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V’s eyebrows danced with his hairline. “You are?”

“The geneticist in me abhors extinction. Genocide is…utterly unforgivable.” She got up and went to the door to look in at Phury. “Do you kill them? The…lessers?”

“That’s what we’re for. My brothers and I were bred to fight.”

“Bred?” Her dark green eyes shifted to his. “What do you mean?”

“The geneticist in you knows exactly what I mean.” As the word Primale pinged around his skull like a loose bullet, he cleared his throat. Shit, he was so not in a big hurry to talk about his future as the Chosen’s stud with the woman he actually wanted to be with. Who was leaving. At, like, sundown.

“And this is a facility for training more of you?”

“Well, soldiers to support us. My brothers and I are a little different.”

“How so?”

“Like I said, we were specifically bred for strength and endurance and healing.”

“By whom?”

“Another long story.”

“Try me.” When he didn’t reply, she pressed, “Come on. We might as well talk, and I’m really interested in your kind.”

Not him. His kind.

V swallowed a curse. Man, if he were any more chicked-out about her, he’d be wearing nail polish.

He really wanted to light the cigarette in his hand, but he wasn’t about to around her. “Standard stuff. The strongest males were mated to the shrewdest females. Which resulted in guys like me, who are the best bet for the protection of the race.”

“And the female births from these pairings?”

“Were the basis of the spiritual life of the species.”

“Were? So that kind of selective breeding doesn’t go on anymore?”

“Actually…it’s starting up again.” Damn, he really needed a cigarette. “Will you excuse me?”

“Where are you going?”

“Out to the gym for a smoke.” He slipped the hand-rolled between his lips, stood up, and went just beyond the equipment room’s door. Leaning against the gym’s concrete wall, he set the Aquafina bottle down at his feet and put his lighter to good use. As he thought about his mother, he exhaled a smoky fuck.

“The bullet was strange.”

V snapped his head around. Jane was in the doorway, arms across her chest, her blond hair messed up like she’d been pushing a hand through it.

“Excuse me?”

“The bullet that hit you. Do they use different weapons?”

He blew his next stream of smoke out in the opposite direction, away from her. “How was it strange?”

“Normally bullets are conical in shape, the tops either coming to a sharp angle if it’s a rifle or being more blunt if it’s a pistol. The one in you is round.”

V took another draw on his hand-rolled. “You saw this on the X-ray?”

“Yeah, read like normal lead as far as I could see. The bullet was slightly uneven around the edges, but that was likely caused by it banging around your rib cage.”

“Well…God only knows what kind of new technology the lessers are tripping with. They have toys just like we have toys.” He looked at the tip of the cigarette. “Speaking of which, I should say thank-you.”

“For what?”

“Saving me.”

“You’re very welcome.” She laughed a little. “I was so surprised at your heart.”

“You were?”

“Never seen anything like it before.” She nodded to the PT room. “I want to stay here with you guys until your brother’s healed up, okay? I have a bad feeling about him. Can’t put my finger on it…. He looks all right, but my instincts are ringing, and when they go off like this I’m always sorry if I don’t follow them. Besides, I’m not due back to real life until Monday morning anyway.”

V froze with the hand-rolled on the way up to his lips.

“What?” she said. “There a problem with that?”

“Ah…no. No problem. At all.”

She was staying. A little longer.

V smiled to himself. So this was what winning the lottery felt like.

Chapter Nineteen

As John stood in the line in front of ZeroSum with Blay and Qhuinn, he was not happy and not comfortable. They’d been waiting to get into the club for, like, an hour and a half, and the only good thing was that the night wasn’t so cold they froze their balls off.

“I’m so not getting any younger here.” Qhuinn stomped his feet. “And I didn’t dud up to play wallflower in this