The room around me was unfamiliar. An office in a building somewhere. I did not at that moment know where. Not the building, not the town, not the country. My memories of the last several weeks were in my head, but there were chains looped through the door handles and big shiny locks. I kept telling myself that it was a good thing that I lacked a key and could not remove those chains and open those doors until this was done. Until it was Santoro’s blood boiling in the pit of my stomach. His and Kuga’s.

But that was a lie. I’d put those chains there, I clicked the padlocks into place, and somewhere in my fractured soul, I had the key.

CHAPTER 64

TWILIGHT

I wandered through the building.

It was a laboratory. And that poked a stick into a beehive of memories. But it wasn’t until I found a desk with preprinted envelopes that I realized where I was. Van Dijk Biomechanica in Rotterdam.

I stumbled around until I found a bathroom and stood looking at myself in the mirror. If someone had used a hose and sprayed me with red paint, that’s how I’d look. Except this wasn’t paint.

There was a sound, and I turned to see Ghost standing behind me. Nearly as soaked as I was. His eyes were wild, and he bared his teeth.

At me.

Flash images of things we had both done exploded in my mind.

“Ghost,” I said, and my voice was not my own.

I staggered to the sink, turned on the spigot, and washed my face and then my mouth, gargled with the water, spat it out, did it again, and again. Then I drank handfuls of it.

I turned back to my dog. He’d inched closer, and the primal wolf still glared out at me from his eyes.

“Ghost,” I said again. This time, I recognized my own voice.

So did he.

Ghost rushed at me, whining piteously, jumping up, pushing me back against the wall, pushing his head at my hand, needing me to pet him. Needing me to be me.

I sank down onto the floor and pulled him close. He kept licking my face. The only part of me not painted with blood.

“It’s okay,” I said softly, kissing his head over and over again. “It’s okay.”

I’d lied to him so many times before, so many times recently. Right now, though, I felt as if I meant it. I hoped it was true.

CHAPTER 65

THE PAVILION

BLUE DIAMOND ELITE TRAINING CENTER

STEVENS COUNTY, WASHINGTON