by Hope, Anne
Kyros’s gut reaction was to act quickly. The Watchers could not be permitted to recruit his nephew. Not when Adrian had been created for the very purpose of defeating them. But another part of him urged him to bide his time. Only Rogues acted on impulse. A Kleptopsych waited and observed as he plotted his attack.
“Do you want me to get a team together?” Darius asked.
Kyros stroked the brochure with slow, gentle fingers as he reflected. “No. Leave them be, for now.”
Darius’s impassive features contorted with an unvoiced query. Kyros was a firstborn, only one step removed from the Ancients, and no one dared challenge his decisions.
“Adrian is expecting an imminent attack,” he explained, though the act was unnecessary. He knew Darius would follow his orders, no questions asked. “If we go anywhere near Angelica Paxton now, he’ll sense us coming. My nephew has managed to evade us for over a century. I can’t risk him escaping with the girl again. If we wait, however, he’ll eventually grow complacent, convince himself the threat has passed. The second he lowers his guard, we’ll make our move.” Kyros directed a sharp stare Darius’s way. “We need someone on the inside. A human who can be our eyes and ears.”
Darius contemplated Kyros’s words for a few seconds, then flashed a cunning smile. “I have the perfect candidate, sir.”
Chapter Sixteen
Two weeks passed without incident. Adrian kept looking over his shoulder, expecting the Kleptopsychs to launch an attack at any given moment. But his fears never materialized. In fact, things were quieter than ever. With Kyros a no-show and Cal having called off his Watchers, Adrian experienced his first taste of peace in over a century. The feeling was so foreign, he couldn’t bring himself to trust it, and that made him all the more determined to spend every waking moment with Angie.
Angie, with her ready smile and sad eyes. Angie who was driving him crazy.
Day after day he worked alongside her like a dedicated volunteer, fighting not to touch her. A task that grew increasingly difficult with each minute he spent in her company. He’d abandoned his nightly activities in favor of escorting her home at the end of the day. Every evening, he guided her through the busy streets of Manhattan and down to the subway station, sometimes in comfortable silence, sometimes lulled by the familiar cadence of her chatter.
In the brief time he’d known her, Angie had invaded every corner of his psyche. She’d changed him on a fundamental level, had infused him with purpose. In some ways, she’d become his moral compass. Everything he did, he did for her. Whenever he helped one of her runaways or delinquents, he felt like the hero she painted him to be.
Her approval had become a drug to him, more addictive than souls, more intoxicating than the most compelling life-force. Because of her, he saw the world in a new light. He saw criminals redeemed, damaged souls healing before his eyes. He witnessed the battle Hybrids fought every day, the goodness they struggled to preserve even as the darkness closed in on them. But more important, he understood that a Hybrid’s greatest weapon against the darkness was hope.
Angie was his hope. When he was with her, anything seemed possible. Because of her, he no longer hid in the shadows but walked in the light.
“Earth to Adrian.” Angie’s voice shattered his thoughts and drew him back to the here and now. They were almost at her place. Soon they would be forced to part again.
“Sorry, I have a lot on my mind.”
“I can see that. Are you thinking about Eddie?”
Eddie, the Hybrid Adrian had met on his first day at Reach, had become a pet project of his. He’d spent countless hours counseling the youth, helping him to understand what he was and what he’d eventually become.
“What do the two of you talk about anyway?”
“Lots of stuff.” He wanted to tell her the truth. The desire to bare his nonexistent soul to her again was almost as powerful as his desire to brand her as his. But something held him back. She’d remembered practically everything about the night they’d met. Everything but the confession he’d made at the theater. For some reason, she chose to suppress those memories. Until he understood why, it was best to keep his silence.
“He really responds to you.” Her arm grazed his, and the inadvertent touch sent his blood racing. Heat swamped him, and he fought the urge to pull her into his arms and keep her locked in his embrace for as long as fate allowed.
They approached her building, and Adrian slowed his pace. He wanted to prolong the moment, to delay the inevitable goodbye. Once he left, he’d have nothing but the memory of her beautiful face to ward off the loneliness and chase the chill from his blood.
He’d retreat to his secret nest underground, where he’d lie in bed thinking about her. He lived in an abandoned subway station, buried several stories beneath the bustling city. No one knew the place existed, so rarely did anyone attempt to breach his fortress. The few who did were subtly persuaded to leave.
Over the years he’d collected a number of belongings that had fashioned the station into somewhat of a home. He’d surrounded himself with rare, beautiful objects, but they’d failed to erase the growing ugliness inside him. Nothing had managed to fill the void within him. Until now.
“Thanks for seeing me home again.”
The end had come too soon. The hours he spent with her at Reach were too short, their rides back to her house even shorter. When eternity stretched before you, a day was nothing but a heartbeat.
She began to cross the street, but he seized her hand. Touching her brought him an odd measure of peace. It banished the darkness and tempered an old hunger, even as it fueled a new one.
He’d intended to ask her to let him walk her up to her penthouse, but now the words wouldn’t come. “Sweet dreams,” he whispered instead.
