‘Sorry? Is that all you have to say? You were my only friend, the only one who loved me. All of those promises … they were all lies.’

‘I did love you, Lilith, I still do.’

‘Bastard.’ She circles him, brushing her fingertips lightly across his chest and neck, their lips inches apart, the glow of their azure eyes reflecting off one another’s cheeks.

She moves closer, allowing her hip to brush against his groin.

‘I make you afraid. Why are you so afraid of me, Jacob?’

Lilith’s scent is in his nostrils, pounding in his blood. ‘I’m … I’m afraid of my feelings.’

‘Liar. You’re afraid of what I’ll become. But like you, I’m simply a product of my environment. Which means you helped create me, just as I’ve created you.’

She grins. Leans in. Pauses. Licks his lips.

A tidal wave of insanity overwhelms him as his mouth crashes against hers and their limbs entwine in the embrace—two victims of society, two polar extremes, two lonely souls sharing this one promised moment of passion.

Lilith pants in his ear as her fingers scramble to undo the belt buckle of his pants—

—while Jacob’s hand slides beneath her silky bottoms, groping her moist pubic region, all the while his conscience screaming at him, No, Jacob stop, Jacob stop … stop … stop … STOP!

He yanks his hand free, pushing her away. ‘I can’t … I can’t do this!’

Lilith’s azure eyes are full of lust, her lips red where the kiss has bruised them. ‘We were meant to be together.’

‘No … too dangerous.’

‘I want you, Jacob.’ She slips off her top, exposing her breasts. ‘I want you inside of me, and I won’t take no for an answer.’

And suddenly she is upon him, raping him from within the nexus. Jacob’s mind leaps inside the void to join her, Lilith’s nude torso thrusting up and down upon his naked pelvis, the intensity of the moment magnified a hundredfold within the supernatural corridor.

And in his single moment of weakness, he explodes inside her, planting his Hunahpu seed deep in her ovulating womb.

Exhausted and spent, their minds tumble out of the nexus, Lilith collapsing upon his chest. ‘You’re my soul mate, you always will be.’

Jacob Gabriel wraps his arms around her and weeps.

Salt and Pepper escort Dominique through the open vault door and down the main corridor.

‘Hold it!’ The two MTI security guards at the end of the hall raise their weapons. ‘No one leaves the facility without Mrs. Mabus’s permission. Stop or we’ll fire.’

The three continue running toward them.

The lead guard fires–

—the electrical burst immediately absorbed by their suits.

‘Fubishit—’

Ryan Beck is first to reach them. Grabbing each guard by the back of the neck, he slams their heads against the steel door, knocking them out.

Delray Beach, Florida