His eyes burn.“They are hunting people like you.”
“They already caught me once.”
His face twists.Pain.Fury.Horror.I use his reaction.
“They caught me.They fed from me.They hurt me.They talked around me like I was meat with a pulse.I heard things.Saw things.Remember things none of you know.So if there are others, if anything in my head can help find them, you don’t get to lock me up in my apartment and call it protection.”
“I am trying to keep you alive.”
“I did that part already.”
His nostrils flare, and a muscle jumps in his cheek.
The air between us grows heavy.Hot.The scent of smoke and leather curls around me, and my body, traitorous creature, notices him too much.His size.His hands.The bandage that now replaces the one I put there.The way his chest rises and falls, as if he is holding back something massive.
I should step away, but I don’t.
His voice drops.“You don’t know what they’ll do if they get their hands on you again.”
I smile, and it feels like showing teeth.“Yes, Knox.I do.”
The black floods his eyes.For one heartbeat, the room changes around him.His shadow deepens.Something presses beneath his skin.The beast so close the air seems to bow.
Fear flickers in my mind, desire following close behind.That makes me angrier.Not at him.At myself.At my body.At the world for twisting survival and want into the same set of nerves until I don’t know which one is burning.
Knox turns his face slightly, breaking eye contact first.
“Don’t,” I say.His gaze snaps back.“Don’t look away from me because you think I can’t handle what you are.”
His breath leaves him hard.
Cruz mutters, “Well, shit.”Ari elbows him.
I ignore them.
Knox’s voice is rough when he speaks.“I am not the danger you need to prove yourself against.”
“No.”I step closer without meaning to.“You’re the danger, trying to decide for me.”
I see my words hit him.Deep.Beneath muscle and bone and beast.Good, maybe cruel, but still good.
Aldron clears his throat.“Briana will be involved.”
Knox’s head turns.“No.”
Aldron’s eyes go cold.“That was not a question.”
The two of them stare at each other, and the room seems to shrink beneath the weight of all that male violence.I am so tired of male violence, even when it’s on my side.Especially then.
“I don’t need permission from either of you,” I say.
Aldron inclines his head.“No, you don’t.”
Knox looks back at me, but he doesn’t apologize.Not with words.But something in his face shifts.He swallows whatever argument is clawing at him and takes one step back.
It should feel like a victory, but it doesn’t.It feels like a door opening onto a room full of things I am not ready to see.
Aldron returns to his desk.“We’re not sending you into danger.But your memories matter.We need names, locations, smells, voices, symbols.Anything.”
