TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 249

bundhd and forty nine

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She shrugged.

“Your target should already belong to Dominion.”

There was no anger in her voice. Nothing at all.

“If that’s all, I have work to do.”

She stood.

I got up with her.

“I’ll see you tonight.”

She scoffed.

“You weren’t summoned.”

My mouth fell open.

“What do you mean?”

“You heard me. Show up if you want. I wouldn’t.”

I watched her leave.

Was this only her decision, or had the Meridian already decided I was finished?

There was only one way to find out.

That night I drove to the council chamber. I rolled my window down and handed over my permit. Every woman ahead of me passed through without delay.

The guard stopped me.

“You can’t come in.”

“Who gave the order?”

He answered with a flick of his fingers toward the road.

Leave.

I reversed and pulled over. I got out and waited by the curb, hoping someone I knew would tell me what was happening.

Then I spotted my mother’s red car.

I stepped into view and waved.

She drove past me.

I ran after her.

“Mom!”

I knocked on her window.

She lowered it, held out her card to the guard, and ignored me.

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“Mother, I’m talking to you.”

The guard stamped her card.

“They won’t let me in.”

Nothing.

She drove through the gate as if I weren’t there.

“Mom!” I shouted.

I lurched after the car until the guard stepped in front of me.

“Go home. You weren’t summoned.”

“And how would you know that?”

My mother climbed out of the car inside the compound. She walked toward the building without looking back.

The doors closed behind her.

She never turned around.

The scream tore out of me before I could stop it.

Cars rolled past. Some faces twisted with disgust. Others looked through me as though I had already disappeared.

I got back into my car. My hands shook so badly I had to grip the steering wheel.

“Pull yourself together.”

I drew a slow breath, then another, until I could drive.

On the way home, my mother’s silence stayed with me. She hadn’t even acknowledged me.

Then my phone buzzed. The Meridian group channel had a picture of a girl who couldn’t have been much older than twenty.

“I hope she’ll be a better replacement,” someone wrote.

Replacement.

The word hollowed me out.

Reassignment meant another chance. Reinforcement meant more help.

Replacement meant someone was about to die.

No.

I shook my head.

For days I hadn’t slept without waking to dreams of my own death. Sometimes I was trapped inside a coffin, clawing at the lid. Other times I died in ways that left me gasping awake.

That couldn’t be me.

I held on to the thought even as it slipped through my fingers.

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By the time I got home, I barely remembered the drive. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I checked the time. Eleven. I didn’t care if a guard, or even Cameron, saw me come in. My head churned with questions I couldn’t answer. Thankfully, neither he nor Nadia nor that fool Franklin was anywhere around.

I reached my bedroom, shut the door, and leaned against it. My hands still shook. Replacement. The word followed me home.

I pulled my phone from my purse and zoomed in on the girl’s picture again.

If she was from my cohort, then I was the only one whose target had failed Dominion.

There was no pretending I didn’t know what that meant.

I closed my eyes.

I’d given this everything. My freedom. My life. Every lie I’d told. Every humiliation I’d swallowed, even the ones that had nearly destroyed me.

And now they were replacing me.

A sob broke free. I clamped both hands over my mouth, slid down the door, and wept.

When the tears finally stopped, I pushed myself up and stumbled into the bathroom. I turned on the shower, letting cold water run while I gathered my hair.

Then I looked up.

I froze.

The woman staring back wasn’t me.

The left side of my face had turned gray. Cracks spread across it. Skin sagged from my cheek.

“No.”

I blinked, switched on the other lights, and stepped closer. My fingers touched my cheek.

The skin slipped loose.

A wet strip landed in the sink.

Blood followed.

My scream ripped through the bathroom.

“No… no…”

I stumbled back, unable to look away. Flesh peeled from my face in slow sheets. Dark rot spread beneath it. Then the smell hit me.

Rot.

It filled my nose. My throat.

I gagged.

“Oh God…”

I clawed at my cheek, then staggered toward the bedroom door. More skin came away under my fingers. My knees

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gave out.

Someone pounded on the door.

I couldn’t answer.

Another scream tore out of me.

The door burst open.

“Evangeline!”

“No!” I covered my face. “Don’t look at me!”

Cameron dropped beside me.

“What happened?”

“I’m rotting.”

He reached for me.

“My face!” I cried. “My face!”

I kept turning away, but he caught my chin and made me face him.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

He said nothing.

My stomach twisted.

“What about it?” he asked.

I opened my eyes.

“What?”

“What about your face?”

I stared at him.

“What do you mean?”

“It looks exactly the same.”

I jerked free and looked into the dresser mirror.

The reflection still showed half my face hanging from my skull. Blood streaked my fingers.

“You don’t see it?” I screamed.

“No.” His voice stayed steady. “Eva, you’re fine.”

“Stop lying!”

I stumbled back.

“It smells.” My voice cracked. “Oh God… I smell like death.”

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He drew in a breath.

“I smell your perfume.”

“No!”

“It’s everywhere.” I tore my blouse over my head. “It’s on me. I can’t get it off.”

I rushed into the bathroom and cranked the shower as hot as it would go. Water slammed over me as I grabbed a bar of soap and scrubbed my arms until my skin burned.

The smell stayed.

I scrubbed harder.

“It’s still there!” I cried, grabbing another sponge. Then another. “Why won’t it come off?”

Cameron rested a hand on my back.

I flinched away.

“Don’t touch me. I’m filthy.”

“No. You’re scared.”

“I know what I smell.”

My breathing broke apart. The room squeezed tighter with every breath.

He caught my shoulder.

“Eva. Look at me.”

“I can’t.”

I grabbed his shirt.

“Please… help me.” Another sob escaped. “Did you do something to me?”

His face tightened.

“What?”

“You don’t need me anymore.” My voice shook. “Did you do this?”

“No.”

I stumbled out of the shower.

“This isn’t normal. I’m dying.”

My legs gave way.

He caught me before I hit the floor and helped me onto the bed. He pulled a robe around my shoulders, but I couldn’t stay still. I kept rubbing at my arms, my neck, my face.

The smell wouldn’t leave.

Cameron grabbed his phone.

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A short while later, Franklin rushed in. His gaze swept across the room, then landed on me.

“Do you smell anything?” Cameron asked.

Franklin frowned and shook his head.

“Do you see anything wrong with her face?”

Another shake of his head.

They couldn’t see it.

“Help me get her settled,” Cameron said.

After that, everything blurred together. A blanket around my shoulders. A glass pressed into my hands. Cameron’s voice telling me to breathe.

Then nothing.

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