James Patterson - Toys

She held the pate to my lips, and I reminded myself that I was, after all, in France. So I opened my mouth-and she popped in the canape.

What a glory! It practically melted on my tongue with a rich, subtle complexity that positively thrilled my taste buds. I turned to the waiter, ready to devour his entire tray. “Yes, please, I’ll have another.”

Then my hearing caught a faint sound that no one else in the room could catch-a jet, heading toward us at what seemed a low altitude.

Lucy! The idea delighted me more than I would have thought possible.

But then my ears told me that there wasn’t just one jet-there were several of them! Had the war begun already? Here in the French countryside?

I ran to a window just in time to see a wing formation come streaking in, dropping string after string of Elite paratroopers-so many that they completely blotted out the moonlit sky. This was not good; I knew what tough and skillful fighters these were…

Hell, I had been one.

An explosion rocked the chateau with a tremor that I felt shoot up through my feet and jar my teeth. More bombs came right behind it, shattering windows, raining glass on the guests. Then bursts of gunfire erupted as the French guards met the Elite attack outside on the grounds.

I hurried back to Chantal, who was issuing orders into a handheld phone.

Before I got to her though, the two sets of doors to the dining room flew open.

Elite commandos came charging in, firing assault weapons into the cluster of human leaders. It was a massacre of immense proportions.

Horrifying. Unthinkable. Cruel and unnecessary. None of these people were even armed.

Behind the waves of commandos walked a man and a woman, side by side, smiling as if they had just been announced at a fancy ball.

Jax Moore and Lizbeth!

“Great job, Hays,” Moore called to me. “You led us right to the chateau-and handed us the kingpin. Or should I say, the queenpin? ”

Chantal straightened her back and strode toward me. With a look of hatred like I’d never seen before, she slapped my face, raking her nails across my cheek. “Traitor! Pig! Bastard!” she screamed at the top of her voice.

Still smiling, Lizbeth calmly raised a pistol and shot her through the left breast. Chantal spun away, clutching at her heart, and fell like a beautiful bird torn from the sky.

Hays Baker is no Elite! He’s human… human… human…

I came awake thrashing, and very confused, as those ridiculous and awful words repeated over and over in my mind.

It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I was actually in my own bed. In my own apartment in New Lake City.

I’m safe. I’m home, aren’t I? What in hell happened to me? I can’t remember anything.

Lizbeth must have heard me-she hurried in to sit beside me, smiling indulgently, and gave me a warm kiss on the lips. The kiss was just what the doctor ordered. The head doctor? I wondered.

“Darling, I’m so glad you’re with us again!” she said. “How do you feel? The doctor said you would be more yourself today.”

“OK, I guess. Except my brain feels like it’s wrapped in a soaking wet towel. That can’t be good, can it? What happened to me, Jinx?”

“You were badly hurt, Hays. Don’t you remember crashing off the roof of that parking garage? You could have died along with the skunk on the motorcycle. They had you healing in a regeneration chamber until last night.”

“ That fall with the motorcycle skunk? That’s what I’m recuperating from? How long was I unconscious? I don’t remember much of anything. Sweetheart, I’m really confused. Terribly so.”

“You were in a coma… for about a week. Since then you’ve been in and out of consciousness.” She stroked my sweat-dampened forehead, but then withdrew her hand, wrinkling her nose slightly. “You do need a shower though. Sorry, Hays.”

The queen of neat and clean-that was my Lizbeth. But in a strange way, I had missed that. At least it meant she cared.

“Now tell me everything. What do you remember?” she asked. “I’ve been on tenterhooks waiting to hear. Start at the beginning, Hays.”

I shook my head, trying to pin down my blurred recollections. The beginning? When was that? Where was that? I had no idea, really.

“The Toyz store in Baronville-those ugly murders,” I finally said. “I caught one of the killers on a motorcycle. We went off the roof of a parking garage, fell several stories, and crashed.

“Then the hospital, and the surgeons putting me under. Putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

“Nothing after that?” she said, seeming oddly pleased, maybe because I was joking a little about the past.

“Well”-I managed a laugh, but it was shaky-“I did have this incredible nightmare about the doctors saying I was human. ”

“How awful for you, Hays. How bizarre.” She tilted her head in sympathy, and truly seemed more beautiful than ever. “You poor, poor dear. But those kinds of hallucinations can happen with anesthesia, and sometimes they reflect bizarre fears. Do you have bizarre fears, darling?”

“No, I don’t think so. But thank you, Dr. Freud. I feel better already.” I really did. “What happens now? When do I go back to work?”

“Moore wants you to come see him at headquarters as soon as you’re up to it. Meantime, since you’re feeling better…” Lizbeth’s eyes got mischievous and very seductive. I certainly remembered that look-and very fondly. “Do you remember anything from before you went to the Toyz store that night?”

“Like what?”

“Like… that you and I had plans for a little private rendezvous, a little us time, until we were so rudely interrupted by the human miscreants?”

“Oh, yes! I do remember something about that.” I placed my hand on Lizbeth’s leg. I leaned in close and nuzzled her cheek.

“It just so happens that we’re alone right now. Metallico took the girls to a birthday party for one of their friends. So why don’t you go have that shower? I’ll break out a couple of Rapture pills, and we can pick up where we left off. If you’re up to it?”

“Honey, you sure know how to welcome a guy home,” I said.

She kissed me again. Softly at first, then much harder.

“You’re not just any guy, Hays. You’re a hero. You’re my hero. Now go wash up, in all those hard-to-reach places especially. I love you, Hays Baker.”

My Welcome Home in the arms and breasts and long legs of my beautiful, violet-haired Lizbeth was certainly a memorable occasion. And it was heightened to the maximum by the Rapture we took-a legal drug for Elites only that produced an hour of euphoria and enhanced sensations such as “elevation,” not to mention up to half a dozen orgasms, for each of us, of course.

There is nothing like having orgasm after orgasm, especially with somebody you love. Lizbeth and I climaxed separately, but also jointly, almost perfectly in sync. Rapture is a drug that definitely lives up to its name. Most authors complain that the pleasure is almost impossible to put into words, and I certainly agree with them.

Afterward though, Lizbeth got a bit edgy, certainly in no mood for the tender lounging around that I required. “What’s the matter, Jinx?” I asked her.

“Oh, nothing really. But Hays, I do have to go to a meeting at the Agency. A quick one,” she said, finally jumping out of bed. “I’m sorry, darling. Don’t hate me for it.”