He’d make sure of it.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cassie held onto Dante as tightly as she could. Her memory of escaping from Jon was hazy. In order to block the pain, she’d had to go far into her mind, into the shadows that she’d first found when she’d been a child.

When her father had strapped her to the table in his lab.

He hadn’t experimented on just the paranormals. He’d wanted to create stronger, better humans.

He’d planned for her and her brother to be the first “better” humans.

That hadn’t worked out. But their father hadn’t given up easily. He’d just ignored their screams and tears.

The motorcycle braked. She couldn’t see anything in front of her. Just the darkness.

As they’d driven, she’d smelled smoke, a heavy, thick blast of smoke that had followed them on the wind. It was gone now. It was just them. And darkness.

“No one’s here,” Dante said. “You can go inside and rest.” He turned off the bike.

Right. She was supposed to stop holding so tightly to him.

Her body still ached, but not as badly as it had. She climbed off the motorcycle slowly, then stood for a moment, making sure that she wasn’t about to fall on her face.

Dante reached out and steadied her. At his touch, her breath caught. She looked up and found his gaze just inches from hers. The gold in the depths of his eyes was burning once more.

“The place isn’t as nice as the one your friend Trace had for you, but it’s got a bed inside, four walls and a roof, so I figure it will do for now.”

Had she just imagined the emphasis he’d placed on friend? She wasn’t sure. She was so tired she just wanted to crash in bed—crash and not worry about someone coming at her with a needle or a scalpel.

But I did that. I was the monster with the needle, too. For so long.

Some would say she’d gotten her fitting punishment that night.

At least . . . at least the doctors had stopped before getting the bone marrow and the spinal tap. She rubbed her forehead. Or had they? Cassie wasn’t sure just how long she’d been in that lab.

“Come on.” Dante’s hand curled around her shoulder.

She flinched. That area was still sore.

He immediately dropped his hand before she could explain about the samples they’d taken.

Cassie knew she was healing, but she still ached.

His breath eased out on a sigh. “Let’s go in.”

She noticed that the front lock looked as if it had been melted. Interesting lock picking technique. She would have questioned him on that, but just didn’t have the energy.

A few moments later, Cassie realized that he’d told her the truth. A bed waited inside. An old table. Some chairs. Not much, but it sure looked like paradise to her.

She crawled in the bed, then she drew her legs up as she turned on her side, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Cassie?” He was behind her. She should look at him, but she felt . . . frozen.

She’d killed Jon.

“Cassie, I have to leave for a few minutes.”

What? They’d just gotten there.

“You’ll be safe here, and I’ll be back soon.”

The floor creaked. He was actually going to leave her. Her shoulders hunched. “Don’t.”

Tension seemed to fill the air.

“Please don’t leave me right now.” She couldn’t look at him. She had her eyes squeezed shut so she wouldn’t have to look at anything, but in her mind, she could see Jon. The dark shadow that had been blood as it spread over his chest. He’d looked so surprised.

Cassie, will you marry me?

He’d asked her that . . . what seemed like a lifetime ago, but it had been just two years ago.

And yes, once, she’d thought about walking down the aisle with him. Maybe having a child.

Tonight, she’d killed him.

Dante wasn’t speaking.

She knew what he wanted to do. Go back. Make sure that he destroyed that facility. He wanted to burn the place to the ground. If he did that, if he hurt the humans inside, wouldn’t he be a monster, too?

Weren’t they already monsters?

“I can’t stop seeing him,” she whispered.

Then it wasn’t the floor that creaked. It was the bed. The mattress dipped, and she realized that Dante had crawled into the bed with her.

Her breath stilled in her lungs.

His hand came up and lightly trailed over her arm. The warmth of his touch seemed to banish some of her chill.

“What did he do to you?”

The usual. Strapped her to a table. Took her blood. Her DNA. Samples from her bones and—“What they always do to the people that Genesis wants to experiment on.”