For one hushed breath, she narrowed the distance between them. Her energy reached out and enveloped him like a breath of warm air. Her fresh scent taunted him, seduced him. She smelled of jasmine perfume, of cloves and mint soap. He drew the familiar fragrance into his lungs and held it there, guarding it with the zeal of a hoarder.
With a shy, hesitant smile, she extricated her fingers from his and bolted across the intersection. He watched her hasten away from him, all the while preparing himself for the unavoidable feeling of loss that always followed her departure.
Adrian didn’t know how long he stood across the street, loitering beneath his favorite lamppost, staring up at her penthouse. He kept telling himself it was time to head back to his place, but his feet remained riveted to the ground. The shadows deepened, and twilight surrendered to night. The streetlamp flared to life, casting a soft, acidic glow over him.
And still, he couldn’t bring himself to leave.
If Angie were to glance out the window, she’d think him a stalker. In essence, that was what he’d become. His obsession with her pervaded every corner of his existence. He was chained to her by an invisible thread of energy. He couldn’t walk away from her any more than he could walk away from himself.
Curiosity stirred within him. What was she doing at this very moment? Was she preparing for bed? An illicit glimpse inside her penthouse confirmed his suspicions. She’d changed into a cotton tank top and a pair of matching panties, a look that proved more seductive than leather and lace combined. The soft fabric molded to her tight figure, outlining every flat plane and sinful curve.
Blood whooshed through his veins, and every rational thought in his head was reduced to cinders. He wanted to scale her building, to burst through her window and seduce her the way he damn well knew he could. But something held him back. What if he lost control? What if the darkness inside him took over and he ended up stealing her soul? He’d seduced human women before and they’d all walked away from the act alive and happy. But never before had he wanted anyone the way he wanted Angie. The truth was, he no longer trusted himself around her.
She lifted the covers and slid into bed. Her hair fanned across her pillow, a soft, alluring net that threa
tened to ensnare him. His fingers twitched as he imagined running them through that tempting web of curls. He wanted to please her, to set her soul on fire and see her burn for him the way he burned for her. Loneliness ate away at him, until he feared soon there would be nothing left of him to salvage.
Just once, let me know what it feels like to love her.
It was a silly plea, a moment of insanity witnessed only by the waning moon, but it sparked a wicked thought in his brain. A thought he found impossible to ignore once it entered his mind.
What he was about to do was wrong. Depraved. But Adrian had never claimed to be noble. He was a creature of the night, forsaken by humanity. He did not live by society’s rules, wasn’t shackled by anyone’s warped notions of morality. And on this cool spring night, where ozone tainted the breeze and only a handful of stars speckled the bruised sky, he gladly embraced his dark nature.
He wasn’t sure his gift would work on Angie, but he felt compelled to try. Tapping into her soul, taking advantage of the special connection he and she shared, he sought to bring her innermost fantasies to life. Kyros used this same gift to induce pain in others. Adrian only wanted to bring her pleasure.
Tonight, she would succumb to him, cry out his name, love him—if only in her dreams.
Cool, crisp sheets welcomed Angie as she slid beneath the covers. She was tired, exhausted from fighting not only her irrational attraction to Adrian but also the sweet medley of emotions he elicited within her. Seeing him with those kids, watching him bond with them so effortlessly, filled her with awe and admiration.
She’d never encountered anyone like him before. Meeting him had turned her entire world inside out. It wasn’t his uniqueness that unsettled her. Nor was it the growing esteem she felt for him. What shook her to the core was the crazy intensity of her own feelings. Feelings that were so powerful, so raw and foreign, they defied explanation.
She looked forward to seeing him with an eagerness that bordered on obsession. So much so that the few hours she spent away from him felt like a cold and cruel eternity. All she could think about was the moment when the sun would rise and she could hurry over to Reach, where she would find Adrian waiting for her.
Walking away from him grew harder and harder each day. She’d been tempted to bring him home with her tonight, to invite him into her bed, where she could show him just how much he’d come to mean to her. But she couldn’t. Couldn’t allow Adrian to love her, not matter how desperately she wanted him to. If she did, she’d only end up breaking his heart.
For the first time in her life, Angie cursed her situation. Why couldn’t she be like everyone else? Why was she condemned to always live in the moment? Why couldn’t she forge dreams like the rest of the world?
She’d been fine, damn it. She’d accepted the hand fate had dealt her. She’d even made peace with it. Then Adrian had come along and ruined everything. Now thoughts of the tomorrow she wasn’t sure she had tormented her.
If only she shared her mother’s blind optimism. If only that creature’s prediction hadn’t burrowed deep within her, crushing her hope and infecting her spirit.
“She will not save you. Nothing can.”
No. Dragging Adrian into the mess that was her life would be cruel, utterly selfish. Still, what she would give for a single night in his muscular arms…
The thought had barely formed when she felt his heat embrace her. She lay in an empty bed, alone with her heavy musings and foolish fantasies, absolutely convinced he was here with her. The very air smelled of him. A strange sensation traveled over her flesh, a hot, feathering caress. Like magic, her body came alive, coaxed by the skillful strokes of invisible fingers.
“Let me love you, Angie.”
