ZEBRA BOOKS

      Kensington Publishing Corp.

       www.kensingtonbooks.com

      To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

      ZEBRA BOOKS are published by

      Kensington Publishing Corp.

      119 West 40th Street

      New York, NY 10018

      Copyright © 2018 by Jacquelyn Frank

      This title was originally published as a part of NOCTURNAL, an anthology by Jacquelyn Frank, Kate Douglas, Jess Haines, and Claire Willis, copyright 2010 Kensington Publishing Corp.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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      Special book excerpts or customized printings can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write or phone the office of the Kensington Sales Manager: Kensington Publishing Corp., 119 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018. Attn. Sales Department. Phone: 1-800-221-2647.

      Zebra Books and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

      First Electronic Edition: April 2018

      eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-4871-8

      eISBN-10: 1-4201-4871-0

      Printed in the United States of America

      Other Books by Jacquelyn Frank

      The Nightwalkers

      Jacob

      Gideon

      Elijah

      Damien

      Noah

      Adam

      The Shadowdwellers

      Ecstasy

      Rapture

      Pleasure

      The Gatherers

      Hunting Julian

      Stealing Kathryn

      Drink of Me

      Hunter

      Dangerous

      Chapter 1

      Amara couldn’t even count the places she ached in.

      As usual.

      She opened her eyes and for those two instants between waking and awareness, she hoped for the miracle of opening them to her gloriously dismal little room in the county workhouse. She never would have thought she would long for the days when she had worked hard labor just to have a dim little windowless cell to live in. The small gray mattress on the canvas and coiled struts had been big enough for only one person, and the cell itself had been long enough only to tightly fit the bed, and wide enough to fit a nightstand and a small dresser besides. The lights and digital readout clock alarm had been automatically shut off at sleep hour and had awakened her with a blare an hour before she was to report for her shift. It had been a tedious, cramped way to live, but it was better than the alternative of starving or being raped at night in the streets by local gangs because you had no safe roof over your head.

      It was better than this.

      She opened her eyes to the bright glare of overhead lights and shock-white walls. It gave her an instant headache, all that brilliant brightness, and she groaned as she tried to blink her stinging eyes into adjustment.

      As always, within seconds of her first opening her eyes, the door opened and Raul stepped into the room.

      “Good morning,” he greeted her with his usual efficiency and lack of sincerity as he went about his morning routine, which consisted of taking several tubes of blood from the permanent port imbedded in her arm. He checked other vital statistics pertaining to her body just as he always did, and she lay there stiffly acquiescent.

      It wasn’t as though Amara had much of a choice.

      Not anymore.

      “How do you feel, Amara?”

      “Sore. Tired. Bitchy.” She affected a sweet smile that was glaringly false. “And I have a headache.”

      Raul made his usual “hmm” of comprehension. He never pretended to give a damn, and it was obvious that he didn’t. There was no use being nice to her, she supposed. From what she knew, she was one of many, many lab rats and it wouldn’t pay to get too attached.

      Especially when the so-called Phoenix Project had a rumored mortality rate of 90 percent.

      “So tell me, Raul,” she said conversationally, scooting herself up in bed and trying to avoid the tangle of leads they stuck in her hair, against her scalp, every night. Most of the women had shorn off their hair, keeping it peach-fuzz short or completely bald, the stickiness of the glue from the leads just making it easier to deal with, but Amara refused. They’d taken enough away; she wasn’t going to let them have her long, platinum blond hair too. Besides, what else did she have to do all day? She could afford the time it took to wash and work free the adhesive. So what if her hair was thinner than it had been from being pulled out in the process? It was still long and it was still hers. “What’s on the agenda for today? Drug testing? Narcos? I admit, I dig the narcos so long as they don’t give me hallucinations. Those last ones were a bitch. Or are we gene splicing? Maybe…ooo, don’t tell me! Radiation therapy? No? C’mon, not even a teensy clue?”

      “Do you have your period?” Raul asked, ever efficient and bored, even in the face of the questions they both knew he would never answer.

      “Nope. I might be PMSing, though. Bitchy, remember?”

      “And all of your implants are comfortable?”

      He meant had any broken through her skin. She was very delicate skinned, and her body liked to push out their implants at various intervals, spitting them out in defiance as if to say, “Take that, fuckers!”

      Amara loved her body.

      Knowing Raul would check for himself despite his courtesy of asking, she showed him both forearms and calves where she had been implanted with tracking and disciplinary devices. They promised to keep her confined to the grounds or kill her if she dared try to escape. They could inject a reservoir of tranquilizers on command if she got rowdy. They could give her a bitchin’ case of heaving nausea for punishment if she copped an attitude and didn’t comply with the medical personnel and their constant testing and assessments.

      Luckily, they didn’t count being a smart-ass as having an attitude. Otherwise, she’d have been puking for the entire three months she’d been there.

      “Big day today.”

      Raul turned and left after that rare parting remark and she gaped after him.

      Big day today? What the hell did that mean? A cold feeling of dread infused her every cell as she wrapped her arms around herself against the chill and hurried into the small cubicle shower off her room. It was the only amenity this place had over the workhouse. A private bathroom. But that was probably because it made it easier to control other bodily samples and monitoring of private behavior. She had figured out there were cameras in her room and bath pretty quickly. She might have to put