“Do you know when you got it? Where?”
“Of course I do. I...” He stuttered to a halt.
“You don’t remember, do you? You can’t hold on to the memory. Every time you try to grab it, it slips away.”
“How do you know?”
She smiled at that. “It’s written all over your face.”
She had him there. “It must have happened before...”
“Before you became a Dragon Warrior,” she finished for him.
He nodded. “Why is it important?”
“Because Micah Caine had a scar in the same place. And not just any scar. An identical scar. He got it in Afghanistan when a bomb exploded.”
THE BOMB EXPLODED INCHES from the front of the Humvee, sending the vehicle tumbling end-over-end. Fire. Heat. The cries of the wounded.
Caine stumbled from the wreckage, his vision obscured by smoke. Jamison lay sprawled half under the burning ruin of the truck. Caine couldn’t tell if he was breathing, but he grabbed the man by his bulletproof vest and pulled anyway, hauling him from the fire to safety.
“Caine, you’re bleeding man.”
Caine glanced up to see Rayner’s fuzzy outline. “What?”
“We’ve got to stop it before you bleed out.” The medic knelt beside him, oblivious to his own injuries.
Caine glanced down. His leg was covered in blood from the hip down. Damn, that was a lot of blood. He tried to tell Rayner to forget him and do something about Jamison, but his voice didn’t seem to work.
He watched in a daze as Rayner slit Caine’s pant leg with a knife. Beneath the fabric, the cut was so deep he could see white bone shining beneath, blood pouring down his leg in a river.
Rayner said something but Caine didn’t hear. Instead he slid into welcome darkness.
“MICAH! MICAH!” TERRIFIED, Rain gave his face another slap, trying to rouse him from whatever fugue state he’d slipped into.
“What is it?” Clara stormed into the room, fury written in every line of her body. “What have you done to him?”
“Nothing. We were talking and then he just ... passed out.”
There was more to it than that. They’d been talking about his past. His identity. She’d mentioned Afghanistan and she could tell he’d been on the verge of remembering. And then it was like someone or something shut him down.
Clara sighed, rolled her eyes, and grabbed a small bottle from a nearby shelf. She uncorked it and waved it under Caine’s nose. His eyes fluttered open.
Rain ignored Clara’s mutterings as the woman stomped back to her office. “Hey, you all right?” she asked Caine.
“What happened?”
“You, uh, well, you sort of passed out.”
“Passed out? As in fainted?” His voice was filled with outrage.
“More like something shut you down.”
“I was remembering.”
“Yeah.” She barely resisted the urge to smooth her hand through his closely shaved blue-black hair. Damn, what was wrong with her?
He nodded as if it made sense. “It’s supposed to be a safeguard to prevent memories from Before.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There’s a scientist named Barnes back at the base.”
“We’ve met,” she said dryly.
“He claims that the alterations to create a Warrior don’t leave room for memories. The memories are ... removed. And safeguards put in place in case they attempt to resurface.”
“Safeguards that make you pass out?”
He nodded. “Yes. We are told that to remember is to risk catastrophic meltdown and death.”
Rain studied the man on the bed. There was definitely something different about him now. Something that had been missing in the Warrior was suddenly alive. “It didn’t work, did it?”
“No. It did not.” His jaw worked, fury tightening his features. “They lied.”
“What do you remember? Do you remember who you are?”
“I remember a great many things. And yes, I remember who I am. I am Lieutenant Micah Caine of the US Army. And I’m supposed to be dead.”
MICAH WASN’T THRILLED about spending more time in bed, but Rain had gone off to talk to the leader of the compound and Clara had insisted he rest. Especially after that embarrassing episode when he blacked out. Lieutenants in the United States Army did not faint.
Neither did Dragon Warriors.
He ground his teeth together, barely leashing the fury that threatened to engulf him. He’d told Rain he remembered Before. Which was true. Sort of. Things were coming back, but they were still in fragments.
He winced as the scene from Afghanistan flashed through his mind again. Definitely something he wouldn’t have minded forgetting permanently. Just like he’d love to forget his own death scene.
He remembered hustling a small group of survivors to the derelict Army bunker. He remembered the drag attack like it was yesterday. He remembered everyone dying. Everyone except Audrey and Foster. The three of them kept going. Kept shooting.
He remembered the grenade going down the dragon’s throat. An explosion. Then nothing.
He sighed and rubbed a hand over his hair. He shifted and winced as his cracked ribs protested. At least the headaches that accompanied the memories had stopped.
He closed his eyes as another memory surfaced.
Darkness.
Blinding light.
A wizened face swam into view. A halo of gray hair, thick glasses, lab coat. Was he in a hospital? It sure felt like he should be. The pain was overwhelming.
“Hello, Lieutenant Caine. Welcome to my laboratory. I’m Dr. Barnes.”
Micah tried to speak, but nothing happened. He frowned.
“Oh, I’m sorry, but you’ve been badly damaged. Don’t worry. I’m going to fix you right up. Good as new. Better than new, actually.” Barnes cackled. “And don’t worry about the psychological trauma. You won’t remember a thing.”
And he hadn’t. Until now.
“YOU’RE TELLING ME WE’VE got Micah Caine in our medical ward?” Elan’s voice sounded steady enough, but Rain could smell the reek of alcohol on him.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Rain said. “They did something to him. Something to make him forget the time before he became a Dragon Warrior. But he remembers now. He remembers the time before the Dragon Wars. He remembers the day the Wars started. He even remembers dying.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” El propped his head in his hands as though it ached too
