eyes remained glued to his other half, which was showing off for her by performing spirals in the air.

“Canyon.They’re one of the smallest bats in North America.They’re loners.And like living in caves and eating flies.”It was embarrassing.Other members of his team had merged with proper animals—wolves, snakes, mountain lions—while he’d gotten a flying rat that wasn’t even as big as his thumb.

“It looks furry.Is it soft?”

“I don’t cuddle it.”Mace frowned at her.“How the hell would I know if it’s soft?”

“You touch it.It’s part of you.”

“It’s a bat.There are millions like it in Texas alone.It’s nothing special.”

Dumbass, the bat whispered in his mind, making Mace glare at it.

Obviously, now that it could talk, the bat wasn’t above throwing Mace’s insults straight back at him.Mace took a step back and secured the door, wondering if they’d ever get out of the damn comms room.

“We need to go.Our window for getting out of this building is closing fast.Enforcement won’t stay away for long.Once they realize the attacks on the other CommTECH buildings are diversions, they’ll return here.”