She could’ve sworn she heard his voice in her head. She willed herself to get up, to search the room for him, but her body didn’t obey her command. It grew boneless, hot and languid. A drugging haze swept through her, immobilizing her.
Then she began feeling things she’d never imagined it was possible to feel. Fire swept through her blood, made her heart race and insistent need coil between her legs. Her breasts grew heavy, her nipples puckering, throbbing for the attention of her ghost lover’s touch. Her skin became so sensitive, she ached all over.
“You’re so beautiful. I wish I could touch you.”
“You are touching me.” Now she was really losing it. She was actually talking to a figment of her imagination.
Even more insane was that he answered. “Only with my mind.”
The sensations amplified, blasting every last thought from her head. She could feel his hands on her flesh, sliding between her thighs, gliding over her abdomen, closing over her breasts…
Angie moaned, her body twisting until it became entangled in the sheets. “What are you doing to me?”
“Loving you.”
Sweat sprang from her pores as the flames consumed her. Whatever spell he’d cast over her filled her with the most wanton lust. She was burning from the inside out, all her deepest fantasies rising up to swallow her. She pressed her thighs together, but that only made her ache more.
Desperation squeezed her gut. “Please.” She wasn’t sure if she was begging him to stop or to take her over completely.
Arching her back, she searched for a satisfaction that hovered just beyond her reach. She gripped the smooth satin sheets, struggling to anchor herself in reality before the wild current of need carried her away.
“Let go, Angie.” Adrian’s voice glided through her mind like warm honey. “Stop fighting it. Surrender yourself to me.”
A shuddering breath shook her chest. God, how she wanted to. She wanted to lose herself in him, to give in to her wildest desires, to forget tomorrow and the uncertainty that plagued her. She wanted to know love—Adrian’s love.
“I can’t.” Tears throbbed behind her closed lids.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to hurt you.”
Her mind grew silent, as though he were struggling to make sense of her thoughts. Then his voice invaded her psyche again. “How can you hurt me, when this is only a dream?”
He was right. This wasn’t real. He wasn’t actually here. What harm could it do to succumb, just for tonight?
Her body began to tingle again. She could’ve sworn she felt the glide of cool lips over her flesh. He touched her in the most intimate places. Places no one had ever touched her before or probably ever would again. Heat flooded her system. It felt as though he were kissing her, caressing her, everywhere at once. How was that possible? How was any of this possible? Shivers raced down her spine to pool in her belly.
She had to surrender. She couldn’t fight it anymore. A gasp tore loose from her lungs as need split her in half, as painful as it was sweet.
“Take me,” she conceded in her mind. “Take me now.”
The tide swept her away in a mad rush. Her entire world shrank down to encompass nothing more than this one moment of existence. The past faded. The future became but a distant dot in the murky horizon. She cried out his name as her body shattered into a million fragments of the most glorious bliss, then shakily came back together.
When the insanity passed, Angie lay limp and spent in her empty bed, her body aching in strange places, her mind reeling.
What had just happened to her? Had Adrian really invaded her psyche? How could anyone get inside her head and make her feel the things he’d made her feel?
Just thinking about it caused her body to flush. She’d probably just imagined the whole thing. Considering how obsessed she was with the guy, it was hardly inconceivable that she’d have a sex dream about him—assuming it could even be called a dream, seeing as she was wide awake when it had happened. Mortification seeped in to saturate her bloodstream.
How would she ever face him again, now that he’d become her fantasy lover? How would she look him in the eyes and not remember this night or the sensations the mere thought of him had triggered within her?
&nb
sp; But more importantly, how would she keep herself from inviting him into her bed, in the flesh next time?
Chapter Seventeen
The following morning Adrian stood in the counseling room staring out at the busy street, anticipation building inside him as he waited to see Angie’s familiar silhouette saunter around the corner. When an hour passed and she didn’t show, he had no choice but to reconcile himself to the grim reality that she wasn’t coming.
He turned away from the windows, cursing his impetuousness. He’d made a tactical error in judgment last night. He’d allowed impulse to rule him, had given in to his baser instincts, and it had cost him dearly. He’d compromised the tenuous progress he’d made with Angie, shaken her trust. Now she was avoiding him.
Not that he could blame her. He never should’ve invaded her mind. It was a stupid and reckless thing to do. But once he’d peeked inside her soul, he was lost. He’d had no idea so much passion and emotion seethed beneath the surface. The pain and loneliness he’d sensed within her, the longing she hid in her heart, had shattered his restraint and blasted any notion he may have had about playing fair.
When he’d cut through her initial resistance, her body had molded to his will like a pliable ball of clay. It was funny—he couldn’t plant a simple suggestion in her mind, couldn’t read her thoughts unless she spoke directly to him as she had the previous evening, but he could tap into her emotions and drown her in them with shocking ease.
Seeing her respond to him that way, knowing she desired him as much as he desired her, had completely undone him. Since last night, he could think of nothing else but the way she’d surrendered herself to him—body and soul. He wanted—needed—to love her again, to touch her with his hands instead of his mind, to pierce through her defenses and claim her as his.
But she’d opted to hide from him, which left him with no other choice.