abduct her for you if she didn’t return. But yes, she has a lot of courage. Maybe too much.”
“Almost as much as you.” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“I rather like her, your human.” She sighed. “All right. I’ll feed, and I’ll look in on her, and I’ll even try not to let her know that my pigheadedly stupid brother locked her in his room like a child. How’s that?”
“I know she’s not a child,” he muttered, and she laughed again.
“No, brother. You’re the one acting like a child here, jealously guarding a favorite toy. Be careful, Bane.”
“Always looking after me.” He grinned at her and flicked a strand of her hair, like he’d done when they were children.
She threw her hands in the air. “Somebody has to do it.”
He watched her start up the stairs, and then he called for Luke.
ARE YOU READY?
Luke’s response came immediately.
ALREADY OUTSIDE ON MY BIKE. LET’S GO.
After one long last look at the stairs, Bane headed out the door. They needed to figure out the necromancers’ plan and destroy it. Destroy them. He wasn’t about to let them get a foothold in Savannah or anywhere near his territory. They could stay in the Old World and keep their problems, politics, and death magic on the other side of the ocean.
Even after he climbed on his Harley, his eyes strayed to the upstairs window behind which he knew she slept. His human. Maybe he should check in on her once more…
But Luke revved his bike and took off, and Bane couldn’t let him stand alone at this meeting. Meara would protect Ryan.
He took one long, last look at the dark window, and then he roared off into the night, the closest he could ever come to flying while still on the ground. First warlocks, and now necromancers. They needed to find Constantin and the woman who’d attacked Edge, and then they needed to destroy them.
And after that, he might need to find a way to take a trip to Europe and personally deliver a message to the Chamber.
…
Meara decided to check on Hunter before she released poor Ryan from Bane’s insane imprisonment scheme. To her surprise, Edge was there, slouched in a chair outside the safe room instead of locked up with his precious computers as he usually was.
“Well. If you’re here, I’ll be going,” she said, turning to leave the room.
“That is what you’re good at,” he called after her, with so much bitterness in his voice that she stopped and turned to face him.
“What?”
“Running away from me. It’s your special talent.” His face was all bleak lines and harsh angles in the dim light, but his silver eyes shone as if reflecting the entirety of the moon. “Will you ever forgive me for what happened when Bane Turned me? If I’d known he might die, I’d never have let him try, Meara.”
Suddenly her hunger and exhaustion caught up with her, and she sighed, resisting the urge to move closer to him so she could reach out and touch a strand of his long, white hair. The hair that had gone from black to white overnight after what had been done to him. “I’ve already forgiven you, Edge. I just want you to stay out of my way.”
“Why?”
If she didn’t know better—didn’t know him to be an emotionless bastard with ice—or nanotechnology—running through his veins—she might have thought she heard anguish in his voice.
More than likely, it was just contempt.
“Why?” he repeated, moving closer, all shining beauty and heated demand. “Because I used to work for the government? Because I’m a scientist?”
She laughed in his face. “I like scientists. They’re crunchy and taste good with ketchup.”
He didn’t even crack a smile. “If you hate having me here so much, I’ll leave. I won’t inflict myself on you any longer.”
She closed her eyes against the weakness threatening to make her stumble forward and collapse into his arms. His strong, muscular arms.
That she definitely was not noticing.
“Don’t be dramatic,” she finally told him, leaning back against the wall. “I don’t hate having you here. I don’t even notice you most of the time.” With that, she gathered up her last reserves of energy so she could go. Maybe she’d even drink some of Bane’s plastic blood.
Desperate times…
“Really?” Edge leapt across the room and slammed his hands to the wall on either side of her head. Caging her in. “You don’t even notice me?”
Staring at her with eyes turned to silver fire.
“Notice this,” he snarled, and