Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Other books by Debbie Cassidy
About the Author
This one is for my Betas: Andrea Green, Denise Hendrickson, Penny Noble, Rhiannon Chillingworth, and Kristina Golji. Thank you for helping me make every book I write the best version it can be. You guys are platinum.
Love you xxx
Copyright © 2019, Debbie Cassidy
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Cover by Vanessa Garkova
Chapter One
I was burning up from the inside out, the world was a haze through my half open lids, and Ash’s concerned face hovered over me. His hands, blessedly cool, skimmed my skin. I moaned and arched into his touch.
“Make it stop. Please.” My words were a dry whisper.
“Fuck.”
Logan?
“Get a cold compress, and someone find Jamie, now!” Logan ordered.
“I’ll get Jamie,” Jace said.
What were they all doing in my room?
Where was I?
The Genesis lab in the mountains … That was right. The vaccine … Jamie, my dad’s clone, was making the vaccine for us. I’d been sleeping, and now I was awake and on fire.
Ash’s cool fingers soothed my fevered brow, and his soft lips pressed to my forehead.
“Out of the way.” Logan’s tone was terse.
Ash’s cedar scent drifted away, and Logan’s vanilla aroma replaced it. Something deliciously cool laved my forehead, my cheeks, and my neck. Oh, God. Thank God. It drifted down to my chest and over my collarbones.
“More.”
“Take her clothes off,” Logan said.
Ash growled.
I forced my eyes open to see their blurry forms facing off, and then closed them again.
A soft moan of protest rose from my lips. “Please.”
Ash’s hands were on me now, lifting me, peeling my sweat-soaked clothes from my skin. Chilled air kissed my abdomen and then my chest.
“Motherfucker.” Logan’s word was a gasp. “Ash, what the fuck?”
“Djinn fire,” Sage said. “It’s her flame, but her human body isn’t equipped to deal with it.”
“Do something,” Logan demanded.
“Give her to me,” Sage said.
My half-dressed body was lifted, and then thick, powerful arms cradled me.
“Eva, can you hear me?” Sage’s tone was gentle and coaxing.
My response was a strangled moan. Dammit, damn my swollen tongue and my tight throat.
“It’s okay. I have you,” he said.
His body was too warm, and I squirmed, trying to get away.
“No. Trust me. You need to relax. You need to ride it. If you fight, it will consume you. Let me help you. Let me take some of your burden.”
Ride it? It would kill me. It would incinerate me.
His lips brushed my ear. “Trust me, Habibata. Trust me, my love.”
Where his body was warm, his breath was cool, and my muscles relaxed a fraction.
“That’s it,” he said.
He sat, holding me on his lap, his powerful thighs taut beneath me. “I’m going to touch you now, and it may hurt, but only for a moment. Do not fight.”
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Logan asked.
“As sure as I can be.” Sage’s tone was laced with anxiety.
His hand pressed against my breastbone, covering the strip of fabric holding my bra cups together, and then the fire inside me surged upward, burning and scraping. Pain. My back arched, and a scream ripped its way from my throat.
“Hush. Hush.” He pressed harder, as if both drawing out the fire and pushing it down.
I was blind, mute, and trapped in an inferno. Stop. Please, stop. And like a prayer answered, I was free. A raw sob broke from my throat as the heat in my veins abated, leaving me shaking and shivering.
Sage gathered me close, and then a blanket was wrapped around me and my head was tucked under his chin.
“It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” The djinn rocked me, and his steady heartbeat soothed away the shakes.
“What is it?” Jamie’s voice—so like my father’s—cut through the silence.
“You took your time,” Logan snapped.
“I’m … I’m sorry.”
I raised my head and cracked open my eyes. “This isn’t his fault.”
“Of course it’s his fucking fault,” Logan said. “He did this to you. Him and the human you call a father.”
Logan’s face was contorted in anger, but I couldn’t summon any of my own to match it.
Instead, I allowed my eyes to drift closed again. “I just need a minute. I’m so tired.”
“She was burning up,” Sage said. “Djinn fire. I managed to help her control it.”
“Then it has begun,” Jamie said softly. “I’ll take another sample of blood. See what’s—”
“No.” I turned my face into Sage’s chest, lips grazing the velvet skin exposed by the deep V of his tunic. “No more samples, no more tests. I’m dying, and I’ll be damned if I’ll waste any more time where nothing can be done about it. We have a foundation to infiltrate and a cure to distribute, and I’m not ready to die.” I turned my face to the guys, my jaw clenched. “Not for a long time.”
Logan’s dark eyes gleamed in triumph, and Ash pressed his lips together and signed something fast and urgent.
Jace nodded. “I’ll rally Kira and her guys.”
