Page 67 of Agent Zero
The funny side of it clearly hit Cal, too, and their shared, strained laughter brushed tension out of the tiny cabin.Holly stirred, mumbling softly, and subsided when they both shut up.
“Maybe I do,” Reese said, very quietly.Time to come up with something like a plan, at least.“But I’m not going to tell you.”
“Fair enough.”Cal shrugged.“I’m going to get some sleep.”He stood, carefully, backed up until his calves hit the sagging brown velour recliner, dropped down into the chair’s embrace, and was gone inside seconds.His pulse dropped, breathing evened out, and the smell of glands opening as autonomic control eased into unconsciousness was just right as well.A hint of nervousness, true, but Reese supposed in the other man’s shoes he’d be the same.Dealing with a hair-trigger agent who had every reason to doubt you would make anyone a little jumpy.
How long had Cal been running, to pass out like that?
Reese settled himself against the couch, paging through the files more slowly now.Holly’s breathing deepened as well, and he started to think maybe she might survive.
If she doesn’t, we’re going to see how fast two agents can dismantle an entire goddamn government.
It didn’t even bother him to think like that.
Reese turned another page, and settled himself to studying.
FORTY-TWO
Blood-warm,soft even though it was lumpy, the bed cradled her.Little creaks and crackles, twitching under her skin.Her head ached, savagely, and it was loud.She turned away, burying her face in the pillow, greasy hair rasping against cotton.She could feel every single strand, every inch of her skin crying out for a shower.
Soughing.In and out.She lay there for a long while before she realized it was someone breathing.No—two someones.The thump-thumps she heard weren’t traffic passing over potholes outside her apartment; they were...
Heartbeats.And a voice.“I think she’s coming around.”
An unfamiliar,malevoice.
Movement.Bare feet scrabbling for purchase, the sweat-soaked blankets tangled around her trying to trip and send her headlong, the world spinning sideways; her hip barked the pink-topped dinette table and sent it flying.Her back crashed against the cupboard, her heels still scrabbling, and she had inhaled to scream.
Reese’s hand clapped over her mouth.“Easy, baby.Easy.I’m here.”Familiar dark eyes, and the smell of him—healthy male, deliciously appetizing, her own unwashed reek disappearing into the flood to make something deep and warm and soft.Comforting.
Everything inside her turned over.Holly gasped against his hand, her stomach jolting.
The starch went out of her legs.She sagged, Reese caught her, she buried her face in his chest and inhaled.He smelled really, really good—clean and warm, safe and solid.A tinge of something brassy and sharp that made her thinkworried, a peculiar sharpness that smelled likehunger, too.Her nose was on overdrive, sorting and cataloging, impressions flashing so quickly she almost forgot to breathe.
“You’re going to adjust,” Reese said into her hair, his breath a warm spot.“It’s all right.You’re absolutely going to adjust, everything’s okay, you’re doing fine.”
I am not!This is not fine!She inhaled again, deeply, shuddering as her brain shivered inside its bony case.
Finally, when the shakes had passed, she was able to peel her cheek away from his T-shirt.Her throat was dry, she was gummed all over with crusty, nasty effluvia, and she realized her pajamas were in tatters.There was a weird silence outside—snow melting.
She could smell that, too.Pines, frozen water warming back up to a liquid, and a thousand other little things.
Including another person.Unfamiliar, harsh and strange, dangerous.Holly froze, but Reese didn’t seem to notice.
“See?You’re just at threshold, perceptions are shifting.You’ve got better senses now, Holly.You can see more and smell more, and do more.Just let it happen—you’ll adjust.I promise.”
“We all did.”That unfamiliar voice.“Welcome to the family, ma’am.”
Holly stiffened, but Reese didn’t let go of her.He was just as immovable as ever.“That’s Cal.He’s going to help us.”
“N-no—” Her mouth didn’t want to work correctly.She could taste the sickness leaving her body, her heart pummeling the inside of her ribs like it wanted to escape.There was a clot of something in her abdomen, high up on the right, but it was swiftly shrinking, starved of nutriment.Another massive clot behind her stomach, pressing against her heart.The bits of it elsewhere in her body were shrinking, too, their nasty yellowblack tar-taste filling her mouth as she focused.They made tiny, almost imperceptible creaking sounds as something else ate them, the same deep unfamiliar heat smoothing and repairing any damage left behind.
Her back didn’t hurt.She felt wobbly, thirsty, and so hungry she could eat cardboard.To be actually hungry again, without nausea—she’d forgotten what that was like.
What the hell?Holly’s head tilted back.She stared up at Reese, seeing the fine lines at the corners of his eyes.The individual threads of color in his irises—if she focused, she could actually distinguish blocks of cells, threadlike colors, a glint off his pupil?—
“Holly.”Very quietly, with no trace of anger or fear.“Breathe.”
Another wallop of scent, but this one wasn’t quite so bad.Her head hurt, a swift lance of pain through her temples quickly vanishing.Every inch of her began twitching, individual muscle fibers contracting and releasing at random, but there was another jolt of scent from Reese and that stopped.His heartbeat was nice and even; her own fell into step.She found herself inhaling as he did, and an odd calm swamped her.
