Beautiful.
He fucking had to tell her.
Easing up in bed, he studied her for a moment in silence. When he’d come back after the last death and the fire had raged, he hadn’t been in control. When he rose, his control could be shattered. The fire was too strong. The beast he carried too powerful.
But he’d known her.
Not her name, not at first. He’d looked at her and just thought …
Mine.
Dangerous. To her and to him.
He couldn’t afford any attachments. Attachments would make him weak. Vulnerable.
That was why Wyatt wanted her. The bastard had figured out that Eve was a tool he could use. To control me.
“Is it always like that?” Her voice came softly as she turned the force of her gaze on him.
Cain knew he should apologize. He’d been too rough, too wild. He just stared back at her.
“At the lab, I didn’t think … you seemed different when you rose this time.”
He had been different. She deserved a warning. “Each rising is different. There are times when I come back … times when I don’t even know my own damn name.” Then there were what he thought of as the lucky times—though those were few and far between—when he could come back, like he had at the lab, and his memories were fresh. Crisp.
It just seemed like, more and more … the man had to fight the beast within in order to get back those memories.
“When I rise, I’m at my most dangerous. I can kill … without meaning to.” Because he knew only fury and fire.
Her tongue slid over her lower lip. “You didn’t kill me.”
No, he’d just fucked her like a desperate man.
“I think you might have more control that you realize.”
He didn’t. He tried to warn her. “Next time, just get as far from me as you can.”
“How about we just don’t have a next time? How about you just stay alive?”
Easier said than done.
Eve exhaled heavily as she turned from him. Her delicate shoulders rolled, then sagged a bit. “Any idea why those jerkoffs are after us?” she asked as she pushed back the curtain of her hair. “I thought with Wyatt gone we’d—”
Ah, more bad news that Cain had to share. Tell her. “He isn’t.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “What?”
His breath eased out. She needed to understand that the battle wasn’t over. It was just starting. “Last night, Jimmy told me that Wyatt had put a price on my head.” He paused and wondered why he was even hesitating. “He put a price on yours, too.”
She turned to face him. “Wyatt’s dead. You told me—”
“I never saw him come out of Genesis. I thought he’d died.” He’d thought wrong. “But the bastard must have had an escape route mapped out, one that took him away from the fire.”
Her eyes were wide.
“He’s alive, and he’s after us.”
She shook her head. “This can’t happen.”
Yeah, it could.
“I’m not just some random human on the street! He can’t hunt me down, shoot me.”
Human. No, she wasn’t quite human. “I think they want you alive.” Him it didn’t matter so much. They knew he’d just come back if they killed him. So they’d use as much force as necessary to take him down. But for her … “Wyatt must have seen me take you through the fire, Eve. He knows you’re not human.”
Her breath rushed out. He saw fear flicker in the depths of her stare, but she controlled the emotion quickly. Too quickly.
She would be smart to be afraid. “He wants to experiment on you, just like he did with the others at Genesis.” Actually, Cain thought the bastard wanted more than that, but he’d already said enough. For now.
“No.” She spun away. Marched into the other room.
Cain followed. He’d found a pair of old jeans that fit with the aid of a belt and some beaten boots that would do. The T-shirt he wore was old and faded, but he didn’t exactly have a lot of options.
She was pacing in front of the main door. “This isn’t going to happen.” Back and forth, she paced. “It’s not.”
Paranormals disappeared every day. Didn’t she realize that? Since they’d come out to the world, they’d become the experiment of choice for Uncle Sam.
And for every other government out there.
Everyone wanted to have the biggest, strongest military. You didn’t get stronger than the paranormals.
We should have stayed in the fucking dark. He’d never wanted the world to know his secret. Humans were better off not knowing.
When they found out the truth, most of them just freaked the hell out and stared at him like they thought he was going to eat their kids.
He was on a no-kid diet.
“I’m going to the press. I might not have the laptop anymore”—she whirled around and pointed at him—“but I’ve got you. We’ll tell our story. They’ll listen. I’ll make them listen.”
A big reveal to the media was the last thing he wanted. “You don’t think they’re waiting for you there?”
She blinked.
“Wyatt knows you’re a reporter. He’s probably staked out every media outlet you’ve ever worked for in your life. And he’s got the cops in this area in his pocket. The government hired him. Shit, baby, there’s no place you can go that he won’t be waiting.”
Her shoulders straightened. “He wasn’t waiting here.”
Cain shook his head, knowing she didn’t understand. “He let us get away.”
“Bull. He—”
“He knew I was dying, and he probably wanted to find out what would happen if you were left alone with me when I rose.” Cain headed toward the window. “He could be out there right now, watching and waiting to see what we do.”
“W-what would happen if we were left alone?” she repeated, frowning. “Just what did he think would happen?”
Cain knew that he might as well tell her. “That I’d kill you.” He looked back at her. “Usually when I rise, I kill.” Wyatt had learned that lesson soon enough. So after each rising, Cain had been kept chained tightly to the wall.
Until his control came back.
Then Wyatt had loosened the leash, just a bit.
Some days, the control could come back within thirty minutes. Other days … it could take hours for sanity to reign once more.
Her lips parted, and he heard the faint whistle as she sucked in a deep breath. “But you—”
“I fucked you instead.” Because he hadn’t risen and looked at her as an enemy.
She was something more.
Damn you, Wyatt. You won’t use her against me.
“When he sees that you survived my rising, he’ll want you in his lab. He’ll want to know what you are.” Just as Cain wanted to know.
Did she even realize how powerful she could truly be? How deadly?
To me.
“I’m going to the media.” Her hands fisted at her sides. “I’m not—I won’t be hunted. I’ll break this story. Wyatt will be the one who runs. Not me.”
She turned away. Yanked open the front door. Sunlight poured into the small cabin.
“Eve …”
Glancing back over her shoulder, she hesitated.
“The minute you call one of your contacts, Wyatt will have you. The minute you show up at a news station or paper, you’ll vanish.” She had to realize this.
Eve shook her head. “You’re giving him too much power. He won’t be in a hurry to attract attention. He’s not going to try and grab me when others are around.”
Wyatt wouldn’t give a damn who was around. With enough money and power, anyone could vanish. “He’s got connections you can’t begin to imagine.”
“I can imagine a hell of a lot.”