“You said . . . I cured myself. Have to find out . . . how.”

Eve had backed up a step. “She wanted me to do this. I didn’t like the plan, but Cassie said—”

“It has to . . . be done.”

He crossed to Cassie. Took her hand. Held tight.

“How are you . . . here?” She didn’t pull away from him.

Maybe she was in too much pain to pull away. Maybe he was using a weak moment for her. Dante didn’t care. He was touching her again. Holding tight to her.

“How are you . . . here?” Cassie asked again as she blinked up at him.

“Cain let me out.”

Uh, yeah, and Dante had locked Cain in. They’d cover that part, later.

Eve inhaled sharply.

“He’s . . . alive?” Cassie asked.

“We came to an agreement.” Dante frowned down at her. “How much more has to be done?”

Her smile was weak. “Don’t watch, if you . . . don’t want.”

“I thought you were going to use me. I thought I was the cure you needed.”

“Have to hurry . . . every day that passes . . . someone else . . .”

Someone else could be transformed into a primal. Someone else could die, like Jamie’s brother.

“Testing me, testing . . . you . . .” Cassie whispered. “Maybe together—”

“We can find a cure,” Eve said quietly. She bit her lip. “Should I wait? Should I—”

“Finish,” Cassie said quietly. “Please.”

He hated seeing her like that. But if it was what she needed to do . . .

He held tight to her hand. “Look at me.”

Her gaze found his.

“I won’t let you down again.”

“No more . . . closets?”

He shook his head.

“Don’t . . . believe you . . .”

The ache was back in his chest. “Then I’ll just have to prove myself to you.” He could.

He would.

Eve went back to work, and Dante never took his gaze off Cassie’s face.

Charles Trenton hurried away from the lab that he’d called home for the last six months of his life. He’d wanted to help Cassie. To make the world safer. Better.

So that no one would end up like Kerri.

Only . . .

He hadn’t counted on monsters who could conjure fire or werewolves that tore down doors to get to him.

It was too much.

He was too weak.

He’d always known that Kerri was the strong one. Always Kerri. But she’d been broken . . . and had taken her own life when the experiments got to be too much for her.

I told Genesis about her. That was his secret shame. He’d been the one to first alert Genesis to his half-sister’s condition.

Because he’d known that Kerri had always wanted to be normal.

He’d given up his own sister to that hell.

When he’d lost her, he’d wanted to atone. He and Cassie had that in common. The sins of the past often choked them.

He gunned his car’s engine and shot out into the night. The car had been hidden in the old shack down the road, out of sight. Safe and secure.

He hadn’t told Cassie that he was leaving. He hadn’t been able to look her in the eyes—

Not the strong one.

Maybe . . . maybe he’d be able to go back after a few days. Maybe he’d be able to face what waited in Cassie’s lab.

His headlights cut through the dark.

Maybe not.

For now, he was just going home. A little town that waited just across the state line in Louisiana. A speck on the map that didn’t have monsters or nightmares.

He hoped.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

When Cassie opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was . . . Dante. He was leaning over her, frowning.

“What have you . . . done now?” Hopefully not attacked Cain again. Or, jeez, not Eve.

“I’ve stayed by your bedside.” His words were soft. “Waiting for you to wake up.”

That wasn’t what she’d thought to hear. Cassie slowly sat up. “Cain? Eve? They’re both still—”

“Alive, yes. Eve, ah, freed her lover, and they’re resting somewhere in the lab.” Dante’s fingers slid over her body. “And you’re all healed. Quite amazing.”

She didn’t feel so amazing. Actually, she felt like she’d been hit by a truck. But there was work to do. “I need to start analyzing the results.”

He brought her hand to his lips. Kissed her knuckles.

Her heart beat a little faster.