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When Zane left, the door shut behind him with a hollow clang of sound. Jana didn’t move. She kept her eyes on the woman she really wanted to rip apart. The only woman in the room with her.
Beth Parker. The agent who’d lured her in. The agent who’d stood there and watched while she was tortured. The agent who’d turned Jana into a wanted woman.
You took away my life.
“What the hell kind of game are you playing now?” Jana asked. She knew Beth was psychic. They both were—that had been part of Beth’s Perseus recruitment spiel. Come and be with others who are just like you. You don’t have to be alone anymore.
Blah-fucking-blah.
“I’m not playing a game.” Beth’s heels tapped on the floor as she crossed toward her. “I’m trying to show Mr. Wynter that Perseus isn’t as evil as you think.”
It was Jana’s turn to laugh. “That’s right. You’re worse than I think.”
Beth shook her head. “Things were going so well. I was pleased with your progress.” She sighed. “Then that shifter screwed things up for you.”
“You mean things got screwed when you wanted me to kill an innocent man?” The lady was good at twisting details.
Beth’s eyes narrowed. “He wasn’t innocent. He’d killed a human.”
“A human who murdered his girlfriend and half a dozen other women. Call me crazy, but I think that’s justifiable.”
“You don’t understand.” Her jaw clenched, and Beth gritted out, “Once the wolves start killing, they can’t stop. He’d crossed a line. He was psychotic. He would attack again and again?—”
“Then why didn’t he kill the girl in the alley? Huh? Why didn’t he kill me?”
Click. Click. The heels were moving again. “If we don’t stop the paranormals out there, they will take over our world. Humans will be servants to them. Prey. We’ll be the food they hunt at night, and we’ll have nothing.”
She’d heard this spiel before, too. At one time, she’d believed it. “They’re not all bad, Beth.”
“They’re sure as shit not all good, Jana.”
“No one’s all good.” Not me. Not you.
Beth inclined her head. The red on her cheek looked even angrier in the hard light. “I know.” A touch of sadness coated the words, but then she lifted her chin. “I’ve been authorized to offer you a deal.”
“Bullshit.” Were they really back to this? Jana uncrossed her arms and let her hands slip to her sides. “You’ve been authorized to kill me. You think I don’t see right through this act? I knew the minute you took Zane out of here that you’d be coming at me.” She kept her mind blank, not wanting Beth to pick up on her plans.
But Beth’s brows rose. “Killing you was never the plan for me. You’re a human. I don’t kill humans.”
Liar, liar. Beth might not like killing humans, but she executed the ones that got in her way, and she didn’t hesitate. “Oh, right, your preferred method of attack with humans is to wreck their lives. Make them into wanted criminals and?—”
“I was simply trying to bring you back home.” Again she spoke with a wistfulness that could have been sadness. “I liked you, Jana. In so many ways, you reminded me of ”—a light laugh—“me.”
“Well, call me a freaking mirror.” Fury spiked in her blood.
Beth’s gaze raked her. “There are two ways this can work.”
Jana stared at her and pictured darkness. A wall of perfect black in her mind.
“You’re not strong enough to take Perseus down. You don’t even have a clue of just how powerful we are. You can try.” Beth shrugged. “But you’ll fail.”
“You know what? This polite bullshit is wearing thin. Zane’s not here, so you don’t have to pretend you’re anything other than a cold-blooded killer?—”
“Option two is that I take that fire away from you.”
Jana’s mouth went dry.
