“You have to take us out of here,” she told him. “Sebastian and I both.”
“Don’t tell me you still love that clueless little boy,” Barrett sneered. “He’s not like us. You and I have demons inside us, the same kind of demons, eager to be together. That’s why we can touch.”
“I can touch him, too,” Juliana said.
“What can he do for you?” Barrett stood and glared down at her. She felt cornered. “I can give you everything, Juliana. More than you ever dreamed of. We can become what we’re meant to be. You would be a queen by my side. What can he offer?”
“I love him,” Juliana whispered.
“What did you say?” He leaned toward her, scowling. “Say it again.”
“I love him!” Juliana snapped. “I love him. And I’m having his baby. We have to be together, Mr. Barrett...Jonathan...and we need your help to get us out of here. Please understand.”
“You’re having his baby?” Barrett looked her over, confused. Then he looked angry, his jaw clenching repeatedly inside his cheek. He took a breath. “That’s not a problem, Juliana. I still want to be with you. The child...I’ll care for the child as if it were my own. I promise.”
“Your own? Like the son you just casually offered to abandon?”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“But it’s the truth. I saw how your family lives in fear of you. Why would I ever want that life for myself?” She crossed her arms. She felt powerless in his shadow, knowing he was immune to her demon plague. In fact, he seemed to thrive on it. Attacking him could actually make him more powerful...he clearly had something like her and Sebastian, a touch that made him “supernormal,” but he hadn’t said what it was.
“Juliana, I am talking about an entirely new beginning,” he said. “A new life for both of us.”
“Tell me you will take Sebastian and me out of here,” Juliana said. “If you love me, you will at least do that much.”
“If I love you? You don’t believe me? You are the only reason I came here.”
“Then help us.”
“Why?” Fury swelled in his eyes. “Help you, so you can leave me for him? You would leave me cold, wouldn’t you? That’s what you’re telling me.”
She took a deep breath. “If you still wish it...you can have your way. Just once, and only after you take us home, if you still want me then, if that is your price.”
“My price? You offer yourself as 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.