Why was his chest aching? Cain pressed a palm over the spot, pressing back against the burn.
“You’re doing it again,” she whispered with a small shake of her head. “Staring at me like you don’t know . . . do you want me?”
Hell, yes.
“Or do you hate me?”
He cleared his throat. “Why would I hate you?” She’d never done anything to him. Never tried—
“Because according to Wyatt, I can kill you.” Her lips twisted, and her smile made the ache deepen in his chest. “I don’t think he was talking about the kind of death that just stops you for a few moments.”
No, Wyatt hadn’t been.
“He tested me to see if I was strong enough to handle the hottest fire that can burn from you. He tested me”—her hair brushed over her shoulders as she tilted her head to the right and stared at him—“because he wants me to kill you.”
Cain stared back at her. “Wyatt is a sociopathic prick who gets off on torturing people in the name of science.” He raised his brows. “I wouldn’t believe anything he has to say.”
She kept her gaze on him. “Can I kill you, Cain?”
“Anyone can—”
One of her hands impatiently waved that away. “A real death. One that doesn’t let you come back—come back from wherever it is that you go.”
Her stare was too bright. Too intense. But why hide the truth? She already knew anyway, thanks to Wyatt. “Yes, you can.”
A slow nod. “So that’s why you look at me that way.”
He looked at her with lust in his eyes because he wanted her so much he wanted to damn near eat her alive.
“You want me,” Eve said, “but you also want to get as far from me as you can.”
Because she could destroy him.
Or he could destroy her.
“So why did you save me? Why come after me at all?”
Because the thing that could kill him was the thing he needed more than breath.
But Eve had turned away. Her steps were slow as she climbed up the stairs. Cain didn’t stop her. Didn’t call out to her.
He heard the soft click of the door shutting a few seconds later, then the shower came on with a rattle of the pipes.
Why did you save me?
He hadn’t hesitated when she’d vanished. He’d known that he had to get to her as soon as possible.
She’d saved him. He’d saved her. They were even now. Right?
His gaze rose to the top of the stairs.
He’d wanted to get her back before Wyatt ran any more experiments, but he’d been too late. Wyatt had proof of what she could do, and the bastard wouldn’t ever let her vanish.
He’d want to do more tests. On Eve. On Cain.
And in the end, Cain knew that Wyatt would use Eve against him. It was just a matter of time.
The one thing he wanted . . . was the one thing that could cost him everything.
Richard Wyatt stared at the video screens. He’d watched the feed over and over, zooming in to catch every single shot. That fire had been glorious. So beautiful. And when it came at Eve—
She’d been afraid.
The woman didn’t understand her own power. Maybe because she didn’t realize what she was.
He’d set up his cameras outside the testing room. If they’d been inside, they would have melted almost as fast as Eve’s clothes.
The fire had burned her clothes, burned everywhere around Eve, but the flames hadn’t been able to hurt her flesh. Not her fingernails. Not even her hair. The fire couldn’t damage any part of her body.
“You ever seen anything like that before?” his assistant asked.
He didn’t bother glancing at Keith Ridgeway. The guy had so much to learn. Richard had pulled the geneticist from his ivory tower, just like he’d pulled a dozen others. But Ridgeway didn’t understand the paranormals. The fool had actually thought vampires and shifters were the only supernaturals on the streets.
They were just the ones that got the most attention.
“If we could replicate her skin,” Ridgeway said, excitement in his voice, “it would help so many—”
“I haven’t seen another like her before . . . but I’ve read reports. . . . My father had a test subject similar to her.” Richard’s words cut through the other doctor’s fast speech as he finally glanced at the younger man.
“Your . . . your father?” Ridgeway pushed his glasses higher on his nose. “A subject with the exact capabilities?”
“No. The first test subject could do even more.” Richard frowned, remembering. His father had spent so many years researching paranormals, conducting his painstaking experiments. Richard’s hands clenched into fists. Even before the paranormals had publicly made themselves known, his father had discovered them and started his research.
Jeremiah Wyatt had always been a very thorough man.
Richard exhaled slowly. “Unfortunately, the test subject objected to the experiments.” His father had noted that tidbit in his journal. His father wouldn’t have cared about the objections. He never did. “She escaped from the facility and attacked a number of guards.”
Ridgeway’s eyes widened. “What did she do to them?”
That part he remembered perfectly. “She burned every bit of skin off their bodies.”
Ridgeway weaved a bit. “W-what?”
“That subject wasn’t just immune to the fire. She could control it. Could send it out at specified targets.” He tapped his chin, remembering, “But that was only when she shifted.”
Ridgeway stared at him, eyes still too wide. “What could she become?”
“A beast of enormous power and strength.” A beast that his father had never expected. “You know those old stories about dragons attacking castles and burning knights?”
A quick nod.
“Those stories were based on truth. Dragon shifters existed once, but they were hunted to near extinction.” His father had thought they were extinct after the unfortunate death of his test subject but . . . Richard’s gaze turned back to the screen. Back to Eve Bradley. “But it seems we may have one left, after all.”
Silence. Then . . . “Uh, Doctor Wyatt, that woman doesn’t look like a dragon to me.”
No, she didn’t. And she should have shifted when the fire hit her. She would have shifted, if she’d been a full-blooded shifter.
Are you like your mother, Eve?
“There weren’t any of her kind left,” Richard murmured, still staring at that screen. “So she had to find a human to take as her mate. ”