after you out there. I won’t let anyone hurt you.’
She sucked in a breath and tried not to show how much his words stung. She’d heard the exact same thing from Lucas once. And look how that had ended.
‘It’s not getting hurt that I’m scared about,’ she whispered. ‘It’s everyone else. It’s losing even more people that I care about that frightens me.’
His eyes narrowed and he took a minuscule step towards her, ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he said gently.
‘Who said I was talking about you?’ she fired back, trying and failing not to smile.
Behind her, someone cleared their throat. Evie whipped around. Victor stood over them.
‘You should have this,’ he said, offering her the shadow blade he’d taken from her the day before.
Evie glanced down at it. The hilt was facing towards her. The point of it, glowing eerily, was pointed directly at Victor’s stomach. Evie reached for it with trembling fingers. It would only take one quick motion – a simple thrust of the wrist. She could do it now, right now, and it would all be over. She would have her revenge and she wouldn’t have to look over her shoulder any longer either.
She glanced up at Victor.
His eyes were blazing with the challenge and she realised with a start that that was why he was giving her the blade, here, now, in full view of everyone.
He was giving her the chance for revenge, daring her to exact it here, with all of them as witnesses. Or was he simply taunting her? Believing that she wouldn’t do it? Whichever it was, her hand froze, the blade stiff and poised between them.
Evie could feel all eyes glued to her, the atmosphere in the room buzzing. After ten long seconds Victor slowly backed away, smiling victoriously.
She felt completely undone. The blade fell limply to her side. She had betrayed Lucas – let him down. She hadn’t been able to do it. Tears welled behind her eyes. Why hadn’t she been able to do it? What had stopped her? The only thing she was grateful for was that Flic wasn’t there and hadn’t seen. What would she say? What would she think?
She suddenly wished Lucas was there. She wished she could speak to him and explain – beg for his forgiveness. She was losing him and it felt like a punishment. He was fading from her memory. The way he felt and the way he smelt, the huskiness of his voice – everything about him was turning indistinct, disintegrating into ashes and dust. She hadn’t dreamt of him last night either. She hadn’t dreamt of him since Cyrus had kissed her.
She ground her teeth at the memory of all that she’d let happen. Cyrus’s kiss had completely erased the memory of Lucas. That’s what had done it. And that was the biggest betrayal of all.
‘Evie.’
It was Cyrus. His hand brushed the nape of her neck. It was an intimate gesture, one of ownership, even if she knew he hadn’t really meant it that way. She pulled harshly away, jerking out of his reach, then she squared her shoulders and walked out of the kitchen, heading towards the door.
Chapter 52
Cyrus watched her walk away with her head held high. For a moment back then he had thought she was going to kill Victor. And he wouldn’t have done a thing to stop her.
Victor had a list of crimes against his name which needed accounting for. And not in any court of law. And besides, he was still a danger. Despite all the warnings he’d given Victor, he knew Victor still couldn’t be trusted. It was a risk – a huge risk letting him come with them.
Cyrus turned to look at him now and found the man staring straight back at him, testing him, studying him. There was a darkness to Victor that frightened him. OK, maybe not frightened – that was too strong – because nothing frightened him other than perhaps losing Evie. Maybe a better word would be disturbed. Victor’s absolutism to the Hunter cause – his complete lack of empathy or guilt or anything remotely resembling a human emotion – was disturbing in the extreme. He was a textbook sociopath, Cyrus thought, as the two locked eyes. There were Mixens out there with more human traits than this man, and yet Victor couldn’t see the irony of his wanting to destroy all unhumans.
It took all Cyrus’s will not to march over to him, grab him by that ridiculous necktie