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I don’t tell him that it was also an instinct to protect him. It would have killed him if he had hurt them. It sounds insane to admit that aloud, so I keep it to myself.
“That day I touched your fire... I realized I was fireproof. Which makes sense, since I can throw fireballs after a fresh feeding.”
“Then Karma would be too,” he points out.
My lips purse as I think about it, but decide not to voice my thoughts.
“Wouldn’t she be?” he asks, not letting me hold my silence.
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “Karma is weaker than me, as you know. And I’m not sure if the fireproof thing is a half demon attribute or...”
I let the words trail off
as I squirm awkwardly beneath him. His eyebrows go up.
“If it’s because my beast wants you so bad,” he says quietly, finishing the sentence.
“There aren’t exactly other dragonites hanging around for me to ask. At least, none that I know of. Your father?”
He shakes his head while looking around, taking in our isolated scenery.
“Dead. Supposedly. I don’t know. I never believe someone is dead until I see it with my own eyes. Even then I find it questionable.” He looks back down at me. “We’ve had trouble keeping people dead.”
My lips twitch, but then I notice the hopeful gleam in his eyes and I realize what he’s saying without words. My amusement falls away to be replaced by a dull ache in my chest. I’m not used to empathy, but with Chaz, it’s like I feel the pain he feels.
I’ve been cutoff and cold for so long that it hurts to feel anything so powerful.
“Amy is dead, Chaz,” I say on a whisper.
His lips thin. “Just because Slade says so?”
He raises up, and I sit up with him. He tugs my leg over on his lap as he turns his face toward the sun, probably feeling its energy restoring him. Absently, he strokes my leg, and I sit awkwardly to keep it there, refusing to lose this moment of contact.
“Slade and I saw the experiments,” I tell him softly. “The ones who they tried to change and failed.”
He brings his head down and cuts his eyes toward me, listening.
“It was part of our torture. They tested our mental capacity as well as our physical ones. Slade saw brutal things all throughout the centuries. It’s why he’s so detached from emotion, for the most part. It’s also why his emotions—such as rage—are so strong when released.”
“Stop trying to convince me Slade isn’t a sociopath and get back to explaining why you know Amy is dead. And why do you think her night stalker is the one who betrayed us?”
“Have you seen him since she was taken?” I ask, arching an eyebrow.
“He could be out looking for her. Gage wouldn’t come back to the house and just wait around on Kimber to reappear. Same for Thad, Kane, Dice, and Zee. They’d tear the world apart until their girl was found.”
My heart clenches. I wouldn’t even know how to respond to someone caring so much about me. Someone who would stop at nothing to pull me from the depths of hell.
No one ever came for me.
Slade would come, I’ve learned, but he wouldn’t look for longer than he felt was adequate. Nothing is more important than vengeance to him.
“His name is Adam Delawerence. That’s his real name,” I tell him, blowing out a breath.
“What does his name have to do with anything?”
“It’s the name of a traitor now. You’ll need to remember it. He used his phone when you arrived. I sense evil, Chaz. It’s what I do. It’s how I survive. Usually it only works on humans, but...”
“He was human not too long ago,” he says under his breath, his jaw ticking.