I smiled at the Fang, and his cheeks reddened. “Thank you.”
“We’ll be out in a minute,” Sage said.
Ash’s eyes narrowed and locked on mine. He was checking if I was okay with this arrangement because it was usually Ash that did the comforting, but right now, with the djinn fire raging within, Sage was the most qualified to help me.
“I’ll be fine.” I met Ash’s gaze, pouring my love into that one look.
He inclined his head and headed for the door, and the others followed, leaving me alone with the djinn.
Sage pulled the blanket tighter around me and then kissed the top of my head. “How are you feeling now?”
“Cold.”
He tilted my chin with the crook of his finger and leaned in so that our lips were a mere hairbreadth apart.
“I can warm you up, if you like?”
The pulse at the base of my throat thudde
d hard. “I’d like.”
He brushed his lips over mine, once, twice, causing my pulse to flutter and throb, and then he kissed my top lip and gently sucked on my bottom lip, but damn, I wanted more. I needed more. I wound my arm around his neck and pulled him close. It was my turn to claim. I sucked his bottom lip into my mouth and then drew back slowly, grazing his lip between my teeth with just the right pressure to elicit a sexy growl.
“Dammit, Eva, do you want to burn?”
I pulled back enough to look into the maelstrom of fiery colors in his eyes. “This kind of burn I can handle.” I kissed him hard on the mouth. “This kind of burn I want.”
His hand slid up my back, brushing along my spine, and then cupped my nape. “Eva, Eva, the things I would do to you …”
And then he ducked his head to kiss my neck, to suck and lick across my collarbones and down to the rise of my breasts. His free hand cupped me, massaging me until my nipples were painfully hard and the juncture of my thighs was pounding, desperate and wet, and then he pulled down my bra and closed his mouth over my aching nipple. My cry was reedy and breathless, and his moan of satisfaction inflamed my desire.
“Sage, God. Don’t stop.”
But he did. He slowly pulled away, and carefully adjusted my bra to cover me. The blanket was pulled up next, and then he hugged me close.
“When I take you, it won’t be rushed, and it won’t be like this.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re too special for that.”
A lump formed in my throat. “I guess then we should get going?”
He chuckled low and enticing. “Yes, Eva. We should.”
Logan, Jace, Ash, and Jamie were in the lab when Sage and I emerged a few minutes later. I’d changed back into the clothes Kira had loaned me, and my sheath and tulwar were gripped in my hand.
Jamie was fiddling with something at one of the counters while Logan and Jace watched. Ash was leaning on another counter behind the scientist, but his gaze shot up to meet mine as soon as I entered.
“Are we ready?” My question was directed at Jamie, but it was Logan who answered.
“Yeah. He’s done.”
“And the others? Where are they? Where’s Elias?”
“Outside,” Jace said.
“You left Elias with Kira’s guys?”
Logan arched a brow. “I doubt Bates will try anything with Elias, not after you tore him a new one the last time. Besides, I don’t think Elias will simply stand back and get knocked about this time.”
He had a point.
Jamie held up a black pouch and unzipped it to reveal four vials, each the size of my thumb. The vials contained a clear liquid.
“Two to combat the original virus and two for the mutated one,” Jamie said. “I’ve labeled them.”
He carefully zipped up the padded pouch, which also had a waist strap, and handed it to me. This was our hope. This was the future and it was in my hands, and then it was strapped to my waist.
“We’re good to go,” Jace said. “Kira said they have enough fuel to get us back to our bunker, back to Noah. It’ll take us at least fifteen hours, and we’ll take shifts to drive. She’s already been on the radio to Nathanial. He’s rallying the troops and has sent an emissary to the two Fang broods that they’ve been in contact with.”
I nodded. “Good. Do we have a rendezvous point?”
“My camp,” Sage said. “We meet up at my camp in three days’ time. It should be long enough for everyone to make the journey, and the wards will protect us all while we plan our attack.”
It was early, just gone six a.m., so if we were lucky, we’d be home before sunset.
Home.
Weird, as I’d only lived there for a couple of days, but still. “Have you managed to get hold of Noah?”
Jace’s expression was somber. “No.”
“It’s worrying,” Logan said.
It was, but worrying about it would be a waste of time. We couldn’t do anything about it from here. “Well, then we best get back.”
I had a month left, maybe less, before I unraveled. There was no wasting time.
“Good luck, Eva,” Jamie said softly. “Frederick would be so proud of you.”
His smile was close-lipped, his eyes dull. We were about to leave him alone once more. He’d been trapped here all his life. A clone, a thing to be used, just like me. Frederick, the man I’d called Father, had created him and then abandoned him here to wait for me. To wait until it was time to synthesize the cure, and he had done so. Faithful and diligent till the end. All those years alone. It didn’t bear thinking about. But no more.
