“And yet they saved you."
"Like I told you before, I know when and where my queen will land, so to speak." He eased onto the cot and peered over at her.
"Do you love her?" No. Wait. "You've never been in love."
Shame darkened his eyes before he lowered his lashes, blocking the emotion. "I despise her. She is the one who infected me."
"Why help her, then? You're putting the people on this planet at risk for someone you hate."
"I know." Whisper soft. "But the ... thing inside me will not allow me to betray her. Even the thought of it causes pain a thousand times worse than any I've ever known."
Like the thorns and fire inside her? "If AIR ran tests on your blood and found a cure, would you help them over your queen?"
He was shaking his head before the last word left her mouth. "It cannot be studied. Were I to cut myself right now, I would bleed, but the disease would stay inside of me because another host is not nearby."
"Oh."
"Yes. Oh. Finding new hosts is the only way to keep it from building up inside of my own body."
She could hear the regret and torture in his voice. He hated what he was, what he did. "I know you want to fall in love before you die, but is that a strong enough reason to place the whole world in jeopardy?"
"I could kill myself, yes." He laughed bitterly. "But that wouldn't stop my queen from coming. That wouldn't stop her from creating others like me. Wouldn't stop your world from crumbling. So why not live while I can?"
Good point, in a twisted way. "All right. Well. Think of it this way. To love a woman is to condemn her to the same death you will one day suffer."
"I know." Again, whisper soft.
Yet he still planned to do it. Selfish bastard.
"I don't want to talk about love anymore," he said. "Tell me what happened between you and Devyn. He wants me back, I know he does. What did he ask you to do with me?"
She sighed. "I'm supposed to take you to the pier tomorrow night—wait, I guess that would be tonight, since it's already sunrise—and trade you for my friend." If she worked the situation right, Aleaha might be sitting with her on this very couch by the end of the day.
Nolan laughed, and this time there was genuine amusement in the undertones. "A setup, no doubt."
"I agree." Why else wouldn't Devyn have tailed her? He'd let her go so easily, without fighting for her location. That seemed completely out of character. Not that she knew everything about him. But the intensity of his determination to get what he wanted wasn't hidden. It was there, etched into every sensual line in his face.
"Are you going to take me?" Nolan asked.
"I honestly don't know what I'm going to do." And she had very little time to figure it out. But she would. And she would win.
Devyn leaned back in his chair, gazing up at the ceiling, lost in thought. When Bride had called him, he'd heard the panic in her voice and gone running. He'd decided to kill her pursuer even before he'd learned the man's purpose. He'd wanted her safe, no matter the cost. But when he'd learned Tom's purpose, rage had bloomed inside him, eating at any mercy he might have harbored.
He'd had no right to feel that way. In the past, he'd frequented slave auctions with a wad of cash and a grin. And he hadn't been undercover or on a mission. Oh, no. He wanted to sample a morsel from every race, and sometimes buying a female was the only way to acquire something new. But the thought of the proud Bride on display... standing on a platform, naked for all to see ... to touch ...
His teeth ground together. Was this how possessive men acted and thought? If so, why was he thinking and acting this way? It made no sense. He was a hedonist who adored variety. Yes, Bride challenged him more than any other. Yes, Bride exuded all that sparkling energy. She was resourceful, a fighter, a survivor, powerful, and had he mentioned witty? She was flirtatious and sarcastic. And strong. She'd been covered in the human's blood, staring at his open wounds with naked desire in her eyes, wanting to drink him dry, but she had resisted. Hadn't even licked her lips clean.
But surely, despite all of that, he would desire someone else soon. Surely his interest in Bride would fade rather than continue to grow. As it was, he could hardly wait to see her again.
Because of the small, nearly imperceptible tracker he'd planted on her bra, he'd been able to follow her movements on his computer. He'd known where she was when she called him. He'd headed out immediately, even though he'd needed her to confess where she was. Otherwise, smart girl that she was, she would have suspected the tracker and removed it. She'd gone in circles for half an hour and would have lost a tail if she'd had one. Eventually, though, she had gone home. Now he had her current location. An apartment a few blocks from Dallas's.
In case Devyn had been unable to lick her and just in case she'd bitten him, he'd also injected an isotope tracker into his own bloodstream. She'd never gone for his neck, though. Why? Because she often sickened after drinking, as she'd told him?
How long since she'd had a full meal? Would she have been able to keep down his blood? He'd wondered before but now the question was a plague inside him. He liked the thought of a piece of himself, any piece, inside her. Might happen soon.
In just a few hours, the sun would be shining brightly and Bride wouldn't be able to run. He'd have her. Dallas would have Nolan. If Nolan was with her, that is, but Devyn was willing to bet that he was. Smart little Bride would have kept the otherworlder close.
A shame Bride was involved in this for Macy rather than Devyn's cock. Hopefully, he was well on his way to changing that. There at the end, she'd arched into him. He grinned, remembering, and wanted to beat his chest like the warrior kings of old. Feeling her rub against him, even slightly, had been the sweetest victory of his life.
Even better, there was more to come. Would she fight him harder than before or finally give in?
He didn't like that a soon-to-be lover had seen the dark coldness inside him as he'd ruthlessly tortured and killed that human, but it couldn't have been helped. There'd been a primitive need inside him to prove to Bride that he could protect her from any threat. That he would do whatever was necessary to ensure her safety. Like possessiveness, it was not something he'd ever experienced before, and he'd been absolutely unable to ignore it.
Was she frightened of him now that she'd had time to think about what he'd done? Before, she hadn't seemed to be. For a moment, just before he'd rendered the deathblow to the human, he'd actually thought pride shimmered in her lovely emerald eyes. As if he were already her man and it was his right to look after her. He'd liked it.