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She swallowed tightly, a whimper leaving her lips as more tears fell.
“Come on, Liza, tell me what’s wrong.” Keeping his voice low, he had to fight back a howl of pure rage at the pain he felt radiating through her.
It wasn’t physical pain.
There were no broken bones, no internal injuries, he would know if there were—the scent of them would have hit him within the first second of rushing back into their room.
Her lips trembled more as she parted them.
“Liza’s dead.”
His heart seemed to still in his chest as a sob tore from her.
As she clapped her hand over her lips, he watched as she fought for control, won it, then swallowed again against the pain building in her soul.
“No, sweetheart.” He shook his head.
“She’s dead,” she whispered again, wrapping her arms across her stomach and bending over, her head touching his shoulder as instinct had him wrapping his arms around her. “Oh God, Stygian. She’s dead. She died twelve years ago and now—” A shudder raced through her. “And now, they’ll find me, and she’ll die again.”
Resignation filled her pain-threaded voice, trembled with it and sliced against the emotions he realized she alone was responsible for awakening.
“Look at me. Look at me, mate.” Hardening his voice, he forced her to lift her head and stare back at him once again. “You brought me to life. You showed me all I have to live for, do you imagine for a second, for even a heartbeat that I would allow anyone to take you from me now?”
“You know who I am,” she whispered, her voice so low he was reading her lips more than hearing her. “You know. They knew—” Her eyes flashed with terror. “I can’t hide anymore. If I can’t hide, they’ll find me.”
“Who will find you? Tell me who will find you?” What enemies did she fear that she could ever imagine he wouldn’t destroy?
Her hand reached out, fragile fingers shaking as she laid them against his cheek. “The Genetics Council,” she whispered. “You know who, and you know why.”
“Why?”
“I have a photographic memory, Stygian. I have had it since birth, and the serum I was given only increased its power. That’s why I had to die. That’s why when Liza Johnson died, I was given her life. I know their weaknesses and they’ll never allow me to live now.”
The animal inside him rose, stretched and smiled in anticipation.
“Oh, baby, I promise you, they won’t touch you. Not now, not ever.”
She shook her head. “You can’t stop them.”
“I can’t, but sweetheart, trust me, you can.” He knew she could and he knew exactly how she would do it.
“How? How, Stygian, can I stop them? I couldn’t even escape them.” She was shaking in his arms and he hated it.
He hated her pain.
He hated the bottled rage.
And God help him, he hated the part he had played in it.
CHAPTER 24
The terror chasing inside her was killing him, it was killing her, and he wouldn’t allow it.
“The same way Callan stopped them,” he promised her, his hands cupping her face, drawing her lips to his for a precious, though far too short kiss. “The same way, Honor. But instead of telling the world, you’ll tell the Breed Cabinet. Who
you are. The experiments and the secrets the Council is so desperate to hide. You’ll tell them all of it. And you’ll weaken them as they’ve never been weakened before.”
She shook her head again, slowly, the terror only growing in her eyes. “It’s not that easy.”
