Silver - Hidden

RT Reviewers Choice and PEARL awardnominee:

Larger-than-life protagonists, vividdescriptions, lush sensuality, and violent, fast-paced action makea fascinating premise come to life with stunning clarity in thishigh energy story that... will appeal to romance and sciencefiction fans alike.

Library Journal

...[Silver] keeps bringing a fresh aspect toromance with strong worldbuilding and a poignant love story. It's atrue marriage of the themes of fantasy/science fiction andromance...

DearAuthor.com

[Silver]s name is fast becoming synonymouswith high-octane, gritty adventure... What immediately elevatesthese books, besides great plotting and worldbuilding, is the depthand texture of her characters. This is a perfect actionromance!

RT BOOKreviews

...this is not only a fabulous read, itstaut, sexy adventure at its finest.

Caroline Linden, USA Todaybestselling author

"[Silver] deftly matches a relentless,action-driven plot with a tough-as-nails heroine to create an edgy,adrenaline-boosting, sexy, and richly imaginative futuristicromance."

John Charles, Booklist

This book is a work of fiction. All names,characters, locations, and incidents are products of the authorsimagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance toactual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirelycoincidental.

HIDDEN

Copyright 2008, 2012 by Eve Silver.

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

Published by Eve Silver

The uploading, scanning, and distribution of thisbook in any form or by any meansincluding but not limited toelectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, orotherwisewithout the permission of the copyright holder is illegaland punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized editions ofthis work, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracyof copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights isappreciated.

ISBN: 978-0-9869357-4-9

www.evesilver.net

HIDDEN

By Eve Silver

(writing as Eve Kenin)

Sub-basement, Janson Transport Head Office, PortUranium

January 2088

Blood had its own scent. Metallic, sharp.Faintly sweet.

Tatiana raised her hand to her cheek. She wasbeyond pain, almost beyond thought. There would be more. WithDuncan Bane, there was always more.

To make you stronger. To make youinvincible. Banes justification. And the simple truth. ButTatiana wasnt like Wizard or Yuriko. She didnt recover as quicklyas her siblings. She bruised easier. Her bones broke where Wizardsand Yurikos bent to absorb the force.

And Bane had been particularly brutal thissession.

Because you are soon to go on your firstmission, he explained in a soft, soft, cultured voice, as he paceda straight line before the three of them. He paused, touchedTatiana on the shoulder. She shuddered, but knew better than topull away. This will ensure that you are ready, that you survive.Youhe spun toward Wizardwill be the commander, and a commandermust be able to make rapid decisions.

Another step and Bane stood in front ofYuriko. Running his finger along her cheek, he smiled as she jerkedaway. Then he hit her, the sharp clap of skin against skin echoingaround them. So decide now, Wizard, he said. Who will besubjected to ten more minutes?

Tatiana choked back a plea. Please. Icant. I cant

She shook her head, struggled to focus. Theroom felt too big, too bright, and this all felt so familiar, likeshe had been here many times before. She knew what Wizard would sayeven before the words left his lips.

Me. I will take the ten minutes.

She let out a dry sob. Wizard, her brother,so logical even in this. He would take the blows because he was thestrongest, the most physically resilient. He would stand before herand take them in her stead.

Yuriko was like him. Clean and linear inthought and action.

But Tatiana...

Bane laughed as he stared at Wizard, thesound hollow, echoing off the bare walls, echoing in her darkestdreams.

Yes, just a dream. It must be.

You are the commander, he said to Wizard.The fastest. The strongest. You have the best chance of finishingyour mission. I may send you out tonight, before you have time toheal. Is it logical, then, for you to accept the blows? Choose theweakest, Wizard. A good commander knows when to calculate the odds,when to sacrifice for the good of the mission.

Wizard... save her. Please. She has achance. Yurikos normally cool tone was laced with despair, withpain, and Tatianas heart shattered as it did each time thenightmares sank her to this place, to the deep dark of her soul,the coldest part of her memories. Because in begging Wizard to saveTatiana, Yuriko had doomed herself.

Bane would set loose his brutality onher.

Trembling, Tatiana swayed on her feet, herswollen lips working as she tried to form the words... what words?Did she mean to offer herself to Banes fists, or to sacrifice hersister?

Again came the eerie, frightening sensationof familiarity and the terrifying knowledge that she had livedthese moments again and again, that the outcome was always thesame.

The walls around her shimmered and danced,and she heard voices, saw lights that were wrongthey hadno place here.

She had no place here. None of itwas real.

Heart racing, palms damp, Tatiana began torun, her feet pounding against the cold stone floor, hard, fast.Only she didnt move at all. Her limbs pumped as hard and as fastas they could, and still she stayed in one place, trapped in thepast.

She needed only to pull free, come awake, andthey would be gonethe pain, the memories, the horror. But neitherthe bonds of sleep nor the terrors that dwelled in her memorieseased to set her free. They held her in tight tendrils that draggedher back and pulled her into a place she had no wish to be.

Wizard... save her. Please. She has achance.

Yurikos voice, low, urgent.

Bound in the barbed web of events that hadplayed out long ago, Tatiana thrashed and flailed. A dream. Adream. It was only a dream.

Calculate the odds, Bane ordered.

Tatianas breath came in short, huffingpants. She couldnt push any sound past the lump in her throat.Coward. She was a coward. Weak.

Hazy, unfocused, she shifted her gaze toWizard. Silently she pleaded for... what? What did she want him todo? What could he do?

The outcome was always the same. She had beenpowerless to change it then, was powerless to change it now.

Choose. Bane whispered the word againstWizards ear.

For the first time in her recollection, herbrother hesitated.

Choose. Choose. Choose.

And then Banes face melted like wax in aflame, shifting, changing, until it was a different man who chainedher, a different man who stood looking down at her, wanting tomaster her, to use her, to twist what she was for his own gain.

She had thought Duncan Bane the face ofpurest evil. But shed been wrong. So wrong.

Gavin Ward. Dr. Gavin Ward.

He was here for her. Her time was up.

Sweating, screaming, Tatiana bolted upright,the dream so real that she smelled the stink of her own fear, feltthe sting of the blows in her cheek, her jaw, as though they hadlanded minutes rather than years past. Worse, she felt the pain ofknowing that her weakness had cost her sister her life.

Yuriko. Oh, God. Yuriko.

Tatiana wrapped her arms around her bentknees, and lowered her forehead. She closed her eyes, shuddering inthe cold and the darkness, fighting the memories, the anguish, thefear.

A nightmare, she told herself. Only anightmare.

But it wasnt.

Because as she raised her head, she saw him,there, in the shadows, just beyond the bars and stone that cagedher. Gavin Ward was there. Watching.