Icarus Rising Read Free Page B

spewed over his belly and his legs and
    in his ear Zara's sweet voice whispered to him.
    The violent release left him temporarily weak and light
    headed. His body ached all over from the exertion brought
    about by no more than her fingers brushing the taut muscles
    of his leg.
    Oh God. Oh God. He'd just come in front of every single
    member of the research team.
    "We'll take care of you. You'll be all right. We'll make it
    stop."
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    Icarus Rising
    by Bernadette Gardner
    He wanted her. He wanted her so badly that he would die
    without her. "I nee ... I need..."
    "Give him air. Let him talk. Caleb, what are you feeling?"
    Danson's voice grated like screeching turbines in his ears. He
    snarled a response, and some of the hands clamped over his
    limbs loosened their grip.
    Something in the back of his mind told him it was time to
    fly. Being held against the ground was unconscionable
    torture. He had to get away. A burst of raw power erupted
    from somewhere in his ravaged brain, clearing the numbness
    from the left side of this body. For an instant he was
    invincible.
    He tore at the hands clutching him and heaved himself up
    on shaky legs. Figures crowded around him, Icarian and
    human. They blurred together in one homogeneous threat.
    Only Jidar was smiling.
    Caleb spread his wings. His wings . They'd always been his,
    and they always would be. He crouched, and before anyone
    could make a move to stop him he launched himself into the
    air. The alien part of his brain rejoiced. "We are free!"
    "We are finally free," he agreed. "And they will never
    control us again."
    He circled the beach once, swooping low just to hear the
    startled exclamations of those assembled. Some scattered,
    others ducked. The Icarians only stared, expressions of
    triumph and curiosity blending on their faces. At the edge of
    the crowd, though, one figure stood alone.
    Tears glistened on Zara's face as she pressed two fingers
    to her lips and raised them into the wind.
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    Icarus Rising
    by Bernadette Gardner
    He wanted her. And when he returned, he would finally
    have her, but for now he had to go as far away as he could or
    risk taking revenge on the people who had tried to kill him.
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    Icarus Rising
    by Bernadette Gardner

Chapter Three
    "I postulate the ejaculation was a response to
    overstimulation of the limbic system and a direct hit to the
    left anterior cingulated cortex. As stated in my earlier
    research, the symbion uses its siphon both to ingest spinal
    fluid from the host and to inject a complex mixture of its
    supercharged hormones—" Dr. Danson stopped speaking
    abruptly as soon as his roving gaze caught Zara's.
    She'd just come in from the beach, exhausted and wet
    from running through the surf, scanning the horizon for signs
    of the Icarians who had all taken off in pursuit of Caleb. Her
    hair was plastered to her face like a net of salt-encrusted
    rope, and her legs wobbled from too many hours trudging
    through the sand.
    She glared at Danson. "The ejaculation? That's what you're
    concerned about?" She flung an arm toward the window of
    Danson's lab, which overlooked the spot where the bonding
    ritual had taken place. "Your experiment just brutalized a
    man's nervous system. He could be dead for all we know, and
    you're in here calmly recording your observations about his
    ejaculation ?"
    " Doctor Abbott." Danson set down his hand-held recorder
    and placed his hands in front of him on his desk. "You of all
    people should understand the risks that were involved in this
    undertaking. Weren't you brought here specifically to help
    prepare Dr. Faulkner for the possibility that the joining might
    have an unfavorable outcome?"
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    Icarus Rising
    by Bernadette Gardner
    Zara seethed. "Don't tell me my job, Doctor ." She
    emphasized the title just as he had, sarcasm dripping like
    venom from her words.
    Since the moment Caleb had screamed in pain, her heart
    had been firmly lodged at the base of her throat.