“Well?” I cocked my head. “Are you coming?”
Jamie blinked at me in surprise. “You … you want me to go with you?”
I shrugged. “Well, it looks like my dad left you here for a purpose, a purpose you’ve now fulfilled. So, yeah. If you want to, then you should come with us.”
He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. “I … I’ll get my things.” He hurried from the room, pausing once to glance over his shoulder with a shaky smile. “You’ll wait?”
“Yes, Jamie, we’ll wait for you.” Just like you waited for me.
He may be my dad’s clone, but he was nothing like him. He was softer, wacky, and he’d die in the outside world without someone to watch out for him.
“Are you sure about this?” Logan asked.
“I’m not leaving him here alone. No one deserves to be alone.”
Logan pressed his lips together. “Okay. I’ll go give him a hand, make sure he doesn’t try to pack the whole damn lab to take with him.”
He stomped off after Jamie.
I looked to Ash, who was locked in silent communication with Sage. They did this from time to time, and I’d never asked them what it was they were actually doing. Could Sage hear Ash? Did Ash have a voice in Sage’s mind?
“Sometimes,” Sage said to me.
“What?” I blinked up at him.
“You were wondering if I could hear Ash’s thoughts, and the answer is sometimes I can. Especially when the thoughts are about your welfare.” Sage smiled. “That’s when he speaks the loudest.”
Ash’s throat bobbed, and I stepped up to him and wrapped my arms around his chest. “I’m fine. I’m going to be fine.”
He hugged me back and kissed the top of my head.
Sage headed for the lift. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask about it before, Miss Inquisitive.”
Ash and I followed. “If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve had a lot on my plate recently. Fighting Feral, trying to stay alive, fighting Feral … Oh, yeah, trying to stay alive …”
He chuckled as we stepped into the lift together. “Well, we’re almost there, Eva. We’re almost there.”
Almost, but there was still a way to go. The sooner we got home and collected Noah, the sooner we could get to camp and start the final stretch of our journey.
Chapter Two
The fresh morning air teased the hair at my crown, and the sun kissed my skin. It felt good to be outside again, even though we’d been underground for barely two days. Jamie stumbled out behind me, a black holdall clutched to his chest. He blinked myopically, shoved his spectacles up the bridge of his nose, and then smiled.
How had he done it? How had he spent all that time buried underground? My heart ached for him. All that waiting.
Elias came into view as he strode out from behind the van with Kira in tow. The sunlight glanced off his silver hair and made his pale skin glow with an ethereal light. Kira laughed at something he’d just said, and my gut tightened.
Elias chose that moment to look up, to catch my eye, to smile. It was a small, tentative curve of his lips, but it turned the tightness in my abdomen to something else.
I broke eye contact. “Have we got everything we need?” I looked to Jamie. “Can you lock this place up from the outside?”
He held up a small rectangular device. “I can seal it remotely.”
“Good.�
�� Behind me the others were stepping out of the building. “Do it.”
Kira pulled open the side door to the van. Her gaze went from Jamie to me and her brows arched up enquiringly.
I shrugged and strode toward her.
“There’s room,” she said. “Just about.”
“Thank you.”
Elias snagged my elbow as I made to climb up into the vehicle. “Eva, we need to talk.”
The sensation of his hand on me, even through the thick material of my jacket, made me want to jerk away. It wasn’t disgust, it was a twisted instinctual need for self-preservation. Although my brain recognized his value and accepted that he meant me no harm, my body probably didn’t. Not yet. He’d attacked me after all …
I resisted the urge to pull away. “There’ll be plenty of time to talk on the journey.”
His gaze flicked from side to side as if working through something. “On second thought, it’s probably best if we wait until we get back to your bunker.”
My curiosity was piqued. “Why wait?”
He released me and smiled. “Traveling in enclosed spaces makes me nauseous.”
A Vladul who suffered from motion sickness? “Riiight. Whatever.”
We bundled into the back of the van, and with the extra body it was more of a squeeze than before, but Kira cracked open the hatch between us and the driver’s section, and a cool breeze drifted in. Sage and Ash took spots on either side of me and Logan and Jace sat opposite. Jamie and Elias made themselves comfortable toward the back of the van.
The Vladul’s violet eyes seemed to glow in the dark. Ah, yes, they had much better night vision than regular Fangs. The night had been their playground, after all. He shifted his attention to me, but I quickly averted mine. Locking gazes with him made me feel strange—light and fluttery. It was a feeling that spoke of lack of control, and it played on my unease. The side of my face was suddenly warm. Was he watching me? Still staring at me?
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