Beyond the Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #6)(9)

“I have no reason to lie.”

“Are you frigging kidding me?” She deliberately glanced over her shoulder at the splendid collection of whips, daggers, swords, and even a good old-fashioned mace. “You have every reason to lie.”

“Use your brains, Harley. If I wanted you dead, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Her lips tightened in annoyance. She couldn’t deny the truth. If he’d attacked to kill, she wouldn’t be standing there.

“You murdered my sisters.”

“Why the hell would I murder pureblooded females I invested millions of dollars and decades of my life to produce?”

“Because you didn’t want the Weres to know their king had failed in his Frankenstein experiments. You had to get rid of the evidence.”

Salvatore had intended to kill Caine before ever arriving at the estate. Now he intended to kill him slowly.

With as much pain as inhumanly possible.

“My only failure was allowing you to be stolen from the nursery. You…” His gaze skimmed over her beautiful, heart-shaped face, his body humming with a constant awareness. “Are flawless.”

“Bullshit.” Her expression hardened. “I can’t shift.”

Her smoldering frustration filled the air. Ah. Now at least now he understood a portion of her thorny personality.

“Is that why you overcompensate? Because you can’t shift?”

Lifting her hand, she flipped him off. “Overcompensate this.”

Salvatore chuckled. It was insanity. He’d allowed his hormones to overcome his common sense, and now he was locked in the cage of his archenemy with no immediate hope of escape. He should be infuriated. He should be using his powers to attempt to bend the female to his will.

Instead, he was hot and bothered and barely able to think of anything beyond this female who was swiftly becoming an obsession.

“To keep you from shifting was precisely the reason for my Frankenstein experiments, as you call them. Female Weres have lost their ability to suppress their shifts during the full moon. It has made it nearly impossible for pregnant Weres to carry their young to full term.” He caught and held her gaze. “We are vanishing, Harley, and you hold the hope for our future.”

She licked her lips, caught between the urge to tell him to go to hell and a grudging need to know more.

“So you’re saying you cooked me and my sisters up in your lab to save the Were species?”

“You were genetically altered, si.”

“And my sisters? Are they out producing the children you’re so desperate to have?”

“Regan was unfortunately barren, although it hardly matters since she was busy falling in love with a leech the last time I saw her. And Darcy…” Salvatore grimaced. “She was a disappointment as well.”

“Why?”

“She had the same pathetic taste for the living challenged.”

Her brows lifted. “I assume you mean a vampire?”

“Not just any vampire.” There was an edge to his voice. That happened a lot when the walking dead entered the conversation. “She mated with the Anasso, King of Vampires. May his cold soul rot in hell.”

Harley paced the cement floor, her expression distracted as she pondered his words.

“Darcy.” She softly tested the name. “Regan.”

“They are very much alive and anxious to meet you.”

She continued pacing, refusing to meet his gaze. “Caine said there were four of us.”

“There’s another sister who I haven’t yet found. I suspect Caine knows where she is.”

She halted unconsciously close to the cage, her eyes troubled as she shook her head.

“No. I don’t believe you.”

Salvatore was a Were who firmly believed in grasping opportunity. Especially when that opportunity included a gorgeous female who set his blood on fire.

“Then believe this.” He reached through the bars, grabbing the straps of her sports bra and yanking her close enough to kiss her. A groan rumbled deep in his throat. She tasted of exotic spices and danger. He shivered as wild lightning streaked through him. “You’re mine,” he whispered against her lips.

For a breathless minute she softened against him, seemingly as indifferent as Salvatore to the painful silver between them. Then with a muttered curse, she pulled away, her eyes dark with alarm.

“Caine’s right. You’re a lunatic.”

With a glare that would have seared the skin off a lesser man, Harley stormed from the room and slammed the door behind her.

Lunatic.

Salvatore shoved his fingers through his hair.

He couldn’t agree more.

Harley reached the top of the stairs when Caine appeared in the hallway, a pair of faded denims riding low on his hips, his hair still damp from the shower.

“I heard the alarm.” His eyes darted to the door she’d just closed behind her. “What the hell is going on?”

Harley blocked the door, her emotions in an unpleasant jumble. And all because of that stupid Were.

Wasn’t it bad enough that he’d managed to make her question everything that Caine had ever told her? Not that she had ever been fully on board with Caine’s smooth stories. They had changed too often over the years to be completely believable.