AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course there is,” he assured her, his lips quirking briefly as he crossed his arms over his chest, tilted his head to the side and watched her with eyes the color of living silver. “All he has to do is listen to the animal inside him. All he has to do is find his mate, and protect her.”
She blinked back at him. “Who is his mate?”
“Fawn,” Stygian said softly behind her. “Son of a bitch, that’s why he’s so enraged. She’s his mate. The bastard isn’t feral, he’s in mating heat.”
“Fawn was a young woman when she forced that transfusion on him without the knowledge or the medication the scientists had been using to control what they believed was the feral fever that came from it. But the animal inside Gideon also knew she was still too young to mate without consequences,” Jonas explained. “That’s why the animal inside him went crazy when it happened. The opposing parts of his psyche were suddenly coming together, doing whatever it would take to force back the mating heat until she was old enough, strong enough to endure mating a Breed. Now, I just have to maneuver him into the right place at the right time, to ensure he realizes it. Once he does, then the animal tearing him apart inside, now that the woman is old enough to handle the mating, will settle and the mate will emerge.”
“Do you know where he’s hiding?” she whispered, feeling Stygian’s arms tightening around her, holding her closer, sheltering her.
“Gideon never hides,” he sighed then. “He’s here, right beneath our noses, somehow. Watching, waiting, hoping to pounce when we lead him to you and Fawn. Just as the Council soldiers are. Which is why we’re not going to let anyone know that you’ve remembered anything. As far as everyone involved is concerned, you’re still Liza Johnson and Claire Martinez is exactly who she seems to be.”
“How?” she whispered. “Any Breed that comes close to me will smell the deception. Every time anyone calls me Liza. Anytime I pretend to be her, that scent will be there.”
He stared back at her for long, thoughtful seconds. Long enough that Stygian finally growled in warning.
“Where’s Judd? Who is he?” he asked with a faint glimmer of amusement in his gaze as he glanced over her shoulder at her mate.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, Jonas, and that’s the truth. I haven’t seen him since the night of the ritual, and not because I forgot who he was either. Judd never came around me again.”
But she knew he was close.
“Don’t hold information from me, Liza.” Jonas sighed as he prowled closer, his gaze intent. “Tell me, as I stare at you now I can smell the truth of what you’re saying, but I can also smell your lie.”
“Then any Breed can,” she whispered, fighting back the tears gathering again.
“Not in this lifetime,” he growled, turning to Stygian. “Do you smell her lie?”
Liza stared up at her mate, watching as confusion flashed across his face.
He inhaled slowly then narrowed his gaze on her and inhaled again. “All I smell is her truth. She’s never seen him.”
“But her subconscious knows she has,” Jonas all but whispered. “That’s my gift, Stygian. You and your mate now know what no one but my own mate has been given the secret of. Even the scientists who knew died by my hand. I don’t give a damn what you believe. I can sense, and even smell, what only your subconscious knows.”
Liza shook her head. “I have a photographic memory stronger than you can even realize,” she informed him, her voice scratchy, so hoarse from her tears she didn’t sound human herself. “I would know if I had seen him.”
“Only if your subconscious wants you to know,” he stated deliberately. “And the added complication of your Breed genetics makes that part of you much stronger. Stronger even than that extraordinary memory of yours.”
Shock had Stygian tightening his arms around her when Liza would have jerked away from him.
“He’s crazy,” she cried out. “I’m no Breed.”
Stygian shook his head, staring down at her as though he were only just realizing it. “That’s why the mating heat was so different. It’s the reason why your ability to fight is so extraordinary. And why your scent took me aback as I rushed into the room. Breed genetics.”
She was shaking her head as he spoke. “It’s not possible,” she whispered numbly.
“It’s not only possible, it’s a fact,” Jonas assured her. “Now, we just have to figure out how to use it to keep Honor Roberts hidden until we can find the others.” His gaze flashed dangerously then. “I know who Fawn is, Liza. I know Claire Martinez is the girl that escaped those labs with you, but I must know any weakness she has, as well as her strengths. If we’re going to save her and Gideon, then I have to know who and what I’m facing. And I have to know where I can find Judd.”
Liza felt numb inside. Everything she had believed weeks before was a lie. The life she had lived, the parents she cherished, the friends she thought she had grown up with. It was all a farce. A farce that had kept her alive for the past twelve years and one she now had to uphold to save the only sister she had ever known.
She shook her head as she stared back at Jonas.
“Fawn was always so tiny. Judd and Gideon used to call her the little fairy. Every year on Claire’s birthday, a fairy is left where she can find it. And they’re always very, very expensive. She keeps them in a secured storage center in town where she can go look at them whenever she wants to.”
Jonas nodded. “That would suit Fawn.” Then his gaze sharpened on her. “And what about you?”
“I must amuse him somehow, he’s always leaving me knives. And I’ve learned how to use every one he’s sent.” Her breathing hitched painfully. “But I don’t know who leaves them or how they do it.”
He didn’t leave girly little knives either. They were always lethal and always intended for one thing and one thing only: spilling blood.
