Hotbloods 5: Traitors

A split second after, my eyes seemed to sharpen, my muscles burning. I felt a weird sensation in my mouth, my teeth hurting, my brain searing, as though someone had set fire to my cells. A million thoughts and visions raced through my mind, some of them memories from my past, others things I didn’t recognize.

I saw towering infernos engulfing civilizations I’d never seen before. I saw faces of strange, alien beings, their mouths opening and closing, as though they were trying to say something to me. Jean and Roger, waving to me from the front porch of our house. Bashrik inside a gunship that was ablaze, plummeting to the ground, his eyes wide in fear. Angie and Lauren, running across an open battlefield, putting pressure on the wounds of dying soldiers as bullets rattled around them. Navan, shrouded in shadow, his mouth opened in a scream.

The images shifted, and I was in the Texan heat again, watching lumberjacks bathing by a creek. I glimpsed Jethro between stalks of corn, holding Ianthan by the scruff of his neck, yelling something into his face. Then, Angie was beside me, showing me something on her phone, while Lauren rolled her eyes. I could almost feel the sweat and smell the grassy scent of the fields and the earth beneath our feet.

A swirl of shadow and embers tore through my mind, twisting up like a tornado, devastating everything in its path. It scourged the Texan fields, until everything was on fire, the images shifting into something else.

The warm sunlight was gone. In its place, a coldblood on a throne, in an icy palace, a crown of jagged icicles on his forehead. He wasn’t someone I recognized, but there was something about him that resonated in my mind—a thought, niggling in the hidden part of my brain. His eyes were pitch black, with the tiniest flicker of fire within, where the pupil ought to have been.

His eyes locked with mine, and I felt my body disintegrate. A searing pain crashed through my nervous system, the inner blaze burning me up. Looking down, I saw my skin turn to ash, the gray petals fluttering away on an unseen breeze. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.



I came to with a gasp of air, clawing every available breath into my lungs. My chest heaved, and I felt like I was drowning. Kaido was peering down into my eyes, a concerned expression on his face. Behind him, Sarrask stood with his arms folded, looking at me.

“Get me out of these things!” I screamed, fighting against my restraints.

“You need to relax, Riley,” Kaido said. “You’ve had an adverse reaction to the serum. This is your body’s way of fighting it off, that’s all. You will be fine in a few minutes, once the reversal serum sets in.”

“You need to get me out of these restraints!” I bucked against them, prompting Kaido to move toward me so he could obey. “What the hell did you give me? And what the hell is he doing here?” I snapped, rubbing the raw skin of my wrists as Kaido released them from their cuffs. It seemed I’d been fighting against them while I was under, too.

“Hey! Don’t talk to me like that!” Sarrask snapped. “I just heard the commotion, and I thought you might need me. I mean, to…” He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.

Kaido cast a suspicious look back at Sarrask before edging closer to me. “I gave you the serum I told you about a few weeks ago. It would appear that, as anticipated, it had the opposite effect on you,” he explained, keeping his voice low enough that Sarrask couldn’t hear. He was clearly thrilled despite my discomfort and the unwanted presence of his brother. “I have a feeling there will be some exceptional findings for me to discover. Can you recall anything?”

I tried to grasp for the vivid images I’d seen, but as soon as I reached for them, they crumbled away like dust in my hands. I couldn’t remember anything.

“It’s all gone,” I whispered.

“That’ll be the reversal serum taking effect,” Kaido murmured, undoing the last of the ankle restraints. “It acts as a buffer to prevent your mind from damaging itself while trying to remember things it shouldn’t. I imagine your brain is blocking off sections that the serum may have overstimulated.”

I frowned at him. “What does that mean?”

“I can tell you more once I have studied the raw data,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “However, if my suspicions are correct, I may have something very special to offer you in a week or so. I do not like vague dates, but I cannot say when my results may be ready. I must say, even from the initial readings, this is extraordinarily exciting.”

“Can you tell me anything before I go?” I didn’t know whether to share in his excitement or be terrified of what the “offer” might be.

“No previews, not until I am absolutely certain of things!” Kaido insisted, his eyes flickering toward Sarrask. It was clear Kaido didn’t want his brother to know what he was up to, and I didn’t blame him. Already, Sarrask had a patronizing expression on his face.

“Neurobotany is a bunch of nonsense,” he remarked as I struggled to my feet.

Kaido shot him a look. “Only to those who do not understand its intricacies. Brains are far more fascinating than rocks!”

Sarrask snorted. “At least rocks can be put to some use. What can you do? Watch pretty lights flash up on a screen when someone eats a twig?”

“Don’t listen to him, Kaido,” I said. “He doesn’t need to know how important your work is. Don’t give him the satisfaction of an argument.”

“The wisdom of your species continues to surprise me,” Kaido mumbled, helping me to the door of his lab. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to be left in peace.”

Sarrask smirked. “So you can get down and dirty with your glowing plants?”

“They are bioluminescent flora!” Kaido cried indignantly, and he slammed the lab door in Sarrask’s face. I felt sorry for the poor guy, but I didn’t want to stay anywhere near Sarrask. Feeling woozy, I set off down the narrow corridor, walking through the drawing room and out into the hallway beyond.

“Are you happy now?” I asked, as Sarrask followed beside me. “Why do you have to wind him up like that?”

Sarrask raised a curious eyebrow. “Why do you have to humor him like that?”

“I’m not humoring him, Sarrask. I happen to think that what he does is fascinating, and there’s a lot to be discovered in his findings,” I replied. “He’s dedicated to what he does. You would know that, if you bothered to speak to him, instead of endlessly bringing him down. You’d think, after a lifetime as brothers, you’d have learned some compassion!”

“How could I feel compassion for someone like him?”

I whirled around, bristling with anger. “Because he’s precisely the kind of person who needs compassion. He has been stomped on his whole life because he’s different. He thinks he’s got a sickness he can fix, but that’s a load of crap! He’s not sick at all, but you’ve all made him feel like he is. He thinks he owes his parents something, just because he dares to exist!”

“You don’t understand Vysanthean culture, Riley. He does owe our parents a great debt,” Sarrask countered. “My parents should have killed him as a child, once his mental deficiencies became apparent. They spared his life, and he owes them for that sacrifice.”

I stared at Sarrask, aghast. “Sacrifice? What sacrifice? They let their child live—how the hell is that a sacrifice? There is nothing wrong with him. He’s just wired a little differently!” I yelled. “I may not understand ‘Vysanthean culture,’ but I understand the concept of—”

I didn’t get to finish, as Sarrask swept toward me, his lips suddenly pressing against mine, his hands holding my face, his body too close. Horrified, I pushed him away, shoving him hard in the chest, my eyes staring up in shock. He gazed down at me, looking almost as surprised as I was.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, when a harrowing cry ricocheted down the hallways toward us, shattering the stunned pause that rippled between us. My head snapped back in the direction of the pained howl.

Lorela screamed again.





Chapter Fourteen