Novel-novel oleh Blessing Coach

Elena POVI woke up with my head pounding so hard it felt like someone was hitting my skull with a hammer from the inside, and when I tried to move I couldn't because my arms and legs were strapped down to something cold and metal.A table.I was strapped to a table.Panic shot through me and I opened my eyes to bright fluorescent lights that made the pain in my head worse, and I blinked trying to focus on where I was.A lab.White walls and stainless steel equipment and monitors beeping somewhere nearby.I turned my head and felt relief flood through me when I saw Adrian on another table right next to mine.He was also strapped down but he wasn't moving yet, still unconscious from the gas."Adrian," I said but my voice came out hoarse and weak. "Adrian, wake up."He didn't respond."He'll wake soon," a voice said.I jerked my head toward the sound and saw Vanessa standing at the foot of my table looking down at me with those cold calculating eyes.She was wearing a white lab coat lik

Adrian POVElena had come for me and risked everything to get here, and I couldn't believe she was actually standing in front of me alive and real and holding me like she'd never let go."The twins?" I asked because I had to know first before anything else. "Where are Rose and Violet?""Safe, they're outside with security," Elena said quickly. "But we have to go right now, Adrian, we have to get out of here.""Marcus," I said pulling back. "We need to find Marcus.""Where is he?" Elena asked."I don't know, they separated us but he has to be on this level somewhere." I went to the door and looked out into the hallway.Lily was there with the security team and when she saw me she smiled. "Good to see you alive.""Good to be alive," I said. "We need to find Marcus, which cells haven't you checked yet?""Down that way," one of the security team members said pointing further down the hall.We ran down the hallway and I started shouting. "Marcus! Marcus, where are you?""Adrian?" Marcus's

Elena POVWe came in with the private security team that Lily had called and they were armed and professional and looked like they did this kind of thing every day, and I had never been more terrified in my entire life.My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the gun Sarah had given me, and every breath I took felt like it might be my last.But I kept moving forward because Adrian was in here somewhere and I wasn't leaving without him.The security team had blown a hole in the side wall of the facility to create an entry point, and the explosion had been so loud my ears were still ringing from it.Now we were inside and there were guards everywhere.Sarah and her team moved through the hallways like they knew exactly what they were doing, shooting with precision and taking down Vanessa's guards one by one, and I followed behind them with Lily next to me."Stay close to me," Lily said gripping my arm. "Don't get separated.""Okay," I said but my voice was shaking.More gunfi

Adrian POVDr. Shah was pacing around the small room like he was giving a lecture and I was his only student, and he kept looking at me with those cold analytical eyes that made my skin crawl."You need to understand what you are, Mr. Blackwell," Shah said. "You're not just a person who happened to be born, you're the product of advanced genetic engineering that took years to perfect.""I don't care," I said."You should care because you have multiple enhancements that make you fundamentally superior to normal humans," Shah continued like I hadn't spoken. "Enhanced intelligence that allows you to process information faster and retain it better, enhanced strength and endurance beyond what your frame should naturally support, enhanced resilience that let you survive a coma that should have killed you or left you brain dead.""So what?" I asked."So you're not just Richard Blackwell's heir," Shah said and his voice had an edge of excitement now. "You're the future of human evolution, you

Elena POVVanessa wanted to trade the twins for Adrian and my hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the phone, and I looked at Rose and Violet sleeping peacefully on the hotel bed completely unaware that someone was trying to bargain for their lives."How do I know you'll let him go?" I asked and my voice came out weak and desperate."You don't," Vanessa said simply like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But what choice do you have?"She was right and I hated that she was right.I had no choice at all.Either I gave her my babies and maybe got Adrian back.Or I refused and Adrian died."I need time," I said."You have two hours to decide," Vanessa said. "I'll send coordinates for where we can make the exchange, come alone with the twins or your husband dies."She hung up.I stared at the phone in my shaking hands and felt like I couldn't breathe, like the air in the room was too thick to pull into my lungs.How was I supposed to choose between my husband and my da

Adrian POVThey'd locked me in a small room with white walls and nothing else, and I heard them dragging Marcus somewhere down the hall away from me.We were separated.That was deliberate, I knew it was deliberate because Vanessa wanted to keep us apart so we couldn't plan anything together.I started pacing back and forth across the room because I couldn't stand still, couldn't stop moving, and my legs were still shaking from being forced to my knees with a gun pressed against my head.The room was tiny, maybe ten feet across, and completely empty except for one metal chair bolted to the floor in the center.I went to the door and tested it even though I already knew what would happen.Locked tight.The handle didn't even turn when I pulled on it, and when I threw my shoulder against the metal it didn't budge at all.Solid.Professional.I slammed my fist against the door. "Let me out!"Nothing.I turned and looked at the rest of the room searching for any other way out.There was a