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name for me. “Good, that’s good,
but you’re not calming.”
    Lexis
watched us with a hint of longing. Exactly what was she longing for? A
partnership like Tanner and I had? Well, she’d destroyed her chance. More than
that, Team TannaBelle wasn’t accepting new members. Except for Rome. I needed
him, too. Like I’d said, he was my filter. He could take my emotions and cage
them inside his body, removing the edge, the danger.
    Was
he okay? Had he been hurt?
    A
crystallized raindrop dripped from the ceiling, my fear and sadness too much.
It spilled out of me and would soon consume the entire house if I wasn’t
careful.
    “Tell
me what’s going on,” I managed to croak.
    That
emerald gaze slid from my face to the hands twisting at my T-shirt—to the
engagement ring glittering on my finger, a flat, fire-retardant titanium band
with diamonds encrusted in the center. It was exactly what I would have picked
for myself. Rome knew my likes, my dislikes and had known that anything similar
to the five-carat rock he’d given Lexis would have irritated me.
    Delicate
mist formed in front of Lexis’s face as she breathed. “Something went wrong.
I—He—”
    Oh
my God. “What! Just say it!”
    Tanner
squeezed my side as another crystallized droplet fell, shattering when it hit
the wooden floor.
    In,
out, I breathed. In, out. I was shaking uncontrollably.
    “He
and Cody made it into the warehouse and fought the guards posted there. It was
more of a battle than they’d anticipated. Desert Gal, who wasn’t there at the
time, had taken over OASS, as we suspected, and had already fortified all their
defenses, as we did not. Still, they managed to beat the guards and free the
prisoners.” Her voice shook. “Then one of those prisoners…attacked Rome.”
    “Is
he okay? Is he—” I still couldn’t bring myself to say it. Tanner began shaking,
too.
    “He’s
alive,” Lexis said.
    Thank
God. Relief poured through me, palpable, heady. My eyelids closed, and my knees
would have buckled if Tanner hadn’t been holding me up. The ice inside me
started to melt and the ceiling ceased its weeping. “I should kill you for
scaring me like that.”
    “You
didn’t let me finish,” was the hard reply.
    My
eyelids popped open, and the ice immediately returned. “Finish, then! Tell me
everything. Right. Now! I’m fighting for control here, and you’re only making
it worse.”
    She
nodded, grim, and that quick acquiescence made me all the more uneasy. “During
the fight, his opponent disappeared. Inside him,” she added grimly. “The man
disappeared inside him. It did something to him, something bad.”
    I
shook my head, hair slapping my cheeks but not managing to abate my confusion.
“How is that possible? That’s not—”
    She
laughed bitterly, cutting me off. “Anything is possible. You should know that
by now.”
    I
did. Oh, God, I did. “Is the man still…” And if so, what did that mean? I’d
only known about this supernatural side of life a few months. I’d been thrust
into it unexpectedly, utterly unprepared and, at first, disbelieving. In so
many ways, I was still a baby.
    “No.
He only stayed inside of Rome a few minutes, and then he exited Rome’s body as
if nothing strange had happened. Cody tried to capture him, but the man stepped
inside of him, too, before escaping. Both Cody and Rome collapsed, but Cody was
the first to awaken. He gathered Rome and the remaining experiment victims and
returned to PSI headquarters. They arrived this morning. Rome is still
unconscious.”
    Shock
was once again beating through me. I should have been there. I could have
helped him, could have erected an air shield while he worked and kept him safe.
But I hadn’t gone; I’d been too preoccupied with planning my wedding. Guilt
joined the shock, followed quickly by shame.
    “John
should have told me,” I said softly. Why hadn’t he? He’d had the opportunity.
Knowing him, though, he’d probably wanted concrete