Unforgotten(75)

“I don’t think so.”

“She’s on the run, like you are. She told you so. She’s hiding from the same people you’ve been hiding from.”

“Diotech,” I say instantly.

“Yes,” Cody confirms. “And if she was willing to expend that much effort to conceal her location from them before, it only makes sense that she would do it again.”

He points the tip of the pen at his own name. “Just think about it. If she was capable of removing memories from my mind, wouldn’t she also be capable of putting memories into yours?”

Every inch of me goes numb. Except my brain. My thoughts are spinning frantically. I stare at Cody’s diagram in total disbelief. Why didn’t I see it before? It makes so much sense now.

The Modifier.

She used it on him. But she also used it on me. When we got into her car, she turned it on both of us. She said it was to protect her. So that the memory of her location couldn’t be stolen later.

I woke up on the cold concrete floor of her storage unit. I have no idea how long I was out.

She had complete and full access to my brain the entire time.

I gasp and bring my hand to my mouth.

“You’re right,” I squeak. “Maxxer is the only other person I know who has reason to hide from Diotech. But she couldn’t simply tell me where she was. Or implant a memory of her location. That would be too easy for Diotech to steal. She had to leave clues. Clues that could only be triggered by me.”

The pieces are swirling around me as I eagerly pluck each one and put it in the right place.

“Find me.”

That voice was inserted at the beginning of every memory. Like a label. Like a heading. Tying them all together. Telling me what to do.

“She’s leading me to her.”

The excitement of our breakthrough is so overwhelming, I have to sit down. I slide into one of the chairs.

This whole time Maxxer has been waiting for me to come to her.

It’s almost as though she knew I wouldn’t stay in 1609. That something would go wrong and I would eventually need to find her.

If she really implanted these memories when I was unconscious in her storage unit, that means she was already planning for us to meet again. She was already three steps ahead of me.

“But wait,” I wonder aloud. “Why would Diotech be so interested in finding Maxxer, anyway? Why would they send someone here simply to track her through me?”

Was it because she ran away? That doesn’t feel right. Why risk losing me—the trillion-dollar investment—only to bring back a rogue scientist?

“It doesn’t make sense,” I say aloud. “They have the transession gene. They don’t need her anymore.”

“Unless,” Cody says, tapping his pen on the circled text that reads Capable of Disabling Malfunctioning Gene, “Zen isn’t the only one who’s sick.”

There’s a creak in the floorboards and we jump and turn in unison toward the tall, statuesque figure joining us in Cody’s lab. I’m not sure how long he’s been standing there or how much he’s heard. But I have a feeling it’s too long and too much.

A disconcerting smirk dances across his perfect features as he opens his mouth and remarks in that irresistibly deep and velvety voice, “Smart man.”





43

WAR



I can’t explain what happens to me in that moment.

It’s almost as though my body declares war on itself. Half of me is terrified. Angry. Wanting to transesse right back to that guest room, scoop Zen into my arms, and leap from a tenth-story window. Regardless of whether we’ll survive the fall or not.

But the other half …

That’s the half that disgusts me. The half that feels an overwhelming rush of relief. The part of me that has been sickeningly hoping that he will find me. That I will see him again. It’s the part that wants to run to him now. Touch him. Feel that glorious surge of energy that charges me every time our skin connects.

It’s the part of me I don’t understand.

That I fear I will never understand.

Back and forth they battle. Reasonable hatred and inexplicable desire. He is my sworn enemy and yet I could never bring myself to defeat him. He is despicable because he was made by the hands of the people who seek to destroy my happiness. And yet we are the same.

“Kaelen,” my lips whisper his name. It slithers out of my mouth, filled with a venomous longing. A maddening fascination. A repellent attraction.

He stands motionless just across the room from me and, despite my better judgment, I let my eyes find his. Settle in. Lock.

The exhilarating sensation that runs through me is overpowering.

What is that?

Why can’t I fight it?